Celdarin Grammar
From Langmaker
Contents |
Pronunciation
The pronunciation of the vowels of Celdarin is as follows:
- a as in car
- e as in pen
- i like ee in seen
- o as in bore
- u as in rule
- y like i in win
In addition to the single vowels, Celdarin has several diphthongs. These are:
- ai like y in sky
- ei like i in ice
- oi as in oil
- ui sounds like we
- ae like ai in rain
- au like ou in hour
When one of the vowels of a diphthong is accented, the diphthong is to be broken into two syllables and stressed on the accented syllable.
Celdarin consonants are pronounced, for the most part as in English. A few points bear mention:
- c is always pronounced hard, as in car.
- ch is an unvoiced velar fricative, pronounced somewhat like the h in huge or like the German ich-laut.
- g, like c, is always pronounced hard, as in give.
- ng is always pronounced as in ring at the end of words and before consonants, and as in finger between vowels.
- r is trilled slightly, as in Spanish.
- s is always unvoiced.
- th is always unvoiced as in thin, while dh is the voiced counterpart heard in that.
Stress
Celdarin employs a stress accent. In words of two syllables, the first syllable always receives the stress. In words of three or more syllables, the stress is antepenultimate unless the second-to-last vowel is a diphthong or followed by a consonant cluster. In this case, the stress is penultimate.
Spelling Conventions
Initial consonantal [j] as in “yard” is spelled as i, e.g. iag “abyss” or iauryth “age”. The i becomes a syllabic vowel if an acute accent is written over it.
Final u is spelled as w.
The Verb
Verb stems in Celdarin take one of three forms, the a-stem, the i-stem, and the cluster-stem. A-stems, understandably, end in -a, i-stems in -i, and cluster-stems in a consonant cluster.
Verbs can inflect for tense alone, or can take a pronominal ending which denotes the person and number of the subject. The endings used for tense alone are not used with the pronominal endings, so the formation of the various forms of the verb cannot be termed entirely agglutinating.
Conjugation of A-Stems
| narwa- "to dream" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Past | Present | Future |
| narwan | narwa | narwath | |
| 1st sg. | narwyn | narwen | narwathon |
| 1st pl. | narwydh | narwedh | narwathad |
| 2nd | narwych | narwech | narwathach |
| 3rd sg. | narwynt | narwent | narwathant |
| 3rd pl. | narwyth | narweth | narwathas |
| imp. | narwyg | narweg | narwathag |
| Infinitive | narwo | ||
| Gerund | narw | ||
| Active Pariciple | narwel, narwiel | ||
| Passive Participle | narwannen, narwiannen | ||
The a-stem verb takes the following endings; before adding these endings the final -a of the stem is dropped.
- Infinitive: -o
- Gerund: no ending
- Active Participle: -el or -iel
- Passive Participle: -annen
- Present Tense (no pronominal endings): -a
- Present Tense (with pronominal endings): -e
- Past Tense (no endings): -an
- Past Tense (with endings): -y
- Future Tense (no endings): -ath
- Future Tense (with endings): -atha
Conjugation of I-Stems
| hili- "to wish" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Past | Present | Future |
| hilian | hilia | hiliath | |
| 1st sg. | hilin | hilien | hiliathon |
| 1st pl. | hilidh | hiliedh | hiliathad |
| 2nd | hilich | hiliech | hiliathach |
| 3rd sg. | hilint | hilient | hiliathant |
| 3rd pl. | hilith | hilieth | hiliathas |
| imp. | hilig | hilieg | hiliathag |
| Infinitive | hilio | ||
| Gerund | hil | ||
| Active Pariciple | hiliel | ||
| Passive Participle | hiliannen | ||
The i-stem verb takes the following endings after removing the final -i.
- Infinitive: -io
- Gerund: no ending
- Active Participle: -iel
- Passive Participle: -iannen
- Present Tense (no endings): -ia
- Present Tense (with endings): -ie
- Past Tense (no endings): -ian
- Past Tense (with endings): -i
- Future Tense (no endings): -iath
- Future Tense (with endings): -iatha
Conjugation of Cluster-Stems
| gwedr- "to take an oath" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Past | Present | Future |
| gwedran | gwedor | gwedrath | |
| 1st sg. | gwedryn | gwedren | gwedrathon |
| 1st pl. | gwedrydh | gwedredh | gwedrathad |
| 2nd | gwedrych | gwedrech | gwedrathach |
| 3rd sg. | gwedrynt | gwedrent | gwedrathant |
| 3rd pl. | gwedryth | gwedreth | gwedrathas |
| imp. | gwedryg | gwedreg | gwedrathag |
| Infinitive | gwedro | ||
| Gerund | gwedyr | ||
| Active Pariciple | gwedrel, gwedriel | ||
| Passive Participle | gwedrannen, gwedriannen | ||
- Infinitive: -o
- Gerund: -y- is inserted between consonants of final cluster
- Active Participle: -el, -iel
- Passive Participle: -annen, -iannen
- Present Tense (no endings): -o- is inserted between consonants of final cluster
- Present Tense (with endings): -e
- Past Tense (no endings): -an
- Past Tense (with endings): -y
- Future Tense (no endings): -ath
- Future Tense (with endings): -atha
The Pronominal Endings
Pronominal endings are suffixed to the conjugated verb. They can be defined as follows:
- -n ‘I’
- -dh ‘we’
- -ch ‘you’
- -nt ‘he, she, it’
- -th ‘they’
- -g (impersonal)
These endings do not remain entirely constant in the future tense. There, the -n ending causes the final -a of the future tense form to change to -o. The -dh and -th are influenced by the -th- of the future tense ending to change into -d and -s, respectively.
Isolating Aspects of Verb Conjugation
There are several verb tenses and moods formed using particles placed before the verb as independent words. The particle lain is used to mark the perfect present, past, and future tenses. It is placed before a conjugated verb in past, present, or future tense to make the verb perfect.
- lain narwen “I have dreamt”
- lain narwyn “I had dreamt”
- lain narwathon “I will have dreamt”
The subjunctive particle nai serves to indicate that a verb describes not the action it refers to, but the possibility of the action occuring. It can be used with the past and future tenses to describe a conditional action.
- Ae tolyth, nai gennathad hain. “If they were to come, we would see them.”
Used with both verbs in future tense, the construction indicates an action that is merely possible.
- Ae tolathas, nai gennathad hain. “If they come, we will see them.”
Used with verbs in present tense, the particle nai denotes the subjunctive mood.
- Orynt i nai doleth an il doroth. “He urged that they come to the city.”
In the past tense, nai carries the perfective functions of lain as well.
- Ae lain tolyth, nai gennydh hain. “If they had come, we would have seen them.”
The word ae as used in the above examples means “if”, but it can also mark the optative mood of verbs, indicating that an action is desirable.
- Ae hiliathas senyd dui fir. “May they find peace after death.”
To mark an undesirable action, the word naeth “woe” is used instead of ae
- Naeth fir nai dola athain. “Alas that death should come to them.”
Naeth can even be used as an alternate form of “if” if the action specified is not desirable.
- Naeth lendadh, gorathas vin. “Alas, if we go, they will betray us.”
Negative Verbs
Verbs are negated using the prefix u-, which causes lenition on the verb stem. See below for details on lenition.
The Noun
Celdarin nouns can express definiteness and singular and plural number. This is accomplished by means of articles. There is no indefinite singular article corresponding to “a” or “an”; its meaning is implied by context. The definite singular article is i. It causes lenition on a following noun, as described below. The plural article is in, and it takes the form im before nouns beginning in m, b, p, f or v. It takes the form ing before nouns beginning in g, c, or ch. This article also causes lenition. The plural article carries some connotation of definiteness, but it is really neither definite nor indefinite. To create a truly indefinite plural, it is necessary to append the plural marker -n to the noun, connecting it to the noun with a vowel if the noun does not already end in one. This vowel is usually either y or e, but can be any vowel or diphthong. In speech, the intermediate vowel is often left out on nouns that end in l or r, forming the spoken consonant clusters ln and rn. These would still be written lyn and ryn, though.
Lenition
Lenition, or softening of consonants, is a phenomenon that Celdarin shares with Tolkien’s Sindarin as well as Celtic languages like Welsh. Simply put, lenition is a process by which the initial consonants of words are changed slightly, resulting in a "softer" sound. Lenition occurs on words immediately following a particle, preposition or conjunction ending in a vowel, and on nouns modified by an article. In the above example, Ae tolathas, nai gennathad hain, we observe a form of the verb “to see”, gennathad. However, the stem of the verb “to see” is not *genn- as we might expect, but cenn-. The c has lenited to a g because of the preceeding vowel of nai.
The actual sound changes of lenition are as follows:
- t > d e.g. tinw "spark" > i dinw "the spark"
- tr > dr e.g. trethil "bridge" > i drethil "the bridge"
- p > b e.g. peth "word" > i beth "the word"
- pr > br e.g. prestanneth "accent" > i brestanneth "the accent"
- c > g e.g. calad "light" > i galad "the light"
- b > v e.g. belyr "attempt" > i velyr "the attempt"
- g > ‘ e.g. garn "crime" > i 'arn "the crime"
- s > th e.g. sigil "knife" > i thigil "the knife"
Note that the apostrophe which is the result of a lenited g is pronounced as a glottal stop, like in Hawai'ian.
If the first letter of the word is not one of the above, no lenition is possible. Note that the only clusters that can lenit are tr and pr; a cluster like gl at the beginning of a word could never lenit to 'l. However, it is hard to tell whether a phrase like *i doroth contains the word doroth, meaning “city”, or whether it is a lenited form of a possible (but nonexistent) word *toroth. To avoid this confusion, prepositions and conjunctions ending in a vowel suffix a consonant if the first letter of the next word is d, v, br or th. The possibility that lenition is occuring is thereby eliminated. Normally, the consonant -r is added, but the article i adds -l instead. Therefore, “the city” would be il doroth. The plural in in all its forms replaces the final consonant with -r. Thus, “the cities” would be ir doroth.
The -r ending is also often added before a word beginning with a vowel, though this is not necessary and is largely a matter of taste and what is easier to pronounce.
Note that adding endings to words ending in -w causes the -w to change to -u.
Word Order
Word order is generally SVO, but with unmarked indirect objects following direct objects (the opposite of English). Adjectives follow the noun modified, as do adverbs for verbs. Articles, however, preceed the modified noun.
