Verse:Mwail/Bri
Bri was the classical language of Mwail British Isles, belonging to the Keric family. In the year 4000, Bri served as a religious, ceremonial, and poetic language; it was a monosyllabic tonal language, with 24 tones realized via 24 different cantillation melodies.
The native Bri script is a right-to-left logography (lines of text go from up to down).
Phonology of 5th Millenium Bri
Initials
(The first member of each pair indicates a broad initial, the second a slender one)
- Null: 0 /ʔ j/
- Stops: b /pˠ pʲ/ d /t̪ˠ tʲ/ g /k kʲ/
- Trills: br /ʙˠ ʙʲ/ dr /rˠ r̝ʲ/ gr /ʀ ʀʲ/
- Nasals: m /mˠ mʲ/ n /n̪ˠ nʲ/ ng /ŋ ŋʲ/
- Nasal trills: mbr /ⁿʙˠ ⁿʙʲ/ ndr /ⁿrˠ ⁿr̝ʲ/ ngr /ⁿʀ ⁿʀʲ/
- Approximants: zh /ɻ ʐ/
Rimes
Nuclei: /a e i o u ə/ a/ea ae/e aoi/i o/eo u/iu w/iw (The first member of each pair indicates a broad initial, the second a slender one)
Finals: 0 bh dh gh /0 w ðˠ j/
Tones
The following lists the native names of the 24 tones:
| "Protoechesis" | "Deuteroechesis" | A (null or resonant coda) | B (glottal stop coda) | C (fricative coda) | D (voiceless stop coda) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glottalized initial (0) | (-) | dridhA0- | baeB0- | zheaC0- | goghD0- |
| (+) | mbraoiA0+ | driwdhB0+ | ndreoC0+ | dwghD0+ | |
| Modal initial (1) | (-) | eodhA1- | aoidhB1- | zhiuC1- | grughD1- |
| (+) | meaA1+ | zhobhB1+ | nebhC1+ | ngaedhD1+ | |
| Breathy initial (2) | (-) | gwA2- | braghB2- | dreC2- | dabhD2- |
| (+) | ngeadhA2+ | beghB2+ | gaoibhC2+ | ndreghD2+ |
Notes on terminology
In English, we have chosen to term the initial phonation that conditioned the first phonation-based (3-way) tone split protoechesis (from πρῶτος 'first' + ἤχησις 'sounding'). The initial phonation that conditioned the second phonation-based (2-way) tone split (which caused Bri to double its number of tones from a 12-tone stage) is called deuteroechesis; for deuteroechesis, voiceless consonants are denoted - and voiced ones are denoted +.