Cwengâr

Blackbird's Song	Ôsa nGwecwâr	Péladí ba Gécir
A Blackbird sings	Dengecwâr ôsa,	Gécir di ba édhí
To me of my youth	a ny gwô dy asâ,	del di me pél adhí
For my loaf of bread	pon lhecw dy nanâr.	pon di ba tenira.
It is a song of my youth	De ât asâ angecwâr.	Té ítibh cu éndhí ba gécira,
Of flowing white rivers	Cwâ negw berôd lhanàr	Cór nég bérad lenár
Of high, dark caverns	Cwâ pel lelycw c’hylàr	Cór níl pél nilár
So long as the harp sings	Dengecwâr ôsa o ôrôdon,	In gécir tol ítibh me aradon
I shant forget these things	yn afongâm me en c’hón.	Tel calím me di ce én chon.

Background

Gwelh C'hâr represents a contemporary sibling language to Fén Ghír. As Fén Ghír draws heavily of Irish Gaelic influence for spelling, phonetics and to some degree grammar, Gwelh c'hâr serves as a Bythronic equivalent, drawing heavily on Welsh and Breton. Root words are unique and Grammar is fairly simple sharing much still with Fén Ghír. However, words are slight more prone to mutation and grammatical compounding in Gwelh C'hâr.

Vocabularly is largely similar, though words have different connotations. For example, Cún [Fén: Law, Promise, Vow] has become Gwŷn and now mostly fills the Bér in Fén as a general Superlative like "Good". Cún in the sense of Promise has become Gwŷn C'hâr[af] or "Just Word[s]".

This is my first project for creating a related language and in general, I hope that it surpasses the original to some degree.

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Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Plosive	b/p		t/d			q/ɢ
Fricative		f/v		ʃ/ʒ		x/ɣ
Affricate
Approximant							h
Trill			r			ʀ
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.			l			ʎ
Lateral app.
Lateral flap

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Back
Close	y
Near-close		Y
Close-mid	e			ɤ
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ			ʌ
Near-open
Open	a		ä	ɑ

Phonotactics

Gwelh C'hâr avoids vowel and consonant clusters as a general rule. Consonant clusters are resolved by dropping the first consonant while the latter is lenitioned. Vowel clusters are usually separate words.

Orthography

Gwelh C'hâr spelling corresponds to IPA with these exceptions; ŋ is spelt ng as in English. q is spelt cw, ɢ is spelt gw. This is convention based off the Breton, if a Gwelh C'hâr script is invented, they will not be diaphongs. f is spelt ff, v is spelt f, inspired by Welsh. ʃ is spelt sh, ʒ is spelt s, based off the above relation. It's tempting to use "ss" but "sh" is more conventional. x is spelt c'h, ɣ is spelt g'h, inspired by Breton. ʀ is spelt rh at the beginning of the word, rr elsewhere for aesthetic reasons. Rh at all points is acceptable but looks off to me personally. ʎ is spelt lh, inspired by Breton.

y is spelt ŷ Y is spelt y e is spelt â ə is spelt à or a. ɛ is spelt e a is spelt a ɤ is spelt ê ʌ is spelt u ä is spelt ô ɑ is spelt o

Grammar

Morphology

!!Feminine/Masculine Distinction

Gwelh C'hâr bases masculine/feminine distinctions on the first vowel in a word, which modifies the preceding consonant of the word [if any] and the final consonant of the word preceding it.

ê, u, o, ô are masculine.

ŷ, â, e, y are feminine.

a is usually feminine, but is prone to exceptions, particularly when it is representing the ə/à sound.

If the vowel is masculine, the preceding consonant is unvoiced. If Feminine, the consonant is voiced. r and l also agree with feminine vowels, while rh and lh agree with masculine ones.

!! Mutations.

A "Hard" Mutation occurs in either verbs which are modifed by auxilaries or else a possessed object which are possessed.

A "Soft" Mutation occurs in a noun that is either described or quantified.

Unmutated	Soft	Hard
m	f/ff
p	ff	m
b	f	m
ff	'	b
f	'	p
n	sh/s
t	sh	n
d	s	n
sh	h	t
s	h	d
ng	c'h/g'h
cw	c'h	ng
gw	g'h	ng
c'h	h	cw
g'h	h	gw

!!Verbs

De*-Present Progressive/Past Lô-Will Cwyy- Should Ma- Want

De on its own usually implies an action that has taken place consistantly over time. If it is a thing that happened but is not happening currently, a time is specificed after, or else "gwô 'ogw" [at another time] is used.

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