Nordaþ

Introduction

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. Nordaþ is related to Kythish, a language Germanic in origin. These languages borrow from each other sparsely.

Nordaþ is most noticeably influenced by Proto-Säämi, a Finno-Ugric language and the predecessor of Säämi, a language still spoken in Terra Matsu. From it Nordaþ has acquired vowel harmony and the trema, as well as the letters 'j' and 'y'.

Writing system/Phonology

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 (äëï) are considered separate letters in Nordaþ. Nordaþ's alphabet includes the following:

a ä b c d e ë f g h i ï j k l m n o p r s š t þ u v w y z ž

Doubled consonants do not exist. Doubled 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 or prepenultima has a double vowel. However, words with only one syllable have no stress.

See Nordaþ phonology for a table including Nordaþ's alphabet and IPA equivalents

Grammar

The order of words in a sentence are not determined by individual word functions but instead are largely free. However, if a word is to be stressed, it is put at the beginning of the sentence and stressed harder than normally.

Nordaþ is a synthetic language, and is undefinable further as an agglutinative or fusional language as it exhibits signs of both. In language, agglutination is where there are several "chunks" - affixes which come together at the end of a word to give it meaning. Such languages include Turkish, Nahuatl and Japanese. Fusional languages, however, only use one affix to give meanings. These affixes carry more than one meaning, such as Spanish comí, wherein í carries the meanings of indicative mood, past tense, first person singular subject and perfect aspect.

See also Nordaþ wordhoard

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 a neighbouring language when the language was young - Proto-Säämi. In Nordaþ, there are three types of vowels: Front (ä, e, ë, i, 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 22 cases and 27 "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:

ilkäelewäräneren

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

self-passworders

See also Nordaþ noun cases and Nordaþ affixes

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:

mïsmïgantaþ

mis understand-(he indicative past)

he misunderstood

See also Nordaþ verbs and Nordaþ verb paradigm

Adjectives

Adjectives follow the noun they describe. Unlike in Latin, adjectives are not declined to match the noun, adjective, or adverb they describe. Instead, they are declined merely according to the comparitive/superlative/regular standard. However, adjectives don't always come after the noun they describe. This exception is permissable when the adjective is being stressed, such as "a green lawn" vs. "a blue lawn" or something of that sort. This reminds of the case with general word order in Nordaþ wherein the word being most stressed in the sentence will come first with appropriate emphasis on the spoken word.

Nordaþ allows adjectives to be merged with the noun. They attach in front of the noun, unlike standard adjective behaviour. In English, these words are typically written in structures like this:

a-noun-created-with-hyphens

They are also written as standard compound words in English, such as "Freedom killer". Additionally, they are sometimes written as "creator of love".

Unlike in Rejistanian, ordinals are regular. They are declined according to the adjectival guideline (or adverbal).

Comparison in Nordaþ is simple. Since "than" is considered a noun case, its suffix is appended to the root of the noun. "Less" and "more" are considered nouns when following a verb such as "to have" or "to be", but adverbs when following another noun in English, such as "years", and are declined as direct objects. Such words as "much/many" and "by far" are treated as standard adjectives and modify the less/more noun/adverb.

For example:

Habienie minieiti jerämynen oktosïs altaïsïï.

I have less than eight years of age.

Habienie minilës jerämeiti oktosïs altaïsïï hiynen.

I have eight years age less than he has.

Habienie mäzereiti manïgïs ïlkaraapanïrunïn dekääses.

I have many more than ten automobiles.

Adverbs

Adverbs follow the same pattern of word order that adjectives do. They follow the verb they modify unless the adverb is being stressed. Adverbs always carry their suffix, and are never declined any differently.

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. Referring to someone by their given name is considered inappropriate unless the person speaking is both talking specifically to the person they are referring to, and even then only if they are close friends (or in any relationship more intimate). In that case, the given name is declined as a noun instead of an adjective.

Examples

• Nordaþan (person): Nordaþvami [noɹ.dɑθ.ˌvɑ.mi]
• Nordaþ (language): Nordaþïski [noɹ.dɑθ.ˌɪs.ki]
• hello: halojï [hɑ.ˌlo.jɪ] (used formally and casually)
• hey: haajï [ˌhɑː.jɪ] (used intimately)
• goodbye: jamanjï [jɑ.ˌmɑn.jɪ] (used formal/casual)
• bye: iräje [i.ˌɾæ.jɛ] (used intimately)
• please: betlës (duanja) [ˌbɛt.les du.ˌɑn.jɑ] (the full phrase means "if you please")
• I would like ___, please: wyyläie ___deja, betlës duanja [wyː.læ.ˌi.ɛ ___dɛ.jɑ, ˌbɛt.les du.ˌɑn.jɑ]
• sorry: sjunïï ynzyes [sjun.ˌɪː yn.ˌzy.ɛs]
• thank you: dankjanïï duïïtï [dɑnk.jɑ.ˌnɪː du.ˌɪː.tɪ]
• that/this: þäsemi [θæ.ˌsɛ.mi] þesämi [θɛ.ˌsæ.mi]
• how much?: watïsï latasïïtï? [wɑ.ˌtɪ.sɪ lɑ.tɑ.ˌsɪː.tɪ]
• how much does it cost?: watïsï latasïïtï awïrïï? [wɑ.ˌtɪ.sɪ lɑ.tɑ.ˌsɪː.tɪ ɑ.wɪ.ˌrɪː]
• yes: jajï [ˌjɑ.jɪ]
• no: neje [ˌnɛ.jɛ]
• I don't understand: nanasmïganïï [nɑ.nɑs.ˌmɪ.ɡɑ.ˌnɪː]
• where's the bathroom?: rumasï þwanïs wiseiti? [ɾu.ˌmɑ.sɪ ˌθwɑ.nɪs wi.sɛ.ˌi.ti]
• juice: wosasï [wo.ˌsɑ.sɪ]
• water: watrasï [wɑ.ˌtɾɑ.sɪ]
• tea: tajaï [tɑ.ˌjɑ.ɪ]
• milk: mïlkasï [mɪl.ˌkɑ.sɪ]
• Do you speak English?: sprecäs Inglïndïskeiti? [ˌsprɛ.tʃæs in.ɡlɪnd.ˌɪskɛˌiti]
• I love you: duïïtï libiie [du.ˌɪː.tɪ li.ˌbiː.ɛ]
• I love you (platonic or otherwise): duïïtï liepiie [du.ˌɪː.tɪ li.ɛ.ˌpiː.ɛ]
• help!: dekäsnäs! [dɛ.ˌkæs.næs]

Numbers

These numbers listed have been declined as nouns in the nominative case. A comma used here is to be considered a decimal point, and a period to be considered a hundreds divider.

• 0: niili [ˌniː.li]
• ,0001: milienþäi [mi.li.ɛn.ˌθæ.i]
• ,001: däusenþäi [daʊ.sɛn.ˌθæ.i]
• ,01: hynþäi [hyn.ˌθæ.i]
• ,1: dekääsþäi [de.ˌkæːs.θæ.i]
• 1: sëëmi [ˌseː.mi]
• 2: dosïï [do.ˌsɪː]
• 3: trejesi [trɛ.ˌjɛ.si]
• 4: keresi [kɛ.ˌrɛ.si]
• 5: penkesi [pɛn.ˌkɛ.si]
• 6: sekesi [sɛ.ˌkɛ.si]
• 7: septesi [sɛp.ˌtɛ.si]
• 8: oktosïï [ok.to.ˌsɪː]
• 9: nääsi [ˌnæːsi]
• 10: dekääsi [dɛ.ˌkæː.si]
• 11: dekääsi ond sëëmi [dɛ.ˌkæː.si ond ˌseː.mi]
• 12: dekääsi ond dosïï [dɛ.ˌkæː.si ond do.ˌsɪː]
• 20: dekääsi dosïs [dɛ.ˌkæː.si ˌdo.sɪs]
• 21: dekääsi dosïs ond sëëmi [dɛ.ˌkæː.si ˌdo.sɪs ond ˌseː.mi]
• 100: hynti [ˌhyn.ti]
• 101: hynti ond sëëmi [ˌhyn.ti ond ˌseː.mi]
• 110: hynti ond dekääsi [ˌhyn.ti ond dɛ.ˌkæː.si]
• 111: hynti ond dekääsi ond sëëmi [ˌhyn.ti ond dɛ.ˌkæː.si ond ˌseː.mi]
• 200: hynti dosïs [ˌhyn.ti ˌdo.sɪs]
• 1.000: däuseni [daʊ.ˌsɛ.ni]
• 10.000: däuseni dekääses [daʊ.ˌsɛ.ni dɛ.ˌkæː.sɛs]
• 100.000: däuseni hyntes [daʊ.ˌsɛ.ni ˌhyn.tɛs]
• 1.000.000: milieni [mi.li.ˌɛ.ni]