Calineg

Calian Calineg
Spoken in:	Calen (Cale)
Conworld:	Alternate Europe
Total speakers:	430-490 million
Genealogical classification:	Indo-European Italo-Celtic P Calinic Calian
Basic word order:	VSO (V1)
Morphological type:	inflecting
Morphosyntactic alignment:	nominative-accusative
Writing system:
Created by:
K. Willis	circa 2000-2008 C.E.

Calineg [kæl'inɨg] (i Galineg [i gæl'inɨg]) is an a posteriori constructed language that is a modern descendant of Proto-Italo-Celtic. Calineg has been systematically derived from Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic roots that best approximate a synthesis of these branches. The vocabulary also shows early pseudo-historical borrowing from Latin and later Brythonic loanwords. The alternate timeline presented in this article has been constructed in order to provide an environment necessary for the survival of the language.

Calineg is today spoken around the world by 171.4 million people as a native language, and by about 260 to 300 million people as a second or third language. The language ranks 8th among total number of native speakers, and between 7th and 9th overall. Most native speakers live in Calen (89.6 million), where the language originated. The rest live in Calophone South America (38.1 million), Canada (28.3 million), Calophone Africa (12.6 million), United States (1.9 million), and Israel (635 000). Calineg is an official language of 16 countries, most of which form what is know as i Galluna (The Calophone).

In Calen, where fluency is a requirement for citizenship, 89.6 million people (96% of 93.1 million) speak Calineg as their native language. According to the European Union, 159 million people (32% of 497.2 million) speak Calineg, 92.8 million (18.7%) as first language and 65 million (13%) claim it as their second language, which makes it second in the Union after English. In South America, Calineg ranks third after Portuguese and Spanish, respectfully, in number of native speakers. Calineg ranks third in North America as well, after English and Spanish.

See Nosuch Galinege! Learn Calineg! for more information on the language.

History

Proto-Calinic diverged from Proto-Italo-Celtic sometime before the first millennium B.C.E. Widely spoken across Central Europe, Common Calinic stone inscriptions have been found dating as early as the 3rd century B.C.E. Common Calinic speakers were first attested in Roman works of the 1st century B.C.E.

The earliest extant sources identifiable as Calineg go back to about the 1st century C.E. Very little of the language from this period, known as Early Calineg (Calineg fora), remains. The next main period, somewhat better attested, is Old Calineg (Hena Galineg) from the 3rd to 7th centuries. The period also saw the borrowing of numerous Latin words, especially in technical language. Middle Calineg (Calineg metha), with its soaring epic poetry, runs into the 10th century. Modern Calineg consists of two distinct periods. It was marked by the extensive influx of Brythonic words after the incorporation of Belgium (Gwala Felga) in North Burgundy (Borgone Golethole) into Calen. Early Modern Calineg (Calineg thiwetha bora) officially began with the drafting of The Alliance of Calen and the United Burgundy (Ir Hocida’r Cale a’r Borgone Eloge) in 937 C.E. Similarly, Late Modern Calineg (Calineg thiwetha netha) began with the drafting of the Unification of the Two Kingdoms (Eloga’r thua Wala) in 1475 C.E. Current linguistic debate centers over whether the modern era has ended with the widespread education and media publication that effectively made the colloquial register the only known language of the people, and Post-Modern Calineg (Calineg thiwetha hura) began in the latter half of the 20th century.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels
	Front		Near-front		Central		Near-back		Back
High	i									u
Near-high
High-mid			e							o
Mid
Low-mid
Near-low
Low					a

Consonants

Consonants
	Bilabial		Labiod.		Dental		Alveolar		Post-alv.		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m						n				ng
Plosive	p	b			t	d							c	g		ch
Fricative			f		th		s
Affricate
Approximants		w										h
Lateral					l			r
Lateral Approximant					lh			rh

Stress and Pitch

Stress in polysyllabic words occurs on the penultimate syllable, with rare exceptions. Monosyllabic words are always treated as stressed. Because of a shift in stress position, related words may sound very different as declension, conjugation or compound formation change the word length.

Stress on penultimate syllables is characterised by a low pitch, which is followed by a high pitch on the (unstressed) word-final syllable.

Morphology

Mutation

Initial consonant mutation is a phenomenon common to Calinic and Celtic languages. The first consonant of a word in Calineg may change depending on grammatical context or when preceded ("triggered") by certain words. Calineg has three mutations: the soft mutation (hence SM), the nasal mutation (NM), and the aspirate mutation (AM). These are also represented in writing:

Radical	Soft	Nasal	Aspirate
p	b	m h	f
b	f	m
t	d	n h	th
d	th	n
c	g	ng h	ch
g	*	ng
lh	l
rh	r
m	m h
n	n h

• A blank cell indicates no change.
• Note: /g/ disappears.
• Letters not listed under the category “radical” do not undergo mutation.

For example, the word for “tree” is prana, but “the tree” is i brana, “my tree” fim hrana, and “her tree” ea frana. Not all letters mutate under the same environments, so the same sequence for “woman” is: bena “woman”, i fena “the woman”, fi mena “my woman” , but ea bena “her woman”. Gramatical mutation is discussed under syntax.

The Article

• There is no indefinite article in Calineg.

bena, a woman. cethe, a man.

• There are three forms of the definite article in Calineg.

I is used before a consonant. i cethe, the man.

Ir is used before words beginning with a vowel or /h/. ir ore, the hammer.

‘r is used after words that end in a vowel, regardless of whether the following word begins with a vowel or not.

    Ma’r fena’n fira.  
    Is-FEM.-3S. the [SM]woman-NOM.S. PROG. speak-FEM. 
    The woman is speaking.

Note: Feminine nouns undergo the soft mutation after the direct article. i fena, the woman.

Nouns

In Calineg nouns are declined for gender, number and case.

• There are two genders in Calineg: masculine and feminine.

All nouns meaning individual male or female persons are masculine or feminine respectfully, but all nouns referring to a mixed group of males and females are feminine. The gender of all other nouns must be memorized.

• There are three numbers in Calineg: singular, dual, and plural.
• There are five cases in Calineg: nominative, accusative, genitive, ablative and vocative.

The Nominative is the case of the subject: bena, cethe.

The Accusative is the case of the direct object: bene, cethi.

The Ablative is the case of the indirect object. The particle e precedes the noun and causes the nasal mutation: e mena, eng hethe.

Genitive is the case of possession. Genitive relationships are expressed by apposition. The indefinite noun undergoes the soft mutation. cethe fena, a woman’s man.

The Vocative case is the case of direct address. Nouns undergo a soft mutation to form the vocative case. Proper names, however, usually do not undergo mutation: fena, chethe.

    Bures, minduch at ga!  
    [SM]Boy-NOM.Pl. go-IMPER.Pl. to [SM]home-NOM.S.
    Boys, go home!

Masculine Nouns

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	e	en	es
Dative	e [NM] -e	e [NM] -en	e [NM] -es
Accusative	i	in	is

Feminine Nouns

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	a	an	as
Dative	e [NM] -a	e [NM] -an	e [NM] -as
Accusative	e	en	es

• For example, consider the declension of brene, a male ruler.

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	brene "a ruler"	brenen "two rulers"	brenes "rulers"
Dative	e mrene "(to) a ruler"	e mrenen "(to) two rulers"	e mrenes "(to) rulers"
Accusative	breni "a ruler"	brenin "two rulers"	brenis "rulers"

• And brena, a female ruler

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	brena "a ruler"	brenan "two rulers"	brenas "rulers"
Dative	e mrena "(to) a ruler"	e mrenan "(to) two rulers"	e mrenas "(to) rulers"
Accusative	brene "a ruler"	brenen "two rulers"	brenes "rulers"

Pronouns

Pronouns must agree in gender and number with the noun to which they refer.

Personal Pronouns

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	mi	on	ni
Second	ti	en	chi
Third	ha/e	an	nu

Calineg also has special emphatic forms of the personal pronouns.

Emphatic Pronouns

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	mina	fina	nina
Second	titha	dena	china
Third	hinta (her)	dana	nuna
	finta (himself)

Possessive Pronouns

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	fi [NM]	fin [SM]	eni
Second	di [SM]	den [SM]	enich
Third	ea [AM] ('hers')	dan [AM]	enu
	ei [SM] ('his')

• The possessive pronouns are also used in the accusative case of the personal pronouns.

Reflexive Pronouns

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	finun	fin hun	eni hun
Second	dinun	den hun	enich hun
Third	danun (herself)	dan hun	enu hun
	denun (himself)

Demonstrative Pronouns

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
'This'/'These'	han (f.)	i - rhan	i - rhen
	hen (m.)
	hin (intangible)
'That'/'Those'	hena/e (f./m.)	i - rhani	i - rheni
	heni (intangible)

Adjectives

In Calineg, adjectives agree with the gender of the noun they modify: cethe ine, last man bena ina, last woman.

Adjectives undergo the soft mutation following feminine nouns: bena la, small woman (From lh- 'small' ).

• The equative degree can be formed by adding –ad for a feminine or -ed for a masculine adjective, to the stem. Emphatic pronouns are used if necessary: i fena lad hinat, the woman as small as her.

• The comparative degree is formed by adding –ach or -ech to the stem: bena lach, smaller woman

• The superlative degree is formed by adding –af or –ef to the stem. The adjective must be preceded by the article. i feraf, the largest; i lhef, the smallest.

The demonstrative adjectives are enclitic. 'ma 'this'/'these' and 'na 'that/those' are affixed to the end of the noun the describe. The article must be used with the noun: i cethe'na, this man, i cethes'na "these men", i fena'ma, that woman, i fenas'ma those women.

Verbs

In Calineg verbs are conjugated for voice, mood, tense, number, and person.

• There are two voices: active and passive.

The active represents the subject as acting or being.

    Molo then.  
    Praise-1S. [SM]your-2D.
    I praise you two.

The passive represents the subject as acted upon.

    Molor.
    Praise-1S.-Pass.
    I am praised.

• There are three moods: indicative, subjunctive/conditional, and imperative.

• There are nine tenses: present, past, future (the simple tenses), imperfect, past imperfect, future imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect (the compound tenses).

Personal Endings of the Active Voice

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	o (-)	-n	-ch
Second	-s	-n-	-g
Third	-d/-t	-m	-th

Personal Endings of the Passive Voice

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
First	-r	-r-n	-r-ch
Second	-r (-r-s)	-r-n	-r-g
Third	-r-d/-r-t	-r-m	-r-th

The Active Simple Tenses

Number	Person	Present	Imperfect	Future	Imperative
Singular	1st	o	a	i	-
	2nd	es	as	is	us
	3rd	ed/et	ad/at	id/it	uch
Dual	1st	en	an	in	-
	2nd	ene	ana	ini	un
	3rd	em	am	im	um
Plural	1st	ech	ach	ich	-
	2nd	eg	ag	ig	uch
	3rd	eth	ath	ith	uth

Verbal Nouns

The verbal noun is a special verb form that is declined only for gender like an adjective. The verbal noun can behave in a similar manner to an infinity or gerund in English. In Calineg, the verbal noun is also used to form the compound tenses as well as a noun or an adjective.

• Molo 'to praise' forms the verbal nouns:

    mola 'praising' (feminine subject) and mole 'praising' (masculine subject)

Bod 'to be'

Bod 'to be' is highly irregular. In addition to having inflected forms of the preterite, future, and conditional, it also maintains inflected present and imperfect forms which are used frequently as auxiliaries with other verbs. Bod also distinguishes between affirmative, interrogative, and negative statements for each tense.

		Present			Past			Future
		Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative	Aff.	Neg.	Inter.	Aff.	Neg.	Inter.
Singular	First	dwi	rwi dim	idwi?	reni	deri dim	oni?	fithi	fithi dim	ithi?
	Second	dach	rach dim	idich?	reti	deti dim	oreti?	fithiti	fithiti dim	ithiti?
	Third	ma/e	da/e dim	ida/e?	retha/e	detha/e dim	oretha/e?	fitha/e	fitha/e dim	itha/e?
Dual	First	dan	rho dim	idon?	ron	deron dim	oron?	fithon	fithon dim	ithon?
	Second	den	rhe dim	iden?	ren	deren dim	oren?	fithen	fithen dim	ithen?
	Third	man	rha dim	idan?	ran	deran dim	oran?	fithan	fithan dim	ithan?
Plural	First	dani	rani dim	idani?	rethi	deni dim	oreni?	fitheni	fitheni dim	itheni?
	Second	dachi	rachi dim	idachi?	rechi	dechi dim	orechi?	fithechi	fthechi dim	ithechi?
	Third	manu	danu dim	idanu?	renu	denu dim	orenu?	fithenu	fithenu dim	ithenu?

The affirmative forms presented above are actually abbreviated forms of the formal roots. Bod also has conditional forms of the verb. Additionally, Calineg does not have one word for ‘yes’ and ‘no', but instead uses modified verb forms in response to direct questions. However, they are all omitted here for the sake of clarity.

Becasue a soft mutation always follows the verb phrase, the negative particle dim appears as thim in most sentances.

    Da'r anera thim en tama.
    Is-FEM.S. the young-woman-NOM.S. [SM]NEG. PROG. die-FEM.
    The young-woman is not dying.

Adverbs

Adverbs are unique because the do not decline to agree with the verbs they modify. Most adverbs are formed from the same stem as the corresponding adjective and a null suffix.

Compare:

    Ma'n rheda ber.                  Ma'n fera.
    Is-FEM.3S. PROG. run-FEM. slow.  Is-FEM.3S. PART. [SM]slow-FEM. 
    She is running slowly.           She is slow.

Prepositions

Some prepositions decline for grammatical gender. They are called personal prepositions. They must be memorized because they are highly irregular. The radical form of a preposition is used before nouns and adjectives to from prepositional phrases.

Personal Prepositions

Radical	'Me'	'You' (s.)	'Her'/'Him'	Dual	'Us'	'You' (pl.)	'Them'
Ag 'at'	agam	agat	aga/e	agan	agi	agof	agu
Am 'about/for'	amdana	amdanat	amdana/e	amdon	amdani	amdonon	amdonin
Ar 'on'	arna	arnat	ara/e	arn	ari	archi	arnun
As 'out of'	asam	asat	asa/e	asan	asi	asod	astu
At 'to'/'towards'	atam	atat	ata/e	aton	ati	atoch	atin
Chug 'towards'	chugam	chat	cha/e	chun	chuci	chuch	chucu
Dan 'under'	danam	danat	dana/e	danan	dani	dachi	danu
E 'in'	emi	eti	eda/e	eden	edihi	edif	edin
Gan 'with'	gen	geni	genna/e	genon	geneni	genoch	genenu
In 'to'	imi	ito	ifa/e	inen	ini	ichi	inu
Id 'between'	idmi	iditi	idiha/e	idin	edra	edar	etar
O 'from'/'of'	ono	onat	ona/e	on	oni	onich	onu
Rom 'before'	roham	romat	roma/e	ron	romi	roman	romu
Nes 'next'	nesam	neset	nesa/e	nesan	nesi	nesan	newu
Thar 'over'	tharam	tharat	thara/e	thon	thomi	tharan	tharu
Ti 'by means of'	tam	tat	ta/e	ton	tithi	tin	tinu
Um 'around/about'	unam	umat	uma/e	uman	umi	umaf	umu

• All personal prepositions cause the soft mutation (SM), except for ti 'by means of'.
• The dual form of the preposition is used in all cases.

Syntax

Sentence Structure

In an inflecting language like Calineg word order is theoretically optional. Practically, however, the verb normally occupies the first position in neutral sentences, with the subject following. In English, the verb is the second main idea and it separates the subject from the complement—either the object or a phrase dependant on the verb. Unlike English, Calineg is VSO in affirmative, interrogative and negative sentences.

Affirmative

    Me'r cethe ar na.
    Is-1S.MASC. the man-NOM.S. on ship-NOM.S.
    The man is on a ship.

Interrogative

    Ide'r cethe ar na?
    Is-1S.MASC. the man-NOM.S. on ship-NOM.S.
    Is the man on a ship?

Negative

    De'r cethe thim ar na.
    Is-1S.MASC.NEG. the man-NOM.S. [SM]NEG. on ship-NOM.S.
    The man is not on a ship.

Simple sentences are formed around a conjugated verb.

    Rhetha'r ar bade a lida Cale.
    Travel-1S.IMP. the on [SM]length-NOM. and width-NOM. Calen-NOM.
    I travelled the length and breadth of Calen.

Compound sentences are formed from a form of to be and a verbal noun linked by a complement marker (en or wed).

    Me'r cethe’n bone dure.
    Is-1S.MASC. the man-NOM.S. PROG. open-MASC. door-ACC.S.
    The man is opening a door.

    Me'r cethe wed bone dure.
    Is-1S.MASC. the man-NOM.S. PERFECT open-MASC. door-ACC.S.
    The man has opened a door.

Caineg is head initial and therefore dependent phrases must begin with a verb in a similar manner to the use of that in English. In the present tense the infinitive of the verb to be is followed by the subject of the dependant clause or preceded by a possessive pronoun. Compare:

    Fitho bod i mabe'n lhere.                        Cetho ea bod en bala.        
    Know-1S. to-be the son-NOM.S. PROG. read-MASC.   Believe-1S. her to-be PROG. ill-FEM.
    I know the son is reading.                       I believe that she is ill.

In the past tense the verb to happen is used instead.

    Meno darfa'r masa'n celura.
    Want-1S. happen-FEM. the girl PROG making-pots-FEM.
    I want the girl to have been making pots.

In the future or conditional tenses, however, the appropriate verb is used.

    Fomeno fitha'r anera'n bera pere chirra.
    Hope-1S. Is-3.S.FEM.FUT. young-woman PROG cook-FEM chicken-ACC.S. curry-FEM.
    I hope the young-woman will be cooking curry chicken. 

While the verb typically occupies the first position, this is only a general rule in Calineg. The rule is consistent enough, however, to make deviation from it noticeable. Therefore, Calineg often draws attention to a focused element by moving it from its more expected position to the beginning of the sentence. In the colloquial register, word order is more ridged and misplaced elements often undergo a soft mutation. When subject occupies the first position it is dependant on an understood “is”, and therefore must be followed by a relative clause.

    I fena'n ta.
    The [SM]woman-NOM. PROG. come-FEM.
    (It is) the woman (who) is coming.

When the verb is emphasized, it is placed first in the infinitive (verbal noun), and linked to the verb to do in the relative clause. In informal speech the to be verb may be used instead. Compare:

    Ta gwened.                  Ta ma!
    Come-FEM. does-3S.FEM.      Come-FEM. is-1S.FEM.
    She is coming.              She is coming!

Mutations

All instances of mutations in Calineg can be divided in to either contact or grammatical mutations. Contact mutations occur following a relatively small number of high frequency words such as prepositions, numerals, and the complement markers. Instead of being caused by a preceding word, grammatical mutations fulfill a syntactic function.

Gramatical Mutations

In Calineg, because neutral sentences are VSO in structure, a soft mutation (SM) is used to separate the subject from the complement. This most fundamental rule of Calineg grammar can be summarized as: Subject[SM].

    Bonet i cethe thure.
    Open-3.MASC.S. the man-NOM.S. [SM]door-ACC.S.
    The man opens a door.

Contact Mutations

The complement markers cause a soft mutation on proceeding nouns and adjectives.

    Ma'r fena'n bride.
    Is-1FEM.S. the [SM]woman-NOM.S. PART. [SM]poetess-ACC.S
    The woman is a poetess.