Brithenig, also known as Comroig, is an invented language, or constructed language ("conlang"). It was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it. Officially according to the Ill Bethisad Wiki, Brithenig is classified as a Britanno-Romance language, along with other Romance languages that displaced Celtic.
Brithenig was not developed to be used in the real world, like Volapük, Esperanto, Interlingua or Interslavic, or to provide detail to a work of fiction, like Klingon from the Star Trek franchise. Rather, Brithenig started as a thought experiment to create a Romance language that might have evolved if Latin had displaced the native Celtic language as the spoken language of the people in Great Britain.
The result is an artificial sister language to French, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Occitan and Italian which differs from them by having sound-changes similar to those that affected Welsh, and words that are borrowed from the Brittonic languages and from English throughout its pseudo-history. One important distinction between Brithenig and Welsh is that Welsh is P-Celtic, but Latin was a Q-Italic language (as opposed to P-Italic, like Oscan), and the trait was passed onto Brithenig.
Similar efforts to extrapolate Romance languages are (influenced by the other branch of Celtic), (influenced by Hebrew), (a non-Ill Bethisad language influenced by Icelandic), Venedic (influenced by Polish), and Xliponian (which experienced a Grimm's law-like sound shift). It has also inspired Wessisc, a hypothetical Germanic language influenced by contact with Old Celtic.
Brithenig was granted the code BZT as part of ISO 639-3.
Andrew Smith was one of the conlangers featured in the exhibit "Esperanto, Elvish, and Beyond: The World of Constructed Languages" displayed at the Cleveland Public Library from May through August 2008. Smith's creation of Brithenig was cited as the reason for his inclusion in the exhibit (which also included the Babel Text in Smith's language).
Orthography
Brithenig orthography is similar to that of Welsh, except: Unlike Welsh, Brithenig has soft C and G; that is, before vowels e and i the consonants c and g are pronounced , , similar to Italian. Brithenig also use such phonemes finally in letters c and g. Hard G in Brithenig is indicated by gh as in Italian. Similarly, when preceding e and i, sc is pronounced , otherwise . The letter k used for hard is much more alive in Brithenig than Welsh. While Welsh words are usually stressed in penultimate syllables, Brithenig words are stressed in the last syllable (Brithenig yscol vs. Welsh ysgol, both mean "school"). It lacks complicated rules on predicting vowel length from orthography: stressed vowels are always pronounced long. Brithenig has numerous silent letters. In words more than two syllables, word-final -t in the sequence -nt, and -r or -l as the second members of consonant clusters become silent. Word-final -f generally silent, but not as an orthographically geminate -ff. In the infinitive endings -ar, -er, -ir, the -r is usually unpronounced. Some speakers pronounce -ae and -oe as and , respectively. In the standard variant, both vowels are pronounced as and . Monosyllabic words ending in consonant clusters which end in -r or -l are pronounced with an epenthetic vowel same as the last vowel (llifr pronounced as llifir , see above).
Phonology + Consonant phonemes colspan="2" Labial Dental/ Alveolar Post-alveolar/ Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal StopVoiceless ⟨k, c⟩Voiced ⟨g⟩AffricateVoiceless ⟨c⟩Voiced ⟨g⟩ FricativeVoicelessVoiced ⟨s⟩ApproximantTrill
+Vowel phonemes (monophthongs)Front (unrounded)CentralBack (rounded)Close ⟨i, y⟩ ⟨u⟩ ⟨w⟩Near-close ⟨i⟩ ⟨w⟩Mid ⟨a, e⟩Open-mid ⟨e⟩ ⟨o⟩Open
+DiphthongsDigraphPronunciationae[æ], [aː]ai[aɪ]au[aʊ]ei[ɛɪ]ew[ɛʊ]
Grammar Mutation Like Welsh and other Celtic languages, initial consonant mutations (cluinediwn, lit. "declensions") in Brithenig is an important feature. Three mutations exist: soft (moillad), spirant (solwed), and nasal (naral). Radical Soft Spirant Nasal p- b- ph- mh- t- d- th- nh- c- g- ch- ngh- g-Spirant variant of c- are same to the soft variant when before -e- and -i-. b- f- m- d- dd- n- g- ∅-(silent) ng- m- f- not applicable ll- l- not applicable rh- r- not applicable
Soft mutation are used with feminine nouns, adjectives, verbs, change in word order, after an adverb, and prepositions di "of, from" and gwo "under". Spirant mutation are used for marking plurals on nouns, adjective, and verbs, but also after prepositions tra "through" and a "to, at", and the conjunction mai "but". Nasal mutation are used after the negative adverb used to negate verbs rhen, and prepositions in "in" and cun "with".
Before a vowel, the prepositions a "to, at" and e "and" irregularly became a-dd and e-dd.
+ Notation for mutation triggering Soft -x dix di bedd "of foot" Spirant -x trax tra phedd "through foot" Nasal -x cunx cun mhedd "with foot"
Nouns and adjectives Gender in Brithenig nouns is lexical and unpredictable, as it obscured by historic sound changes. The indefinite article in Brithenig is ynx "one". + Definite articles Singular Plural Masculine ill llox Feminine llax or x
Unlike Welsh with unpredictably-formed plurals, Brithenig has no dedicated separate plural suffix, thus, the singular and plural forms are almost always invariable (similar to transnumeral languages such as Indonesian and Korean). Instead, the plural definite article is generally placed before the noun (lla gas, llo chas), but yet some exceptions to this rule exist. Exceptions include the plural of (ill) of "man", (llo) h-on; and some plurals that formed by placing feminine singular definite article before it with spirant lenition (ill bordd, lla fordd).
Dual forms of natural pairs (e.g. arms, legs), however, have their own prefix and formed by prefixing dew- "two" to the nouns. The similar feature also occurs in Breton. Diminutives and augmentatives are derived by suffixing -ith (usual)/-in (affection/collective) and -un, respectively.
Pronouns Person Nominative Accusative Dative Disjunctive Possessive Singular 1st eox mi mui mew 2nd tyx ti tui tew Plural 1st nux nustr 2nd gwx gwstr Both 3rd m. ysx llo lle sui sew 3rd f. sax or x lla
The third person has no distinction of numbers, but can be indicated by spirant lenition on succeeding nominals or verbs (before singulars the mutation is not used). Unlike nouns, pronouns are not just inflected for numbers, but also grammatical cases. Like many languages, Brithenig has a T–V distinction, with ty being used for addressing people whom the speaker is familiar with or gods, while Gw is used when speaking to a stranger or a less familiar or more formal acquaintance (with capitals). Before feminine nouns, the succeeding noun(s) exhibit soft mutation, while before plural the noun(s) exhibit spirant mutation. When mutated, ty and ti irregularly become dyx to avoid confusion with di "of". Unlike Welsh, Brithenig makes fewer use of inflected prepositions, and such prepositions only found in the word cun "with": Singular Plural 1st person cunmeg cunnusc 2nd person cunneg cungwsc 3rd person cunseg
Verbs Similar to Spanish and Portuguese, Brithenig verbs are divided into 3 conjugations according to their infinitive endings: -ar (canhar "to sing"), -er (perdder "to lose"), and -ir (dorfir "to sleep") (note that the final -r are usually silent). Brithenig is a non-null-subject language, that is, it requires pronouns before the verb forms (ys cant "he sings"). Note that the stem's final consonants also undergo lenition, but also unvoiced final stop consonants become voiced in the imperfect, past definite, and subjunctive past plurals; future, and conditional forms (that in verbs like canhar those also undergo mutation as well).
Subjunctive forms nowadays only survive in fixed phrases, like can in Rhufein, ffâ si llo Rhufan ffeigant "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". Also in subjunctive present forms, final vowels are affected by i-affection (except in -ar verbs where it only happen in plural forms):
Unaffected Affected -a- -ei- -e- -o- -u- -y- -aw- -ew- -i-
Regular verbs + Canhar infinitive canhar present participle canhan past participle canhad person singular plural 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa indicative present gant gant cant gant chanhan chanhath chanhant imperfect ganhaf ganhaf canhaf ganhaf chanafan chanafath chanafant past definite ganhaf ganhast canhaf ganhaf chanafan chanast chanarent future ganarai ganara canara ganara chanaran chanarath chanarant conditional ganarew ganarew canarew ganarew chanarewn chanarewth chanarewnt eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa subjunctive present gant gant cant gant cheinhen cheinheth cheinhent past ganhas ganhas canhas ganhas chanassen chanasseth chanassent eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa imperative cant (familiar), canhath (formal)
+ Perdder infinitive perdder present participle perdden past participle perdded person singular plural 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa indicative present berdd berdd perdd berdd pherdden pherddeth pherddent imperfect berddef berddef perddef pherddef pherddefan pherddefath pherddefant past definite berddef berddest perddef berddef pherddefan pherddest pherdderent future berdderai berddera perddera berddera pherdderan pherdderath pherdderant conditional berdderew berdderew perdderew berdderew pherdderewn pherdderewth pherdderewnt eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa subjunctive present beirdd beirdd peirdd beirdd pheirddan pheirddath pheirddant past berddes berddes perddes berddes pherddessen pherddesseth pherddessent eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa imperative perdd (familiar), perddeth (formal)
+ Dorfir infinitive dorfir present participle dorfin past participle dorfid person singular plural 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa indicative present ddorf ddorf dorf ddorf ddorfen ddorfith ddorfent imperfect ddorfif ddorfif dorfif ddorfif ddorfifan ddorfifath ddorfifant past definite ddorfif ddorfist dorfif ddorfif ddorfifan ddorfist ddorfirent future ddorfirai ddorfira dorfira ddorfira ddorfiran ddorfirath ddorfirant conditional ddorfirew ddorfirew dorfirew ddorfirew ddorfirewn ddorfirewth ddorfirewnt eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa subjunctive present ddeirf ddeirf deirf ddeirf ddeirfan ddeirfath ddeirfant past ddorfis ddorfis dorfis ddorfis ddorfissen ddorfisseth ddorfissent eo tu ys sa nu gw ys sa imperative dorf (familiar), dorfith (formal)
Irregular verbs While the Brithenig conjugation is mostly regular, there are some irregular verbs. In past definite tense, some verbs have s-stem preterite originating from Latin perfect tenses in -x- or -s- (eo ddis from diger "to say" for example): Singular Plural 1st person ddis ddisen 2nd person ddisist ddisist 3rd person Masculine dis ddisirent Feminine ddis
In past participles, instead of regular forms, some verbs have irregular participles inherited from Latin supines in -tum (facere, factum → fager, faeth "to do"), -sum (claudere, clausum → clodder, clos "to close"), or even combinations of them (vidēre, *vistum → gwidder, gwist "to see"). Some verbs also have irregular imperative forms, either by lengthening the last vowel and deleting last consonant (only in the case of familiar imperatives, diger, dî, digeth), or taking forms from subjunctive (saber, seib, seibeth). The verb gweddir "to go", where it comes from Latin vadō but it is not suppleted with other verbs, has irregularities in the present tense: eo wa, tu wa, ys wa, sa wa, nu wan, gw wath, ys/sa want.
Most irregular verbs Irregular forms are underlined.