Difference between revisions of "Nordaþ"

Revision as of 17:58, 31 July 2005

The Nordaþ language is a Germanic language spoken in Terra Matsu, and parts of Kart-Hadašt and Mitsujiya. There are about 4 billion speakers, most of which live in Terra Matsu.

Phonology

See Nordaþ phonology

Grammar

The order of words in a sentence are not determined by individual word functions but instead are unlocked, that is to say, words can be arranged in any order within a clause and be understood as determined by the speaker. Nordaþ exhibits fusional behaviour in verb inflection, but agglutinative behaviour in nouns. It can only best be classified generally as a synthetic language.

Vowel Harmony

Nordaþ is unique from all other Germanic (and PIE) languages in the fact that it has vowel harmony. Vowel harmony was inherited from the neighbouring language Säämi. In Nordaþ, there are three types of vowels: Front (ä, e, ë, i, ö, y), middle (ï, ai, äu, oi), and back (a, o, u). Front vowels cannot under any circumstance appear with a back vowel, though they can appear with each other and middle vowels (same for back vowels). Affixes to words in Nordaþ must also follow vowel harmony according to the word they are inflecting. Affixes will have either front/neutral forms, or neutral/back forms. It is improper for a front-vowel word to take a middle affix if it could take a front affix instead - the same is true of back-vowelled words. However, a word with all middle vowels will take a front-vowel affix.

Nouns

Nouns are given their function by suffixes attached to the stem, of which 21 cases and 23 "prepositional cases" are used to give the stem its noun role. Other suffixes, however, attach to the stem before the main case suffixes - these are used to indicate such things as the one which does the act, the one which receives the act, etc. For example:

dekäsdeeri (The helper) vs. dekäseneri (A helper), dekäsdenäi (The helped) vs. dekäsenäi (A helped), and dekäsdei (The help).

Prefixes are additionally added to convey extra meaning, such as "self-" or "mis-". For example:

mïswaktjanï

mis observation-(nominative)

misobservation

As another example:

ïlkäelewäräneren

self password-(performer noun)-(nominative plural)

self-passworders

See also Nordaþ noun cases and Nordaþ inflections

Verbs

Nordaþ verbs can take on a maximum of 180 conjugations. Verbs conjugate by pronoun and tense/aspect/mood. Subjects of verbs are always omitted as the verb inflection carries this information. Like nouns, verbs can take on prefix modifiers to indicate, for example, in what fashion actions are completed. For example:

maasmïgantaþ

mis understand-(he indicative past)

he misunderstood

See also Nordaþ verbs and Nordaþ verb paradigm

Writing system

Nordaþ is written using a variant of the Latin alphabet, and has a phonemic orthography - pronunciation can be exactly determined from the written language. Nordaþ's alphabet omits a few letters from the Latin alphabet. Accented letters (äëïö) are not considered separate letters in Nordaþ.

Double consonants do not exist. Double vowels do, however, and are pronounced for a slightly longer duration of time than the single vowel.

Stress falls on the penultima in Nordaþ, unless the final syllable's vowel is doubled.

See Nordaþ phonology for a table including Nordaþ's alphabet and IPA/X-SAMPA equivalents

Name order

Nordaþ uses uses the "eastern" name order, wherein the family name comes before the surname. Unlike many languages, these words are declined regularly - that is to say, the family name is given the appropriate noun suffix, and the surname is given the adjective suffix.

Examples

• Nordaþan (person): Nordaþvami [nor\"dATvAmi]
• Nordaþ (language): Nordaþïski [nor\"dATIski]
• hello: halojï [hA"lojI] (used formally and casually)
• hey: haajï ["hA:jI] (used intimately)
• goodbye: jamanjï [jA"mAnjI] (used formal/casual)
• bye: iräje [i"4{jE] (used intimately)
• please: betlës (duanja) ["bEtles du"AnjA] (the full phrase means "if you please")
• I would like ___, please: wyyläie ___deja, betlës duanja [wy:l{"iE ___dEjA, "bEtles du"AnjA]
• sorry: ynzyje [yn"zyjE]
• thank you: dankjanïï duïïtï [dAnkjA"nI: du"I:tI]
• that/this: þäsemi [D{"sEmi] þesämi [TE"s{mi]
• how much?: watïsï latasïïtï? [wA"tIsI lAtA"sI:tI]
• how much does it cost?: watïsï latasïïtï awïrïï? [wA"tIsI lAtA"sI:tI AwI"rI:]
• yes: jajï ["jAjI]
• no: neje ["nEjE]
• I don't understand: nanasmïganïï [nAnAs%mIgAn"I:]
• where's the bathroom?: rumasï þwanïs wiseiti? [4"mAsI "DwAnIs wisE"iti]
• juice: wosasï [wo"sAsI]
• water: watrasï [wA"t4AsI]
• tea: tajae [tA"jAE]
• milk: mïlkasï [mIl"kAsI]
• Do you speak English?: sprecäs Inglïndïskeiti? ["sprEtS{s %iNlIndIskE"iti]
• I love you: duïïtï libiie [du"I:tI li"bi:E]
• help!: dekäsnäs! [dE"k{sn{s]