Finian: Difference between revisions

Finian was a Lúsanic language spoken in northern Europe from the fourth century until the second century BCE when remains of it disappear. It was apparently recognised by Dhannic speakers as a related language albeit very different. Attested by fifty or so inscriptions, mostly of a votive kind, the known corpus of the language remains small.  

Like Dhannuá, Finian also exhibits anaptyxis (the addition of vowel sounds) but in more widespread environments. Finian does not appear to allow syllable onset clusters nor consonant clusters between word boundaries inserting a vowel to break these up (''a'', ''i''). Finian  ''v'''a'''lar'' "flower" is the typical example showing a-insertion between v and l, cf. Dhannuán ''bhlór'' with no intruding ''a''. A similar phenomenon appears to occur at word boundaries, when consonant-final words encounter another consonant right after an i-insertion occurs between them, as in the question ''ist an '''i'''sa mii'' (lit. 'is that at me?', "Do I have it?") with the ''i'' inserted before ''sa''. This does not occur in with ''sa'' but with ''mii'' in the answer: ''sa ist imii'' (lit. 'that one is at me', "I have it").