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:

Native names of tones

Proto-Keric initial phonation	Deuteroechesis	A (null or resonant coda)	B (glottal stop coda)	C (fricative coda)	D (voiceless stop coda)
Glottalized (0)	Voiceless (-)	dridhA0-	baeB0-	zheaC0-	goghD0-
	Voiced (+)	mbraoiA0+	driwdhB0+	ndreoC0+	dwghD0+
Modal (1)	Voiceless (-)	eodhA1-	aoidhB1-	zhiuC1-	grughD1-
	Voiced (+)	meaA1+	zhobhB1+	nebhC1+	ngaedhD1+
Breathy (2)	Voiceless (-)	gwA2-	braghB2-	dreC2-	dabhD2-
	Voiced (+)	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 +. We'll use the term deuteroechesis more because protoechesis is transparent in Proto-Keric.