Breathanach (was Re: Hello!)

[Geoff Eddy <geoff@morven.compulink.co.uk>]

Padraic Brown sgribhsith:
> 
> il di le ju (aprils le 30), Jeuffroy Eddy (Geoff Eddy) yscreus:

Is this what my name in Brithenig looks like? It's a lot better than
Esp*r*nto! 

> > John Cowan sgribhse:

> Is 'Breathanach' a) a dialect of Brithenig, b) an amazing (near)
> coincidence on how the Kernu spell Brithenig (Brethenech) or c) a very
> idiosyncratic spelling? ;-)

Most likely (a) with a hint of (c) (the medial -th- is pronounced [h]).
My Gaelic dictionary gives "Breatunnach" for "British", so it's an
attempt at the Q-Celtic equivalent of "Brithenig".

> In any event, do tell us all (or at least as much as you can) about it!

OK then, here you are... I've enclosed a file summarising my first
attempts as the Q-Celtic-style Romance I've been going on about. Most of
it is derived from Vulgar Latin; obviously, if anyone wants it to fit
into the Brithenig althistory, it would need considerably more
contamination from Brithenig than it currently has. One case in point
might be the final -o in the first person of verbs, which in the absence
of subject pronouns would probably not have been lost.

I'd welcome comments and further input on this; if necessary, some of
you with better knowledge of Brithenig could mould it into something
more appropriate... 

A couple further points: there seem to be two slightly different
dialects, "Ir" (western) and "Sc" (eastern); and this is nothing to do
with Liotan, which is an entirely separate project altogether (although
I've tried to avoid Liotan influence as much a possible).

Hoping it's interesting and/or useful!

Geoff
-- 
[] Anna laughed with delight         <> Geoff Eddy, somewhere in
Edinburgh.. []
[] And my future was suddenly bright <>
--++--++--++--++--++--++--++--++--++ []
[] So full of plans                  <> "The more it stays the same,
the     []
[]  - Pal Shazar                     <>  less it changes" - Nigel
Tufnell    []
Phonology
=========

Consonants
----------

All consonants may be broad (velarised) or slender
(palatised). Usually a consonant became broad if followed by A O U
slender otherwise.

unlenited: P B F M; T D S N; C G; L R

lenited  PH [f] BH [v] FH [0] MH [v~]
         TH [h] DH [G] SH [h]
         CH [x] GH [G]

L R N are written double when non-lenited and non-initial.

Most VL consonants remained unchanged except H (which was lost) and V
(which became F). Consonants lenited in most cases when between vowels
,although stress sometimes prevented lenition (not sure when!) Double
consonants became singular and did not lenite.

Eclipsis changed [p b f] [t d] [c g] to [b m v] [d n] [g N]
written BP MB BHF etc.

[sp st sc] were written SB SD SG in Sc.


Vowels
------

The seven VL vowels [i e E a O o u] were retained in Ir spelt I E' E A
O O' U. [e o] became [ia ua] in Sc spelt IA UA.

Orthographic glide vowels indicated the qualities of neighbouring
consonants. Thus:

[i] is spelt I IO AOI
[e E] are spelt EI EU AO
[a] is spelt A EA AI EAI
[o O] are spelt O EO OI EOI
[u] is spelt U UI IUI IU
[ia ua] are spelt IA IAI UA UAI.

Stress was initial; unstressed vowels were often schwa.

An epenthetic schwa was inserted between /l n r/ and a following
labial or velar consonant.

Grammar
=======

Nouns
-----

May be masculine or feminine.

      puall "girl"	fiar "man"

Nom   puall		fiar
Acc   puall		fiar
Gen   puaille		fiair
Dat   puaille		fiar

Nom   puaille		fiair
Acc   puall		fiar
Gen   puall (pualra)	fiar (fiarra)
Dat   puaill(-iobh)	fiair

The accusative was no longer used; used to eclipse in the singular.

Adjectives
----------

Adjectives inflected when attributive only.

	parbh "small"

	Masc		Fem

Nom	parbh		pharbh
Gen	phairbh		phairbhe
Dat	pharbh		pharbh

Nom	phairbh		pbairbh
Gen	bparbh(ra)	bparbh(ra)
Dat	pairbh		pairbh


Articles
--------

Masculine: le + lenition; thus "le fhiar parbh"
Feminine: la + lenition; "la phuall pharbh"


Verbs
-----

Three conjugations, with stem vowel A (from Latin 1st conjugation), E
(2nd) or I (3rd and 4th).

		"to sing"    "to see"     "to sleep"
Infinitive	cantairr     fiaidheirr   doirmhirr
   
Present tense	canto	     fiaidheo     doirmheo
		cantas	     fiaidhis     doirmhis
		cantath	     fiaidhith    doirmhith
		cantama	     fiaidheuma   doirmhioma
		cantaite     fiaidheite   doirmhite
		cantann	     fiaidheunn   doirmhionn

Imperfect	cantabha     fiaidheubha  doirmhiobha
		cantabhas
		cantabhath
		cantabhamha
		cantabhaithe
		cantabhan

The rest of the tenses follow the same pattern for all verbs.

Future		cantair(bh)-eo/-is/-e/-me/-te/-eunn

		(bh) only before vowels. Maybe should be contracted
		to caintr-eo/-is/etc?

Perfect		cantaibh-e/-isde/-ith/-imhe/-ise/-ir(ean)

Pluperfect	cantaibh-ea/-eas/-eath/-eamha/-eaithe/-ean

		looks like it would merge with the imperfect

conditional	cantairbh + imperfect endings; maybe should
		contract to caintr-eabha/-eabhas etc?

present part	cant-ainte/-ainn

past part	cantatha


Some irregular verbs
--------------------

eiseirr "to be"

	present:   so/eis/eith/soma/eite/sonn
	imperfect: eurr-a/-as/etc
	future:    saoir(bh)eo
	perfect:   fuai/fuaisde/fuaith/etc

aibheirr "to have"

	present:   aibh-o/regular
	future:    aibhr-a/-as/etc
	perfect:   oibh-e/-isde/etc
	past part: otha

	maybe should have reduced forms?

sgribhirr "to write"

	perfect:   sgribhs-e/-isde/etc
	past part: sgriochta

trairr "to pull, drag"

        present:   traith/-eo/-is/etc
	perfect:   traisg-e/-isde
	past part: trachta

duichirr "to lead"

	perfect:   duisg-e
	past part: duchta

faichirr "to make, do"

	perfect:   fiaich-e
	past part: fachta

Numbers
-------

un, dua, tria, cuatar, cuainc, seisc, seicht, ocht, noibh, deich

Pronouns
--------

These are given in the form nom, acc, gen. I have no idea what to do
with the 3rd person.

1 singular: eugh, me, me + lenition
2 singular: thu, the, to + lenition

1 plural: nua, nua, noisd
2 plural: fua, fua, foisd