Brithenig
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| Brithenig | ||
|---|---|---|
| Created by: | Andrew Smith | 1996 |
| Setting and usage: | A thought experiment in alternate history, Ill Bethisad, if Latin had replaced Celtic | |
| Total speakers: | — | |
| Category (purpose): | constructed languages artistic languages alternative languages Brithenig |
|
| Category (sources): | constructed languages a posteriori languages (Romance language based on Celtic) |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | art | |
| ISO 639-3: | bzt | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
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.
Brithenig is respected among the conlang community, being the best-known example of the altlang genre. It is the first known conlang to extrapolate a real Earth language through an alternate evolution, and as such can be considered the grandfather of the genre.
Similar efforts to extrapolate Romance languages are: Breathanach (influenced by the other branch of Celtic), Wessisc, a hypothetical Germanic language influenced by contact with Old Celtic, Judajca (influenced by Hebrew) and Wenedyk (influenced by Polish).
Brithenig was granted the code BZT as part of ISO 639-3.
[edit] Example
- 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.
