Bretonese

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Bretonese


Bretonese
breçoneix
Pronunciation[breˈθoneʃ]
Created byTardigrade
Native toSpain, Portugal
Early form

Bretonese (breçoneix) /breˈθoneʃ/ is a Brittonic Celtic tongue spoken in parts of Galicia and Asturias.

Phonology and Orthography

Bretonese Consonants

The consonant inventory for Bretonese is as follows:

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ ɲ ⟨ñ⟩ ŋ ⟨ng, ngu⟩
Plosive voiceless p ⟨p⟩ t ⟨t⟩ t͡ʃ ⟨ch⟩ k ⟨c, qu⟩
voiced b~β ⟨b⟩ d~ð ⟨d⟩ d͡ʒ~ʒ ⟨g, j⟩ ɡ~ɣ ⟨g, gu⟩
Fricative voiced v ⟨v⟩ z ⟨z⟩
voiceless f ⟨f⟩ θ ⟨ç⟩ s ⟨s⟩ ʃ ⟨x⟩ x ⟨h⟩
Approximant central j ⟨y⟩ w ⟨u⟩
lateral l ⟨l⟩ ʎ ⟨ll⟩
Trill r ⟨rr⟩
Tap ɾ ⟨r⟩

Vowels & Diphthongs

Bretonesecan be described as having two groups of vowel sounds:

  1. the open vowels, which arose from historically short vowels
  2. the close vowels, which arose from historically long vowels
  3. the diphthongs

The open and close vowels are represented by the following inventory:

Front Central Back
Close /i/ 〈i〉 /u/ 〈u〉
Mid /e/ 〈e〉 /o/ 〈o〉
Open /ɛ/ 〈ɛ〉 /a/ 〈a〉 /ɔ/ 〈ɔ〉

All of Bretonese's true diphthongs are falling and consist of a vowel + either /i̯/ or /u̯/.

+ i̯ + u̯
Near-close ɪu̯
Mid əi̯
Open-mid ɛi̯    ɔi̯ ɛu̯    ɔu̯
Open au̯

Sound Changes

Consonant Mutations

As with all modern Celtic languages, Bretonese makes extensive use of initial consonant mutations to help signal grammatical and syntactic information. Bretonese has three main mutations: lenis (meyel), spirant (cravel) and nasal (truinel).

The changes caused by the mutations are summarised in the following table.

Radical Nasal Lenis Spirant
p /p/ b /b/ f /f/
t /t/ d /d/ ç /θ/
c /k/ g /g/ h /x/
ch /t͡ʃ/ dj /d͡ʒ/ x /ʃ/
b /b/ m /m/ v /v/
d /d/ n /n/
g /ɡ/ ng /ŋ/
gu /ɡw/ ng /ŋw/ v /v/
dj /d͡ʒ/ ñ /ɲ/ y /j/
y /j/ ñ /ɲ/
ll /ʎ/ l /l/
m /m/ v /ṽ/
ñ /ɲ/ n /n/
rr /r/ r /ɾ/

Lenited g becomes v before words in go-, gu-, e.g. gou "smith" → i vou "his smith", gur "man, husband" → i vur "his husband".

Examples:

  • Lenition: i beñ "his head", di dad "your dad", i dji "his dog", a reg "the woman", do Varselen "to Barcelona".
  • Spirantisation: i feñ "her head", tri çad "three dads", ter haç "three cats".
  • Nasalisation: no ngreg "nine women", i Marselen "in Barcelona"