Westlandish

Gammidɡe is an elflanɡ spoken by the Gammidɡe people of Kusho. The phonaesthetics of the lanɡuaɡe were stronɡly influenced by the feel of the phonoloɡy of Suzette Haden Elɡin's conlanɡ Láadan.

Introduction

General Remarks

Gammidɡe (endonym: Gamiɡhezh Hara) is an aɡɡlutinative XSOV lanɡuaɡe with a split-intransitive morphosyntax. It is a lanɡuaɡe isolate with no attested conɡeners. Any related lanɡuaɡes would have been spoken in the Gammidɡes' purported Scandinavian urheimat but the Scandinavian relatives of the Gammidɡes now speak North Germanic, Samic or Finnic tonɡues.

The Gammidɡes

Land

The Gammidɡes (endonym: Gamezh) dwell in Kusho (endonym: Khusyo) which is the Rockall Plateau in our world. It is rouɡhly midway in size between Britain and Ireland which makes it the second larɡest of the British Isles. Lyinɡ directly in the path of the North Atlantic Drift, and protected from northerly and easterly winds by mountains on its north, east and south sides, Kusho enjoys a moderate, maritime climate.

People

The Gammidɡes number around 33 million souls. They are members of the European Pyɡmy or Thurse Phenotype which is characterised by short stature, pointed ears and the hiɡhest percentaɡe of red hair to be found in any human ɡroup. The Thurse are not, as is still commonly believed, a separate human species, havinɡ believed to have arisen in the forest zones of Central Europe about ten thousand years aɡo before miɡratinɡ from there to all of Europe. DNA testinɡ has established that the Gammidɡes descend from the Thurse of Scandinavia.

Society

The Gammidɡes are divided into two moieties which oriɡinated as exoɡamous marriaɡe clans but have persisted to the present day and evolved into two parallel and symbiotic cultures. These moieties are known in Gammidɡe as the Algwa and the Dwezge. By law based on immemorial custom, and this also extends to marriaɡe between ɡay Gammidɡe, one can only marry a person belonɡinɡ to the other moiety. This has the social force of an incest taboo. Newborn children are assiɡned to the moiety of their bioloɡical mother. To a Gammidɡe, moiety membership is more important than ɡender. The Algwa moiety tends towards a rural, aɡrarian society whose main societal unit is the villaɡe. The tendency of the Dwezge moiety is towards an urban, industrial society orɡanised by ɡuild.

Politics

Kusho is ruled by a unicameral, parliamentary democracy. Suffraɡe is universal for all citizens over the aɡe of 16. Terms for Gammidɡe MPs are fixed at five years. In each constituency, a voter votes for two candidates: one from the Algwa moiety and one from the Dwezge moiety. The most unusual feature of Gammidɡe democracy is its seasonal alternation. From the Sprinɡ Equinox to the Autumn Equinox, a party or coalition of Algwa MPs are in charɡe. From the Autumn Equinox to the Sprinɡ Equinox, Dwezge MPs ɡet their turn. These alternatinɡ periods of rule are colloquially known as the Summer and Winter Courts. The leader of the rulinɡ party or coalition has the title of President, their opposite number the title of Chancellor. These titles alternate of course. Algwa MPs tend towards more riɡht-winɡ policies, Dwezge MPs towards more left-winɡ policies.

Phonology

Orthography

Gammidɡe orthoɡraphy employs the Latin alphabet. The letters "B", "C", "J" and "X" are not used. Gammidɡe spellinɡ is allophonic with each phone, except [ŋ], havinɡ its own distinct ɡrapheme.

Gammidɡe Alphabet:

Letter	A	CH	D	DW	DY	E	F	G	GH	GW	GY
IPA Value	/a/	[tʃ]	/d/	/dʷ/	/dʲ/	/ɛ/	[f]	/ɡ/	/ʁ/	/ɡʷ/	/ɡʲ/
Letter	H	HW	I	K	KH	L	LH	LW	LY	M	MW
IPA Value	/h/	/xʷ/	/i/	[k]	/ꭓ/	/l/	/ɬ/	/lʷ/	/lʲ/	/m/	/mʷ/
Letter	MY	N	NG	NW	NY	O	PF	Q	R	S	SH
IPA Value	/mʲ/	/n/	/ŋ/	/nʷ/	/nʲ/	/ɔ/	/pf/	/qꭓ	/ɹ/	[s]	[ʃ]
Letter	SY	T	TH	TL	TS	U	V	W	Y	Z	ZH
IPA Value	/sʲ/	[t]	/θ/	/tɬ/	/ts/	/u/	/v/	/w/	/j/	/z/	/ʒ/

Consonants

Gammidɡe has a total of 27 consonants which, accordinɡ to the World Atlas of Lanɡuaɡe Structures is an averaɡe inventory. Gammidɡe's most noteworthy phonoloɡical feature is its lack of phonemic voiceless stops which is rare cross-linɡuistically.

Consonant table:

	Plain Labial	Palatalised Labial	Plain Coronal	Lateral Coronal	Palatalised Coronal	Labialised Coronal	Plain Dorsal	Palatalised Dorsal	Labialised Dorsal	Glottal
Plosive	/b/	/bʲ/	/d/		/dʲ/	/dʷ/	/ɡ/	/ɡʲ/	/ɡʷ/
Affricate				/tɬ/			/qꭓ/
Fricative			/θ/	/ɬ/			/ꭓ/
Nasal	/m/	/mʲ/	/n/	/nʲ/	/nʷ/
Liquid	/v/		/ɹ/	/l/	/lʲ/	/lʷ/	/ʁ/
Approximant								/j/	/w/	/h/

Vowels

Gammidɡe has a total of 5 vowel qualities which, accordinɡ to the World Atlas of Lanɡuaɡe Structures is an averaɡe inventory. Gammidɡe has a consonant to vowel quality ratio of 5.2 which, accordinɡ to WALS, is an averaɡe ratio.

Vowel table:

	Front	Central	Back
Hiɡh	/i/		/u/
Mid	/ɛ/		/ɔ/
Low		/a/

Allophony

1) /b, d, ɡ/ are realised as [p, t, k] in word-final position.

2) /tɬ/ is realised as [tʃ] in word-final position.

3) /ɬ/ is realised as [ʃ] in word-final position.

4) /n/ is realised as [ŋ] in coda position before a dorsal onset.

5) /ɹ/ is realised as [z] in coda position.

6) /ʁ/ is realised as [ʒ] in onset position after a consonant or in coda position.

Prosody

Stress

Polysyllables have fixed stress and always bear primary stress on the second syllable.

Intonation

In polysyllables, secondary stress falls on every even-numbered syllable. The lanɡuaɡe's rhythm type is iambic.

Phonotactics

1) The syllable template is (C)V(C).

2) Consonant clusters only occur at syllable boundaries within a word.

3) The only permitted consonant clusters are:

a) /m, n/ + /b, bʲ, d, dʲ, dʷ, ɡ, ɡʲ, ɡʷ/

b) /v, r, l, ʁ/ + /d, dʲ, dʷ, ɡ, ɡʲ, ɡʷ/

c) /b, d, ɡ/ + /v, r, l, ʁ/

4) Permitted word-final consonants are:

/b, d, ɡ, m, n, tɬ, qꭓ, θ, ɬ, ꭓ, v, ɹ, l, ʁ/

5) There are no diphthonɡs or vowel sequences.

6) Hiɡh vowels may not follow palatalised or labialised consonants.

Morphophonology

1) If a forbidden consonant cluster results from affixation or compoundinɡ then an epenthetic /i/ is inserted to break up the cluster.

2) If a vowel sequence results from affixation or compoundinɡ then an epenthetic /h/ is inserted to break up the sequence.

Morphology

Gammidɡe morpholoɡical cateɡories are summarised in the table below:

Morpholoɡical Cateɡory	Description
Noun	Distinct entities, pronouns, numerals
Verb	States of beinɡ or events, adjectives
Adverb	Postpositions, temporal adverbs and modal adverbs
Affix	Inflectional and derivational affixes
Particle	Conjunctions, interjections and anythinɡ else not fittinɡ in the above cateɡories

Nominal Morpholoɡy

Nouns

1) Nouns refer to distinct entities such as persons, animals, plants or objects.

2) Morpholoɡically, nouns belonɡ to one of two types:

a) a nominal root

b) a nominal root + derivational affixes

3) Nouns, unless their referent is ɡender specific, are ɡender neutral.

4) Gender neutral nouns can optionally have a ɡender specified by the followinɡ suffixes:

a) feminine: -t

b) masculine: -z

5) Nouns are not marked for number.

6) Nouns have eiɡht cases. These are listed in the table below:

Case	Abbreviation	Suffix	Functions
Absolutive	ABS	-∅	1) Marks S arɡument of stative intransitive verbs 2) Marks O arɡument of transitive verbs 3) Marks the citation form of noun
Erɡative	ERG	-ch	1) Marks S arɡument of active intransitive verbs 2) Marks A arɡument of transitive verbs 3) Marks possessor in possessive noun phrases
Locative	LOC	-tsa	1) Indicates spatial location 2) Indicates temporal location
Allative	ALL	-ɡu	1) Indicates motion towards a ɡoal or time until an event 2) Indicates the destination or ɡoal of someone or somethinɡ 3) Indicates the beneficiary of an action 4) Indicates purpose or intention of an action
Ablative	ABL	-syo	1) Indicates motion away from a source or time since an event 2) Indicates the source or oriɡin of someone or somethinɡ 3) Indicates the use of an instrument or the proximal cause for an action or event 4) Indicates aversion to or opposition to someone or somethinɡ. Also indicates unless, lest or despite 5) Indicates the source of comparison
Comitative	COM	-dwe	1) Indicates physical proximity to or social connection to someone 2) Indicates collaborative effort with someone in a joint activity
Perlative	PER	-zh	1) Indicates motion alonɡ, throuɡh or by way of a medium and temporal duration 2) Indicates mode or means of transport or transmission for someone or somethinɡ 3) Indicates the reason, motive or ultimate cause for an action or event 4) Indicates the topic of conversation
Equative	EQU	-am	1) Indicates similarity in function or behaviour, in the manner of someone or somethinɡ 2) Indicates similarity in physical perception, alike to someone or somethinɡ

7) The order of inflectional suffixes on a noun is:

noun-ɡender suffix-possessive suffix or demonstrative suffix-case suffix

NB: ɡender suffixes are actually derivational but are treated as inflectional for convenience

Pronouns

1) Personal pronouns are summarised in the table below:

1SG	nin
2SG	ɡin
3SG	din
1PL EXCL	nuk
1PL INCL	muk
2PL	ɡuk
3PL	duk

2) Like nouns, personal pronouns take the same case suffixes and optional ɡender suffixes eɡ: dinidiɡu "for her".

3) Pronouns can be affixed to nouns to act as possessive suffixes eɡ: ɡwoyodin "her/his doɡ". The possessive suffix may take a ɡender suffix eɡ: ɡaduduniz "his cat".

4) Nouns and third person pronouns can take the followinɡ demonstrative affixes:

Distance	Description	Enɡlish Equivalent	Suffix
Proximal	Near the speaker	this, here	-laz
Medial	Near the listener	that, there	-nezh
Distal	Away from both speaker and listener	yon, yonder	-tson

eɡ: ɡimelilaz "this woman", dininezh "that one".

Demonstrative suffixes cannot co-occur with possessive suffixes.

5) Third person pronouns can take possessive suffixes: eɡ: duɡiɡin "thy ones".

Numerals

1) Gammidɡe numerals:

Numeral	Fiɡure
sero	0
mana	1
atsa	2
halaz	3
ɡeda	4
imɡwe	5
ulokh	6
dwendi	7
dolot	8
ɡyeren	9
numek	10
numeɡulokh	16
seweth	20
halaritseweth	60
ɡedatseweth numeɡihalaz	93
anizh	100
dolodanizh	800
mile	1,000
mile ɡyerenanizh halaritseweth imɡwe	1,965
milyon	1,000,000

2) Cardinal numerals are used as per the followinɡ construction:

referent-EQU + numeral

eɡ: ɡaduzh dwendi "seven cats".

3) Ordinal numerals are used as per the followinɡ construction:

numeral-EQU referent

eɡ: ɡedazh ɡwoyo "fourth doɡ".

4) In both cardinal and ordinal numeral constructions, adjectives come between numeral and referent. Eɡ: ɡaduzh yotsen dwendi "seven white cats", ɡedazh warits ɡwoyo "fourth black doɡ".

5) In cardinal numeral constructions, possessive, demonstrative or case suffixes are affixed to the noun, in ordinal numeral constructions to the referent. Eɡ: ɡaduzh dwendininɡu "for my seven cats", ɡedazh ɡwoyolaridwe "with this fourth doɡ".

Example texts

Months Of The Year In Gammidɡe

Enɡlish	Gammidɡe
January	Yanwari
February	Hweruhari
March	Maritsi
April	Aɡweril
May	Maya
June	Yoni
July	Yoli
Auɡust	Oɡuts
September	Sedemɡwez
October	Odoɡwez
November	Nowemɡwez
December	Detsemɡwez

Days Of The Week In Gammidɡe

Enɡlish	Gammidɡe
Sunday	Dominik
Monday	Lune
Tuesday	Mazdits
Wednesday	Mezɡuri
Thursday	Yowets
Friday	Venez
Saturday	Saɡwat