Western Scots Norse: Difference between revisions

|nativename=Veastagharsc

|pronunciation=ˌvɛst.əːɾsk

|dia1=Northwestern

|dia2=Southwestern

|speakers=(L1) 1,500

Western Scots Norse ([[w:endonym|endonym]]: ''{{l|snon|Veastagharsc}}''; /ˌvɛst.əːɾsk/) is the dialect continuum used throughout {{l|snon|Veastaghar}}, or the Outer Hebrides. It has the heavier influence of the two continuums from [[w:Scots Gaelic|Gàidhlig]], this can be seen largely through vocab. It is one of two main [[w:dialect|dialect]] continuums, the other being [[Eastern Scots Norse]], corresponding to the Inner and Outer Hebrides. Western Scots Norse is further divided into two groups, {{l|snon|Noveastagharsc}} and {{l|snon|Suveastagharsc}}, or ''Northwestern'' and ''Southwestern'' respectively. These too are then further divided into the specific dialects. Under Northwestern is ''Lewis'' and ''Harris'', while Southwestern is split between ''Uist'' and ''Barra''. Within Uist there is also the primary religious dialect, {{l|snon|Hèdhnarsc}}, spoken by the pagans throughout the Outer Hebrides.

All colloquial western dialects share the following features:

*Old Norse's front round vowels become back vowels, thus words like "systir" become {{l|snon|siuest}}, as opposed to Eastern {{l|snon|saiast}}.

*no a-e merger, keeping ⟨a⟩ as /ə/, thus words like "hvelpr" and "hvalpa" become {{l|snon|velp}} and {{l|snon|valp}}, rather than merging to {{l|snon|valp}} as in Eastern.

*no à > /o/ shift, keeping ⟨à⟩ as /ɑ/. Thus /ˈɑv/ ({{l|snon|àv}}) for Eastern /ˈovʲ/ ({{l|snon|àev}})

Novestèghsc, or Northwestern Scots Norse, is spoken on {{l|snon|Leòdhas 's Hearadh}}, or [[w:Lewis and Harris|Lewis and Harris]].

{{l|snon|Suveastèghsc}}, or Southwestern Scots Norse, is spoken on the islands of {{l|snon|Ìvist 's Baraegh}}, or Uist and Barra.

Ìvistèghsc, or Uist Scots Norse, is spoken on the islands of {{l|snon|Ìvist}}, or [[w:Uist|Uist]].

The following gives each form of {{l|snon|tàl}}:

:''tàlir'' /ˈtɑ.ʎəɾʲ/

:''dàlir'' /ˈdɑ.ʎəɾʲ/

:''thàlir'' /ˈxɑ.ʎəɾʲ/

(not updated)

==Morphology==

Nouns have been reduced down to a basic singular/plural distinction, with the gender distinction effectively lost, only being maintained by the pronouns used for the words. Nouns have also dropped their definite forms in favor of an independent article, {{l|snon|hi}}.

Plurals of native words are almost always formed with {{l|snon|-ar}}, though remnants of umlaut also exist. Nouns from Gàidhlig most often instead use {{l|snon|-an}}.

With the general loss of gender, the suffix {{l|snon|-al}} developed. Originally a feminine diminutive, it was analogized to the masculine and became an agent suffix, then a general suffix for forming feminine nouns. In the plural, it appears as {{l|snon|-lar}}.

Adjectives, like nouns, have been heavily reduced, down to the positive, comparative, and superlative forms. The comparative and superlative are formed with {{l|snon|-ir}} and {{l|snon|-ist}} respectively.

|{{l|snon|è}}

|{{l|snon|tfè}}({{l|snon|tfèr|r}})

|{{l|snon|trì}}

|{{l|snon|fiòer}}

|{{l|snon|fi}}

|{{l|snon|siach}}

|{{l|snon|siò}}

|{{l|snon|àth}}

|{{l|snon|niù}}

|{{l|snon|tiù}}

|{{l|snon|èliovh}}

|{{l|snon|tòlvh}}

{{snon-infl-prep|i|n=y}}

{{snon-infl-prep|til}}

Many significant changes have happened to the verb system since Old Norse, notably both the mood and voice distinctions have been lost. The active indicative has descended into the present and past tense, while the active subjunctive was lost entirely. The mediopassive became the future and imperative (the mood distinction in the mediopassive largely having already collapsed in Old Norse). The reciprocal, original formed through the mediopassive, has entirely been replaced by {{l|snon|hinhar}}. The original imperative is seemingly preserved as the impersonal form (hence the "-sc-"), later having the endings appended to it after they became generally leveled to a single regular pattern.

 

Verbs have reduced to such a limited number of forms that analogy and sound changes have leveled them all down to essentially one pattern (excluding a few irregular verbs), which seemingly descends from Old Norse's weak class 2 pattern.

{{snon-conj|t|àl}}

 

 

There are very few known suppletive verbs in Scots Norse, the main one being the copula ''vèr'', and even it has been leveled by many speakers.

"er" and "var" are the more prevalent forms, but the regularized forms "vèrir" and "vèradhir" are also rather common.

{{interlinear|lang=snon|number=(2)

| Q speak.PRES 2sg with 1sg

| I won't

}}

Following this usage of "ègh", "ghià" (Old Norse "já") is often used as an affirmative, as in:

{{interlinear|lang=snon|number=(3)

| Will you eat dinner with me?

}}

{{interlinear|lang=snon|number= (3.1)|indent=6

}}

As has likely been noticed by now, questions consistently contain "vàrth" at the beginning, this is a general question particle, akin to Gàidhlig "an".

{{interlinear|lang=snon|number=(4)

| The box is empty

}}

! rowspan=2 | Rank

! rowspan=2 | English

! rowspan=2 | Old Norse

! colspan=2 | [[Scots Norse]]

! rowspan=2 | Icelandic

! rowspan=2 | Swedish

| nos /ˈnˠɔs/

| nas /ˈnəs/

| gangh /ˈɟæj/

| gangh /ˈɡɑɣ/

| mouth (body)</br>(river)

| munnr</br>mynni, óss

| muenh /ˈmɤʒ/</br>mainh /ˈmɪʒ/

| mùnh /ˈmuz/</br>miùenh /ˈmʲuʒ/

| tuengh /ˈtɤj/

| tungh /ˈtɤɣ/

| ègh /eʝ/

| to know</br>(a person)

| kunna</br>kenna

| cuen /ˈkɤ̃/</br>cen /ˈcɛ̃/

| skin/hide (animal)</br>(general)</br>(general?)

| feldr</br> skinn</br>húð

| feld /ˈfʲɛʎdʲ/</br> sci /ˈʃcɪ/</br>hùd /ˈxudˠ/

| huenn /ˈxɤɲ/</br>rac /ˈrʲæc/</br>cù /ˈku/