Cân Gert: Difference between revisions

The language is [[a priori]] in the sense that it is not derived from another language by way of regular sound changes and identifiable diachronic grammatical developments. However, as its vocabulary is mostly derived (albeit often in opaque ways) from the [[w:Scottish Gaelic|Scottish Gaelic]] lexicon, it could arguably be described as an [[a posteriori language]], depending on the definition applied.

==Introduction==

{{:Cân Gert/Vowels}}

===Consonants===

===Morphophonology===

Because Cân Gert is designed for clarity, its derivational and inflectional morphology generally features little phonological alternation, with a few minor exceptions.

====Internal excrescence====

Internal excrescence refers to a process in Cân Gert where a glottal stop is inserted at a word-internal morpheme boundary with two vowels (or semivowels) where one of the following applies:

# All the adjacent vowels would form a licit diphthong

# The first vowel is long

So:

But:

====Nasal assimilation====

===Punctuation===

==Lexicology==

===Roots, affixes and clitics===

All root words in Cân Gert are monosyllabic, and are generally inspired by Scottish Gaelic words related to the meaning of the root. Roots can be further subdivided into the following categories:

** '''General roots''' – These are semantically broad and cover multiple meanings. They are highly productive in forming compounds. E.g. ''dîn'', "action, creation".

** '''Common roots''' – These are semantically narrow, referring to commonly used concepts. They are less productive in forming compounds. E.g. ''corc'', "oats".

* '''Functional roots''' – This includes grammatical function words like conjunctions, prepositions, demonstratives, and others. Whether or not these compound depends on the individual root; as a general rule, prepositions can compound while conjunctions, demonstratives, and other particles cannot. E.g. ''hiûn'', "of, from, since".

===Proper nouns===

As in English, proper nouns are distinguished through capitalisation. Proper nouns can be borrowed through a number of mechanisms:

* '''Borrowed names''' are proper nouns that are not broken down into further meaning. These are usually borrowed from Gaelic or, failing that, English, without being reduced to monosyllables like roots are. E.g. ''Alabâ'', "Scotland", from Gaelic ''Alba'', and ''Colôn'', "Cologne", from the English.

Due to Cân Gert's nature, translated proper nouns can often be broken down into far lower-level transparent morphemes than their English equivalents. For the above example:

* ''Êndînta'' – "unified, united"

** ''êndîn'' – "unification, unity"

*** ''dîn'' – "action, creation"

** ''-ta'' – perfective participle{{ref|pn1|note}}

<small>{{note|pn1|Note}} The ''-ta'' suffix obviates the need both for the general-purpose adjectival suffix ''-al'' and for the verbal clitic ''ni'' that would occur at the beginning of ''niêndîn'' to mean "unify, unite". That suffix tends to form adjectives with a more active/progressive meaning, somewhat like a gerundive; ''êndînal'' would mean "unifying, uniting" rather than "unified, united".</small>

Cân Gert morphology features both [[w:Morphological derivation|derivation]] and [[w:Inflection|inflection]], both of which create compounds. In Cân Gert this is distinguished by whether the compound is a lexeme, or a non-lemma form of an existing lexeme.

If the answer to 1 is "yes" or the answer to 2 is "no", the new word is a lexeme. Otherwise, it is a non-lemma form of an existing lexeme. The process can be done in reverse, by taking away roots from a compound, to determine what form of a lexeme is its lemma form.

Appending ''din'' ("person, human") to the word ''bartei'' ("workplace, office", from ''bar'', "work, job" + ''tei'', "house, building, facility") creates the compound ''barteidin'' meaning "officer, official, office worker".

Therefore, this is an example of derivation, and ''barteidin'' is a lexeme, rather than a non-lemma form of ''bartei''.

Prepending ''tor'' ("many, much") to the word ''bartei'' creates the compound ''torbartei'' meaning "workplaces, offices".

Therefore, this is an example of inflection, and ''torbartei'' is a non-lemma form of ''bartei''.

==Nominal morphology==

===Tense, aspect and mood===

===Non-finite verbs===

==Syntax==

===Dependent clauses===