Difference between revisions of "Weserian"

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The Weserian language (Weserisk in Weserian) is the main language spoken in the Confederacy of Weserkyn. It is also spoken less extensively in nearby countries in its region The Paper Bag.

Origins

Weserian is a language of the Anglic branch of the West Germanic languages. It is an offshoot of Old English, the same language from which English descends. Because English and Weserian share a recent common ancestor, they are very similar to each other. Weserian, however, is much more conservative in its sound changes and vocabulary, and therefore is still remarkably similar to Old English.

Orthography

The proper Weserian alphabet is based off the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, a runic alphabet in which Old English was once written. It is also commonly transcribed into a modified Latin alphabet. Due to Internet limitations, this Latin alphabet will be used in this article.

The following is the Latin alphabet Weserian uses:

Aa Ää Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Öö Pp Rr Ss Tt Þþ Uu Vv Ww Yy

• A and Ä are both treated as the same letter, as are O and Ö; however, they are collated in the same order as shown in the alphabet above when the need to discriminate between them arises.
• In older documents, Ä and Ö are written as Æ and Œ respectively.
• The letter Þ is adapted from the runic alphabet. It is always collated after T, as shown in the alphabet above.
• Q, X, and Z are not used in Weserian.

Pronunciation

Vowels in open syllables

In open syllables, the vowels have roughly these values:

• A [a] roughly ah as in 'father'
• Ä [æ] a as in 'cat' or 'after'
• E [e] roughly ay as in 'lay' or 'say'
• I [i] ee as in 'see' or 'be'
• O [o] roughly oh as in 'ore' or 'board'
• Ö [ø] öh as in German 'Öl' or French 'deux'
• U [u] oo as in 'boot' or 'shoe'
• Y [y] üh as in German 'Glühwein'

These vowels are "pure". No parts in the mouth move while the vowel is being said; in other words, there is no diphthongal glide. This is characteristic of almost all major languages. English is one exception. Speakers of English diphthongize, for example, the ay sound in 'say'.

All vowels except for I, U, and Y can be orthographically doubled. When doubled and in an open syllable, these vowels ("short" vowels) are held twice as long ("long" vowels).

In archaic Weserian, as well as in a few minor, conservative local dialects, the vowels I, U, and Y have long counterparts. Sound changes in what is now standard Weserian changed these particular long vowels into diphthongs, which are represented as IJ, UV, and YV. They have these values:

• IJ [ai] aye as in 'bite' or 'drive'
• UV [au] ow as in 'brown' or 'house'
• YV [ay] This diphthong is not found in any major languages, and therefore no equivalent sound can be given. It starts out with an ah sound, just like IJ and UV, but it ends in an üh sound.

As they are diphthongs, these sounds blend together, and the starting value glides smoothly into the ending value. They are not two distinct sounds and should not be pronounced as such.

Vowels in closed syllables

In closed syllables, doubled vowels are referred to as "long" vowels, but are not "long" in the strict sense. They are typically normal length, just like short vowels in open syllables. They still retain their value, however.

The same cannot be said of "short" vowels in closed syllables. Their values are changed, and for that reason are not truly "short". These are the changed values:

• A [ɑ] ah as in 'spa' or 'hot'
• Ä [ɐ] "uh" as in 'but' or 'udder'
• E [ɛ] eh as in 'bed' or 'get'
• I [ɪ] ih as in 'bit' or 'sick'
• O [ɔ] roughly "aw" as in 'ball' or French 'fort'
• Ö [œ] ö as in German 'öffnen' or French 'neuf'
• U [ʊ] u as in 'put' or 'look'
• Y [ʏ] ü as in German 'Rücken' or 'Trümmer'

As previously stated, the difference between "short" and "long" vowels in closed syllables is not length, but value. This is true also of most English vowels; for example, the short E is the E in 'bed', whereas the long E is the EE in 'see'.

Consonants

Most consonants in Weserian have the same values as in English. These are B, D, H, K, L, M, N, P, T, and W.

A few consonants in Weserian sometimes have the same values as in English, but are different in some cases. These are F, G, and S.

• F is just like in English when it begins or ends a word, or is next to a non-voiced consonant in the middle of a word. When it's in between voiced sounds, it becomes voiced as well, making it like V in English. This can be thought of as a way to facilitate pronunciation.
• S is either non-voiced as in 'sand' or voiced as Z in 'zodiac'. The same rules apply to S as to F.

There are a few consonants in Weserian that either do not have the same value as in English, have a value that doesn't exist in English, or are not letters in English. These are C, J, R, Þ, and V.

• J is always like Y in 'yellow' when not part of the diphthong IJ.
• R is [ʀ] like the French R.
• Þ says the th sound. It's either non-voiced as in 'thin', or voiced as in 'there', according to the same rules that apply to F and S.
• V is always part of the diphthongs OV, UV, and YV.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns function as words that "stand in for" a noun. They are used in the same way words in English such as 'you', 'us', and 'it' are used.

The following are the personal pronouns:

Note:

• The first and second persons roughly parallel each other in both declension and appearance.
• In the third person, the masculine dative and plural dative are the same form, him.
• Also in the third person, the plural genitive matches the feminine dative and genitive, hir. Due to the limitations of displaying tables on the Internet, these cells cannot all be merged to reflect this.

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns function as words that "point out" a noun. They are used in much the same way 'this' and 'that' are used in English.

The following are the demonstrative pronouns:

Note:

• The demonstrative pronouns decline in roughly the same pattern as the third person personal pronouns; indeed, almost every form ends in the same letter as those of the third person personals.
• The demonstratives meaning 'that' or 'those' differ in this respect only in that the plural forms use a different vowel sound from the singular forms.

The demonstratives used to say 'that' or 'those' are also used to say 'the'. It makes sense to think that the word 'the' points out a noun in much the same way as the word 'that'; for example, 'the dog' refers to one particular dog, one that was already mentioned or is inferred.

Interrogative pronouns

Interrogative pronouns function as words that "ask about" a noun. They are used in the same way that 'who' or 'what' are used in English.

The following are the interrogative pronouns:

Note:

• The interrogative pronouns decline differently from the personal and demonstrative pronouns.
• There is no plural form.

Because of the nature of interrogative pronouns, one sometimes does not know the grammatical gender of something; however, they might know whether it's animate or inanimate. If it's animate, hwaa is used. If it's inanimate, or if such is not known, hwät is used. This is comparable to a speaker of English inherently knowing to use 'who' instead of 'what', or vice versa.