Re: The Brzhona.

[Frank George Valoczy <valoczy@vcn.bc.ca>]

On Tue, 23 Jun 1998, Padraic Brown wrote:

> That was quite an interesting history!  Do I assume aright that the
> Brzhona are direct descendants of the Gauls of that area?  If so, you may
> want to look into a source on the Gaulish language, as well as Latin, for
> the early phonology upon which your language would be based; and some
> Celtic substrate vocabulary.

Well.  I used Breton as the Celtic base; wheter this is Brithonic or
Gaulish, I don't know.  I'd figure the former (Brezhoneg).  I might have
made a rather large blunder, if the Bretons weren't there when the Romans
were.  In that case.... :-(

> 
> What impelled them to leave Brittany for the nascent Low Countries?  You
> said _most_ of them left; what about those that stayed behind?
> 

Having had that little taste of self-rule, they didn't particularly like
being ruled over by the French, who didn't really treat them all that well
either, so they took off to somewhere new.
The ones that stayed behind, most were assimilated into French, although
there are a few villages where Old Brzhonegh evolved in a different way
(ie. no Germanic/Netherlandic influence) from the other. (i guess we could
distinguish them by calling one Netherlandic Brzhonegh and the other
Breton Brzhonegh?)

> Also, if I may ask, why do they call themselves Brzhona rather than
> something based upon "Gaul"; as I assume the root Brzh- is ultimately
> descended from Britan-.  *Here*, at least, (and *there* as far as the
> Breotow are concerned) that particular name was exported from Great
> Britain along with the various emigrant peoples.  I suppose I'm asking why
> native Gauls would call themselves Britons?
> 

Well, see the bit above about Bretons.  If I did make a blunder that's too
big, I can fix it (I think)

> With respect to the first couple of sentences of your story, please
> explain the phonology!!  [I thought Kernu was opaque!]  I'd like to know
> how to pronounce the words.  [I know I've never explained K. phonology,
> but it was much more fun to write the story than explain the
> pronunciation.  I suppose I'll have to work on that, too.]
> 

Alright.  Vowels:

a, e, i, o, u = like Spanish (basically, the "normal" values for these)
w = French "eu", German "o-umlaut"
y = French, Dutch "u", German "u-umlaut"

Consonants:

b, d, f, g, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, z = like English
dl = I can't remember what it's called, but it's a "d" and an "l"
   articulated simultaneously
dhl = voiced counterpart of Welsh "ll"
gh = voiced velar fricative
j = like Dutch, German, etc.
r = like in Canadian and US English "roll" (not trilled)
rr = this one is trilled! (but not too much; like in Latvian, say)
rzh = like Czech "r-hachek"
sh, zh = like English
v = word-initially, word finally and intervocalically like in English
    anywhere else (ie. pre- or postconsonentally) like English "w"

If you really want, I can give this all in proper linguistic terms, I just
couldn't be bothered right now :-)

-------ferke
Ferenc Gy. Valoczy

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