Dictionary:About Airananwe

This page documents the dictionary's practice for Airananwe (Airánanue, code YAS-AI), the modern stage of the line running from Gaillean through Middle Airananwe. It is the most widely used trade language in the world.

Entry conventions

Entries live at their Airananwe spellings, with estimated pronunciations from Module:Auphen/YAS-AI.
Nouns carry a table of four forms — singular and plural, each plain and genitive.
Each entry names its Middle Airananwe source, and the Middle entry names it in return.
Where one spelling covers two unrelated words, the entry splits under Etymology 1 and Etymology 2: anté "to have" and anté "sister" share a page but not a history.

Orthography

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

Digraphs: bh ch dh gh gn kh lh ng ph qu sh th vh · ae ai au ei eo eu oe ou

The acute marks a long vowel — á [aː], é [eː] — and continues the length written double in Middle Airananwe, so that the verb ending -é answers to Middle -ee. Stress is not written.

Phonology

The digraphs carry most of the language's distinctive sounds: th is [tv] (thai [tvaɪ], sánth [saːntv]), vh is [fʷ] (vhá [fʷaː]), gn is [ɲ] (gnáue [ˈɲaːwə]), lh is [ʎ] (lháyé [ˈʎaːjeː]), dh is [ð] (dhuse [ðus]), kh is [k͡x] (khest [k͡xɛst]), gh is [x] (ghay [xɑj]), ng is [ŋ] (nangy [nɑˈŋi]) and ph is [p͡ɸ] (phe [p͡ɸə]). bh is [pɸ] at the head of a word and [bv] within it: bhessaut [pɸɛˈsoːt] against ánébh [ˈaːneːbv].

The alveolo-palatals ch [ɕ] and j [ʑ] continue the palatal series of the medieval language: chá [ɕaː], je [ʑə], arch [ɑʀɕ]. After a vowel at the end of a word ch hardens to [x] instead — yách [jaːx]. ç is [z] between vowels (chiçey [ɕiˈzɛj]) and [ʑ] before a consonant (oçtry [ɔʑˈtʀi]).

The letter q has three values: qu is [kʰ] before i (quites [kʰits]) and [kju] before a consonant (quve [kjuʋ]), while bare q before a vowel is the glottalised [kˀ] (qaule [kˀoːl]).

A final e is not sounded: bide [bid], ette [ɛt], tiále [tjaːl], dege [deʑ]. It surfaces as [ə] only where its loss would leave too little of the word — je [ʑə], phe [p͡ɸə], gnáue [ˈɲaːwə].

Final re, ne and le invert, the vowel moving in front of the liquid or nasal: aebre [ˈɑɪbəɹ], alne [aˈlɪ̃n], thémne [ˈtveːmɪ̃n].

A vowel nasalises before a final n or r, which is then lost: omen [oˈmɛ̃], enner [ɛˈnɛ̃], pháton [p͡ɸˈaːtɔ̃].

A voiced obstruent is voiceless at the end of a word.

Development from Middle Airananwe

Two habits do most of the work. Unstressed first syllables fall away — Middle enstaree gives staré, mino gives no — and final -ee becomes -é, which is why the acute so often sits on a verb.

The four cases are gone. What survives of them is a genitive rebuilt from a postposition, and adpositions generally, free words at both earlier stages, are now bound to the noun: -erge "with", -antá "upon", -epech "above".

Airananwe also has two articles where the earlier stages had none, both worn down from proclitics: je "a" from the numeral dege "one", and phe "the" from an older adverb "here" which survives separately as eph.

Nouns

There is no case in the old sense. Every noun has four forms — singular and plural, each with a genitive:

	sg	pl
plain	—	by rule
genitive	-enn	-enn

The plural is formed from the shape of the singular by rule, not by a single ending: rayes → rayers, thémne → thémner, nájy → nájier, arch → archre. The ruleset is Module:Auphen/YAS-AI's plural.

The genitive is the suffixed postposition -enn, which carries rules of its own; they are not yet written up here, and the noun tables wait on them.

Verbs

Beside its plain stem every verb has a special stem and a passive stem, both derived by rule from the citation form: naquité "write" gives naquid- and naquitiv-, herché gives hérj- and herchev-, anté gives end- and antiv-. The rulesets are Module:Auphen/YAS-AI's special and passive.

Stems combine with endings and with auxiliaries: -e marks the first person singular present on the plain stem, and the special stem with -engé says that the act is begun. Mood is carried by an auxiliary standing before an infinitive, as with fé "would". The conjugation is not yet written up here.