Dictionary:About Gaillean
This page documents the dictionary's practice for Gaillean (Ghaellea, code YAQ-GA), an ancient language of the Herta-Olaic family. It is the source language for scientific binomials, and the ancestor of Middle Airananwe and so of the modern trade language.
Entry conventions
- Entries live at their Gaillean spellings. Pronunciations are given as estimated IPA.
- Nouns carry their class in the headword line and a declension table (
{{YAQ-GA-decl}}). - Where a Proto-Herta-Olaic etymon is known, the etymology names it; the proto entry names the Gaillean reflex in return.
Orthography
Digraphs: bh /b͡β/ · gh /g͡ɣ/ · ph /p͡ɸ/ · th /c/ · zh /ʒ/ · zw /ʃʷ/ · ll /ʎ/ · mp /ᵐp/ · mb /ᵐb/ · ae /aɪ/ · oe /oʊ/ · ei /eː/ · eu /y/ · ao /ɶ/ · ou /ɯə/.
Single letters take their expected values, with these particulars: a is long /aː/, e is /ɛ/, o is /ɒ/, c is the aspirated affricate /t͡sʰ/, h is /x/, q is /kʲ/ (/kʷ/ before a vowel), r is /ɹ/, v is /β/, x is /kʃ/.
Short vowels, schwa and the palatal nasal are allophonic: they appear by rule rather than being written.
Nouns
Gaillean nouns fall into six declensions, named for the shape of the nominative singular. The class is a stem-class — it can be read off the ending of the citation form — and it carries a gender.
| class | gender | nom. sg. | nouns |
|---|---|---|---|
| F | feminine | -a | 95 |
| M1 | masculine | -e | 77 |
| M2 | masculine | -at | 31 |
| N1 | neuter | -uz | 46 |
| N2 | neuter | -u | 25 |
| MX, FX, NX | masculine, feminine, neuter | irregular | 41 |
Five cases are distinguished — nominative, genitive, dative, accusative and vocative — in singular and plural. The paradigms:
| F (-a) | M1 (-e) | M2 (-at) | N1 (-uz) | N2 (-u) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sg | pl | sg | pl | sg | pl | sg | pl | sg | pl | |
| NOM | -a | -ar | -e | -o | -at | -o | -uz | -ia | -u | -ur |
| GEN | -an | -aori | -in | -ori | -ant | -ori | -uzn | -iari | -un | -uri |
| DAT | -ae | -uz | -i | -uz | -i | -on | -i | -ibhi | -i | -uri |
| ACC | -as | -ax | -ez | -orz | -ats | -ae | -uz | -ia | -u | -ur |
| VOC | -a | -a | — | -or | -a | -o | -u | -i | -u | -ur |
The irregular classes decline from a separate stem in -r, which is not predictable from the citation form and must be given for each noun; their endings are -un, -i, -as, -i in the singular and -er, -tri, -z, -ter, -ia in the plural. Their tables are not yet built.
See also
- Dictionary:About Middle Airananwe — the medieval stage
- Gaillean language