Vinez

[R.Rusanov]

Vinez (< Hiberniēnsem) is a language spoken in a Romanized version of Ireland. It's derived via regular sound change from Latin with a few analogies in certain highly irregular paradigms.

PHONOLOGY

/p b t d k g/ p b t d c g
/f v s z x/ f v s z h
/m n ŋ/ m n ng
/r l/ r l

Each consonant has a palatal variant. Palatalization is indicated on the vowel - all consonants around a high vowel are considered palatalized unless an "h" follows the consonant, which marks it as non-palatalizing. A silent "i" is usually added to indicate palatalization where no high vowel is present in speech.

/i ɪ ʊ u/ í i u ú
/e ɛ ə ɔ o/ é e a o ó
/a ɑ/ á a

Multiple diphthongs also exist.

STRESS

Stress almost always falls on the last syllable. Sometimes it doesn't. Words with a final <a> usually have stress on the penultimate syllable.

GRAMMAR

Two cases exist for most words - direct and genitive. Pronouns have three: nominative, accusative, and genitive. There are two genders, masculine and feminine. Here is an example of the nouns deilh "danger", caum "field", and paun "pagan" conjugated in each case:

Code: Select all

		SG		PL
DIR	deilh	deilha
GEN	del	  dilhidh

Code: Select all

		SG     PL
DIR	caum	cuam
GEN	caim	camhidh

Code: Select all

		SG     PL
DIR	paun	pávan
GEN	pain	pánhidh

Multiple kinds of mutation modify roots in certain ways : most important are nasalization, palatalization, lenition, and spirantization. Some examples:

The direct article in the masculine genitive singular case drives lenition and palatalization: caim /kɑmʲ/ "of a field" becomes egaim /ɛgʲɑmʲ/ "of the field"
The direct article in the masculine direct singular invokes nasalization: caum /kɑu̯m/ "a field" becomes iungaum /i̯ʊŋɑu̯m/ "the field"
The direct article in the masculine direct plural spirantizes the root: cuam /ku̯ɑm/ "fields" becomes iohuam /i̯ɔxu̯ɑm/ "the fields"

More to come later.

[Buran]

This seems very interesting. Is that Celtic influence with the mutations? Also, if I may make a small suggestion: maybe indicate palatisation by adding <j> after palatized consonants, instead of <h> after nonpalatised ones. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like that would be a bit less confusing.

[R.Rusanov]

The idea of mutating sounds comes from Celtic. However the only feature I have borrowed outright is the treatment of low vowels before syncopated high vowels. Everything else is different, even things as basic as the treatment of intervocalic stops.

Here is the conjugation of a sample feminine noun, feinha "woman"

Code: Select all

          SG     PL
    DIR   feinha feinha
    GEN   fen    finhaud

The singular and plural in the direct case appear identical but they trigger different mutations on following words - nasalization and spirantization respectively.

WORD ORDER

SVO is the norm in declarative sentences but fronts to VSO in questions and OVS in relative clauses.

Giain n'engevh hiul.
John-DIR.SG build-3.NAR church-DIR.SG
John built a church.

Engevh t'Giain vedh* hiul?
build-3.NAR John-DIR.SG Q church-DIR.SG
Did John build a church?

Giain n'olav t'a mhed fengh hiul n'engevh t'iol.
John-DIR.SG go-3.NAR to countryside-DIR.SG PUR.CONJ church-DIR.SG build-3.NAR he
John went to the countryside so that he could build a church.

* vedh is a particle that is only present in questions to seperate two nouns in the direct case that would else be together