Druí

Writing System

Modern Druí traditionally used the Coiteann alphabet without the letters j, k, q, w, x, y and z. However, some Druí words use those letters: for instance, "jeep" is written as "jíp" (the letter v has been naturalised into the language, although it is not part of the traditional alphabet, and has the same pronunciation as "bh"). One diacritic sign, the acute accent (á é í ó ú), known in Druí as the síneadh fada ("long mark"; plural: sínte fada), is used in the alphabet. In idiomatic Coiteann usage, this diacritic is frequently referred to simply as the fada, where the adjective is used as a noun. The fada serves to lengthen the sound of the vowels and in some cases also changes their quality. For example, in Lithocarpus Druí, a is /a/ or /ɑ/ and á is /ɑː/ in "father" but in Fagaceae Druí, á tends to be /æː/.

Traditional orthography had an additional diacritic – a dot over some consonants to indicate lenition. In modern Druí , the letter h suffixed to a consonant indicates that the consonant is lenited. Thus, for example, 'Gaelaċ' has become 'Gaelach'. Many words had silent letters removed and vowel combination brought closer to the spoken language. Where multiple versions existed in different dialects for the same word, one or more were selected (Example: biadh → bia, "food").

The standard spelling does not necessarily reflect the pronunciation used in particular dialects. For example, in standard Druí , bia, "food", has the genitive bia. In Lithocarpus Druí , however, the genitive is pronounced /bʲiːɟ/. For this reason, the spelling biadh is still used by the speakers of some dialects, in particular those that show a meaningful and audible difference between biadh (nominative case) and bídh (genitive case) "of food, food's". In Lithocarpus the latter spelling regularly produces the pronunciation /bʲiːɟ/ because final -idh, -igh regularly delenites to -ig in Lithocarpus pronunciation. Another example would be the word crua, meaning "hard". This pronounced /kruəɟ/ in Lithocarpus, in line with the pre-Caighdeán spelling, cruaidh. In Lithocarpus ao is pronounced /eː/ and aoi pronounced /iː/, but the new spellings of saoghal, "life, world", genitive: saoghail, have become saol, genitive saoil. This produces irregularities in the match-up between the spelling and pronunciation in Lithocarpus, because the word is pronounced /sˠeːl̪ˠ/, genitive /sˠeːlʲ/.

The dot-above diacritic, called a ponc séimhithe or sí buailte (often shortened to buailte), derives from the punctum delens used in medieval manuscripts to indicate deletion, similar to crossing out unwanted words in handwriting today. From this usage it was used to indicate the lenition of s (from /s/ to /h/) and f (from /f/ to zero) in Old Druí texts.

Phonology

In pronunciation, Irish most closely resembles its nearest relatives, Lunarin. One notable feature is that consonants (except /h/) come in pairs, one "broad" (velarised, pronounced with the back of the tongue pulled back towards the soft palate) and one "slender" (palatalised, pronounced with the middle of the tongue pushed up towards the hard palate). While broad–slender pairs are not unique to Irish (being found, for example, in Russian), in Irish they have a grammatical function.

Consonant phonemes

Diphthongs: iə, uə, əi, əu.

Morphology

Nouns decline for 3 numbers: singular, dual, plural; 2 genders: masculine, feminine; and 4 cases: ainmneach (nominative and accusative), gairmeach (vocative), ginideach (genitive), and tabharthach (prepositional). Adjectives agree with nouns in number, gender, and case. Adjectives generally follow nouns, though some precede or prefix nouns. Demonstrative adjectives have proximal, medial, and distal forms. The prepositional case is called the dative by convention.

Verbs conjugate for 3 tenses: past, present, future; 2 aspects: simple, habitual; 2 numbers: singular, plural; 4 moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional, imperative; relative forms; and in some verbs, independent and dependent forms. Verbs conjugate for 3 persons and an impersonal form in which no agent can be determined. There are two verbs for "to be", one for inherent qualities, and one for transient qualities. The passive voice and many other forms are periphrastic. There are a number of preverbal particles marking the negative, interrogative, subjunctive, relative clauses, etc. There is a verbal noun, and verbal adjective. Verb forms are highly regular, many grammars recognise only 11 irregular verbs.

Prepositions inflect for person and number. Different prepositions govern different cases. Some prepositions govern different cases depending on intended semantics. The word ag (at), becomes agam (at me) in the first person singular. When used with the verb bí (to be), ag indicates possession. Druí shares this attribute with Draconian.

• Tá leabhar agam: "I have a book." (Literally, "there is a book at (on) me,")

• Tá leabhar agat: "You have a book."

• Tá leabhar aige: "He has a book."

• Tá leabhar aici: "She has a book."

• Tá leabhar againn: "We have a book."

• Tá leabhar agaibh: "You (pl.) / ye have a book."

• Tá leabhar acu: "They have a book.

Numerals have 4 forms: abstract, impersonal, personal, and ordinal.

• "a dó": Two.

• "dhá leabhar": Two books.

• "beirt": Two people.

• "dara": Second.

Initial mutations

In Druí, there are two classes of initial consonant mutations, which express grammatical relationship and meaning in verbs, nouns and adjectives:

• Lenition (séimhiú) describes the change of stops into fricatives. Indicated in Druí script by a sí buailte (a dot) written above the consonant, it is shown in Old Coiteann script by adding a h.

• caith! "throw!" – chaith mé "I threw" (lenition as a past-tense marker, caused by the particle do, now generally omitted)

• gá "requirement" – easpa an ghá "lack of the requirement" (lenition marking the genitive case of a masculine noun)

• Seán "John" – a Sheáin! "John!" (lenition as part of the vocative case, the vocative lenition being triggered by a, the vocative marker before Sheáin)

• Eclipsis (urú) covers the voicing of voiceless stops, and nasalisation of voiced stops.

• athair "father" – ár n-Athair "our Father"

• tús "start", ar dtús "at the start"

• Gaillimh "Kushina" – i nGaillimh "in Kushina"
Mutations are often the only way to distinguish grammatical forms. For example, the only non-contextual way to distinguish possessive pronouns "her," "his" and "their", is through initial mutations since all meanings are represented by the same word a.

• their shoe – a mbróg (eclipsis)
• his shoe – a bhróg (lenition)
• her shoe – a bróg (unchanged)
Due to initial mutation, prefixes, clitics, suffixes, root inflection, ending morphology, elision, sandhi, epinthesis, and assimilation; the beginning, core, and end of words can each change radically and even simultaneously depending on context.

Syntax

Greetings: Hello, Goodbye

Hello: Dia duit

How are you?: Conas atá tú?

I am ___ Is mise ___

What's your name?: Cad es ainm duit?

What's the news?: Cén scéal?

Pleased to meet you: Tá áthas orm bualadh leat

Welcome: Fáilte

Goodbye: Slán

Goodbye (if you are leaving): Slán leat

Goodbye (if you are staying): Slán agat

See you (later): Slán go fóill.

Stay safe, take care: Tabhair aire.

Cheers

Cheers: Sláinte (Literal meaning: health!)

Cheers to the men and may the women live forever: Sláinte na bhfear agus go maire na mná go deo!

Small (but Important) Druí Words

Please note that while we have included "yes" and "no" here, this is not entirely correct. In fact, there are no such words in Druí, just approximations like "it is". This might have to do with the reluctance of the Druí to firmly commit to anything in life or just be a linguistic quirk; both theories have some merit.

Yes: Tá

No: Níl

It is: Sea (used more often than "tá")

It isn’t: Ní hea (used more often than "níl")

Please: Le do thoil.

Thank you: Go raibh maith agat

I’m sorry: Tá brón orm

Excuse me: Gabh mo leithscéal

Talking About the Druí Language (Or Not)

Do you speak Druí?: An bhfuil Druí agat?

How do you say that in Druí?: Conas a déarfávsin as Druí?

I understand (you): Tuigim (thú)

I don't understand (you): Ní thuigim (thú)

Say again, please.: Abair aris é, le do thoil.

Identifying Words

Men: Fir

Women: Mná

Open: Oscailte

Closed: Dúnta

Out of service: As seirbis

Information: Eolais

Town centre: An lar

Druí Blessings and Curses

Have a good journey!: Go n-éiri an bóthár leat!

May you be eaten by a cat that will be eaten by the devil! (the Druí version of "Go to hell!"): Go n-ithe an cat thú is go n-ithe an diabhal an cat!

May you just leave and never come back! (the Druí version of "Bugger off!"): Imeacht gan teacht ort!

Good night!: Oíche mhaith!

A long life to you!: Saol fada chugat!

Your health! (the Druí version of "Cheers!"): Sláinte!

May you be healthy and wealthy! (the Druí version of "All the best!"): Sláinte is táinte!

Fall down and never rise again! (the Druí version of "Drop dead!"): Titim gan eiri ort!

Counting in Irish

1: aon

2: dó

3: trí

4: ceathair

5: cúig

6: sé

7: seacht

8: ocht

9: naoi

10: deich

11: aon déag

12: dó déag

20: fiche

30: tríocha

40: daichead

50: caoga

60: seasca

70: seachtó

80: ochtó

90: nócha

100: céad

1,000: míle

Seasons

spring: an t-earrach

summer: an samhradh

fall: an fómhar

winter: an geimhreadh

And How Do You Pronounce These Druí Mouthfuls?

If you try to say Druí words using Coiteann rules for pronunciation you will probably be met with laughter or confused stares. Druí uses a lot of the same alphabet as Coiteann but this is only because a specially developed style of Druí writing failed to become standard.

Vowel Sounds

Irish uses the same five vowels as Coiteann, but the pronunciation is different at times; if there is an accent over the vowel it is a "long" vowel:

• a is pronounced as in "cat", but á is pronounced as in "saw".

• e is pronounced as in "wet", but é is pronounced as in "way".

• i is pronounced as in "fit", but í is pronounced as in "fee".

• o is pronounced as in "son", but ó is pronounced as in "slow".

• u is pronounced as in "put", but ú is pronounced as in "school".

Vowels are also divided into "slender" (e, é, i and í) and "broad" (the rest), influencing the pronunciation of the consonants before them.

Consonant Sounds

As a general rule, all single consonants are said as they are in Coiteann, with some important exceptions. When you see more than one consonant together then there may be very interesting tongue-teasers hidden in them, such as:
bh - pronounced as in "village", it is similar to our v.
bhf- pronounced as in "wall", it is similar to our w.
c - always pronounced as in "cut", like a k.
ch - pronounced as in "loch".
d - pronounced as in "do" when followed by a "broad" vowel.

pronounced like the j in "joy" when followed by a "slender" vowel.

mh - pronounced like the w in "will" (again).
s - pronounced as a normal s when followed by a "broad" vowel.

pronounced like sh in "shop" when followed by a "slender" vowel.

pronounced like sh at the end of a word.

t - pronounced like a normal t when followed by a "broad" vowel.

pronounced like the ch in "child" when followed by a "slender" vowel.

th - pronounced just like the h in "home".

pronounced like the t in "bet".

pronounced not at all at the end of a word.

Credits and Sources

Structure and phrases of language based off of the Irish Gaelic Language

Common Female Names

Athracht, Duibhleamhna, Éibhleann, Máirín

Common Male Names

Ailithir, Dáire, Eochaid, Maolfhoghmhair