Brithenig

Brithenig

language
name=Brithenig
creator=Andrew Smith
date=1996
setting=A thought experiment in alternate history, Ill Bethisad, if Latin had replaced Celtic
fam1=constructed languages
fam2=artistic languages
fam3=alternative languages
posteriori=constructed languages
a posteriori languages
(Romance language based on Celtic)
iso3=bzt

Brithenig is an invented language, or constructed language ("conlang"). It was created as a hobby in 1996 by Andrew Smith from New Zealand, who also invented the alternate history of Ill Bethisad to "explain" it.

Brithenig was not developed to be used in the real world, like Esperanto or Interlingua, nor to provide detail to a work of fiction, like J.R.R. Tolkien's Elvish tongues or Klingon from the Star Trek scenarios. Rather, Brithenig started as a thought experiment to create a Romance language that might have evolved if Latin had displaced Old Celtic as the spoken language of the people in Great Britain.

The result is a sister language to French, Spanish and Italian, albeit a test-tube child, which differs from them by having sound-changes similar to those that affected the Welsh language, and words that are borrowed from Old Celtic and from English throughout its pseudo-history. One important distinction between Brithenig and Welsh is that while Welsh is P-Celtic, Latin was a Q-Italic language (as opposed to P-Italic, like Oscan), and this trait was passed onto Brithenig.

Similar efforts to extrapolate Romance languages are: "Breathanach" (influenced by the other branch of Celtic), "Judajca" (influenced by Hebrew), "Þrjótrunn" (influenced by Icelandic) and "Wenedyk" (influenced by Polish). It has also inspired "Wessisc", a hypothetical Germanic language influenced by contact with Old Celtic.

Brithenig was granted the code BZT as part of .

Vocabulary

Most of Brithenig's vocabulary is distinctively Romance, even though it is disguised as Welsh. The following list of 30 words gives an impression of what Brithenig looks like in comparison to nine other Romance languages:

Example

The Lord's Prayer::Nustr Padr, ke sia i llo gel::sia senghid tew nôn: :gwein tew rheon: :sia ffaeth tew wolont, :syrs lla der sig i llo gel. :Dun nustr pan diwrnal a nu h-eidd; :e pharddun llo nustr phechad a nu, :si nu pharddunan llo nustr phechadur. :E ngheidd rhen di nu in ill temp di drial, :mai llifr nu di'll mal. :Per ill rheon, ill cofaeth e lla leir es ill tew, :per segl e segl. Amen.

References

* [http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0003/languages.php Higley, Sarah L., M/C Journal] Vol 3 Issue 1. Cited as example of an "a posteriori" constructed language.
* "International Encyclopedia of Linguistics", William J. Frawley, Oxford University Press (C) 2003, p. 154

External links

* [http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/introduction.html The page of Brithenig]
* [http://www.bethisad.com/ The cultures of Ill Bethisad]
* [http://www.geonames.de/wl-romance.html Romance glossary] (a list of common words in several Romance languages, including Brithenig and Wenedyk)


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  • Brithenig — Le brithenig est une langue construite. Elle a été créée en 1996, par loisir, par Andrew Smith de Nouvelle Zélande, qui a ensuite créé l uchronie d Ill Bethisad (en) afin de l expliquer. Le brithenig n a pas été inventé pour être utilisé… …   Wikipédia en Français

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  • Brithenig — noun An invented language based on the premise of Latin being influenced by Old Celtic …   Wiktionary

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  • Wenedyk — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda El wenedyk es una lengua construida de tipo naturalístico, creada por el traductor holandés Jan van Steenbergen. Oficialmente, el wenedyk es la lengua descendiente del latín vulgar con una fuerte influencia eslava… …   Wikipedia Español

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