Calineg

Calineg (i Galineg) is an a posteriori 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.

Calian Calineg
Spoken in:	Calen (Cale)
Conworld:	Alternate Europe
Total speakers:	Unknown
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.

See Nosuch Galinegi! 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 Calinc 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 1474 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					r			l
Lateral Approximant					rh			lh

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.  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 e che!  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 "those 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 den.  I praise you two.

The passive represents the subject as acted upon.

    Molor.  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 thim	idwi?	reni	deri dim	oni?	fithi	fithi dim	ithi?
	Second	dach	rach thim	idich?	reti	deti dim	oreti?	fithiti	fithiti dim	ithiti?
	Third	ma/e	da/e thim	ida/e?	retha/e	detha/e dim	oretha/e?	fitha/e	fitha/e dim	itha/e?
Dual	First	dan	rho thim	idon?	ron	deron dim	oron?	fithon	fithon dim	ithon?
	Second	den	rhe thim	iden?	ren	deren dim	oren?	fithen	fithen dim	ithen?
	Third	man	rha thim	idan?	ran	deran dim	oran?	fithan	fithan dim	ithan?
Plural	First	dani	rani thim	idani?	rethi	deni dim	oreni?	fitheni	fitheni dim	itheni?
	Second	dachi	rachi thim	idachi?	rechi	dechi dim	orechi?	fithechi	fthechi dim	ithechi?
	Third	manu	danu thim	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 Calineg does not have one word for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ replies, but instead used modified verb forms in response to direct questions. However, they are all omitted here for the sake of clarity.

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. She is running slowly. to: Ma'n fera. She is slow.

Syntax