Mwyltydd

['muɪ̯l.ti:ð]

((---Mwyltydd was originally intended to simply be a Welsh-based argot (though I made a very simplistic, mock conworld and culture along with it, mostly to justify certain traits that one might find odd or unwarranted). This should be kept in mind while reading about the language, as the grammar is very similar to Welsh and would not be justified as an independent natural language---))

Mwyltydd (Millic or Millish in English) is a Garro-Milleo language spoken by the Mills (Mwyldaws ['muɪ̯l.daʊ̯s]) on the four mountainous islands of Y Llatmwyl Hul, on a world reffered to by the Mills as "Afeswyd" (which, for all intents and purposes, is nearly identical to Earth, apart from the geography, climate, indigenous cultures, wildlife, and pretty much everything else, so actually it's really not all that similar). Also, by some strange coincidence, the Mills use orthography, phonology, and grammar that varies almost insignificantly from that of modern Welsh. This has led some suprademensional beings to question the seemingly spontaneous and random nature of the universe, though it seems that the affairs of lower beings aren't of any relevance enough to inquire further into this matter. Mwyltydd is a lightly inflected analytic language, though it also has some uncommonly realized polysynthetic qualities. As is true in the Insular Celtic languages of Earth, Mwyltydd features a heavy usage of verbnouns and a system of initial consonant mutation, and has several other similarities to Welsh and the Goidelic languages. In addition, there are several loan words, loan translations, and other influences from the Snake Language spoken by the dolphin population indigenous to the waters around Y Llatmwyl Hul.

Classification
​
 * Asrineo-Cymrean
 * West Asrinean
 * Low Garr ý lic
 * Garro-Milleo
 * New Garr ý lic (extinct)
 * Millic

After the unfortunate and unforeseeable destruction of Llatgar ýl (the former fifth island in the island chain, Wysyr) whereupon New Garr ýlic was spoken, and due to the Millic superstition that the open sea is evil (or at least whatever might lay in wait thereacross), the Mills found themselves alone in the world. Strict population control has been enforced for on the island-states for hundreds of years, so much so that the population actually decreased by 30% over the last century, but at now has been stabilized with a whopping growth factor of 0%. Freaky as it may seem, this was not the work of a nefarious governing body, but instead the collective choice of the people, content with their humble lives on their four wittle iswands. Similar to their obsessive control of the population, is the Mills control over the uniformity and non-evolution of their language, regulated by Y Dyddych Fonog Fwyltydd (The Millic Language Council). They like it how it is and make sure it don't never changes, not one bit. As such, there are no branching dialects (though minor accentual differences can be observed between the populations of each of the four islands). In order to facilitate this, when certain colloquialisms gain a certain level of popularity and common usage, the YDFF will vote on accepting the new device into the standard language (eg. the general plural).

Consonants
Notes:
 * All voiceless plosives and affricates are slightly aspirated word initially.
 * /r/ is often realized as [ ɾ] and as [ ʀ] by some speakers on the southern-most island.

Stress
Stress is always on in penultimate syllable unless indicated by an acute accent, or, occasionally, a circumflex on a vowel in the terminal syllable of a word.

Orthography
The spelling of Mwyltydd is very similar to that of Welsh with some slight- but important- differences along with some additional phonemes. One should note that the digraph "Qj,qj" unpredictably represents either [ ʝ] or [ ʒ]; a borrowed usage from the snake-language of the Dolphins; a language which has, on Earth, never been able to be translated, despite millions of years of cohabitation.

Consonants
-Millic sonorants /r,m,n,ŋ,/, when followed by orthographic {h}, are realized as /r̥, m̥, n̥, ŋ̊/ respectively.

-{s} is pronounced /ʃ/ before {i} and after {ì}. In such cases {i, ì} are not phonetically realized, only indicating palatalization.

Monophthongs
-Both stressed and unstressed vowels are long before single consonants (individual consonant sounds that are orthographically represented by a single grapheme) (eg. cafwdesgall "seahorse" [käːvuːdˈɛskäɬ]).

-Unmarked vowels occurring at the end of words are realized as long, with the exception of {y} which is realized as /ə/ in the last syllable of a word.

-{y} is realized as /ə/ in word terminal syllables and in predetermined words and syllables.

-The pronunciation of {u} is often decided by the speaker's preference. Older speakers will more often realize it as /ʊ/, while young speakers find it easier to pronounce it in much the same way as {i} without having the palatal coloring effect on {s}. Word terminally it is always realized as /i/.

Nouns
Nouns were historically inflected in Mwyltydd and remnants of this system can be seen in certain places. The general plural suffix {-u} is a recent development necessitated by and used in contexts where the exact number is not specifically stated or known. However, Mwyltydd does feature a collective-singulative system which has been under constant debate by the YDFF for several decades on whether it should be officially considered a form of inflection, as it is only used to form singulatives from uncountable nouns and groups that are referred to as single units {water > drop of water, forest > tree, flock > bird, etc}. Singulative suffixes are also colloquially used to form partitives (Bread + SS = some bread; the sandwich + SS = part of the sandwich).

Pronouns
The non-emphatic personal pronouns are: The 3rd person singular unspecific forms are equivalent to English "they" and "one".

Numbers
Zero through ten:

Consonant Mutation
Consonant mutation in Mwyltydd is changes in the initial consonant of a word according to the word's morphological, syntactic, or phonemic environment. Rarely, mutations will occur as an independent form of inflection. Vowel-initial words undergo n- and h- prosthesis in environments which trigger the nasal and aspirate mutations respectively.

"Osumadias" ny Percy Bysshe Shelley
Ŵyr fue'n fflyfo byn chwalan'th au myn med rull,

Pwymw'n cydwell: "yss cemm bfan' n'allei pedd fach llwfanhyr

An sgawrio ym Y droefron. Ym fes wnau ôf werdd Y brês,

Sgeiddaddw swyl, yss byn heunog gaprochiagaddw gweillw, dŷmw seulch,

Ôf hofyd baillwdiagaddw ôf welf âll famdolsieu-fach,

An bewd oddr Y byfroeth y retsu llwaruth Y dast y'n sarchog ffach fary iawfodu,

Dŷmw, au mhyd synded druwsaddw, an ceddwl cŵy

Y lẅad pwymw wnae'n dal'went fach Y bîr pwymw'n braedd,

Ôr au nY anell yss pyd mêfaw'n haddio:

'Rhu feu'n morfoedd n'Osumandias, Anren n'Anrenu,

Falla pyd fferhasgadd y fwn, cwy fferthych, fach breyfi.'

Aes hebsyc gewll Y frollim. Adw Y desr

N'ei chased fawćach, cadywyganhyr ôf gwnghod,

Yss Y brêsu sgerdd ôf lod an cusredamaedd oell."

"Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”