[Spellyans] Normalization of words in -ak and -ek

[Michael Everson]

On 23 May 2009, at 20:41, nicholas williams wrote:

> perhennek is attested, perhenogyon isn't. I should prefer perhednek,  
> perhenegyon.

Alas this word is one of the more troubling ones.

Bêwnans Meryasek -ek
perhennek

Bêwnans Ke -ak
berhennak

Gendall -ak, -egyon, -ogeth, --, --, --, --
perhednak 'owner' pl perhenegian
perhenogath 'ownership' (W perchenogaeth)

Kennedy -ak, -ogyon -egeth, --, --, --, --
perhednak, perhednogion
perhenegath

Nance -ek, -ogyon, -ogeth, -egy, --, --, --
perghenek, perghenogyon
perghenogeth
perghenegy 'to claim, to own'

Williams -ek, -ogyon, -ogeth, -egy, -ogyl, -eges, -egesow,
perhenek, perhenogyon
perhenogeth, perhennogeth
perhenegy, perhennegy 'to annex'
perhenegyans 'annexation'
perhenogyl 'proprietary'
perheneges 'landlady', perhenegesow

George -ek, -ogyon, -ogeth, -ogi, --, --, --
perghennek, perghennogyon
perghennogeth
perghennogi 'to claim'

Even amongst Revivalists there is little agreement.

And in the corpus there is much mixing with other words.
PA bohosogyon
PC voghesegyon

OM varthogyon
RD marthegyon

Tally:
-ek BM UC UCR KK
-egyon DG
-egeth NK
-egy UCR
-eges UCR
-egesow UCR

-ak BK DG NK
-ogyon NK UC UCR KK
-ogeth DG UC UCR KK
-ogy KK
-ogyl UCR

On balance I suggest the following normalization:

KS -ak, -ogyon, -ogeth, -egy, -ogyl, -oges, -ogesow,
perhennak, perhenogyon
perhenogeth
perhenegy (this suffix seems to be only attested as -egy in the corpus)*
perhenogyans
perhenogyl
perhenoges, perhenogesow (fems. best attested in UCR and mostly -oges)

*cf KK muskok, muskogyon, muskogneth, muskogenn, but muskegi; George's  
use of -ogi elsewhere is pure invention.


Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com/