Berish (nurein lat)

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dva_arla
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Berish (nurein lat)

Post by dva_arla »

Having grown weary of reconstructions of dead languages that keep getting stuck in the gutter, I decided, for a change, to create an a posteriori language; albeit one influenced by natlangs past and present, both in inspiration and in contact (more on that in a while). Meet Berish, one of the so-called 'paleo-European' languages, i.e. those languages spoken in Europe before the arrival and drastic explosion of proto-Indo-European and her successors. Berish is spoken somewhere in Eastern Europe "where mist, ravens, and birch trees abound" (which could be anywhere in the region :/), in contact with OTL natlangs, viz. Slavic and Romanian at present; and Dacian, Scythian, and Turkish in the past.

The endonym nurein /nuren/ is inspired from Nuragic; one of the names by which Paleo-Sardinian, a fellow Paleo-European language, is known. The word in Proto-Bersh would have had assumed the form *nurakin, whence the evolution *nuragin > *nurajin > *nurajn > nurein. The origin of the exonym, on the other hand, remains shrouded in mystery. It is, of course, known that the exonym spread to the rest of the world from one of the Slavic languages (cf. Polish bierski); however further etymology remains speculative at best. Some have connected the form to the ethnonym of the Burs, a Dacian tribe, while others maintain that the form is in some way related to the Bersh word baro, meaning 'man'. None of the etymologies proposed seem to be phonologically satisfactory.

One advantage of an a posteriori conlang is the liberty afforded to the conlanger; instead of having to painstakingly refer to and browse glossaries (many of them fragmentary) and grammars, and, due to my sense of perfectionism, being stuck for days and months to no end pondering on choices and fixing minute details to conform with the source languages, one is free to create one's own roots and pluck the fruits of other languages. Berish will, I hope, be a leisurely exercise in the art of conlanging, and in various branches of linguistics: semantic shifts, language contacts, etc.
Conlangs in progress:
Modern Khotanese
Modern Gandhari
?? - Japonic language in the Mekong Delta
Locna - Indo-European language in N. Syria
Wexford Norse
A British romlang, &c.
dva_arla
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Re: Berish (nurein lat)

Post by dva_arla »

Phonology and Orthography

Consonants

m n /m n/
p b t d k g /p b t d k g/
z (sz) s /s (~ts) (s:) ʃ/
v r l j /v r l j/

Vowels

i y u ei o e a /i ɨ ʊ ɛ ɔ ɐ a/

Notes on Orthography and Phonology:

a) z is pronounced either /s/ or /ts/ (depending on factors to be determined later), sz always a doubled /s:/, and s like the /ʃ/ of ship. None of them are to be voiced. There is a historical reason for this rather peculiar arrangement: z used to be /ts/, and s an alveolar sibilant /s/, with apical and non-apical allophones determined by doubling. Sometime in the 15th or 16th a chain-shift happened, pulling the graphemes into bearing the phonetic values that they hitherto hold. zz (then /t:s/) and ss (then /s:/)then merges (or rather, the latter failed to be pulled into a post-alveolar), resulting in the sound /s:/ sz, though the latter digraph was only adopted and invented following the Nurein letokke konfeirenz (Nurein Linguistic Conference) of 1836 -- one of the main agendas of which were discussing (or, to be more precise, debating) whether it was worthwhile to retain two digraphs for the same sound.
b) ei = /ɛ~e/ as in men or bet, e = /ɐ/ roughly like perceive or charisma. The sound ei represents is a monophthong; Do not get ei /ɛ/ confused for the diphthong ej /ej/ .

Numbers, for starters:
1 in
2 tin
3 raj
4 kore
5 pin
6 siz
7 sa
8 atten
9 nazin
10 zin
Conlangs in progress:
Modern Khotanese
Modern Gandhari
?? - Japonic language in the Mekong Delta
Locna - Indo-European language in N. Syria
Wexford Norse
A British romlang, &c.
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Flavia
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Re: Berish (nurein lat)

Post by Flavia »

You meant an a priori language?
XIPA
:pol: > :eng: > :esp: > :lat: > :fra: > :por: > :deu:
Abaniscen cancasirnemor
dva_arla
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Re: Berish (nurein lat)

Post by dva_arla »

Titus Flavius wrote: 16 Sep 2021 15:12 You meant an a priori language?
Indeed! I seem to have forgotten my glossary lately; thank you for correcting me.

Though can Berish be fully considered one, considering that it would have seen influences from contacts with neighbouring languages (to be manifested in loanwords, sprachbund influence, etc.), all of which are existing or historically existing ones, and have its grammar worked out from bits and pieces of more distant sources (I plan to take features -- morphological and phonological -- from Tocharian, Old Chinese, Austronesian, etc.)?
I might, furthermore, source some roots, consciously and unconsciously, from existing languages.
Conlangs in progress:
Modern Khotanese
Modern Gandhari
?? - Japonic language in the Mekong Delta
Locna - Indo-European language in N. Syria
Wexford Norse
A British romlang, &c.
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