Nuirn

Alphabet
When written in the Latin alphabet, Nuirn uses the following characters:

a b c d e f g h i (j k) l m n o p q r s t u v (w) x y z þ æ ø

The characters j and w are not frequently used; the vowels i and u, combined with the grave accent, fulfil the function of representing the sounds of English /y/ and /w/ respectively. The letter k is used chiefly as the second element of the digraph ck, and sk,| indicating the English "sh" sound.

Two diacritical marks can appear over vowels. The acute accent:

á é í ó ú ý

originated as an indication of vowel length. In fact, the long vowels differ in articulation as well as in length from their short counterparts.

All vowels can also bear an grave accent:

à è ì ò ù

The grave accent has a variety of functions. Its most basic is as an indication of stress. Most Nuirn words bear the stress on their first syllable. The grave accent is used when the stress occurs elsewhere. The grave accent is used also to indicate falling diphthongs and the use of glides in the syllable onset: uàtn, "water"; iènte, "giant". The grave accent also appears over the vowels of strong roots, about which more below.

The circumflex accent

â ê î ô û

combines these two functions. It is often omitted, because the presence of an acute accent usually indicates that the vowel carrying it also bears stress: iár, also iâr, "year", similar to English "yore:.

Vowels and consonants: umlaut (omhluid)
All Nuirn vowels fall into two umlaut classes. A basic rule of Nuirn phonology is that a root and its inflections must agree in umlaut class. Nuirn also "applies umlaut to consonants": most stops and sonorants have two places of articulation, a palatal and a velar articulation. The quality of the consonant is indicated by the quality of the surrounding vowels, which much match on either side of the consonant. The "high" vowels:

e i y æ ø

indicate a palatal articulation. The low vowels:

a o u

indicate a velar articulation. Changes must occur where a high vowel of a strong inflection is added to a low stem, or where a low vowel is added to a high stem. These changes are umlaut changes, and they also affect the consonant quality.

As such, the Nuirn orthography requires that:

· Any word stem of one syllable contains an inherent umlaut class, high or low; · Any word stem of two or more syllables must be spelled in a manner that indicates the umlaut quality of the vowels and consonants. · Any inflection directly attached to a stem must either match the stem in umlaut quality, or compel changes (such as vowel changes - umlaut proper - or the insertion of weakly pronounced glide vowels) to achieve a match on either side of the consonant.

Inflections that force umlaut changes are "strong" inflections. Inflections that yield to the umlaut class of the root are "weak". The principal strong endings are:

· The -i and -e of the donative and oblique singular cases (the outcome of the old dative case) in the largest noun declension; · The -um of the first person plural verb ending; · The -um shared by the donative and oblique plural cases; and · The -i- or -e- theme vowels of the subjunctive mood in the conjugated verb.

Since almost all nouns will take the donative/oblique cases, and most conjugatable verbs will have subjunctive forms, every root stands to be affected by umlaut changes.

Each low vowel and diphthong has a corresponding high vowel; these are the regular umlaut changes:

''a <> æ o <> ø u <> y au <> øy ao <> ø''

High stems typically join with low inflections by adding a low, weak glide vowel and changing consonant qualities.

An inflection added to an open root with no final consonant forces no changes.

The endings in -um also lengthen short low roots in prescriptive Nuirn. So while "I carry" is baraec, "we carry" will be bárum or bárumuidhe.

Some roots resist vowel umlaut. This is one of the things indicated by the grave accent. When it occurs on a monosyllable, it indicates that the root is a "strong" root. Strong roots decline or conjugate with glides and changes in consonant quality rather than by undergoing regular umlaut changes. The typical strong root has a low vowel. Thus, strong roots like cròc, "hill, knob", and gnòs, "face", form their oblique singulars as cròiche and gnòise, rather than **crøce or **gnøse.

There are a number of exceptions to the rule of vowel harmony. The most conspicuous of these is that it does not apply across the internal boundaries of compound words. Some clitic pronouns are treated as compounding elements.

Consonants: softening and silencing (mylning)
In certain positions -- especially, in syllable final position after another consonant --- and also between two vowels, some consonants are subject to softening. Typically, consonants are indicated as being softened by addition of 'h' - bh, ch, and so forth.

The consonant 'd' has two softened forms; one is written dd and pronounced like the 'th' of English 'either'. The other is written dh and is silent. The written form th serves as the softened form of both 't' and 'þ'.

Consonants which may be softened

bh as 'v' ch pronounced [x]; this is the only way of writing this sound dd 'th' as in English 'either' dh silent fh silent gh variously; either as a voiced ch or as v mh v ph f th silent or 'h'

Using the softening rules allow Nuirn spelling to be more regular than it would be otherwise. Thus the word bórdh, "table", pronounced similar to "boor", becomes bórdas ("boor-dus") in the genitive case; adding a syllable removes the softening effect; a purely phonetic spelling would obscure the fact that the root does in fact contain a 'd'.

Nuirn final consonants are subject to word-final devoicing. This usually only occurs if the preceding vowel belongs to the high umlaut class.

Nouns
There are really only two declensions of Nuirn nouns, and the second declension is rather a catchment of irregularities, and a closed class. The open class encompasses the vast majority of Nuirn nouns.

Although it is inaccurate historically, we can call it the "consonant declension", because currently it lacks theme vowels. Nuirn nouns have two genders: animate and inanimate. There is also a small closed class of relict feminines. Early Nuirn had four cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative.

The accusative was only minimally distinguished from the nominative in the plural in animate nouns, and always the same as the nominative for inanimates. On the other hand, both the dative and genitive cases split. The dative ending acquired a secondary stress when it stood alone, a stress that did not manifest when it was governed by a preposition; thus the personal dative (donative) became distinct from the oblique dative.

Uncertainty about whether the object of an eventive gerund should be in the accusative or genitive created the mixed partitive case, which later acquired other functions. The genitive and partitive are often identical; the partitive often drops the -s clitic of the genitive.

Nuirn nouns have five well preserved cases, and four principal parts. In the main declension each case is well identified with a characteristic ending. They are:

Singular:

Nominative/Accusative

formed from the Nominative stem

Ending: none

Genitive

formed from the Oblique stem

Endings: -s, -es, -as (weak)

Partitive

formed from the Oblique stem

Endings: as Genitive, or none

Donative

formed from the Dative stem

Ending: -i (strong)

Dative Oblique

formed from the Dative stem

Ending: -e (strong)

Plural:

Nominative/Accusative

formed from the Oblique stem

Endings: -er, -ar, -ir (weak, animate}; -an,,-en, -(e)achan (inanimate)

Genitive / Partitive

formed from the Oblique stem

Endings: -ene, -ana (weak)

Donative / Dative Oblique plural

formed from the Dative Plural stem

Endings: -um, -em (usually strong)

There is a definite article, an for animates and ath for inanimates; the weak 't' of the inanimate is strengthened before vowels and liquids or sonorants. This 't' has infected the animate gender as well, and as such appears in animates where the 't' would be strengthened in neuters:

ath svinedd "the police force" at ríc "the nation" an stól "the chair" an t' sól "the sun"

Complexity comes in on account of the system of vowel harmony that comes in through the application of the umlaut rules, which require Nuirn nouns to have three or four personal parts. To start out simple, here is the declension of a regular consonant stem phrase, an dreng "the (able bodied) man" (animate gender).

Singular

Nom. an dreng

Gen.    duna'n drengs / drenges

Par. na drengs / drenges

Don. an drengi

Obl. an drenge

Plural

Nom. an drenger

Gen.    duna'n drengene

Par. na drengene

Don. an drangum

Obl. an drangum

The only root change here is in the donative/oblique plural: the strong ending '-um' compels lowering of the high stem. nbsp;

Here, by contrast, is the declension of a regular low stem nown, ath tarn "the puddle"

Nom. ath tarn

Gen.    dunath tarns / tarnas

Par. na tarns / tarnas

Don. ath tærni

Obl. ath tærne

Plural

Nom. ath tarna

Gen.    dunath tarnana

Par. na tarnana

Don. ath tarnum

Obl. ath tarnum

The only significant variation of the stem here comes on the two dative cases, where the strong high ending -i or -e collides with the low root and forces umlaut change.

Example text
A Drottan, migh gceiris þú møghen na friþ-es.

Adoy haoinis, sy þeir elscedd;

adoy hiòrt, misceunn;

adoy tuıfl, tróisie;

adoy neyrleugh, hofaint;

adoy morcaidd, hliús;

adoy daupt, frø.

A Herr go Himne, mier syle at,

neve ro-trøstes, ve trøste;

neve ro-forstannas, ve forstâ;

neve ro-elsces, ve elsce.

Før syddet ag gáfa, gafas uí;

ag forlátaþ, forlàtas uí;

ag døþ, føddes uí aunsa'r líf go h' aionan.

-- St. Francis of Assisi.