Emnian language

Emnian
Eaimhnidht
Pronunciation	[ˈavʲɾʲiːtʲ]
Native to	Emnia
Ethnicity	Emnians
Native speakers	5.32 million (2020)
Language family	Emnitic
Early forms	Primitive Emnian Old Emnian Middle Emnian
Writing system	Equatoric (Emnian alphabet) Emnian Braille
Signed forms	Emnian Sign Language
Official status
Official language in	Emnia
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Emnian (Emnian: Eaimhnidht [ˈavʲɾʲiːtʲ]) is a West Emnitic language spoken by about 5.32 million people, principally in Emnia, where it is an official language.

Until the 16th century, Emnian was a continuum of dialects spoken from the Lower Delta to the Far East without a standard variety or spelling conventions. With the advent of Autocephalism and the introduction of the printing press, a standard language was developed based on the speech of the Lower Delta region. It spread through use in the education system, trade, and administration. During the romantic nationalist movements of the 19th century, the language itself was promoted as a token of Emnian national identity, and experienced a surge in use and popularity as major works of literature were produced. Today, the traditional dialects have almost disappeared except for the Thárann Valley dialect.

History

Emnitic languages may have arrived in Emnia between 2,500 BC and 2,000 BC with the spread of the High Lake Culture. The language spoken by the High Lake Culture has been suggested as a candidate for the Proto-Emnitic, or, specifically, the direct ancestral language to Primitive Emnian.

Primitive Emnian

The earliest written form of the Emnian language is known to linguists as Primitive Emnian. Primitive Emnian is known only from fragments — mostly personal names — inscribed on stone in Emnian runes. These inscriptions are mostly found in the south of the country as well as in northern Southerland, where it was brought by settlers from Emnia.

Old Emnian

Main article: Old Emnian

Old Emnian first appears in the margins of Equatoric manuscripts as early as the 6th century. A large number of early Emnian literary texts, despite having been recorded as manuscripts during the Middle Emnian period (such as the Seaphair Mudoire), are written in Old Emnian.

Middle Emnian

Main article: Middle Emnian

Middle Emnian refers most narrowly to the form of the language used from the 10th to the 12th centuries; it's therefore a contemporary of late Old Sudric and early Middle Sudric. It is the language of a large amount of literature, including the entire Angaoide t-an Éile.

Modern Emnian

Early Modern Emnian began to take shape between the 13th and 18th centuries, when numerous tracts were written in order to teach the most cultivated form of the language to student bards, lawyers, doctors, administrators, monks, and so on in Emnia. Despite being a cultivated language, the standards were largely based on vernacular usage and allowed a number of dialectal forms which had already existed at the time.

Phonology

One of the most notable aspects of Emnian phonology is that nearly all consonants are paired — with one having a "broad" pronunciation and one having a "slender" one. Broad consonants are either velarised (that is, the back of the tongue is pulled back and slightly up in the direction of the soft palate while the consonant is articulated) or simply velar. Slender consonants are palatalised, which means the tongue is pushed up towards the hard palate during articulation. The contrast between broad and slender consonants is crucial in Emnian as it not only plays a critical role in distinguishing the individual consonants themselves, but also in the pronunciation of the surrounding vowels, in the determination of which consonants can form clusters, and in the behaviour of words that begin with a vowel. The broad/slender distinction is similar to the hard/soft distinction of many languages such as Slavonian.

Orthography

Consonants

Consonant letters generally correspond to the consonant phonemes displayed in the table below. See the section on phonology for an explanation of the symbols below. Consonants are broad (velarised or plain) when the nearest vowel letter is a, o, or u, and slender (palatalised) when the nearest vowel is either e or i.

Letter(s)		Phoneme(s)	Examples
b	broad	/bˠ/
	slender	/bʲ/
bh	broad	/w/~/vˠ/
	slender	/vʲ/
	See vowel chart for abh, obh
c	broad	/k/
	slender	/c/
ch	broad (always broad before t)	/x/
	slender	/ç/; /h/ between vowels
d	broad	/d̪ˠ/
	slender	/dʲ/; /dʑ/ in eastern dialects
dh	broad	/ɣ/ syllable-initially; silent after a long vowel
	slender	/ʝ/~/j/
	See vowel chart for adh, aidh, eadh, eidh, idh, oidh, odh.
f	broad	/fˠ/
	slender	/fʲ/
fh		silent
g	broad	/ɡ/
	slender	/ɟ/
gh	broad	/ɣ/ syllable-initially; silent after a long vowel
	slender	/ʝ/~/j/
	See vowel chart for agh, aigh, eagh, eigh, igh, ogh, oigh.
h		/h/
l	broad	/l/; also frequently /l̪ˠ/
	slender	/lʲ/
ll	broad	/l̪ˠ/
	slender	/l̪ʲ/; also frequently /lʲ/
m	broad	/mˠ/
	slender	/mʲ/
mh	broad	/w/~/vˠ/
	slender	/vʲ/
	See vowel chart for amh, omh
n	broad	/nˠ/; also frequently /n̪ˠ/
	slender	/nʲ/
nc	broad	/ŋk/
	slender	/ɲc/
ng	broad	/ŋɡ/
	slender	/ɲɟ/
		/nʲ/ in final unstressed -ing
nn	broad	/n̪ˠ/
	slender	/n̪ʲ/; also frequently /nʲ/
p	broad	/pˠ/
	slender	/pʲ/
ph	broad	/fˠ/
	slender	/fʲ/
r	broad (always broad word-initially; always broad in rd, rl, rn, rr, rs, rt, rth, sr)	/ɾˠ/
	slender	/ɾʲ/
s	broad (always broad word-initially before f, m, p, r)	/sˠ/
	slender	/ʃ/; /ɕ/ in eastern dialects
sh		/h/
t	broad	/t̪ˠ/
	slender	/tʲ/
th	/h/
	Silent at the end of a syllable
ts (dialectal lenition of s- after an 'the')	broad	/t̪ˠ/
	slender	/tʲ/; /tɕ/ in eastern dialects
v (loan consonant)	broad	/w/~/vˠ/
	slender	/vʲ/
z (loan consonant)	broad	/zˠ/
	slender	/ʒ/; /ʑ/ in eastern dialects

Vowels

Sequences of vowels are very common in Emnian spelling due to the rule of "slender with slender and broad with broad". This rule states that the vowels on either side of any consonant or consonant cluster must both be slender (e or i) or both be broad (a, o, or u'), to unambiguously determine the consonant's own broad versus slender pronunciation. A notable exception is the combination ae, which is followed by a broad consonant despite the e (the slender variant is aei).

Simple vowels

Unstressed vowels are generally reduced to schwa (/ə/).

Letter(s)		Phoneme	Examples
a	stressed	/a/
		/aː/ before rl, rn, rd before syllable-final ll, nn, rr before word-final m
	unstressed	/ə/
e	stressed	/ɛ/
	unstressed	/ə/
i	stressed	/ɪ/
		/iː/ before syllable-final ll, nn before word-final m
	unstressed	/ə/
		/ɪ/ finally
o	stressed	/ɔ/
		/ʊ/ before n, m
		/oː/ before rl, rn, rd before syllable-final ll, rr
		/uː/ before syllable-final nn before word-final m, ng
	unstressed	/ə/
u	stressed	/ʊ/
		/ɔ/ in Sudric loanwords, corresponds to /ʌ/
		/uː/ before rl, rn, rd
	unstressed	/ə/
		/ʊ/ finally

Digraphs and trigraphs

Letter(s)		Phoneme	Examples
ae, aei		/eː/
ai	stressed	/a/
		/aː/ before rl, rn, rd before syllable-final ll, nn, rr
		/ɛ/ in certain words
	unstressed	/ə/
ao		/iː/ (/eː/ in eastern dialects)
		/ɔː/ in the feminine plural suffix
aoi		/iː/
ea, eai	stressed	/a/
		/aː/ before rl, rn, rd before syllable-final ll, nn, rr
	unstressed	/ə/
ei		/ɛ/
		/ɪ/ before m, mh, n
		/eː/ before rl, rn, rd
		/əi/ before syllable-final ll
		/iː/ before syllable-final nn and word-final m
eo, eoi		/oː/
		/ɔː/ in the feminine plural suffix
ia, iai		/iə/
io		/ɪ/ before coronals and th
		/ʊ/ before noncoronals
		/iː/ before syllable-final nn
iu		/ʊ/
oi	stressed	/ɛ/
		/ɔ/ before s, cht, rs, rt, rth
		/ɪ/ next to n, m, mh
		/əi/ before syllable-final ll
		/iː/ before syllable-final nn and word-final m
		/oː/ before rl, rn, rd
	unstressed	/ə/
ua, uai		/uə/
ui	stressed	/ɪ/
		/ʊ/ before cht, rs, rt
		/iː/ before syllable-final ll, nn before word-final m
		/uː/ before rl, rn, rd
	unstressed	/ə/

Grammar

Nouns and adjectives

Emnian nouns (séimh, plural séimhimh) and adjectives are declined according to the following properties:

• State (indefinite, definite, or construct)
• Gender (feminine or masculine); this is an inherent characteristic of nouns but part of the declension of adjectives
• Number (singular, plural, or dual)

Nouns are generally related to verbs via their shared verbal roots, but the formation of some nouns is not systematic due to loanwords and influence from foreign languages.

Gender

Every Emnian noun has a gender — either masculine or feminine (though there are some 'ambigender' nouns which can be either masculine or feminine). Emnian is logically very similar to other Emnitic languages regarding grammatical gender: animate nouns, such as those referring to people, usually have a grammatical gender that corresponds to their natural gender, but for inanimate nouns the grammatical gender is largely arbitrary.

Most feminine nouns end in the vowels -e or -a, but many do not (e.g. éimh "mother", eirias "earth", eáthann "jenny, female donkey").

Number

All Emnian nouns can be singular, dual, or plural.

In Old Emnian, the use of the dual was mandatory whenever exactly two objects were referred to, regardless of whether the twoness of the objects is explicit or relevant to the point. The plural necessarily referred to three or more objects. By the Middle Emnian period, this was beginning to shift, and in modern Emnian the dual is generally only used with a handful of common words and for emphasis.

Masculine nouns generally form their plural by adding the suffix -imh (slender ending) or -aimh (broad ending); both suffixes are pronounced /-əvʲ/.

• méilich (king) → méilichimh (kings)
• seoghaill ([male] fox) → seoghailimh ([male] foxes)
• míseor (flatland; plain) → míseoraimh (flatlands; plains)

Feminine nouns generally form their plural by adding the suffix -(e)oth (slender ending) or -(a)oth (broad ending); both suffixes are pronounced /-ɔː/.

• máilce (queen) → máilceoth (queens)
• seoghaile ([female] fox; vixen) → seoghaileoth ([female] foxes; vixens)
• adapha (addendum) → adaphaoth (addenda)

The dual is formed with the suffixes -eaidhimh (slender ending) or -aidhimh (broad ending); both suffixes are pronounced /-eːvʲ/. There exists no separate masculine or feminine dual form — but dual nouns agree in gender with their verbal/adjectival/pronominal complements.

• méilich (king) → méilicheaidhimh (two kings)
• máilce (queen) → máilceaidhimh (two queens)
• adapha (addendum) → adaphaidhimh (two addenda)

Note that nouns ending in doubled consonants revert to a single consonant before taking the plural or dual suffixes.

State

The grammatical property of state is specific to Emnian and other Emnitic languages. The basic division is between indefinite, definite, and construct.

Indefinite nouns refer to entities not previously determined or mentioned, and correspond to Sudric nouns preceded by a, an or some, or mass nouns with no preceding determiner. Adjectives modifying a noun must agree with the noun in state:

• méilich — "(a) king"
• máilce — "(a) queen"
• béann othuibh — "(a) beloved son"
• beáth othuibhe — "(a) beloved daughter"
• míseor gaodhall — "(a) great plain"
• seoghaile ádaoime — "(a) red fox"
• déilith ádaoime — "(a) red door"

Definite nouns signal entities previously referenced, and correspond to the following Sudric forms: nouns preceded by the, this, that, or a possessive adjective (e.g. my, your; or proper nouns. Nouns in the definite state are marked with the definite article an. Note that singular, feminine nouns are always lenited when preceded by the definite article unless they begin with d or t.

• an méilich — "the king"
• an mháilce — "the queen"
• an béann an othuibh — "the beloved son"
• an bheáth an othuibhe — "the beloved daughter"
• an míseor an gaodhall — "the great plain"
• an seoghaile an ádaoime — "the red fox"
• an déilith an ádaoime — "the red door"

The third value for state is construct, which is assumed by nouns when they are modified by another noun in a genitive construction. A noun in the construct state is never marked by a definite article even if it is semantically definite. Furthermore, no word can intervene between a construct-state noun and a following possessive with the exception of a demonstrative determiner.

Many commonly used nouns have a slightly different construct form from their indefinite/definite form — usually common nouns ending in broad consonants, which become slender in the construct. Additionally, feminine nouns ending in vowels or -th trigger t-prothesis. Any adjectives modifying the noun in the construct appear at the very end without a definite article.

• méilich eirias — "(a) king of a country"
• méilich an eirias — "the king of the country"
• máilce t-eirias — "(a) queen of a country"
• béinn an mhéilich othuibh — "the king's beloved son"
• beáth t-an mhéilich an othuibh seomhaine — "the beloved king's plump daughter"
• seoghaile t-an míseor an gaodhall ádaoime — "the red fox of the great plain"

The construct is also used for nouns with a "bound" pronoun:

• méilich aonú — "our king"
• máilce t-aonú — "our queen"
• béinn í othuibh — "my beloved son"
• beáth t-í othuibhe — "my beloved daughter"

Pronouns

"Free" pronouns

In Emnian, "free" personal pronouns have 14 distinct forms. In the singular and plural, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns have separate masculine and feminine forms, while the 1st person does not. Traditionally, there exists a formality distinction in the first-person pronouns, although this is exceedingly rare even in the most formal of modern speech.

Person		Singular	Plural
1st	informal	aoine	anuách
	formal	anaoiche	anú
2nd	masculine	tá	tim
	feminine	át	tin
3rd	masculine	thú	them
	feminine	thaoi	then
	impersonal	dhe	dheile

Bound pronouns

The enclitic forms of the personal pronouns (or "bound" pronouns) are used:

• After the construct state of nouns, where they have the meaning of possessive determiners, e.g. "my, your, his, her", etc.
• After prepositions, where they construe the objects of prepositions, e.g. "to me, to you, to him, to her", etc.
• After verbs, where they have the meaning of direct object pronouns

Unlike in the free pronouns, there exists no traditional formality distinction in the 1st person in bound pronouns.

Person		Singular	Plural
1st		í	aonú
2nd	masculine	chá	chim
	feminine	ách	chin
3rd	masculine	ó	ám
	feminine	á	án
	impersonal	dhe	dheile

Verbs

Main article: Emnian verbs

Syntax

Genitive construction

A noun may be more precisely defined by adding another noun immediately afterwards. In Emnian grammar, this is known as an adapha (lit. "addendum") or the "genitive construct". The first noun (the possessed) must be in the construct state, while the subsequent noun or bound pronoun (the possessor) can be either definite or indefinite. Following a feminine noun ending in a vowel or the plural suffix -(a/e)oth, nouns or bound pronouns beginning with vowels undergo T-prothesis. This construction is typically equivalent to the construction "(noun) of (noun)".

Simple examples include:

• beáth Príoma — "the daughter of Príoma/Príoma's daughter"
• beáth t-Annraoi — "the daughter of Annraoi/Annraoi's daughter"
• béinn Annraoi — "the son of Annraoi/Annraoi's son"
• baight aoinse — "the house of a woman/a woman's house"
• baight an aoinse — "the house of the woman/the woman's house"

Nothing except a demonstrative can intervene between the two nouns in an adapha. If an adjective modifies the first noun, it appears at the end of the adapha without a definite article regardless of whether the term it modifies is semantically definite. An ajdective modifying the second noun will appear directly after the second noun, and will match the definiteness of that noun.

• máilce t-an eirias chadhaise — "The new queen of the country"
• máilce t-an eirias an chadhaise — "The queen of the new country"