#quebric

[dedalvs]

What's the difference between creating a sister language and a descendant language?

Nothing, except that with a sister language, the language you’re creating already has a sister…? In both cases you’re evolving language A from language B.

[jon-lang-blog]

Some changes...

There have been some recent minor changes to the Quebric language. Although minor they do concern some of the features documented in this blog.

Phonology

I have added the diphthong /ʊi/ [ui] to the phonology. This also has ramifications for the chart showing the internal vowel changes for i-affection plurals. The updated chart has been added to the Plurals blog post, but it’s also here:

Mutations

There have been changes to the nasal mutation. I originally wanted to avoid borrowing from Welsh too closely, but since then the Welsh unvoiced nasal consonants have really grown on me and I couldn’t resist rejigging the nasal mutation. The changes only affect the unvoiced stops /k/, /t/ and /p/, as shown below:

/k/ [c] becomes /ŋ̊/ [ngh] /t/ [t] becomes /n̥/ [nh] /p/ [p] becomes /m̥/ [mh]

/g/ [g] becomes /ŋ/ [ng] /d/ [d] becomes /n/ [n] /b/ [b] becomes /m/ [m]

Again, these changes have been reflected in the Mutations blog post.

[jon-lang-blog]

Singular/plural & collective/unit systems

Here I will lay out how Quebric deals with noun number. Quebric has two systems: singular/plural and collective/unit (unit is often called singulative).

Comparison of grammatical number systems in English and Quebric.

The number system for nouns in English is a simple singular/plural system where the singular is the base form. Any noun in English can be placed into one of three sub-classes within this system:

a)    Nouns that can be used in either the singular or the plural (the vast majority of non-abstract things – cat(s), star(s), magazine(s)).

b)    Nouns that can only normally be used in the singular (abstract ideas and uncountable things – honesty, milk, information, bread).

c)     Nouns that can only be used in the plural (things that are or have two parts – trousers, scissors).

 Quebric has mutually exclusive twin systems, like the Celtic languages:

 System 1:         singular/plural  System 2:         collective/unit

System 1 works on much the same lines as the English system, with the same three sub-classes. The difference from English is that these do not account for all nouns in Quebric, because a large number lie outside the singular/plural system and instead belong to the collective/unit (c/u) system, which has its own rules of operation.

Distinction between the singular/plural and collective/unit systems.

As has already been said, the sing./pl. system of Quebric mirrors that of English and other European languages – the basic form of the noun is sing., with the pl. (where possible) is formed from it. It does not matter if a noun cannot form a plural – the base noun is still in the sing. and that is enough to classify it as part of the sing./pl. system. On the other hand, the collective/unit (c/u) system is primarily made up of living things which are usually associated with being in a group. This includes many trees, plants and animals (especially those living in or kept in groups as well as swarming or colony insects). The base form of these nouns all have a collective meaning, with the unit form built from it by way of a suffix (which is gender specific).

Singular/plural nouns

Where English has a large majority of its plural nouns ending in -s (like Spanish), Quebric has two main ways of forming plurals ((a) and (b) below).

 a)    i-affection plurals are plural forms which are formed by changing the internal vowels of the singular noun. Newer, modern words do not tend to use this system as it is a left-over feature from the older language where plurals were formed by an i-suffix, which later shifted the internal vowels before being dropped from the word altogether. This is a feature borrowed from the Germanic languages and is a feature of English (goose > geese; man > men), a left over feature from Old English/Anglo-Saxon.

The below table shows the vowel changes in final syllables and non-final syllables.

b)    Nouns which end in -air (or the feminine -airit) (agent nouns) change to -áwir (regardless of gender, but -áwir nouns are masculine).

Plurals of compound nouns

Compound nouns – i.e. words made up of noun + noun, verb + noun, or adjective + noun – form their pl. in the same way as the second element of the compound.

Duals

A very limited number of nouns have a special dual form denoting ‘two’ rather than ‘many’. All are made up of the element

tes- or tais- two + noun (the noun takes SM).

Note that duals are not plurals. Nouns with dual forms can (and often will) have a plural form as well and there are usually special rules to using duals.

Collective/unit nouns

Overview of c/u nouns

The Quebric c/u system uses three suffixes; two feminine and one masculine. The feminine suffix -ys is only used to form unit nouns of trees, plants, flowers etc. All other feminine unit nouns are formed with -in and all masculine unit nouns are formed with -edh.

Collective nouns of one or two syllables which contain a long vowel (á, é, í, ó, ú) become short (a, e, i, o, u) when the suffixes are added.

Examples

Some examples of these can be seen below:

Gorod mountain becomes geryd mountains. This is an i-affection plural.

Cít sheep (pl.) becomes citin sheep (sing.). This is a feminine collective/unit noun. Notice the shortening of the vowel í when the -in suffix is added.

Caran friend becomes cerain friends. This is an i-affection plural.

Euer birds becomes euerin bird. This is a feminine collective/unit noun.

Quena trees becomes quenys tree. This is a feminine collective/unit noun. Notice that this one uses the -ys suffix (because it’s flora) which also causes the final vowel of quena to drop and the now final n- takes the suffix.

Arquen shoes becomes arquenedh shoe. This is a masculine collective/unit noun. 

[jon-lang-blog]

Numbers

Here follows the Quebric numerals, from one to ten. My original intention was for Quebric to have a vigesimal (based on twenties) system, but this may change to a much simpler decimal system, so for now, I’ll only post 1-10. Another point is that the numbers 2-9 have feminine forms which are used with feminine nouns - these are all marked masculine (m) and feminine (f). The word for 0 (zero) is gan, the same as the Quebric negator (c.f. Welsh dim).

Cardinals

0 - gan 1 - sel 2 - tes (m) / tais (f) 3 - nin (m) / nain (f) 4 - ques (m) / quais (f) 5 - túlë (m) / talen (f) 6 - engë (m) / ungi (f) 7 - eledh (m) / ílid (f) 8 - lin (m) / lain (f) 9 - telen (m) / teilun (f) 10 - yltë

The following mutation rules must be observed with Quebric numbers:

Sel one causes soft mutation of feminine nouns. Both tes and tais two cause aspirate mutation of all nouns. Both engë and ungi six cause aspirate mutation of all nouns. Eledh seven but not ílid causes soft mutation of all nouns. Yltë ten causes aspirate mutation of all nouns.

Ordinals

1st - ceset 2nd - antë 3rd - manta From 4th onwards the masculine form of the cardinal is used with the suffix -(m)bë: 4th - quesembë 5th - túlembë 6th - engembë 7th - eledhbë 8th - limbë 9th - telembë 10th - yltebë

All ordinals cause soft mutation to feminine nouns.

[jon-lang-blog]

Articles

The indefinite article

Quebric has no indefinite article and so the English a and an are not translated. The indefiniteness of a noun is indicated by the absence of any preceding article.

English has ‘substitute’ indefinite articles for use with plural words and words which cannot be counted, such as bread. These words are some and any. They too have no equivalents in Quebric. Where they occur in this use in English they must be left untranslated in Quebric. The sentence I bought some apples is rendered in Quebric as I bought apples which means the same thing. Quebric has no concept of the indefinite article and so is consistent in ignoring it.

The definite article

There are two forms of the definite article in Quebric.

i - When the following word begins with a consonant, except h- or consonantal i-. ir - When the following word begins with a vowel, h- or consonantal i-.

(A consonantal i is an i followed by another vowel giving the initial i the phonetic value /j/.)

Whether the following noun is singular or plural makes no difference to the form of the definite article in Quebric.

Despite being a language with grammatical gender, Quebric does not have gender-based forms of the definite article, instead there is a mutation system.

The definite article and mutations

Masculine plural and collective nouns undergo Nasal Mutation following the definite article. Masculine singular and unit nouns are unchanged by the definite article.

            gorod mountain and geryd mountains

            i gorod the mountain, but

            i ngeryd the mountains.

Feminine singular and unit nouns undergo Soft Mutation following the definite article. Feminine plurals are unchanged by the definite article.

            megir troll and megír trolls

            i fegir the troll, but

            i megír the trolls

Because g disappears under Soft Mutation this has ramifications for the definite article. If the letter following g is a vowel then under SM the definite article must then become ir instead of i:

            gethim garden

            i gethim then becomes ir ethim the garden.

Other things to consider

Quebric expressions of price/quantity and time/distance use i/ir where English requires either a or per.

[jon-lang-blog]

The two meanings of ‘y’

An overview of ‘y’.

In Quebric the word y  (pronounced /ə/) has two meanings:

and

with / by means of

Y also has mutation consequences, which will be dealt with later on. But it’s the mutations and context which will allow a lister to infer the correct meaning of y.

‘Y’ as and.

The Quebric word for and is, in its radical state, y. Y works in the same way as English and. Y also has four other forms: ych, yth, yph and ylh, which are explained below. Y causes Aspirate Mutation.

When y causes Aspirate Mutation its form also changes. The ending taken by y matches that of the mutated form of the next word. The Quebric letters [p], [t], [c] and [l] are all susceptible to Aspirate Mutation and become [ph], [th], [ch] and [lh], respectively. Words beginning with a vowel (masculine and feminine) “grow” an initial [h], called h-prothesis.

Here are the phonemes for the above Quebric letters:

/p/ [p] /t/ [t] /k/ [c] (Quebric ‘c’ always sounds like a ‘k’) /l/ [l] /f/ [ph] (‘ph’ only occurs when /p/ undergoes aspirate mutation) /θ/ [th] /ɬ/ [lh] (this is the same as the Welsh ‘ll’)

y followed by radical [th] becomes yth.

y followed by radical [ch] becomes ych.

y followed by radical [lh] becomes ylh.

y followed by radical [p] causes AM [p] → [ph] and changes to yph.

y followed by radical [t] causes AM [t] → [th] and changes to yth.

y followed by radical [c] causes AM [c] → [ch] and changes to ych.

y followed by radical [l] causes AM [l] → [lh] and changes to ylh.

y followed by a vowel causes h-prothesis in the vowel [V]→ [hV] and changes to ych. (V stands for any vowel.)

So the phrase ‘a mare and a cow’ becomes:

Stage 1 (translate word-for-word):  láréch y cyr

Stage 2 (apply changes caused by y):  láréch ych chyr

So ‘a mare and a cow’ translates as ‘láréch ych chyr’.

The idea being that there is no break between ych and chyr. The idea for this came from Welsh, where the word yn changes to either ym or yng depending on whether it’s followed by an m, mh or ng, ngh.

‘Y’ as with / by means of.

The Quebric word for with as in by means of is also y. The difference between y and and y with/by means of is that y with/by means of causes Soft Mutation, not Aspirate Mutation. This feature coupled with context is enough to distinguish between the two meanings of y. When y means with it is sometimes written as ŷ but this is optional and is only to show the difference between the two. When y precedes a vowel, a h- or a consonantal i- (/j/) it becomes yr (the same rule as applied to the definite article ir).

This form of y (or yr) is used to say things like:

He was stabbed with a knife

I went to work by train

She went to school by bus

But cannot be used to say:

He went to school with his friend (different type of with)

She met up with her sister after work (different type of with)

Y / yr can only mean with when it can be replaced by by means of in English.

[jon-lang-blog]

Quebric phonology

For my first proper Tumblr blog post I thought I’d post the phoneme inventory for Quebric. The phonemes are written between slashes and the orthography is written in square brackets.

Consonants

Plosives: /p/ [p], /t/ [t], /k/ [c], /b/ [b], /d/ [d], /g/ [g].

Fricatives: /f/ [f] [ph], /θ/ [th], /s/ [s], /x/ [ch], /h/ [h], /ɬ/ [lh], /v/ [v], /ð/ [dh].

Approximants: /r̥/ [rh], /r/ [r], /w/ [w], /j/ [i], /l/ [l].

Nasals: /m/ [m], /n/ [n], /ŋ/ [ng], /m̥/ [mh], /n̥/ [nh], /ŋ̊/ [ngh].

The cluster /kw/ is written as [qu] and not the expected [cw]. The cluster [ph] only appears when /p/ undergoes aspirate mutation,radical /f/ is always [f], never [ph]. The phonemes /m̥/ [mh], /n̥/ [nh], /ŋ̊/ [ngh] only appear as a result of the nasal mutation.

Vowels and diphthongs

/a/ [a], /ɑ/ [á], /aɪ/ [ai] initially and medially, [ae] finally, /aʊ/ [au].

/ε/ [e], /e/ [é], /εɪ/ [ei], /εʊ/ [eu].

/ɪ/ [i], /i/ [í] except finally [i] finally. (Note that before vowels [i] has the value /j/)

/ɒ/ [o], /ɔ/ [ó], /ɒi/ [oi] initially and medially, [oe] finally, /ɒʊ/ [ou].

/ʊ/ [u], /u/ [ú], /ʊi/ [ui]

/ə/ [y]

Notes

Something to note about the letter [h]: the letter [h] often has the value of /h/ but is sometimes used in conjunction with other letters to make a new letter, for example [t] + [h] = [th]; [d] + [h] = [dh], so [h] isn’t always pronounced.

The following are considered to be single letters in Quebric:  ch, dh, ng, lh, ph, rh, th, qu.

[jon-lang-blog]

Hello and welcome.

Hello and welcome to my Tumblr. If you don’t know me then my name is Jonlang (not really) and I go by the Twitter name of @Jonlang_. I am an aspiring fantasy writer and inventor of invented worlds and mythologies. But mostly.... I’m a conlanger.

My current (and only) project is Quebric. Quebric is a conlang with a very Celtic flavour, featuring initial-consonant mutations, echoing pronouns, verbal-nouns, a VSO word order and the like. It isn’t simply a cypher for Welsh though (or Cornish or Breton or Irish or Manx or Scottish Gaelic), it is its own thing. Quebric isn’t supposed to be the “seventh Celtic language” or anything like that, but it is influenced by them, but it’s also (a little bit) influenced by Finnish, Old English and Old Norse.

I am by no means a linguist. I do this as a hobby and have absolutely no formal education in the field of languages or linguistics. I am, however, very interested in European languages, mostly Celtic (and even more so the Brythonic branch). I am also learning Welsh ~ dw i’n trio dysgu siarad Cymraeg. I am using the experience of building Quebric to learn more about languages and how they work in the hope of building an entire language family in the future.

I have some rough sketches of a second conlang lying around - a conlang for dragons, but this is mostly stuff to do with phonology as I try to come up with a realistic phoneme inventory for dragon anatomy. But this won’t be documented on this blog, nor my Twitter. It may one day come to something but at the moment my focus is Quebric.

If you’re joining me here from Twitter, then welcome and thanks for following. I have no idea how often this will be updated but feel free to message me.