Annerish

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Annerish
ın beàırler hAnnrach
᛬ᛂᛓᛆᛁᛧᚳᛁᛧᚺᛅᚱᚭᚷ᛬
Flag of the Anneries.png
The Annerish national flag.
Pronunciation[əmˈbjɑˑɹləˈɾ̥ʰɑ̃ɯ̯̃nɾʌ̹χ]
Created byAireanna
SettingThe Anneries, off the west coast of Ireland
Official status
Official language in
The Annerish Federation
Language codes
ISO 639-3qrz

The Annerish language (ın beàırler hAnnrach / ᛂᛓᛆᛁᛧᚳᛁᛧᚺᛅᚱᚭᚷ) is primarily spoken by the inhabitants of the Anneries (ne hAnnray / ᛂᚺᛅᚱᛆᚢ) — two archipelagos emerging from the Porcupine Bank (Luínır / ᚳᚢᛂᚿᛁᛧ) and Rockall Plateau (Dóray / ᚿᚭᛧᛆᚢ), west off the coasts of Ireland and Scotland. While the total number of fluent speakers has remained steady throughout recent decades, L1 monolinguals are dying out, leaving the language moribund. There's a rich and long literary tradition, exemplified by two distinct periods: Old Annerish and Middle or Classical Annerish. It may be the sole extant descendant of an independent Indo-European branch originating on the Western Europe mainland.

Annerish is the official language of the Annerish Nation, part of which is disputed with the United Kingdom, where it is classed as an indigenous minority language since 2007 and the Bésgnae Béırle (see below) was appointed as a language-development and regulatory body. There's also a small diaspora in the New World.

Etymology

There's no consensus on the origin of the endonym Annr, simply suffixed with -ish in English to give "Annerish". The native term for "the Anneries" - ne hAnnray derives from a compound with Old Norse ey, translating to "the Annerish islands".

A leading native theory connects the ethnonym with Annarth, mentioned in the "Gospel of Evynn" (Lebor Ebuınne) as the matron goddess of the Eıchenna, whose queen and chief priestess was Bóıdech. Still, many theologians consider the text itself failing to point out a connection as definitive proof against this theory. Instead, the native theonym Aınnr is regarded as the true origin of Annr.
Bernthaler (1907), the main foreign scholar on the Annerish, supports both propositions and argues that the dental ending in the dative (Aınnrte) must trace back to the former theonym, but the root itself is one and the same as *anderā ("woman") and, thus, likely Pre-Annerish.

Classification

From Proto-Germanic to Proto-Annerish

It is hypothesised that the Annerish people are either one and the same with, or a subgroup of the Belgae who migrated from the Gallo-Germanic confederation to southern Britain and later fled to Ireland at the wake of the Roman conquest. Many characteristic features of Brythonic and Goidelic languages are shared with the Annerish language, which had previously been regarded as Celtic. True classification has also been obscured by the crucial lack of Verner's law, along with sweeping sound changes by analogy with the mutation strategies of the dominant languages that reverse some of the effects of Grimm's law, though notably not in reflexes of *hw-, *þw-, and *tw- initials. A list of the most important changes will be given below (in approximate order):

  • wu> *ū. This must have been a feature of the Proto-Germanic dialect of the Annerish people before influences from Brittonic, where *ū> ȳ, and also precedes *kw> p (*kwuruz> *kūrj-> cuír, not **puír.)
  • ē2> ī (*ē2hiraz> íochr - maple)

Monophthongization of PG diphthongs:

Diphthong turns into: merges with:
*ai ǣ~ é/eà/éı 1
*au, eu, ōu ȱ~ úa/úaı -
*iu, *ōi ȳ~ y/uí -

Nasal vowels merge: internally word-final

  • ą, *am, *an> ã ã
  • ǭ, *ô, *ǫ̂> -
  • aNF, *ōm, *ōn> ā -
  • iNF> ē -
  • į̄> - ẽ
  • uNF> ũ -
  • ų, *um, *un> - ũ

Labiovelars become bilabials:

  • kw> p-, -b- (*kwrammaz> *pramm~pram - damp, *nakwô> *nǫba~napa - ship); *gw> b-, -g- (*gwenþiz> *bũıḋ~bóıd - fight, *snaigwaz> *nnœ́ġ~neòg - snow); *ngw> -mb- (*slangwijō> *llaımb~laım - sling); *hw> f (*hwītaz> *fíd~fíot - white, *tēhwō> *téŭf~teòfa)

Celtic Influence

Pre-Annerish and Ceccra

unmatched matriarchal social order and polytheistic worldview have developing in the nation for over which is reflected extensively throughout the known literature that has unfortunately declined after a brutal period of English colonisation in the 1700's.

The Old Annerish Corpus

Only a handful of vital religious texts survive in the older language, first put to manuscript in the Ⅶth century on Luínır (Luynier), though likely composed a couple of centuries earlier (possibly on mainland Ireland). After centuries of Celtic influence and diglossia, Old Annerish verse and prose still exhibit abundant vocabulary of Germanic stock peeking through the prestigeous Goidelic superstratum. An Old European substratum has also left its unique mark on the language and more specifically on the sociolect of men - the Ceccra - which has been driving innovation ever since the earliest of texts. Influence from the original indigenous inhabitants of the Luynier archipelago may also be found in the animistic, polytheistic ethnic religion. Despite countless Gaelic missions and continuous contact with Christendom, the Annerish have resisted conversion and developed a rich and complex theology of their own.
By the turn of the Ⅷth century, the islands around Dóray (Dorey) are settled with the help of the fellow heathen Vikings who would lend many doublets in the process. This is the start of the Middle period and the "Golden Age" of Annerish literature and culture.

Modern Annerish and revitalization

The end of the Classical period is marked by the Conquest of Calgur in 1652 and subsequent English colonization of Luínır. Dialects of the island have been defunct since the turn of the 18th century as pidgin English developed and spread to Dóray. Use of this patois would decline sharply in the following decades due to wholesale suppression of Annerish culture in the anglophone education system, but also in an effort to keep the traditional language pure and the Classical literature still accessible. The Bésgnae Bérıle was established as an official organisation and has overseen the transition of the spoken language into an increasingly literary one.

Orthography

Latin

The Latin alphabet was introduced by the Irish Christians during the early 7th century. Another major factor in the Romanization of Anrish was the later advent of the printing press, created exclusively for Latin-based writing systems.

Ogham and runic

The Runic alphabet was reintroduced by the Viking migrants in the Middle ages.

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Phonotactics

Syllable Structure: (C)(r)V(C)2
Where:

  • C = Consonant
  • r = /r/
  • V = Vowel
  1. An epenthetic short vowel must occur between /r/ and a following labial in the coda.

Stress

Morphology

Mutation

Modifiers

The article

Particles

Adjectives

Nouns

Number

Inflection

Pronouns

·For the forms fused with the copula, see below.
Inflection of Annerish pronouns
 Ⅰ ᴘᴇʀs.  ɴᴏᴍ. ᴏss. ɴᴇɢ.  Ⅱ ᴘᴇʀs.  ɴᴏᴍ. ᴏss. ɴᴇɢ.  Ⅲ ᴘᴇʀs.  ɴᴏᴍ. ᴏss. ɴᴇɢ.
sɢ.  mé   muʟ  pé  sɢ.  thú   duʟ  tae  ᴇᴍ.  í (h)ᴠ-  aʜ  tí 
ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  mıse, méıse   muíse  ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  thusa, thúsa   duíse  ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  íse, híse   aíse 
Qᴜᴏᴛ.  thy   suʟ  sae 
 / tae 
ɪɴᴄʟ.  bé   suʟ [_ béɴ] / aɴ  pé  ᴀsᴄ.  é, ed ᴠ-  aʟ  sae 
ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  thysa   suíse  ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  béıse, bıse   suíse / bé(ıse)ɴ ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  éta   áesa 
xᴄʟ.  myr   aɴ, (n)arɴ  ré  ᴘʟ.  rıb   aɴ, (b)urɴ  sy  ᴘʟ.  néat ᴠ-  aɴ  ré 
ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  muaıre   naora  ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  rıbse   bfuıre ᴇᴍᴘʜ.  níere   aíre 


IIIsg masc. becomes (s)ed before vowels, while (s)í triggers h-prothesis, which can surface even when the pronouns are dropped after finite verb forms; néa <verb-n éa which took over and survived older variants like ḋía, éaḋ, and ían (cf.: Gaelic íat), hence this leaves eclipsis when pro-dropping and t-prosthesis before vowels; emphatic with n- (-re <genitive, in analogy with muírre) is becoming more common, while h- in IIIfem. is declining. Similarly, myr <verb-m ụ́r (extended from ụ́ when infixed pronouns became the norm;) nuor, originally nụ́r(r), a less prominent variant of nár which gives the unstressed ar; The homophonic ur (<ᴏɪḃḟọr) in colloquial speech was ambiguous and thus both were proscribed, until the -r was deleted, merging all the plural possessives. Rıb [ɹuˑ] (<-r [ṡ]iḃ, influenced by ᴏɪsịḃ and the prepositional inflextion in -ḃ which was originally -ṗ from the dual, but those collapsed and the original plural fell obsolete due to the dissolution of an early T-V distinction) in the most modern language slowly morphs into [juˑ] under pressure from English, motivated further by the incidental similarity of the possessive eoır [ˈjɤɹə]. The original T-V was very short lived and mostly aided in the merger of the IIIsg and IIsg verbal forms with its corresponding phonetically similar endings (tho also see above for prep.), however the dual inflection was maintained into something of an inclusive Ipl. This later developed into a polite pronoun for both Isg; IIsg; and Ipl. with its inclusivity still usual, but not mandatory. The independent forms hail from *bai - N: bé, béıse~bıse; P: uor~ar~aɴ/suʟ ___ bé (<béıeɴ), while the determiner meaning both is modelled after the accusative *banz> C: báʜ [bʷɑ]; G: baıde~baíɴ [bʷæjə]; D: baí(b) [bʷæi̯(v)] (this can be combined with bé to explicitly mean '[exclusively] us both' - C: bá dbé(ɴ); G: aɴ/suʟ _ baín bé; D: baí bé.) A unique quotative pronoun, referring to the oneself in others' reported speech, has developed from the variant of the IIsg: thy (E: thysa.) The rest of the forms and inflextion is normally covered by the ordinary IIsg, tho the possessive su [ᴍ~ʟ], suíse was used (probably <*sīnaz.) The possessives were borrowed/remodelled after the Celtic clitic, with the adjectives seeing limited independent pronominal use, however in late OA literature the mixed mutation effect of the influence from the inflected forms showed through: mu(n)ᴍ, du(t)ᴍ, su(s)ᴍ, a(r)ᴍ (variant spellings: mo/ma; do/da/tho/thu/tha; so/sa; e/ı.) The IIIsg possessives were in conflict with the learned Old Irish forms, where masculine and neuter cause lenition, feminine – aspiration, while the expected Germanic reflexes all cause aspiration and that is still observed in the very earliest of Old Annerish texts where singular a/e/ı causes lenition less frequently, mostly with Gaelic vocab; later this was ironed out in the masc.ʟ and fem;ᴍ>ʜ but in the neuter the choice of mutation was rather chaotic until the class' dissolution by the E.Mod. period.

Adpositions

The copulae

Verbs

Verbal morphology is the most complex subject of Annerish grammar; despite the relative paucity of conjugated forms, categorising paradigms has proven difficult. Native scholarship, namely the Bésgnae Béırle, have used a minimal numbering system based on the present stem: in the Ist conjugation it ends with a broad consonant, in the IInd with a slender, in the IIIrd with a nasal that is dropped in the other stems, and in the IVth there is no closing consonant. Bernthaler (1907) proposes a weak—strong classification similar to German, however, the relationship between all six crucial stems and their formation more closely resembles that of Old Irish. This article largely follows Teagan et al. (2003).

Verbal noun

Every verb is lemmatised as a verbal noun which forms the periphrastic present. Derivational strategies have varied wildly, though most verbal nouns resemble the independent form of the "present" (see below for ᴛᴍᴀ.) Verbal number can be expressed by declining some verbal nouns for number, though most are lexically fixed as either singular or collective only.

Preverb

A preverb can fuse with all stems in their dependent forms, also known as the prototonic or augmented, including the verbal noun. Valency cannot be inferred from the presence of such augmentation, however. While transitivity is formally marked by a preverb and its absence otherwise, this nearly rigid system is a relatively recent development. Simplex bivalent verbs still see use in the Middle period, especially in sacred poetry and prose. A group of frequent, semantically transitive but formally stative verbs has evoked the term deponency in academic literature, with the concession that this cannot be considered a proper category in morphological classification.

The preverb is an essential component of transitive verbs since it "conjugates" for direct object pronouns. While they appear similar to prepositions, preverbs have somewhat different forms and are lexically bound to each verb instead of carrying their individual meaning. Whenever the direct object is a definite noun, marking for its gender and/or number is optional and fairly common in later, colloquial language. Otherwise every preverb has a default form (sometimes referred to as 'deutorotonic') which is mandatory in an absolute construction. Here is an exhaustive list of preverbs and their pronominal forms in Middle Annerish:

 ᴅᴇᴜᴛ.:   u (f-)   um   y(n)ɴ  ar   rı(n)ɴ  s   c   tar 
 1ᴘ.sɢ.   fumʟ  mumʟ  dumʟ  rumʟ  rıthemʟ  amʟ  gamʟ  - 
 1ᴘ.ɪɴᴄʟ.   fuch   much   duch   ruch   rıthech   ach   gach   trach 
 2ᴘ.sɢ.   fudʟ  mudʟ  dudʟ  rudʟ  rıthedʟ  adʟ  gadʟ  - 
 2ᴘ.ᴘʟ.   fubʟ  mubʟ  dub   rub   rıtheb   ab   gab   trab 
 3ᴘ.ꜰᴇᴍ.sɢ.   fí   muí   dí   rí  í   gí   - 
 3ᴘ.ᴍᴀsᴄ.sɢ.1  fu(n)ɴ  mu(n)ɴ  du(n)ɴ  ru(n)ɴ  rıthe(n)ɴ  a(n)ɴ  ga(n)ɴ  (trann) 
 1ᴘ.ᴇxᴄʟ./3ᴘ.ᴘʟ.   fus   mus   dus   rus   rıthesʟ  as   gas   tras 
1The full form with -n(n) is used when a 1ᴘ.ᴘʟ. referrent is qualified with a noun or relative clause; e.g.:
Runn bíes níe an oıgetha.
- They fed us, their guests. Dunn báın neırs c láıbte haıs! - Bless us who pay a visit!

Aside from the verbal noun, there are four more stems to each verb, along with the imperative which takes after either the present or irrealis, if not suppletive. 4th-dimensional conjugation system consisting of an active/passive voice distinction, a 1/2/3 form-distinction, a non-past/past tense-distinction, and a subjunctive/indicative mood-distinction. Regarding the form-distinction in particular, the 3 forms correspond directly to a person-distinction, but are differentiated because of sound-changes merging archaic forms, as follows:

Singular Plural
1st person in form 1
ex form 1 form 3
2nd person form 2
3rd person form 2 form 3

Conjugation

Negation
Narrative
Preterite
Irrealis

Syntax

Alignment and order

The constituent order of words in any given sentence is typically verb-subject-object (VSO). It must be noted that the language is conventionally considered to be nominative-accusative in the sense that it's Centum and not ergative-absolutive. This is due to the fact that the language does not decline nouns according to aliğnment, rather thus placing the language more in the category of direct aliğnment; a situation similar to that of English.

Dependent clauses

Conditional sentenses

Pragmatics

Lexicography and the Bésgnae Béırle

Registers of speech

Modern diglossia

Example texts

Swadesh list



No. English Annerish
0Annerishbeàırlen Annrach
1I
2you (singular)
3heé
4wemyr
5you (plural)rıb
6theyníe
7thishy
8thatey
9here
10there
11who
12what
13where
14when
15how
16not
17all
18many
19some
20few
21other
22oneoín
23two
24threetrí
25four
26fivepım
27big
28long
29wide
30thick
31heavy
32small
33short
34narrow
35thin
36woman
37man (adult male)
38human being
39child
40wife
41husband
42mothermáıthr
43father
44animal
45fish
46bird
47dogcuan
48louse[[Contionary:lyn#Annerish|lyn]]
49snake
50worm
51tree
52forest
53stick
54fruit
55seed
56leaf
57root
58bark
59flower
60grass
61rope
62skin
63meat
64bloodfeàt
65bone
66fat
67egg
68horn
69tail
70feather
71hair
72head
73ear
74eye
75nosefaoca
76mouth
77tooth
78tongue
79fingernail
80foot
81leg
82knee
83hand
84wing
85belly
86guts
87neck
88back
89breast
90heart
91liver
92drink
93eatbírr
94bite
95suck
96spit
97vomit
98blow
99breathe
100laugh
101see
102hear
103know
104think
105smell
106fear
107sleep
108live
109die
110kill
111fight
112hunt
113hit
114cut
115split
116stab
117scratch
118dig
119swim
120fly
121walk
122come
123lie
124sit
125stand
126turn
127fall
128give
129hold
130squeeze
131rub
132wash
133wipe
134pull
135push
136throw
137tie
138sew
139count
140say
141sing
142play
143float
144flow
145freeze
146swell
147sun
148moon
149star
150waterdal
151rain
152river
153lake
154sea
155salt
156stone
157sand
158dust
159earth
160cloud
161fog
162sky
163wind
164snow
165ice
166smoke
167firetuar
168ash
169burn
170road
171mountain
172red
173green
174yellow
175whitebán
176black
177night
178day
179year
180warm
181cold
182full
183newnuıd
184old
185good
186bad
187rotten
188dirty
189straight
190round
191sharp
192dull
193smooth
194wet
195dry
196correct
197near
198far
199right
200left
201at
202in
203with
204andea
205if
206because
207name


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