Mutation Like Welsh and other Celtic languages, initial
consonant mutations (
cluinediwn, lit. "declensions") in Brithenig is an important feature. Three mutations exist: soft (
moillad), spirant (
solwed), and nasal (
naral). Soft mutation are used with feminine nouns, adjectives, verbs, change in word order, after an adverb, and prepositions
di "of, from" and
gwo "under". Spirant mutation are used for marking plurals on nouns, adjective, and verbs, but also after prepositions
tra "through" and
a "to, at", and the conjunction
mai "but". Nasal mutation are used after the negative adverb used to negate verbs
rhen, and prepositions
in "in" and
cun "with". Before a vowel, the prepositions
a "to, at" and
e "and" irregularly became
a-dd and
e-dd.
Nouns and adjectives Gender in Brithenig nouns is lexical and unpredictable, as it obscured by historic sound changes. The indefinite article in Brithenig is
ynx "one". Unlike Welsh with unpredictably-formed plurals, Brithenig has no dedicated separate plural suffix, thus, the singular and plural forms are almost always invariable (similar to
transnumeral languages such as
Indonesian and
Korean). Instead, the plural definite article is generally placed before the noun (
lla gas,
llo chas), but yet some exceptions to this rule exist. Exceptions include the plural of
(ill) of "man",
(llo) h-on; and some plurals that formed by placing feminine singular definite article before it with spirant lenition (
ill bordd,
lla fordd).
Dual forms of natural pairs (e.g. arms, legs), however, have their own prefix and formed by prefixing
dew- "two" to the nouns. The similar feature also occurs in
Breton. Diminutives and augmentatives are derived by suffixing
-ith (usual)/
-in (affection/collective) and
-un, respectively.
Pronouns The third person has no distinction of numbers, but can be indicated by spirant lenition on succeeding nominals or verbs (before singulars the mutation is not used). Unlike nouns, pronouns are not just inflected for numbers, but also grammatical cases. Like many languages, Brithenig has a
T–V distinction, with
ty being used for addressing people whom the speaker is familiar with or gods, while
Gw is used when speaking to a stranger or a less familiar or more formal acquaintance (with capitals). Before feminine nouns, the succeeding noun(s) exhibit soft mutation, while before plural the noun(s) exhibit spirant mutation. When mutated,
ty and
ti irregularly become
dyx to avoid confusion with
di "of". Unlike Welsh, Brithenig makes fewer use of
inflected prepositions, and such prepositions only found in the word
cun "with":
Verbs Similar to
Spanish and
Portuguese, Brithenig verbs are divided into 3 conjugations according to their infinitive endings:
-ar (
canhar "to sing"),
-er (
perdder "to lose"), and
-ir (
dorfir "to sleep") (note that the final
-r are usually
silent). Brithenig is a non-
null-subject language, that is, it requires pronouns before the verb forms (
ys cant "he sings"). Note that the stem's final consonants also undergo lenition, but also unvoiced final stop consonants become voiced in the imperfect, past definite, and subjunctive past plurals; future, and conditional forms (that in verbs like
canhar those also undergo mutation as well). Subjunctive forms nowadays only survive in fixed phrases, like
can in Rhufein, ffâ si llo Rhufan ffeigant "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". Also in subjunctive present forms, final vowels are affected by i-affection (except in
-ar verbs where it only happen in plural forms):
Regular verbs Irregular verbs While the Brithenig conjugation is mostly regular, there are some irregular verbs. In past definite tense, some verbs have s-stem preterite originating from Latin perfect tenses in
-x- or
-s- (
eo ddis from
diger "to say" for example): In past participles, instead of regular forms, some verbs have irregular participles inherited from Latin
supines in
-tum (
facere, factum →
fager, faeth "to do"),
-sum (
claudere, clausum →
clodder, clos "to close"), or even combinations of them (
vidēre, *vistum →
gwidder, gwist "to see"). Some verbs also have irregular imperative forms, either by lengthening the last vowel and deleting last consonant (only in the case of familiar imperatives,
diger,
dî,
digeth), or taking forms from subjunctive (
saber,
seib,
seibeth). The verb
gweddir "to go", where it comes from
Latin vadō but it is not suppleted with other verbs, has irregularities in the present tense:
eo wa,
tu wa,
ys wa,
sa wa,
nu wan,
gw wath,
ys/sa want.
Most irregular verbs Irregular forms are underlined. Syntax The default word order in Brithenig is
subject–verb–object (SVO), overall syntax is similar to
French but unlike Welsh. However, when the verb coexists with an object pronoun the word order changes to
subject–object–verb. The word order for yes–no questions is
verb–subject–object (
gw pharolath Brithenig "you speak Brithenig" vs. ''parola'gw Frithenig?'' "are you speaking Brithenig?"). == Vocabulary ==