Anathic

Anathic (Á h-Ænæþ, pronounced [oɑ ˈhanaθ] in Anathic) is an artlang created by Rhian Davies in February 2012. Its grammar is a priori but it has an a posteriori vocabulary with influences from Old English and the Celtic and Nordic languages. Anathic is spoken in Hoyer (Á h-Ór in Anathic), a fictional island continent in the Denit world. It is the native language of approximately 300,000 people.

Orthography

Anathic is written using the following alphabet:

Aa Ææ Bb Cc Çç Dd Ðð Ee Vv Ff Gg Ȝȝ Ŋŋ Hh Ii Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Rr Ss Tt Þþ Uu Wω Yy Ɛə

Anathic uses two diacritics: the grave for irregular stress and acute for long vowels or syllabic nasals - long vowels in Old Anathic will be shown using the macron, while irregular stress will not be written. New orthographies will be created along with future dialectal variations.

Phonology

Stress usually falls on the penultimate syllable; irregular stress is shown with a grave marker:

• sylvə ['sɪɫ.və] (a forest)
• əsylv [ə'sɪɫv] (the forest)
• èrsylvə ['ɛrsɪɫvə] (the edge of a forest)

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b			t d		k g
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s	(ʃ)	x ɣ	h
Nasal	m (mʰ)			n (nʰ)		ŋ (ŋʰ)
Trill				r (rʰ)
Approximant				ɫ	j	w

(Allophones in parentheses)

Vowels

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u:
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Open	a		ɑ

Diphthongs

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ui	iə
Mid	ɛi, oe	əʉ	oɑ~oə, eo
Open	ai

Diphthongs are either written with acute accents or as digraphs: <úy> <í> <é> <oe> <ó> <á> <eo> <ý>

Grammar

Word order is mainly VSO, but OVS can also be used.

Morphology

Noun Class

There are three noun classes in Anathic: Núyæn (sky; aether), Gúyrur (flow) and Celəsə (solidity).

• Núyæn nouns are celestial or abstract concepts. These are marked with the suffix -æn (plural -ýn) or -na:
  • niolæn (night sky); æþæn (language); æmbrna (yellowness)
• Gúyrur nouns are related to fluids, movement, time or change and are marked with the suffix -ur (plural -úyr):
  • treorur (blood); cómur (step); glómur (twilight; dusk); émsur (season).
• Celəsə nouns are any animate or inanimate object that may be experienced directly with the senses. These are marked with the suffix -ə (plural -æ):
  • gerþə (arm); borə (table); úylə (owl).

Adjectives

Anathic has a rather complex adjective system which includes vowel mutation according to speaker attitude. All adjectives have a neutral base vowel which mutates, depending on whether the speaker is using the description positively or negatively. The Colour class may refer to any shade or colour (glæm - dark; rúybæ - pink); Emotive refers to any subjective adjective or emotional state (þeglyn - beautiful, handsome, pretty; mestys - condemned, damned, cursed); State adjectives are those referring to texture, taste, size, form etc (húr - long; múð - soft; læscú - juicy).

Class	Neutral	Positive	Negative
Colour	æ	ý	á
Emotive	y	í	u
State	ú	í	ə́

Example:

• Dryc - 'bad' (Neutral, used in an unbiased news report); Dríc (Positive, meaning 'so bad it's good'); Druc (Negative - extremely bad, wrong, evil.)