Re: General RFI

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@polaris.umuc.edu>]

il di le merchoer il Jeuffroy Eddy yscreus:

> Hello again everyone! Some questions to help me with Breathanach...
> 
> 1. Is there somewhere a Great Master Page about Brithenig which provides
> information about the language (such as sound-changes) and its
> althistory which "The Page of Brithenig" doesn't? If there is one, I
> look forward to reading it.

_Somewhere_, to be sure.  Only, as far as I know, it hasn't yet been
written.  :-(  Of course, we don't yet _know_ everything about the
language; nor do we seem to know a whole awful lot about the history; and
less about the culture.  Except that caws pobi and rugby fit into the
Grand Scheme rather snugly.

> 
> 2. How much of the evolution of Brithenig would (or should?) also affect
> Breathanach? (e.g.: I haven't come up with decent 3rd-person pronouns
> yet; would they just be borrowed from Brithenig?)

When I started work on Kernu, I had no knowledge of Brithenig evolution. 
Therefore, _actual_ Brithenig history had little impact on Kernu.  I kind
of wish I had that information to hand...but K. seems to have evolved
along a path of its own.  There are yet two major close-to-Brithenig
dialects spoken in the Province (Southern Brithenig (for lack of a better
name) and Sorbadu) that require work.  When B. is sorted out a bit better
and has settled down (and perhaps when some Historical work is done), then
I may work on them a bit more.  I have one text in Southern Brithenig; and
I know Sorbadu should be quite influenced by the local language. 

I borrowed the 3rd person pronouns from B. (quite unashamedly), although
the non-nominative forms are more clearly of 'nonBrithenig' extraction.

> 
> 3. (technical question) In Brithenig, when exactly do medial consonants
> undergo lenition? There are at least six possibilities wrt stress: 1.
> always; 2. only before stressed vowels; 3. only after stressed vowels;
> 4. always except before stressed vowels; 5. always except after stressed
> vowels; 6. something else more complicated.

They _seem_ to operate under rule (1).  But this could be mistaken.

> 
> 4. (ditto) What do Brithenig long vowels and diphthongs evolve from?

There's been oodles of discussion about long vowels and diphthongs, so
I'll leave it to our Experts in the field to deal with them.

> 
> And two general list-related question:
> 
> 1. Since the majority of the postings on this list have been concerned
> with Brithenig, is the private Brithenig list now effectively part of
> this one? I ask because my postings to celticonlang have turned up in
> the Sessiwn archives.

Well, someone could start a 'nonBrithenig' Celtic conlang; then they could
discuss it here.  I think most of the Brithenig List people are subscribed
here as well, but I have no way of knowing, of course.

> 
> 2. How many people are there on the list who we haven't heard from yet?
> (Don't be shy; speak up!)

Well, I'm sure this message counts as having heard from me. ;-)

> 
> Anyway. I must say that I like the look of my name in Brithenig and
> (especially) Kernu. (excuse my ignorance... but what is Kernu exactly?)
> Much better than the Esp&r@n* Ghefo, my reaction to which is
> unprintable.

Your welcome!  [Ghefo!?!? <shudder>] Kernu is the family of Brithenig
dialects spoken south of the Severn R. in the Province of Duneint, (in
approximately what is *here* Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire,
the area around Bristol, Lundy, the Scillies and parts of Brittany). 
That's a lot of area, divided into four Kingdoms and it's filled with
about a dozen dialects (exclusive of the Standard Brithenig), two of which
are now defunct, and only one of which has any sizable amount of
documentation (the dialect of the Kingdom of Dunnow centered at the
Provincial Capital, Esca Dunnor)  and literature (some ancient legal
texts, a children's story, some children's rhymes, a recipe and an
Arthurian Romance [allright, _half_ an Arthurian Romance; and it's not
_really_ concerning Arthur, it's located in _Kernow_ after all.]). There's
no webpage for it (and none likely forthcomming); but if you'd like, there
is a hardcopy grammar/reader/lexicon which I'd be _more_ than thrilled to
send your way. 

Do let me know if you (or anyone else) is interested.

> 
> Regards,
> 
> Geoff
> 

Padrig.