Gwawd Arvorec

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Craeth 'ma e grês, crêtheac dharn,
Lwyd ta dhelw, lescys barn.
Credhyaf vy grw craeth cadarn.


This heart trembles, a scarred fist,
Grey now is your body, judgement burned.
I believe in the blood of a mighty heart.


Gwawd is a catchall term in Arvorec referring to the oral arts- poetry, literature and song. There is little if any clear distinction between these three components- some of the most complex metrical figures in Arvorec language poetry are found in songs, and poetry is often recited to musical accompaniment. However, this tripartite division will serve for the purposes of this article.

Poetry

"Poetry" is probably the most archetypical form of gwawd to the Arvorec mind. However, Arvorec poetry should not be confused with the highly stylised avant garde aperçus familiar to us from English language poetry. The Arvorchedeth have no equivalents to e.e. cummings or the Modernist poets of English literature. To the Arvorchedeth, poetry is language formulated correctly within the framework of metre.

Arvorec poetic metre is mainly made up of stress patterns, syllable counts, rhyme and alliteration. Below the three main forms of Arvorec poetry will be discussed, along with cynganeth and aes.

Cynganeth

NB: cynganeth is not the same as Welsh cynghanedd, they just both derive from the same word: *konkanijā

Broadly speaking, cynganeth can be translated as "alliteration". However, in Arvorec poetry words do not alliterate per se, syllables do. Also, a sound can alliterate with any other sound in its mutation clynedywn- thus can, gan and chan all alliterate. The table below demonstrates all possible "answers" for each permissable syllable onset:

p p b f v f f p b v
t t d th dh th th t d dh
c c g ch ch ch c g
cw cw gw chw chw chw cw gw
b b p f v v v p b f
d d t th dh dh dh t d th
g g c ch s s h
gw   gw cw chw   h h s
m m v l l r
n n w w
r r l y y

Notes:

  • Generally, v can answer m, but m cannot answer v
  • The labiovelar series can answer the velars and vice versa, although this is known as cynganeth allawngar "incomplete alliteration".
  • All vowels can answer each other, w and y in the table above only apply to consonantal uses. Thus yawn alliterates with yaeched, but neither can alliterate with ybyscob while ybyscob can alliterate with oglwyn.