Old Valthungian

Old Valthungian
Sou Vladyugutanei Tungou
Pronunciation	[soʊ̯ ˈwlɑ.ðʊ.ɡʊ.ta.neɪ̯ ˈtʊŋ.ɡoʊ̯]
Created by	BenJamin P. Johnson, creator of: Adzaay Aterran Languages Arbulian Modern Standard Imperial Hakdor Ashian Northern Western Braereth Tenibvreth Eomentesa Merineth Dlatci Gothic Romance Extemplar Latin Italian Gothic Bad Romance Grayis Maltcégj Northeadish Valthungian Griutungi Old Valthungian Middle Valthungian curator of: Brooding Nymeran
Date	2018
Setting	Northern Italy, ca. 800ᴀᴅ‒1200ᴀᴅ
Language family	Indo-European Germanic East Germanic Old Valthungian

Old Valthungian represents a period in the development of the Valthungian language lasting from around 800‒1200ad marked mainly by changes to geminates and metathesis of liquids, as well as the introduction of Germanic ī/j-umlaut and some small but important changes to all of the vowels. Though this is a range which experienced many changes, the most representative example of “Old Valthungian” is the language as it is captured in a few surviving texts believed to date to around 950‒975ad.

Phonology of Old Valthungian ca. 950ad

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal
Plosive	p · b /p · b/	t · d /t · d/			k · g /k · ɡ/
Nasal	· m /m/		· n /n/		· n [ŋ]
Fricative	f · bv, fv /ɸ · β/	dv · þ /ð · θ/	s · z /s · ʐ/	· jj /ʝ/	h · gy /h · ɣ/
Approximant	· v /w/	· l /l/	· r /r/	· j /j/

Vowels

	Short Vowels			Long Vowels
	Front	Back		Front	Back
Close	i · eu /ɪ · ʏ/	u /ʊ/		ij · euv /iː · yː/	uv /uː/
Mid-Close	· y /ᵿ/			ei · eou /eː · øː/	ou /oː/
Mid-Open	e, ea · eo /ɛ · œ/	o [ɔ]		ae · eao /ɛː · œː/	ao /ɔː/
Open	a /a/				aa /ɑː/

Syllabic Sonorants

In addition to the vowels, certain sonorants may act as syllable nuclei (usually word-finally).

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Dorsal
Syllabics	m /m̩/	n /n̩/	r /r̩/	l /l̩/

Orthography of Old Valthungian

There is very little extant text in Old Valthungian, and what does exist is quite variable, but this is a “regularlised” version of the orthography used at the time around 950ad, with notes where there are variants.

Letters					The twenty-seven “official” letters of the Old Valthungian alphabet are very similar to the twenty-seven letter of the Gothic alphabet, right down to the order of their numbering. There were, however, many variants, ligatures, digraphs, trigraphs, and Latin and Greek letters thrown into the mix in the few small samples we have of definitive Old Valthungian texts.
Griutungi	IPA	Old Val.	Roman.	Numeric Value	Variants	Examples	Notes
a	ɑ		a	1		rams ‘poor’ gaf ‘gave’ anþar ‘second’
b	b		b	2		bradvou ‘axe’ krahba ‘crab’ lamb ‘lamb’
g	ɡ		g	3		gibvan ‘to give’ graþs ‘yard’ dagz ‘day’
d	d		d	4		dagz ‘day’ ahdi ‘egg’ teihund ‘(multiple of) ten’
e	ɛ		e	5	ai	redva ‘earth’ tehsva ‘right-hand’ berja ‘ferry’
kw	kʷ~kw		qv	6	kv, q, ku, cv, cu	qvernu ‘mill’ inqvis ‘to you both’ riqviza ‘darker’
z	ʐ		z	7	ȥ	þizae ‘to that’ hvizazij ‘whatever’ izous ‘hers’
h	h~x		h	8		hretou ‘heart’ tehun ‘ten’ fah ‘glad’
þ	θ		þ	9	th, fh, c	þjuþ ‘people’ frijaþvou ‘love’ ljugyvaþ ‘light’	From the Gothic 𐌸, this letter represented [θ] in Old Valthungian as it did in Gothic, but became [v] and was replaced by for [θ] in the 11th century.
i	i		i	10		igyil ‘hedgehog’ izae ‘to her’ þivgyi ‘maid’
k	k		k	20	c	krots ‘short’ taekros ‘brother-in-law’ mask ‘mesh, grid’	Sometimes written as kh or ch when aspirated.
l	l~ɫ̩		l	30		langz ‘long’ slidvalijks ‘amazing’ tagl ‘tail’	(Syllabic and non-syllabic sonorants were not differentiated in Old Valthungian.)
m	m~m̩		m	40		maedvms ‘gift’ mikils ‘great’ ogvuma ‘primary’	(Syllabic and non-syllabic sonorants were not differentiated in Old Valthungian.)
n	n~n̩		n	50		naoþs ‘need’ nivntehun ‘nineteen’ niman ‘to take’	(Syllabic and non-syllabic sonorants were not differentiated in Old Valthungian.)
j	j		j	60	i	jeir ‘year’ jah ‘also’ juvs ‘you all’
o	ɔ		o	70	au	rotigraþs ‘garden’ ogyuma ‘chief’ vroms ‘worm’
p	p		p	80		paedva ‘shirt’ propora ‘purple’ sleipan ‘to sleep’	Sometimes written as ph when aspirated.
ī	iː~ij		ij	90	ī, ei, ij	ijs ‘ice’ tijþs ‘time’ divpij ‘depth’	There is only scant evidence that this ligature was used to represent the value of the number ‘90’, and it is disputable whether the evidence in question is actually the 〈ij〉 ligature, or a holdover of the Gothic number 𐍁.
r	r~r̩		r	100		riqvus ‘dark’ broudvr ‘brother’ ver ‘man’	(Syllabic and non-syllabic sonorants were not differentiated in Old Valthungian.)
s	s		s	200		saovgyila ‘sun’ sehstigjus ‘sixty’ suvs ‘sow’
t	t		t	300		tungl ‘star’ stivgyiti ‘patience’ trivgyijnat ‘wooden’	Sometimes written as th when aspirated.
w	w		v	400	vv, uu, ƿ	vlidvijs ‘wild’ saliþva ‘guest room’ svei ‘as though’
f	ɸ~f		f	500		fimf ‘five’ svumfsl ‘’ hlaef ‘bread’
kh	kʰ		x	600	kh, ch, x, χ	Xristus ‘Christ’ evxaristja ‘eucharist’ katexijns ‘remembrance’	This Greek borrowing, which was incorporated into the Gothic alphabet as 𐍇, had merged phonologically with k by the Old Valthungian period, but was occasionally still emphasized with h or even with the Greek letter χ in positions which were not naturally aspirated. Indeed, h was sometimes added to segments which were naturally aspirated, as also happened with p and t.
hw	xw		hv	700	hv, hw, chv, hu	hvilftri ‘curve’ sehvan ‘to see’ neihv ‘near’	The Old Valthungian letter most commonly written as , from Gothic 𐍈, is transliterated as hv, but later came to represent [θ] during the 11th century.
u	u		u	800		ulbvandus ‘rhinocerus’ ubvils ‘evil’ unþ ‘until’
j	ʝ		jj	900	i, j, ʒ	þrijja ‘three’ teaojjan ‘to do’ beajjouþs ‘both’
Ligatures & Polygraphs					Most of these represent single phonemes and might be considered letters in their own right, but were not part of the numbered Gothic alphabet.
Griutungi	IPA	Old Val.	Roman.	Numeric Value	Variants	Examples	Notes
ā	ɑː		aa	-	a, ā	haahs ‘shark’ faahan ‘to capture’ andaþaaht ‘rational’	Long vowels were sometimes indicated by doubling, sometimes with a macron or any of a half dozen other markings, or ignored completely.
ǣ	ɛː		ae	-	ai, ee	braeþ ‘wide’ aedvij ‘mother’ twae ‘two’
ǭ	ɔː		ao	-	au, oa, oo, ō	aogyou ‘eye’ fraos ‘happy’ naohuhþan ‘still, yet’
b	β~v		bv	-	vv	silbva ‘self’ arbvi ‘inheritance’ hlaebva ‘bread.dat’
g	ɣ		gy	-	y, g	aogyou ‘eye’ bagyms ‘tree’ igyil ‘hedgehog’
d	ð		dv	-	dv, δ	aedvij ‘mother’ daladva ‘down’ þjudvij ‘meaning’	Though dv is used here for transcription, a letter derived from the Gothic letter dags (but resembling ϫ, the Coptic gangia) was more often used.
-	ɛ~æ	EA	ea	-	e, ai, ae	seatjan ‘to set’ Mbreajja ‘Maria’ eakijt ‘vinegar’	This was used for the umlauted form of short a (Griutungi and Gothic a).
-	œː		eao	-	eoa, eō, eoo	eaodvijs ‘desert’ feaodjan ‘to feed’ heaohij ‘height’	This was used for the umlauted form of ao (Griutungi ǭ, Gothic au).
ē	eː~ei̯		ei	-	ē, ee, ej	meina ‘moon’ eimaeti ‘ant’ swei ‘such, thus’
-	œ		eo	-	oe, ø	vreokjan ‘to work’ reokjus ‘jug’ deohtrjus ‘daughters’	This was used for the umlauted form of o (Griutungi o, Gothic au).
-	øː~øu̯		eou	-	eoo, eō, ooe	afmeoudvij ‘disagreement’ meougyjis ‘girls’ deoumjan ‘to judge’	This was used for the umlauted form of oo (Griutungi and Gothic ō).
-	y		eu	-	y, ue	feutlijns ‘fulfillment’ seundij ‘health’ eunkja ‘ounce’	This was used for the umlauted form of u.
-	yː		euv	-	yy, uue, euu, eeu	heuvhjan ‘to hoard’ seuvtijs ‘gentle’ leuvkjan ‘to latch’	This was used for the umlauted form of uv (Griutungi and Gothic ū).
iu	iw		iv	-	iu, ju, jv	ivqv ‘up’ kniv ‘knee’ þivfs ‘thief’
ng	ŋɡ		ng	53	gg	singvan ‘to sing’ gangan ‘to go’ wingz ‘wing’	Sometimes written with g instead of n in a reflection of the Gothic.
nk	ŋk		nk	-	gk, gc	drinkan ‘to drink’ anke ‘lower leg’ unkis ‘to us’	Sometimes written with g instead of n in a reflection of the Gothic.
nkw	ŋkw		nqv	56	gq, gqv, nq, nkv, ncu...	inqvar ‘your’ hrinkvan ‘to gather’ sankvus ‘sunset’	Sometimes written with g instead of n in a reflection of the Gothic.
ō	oː~ou̯		ou	-	oo, ō, o, ov	ous ‘river-mouth’ sougila ‘sun’ tou ‘to, toward’
ū	uː		uv	-	ū, u, uu	uvhtvou ‘pre-dawn’ þuvsundi ‘thousand’ huvs ‘shed’
f	β~v	FV	fv	-	f, v, bv	ufvar ‘over’ aefvrs ‘terrifying’ vladvufvni ‘violence’
y	ʏ~ᵿ		y	400	y, i, u, ui	synagyovgyei ‘synagogue’ hyhsopus ‘hyssop’ þymjam ‘incense’	It is likely that this was still a separate phoneme in Old Valthungian from the umlaut of u, though some of the means of transcription overlapped a bit. This phoneme was used only in borrowings from the Greek, and after the Old Valthungian period, these two phonemes had completely merged. Our intermediate transcription shows ÿ for the letter representing Gothic 𐍅/w from Greek υ. The exact pronunciation is unknown, but it seems likely that it was differentiated from eu (the i-umlaut of /u/) in Old Valthungian. These two sounds had merged by the Middle Valthungian period. Numerically, it was equivalent to Gothic 𐍅 (400).

An Old Valthungian Text

Though there are very few extant Old Valthungian texts, obnoxiously large numbers of the Pater Noster text have been discovered. Here's one now:

ahta unsar þuv in himinam vijhnae namou þijn
qvimae þivdyinahsus þijns vredyae vilja þijns 
svei in himina jah an redyae hlaef unsaran
þan sintijnan gif uns hipma dagya jah afleit
uns þeatij skulans sijjaem svasvei jah vijs
afleitam þaem skulam unsaraem jah nij bringaes
uns in fraestubvnjae ak leaosij uns af þapma
ubvilin  untei þijna ist þivdyangradyi jah mahts
jah vludyus in aejugyins · ahmein

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