Nousuerian

Nousuerian (Nousuerian: nusveska; French: nousuédois; Swedish: nusveska) is a constructed, a posteriori language in the North Germanic family of languages, descended from the Old Norse language. It has about 66,000 people, most of whom live on the Nousuerian Islands. Other communities of Nousuerians who speak Nousuerian as a native language live in France, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The grammar of Nousuerian is very close to that of Swedish, but most of the vocabulary of Nousuerian is directly borrowed from the French language. With the Nousuerian language comes an alternate history of the places in which it developed and is spoken; namely, the real-life Faroe Islands.

Nousuerian
nusveska
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|nu'sveskə]]
Created by	--
Setting	Nousueria
Native speakers	66,000 (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic East Scandinavian Continental Scandinavian Nousuerian
Early forms	Old Norse Old East Norse Old Swedish Modern Swedish
Dialect	N/A
Official status
Official language in	Kingdom of Nousuerian Isles
Recognised minority language in	France, Sweden
Regulated by	Det Nusveska Spròkets Monakakademi (The Royal Academy of the Nousuerian Language)

Introduction

Nousuerian (in Nousuerian: nusveksa [nusveskə] or det nusveska spròket [de nusveskə sprɔke]) is a North Germanic language spoken in the Kingdom of Nousuerian Isles. It is spoken by about 66,000 people, a majority of whom live in the Kingdom. Nousuerian is a member of the Scandinavian family and shares a common ancestor with contemporary Swedish. Nousuerian is a descendant of Modern Swedish, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in the Nousuerian Isles at the time. Nousuerian has also heavily borrowed vocabulary from French with whom the islands have a strong, shared ancestral, linguistic and cultural past.

History

The Nousuerian Island was inhabited by Norse settlers starting around the year 800. They brought with them the Old Norse language. Eventually, when the Nousuerian Islands became a region of the Swedish Kingdom, Swedish became the official language of use.

In the early 16th century, many new settlers began arrive in the islands. However, most of them were not from Sweden, but from the French region of Normandy. Also, many women from France married Swedish men before settling in the Nousuerian Islands. This is how the French language, particularly Middle French, had such a big influence on the Nousuerian language.

By the mid-17th century, a distinct Nousuerian language evolved. It was the first language of most of the native population; unfortunately, it was outlawed by the ruling Swedes for use in schools, churches and official documents. For these purposes, only Swedish and French could be used. Nousuerians continued to use the language in their everyday life, however.

In 1850, two Nousuerian grammarians published a written standard for the language. They set a standard for the orthography of the language, based on its French roots. While this had the advantage of being etymologically clear, the actual pronunciation often differed from the written rendering.

When Nousuerian replaced French as the official language of the country in 1957, it was with a new orthography that was more phonetic. Despite Nousuerian being made the official language, it wasn't until the late 1990's that it became the common language of the media.

Today, Nousuerian is spoken by 95% of residents on the Nousuerian Isles as a first language. French, while still maintaining official status in the country, is considered a foreign language and is spoken natively by about 5% of the population. It is also a required subject for students in third grade and up. All higher educational institutes instruct in French, also.

Phonology

Orthography

Before Nousuerian became an official language in the country, it had no standardised form. It was written using French orthological rules. It wasn't until 1956, 51 years after the independence of Nousueria, when then-ruler Queen Majelys declared that a standardised form was being developed by the newly-founded Royal Academy of the Nousuerian Language. This was in efforts of strengthening and maintaining national pride and retaining the cultural language.

Queen Majelys's declaration of the completion of the Nousuerian alphabet was made on Dec. 24, 1956. The alphabet was completely integrated into society by the end of the decade and with it came rising literacy rates.

Letter	Name	IPA
A a	a	/a/
B b	be	/b/
D d	de	/d/
E e	e	/e/
F f	ef	/f/
G g	gi	/g/
H h	ho	/h/
I i	i	/i/
J j	ji	/j/
K k	ka	/k/
L l	ele	/l/
M m	eme	/m/
N n	ene	/n/
O o	o	/o/
P p	pe	/p/
R r	ere	/r/
S s	ese	/s/
T t	te	/t/
U u	u	/u/
V v	ve	/v/
Y y	y	/y/
È è	è	/ɛ/
Ò ò	ò	/ɔ/

Consonants

Most consonants in Nousuerian have English equivalents; namely, b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t and v.

Other required a bit of practice for native English speakers:

• j is pronounced like y in yard
• r is pronounced like a Spanish r, as in rojo

Consonant Clusters

Normally, consonant clusters are pronounced simply as a combination of the two sounds:

• nusveska

However, there are certain consonant clusters which are pronounced is a very particular way.

Written As	Pronounced As
rn	ɳ
rt	ʈ
rd	ɖ
rl	ɭ
rs	ʂ or ʃ
tj	ɕ or ʃ
sj	ɧ or ʃ

As seen in the table above, there are three different combinations which could be represented by the sound [ʃ]. These differences in pronunciation will allow you to be understand by a native speaker of Nousuerian and is generally accepted. They are generally maintained solely for orthological reasons. However, there are some cases of classicism in which the "correct" or "elite" pronunciation would be the first example, while the "vulgar" or "common" pronunciation would be the second.

Vowels

Nousuerian vowels, like Spanish or Italian, are always pronounced as they are written.

• A is pronounced [a] as in English ‘father’ or Spanish ‘adiós’
• E is pronounced [e] as in French ‘été’ or Italian ‘prego’
• I is pronounced [i] as in English ‘bee’ or Spanish ’ir’
• O is pronounced [o] as in English ‘open’
• U is pronounced [u] as in English ‘doom’ or ‘moon’
• È is pronounced [ɛ] as in English ‘pen’ or ‘best’
• Ò is pronounced [ɔ] as in English ‘Oscar’ or ‘operate’
• Y is pronouns [y] as in French ‘plus’ or Swedish ‘byxor’
• EU is pronounced [ø] as in French ‘peu’

Diphthongs

When i or u precede another vowel, they form a diphthong with [j] or [w], respectively. If a diphthong precedes an n at the end of a word, it is not nasalised. However, this is not applied whenever the letter j appears before a nasalised vowel at the end of a word.

Examples

• avion (airplane) is pronounced [af.'jon]
• moien (average) is pronounced [mo.'jen]
• lujen (away from) is pronounced [lu.'jɛ̃]
• seduisan (attractive) is pronounced [se.dwi.sɑ̃]

Nasal Vowels

There are only four vowels in Nousuerian which have a nasalised variant. It should be noted that they are only nasalised when at the end of a word.

Written As	Pronounced As
an	ɑ̃
en	ɛ̃
on	ɔ̃
un	œ̃

Prosody

Stress & Intonation

One syllable and non-compounds are stressed on the final syllable. Compounds are double stressed; they have a falling tonal stress on the first syllable of the first word and a rising tonal stress on the last syllable of the second word. When one is inflected, the stress stays on the same syllable, so the endings aren't stressed.

Sentence Stress

When the subject of a sentence is a noun, it is stressed. Pronouns, however, are unstressed. When the object is a noun, it is also stressed. Pronouns, like subjects, are normally unstressed. Object pronouns, however, are stressed when they are at the beginning of the sentence. For contrast, objects are stressed. When there is a verb but no object, the verb is stressed. However, when there is an object, the verb is unstressed. This also applies to verb complements, which are stressed while the verb isn’t. For contrast, verbs are stressed. Adverbials are usually stressed whether first or last in the sentence.

Word Stress

Word stress is found only in words that have sentence stress.

• Non-compounds – these words are pronounced monosyllabically.
• Compounds – these words have a stress on each of the parts of the compound, but the melody of each part is different. The first stress has a falling pitch and the last stress has a rising pitch.

Morphology

Nouns

Nousuerian nouns are divided into common and neuter genders. This division is most commonly expressed in the choice of the indefinite article.

Common	Neuter
en père	et buro
a father	a desk
en fisk	et duat
a fish	a finger

Gender also determines the definite article placed at the end of a word. The form of the definite article depends on the final letter of the noun to which it is attached.

Common/Neuter	Ends in Consonant	Ends in Vowel
Common	-en	-n
Neuter	-et	-t

Gender is also important for the selection of a plural ending and for the agreement of pronouns, adjectives and past participles.

Example:

• Èr burot grant? Is the desk big?
• Ja, dèn èr grant. Yes, it is big.
• Vi èr protetjade. We are protected.

Gender is only partly predictable in Nousuerian. The meaning or form of some nouns may tell us whether we are dealing with a commong or neuter noun. But, in other cases, we cannot predict gender accurately by either form or meaning.

Common Nouns

About 75% of Nousuerian nouns are common in gender. This usually includes:

• most nouns denoting living beings
• nouns denoting seasons, festivals & holidays
• nouns ending in -ad, -are, -dom, -het, -ing, -ion and -lek.

Common Declension

Common nouns ending in en, el, et, and er drop the -e- when the singular definitive ending is added:

• en serpet (a snake) becomes serpten (the snake)

However, this is not applicable to nouns ending in -het.

• en kuarahet (a belief) become kuaraheten (the belief)

This is the only irregularity with common nouns in the singular. The plural has slightly different rules governing its formation.

Only the common nouns ending in el and er drop their -e-. The rest keep them, unlike in the singular definitive form. Then, ar is added to the final consonant in the nouns or the final vowel is changed to ar if it is not an a. If it the final letter in a common noun is a, then the plural form ends in or. The plural definitive form is made by adding na to the end of the word.

• en gafel, galfen, gaflar, gaflarna (fork)
• en druva, druvan, druvor, druvorna (grape)
• en om, omen, omar, omarna (man)
• en serpet, serpten, serpetar, serpetarna (snake)

Neuter Nouns

Neuter nouns usually include:

• the names of most inanimate things
• nouns ending in -em, iv, -eum or -ium
• the names of countries, mountains, rivers, towns and the letters of the alphabet

Neuter Declension

Like common nouns, neuter nouns delete e before the final l, r, t or n. If the word ends in um, it is deleted after e or i. Then the singular definitive ending is added.

• et tempel (a temple) becomes templet
• et museum (a museum) becomes muset

Several things are considered when forming the plural form of neuter nouns.

If the noun ends in a consonant that is not s, n or r, then er is added to the end. If the noun ends in a vowel, then an n is simply added. And this is where things can get a bit complicated. Depending on the final vowel and consonant(s), the final vowel may change quality to express plurality. Hopefully, this chart will help explain both visually and more easily.

From	To	Before Final
a	o	n
a	è	s
o	eu	n, s, -ter, -ker

To form the plural definite in Nousuerian, several endings are considered. An a is added to a final n, while na is added to the final r and final vowels. With every other final consonant, en is added to the end.

• et bregundan, begrundanet, begrundon, begrundona (meditation)
• et gras, graset, grès, grèsen (fat)
• et os, oset, eus, eusen (bone)
• et tjeut, tjeutet, tjeuter, tjeuterna (meat)
• et barn, barnet, barn, barna (child)
• et tempel, templet, templen, templena (temple)

Adjectives

Nousuerian adjectives inflect. In the indefinite declension they agree with the noun in gender (singular only) and in number. They also add inflexed endings in the definite declension.

Common Declension

Definite/Indefinite	Singular	Plural
Definite	dén ___(i)a	dom ___(i)a
Indefinite	--	___(i)a

Note however, that if an adjective ends in an ada, then the final a is changed to e. Also, if an adjective ends in a vowel that is not i, then an i is added before the final a.

• dèn rursa uason (the red bird)
• dom rursa uasorna (the red birds)
• rurs uaso (red bird)
• rursa uasor (red birds)

Neuter Declension

Definite/Indefinite	Singular	Plural
Definite	det ___(i)a	dom ___(i)a
Indefinite	t	___(i)a

The declension of neuter adjectives is a little complicated. In the indefinite singular, first, an n is changed to t after a final e. If the word does not already end in t, then it is added. The following table shows changes to consonants before final t.

From	To	Before Final
g	k	t
v	f	t
b	p	t

For the plural indefinite neuter, delete e before final l, r or n. Then add an a to the end of the word. Like the common, there is a change of final a to e after ad.

• det boia barnet (the handsome child)
• dom boia barna (the handsome children)
• lònkt vi (long life)
• nuvoia templen (new temples)

Verbs

In Nousuerian there is only one form of the verb for all persons, singular and plural and in each of the various tenses of the verb.

Nousuerian has no continuous form of the verb but, like English, employs auxiliary verbs to help form the future, perfect and pluperfect tenses.

Type I Conjugation

Present	-r
Past	-de
Supine	-t
Past Participle (Common)	-d
Past Participle (Neuter)	-t
Past Participle (Plural/Definite)	-de

Example: puvua - can, to be able to

• present - puvuar
• past - puvuade
• supine - puvuat
• past participles - puvuad, puvuat, puvuade

Type II Conjugation

Type II verbs are not as straightforward as Types I and III. However, Type II's are fairly simple once you know the rules.

There are two types of Type II verbs. Type IIA consists of verbs whose stem ends in a voiced consonant, while Type IIB is made up of verbs whose stem end in a voiceless consonant or n.

Type IIA

For the present tense, a is deleted after final l or r. Then er is added to the end of the word, if the verb does not already end in l or r. If it does, then there is no ending added.

The past tense is formed by first changing the final a to de at the end of a word. If there is a j following l,n or r immediately preceding the de at the end of a word, then the j is deleted.

Supine is made by first changing the a at the end into a t. Any d immediately before a t is deleted and j is deleted if it follows l,n or r before final t. There are some vowel changes also; è become a, eu become o and y becomes u before final lt, rt or nt.

Finally, the past participles are made like the supine; except that the supine ends in t while the past participle common, plural and definite aren't. Change a to d at the end of a word. Then delete j between l,n,r and final d. Lastly, if necessary, change è to a, eu to o and y to u before final ld,rd and nd.

Present	-er
Past	-de
Supine	-t
Past Participle (Common)	-d
Past Participle (Neuter)	-t
Past Participle (Plural/Definite)	-da

Example: regarda - look, watch

• present - regarder
• past - regarde
• supine - regart
• past participles - regard, regart, regarda

Type IIB

Type IIB verbs are the easiest of the Type II verbs to conjugate. They are generally very straightforward. The only thing you should remember is that the final a of the infinitive is deleted before adding the endings.

Present	-er
Past	-te
Supine	-t
Past Participle (Common)	-t
Past Participle (Neuter)	-t
Past Participle (Plural/Definite)	-ta

Example: steka - fry

• present - steker
• past - stekte
• supine - stekt
• past participles - stekt, stekt, stekta

Type III Conjugations

Type III verbs are those whose stem does not end in a.

Present	-r
Past	-de
Supine	-t
Past Participle (Common)	-d
Past Participle (Neuter)	-t
Past Participle (Plural/Definite)	-da

Example: fini - end, finish

• present - finir
• past - finide
• supine - finit
• past participles - finid, finit, finida

Type IV Conjugations

Type IV verbs are considered strong, in that they usually have a vowel change in the past tense. It should be noted, however, that this only applies to certain vowels.

Present	-er
Past	(see vowel charts)
Supine	-it
Past Participle (Common)	-en
Past Participle (Neuter)	-et
Past Participle (Plural/Definite)	-na

Example: truva - find

• present - truver
• past - truv
• supine - truvit
• past participles - truven, truvet, truvna

Like Type IIB verbs, Type III verbs delete the final a before the endings.

Vowel Charts

PAST VOWEL CHANGE

From	To	Before Single/Double Final Consonant
a	o	single
è	a	single
i	e	single
y, u	eu	single
i	a	double

SUPINE & PAST PARTICIPLE VOWEL CHANGE

From	To	Before Single/Double Final Consonant
è	u	single
y	u	single
i	u	double

Present Participles

All verbs add nde to end of the infinitive to form the present participle.

Use of Supines & Participles

Supine

The supine is used with har/hade to form the perfect and pluperfect tenses, respectively. No other verbs are used before the supine.

Past Participle

The past participles is used as an adjective and inflects.

Present Participle

The present participles are only rarely used in Nousuerian like the English ‘-ing’ forms, notable after the verbs veni, ala, bli and verbs of motion:

• Dom venir kurande. (They come running.)

Normally, the present participle is used as an adjective, noun, adverb or preposition.

Derivation Morphology

Nousuerian words can be derived from other languages, and even other Nousuerian words, through four main processes:

• Borrowing - English 'computer' → Nousuerian kompiutare
• Compounding - en lutj (lunch) + en eur(hour) → en lutjeur 'lunch hour'
• Affixation - u- + kontan → ukontan 'unhappy'
• Abbreviation - fotograf' → foto 'photograph'

Borrowing

When a language is borrowed into the Nousuerian language, it is assimilated through orthography, pronunciation and inflection.

• asaseur comes from French ascenseur (elevator, lift)
• pitsa comes from Italian pizza (pizza)

Compounding

With compound nouns, the second noun determines the gender.

There are three main methods to form compound nouns:

• Noun + Nouns - en garson (boy) + en ami (friend) → en garsonami (boyfriend)
• Noun (minus -a/e) + Noun - en meute (meeting) + et plas (room) → et meutplas (boardroom)
• Noun + s + Nouns - et universitet (university) + en liv (book) → en universitetsliv (college textbook)

Affixation

Affixation is carried out by adding a prefix or suffix to a stem. Prefixes do not change the word class or inflection of the stem, but suffixes do.

• feure (before) + tjur (day) = feuretjur (dawn)
• u (not) + kontan (happy) = ukontan (unhappy)
• lira (to read) + -are (-er) = lirare (reader)
• fretje (fresh) + -het (-ness) = fretjehet (freshness)

Abbreviation

Abbreviation involves the loss of a word or part of a word.

• auto from automobil (car)
• persa from père (dad)
• jon from kamjon (truck)
• fomo from telefon mobil (cellphone)

Syntax

Nousuerian syntax is very similar to English and Swedish, all being Germanic languages.

Constituent order

Generally, the word order is SVO. However, depending on the type of sentence, this can vary.

Noun phrase

Noun phrases is Nousuerian are generally head-final. Adjectives that modify a noun are placed before it. The same applies to nouns.

• tjovet barn - young child
• tjovetbarnsabi - young child's clothing

Verb phrase

In main clauses, a verb-second word order is used in Nousuerian. The order in a verb phrase is usually as followed: FV(finite verb) + clausal adverbial/negation + non-finite verb + object/compliment + other adverbials

The finite verb is the verb that is conjugated. It indicates the tense. The non-finite verb usually is placed with the finite verb with which it goes. Non-finite forms are the infinitive, supine, and the present and past participles.

Clausal adverbials indicate the sense of the clause as a whole. For the most part, it is a simple adverb. Other adverbials are expressions of manner, place, time, cause, condition, etc.

When there are two or more object, the order of the objects is based on whether or not one is placed with a preposition. An object without a preposition will precede one with a preposition; but, if there is no preposition at all, then the indirect object comes first.

With compound verbs, the particle is placed between the non-finite verb and the object/complement. In the passive, the agent is placed between the object/complement and the other adverbials.

Sentence type

There are five sentence types in Nousuerian.

• Statement - V2, straight word order
• Non-Subject - V2, inverted
• Yes/No Question - V1, inverted
• Other Question - V2, straight or inverted
• Command - V1, no subject

Dependent clauses

With the dependent clause, there is no topic; the order is always: conjuction - subject - clausal adverbial - finite verb

The dependent clause always starts with a subordination conjunction or other indicator of its status as a clause and the clausal adverbial comes before the finite verb.

The subject position in a dependent clause is also occupied and the word order is straight.

Sometimes there are exceptions to the rules. This is usually when the dependent clause forms a part of the main clause, but it has a similar word order to the main clause.

at-clauses with a 'topic'

When a non-subject comes immediately after the conjunction at, the finite verb and subject are inverted:

• Tjarl dirde, at(CONJ) hier(TOP) penste(FIN) hèn(SBJ) ala til bibliuteket. - Charles said that yesterday he was thinking of going to the library.

at-clauses with FV-CA order

Sometimes, the clausal adverbial has the same place as in the main clause, after the finite verb. This is unlike its usual dependent clause place before the finite verb.

• Tjarl dirde, at(CONJ) hèn(SBJ) penste(FV) pa(CA) parta atjudui. - Charles said that he was not thinking of leaving today.

Conditional Clauses with yes/no question order

Um(if) or ifal(whether) usually introduce conditional clauses.

• Um tu pa ekrir til mersa, bliver hèn ukontan. - If you don't write to Mom, she will be unhappy.

Sometimes conditional clauses don't have a subordination conjunction and must rely on inverted word order to indicate condition.

• Ekrir tu pa til mersa, bliver hèn ukontan.
• Ekrir tu pa til mersa? (Yes/No question)

Example texts

Phrases

• Koman stòr tu? - How are you?
• Snèla - Please
• Tak - Thank You
• Jak emar dei - I love you.
• Din mère èr tre bel - Your mother is very beautiful.
• Al vi til bibliuteket! - Let's go to the library!
• Jak esper at tu paser bon tan. - I hope that you have a good time.