Fén Ghír

"An bhé chuc cún dhér dó gil me dí. Och tel lé gérul del ténan me dí, lú chí lú ba lú lé bhoc del lór me dí cór tol. En gar dí me gon."-Lúdhí Fén Ógil Níradh.

"We take from Iron it's rightful prize. And if we sail to the wide world's end, all know that we'll return from the depths a thousand times. Death cannot keep us."-Old Fén War Song.

Introduction
This is my first attempt at a conlang, originally conceived as a part of a larger game that never took off. It is the only language from the game that reached anything nearing completion. Inspiration and influence were drawn from Irish [Alphabet style and Head First Order], English [Lack of Genders, Conjugation Method] and some French [Particularly the G/W was taken from the Norman shift]. Also, the Copula, while originally inspired by Irish, mirror from Symbolic logic. However word roots and grammar are original.

This being my first conlang, made a few months before stumbling on this, my linguistic vocabulary may be lacking at certain points, however I've done my best and would be open to suggestions on how to either better clarify my meaning, represent phonetic sounds [should it seem inconsistent], remove ambiguities and generally make a more natural sounding language on my next go around. However for now, here's my first serious effort;

General Information
The language was initially inspired by Irish Gaelic and so much of the terminology reflects that still, though it may no longer necessarily be accurate. Copula in this case serve as a sort of verbal punctuation, appearing at the start of the sentance, they make it positive or negative, a statement or interrogative and can serve to tie it to a second clause. Aspiration is used to modify sounds of consonants, similar in some ways to "long" and "short" vowels, while some consonants might be pronounced differently depending on what vowel they come before [similar to "c" in English].

Initially it was designed as an isolating language which relied heavily on syntax to determine the nature of a word, it still does in many ways rely on the position of the word in the over all structure of the sentance. While work arounds have been added since to prevent ambiguities where they arise, most can still be dropped in order to shorten a sentance.

History
An early adopter of Iron forging, the Fén culture spread during the early iron age. Only to eventually be driven to the lands west of the mountains by the Empire of Toryl. Their pantheon is complex and legends often invovle the rise and fall of heroes, including gods, but fundamentally finds itself based around four elements; with Fire composing the Human soul and serving as the root of their demonym. These elements can be seen as the root for many objects, based off the beliefs of early philosophers on their composition and nature. Ancient Fén words ended on a vowel which marked them as adjectives/adverbs, nouns or verbs, however this was dropped in all but the Highlands [who use a consonant based alphabet]. Since then, they have been slowly shifting away from their previously tribal life style, developing three primary dialogue groups.

To Do
A lot.

Consonants
The following is a rough approximation of Standard Midlands Dialect Fén;

Fén Alphabet
Slender/Broad sounds are similar to Irish Gaelic though where phonetics are written identically, a foreign speaker could make no differentiation and still be understood. Slender and Broad consonants are determined by the vowel which follows them, a consonant is slender if followed by i or e, Broad in all other cases, including the end of a word.

It should be noted that the bh and mh and a broad "g" while being noted as making a "w" sound when aspirated have a slight "b", "m" and "g" sound preceding them, as if the speaking had said "bW" or "mW" or "gW".

Generally the intended native accent of individual words in this language, one should imagine a heavily French influenced Irish.

Phonotactics
Smallest Syllables Possible, Diaphongs are avoided even in the construction of compound words.

In larger words, the consonant of root words will be; C-V-C.

In some cases shorter additions will consist of a two letter consonants either C-V or sometimes V-C depending on the etymology of the individual word. Single vowel consonants however, do not occur.

In the Highlands dialect, the consonants are either C-V or V.

Grammatical Cases
In Fén syntax word order is very strictly determined by the order of words. Thus, while these grammatical cases are not strictly used in Fén they serve as a good way to illustrate word order. With a couple exceptions, the grammatical case is determined by the preposition preceding the noun phrase. Many prepositions may be somewhat ambiguous and so must be determined according to their relation to other objects in the sentance. Below lists the general purposes of the cases whichs should become more apparent with the preposition list, this is more for general illustrative purposes but for the most part serves to determine the order in which prepositions come in a sentance. The above four are "framing" cases. These are similar to a dependant clauses in English, though necessarily not conditional; these frame the place, time and reason why an action happened as well as an original source. It should be noted that if a place is part of the action or only partial, then that place should be either a Accusative/Dative [I went to the field] or relative [I went to the person who was at the field].
 * Vocative case; Refers to who is being addressed. Precedes the Sentance.
 * Nomative case; The subject of a sentance. Almost always preceded by "me".
 * Accusative Case; The direct object. Usually identified by syntax.
 * Dative case; The most direct cases of indirect object.
 * Instrumental case; Objects which are used as instruments in order to perform an action. Similar to Dative case, it marks an indirect object.
 * Locative case; Objects which indicate where the action is taking place.
 * Temporal case; Objects which indicate when the action is taking place. Closely related to Locative.
 * Causal case; Objects which indicate for what reason an action is taking place.
 * Subjective case; Object which is the source of the information.

Using these cases the Fén sentance order becomes;

Copula
A Sentence begins with a Copula, this gives the context of whether the sentance is positive, negative or comparative. 'An' is often dropped if the speaker feels that the sentences are clearly divided by his tone. Someone speaking fast, with an accent or with a complicated sentence and meaning, will use "An". Writers will use it to create a sense of formality, especially in accounts and reports. Sometimes it will be added in order to emphasize the division or contrast with the between to sentances. In English it might be directly translated as "Yet" or "Though", but it can also be used in a formal list prefacing important items, where "Therefore" or "Thus" could be used.

These serve as basic contrasts and correlatives, In and On are often used to imply causality between two sentances though technically only state the correlation of two clauses. Depending on the truth value of a the first sentance, it can either be a causal "thus" statement or a conditional "if" statment.

Subcopula
Subcopula are for individual causes of negatives or causal statements within verb or noun phrases that do not affect the truth value of the entire sentance.

Fén and Clauses
In Fén a great deal of focus are put upon various clauses in a sentance. There are three basic types which occur for different reasons;

Main Clauses
These are essentially a full sentance on their own but they may be linked with the above copula. They typically begin with a copula or a verb (in cases where the copula would be dropped) and conclude with the subject. These are essentially sentances on their own and follow typical word order; I give you the ball.

becomes;

Bél lirod del re me di.

Give ball to you nomz-I.

Dependant Clauses
In Fén there are two types of Dependant clauses which are quite distinct from eachother. On depends upon the initial copula, which often make the rest of the sentance dependant on them. These sorts of sentances invovle two full clauses, where the second is dependant on the first;

If you've done all your work, you can have a little of the whiskey.

 On bhé dir re ba tol góbhar me re, tel lec ra ba délag me re.

The other form of dependant clause in Fén is one which rather than describe a distinct action that the first is dependant on, rather describe the context in which the action takes place. These invovles reasons, subjectifying a sentance or giving the time/place a sentance takes place in. These Clauses begin preposition and end either the whole sentance or else with another clause marking another dependant clause:

I did all of this for you .

''On bhé dhir tol ítibh me di pon re. ''

 This winter, I am going south.

''Té lé lé lúran me di cur cédhina. ''

 At the farm, we used to work harder than here.

''Bhé bhé ghobhár bhe bhen dénil rel íc me di cur teghír. ''

In some cases there may be multiple dependant clauses;

I will see you this winter at the farm.

Lé chím re me di cur teghír cur cédhina bhoci .

The order in these cases is usually: Locative-Temporal-Causal-Subjectifying.

Relative Clauses
In Fén relative clauses are rather common and often mark another action within the sentance. These begin with a relative determiner, however there are no strict rules on there ending. Verbally this is usually distinguished by tone, while writers may use commas or expect their readers to understand based off of context. 'ci and 'cibh are gaining popularity as verb and written endings in some faster speaking dialects, but are not yet considered standard in Fén.

I shouted at the woman who took my bread.

Bhé ralath del elin ét bhé cuc di ba tenir me ít .

These relative clauses can sometimes be worked into the shorter form of dependant clauses to express cause which is something rare in English, the result is something like this;

We went to the store to get fishing supplies.

Would said in Fén as;

''Bhé lé ag lodénen me dí pon éloc léc gínemel cípa me dí. ''

Although, it could also be expressed with depedant coupla dividing it into two sentances;

 On bhé cíp gínemel cípa me dí, bhé lé ag lodénen me dí.

This would translate as something closer to:

As we needed fishing supplies, we went to the store.

It is also important to note that perhaps more often than in English, these relatively clauses may build on top of eachother;

I went to the man who sold the boat to the guy who talked to me yesterday.

Bhé lé del alon ét lodén gérul del ét gír del di me ít me ítin me di.

Subcoupla follow the relative determiner that starts the clause;

I curse the man who does not honour his friends.

Peloc alon ét ne bér ít ba bénan me ít me di.

Prepositional Relations in Fén
"Ag" will typically be dropped unless there is some worry about ambiguity [more common in written language] or a need for formality. "Me" can also be dropped if there is no accusative case in the sentance.

"Ce" is typically used as "about": "They are talking about that" becomes; Té ghír ce ítá me ló.

Debh implies doing something with the aim of one thing but not achieving it or at least where the success is in doubt. This gives it a slightly different application than the English word "Towards"

Cóbh and Cébh imply only position and time, rather than a goal:

"They came after me" becomes "Bhé boc debh di me ló"

The case created by prepositions with multiple possible cases can be determined by either syntax or subject following it: It is worth noting that the translations here are done with an English subject-object relation in mind rather than the word order one:
 * Dative cases will follow an Accusative case, if there is no Accusative case before it, then the preposition marks the accusative case. If there is, then the preposition marks the dative case.
 * Accusative/Locative ambiguity is resolved by whether or not the case precedes the Nomative Noun.
 * Locative/Temporal is resolved by whether the action listed is a place or a time.

A is under B can translate to Té B cór A or Té A ce B. This translation assumes the former in order to avoid switching voices.

Because of the relatively strict word order and preposition use, there is no declension or suffixes to differenciate between adjectives, adverbs, nouns and verbs.

Ba
Ba is a possessive Marker, which until any other preposition in Fén is preceded the genative case that it creates and further is unique in that it may appear at any point in the syntax relative to other prepositions without altering the meaning of it

[Possessor] ba [Possessed].

He walked to your house.

Bhé thal del re ba bélém me lo.

Bhe (ne)
Bhe is like "Ba" remarkable in that it can occur anywhere in syntax. However, the word it marks, unlike Ba, follows it.

The girl with the flowers saw him go.

Bhé chím lo ba lé me ún bhe ginebh .

A "ne" preceding the bhe marks it as a negative, and thus should be translated as "without".

The girl without red flowers saw him go.

'Bhé chím lo ba lé me ún bhe ne ban ginebh.

Vocative Case
When addressing someone with a sentance, their name always precedes the sentance and is followed by a comma:

Let me tell you a story, Jim.

 Ghim, tel ghír déter del re me di.

This is also used for imperative sentances;

Jim, Move.

Ghim, lé.

Determiners
In Fén, Determiners double as pronouns if the meaning is of them is made clear. Relative pronouns precede relative clauses, as in English. ex. "I will give my word to whoever merits it."

The Initial Determiner or "Current" Determiner, fills the role of both "This" and sometimes "The" in English, once established in a conversation the "current" determiner sticks and is used in cases even where "That" would be used in English by the other speaker.

The Contrasting Determiner serves to emphasize a contrast, thus would be used in sentances with a current determiner or shortly afterwards in order to posit some sort of relationship between the two or simple emphasize them in contrast to each other.

The Final Determiner is used in order to switch the current. Where in English this doesn't receive any special emphasis, in Fén the first time the subject which the term "this" refers to in a conversation is changed, a "New Determiner" is used, in order to show as much. The contrasting determiner doesn't not have any indicator and may change several times over the course of a single sentence.

Ígelá and Ígel see much less use than the simpler pronouns, such as "lo" but in written word, they might follow in the sentance after a relative pronoun, though "lo" in that case is also acceptable and more common. Ígel may be used in a sense similar to "on" in French or "one" in English.

Quantifying Determiners
It should be noted that these do not cause a noun to pluralize.

On their own, these give an amount of something that one possesses, when a possessive "ba" is inserted then it's a quantity of the total and is used similarly to the difference in English between "A lot" and "A lot of".

There are two import cases that this can precede Cídér and Fabhan.
 * If preceding Cídér it is a general statement on how likely something is, literally how much possibility it has. "Éna ba cídér" is "rarely".
 * If preceding Fabhan it refers both how long until something occurs and how often something occurs; "(Lé bhé dén dir) Ne Én Fabhan (cur ít)" Means "(This will be done in) No Time" while "(Bhé dén dir) Ne Én ba Fabhen (cur ít)" means "This was never done" or more literally "This is done none of the time".

Verbal Clauses
Verbs are given tenses in a fashion similar to English; Have, Is or Go precede the verb in various orders to give it a tense.

All adverbs not listed here are categorized as "Other". These adverbs make up the majority and do not describe the Mood, Voice or Time of an object.

It shoud also be noted in that Adverbal order is important particularly in terms of mood and voice adverbs;

Where adverbs precede the order of the mood adverb, that mood or voice adverb is affected rather than the verb itself.

Verb and Noun Phrases
Fén language branches leftwards on Verb/Noun Phrases. Adjectives, Adverbs and Possessive precede the Verb/Noun.

Verb Phrase
+Quantity in this case refers to the number of times an action is performed rather than the number of people performing it; "Hit twice" would be used rather than "Hit two times"

Verbs are modified by the adjectives preceding them and since grammatically an adjective can often be used as a noun and vica versa, the noun in a verb phrase has the first possible consonant aspirated and always precedes either a preposition or if it is a part of a list, a subcoupla.

Verbs are followed by the Accusative case. In cases where the division is unclear [due to the verb doubling as a temporal adverb for example] is when the preposition "ag" is used to make the Accusative.

Noun Phrase
Nouns work in a manner similar to verbs. A particular quality in nouns is that they are either preceded by a preposition, a relative determiner, a subcoupla or the end of the sentance.

Lentition
If a noun or verb is preceded by adjectives or an adverb, then lenition should occur in the first consonant able to do so. In the case of words where the first consonant able for lentition is already weakened, then the lentition is removed and the sound becomes more pronounced.

Neither prepositions like "ba" and "bhe" nor the nouns preceding them causes the noun to aspirate.

Neither do subcopula.

Sight->Cím

Dark Sight (A Foreboding Vision)->Pél Chím.

Strike->Ralat

A Hard Hit (Heavy Strike)-> Gerel Ralath

Pluralization
-a is added to a verb to pluralize it if it ends in a consonant, if it ends with a vowel, bh (to pronounced as a "v" rather than a "w") is used. If an uncountable quantifier is used before it (Many, Few, Some), it is not pluralized. Noun-Adjective/Verb-Adverb.

Snake->Neren

Snakes->Nerena

Mountain->Nila

Mountains->Nilabh

Yes/No
The Fén language does not have a term for yes or no but rather will reply with an shortened affirmative or negative, most simply, "Té ít" or "An té ít" if they want to be emphatic.

Té
There is no active noun clauses with the verb Té. Instead an accusative object is either confirmed as existing, compared to another object or positioned around on.

This makes sentances take a rather passive appearance compared to English particularly when it comes to describing qualities, which Fén divide into 3 categories;

Cór

These are more or less for qualitative or transitive facts.

I am happy.

Té lér cór di.

There is happiness on me.

Cu

This case is used strictly for existential cases where the two cannot be separated; one is not an incidental quality but the essence of the Object himself.

I am the one you were talking about.

Té ét bhé gír ce ít me re cu di.

Ce

Ce is essentially the opposite of Cór and used in both a rare passive sense of Cór for general adjectives as well as describing one as describing one's memories something. Unlike Cór, Ce is often used perceptive verbs, in particular Looking "onto" something would be a close English equivalent.

I remember the sight of the store well.

Té lodénen ba cím ce di.

Phrasebook
“Hello” “How are you?” “I am well.” “What is your name?” "It is" ______
 * An té Úlana cór re
 * Ach té ét cór re
 * An té bér cór di
 * Ach té fémoc me ét cór re
 * An té ______ me ít.

"A pleasure to meet you."

"Please..."
 * An té bér én chím ba re cór di

An tel thé bér cór re "You’re welcome" "Good bye." "I don’t speak Fayn well" "Do you speak _______ language" "Is there a speaker of _____ with us?"
 * Och dir bér me re cór di...
 * "Thank you"
 * An tel thé lú bér cór re
 * An té bér cór re.
 * En tel bér ghír fén ghír cór di
 * Ach lúcím ____ ghír cór re?


 * Ach té ____ gír fhén bha dí

Additional Pages
Vocabulary

Dialects

Featured Language
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