Wendlandish

Wendlandish, natively Vinnurlænska or lyngra Vinnurlænska, is a Romance language spoken in an uchronic Earth, in the area of real-world Pomerania. The only member of the Northern Romance branch, Wendlandish has, due to relative and long isolation from the rest of the Romance-speaking world, followed its own path of evolution and has absorbed lots of words, grammatical features, and influence on phonology, from its neighboring languages: most prominently Old Norse, but also Proto-Slavic, Baltic languages, Low German and, more recently, Standard High German and Polish.

Introduction

External history

Wendlandish is my first "serious" attempt at an a posteriori conlang. I wanted to do a language radically different from other ones in its family, so I decided for this (somewhat unrealistic, I admit) setting: a Romance language spoken in what in the real world is Pomerania (roughly between Schwerin and Gdańsk, up to 50-60 km inland from the coast), with lots of Old Norse, Slavic, Baltic, and Polish influences, totally cut off for ages from other Romance-speaking peoples, and in the end becoming in the 20th century a part of the Soviet Union, something that further characterizes the language.

Internal history

Wendlandish is the official and national language of Wendland — natively Vinnurlond, "the Wendlands" —, officially the Soviet Republic of the Wendlands (repuvlik savjetska Vinnurlandana), a sovereign state in Northern Europe, bordering in the west and south with Germany (Þysklond) and in the south and east with Poland (Sløvjænlond); it has a long coast on the Baltic Sea (mær Vinnurlandana, Sea of the Wendlands), which divides it from Denmark (Danmork) and Sweden (Sværikur).
The capital and largest city, with 980,000 inhabitants, is Vænfjørðin. Other major cities are Þyskarhøyfn (pop. about 75,000) in the west, on the coast opposite the country's largest island, Rygn; and Løgurðurp (pop. about 98,000) in the east; most of the country is rural, with more than 70% of the population being concentrated in and around Vænfjørðin (the second-largest city is actually Praljetarski, just north of Vænfjørðin, with about 160,000 inhabitants).

The population of Wendland, at the last census (2014), amounted to about 1,600,000 people; the total number of native Wendlandish speakers is slightly higher, with at least 100,000 people of Wendlandish origin living in other former Soviet countries and a small community in southern Denmark, mostly descendants of people who escaped from Wendland during Soviet times.

Phonology

Orthography

Wendlandish orthography is phonemic and there is a good overall correspondence between letters and sounds. Uniquely for a Romance language, it does not follow conventions inherited from Latin, taking as models Old Norse and Danish instead.

Letter	Aa	Bb	Dd	Ðð	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj	Kk	Kh kh
Sound	/a/ /ɑː/	/b/	/d/	/ð/	/e/ /eː/	/f/	/ɣ/	/h/	/ɪ/ /iː/	/j/	/k/	/x/
Letter	Ll	Mm	Nn	ng	Oo	Pp	Rr	Ss	Sj sj	Tt	Tj tj	Ts ts
Sound	/l/	/m/	/n/	/ŋ/	/ɔ/ /oː/	/p/	/r/	/s/	/ʃ/	/t/	/tʃ/	/ts/
Letter	Þþ	Uu	Vv	Yy	Zz	Ææ	Øø
Sound	/θ/	/ʉ/ /uː/	/v/	/ʏ/ /yː/	/z/	/æ/ /æː/	/œ/ /øː/

The digraphs aj, au, ej, ou, and æj represent the diphthongs /aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ ɔʊ̯ ɛɪ̯/ but are not treated as separate letters, unlike digraphs for consonants.

ng does not have an upper-case version as it does not appear at the beginning of words.

Loanwords are usually adapted without exceptions, like e.g. Polish zakład > zakvat "factory", or German Übermensch > ybermensj. Foreign surnames from languages written in the Latin alphabet are usually however kept the same (except for a few personalities whose names are completely adapted, like Kristsafir Kolum (Christopher Columbus) or Jøna ið Ark (Joan of Arc)); names from other languages were formerly romanized into Wendlandish from their pronunciation (e.g. Лермонтов > Ljermantaf), nowadays pure transliterations are preferred (e.g. Горбачёв > Gorbatjov, pronounced either [gɔɐ̯baˈtʃɔʊ̯] or [ˈɣɔɐ̯batʃɔʊ̯]).

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Plosive	p b			t d			k (g)
Fricative		f	θ ð	s z	ʃ		x ɣ	h
Affricate				ts	tʃ
Approximant		ʋ (v)				j
Trill				r
Lateral app.				l

/g/ is not a native phoneme of Wendlandish, but some people use it in unassimilated loanwords which originally had it. For example granís "border" is a totally assimilated loanword (from Polish granica) and is pronounced [ɣraˈniːs], while gató "cake (in specific contexts)" (from French gâteau) isn't and may be pronounced [gaˈtoː], but more commonly is [ɣaˈtoː].

Similarly, /v/ is used by some speakers instead of /ʋ/ (and its coda allophone [ʊ̯]) in words of Polish origin, even in "assimilated" loanwords, like javnosj "public" [ˈjɑːvnɔʃ] (from jawność) or tjervon "red" [tʃɛrˈvoːn] (from czerwony) — standard pronunciations being [ˈjɑːʊ̯nɔʃ] and [tʃɛrˈʋoːn]. This does not happen, anyway, with loanwords from any other source.
In standard Wendlandish, [v] otherwise only appears as an allophone of /ʋ/ after /k/ — even if this too only happens in borrowings, usually learned Latin words like kvæstsura "public office" [kvæsˈtsuːra] (reborrowing from quaestūra), kvadrats "square" [kvaˈdrats] (reb. < quadrātum), or inkvizitjona "research group; scientific research; Inquisition" [iŋkviziˈtʃoːna] (reb. < inquīsītiōnem); but also from other sources, including Polish /w/, like zakvat "factory" [ˈzɑːkvat], (< zakład). Note that foreign /gv/ is usually borrowed as /kv/ too, or /ɣ/ before /u/ or /o/ (e.g. the two assimilated loanwords kvjast "star" [ˈkvjast] < Pol. gwiazda; and gosj "nail" [ˈɣoːʃ] < Pol. gwóźdź).

Phonemic /v/ is however much more common than phonemic /g/, even if used by a minority of speakers.

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Back
High	iː yː		ʉ	uː
Near-high		ɪ ʏ
High-mid	e eː ø			oː
Mid
Low-mid	œ			ɔ
Near-low	æ æː
Low			a	ɑː
Diphthongs	eɪ̯ ɛɪ̯	aɪ̯	aʊ̯	ɔʊ̯

Morphology

Verbs

Wendlandish verbs inherit the four conjugations of Latin, but has categorized them in different classes as sound changes greatly modified the original verbs. The four main verb classes are:

1. -æjr verbs, that is, descendants of the Latin first conjugation, like mæjr "to love" (< amāre) or ømlæjr "to walk" (< ambulāre);
2. -ajr verbs, descendants of the Latin second conjugation, like viðajr "to see" (< vidēre) or sfajr "to be aware" (< sapēre);
3. -ir verbs, descendants of the Latin third and fourth conjugations - like hrajðir "to believe" (< crēdere), hnovskir "to know" (< gnōscere), or dirmir "to sleep" (< dormīre), inørnir "to intervene" (< intervenīre). Those which descend from the third conjugation are called the -øymur group as their first person plural present indicative ends like that (e.g. hriðøymur "we believe"), while those which descend from the fourth one are the -ymur group (e.g. dirmymur "we sleep").
4. -ær/-er verbs, which do not descend from Latin but are instead made by a generalization of the pre-Wendlandish -er infinitive suffix added to other roots, like milær "to smile" (< Old Norse smíla). This is the only currently productive conjugation - e.g. forkastsær "to have lunch"; modern colloquial daunloder "to download", sælfijer "to take a selfie".

Note that verbs from the first three conjugation usually have three principal parts, for infinitive, present, and participle.

Present indicative

	ømlæjr "to walk"	viðajr "to see"	hnovskir "to know"	inørnir "to intervene"	milær "to smile"
jag	øml	vajðe	hnovsk	inørjæn	milæ
tsu	ømlur	vajðir	hnovskir	inørjænir	milær
if / ifja / ifju	ømlit	vajðit	hnovskit	inørjænit	milæt
novr	ømlømur	viðøymur	hnuskøymur	inørnymur	miløymur
vovr	ømlætir	viðætir	hnuskætir	inørnitir	milætir
ifi / ifjæ / ifja	ømlints	vajðints	hnovskunts	inørjænts	milænts
(impersonal/passive)	ømlitse	vajðitse	hnovskitse	inørjænitse	milætse

Irregular verbs

To be (jas)

Like in most Romance languages, jas (to be) is irregular. Suppletive forms are just the same as in other Romance languages.

jas (to be)	Present	Imperfect	Synth. Past	Past	Future	Pluperfect	Fut. Perfect
jag	so	jarm	fy	hamu støt	kap jas	højm støt	hamu kaft jas
tsu	jar	jarar	fysts	hants støt	kapir jas	hømist støt	hants kaft jas
if / ifja / ifju	jatt	jart	fyt	hand støt	kaft jas	hømit støt	hand kaft jas
novr	saurm	jørum	fysts	hvønts støt	køymur jas	hømur støt	hvønts kaft jas
vovr	jæsts	jærits	fysts	hvits støt	kapætir jas	hømstir støt	hvits kaft jas
ifi / ifjæ / ifja	saunts	jarants	førtn	haments støt	køpunts jas	hømyrtn støt	haments kaft jas
Pres. participle	stæjnts
Past participle	støt

To say (ditsir) and to talk (prilufir)

Two common irregular verbs are ditsir (to say) and prilufir (to talk). Both of them are suppletive: ditsir mostly comes from Latin dīcere, but the present and the past participle are from the originally deponent defective fārī (completed by analogy), and the present participle jajnts is from aiēntem, the present participle of āiō. Prilufir mostly comes from forms of prōloquī, through an analogically rebuilt active paradigm *prōloquere, but the participles are the ones of the unprefixed verb — lusjents and lukut from loquēntem and locūtum respectively. Ditsir is also one of the few verbs that still has a commonly used synthetic past.

ditsir (to say)	Present	Imperfect	Synth. Past	Past	Future	Pluperfect	Fut. Perfect
jag	fir	ditsajv	dik	hamu føt	kap ditsir	højm føt	hamu kaft ditsir
tsu	færs	ditsemar	dikajst	hants føt	kapir ditsir	hømist føt	hants kaft ditsir
if / ifja / ifju	førd	ditsed	diht	hand føt	kaft ditsir	hømit føt	hand kaft ditsir
novr	føm	ditsmør	dikyrm	hvønts føt	køymur ditsir	hømur føt	hvønts kaft ditsir
vovr	fæmin	ditsmært	dikistir	hvits føt	kapætir ditsir	hømstir føt	hvits kaft ditsir
ifi / ifjæ / ifja	førnt	ditjond	dikyrtn	haments føt	køpunts ditsir	hømyrtn føt	haments kaft ditsir
(impersonal)	førdse	ditsedse	dihtse	handse føt	kaftse ditsir	hømitse føt	handse kaft ditsir
Pres. participle	jajnts
Past participle	føt

prilufir (to talk)	Present	Imperfect	Past	Future	Pluperfect	Fut. Perfect
jag	priluf	prilusjajv	hamu lukut	kap prilufir	højm lukut	hamu kaft prilufir
tsu	prilør	prilusjemar	hants lukut	kapir prilufir	hømist lukut	hants kaft prilufir
if / ifja / ifju	priløft	prilusjed	hand lukut	kaft prilufir	hømit lukut	hand kaft prilufir
novr	priløfmur	prilusjmør	hvønts lukut	køymur prilufir	hømur lukut	hvønts kaft prilufir
vovr	priløftir	prilusjmært	hvits lukut	kapætir prilufir	hømstir lukut	hvits kaft prilufir
ifi / ifjæ / ifja	prilukunts	prilusjond	haments lukut	køpunts prilufir	hømyrtn lukut	haments kaft prilufir
(impersonal)	priløftse	prilusjedse	handse lukut	kaftse prilufir	hømitse lukut	handse kaft prilufir
Pres. participle	lusjents
Past participle	lukut