Ainglej (['aɪŋ.glex]), also sometimes called Firgerej ([fir.'xe.rex]) locally, and "Firgerian" internationally, is an Old English descendant language spoken in the area of Firgeria, at the north of Spain, between the regions of Cantabria and the Basque Country.
| Firgerian Ainglej | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Fusional | ||||||||||||
| Alignment | Nom-Acc | ||||||||||||
| Head direction | Initial | ||||||||||||
| Tonal | No | ||||||||||||
| Declensions | Yes | ||||||||||||
| Conjugations | Yes | ||||||||||||
| Genders | Yes | ||||||||||||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||||||||||||
| Case | Number | ||||||||||||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||||||||||||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||||||||||||
| Voice | Mood | ||||||||||||
| Person | Number | ||||||||||||
| Tense | Aspect | ||||||||||||
| Meta-information | |||||||||||||
| Progress | 46% | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Creator | Milyard | ||||||||||||
Inspiration[]
A friend suggested me to make a conlang based on the idea of an English heavily-influenced by Spanish, which made me wonder the following:
What if a small part of the Anglo-Saxon population fled the British isles during the Norman invasion towards the south, settling on the Iberian Peninsula, and their language suffered similar sound changes to the ones Latin went through to become Spanish?
General information[]
Like Old English, Ainglej is a head-initial SVO language, with adjectives usually preceding the noun. When making a question, the word order changes to VSO.
The cases mostly disappear from the nouns and adjectives, keeping only the genitive apart from the nominative, and adopting the accusative plural as the nominative plural. The only parts of the language that keep full case distinctions are articles, pronouns, and determiners. In addition, adjectives lose their strong form.
Phonology[]
Consonants[]
| Labial | Dental-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g | ʔ~h | |
| Fricative | f | θ s | x | (ʔ~h) | |
| Affricate | t͡ʃ | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | (w) | ||
| Trill | r̥ r | ||||
| Flap or tap | ɾ̥ ɾ | ||||
| Lateral | l | ʎ |
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
There is a bit of leeway in the actual vowel realization depending on context.
Phonotactics[]
The stress of a word usually falls in the second to last syllable. When it doesn’t, it is marked with an acute accent.
Writing System[]
The orthography is relatively regular, influenced a bit by Spanish orthography. Most consonants have their IPA values, except:
- [b, d, g] have [β, ð, ɣ] allophones between vowels, like in Spanish
- The palatal nasal is written <ñ>, like in Spanish
- The alveolar affricate is written <ch>, like in Spanish
- The palatal approximant is written <y>'
- <z> is pronounced [θ] always
- <c> is pronounced [θ] in front of <e, i>, or pronounced [k] elsewhere
- <j> is pronounced [x] always
- <g> is pronounced [x] in front of <e, i>, or pronounced [g] elsewhere
- [ɾ̥] and [r̥] are both represented <rh>
- <lh> is pronounced [ʎ]
Grammar[]
Nouns[]
Declination example: strong nouns
|
Masculine Yengel ‘angel’ |
Feminine Jip ‘ship’ |
Neuter Suerh ‘sorrow’ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural | |
|
Nominative |
Yengel | Yenglas | Jip | Jipo | Suerh | Suerga |
|
Genitive |
Yengles | Yengla | Jipes | Jipa | Suerges | Suerga |
Adjectives[]
Adjectives form the comparative form by attaching -ra except after <r, s>, in which case it becomes -sa. The superlative form is created by adding -st if the adjective ends in vowel, or -Vst where V is the last vowel in the plain form.
Declination example: adjective goda ‘good’
|
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
goda ‘good’ |
Singular |
goda | god | god |
|
Plural |
godan | godan | god |
Comparative: biétera, superlative: bietest
Declination example: adjective arh ‘bad’
|
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
goda ‘good’ |
Singular |
arh | argu | arh |
|
Plural |
arge | arga | argu |
Comparative: argra, superlative: argast
Determiners[]
Ainglej has 2 determiners, the first of which is se, which works as either the definite article (‘the’) or the distal determiner (‘that’), with the following declension table:
|
Case |
Masculine |
Neuter |
Feminine |
Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Nominative |
se | zait | sei | za |
|
Accusative |
zon | za | ||
|
Genitive |
zais | zair | zaira | |
|
Dative |
zain | zan | ||
|
Instrumental |
zui | zara | zain | |
The other determiner, zes, is the proximal determiner (‘this’), with the following declension table:
|
Case |
Masculine |
Neuter |
Feminine |
Plural |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Nominative |
zies | zes | zeis | zas |
|
Accusative |
zesn | zas | ||
|
Genitive |
zesses | zesr | zesra | |
|
Dative |
zesson | zesson | ||
|
Instrumental |
zuis | zíes | zíos | |
Pronouns[]
Personal pronouns[]
First and second pronouns keep their dual forms (‘we two’, ‘you two’).
First person
|
Case |
Singular |
Dual |
Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Nominative |
ic | bet | be |
|
Accusative |
mec | oncet | usec |
|
Genitive |
min | oncre | ur |
|
Dative |
me | onc | us |
Second person
|
Case |
Singular |
Dual |
Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Nominative |
zu | get | ge |
|
Accusative |
zec | encet | eibec |
|
Genitive |
zin | encre | eibre |
|
Dative |
ze | enc | eib |
Third person
Cases |
Masculine |
Feminine |
Neuter | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Singular |
Plural |
Singular |
Plural | ||
| Nominative | he | híe |
hei | het | |
| Accusative | hen | híe | hío | ||
| Genitive | hes | hiera | her | heira | hes |
| Dative | hen | hen | hen | ||