Arvorec

Indo-European Languages
Celtic Languages
Central			Peripheral
Gallo-Brythonic		Lepontic	Goidelic	Celtiberian
Brythonic ↓ Manoeg	Gaulish ↓ Armorican ↓ Arvorec		Old Irish ↓ Gaeilg

Arvorec is a language of the Gallo-Brythonic branch of the Celtic family, spoken natively in the Armorican Isles by around 130,000 people and in several overseas expatriate communities, particularly in Brittany, Kemr and Louisianne.

Arvorec is a direct descendant of fourth century Aremorican Gaulish, from which almost 80% of the language's vocabulary is derived, either through native inheritance or via reborrowing of ancient Gaulish words (such as cerda "work collective"). The first written records in a distinguishably "Arvorec" form of the language date to the seventh century.

Currently, the language is regulated by the Cadh an Yêth, a subsection of the Isles' bardic college. During the eighteenth century, a group of Armorican literati bemoaned the increasing use of loan-words in the language and set upon a policy of re-Celticising the language, proposing neologisms based on native roots or reborrowing from Gaulish to replace many of the Romance loans. The changes were largely adopted by the public, with only the domain of Christianity remaining largely unaffected.

Still today the preservation of the native language is taken seriously by the Arvorchedeth, rather than borrow foreign words for new concepts, new words are diligently created for public use from native sources (for example the Arvorec word for "computer" is rêvyth, from rêf "number" and the suffix -yth, denoting a tool.

Arvorec shares with its parent Gaulish the status of an official language of the Armorican Isles. While both are technically fully equal, Arvorec is the daily language of government, and laws are drafted in Arvorec. However, all laws are translated into Gaulish and the Isles' constitution is written in both Gaulish and Arvorec (with the Gaulish version taking precedence in Arvorec jurisprudence).

There are four major dialects spoken within the Isles themselves: Ceyserec on Ceyser, Saernec on Saern and Gosaera, Rydonec on Rydon and Serchec on Serch. It is said that Serchec is the most archaic and the closest to the formal literary standard and that Rydonec is the most innovative, having borrowed many features from the Normand dialect of the nearby Cotentin peninsula.

100-Word Swadesh List

I	you	we	this	that	who?	what?	no	all	a lot
my	ty	ny	homma	honna	pwy?	pa beth?	na	pawb	lwydh
[mi]	[ti]	[ni]	[hom'ma]	[hon'na]	[pwi]	[p@'beT]	[na]	[paub]	[lujD]
one	two	big	long	small	human	man	woman	fish	bird
wn	daw	mawr	hŷr	bych	denyth	dyn	bean	pysc	adaeryn
[u:n]	[d@u]	[m@ur]	[hi:r]	[bix]	['deniT]	[din]	[b&an]	[pisk]	[a'd@irin]
dog	louse	tree	seed	leaf	root	(tree-)bark	skin	meat	blood
cy	low	tanen	had	delen	gwrêth	rosc	crochen	cych	crw
[ki]	[lO:]	['tanen]	[had]	['delen]	[g_wre:T]	[rosk]	['kroxen]	[kix]	[kru:]
bone	(body-)fat	egg	head	horn	tail	feather	hair	ear	eye
cneyf	tew	aw	pen	carn	lâs	edaf	golth	clws	lagad
[kneif]	[teu]	[@u]	[pen]	[karn]	[la:s]	['edaf]	[golT]	[klu:s]	['lagad]
nose	mouth	tooth	tongue	(finger-)nail	leg	knee	hand	stomach	neck
trwyn	gen	dant	tavod	tarenc	câs	glŷn	law	târ	menygel
[trujn]	[gen]	[dan]	['tavod]	['tareNk]	[ka:s]	[gli:n]	[l@u]	[ta:r]	['menigel]
breast	heart	liver	to drink	to eat	to bite	to see	to hear	to know	to sleep
wth	craeth	avw	yfed	debry	tava	gweled	clywed	gwydha	hýny
[u:T]	[kr@iT]	['avu:]	['ifed]	['debri]	['tava]	['g_weled]	['kliwed]	[g_wujDa]	['h1ni]
to die	to kill	to swim	to fly	to go	to come	to lie (down)	to sit	to stand	to give
merwy	ladhon	naedhy	naedya	myned	dyvyned	cyvydha	hedhed	savael	rodhy
['merwi]	['laDon]	['n@iDi]	['n@idja]	['mined]	[di'vined]	[ki'viDa]	['heDed]	[sa'v@il]	['roDi]
to say	sun	moon	star	water	rain	stone	sand	earth	cloud
heby	hawl	lôr	seren	dwr	glaw	carrec	aeryn	talaf	nwyl
['hebi]	[h@ul]	[lo:r]	['seren]	[du:r]	[gl@u]	['karek]	['@irin]	['talaf]	[nujl]
smoke	fire	ash	to burn	road	mountain	red	green	yellow	white
mŷch	tan	lwdw	lescy	camyn	myneth	rwth	glas	beth	gwyn
[mi:x]	[tan]	['lu:du:]	['leski]	['kamin]	['mineT]	[ru:T]	[glas]	[beT]	[g_win]
black	night	hot	cold	full	new	good	round	dry	name
du	nos	twym	ôr	lawn	newyth	da	cylchec	tarth	anw
[du]	[nos]	[trujm]	[o:r]	[l@un]	['newiT]	[da]	['kilxik]	[tarT]	[anu:]