Dictionary:About Middle Airananwe: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:18, 20 August 2026

This page documents the dictionary's practice for Middle Airananwe (code YAR-AI), the medieval stage of Airananwe, descended from Gaillean. No native name is recorded for it.

Middle Airananwe is not a mechanical halfway point between the two attested stages. It has its own phonology, and in several places departs from both — its palatal series, its three prenasalised stops and its written vowel length are its own.

Entry conventions

Entries live at their Middle Airananwe spellings, with estimated IPA.
Nouns carry a declension table ({{YAR-AI-decl}}). There is one declension; there is no gender.
Each entry names its Gaillean source, and the Gaillean entry names it in return.
Forms are derived word by word rather than by rule. Several correspondences are genuinely free — a Gaillean noun in -a may give -a or -e, bh may hold or harden to b, and a final -e may be kept or lost.

Orthography

Alphabet: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v x y z

Digraphs: mb nd ng · bh gh ph th dh · ch sh · gu · ty dy ny ly sy zy ky gy · aa ee ii oo uu

⟨y⟩ after a consonant palatalises it; elsewhere it is /j/. Long vowels are written by doubling — a convention neither neighbour uses. ⟨gu⟩ is /gʷ/ before a vowel and /gʷu/ elsewhere.

Phonology

Consonants. Plain p b t d k g; the labiovelars q /kʷ/ and gu /gʷ/; the prenasalised mb /ᵐb/, nd /ⁿd/ and ng /ᵑg/; the affricates c /ʦ/, ch /ʧ/, ph /p͡ɸ/ and x /kʃ/; the fricatives f v bh /β/, th /θ/, dh /ð/, s z sh /ʃ/, j /ʒ/, gh /ɣ/ and h; the nasals m n; the liquids l r; and the glide y /j/.

The palatal series — ty dy ny ly sy zy ky gy /tʲ dʲ ɲ ʎ ɕ ʑ c ɟ/ — is the language's signature, and the source of the palatals of the modern language.

Vowels. Short a e i o u; long aa ee ii oo uu.

Allophony.

The coronals palatalise of themselves before i: t d s z n l are [tʲ dʲ ɕ ʑ ɲ ʎ]. Before any other vowel the palatal must be written, which is what makes the series phonemic.
n is [ŋ] before a velar.
r is [ɾ] between vowels, a trill elsewhere; h is [ɦ] between vowels.
A voiced obstruent is voiceless word-finally — ghaleb [ˈɣalep] — and voiced again before a vowel-initial ending, ghaleben [ɣaˈleben]. The spelling keeps the voiced stem throughout, so the citation form always shows the stem.
Stress falls on the penultimate syllable and is never written.

Development from Gaillean

Typical outcomes, judged word by word:

Gaillean	usually	example
zh	j	zherrita > jertya
ll	l	illa > ila
mb-, mp-	b-, p-	mbila > bila
k before a o u	c	kubhe > cubh
c before e i	ch	herce > -erche
h-	lost	herce > -erche
w-	u-	woegherbhei > uogherbhe
consonant + w	consonant + gu	sienwei > siengue
aw	o	awbhientuz > obienta
ae, ei	e	thaembuz > Themus
verb -ei	-e	zumei > zume
-uz	-us	artuz > artus
noun -e	bare consonant	kubhe > cubh
zt	zd	annawztrolle > annozdrol
i between consonants	y, often with metathesis	-rita > -rtya

The ending system is the reason the stage matters. Gaillean's nouns in -a give -a or -e here and a silent -e in the modern language; Gaillean's nouns in -e give a bare consonant in both; and Gaillean's verbs in -ei give a pronounced -e /e/ here, which the modern language writes -é precisely to keep it apart from that silent -e. The modern acute cannot be explained without this stage.

Nouns

One declension, no gender, four cases in two numbers. The ending attaches to the bare lexeme, taking a linking -e- after a consonant; the dative singular needs none, being vocalic itself.

	after a vowel		after a consonant
	sg	pl	sg	pl
NOM	—	-r	—	-er
GEN	-n	-rn	-en	-ern
DAT	-i	-ri	-i	-eri
ACC	-s	-rs	-es	-ers

Gaillean's five cases lose the vocative here; its three genders and nine stem-classes are gone altogether.

Adpositions are clitics, written with a leading hyphen and a prothetic vowel: Gaillean petc gives -epetch, and the modern language -epech.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-This page documents the dictionary's practice for '''Middle Airananwe''' (code ''YAR-AI''), the medieval stage of [[Airananwe language|Airananwe]], descended from [[Gaillean language|Gaillean]]. It is the bridge between the ancient language and the modern trade language: its forms are reconstructed from the two attested stages, and carry no asterisk.
+This page documents the dictionary's practice for '''Middle Airananwe''' (code ''YAR-AI''), the medieval stage of [[Airananwe language|Airananwe]], descended from [[Gaillean language|Gaillean]]. No native name is recorded for it.
-Middle Airananwe has no recorded native name.
+Middle Airananwe is not a mechanical halfway point between the two attested stages. It has its own phonology, and in several places departs from both — its palatal series, its three prenasalised stops and its written vowel length are its own.
+== Entry conventions ==
+* Entries live at their Middle Airananwe spellings, with estimated IPA.
+* Nouns carry a declension table ({{tl|YAR-AI-decl}}). There is one declension; there is no gender.
+* Each entry names its Gaillean source, and the Gaillean entry names it in return.
+* Forms are derived word by word rather than by rule. Several correspondences are genuinely free — a Gaillean noun in ''-a'' may give ''-a'' or ''-e'', ''bh'' may hold or harden to ''b'', and a final ''-e'' may be kept or lost.
+== Orthography ==
+Alphabet: ''a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v x y z''
+Digraphs: ''mb nd ng'' · ''bh gh ph th dh'' · ''ch sh'' · ''gu'' · ''ty dy ny ly sy zy ky gy'' · ''aa ee ii oo uu''
+⟨y⟩ after a consonant palatalises it; elsewhere it is /j/. Long vowels are written by doubling — a convention neither neighbour uses. ⟨gu⟩ is /gʷ/ before a vowel and /gʷu/ elsewhere.
+== Phonology ==
+'''Consonants.''' Plain ''p b t d k g''; the labiovelars ''q'' /kʷ/ and ''gu'' /gʷ/; the prenasalised ''mb'' /ᵐb/, ''nd'' /ⁿd/ and ''ng'' /ᵑg/; the affricates ''c'' /ʦ/, ''ch'' /ʧ/, ''ph'' /p͡ɸ/ and ''x'' /kʃ/; the fricatives ''f v bh'' /β/, ''th'' /θ/, ''dh'' /ð/, ''s z sh'' /ʃ/, ''j'' /ʒ/, ''gh'' /ɣ/ and ''h''; the nasals ''m n''; the liquids ''l r''; and the glide ''y'' /j/.
+'''The palatal series''' — ''ty dy ny ly sy zy ky gy'' /tʲ dʲ ɲ ʎ ɕ ʑ c ɟ/ — is the language's signature, and the source of the palatals of the modern language.
+'''Vowels.''' Short ''a e i o u''; long ''aa ee ii oo uu''.
+'''Allophony.'''
+* The coronals palatalise of themselves before ''i'': ''t d s z n l'' are [tʲ dʲ ɕ ʑ ɲ ʎ]. Before any other vowel the palatal must be written, which is what makes the series phonemic.
+* ''n'' is [ŋ] before a velar.
+* ''r'' is [ɾ] between vowels, a trill elsewhere; ''h'' is [ɦ] between vowels.
+* '''A voiced obstruent is voiceless word-finally''' — ''ghaleb'' [ˈɣalep] — and voiced again before a vowel-initial ending, ''ghaleben'' [ɣaˈleben]. The spelling keeps the voiced stem throughout, so the citation form always shows the stem.
+* Stress falls on the penultimate syllable and is never written.
 == Development from Gaillean ==
-The medieval stage carries the regular half of the distance to the modern language: the vowels and the endings. The consonants remain conservative — ''bh'', ''gh'', ''th'', ''zh'' all survive, as they do into the modern language.
+Typical outcomes, judged word by word:
-# '''Monophthongisation.''' The diphthongs became long vowels, written with a circumflex: ''ae'' > ''ê'', ''oe'' > ''ô'', ''ao'', ''au'' > ''â'', ''oi'' > ''o'' (''ghaelleas'' > ''ghêleas''; ''kubhoewne'' > ''kubhôune'').
+{| class="wikitable"
-# '''The verb ending''' ''-ei'' is respelt ''-ê'' — a spelling change rather than a sound change, as Gaillean ''-ei'' was already /eː/ word-finally (''zumei'' > ''zumê'').
+! Gaillean !! usually !! example
-# '''Depalatalisation.''' Gaillean ''ll'' /ʎ/ became plain ''l'' (''illa'' > ''ila'', ''ghalla'' > ''ghala''). The modern language's ''lh'' is a separate, later development.
+|-
-# '''Degemination.''' The true geminates ''mm'', ''pp'', ''tt'' reduced; ''nn'', ''ss'', ''ff'' and ''rr'' held, and still stand today (''emmora'' > ''emora'', ''peramme'' > ''perame'').
+| ''zh'' || ''j'' || ''zherrita'' > ''jertya''
-# '''The glide vocalised''': ''w'' > ''u'' (''awbhientuz'' > ''aubhientus''). The digraph ''zw'' is untouched.
+|-
-# '''Loss of initial prenasalisation''': ''mb-'', ''mp-'' > ''b-'', ''p-'' (''mbila'' > ''bila'', ''mporonat'' > ''poronat'').
+| ''ll'' || ''l'' || ''illa'' > ''ila''
-# ''r'' was lost before the velar fricative: ''rgh'' > ''gh''.
+|-
-# '''The ending''' ''-uz'' devoiced to ''-us''; its loss belongs to the modern stage (''artuz'' > ''artus'' > modern ''art'').
+| ''mb-'', ''mp-'' || ''b-'', ''p-'' || ''mbila'' > ''bila''
-# '''Adpositions cliticised.''' Gaillean's free adpositions began to univerbate with their nouns; all 27 that survive are bound forms in the modern language.
+|-
+| ''k'' before ''a o u'' || ''c'' || ''kubhe'' > ''cubh''
+|-
+| ''c'' before ''e i'' || ''ch'' || ''herce'' > ''-erche''
+|-
+| ''h-'' || lost || ''herce'' > ''-erche''
+|-
+| ''w-'' || ''u-'' || ''woegherbhei'' > ''uogherbhe''
+|-
+| consonant + ''w'' || consonant + ''gu'' || ''sienwei'' > ''siengue''
+|-
+| ''aw'' || ''o'' || ''awbhientuz'' > ''obienta''
+|-
+| ''ae'', ''ei'' || ''e'' || ''thaembuz'' > ''Themus''
+|-
+| verb ''-ei'' || ''-e'' || ''zumei'' > ''zume''
+|-
+| ''-uz'' || ''-us'' || ''artuz'' > ''artus''
+|-
+| noun ''-e'' || bare consonant || ''kubhe'' > ''cubh''
+|-
+| ''zt'' || ''zd'' || ''annawztrolle'' > ''annozdrol''
+|-
+| ''i'' between consonants || ''y'', often with metathesis || ''-rita'' > ''-rtya''
+|}
-Of 512 Gaillean entries, 288 change shape at this stage.
+'''The ending system''' is the reason the stage matters. Gaillean's nouns in ''-a'' give ''-a'' or ''-e'' here and a silent ''-e'' in the modern language; Gaillean's nouns in ''-e'' give a bare consonant in both; and Gaillean's verbs in ''-ei'' give a '''pronounced''' ''-e'' /e/ here, which the modern language writes ''-é'' precisely to keep it apart from that silent ''-e''. The modern acute cannot be explained without this stage.
-== Orthography ==
+== Nouns ==
-Middle Airananwe keeps Gaillean's consonant digraphs (''bh gh ph th zh zw'') and adds the circumflex vowels ''ê ô â''. It has '''no acute accents''': those mark the modern language's eroded endings and belong to the stage after this one.
+One declension, no gender, four cases in two numbers. The ending attaches to the bare lexeme, taking a linking ''-e-'' after a consonant; the dative singular needs none, being vocalic itself.
-== Gender ==
-Gaillean's classes are stem-classes — ''F'' in ''-a'', ''M1'' in ''-e'', ''M2'' in ''-t'', ''N1'' in ''-z'', ''N2'' in ''-u'', with the ''X'' classes being those words that fit no pattern. Middle Airananwe reduces three genders to two and nine classes to four:
 {| class="wikitable"
-! Gaillean !! Middle !! stem
+! !! colspan="2" | after a vowel !! colspan="2" | after a consonant
 |-
-| F, FX || F1 || ''-a''
+! !! sg !! pl !! sg !! pl
 |-
-| N2 || F2 || ''-u''
+! NOM
+| — || ''-r'' || — || ''-er''
 |-
-| M1, MX, NX || M1 || ''-e''
+! GEN
+| ''-n'' || ''-rn'' || ''-en'' || ''-ern''
 |-
-| M2, N1 || M2 || ''-t'', ''-us''
+! DAT
+| ''-i'' || ''-ri'' || ''-i'' || ''-eri''
+|-
+! ACC
+| ''-s'' || ''-rs'' || ''-es'' || ''-ers''
 |}
-The neuter split by stem, as Latin's did: consonant-stem neuters joined the masculine, vowel-stem neuters went feminine. The modern language has since lost gender altogether.
+Gaillean's five cases lose the vocative here; its three genders and nine stem-classes are gone altogether.
+'''Adpositions''' are clitics, written with a leading hyphen and a prothetic vowel: Gaillean ''petc'' gives ''-epetch'', and the modern language ''-epech''.
 == See also ==
-* [[Dictionary:About Besoh]] — the same practice, for the Andusian family
+* [[Dictionary:About Gaillean]] — the ancient stage
-* [[Gaillean language]], [[Airananwe language]]
+* [[Middle Airananwe language]]