Pamarėska

Pomorian language
Pamarėska gålba
Pronunciation	[/pɑ.ˈma:.reː.skɑ/]
Created by	Raistas
Setting	Parallel World
Language family	Indo-European Pomorian language
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Balto-Slavic Early Proto-Slavic Vėtuhapamarėska

The Pomorian language or Pamarėska gålba, język pomorski (in Polish) is a Balto-Slavic language spoken in the region of Pomorze Wschodnie in Northern Poland from Gdynia city to the town of Braniewo, mostly in rural areas. There are at least 20 000 speakers (including second-language speakers knowing the language on an elementary level), of which less than 4000 speak Pomorian natively. Most of the native speakers are at the age of 50 or above, while younger generation usually speaks Polish as their first language.

Classification

Pomorian is usually classified as a separate branch of the Slavic language group of the Indo-European language family, but some scholars agree that the language is actually a distinct group related to both Baltic and Slavic languages. There is also no sole opinion on whether Pomorian is a single language or a group of closely related languages. Nowadays it is considered to be a dialectal continuum.

History

According to most scholars the Pomorian language split from Early Proto-Slavic before or during the period of First Palatalization. Unlike Slavic languages it it highly conservative, which makes it more similar to Baltic languages. It also shared some sound changes common to this group.

Early Pomorian (Rėniapamarėska)

Little is known about an early period of Pomorian (before XIII century CE), because no written record had been left during this time. Archeological evidence state that early Pomorian tribes were living in the territory of Western Polesie region, which is now South-Western Belarus and Eastern Poland as far as the San river. Around V-VII centuries CE (during the Migration Period) Pomorians moved to their current land. The cause of migration is disputed, many factors played role in it. During this period many borrowings from neighbouring Baltic tribes entered the language. After that Pomorian did not changed quite a lot from its original state.

Old Pomorian (Vėtuhapamarėska)

First written records came from German missionaries in the XIII century and the language is called Old Pomorian (Vėtuhapamarėska). The first attestation was found on a stone, which could be a part of a monastery, in Viestūtė. The carving states: "Deywes kun semya preienlus esti", which translates as: "God has come to this land" (In modern language this would be: "Dieve kų zemio priejįlu est"). It is also the only attestation where final /s/ is present. Some inscriptions and even small texts survived from that period, showing some dialectal features.

Middle Pomorian (Serdapamarėska)

During the period between XIII and XV centuries Eastern Pomerania was under the Teutonic Order and was under a great German influence. Before that time Pomorze and Prussia were sparcely populated having no major towns there. Because of most towns being founded and populated by Germans (and later by Poles), the Pomorian language was a tine minority there. Despite that Pomorian continued existing in rural areas, where it stayed for all of its history. During this time contact with German and Polish began and a lot of loanwords were borrowed from these two languages. Also they influenced Pomorian phonology in different dialects creating even more distinction among them. Under the Polish rule Pomorian began to decline in southern territories of Pomorze and Prussia.

Modern Pomorian (Naujapamarėska)

The green area shows Pomorian-speaking territories (With more than 10% of total population speaking Pomorian)

The Modern period began at the end of the XIX century, when lots of people from rural areas started moving to cities and towns. People living in the city spoke primarily in German and Polish and Pomorian speaking new settlers began to forget their native tongue instead speaking the languages of prestige. Unlike in the previous period much more texts were written in Pomorian and also it became a language of liturgies, mostly in the countryside.

In the XX century there were some successful attempts to revitalize and standardize Pomorian. In 1952 a spelling reform was adopted and the standardized grammar was established. The standard was based on North-Eastern dialects, which were the most widely spoken back then. However, some writers continued using the traditional spelling or wrote in their native dialect. It was untill 1989, when a Polish linguist Sauliu Dzelini proposed a new Pomorian Proper, based on his native dialect of Viestūtė (Wiastowce in Polish), which is a Central-West dialect and also the one having the longest written records., which combined features of both previous ones. Older (Eastern) spelling was kept for linguistic works, dictionaries and as a standard for Eastern dialects.

Despite an active movement to promote speaking Pomorian, the language stays endangered with 3600-4000 native speakers according to Polish census in 2011 (compared to 17000 in 1978). The Pomorian Association was created in 2004 with the intention of promoting and popularizing the Pomorian language and culture. Pomorian language classes have been conducted for both children and adults in some areas (mostly in big towns) and an increasing ammount of people are learning Pomorian as a second language.

Phonology

Vowels

Pomorian has a distinctive vowel length and four diphthongs. Unlike Slavic languages, it retained all Early Proto-Slavic vowels, but most of them changed their quality having different outcomes in dialects of this language. Front vowels can palatalize a preceeding consonant, but in Western dialects this applies only to /i:/ and /e:/ before dental consonants.

Long vowels

	Front		Back
	oral	nasal	oral	nasal
Close	y /i:/	į /ĩ:/	ū /u:/	ų /ũ:/
Mid	ė /e:/		o /o:/
Open-mid	e (/ɛ:~æ:/)	ę /ɛ̃:/		ą /ɔ̃:/
Open	a (/a:/)

Short vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i /ɪ/	u /ʊ/
Open-mid	e /ɛ/	å (/ɔ/)
Open		a /ɑ/ å /ɒ/

Note:

• Allophones /ɛ:~æ:/, /a:/, /ɔ/ appear under acute/circumflex accent.

Diphthongs

ie /ɪe/	uo /uo/	ei /eɪ̯~e:/	au /ɑʊ̯~ɔʊ̯/

• Ei and au, are rather diphthongoids than true diphthongs.

Consonants

Pomorian languge undergone through a process similar to the First Palatalization of velars in Slavic and palatalizaton of velars in Latvian, which resulted in turning /kʲ/ and /gʲ/ sounds into affricates (probably /t͡ɕ/ and /d͡ʑ/). Then those affricates were depalatalized to /t͡s/ and /d͡z/ in most dialects. Also there is a sound change, which turned /ɕ/ (from earlier /x/) into /ʆ/, which merged with plain /ʃ/ in all dialects, except Western ones (previously lacking a /ʃ/ sound).

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Palato-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n̪	ɲ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t̪	c 1	k
	voiced	b	d̪	ɟ 1	g
Affricate	voiceless		t̪͡s̪	t͡sʲ t͡ʃ
	voiced		d̪͡z̪	d͡zʲ d͡ʒ
Fricative	voiceless	(f) 2	s̪	sʲ ʃ		h
	voiced		z̪	zʲ ʒ		(ɦ) 3
Trill			r	rʲ
Approximant		w~ʋ 4		j
Lateral approximant			l	ʎ

Notes:

• 1 In North-Western dialects there are stops [c], [ɟ], while in South-Eastern - affricates [t͡ɕ], [d͡ʑ].
• 2 Occures only in borrowings.
• 3 [ɦ] is an allophone of /h/ in the intervocal position.
• 4 [w] occures after back vowels, while [ʋ] - after front ones.

• Dental consonants such as [t̪] and [d̪] are usually written as plain /t/ and /d/ respectively.

Orthography

Pomorian has three different orthografies, all of which use Latin alphabet: the standard, traditional and eastern. The traditional orthography is based mostly on German and Polish ones, it used digraphs like sch, ai and ei, instead of modern š, and ė. The Eastern (or dictionary) orthography was used after a spelling reform in 1952 and is still used in dictionaries and as a standard for Eastern dialects, because it's more phonemic, than a traditional one. The Pomorian standard orthography came into use after 1989 reform and combines both previous orthographies, though is mostly phonemic.

Prosody

Pomorian is a pitch-accented language. The stess is moveable meaning that any syllable of the word can be stressed, though usually the place of streess is predictable. A stressed syllable can be pronounced in two (in some dialects - in three) different ways. One way is a falling accent - tvírdagalså -, which can be long - dìlgå (marked with an acute) - or short - cẽrtå (marked with a grave). The second way is a rising accent - lìkugalså (marked with a circumflex or a tilde). Tvírdagalså translates literally as firm stress, and lìkugalså - light stress. Despite the stress is phonemic it is not written, except dictionaries. For example the word "úokte" means tall but "uõkte" means full of force, lusty.

Phonotactics

Every syllable in Pomorian can have an onset, a nucleus (always present) and a coda, with a nucleus being a vowel. If to mark vowels with V, consonants - with C and approximants - with R, than the biggest possible syllable would look like CCRVCC, which can not be found among Pomorian words because of its complexity. Typical syllables are C(R)V and C(R)VC. V (a vowel) can occure only word-initially, because VV clusters are not allowed in Pomorian. There is also a principle according to which a consonant with higher sonority should be closer to a nucleus than one with lower sonority, for example in the word /ˈstoː.rɛ/ - heavy - /t/ is higher on the sonority than /s/ and appears closer to /oː/ which is the nucleus.

Morphophonology

Ablaut, still productive in Pomorian, was inherited from Proto-Balto-Slavic period. It changes the morphological form of the word. For example "snė͂ge" (older snai͂ges) means "snow", "snigtì" (older "snigteĩ") to snow "snẽdze"(older "snegḗti") "it snows". Also ablaut appears in imperfective mood of different verbs:

Simple	Imperfective	Translation
veztì	važýti	to transport
birtì	bieróti	to take
piešė́ti	piešuõti	to paint (pictures)

It is also present when deriving verbs from nouns.

čį͂ste	cęšýti	kąšýti	kųstù
frequent	to share	to divide	a branch

Morphology

Nouns

There are seven (or six if count the sixth and the seventh as one) noun declensions in Pomorian. Nouns have seven cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Instrumental, Locative and Vocative. In Pomorian Proper most nouns have only two numbers: singular and plural, while in Western and Southern dialects there is also a dual number. An interesting feature is using nominative plural only for 3 or 4 items, making it effectively paucal, for example try/cetūri sūnave (three/four sons), but pęči sūnų (five sons) where genitive plural is used instead. However it is not viewed as a separate grammatical number.

Some noun cases can have two endings: long (with an unsterssed "e" or "i" at the end) or short (without end vowels). Also the Accusative plural of some words like mariå has two endings: "-e" and "-i". Those endings are interchangeable and can specifically be used in poetry or in dialectal speech.

First declension

More than a half of Pomorian nouns belongs to this dieclension. Loanwords usually also decline according to it. There are two different declining patterns for masculine and feminine genders.

-e (masculine), -a (feminine), -å (neuter)

	gróde = hail		galvà = head		mariå̀ = sea
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	gróde	gródė	galvà	gãlvo	mariå̀	marió
Genitive	gródo	gródų	galvó	galvų́	màrio	marių́
Dative	gródau	gródam(e)	gãlvei	galvõm(e)	màriau	mariãm(e)
Accusative	gródå	gródu	gãlvą	gãlve	màriå	màri/e
Instrumental	gródum(i)	gródėmy	gãlvają	galvomy͂	màrium(i)	mariamy͂
Locative	gródė	gródėhu	galvė́	galvosù	marė́	mariosù
Vocative	gróde	gródė	gãlva	gãlvo	mària	màrio

Second declension

Second declension contains mostly feminine gender nouns, usually inanimate. Some masculine gender nouns and old loanwords belong to this declension.

-i (masculine), -i (feminine)

	zvėrì = mammal		ųgnì = fire
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	zvėrì	zvė͂rė	ųgnì	ųgný
Genitive	zvėrió	zvėrių́	ųgný	ųgnių́
Dative	zvė͂rei	zvėrìm(e)	ųgneĩ	ųgnìm(e)
Accusative	zvė͂rį	zvė͂rį	ųgnį́	ųgnį́
Instrumental	zvėrimì	zvėrimy͂	ųgniją́	ųgnìmy
Locative	zvėrė́	zvėrėhù	ųgnė́	ųgnìhu
Vocative	zvėrie͂	zvėrė͂	ųgnie͂	ųgny͂

Third declension

This declension contains only masculine gender nouns. About one sixth of all the nouns belong to this declension.

-u (masculine)

	sūnù = son		ledù = ice
	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	sūnù	sū͂nave	ledù	le͂dū
Genitive	sūnuõ	sūnų́	leduõ	ledų́
Dative	sū͂navie	sūnùm(e)	ledaũ	ledùm(e)
Accusative	sū͂nų	sū͂nų	le͂dų	le͂dų
Instrumental	sūnumì	sūnumy͂	ledumì	ledumy͂
Locative	sūnáu	sūnuhù	ledáu	leduhù
Vocative	sūnuõ	sū͂nave	leduõ	le͂dave

Fourth declension

Few old nouns of a feminine gender belong to this declension, some can come in pairs, like brū (eyebrows) and thus have a dual number.

-ū (feminine)

	brū́ = eyebrow
	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	brū́	brùvi	brùvy
Genitive	bruvý	brùvu	bruvų́
Dative	bruvie͂	brùvima	bruvìm(e)
Accusative	brùvų	brùvi	brùvų
Instrumental	brùve	brùvima	bruvimy͂
Locative	bruvė́	bruvù	bruvihù
Vocative	brùvie	brùvie	brùvy

Fifth declension

Few nouns once ending in "-n" belong to this declension. There are two different patterns of declining: for the feminine and the neuter genders. This declension preserves a dual number.

*-n (feminine), *-n (neuter)

	elū́ = deer			ìmnę = name
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	elū́	elèni	elèny	ìmnę	imnèni	imnenó
Genitive	elèny	elènu	elènų	imneny͂	imnenù	imnenų́
Dative	elènie	elènima	elènim(e)	ìmnenie	imnènima	imnenìm(e)
Accusative	elènį	elèni	elènį	imnenį́	imnèni	imnenį́
Instrumental	elène	elènima	elènimy	imnenìm(i)	imnènima	imnenimy͂
Locative	elènė	elènu	elènihu	imnenė́	imnenù	imnenihù
Vocative	elènie	elènie	elèny	imnenie͂	imnenie͂	imnenó

Sixth declension

Also called the consonant declension, the sixth declension contains only a few words, all of them descending from proto-Balto-Slavic. There is also a dual number for the nouns belonging to this declension.

*-t, *-s (neuter)

	telę́ = calf			kãkla = wheel
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	telę́	telę́ti	telę́to	kãkla	kãklesi	kaklesó
Genitive	telę́ty	telę́tuo	telę́tų	kãklesy	kaklesù	kaklesų́
Dative	telę́tie	telę́tima	telę́tim(e)	kãklesie	kaklesĩma	kaklesìm(e)
Accusative	telę́tį	telę́ti	telę́tį	kãklesį	kãklesi	kaklesį́
Instrumental	telę́tim(i)	telę́tima	telę́timy	kãklesim(i)	kaklesĩma	kaklesimy͂
Locative	telę́tė	telę́tuo	telę́tihu	kaklesė́	kaklesù	kaklesihù
Vocative	telę́tie	telę́tie	telę́to	kaklesie͂	kaklesie͂	kaklesó

Seventh declension

This declension is sometimes considered to be a part of sixth one. It has only four nouns in it: mūti (mother), broti (brother), sesti (sister) and dukti (daughter).

*-r (masculine, feminine)

	mū́ti = mother			duktì = daughter
	singular	dual	plural	singular	dual	plural
Nominative	mū́ti	mū́teri	mū́tery	duktì	dùkteri	dukterý
Genitive	mū́tery	mū́teruo	mū́terų	duktery͂	dukteruõ	dukterų́
Dative	mū́terie	mū́teriema	mū́terim(e)	dùkterie	dukterie͂ma	dukterìm(e)
Accusative	mū́terį	mū́teri	mū́terį	dùkterį	dùkteri	dùkterį
Instrumental	mū́tere	mū́teriema	mū́terimy	dùktere	dukterie͂ma	dukterimy͂
Locative	mū́terė	mū́teruo	mū́terihu	dukterė́	dukteruõ	dukterihù
Vocative	mū́terie	mū́terie	mū́tery	dukterie͂	dukterie͂	dùktery

Pronouns

The personal pronouns are az (I), tu (you) je (he), ja (she), jå (it), ane (the other one) and the reflexive pronoun sebe are declined as follows:

			Nominative	Genitive	Dative	Accusative	Instrumental	Locative
Singular	I		àz	menè	meni/mė́	menę́/mę́	manàją/maną́	manė́
	You (singular)		tù	tebè	tebi/tė́	tebę́/tę́	tavàją/tabą́	tavė́
	3rd person	He	jè	jegà/gà	jamù/muõ	jį́	jė́mi	jamì
		She	jà	jeję́/ję	jojì/jė́	ją́	jóji	jajì
		It	jå̀	jegà/gà	jamù/muõ	jå̀	jė́mi	jamì
	The other	He	anè	anagà	anamù	anå̀	anė́mi	anamì
		She	anà	anaję́	anojì	aną́	anóji	anajì
		It	anå̀	anagà	anamù	anå̀	anė́mi	anamì
	Reflexive pronoun		–	sebè	savi/sė́	sebę́/sę́	savàją/sabą́	savė́
Dual	We two		mùvi/vì	nóju/náu	nóma	nà	nóma	nóju/náu
	You two		jùvi/và	vóju/váu	vóma	và	vóma	vóju/váu
	They two	masculine	jóva/jà	jàju/júo	jė́ma/múo	jà	jė́ma	jàju
		feminine	jė́vi/jì	jóju/jáu	jė́mi/mė́	jì	jė́mi	jóju
		neuter	jė́vi/jì	jóju/jáu	jė́mi/mė́	jì	jė́mi	jóju
	The other two	masculine	anóva/và	anúo	anė́ma	anà	anė́ma	anàju
		feminine	anė́vi/vì	anáu	anė́mi	anì	anė́mi	anóju
		neuter	anė́vi/vì	anáu	anė́mi	anì	anė́mi	anóju
Plural	We		mū́	nósų	nóme	mų́	nómi	nósu
	You (plural)		jū́	vósų	vóme	jų́	vómi	vósu
	They	masculine	jíe	jų́	jė́me	jį́	jė́mi	jė́hu
		feminine	jó	jų́	jóme	jį́	jė́mi	jė́hu
		neuter	jó	jų́	jė́me	ją́	jė́mi	jė́hu
	The others	masculine	aníe	anų́	anė́me	anį́	anė́mi	anė́hu
		feminine	anó	anų́	anóme	anį́	anė́mi	anė́hu
		neuter	anó	anų́	anė́me	aną́	anė́mi	anė́hu

Some pronoun cases can have two forms: long (which is older and usually changed less from its' original state) and short (made by a contraction of the long form). Some cases retained only the short form. Nowadays mostly short forms are used with long forms appearing in poetry to make a speech look old. However they are still used in dialectal speech as basic pronoun forms.

Adjectives

In Pomorian adjectives have two declensions called declension I and declension II, which are determined by the nominative case ending of singular number. Adjectives must match with nouns in number, gender, and case. Like in other Balto-Slavic languages all Pomorian adjectives have two forms: simple (or indefinite) and pronominal (definite). Here are examples of each adjectival declension. In Old Pomorian there was also the third declension, but it merged with the second one during the Middle Pomorian period.

-e (masculine), -a (feminine), -å (neuter) Declension I

	rùde = orange, red-haired
	masculine		feminine		neuter
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	rùde	rudý	rudà	rùdo	rudå̀	rùdo
Genitive	rùdo	rudų͂	rudó	rudų͂	rùdo	rudų͂
Dative	rudãm	rudãm	rudė́	rudõm	rùdau	rudãm
Accusative	rùdå	rudù	rùdą	rùde	rùdå	rùde
Instrumental	rudùm	rudamy͂	rùdają	rudomy͂	rùdum	rudamy͂
Locative	rùdame	rudė͂h(u)	rùdoje͂	rudõs(u)	rùdė͂	rudė͂h(u)
Vocative	rùde	rudý	rùda	rudó	rùdå	rudó

-u (masculine), -i (feminine), -u (neuter) Declension II

	džilù = numerous, deep
	masculine		feminine		neuter
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	džilù	džìlū	džilì	džìlio	džiliù	džìlio
Genitive	džilúo	džilių͂	džilió	džilių͂	džìlio	džilių͂
Dative	džiliãm	džilũm	džilė́	džiliõm	džìlau	džiliũm
Accusative	džìlų	džìlu	džìlią	džìli/e	džìlių	džìli/e
Instrumental	džilùm	džilumy͂	džìliają	džilimy͂	džìlium	džiliumy͂
Locative	džìlume	džilu͂hu(u)	džilije͂	džiliõs(u)	džilė͂	džilė͂h(u)
Vocative	džìluo	džilū́(u)	džìlie	džilió(u)	džìliu	džilió(u)

Pronominal (definite) forms are made by adding a third person pronoun to the end of the adjective. The pronoun also has to match with its' adjective in number, gender, and case. In Early Proto-Slavic (or possibly even in Proto-Balto-Slavic) adjectives and pronouns were separate words, but in Old Pomorian they have already merged into a single word with pronouns turning into pronominal endings. That's why some sound laws like final consonant drop and shortening of end long vowels did not applied to adjectival endings in definite adjectives. For example rudà + ja results in rudója (in Old Pomorian: rudā́ + jā - rudā́jā)

Pronominal declension

	lė́pe = good, fine
	masculine		feminine		neuter
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	lė́pesi	lė́pieji	lė́poja	lė́posio	lė́paniå	lė́pojo
Genitive	lė́poga	lė́panių	lė́poję	lė́ponių	lė́poga	lė́ponių
Dative	lė́pamuo	lė́pėmsėm	lė́pėjė	lė́pomsiom	lė́pamuo	lė́pėmsėm
Accusative	lė́pani	lė́poję	lė́ponią	lė́poję	lė́paniå	lė́poję
Instrumental	lė́pojėm(i)	lė́pėmi	lė́pojoj(i)	lė́pomi	lė́pojėm(i)	lė́pėmi
Locative	lė́pėjam(i)	lė́pėšėh(u)	lė́pojej(i)	lė́posos(u)	lė́pėjam(i)	lė́pėšėh(u)
Vocative	lė́peje	lė́pieji	lė́paja	lė́posio	lė́paniå	lė́pojo

Simple and pronominal adjective forms act similarly to English arcticles ("a" and "the" respectively). For example: Lėpa dieni literally means "a good day"; Lėpoja dieni means "the good day" or "the day is good". To say "What a good day is today!" one should use the pronominal form - Kė lėpoja es ši dieni!

Comparison

The adjectival comparison is usually formed by adding suffixes to a word or by adverbs like English "more" and "the most" before a word. The suffixes are -esn(i)- for comparative and -(u/i)š- for superlative. These suffixes are added before other ones, if a word already has other suffixes.

Comparative

	rùde = orange, red-haired
	masculine		feminine		neuter
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	rudèsne	rudesný	rudesnà	rudèsno	rudesnå̀	rudèsno
Genitive	rudèsno	rudesnų͂	rudesnó	rudesnų͂	rudèsno	rudesnų͂
Dative	rudesnãm	rudesniãm	rudèsnei	rudesniõm	rudèsniu	rudesniãm
Accusative	rudèsnå	rudesniù	rudèsną	rudèsne	rudèsniå	rudèsne
Instrumental	rudesnùm	rudesniamy͂	rudèsnią	rudesniomy͂	rudesniùm	rudesniamy͂
Locative	rùdesnãme	rudesnė͂h(u)	rùdesnõje	rudesniõs(u)	rùdesnė͂	rudesnė͂h(u)
Vocative	rudèsne	rudesný	rudèsna	rudesnó	rudèsnå	rudesnó

Superlative

	rùde = orange, red-haired
	masculine		feminine		neuter
	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Nominative	rudė́še	rudėšý	rudėšà	rudė́šo	rudėšå̀	rudė́šo
Genitive	rudė́šo	rudėšų͂	rudėšó	rudėšų͂	rudė́šo	rudėšų͂
Dative	rudėšãm	rudėšãm	rudė́šei	rudėšõm	rudė́šu	rudėšãm
Accusative	rudė́šå	rudėšù	rudė́šą	rudė́še	rudė́šå	rudė́še
Instrumental	rudėšùm	rudėšamy͂	rudė́šą	rudėšomy͂	rudėšùm	rudėšamy͂
Locative	rùdėšãme	rudėšė͂h(u)	rùdėšõje	rudėšõs(u)	rùdėšė͂	rudėšė͂h(u)
Vocative	rudė́še	rudėšý	rudė́ša	rudėšó	rudė́šå	rudėšó

Verbs

Every Pomorian verb belongs to one of four different conjugations:

• The first conjugation, which is the most common, contains verbs whose infitives end in -ti before a consonant. There are some irregulare verb patterns in this conjugation.
• The second conjugation encompasses verbs with infintive form endings -ėti (with -ėj- in the present tense), -oti,uoti. Verbs with infinitives ending in -įti and ąti are a subclass of this conjugation.
• The third conjugation contains verbs with infintives ending in -yti and -ėti.
• The fourth conjugation contains few old athematic and auxillary verbs. Almost all of these verbs are irregular.

Active Voice

In Pomorian active voice has four moods: Indicative, Imperative, Conditional and Indirect, but the last one isn't usually considered to be a mood.

Indicative mood

There are two simple and six compound tenses.

Present tense

This tense describe present or ongoing events without a definite time. Conjugation types are marked with numbers.

	1	2a	2b	3	4
	vestì - to lead	žinóti - to know	cetįti - to wish for something	zodýti - to decide	bū́ti - to be
I	vedå̀	žinójå	cetìnå	zoďå̀	esmì
You (singular)	vedesì	žinójesi	cetìnesi	zoďèsi	esì
He/She/It	vedè	žinóje	cetìne	zõďe	e͂s(t)
We	vedemà	žinójema	cetìnema	zoďèma	esmà
You (plural)	vedetè	žinójete	cetìnete	zoďète	estè
They	vedą́	žinóją	cetìną	zõďą	są͂(t)

In Pomorian Proper there is no dual for verbs, but in dialects forms for "we two", "you two" and "they to" are still in use. The verb būti conjugates for dual even in the Standard, though these forms are seldom used by today speakers:

	bū́ti - to be
We two	esvà
You two	està
They two	e͂ste

The verb būti has an additional simple future tense which conjugates like present, but using the form bąsti instead.

I	bą́då
You (singular)	bą́desi
He/She/It	bą́de(t)
We two	bą́deva
You two	bą́deta
They two	bą́dete
We	bą́dema
You (plural)	bą́dete
They	bą́dą(t)

Past tense

This is the basic tense to describe actions in the past. Like in Present tense the stress pattern of a verb is usually predictable.

	1	2a	2b	3	4
	vestì - to lead	žinóti - to know	cetįti - to wish for something	zodýti - to decide	bū́ti - to be
I	veduõ	žinóju	cetìnu	zoďúo	buvù
You (singular)	vedeĩ	žinójei	cetìnei	zoďéi	buveĩ
He/She/It	vedė́	žinójė	cetìnė	zõďė	bū͂
We	vedomè	žinójome	cetìnome	zoďóme	bùvome
You (plural)	vedė́tè	žinójote	cetìnėte	zoďė́te	bùvote
They	vedę́	žinóję	cetìnę	zõďę	bū͂vę

The verb būti also conjugates for dual.

	bū́ti - to be
We two	bùvė
You two	bùva
They two	bùve

Perfect tenses

There are three perfect tenses in Pomorian (present, past and future), which are all formed by using the verb 'būti' in the respective tense and person as well as the active past adjectival participle (the l-paticiple) in its respective number and gender:

zodýti - to decide	Present perfect	Past perfect	Future perfect
I	esmì zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå	buvù zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå	bą́då zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå
You (singular)	esì zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå	buveĩ zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå	bą́desi zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå
He/She/It	e͂s(t) zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå	bū͂ zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå	bą́de zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå
We two	esvà zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bùvė zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bą́deva zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė
You two	està zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bū́sta zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bą́deta zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė
They two	e͂ste zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bū́ste zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bą́dete zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė
We	esmà zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bùvome zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bą́dema zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio
You (plural)	estè zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bùvote zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bą́dete zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio
They	są͂(t) zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bū͂vę zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bą́dą zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio

These tenses are roughly equivalent English perfect tenses (I had read / I will have read). They usually indicate an action that happened before another action or to indicate that an action is complete.

The l-participle indicates a quick, momentary action and š-participle (zodie͂vušu/ zodie͂vuši/ zodie͂vušå) is used instead the l-participle to indicate actions which lasted for a certain period of time similarly to English Perfect-Continuous tense. For example: "Juo esmi zodielu" means "I have already decided"; "Dilgau zodievušu esmi ši" - literally "I've been deciding it for a long time".

Continuous tenses

There are three continuous tenses in Pomorian (present, past and future), which are also formed by using the verb 'būti' in the respective tense and person but with the active present adjectival participle (the nť-paticiple) in its respective number and gender:

zodýti - to decide	Present continuous	Past continuous	Future continuous
I	esmì zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå	buvù zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå	bą́då zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå
You (singular)	esì zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå	buveĩ zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå	bą́desi zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå
He/She/It	e͂s(t) zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå	bū͂ zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå	bą́de zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå
We two	esvà zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė	bùvė zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė	bą́deva zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
You two	està zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė	bū́sta zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė	bą́deta zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
They two	e͂ste zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė	bū́ste zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė	bą́dete zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
We	esmà zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo	bùvome zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo	bą́dema zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
You (plural)	estè zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo	bùvote zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo	bą́dete zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
They	są͂(t) zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo	bū͂vę zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo	bą́dą zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo

These tenses are used to indicate ongoing incomplete actions. Though being similar to English Continuous tense, they are used almost exclusively in literature in Pomorian. Often the continuous tense can be indicated by an imperfective verb usually formed by adding suffixes -ėj-, -aj- or -av- to a verb. For example: zodyti (to decide) - zoďuoti (to be deciding) - the -av- suffix added. This way of expressing the continuous tense is much more common in spoken Pomorian.

Imperative mood

This mood is used to describe orders and commands. There is no conjugation first person singular, instead a phrase with the word ati is used, for example: Ati zoďå which translates as "let me decide". This construction is used with a third person for all the numbers as well (Ati zoďą - let they decide).

Simple tenses

	1	2a	2b	3	4
	vestì - to lead	žinóti - to know	cetįti - to wish for something	zodýti - to decide	bū́ti - to be
You (singular)	veďì	žinóji	cetìni	zõďi	bą́ďi
He/She/It	(ãti) ve͂ďe	(ãti) žinóje	(ãti) cetìne	(ãti) zõďe	bą́ďe
We	veďiemà	žinójima	cetìnima	zõďima	bą́ďima
You (plural)	veďietè	žinójite	cetìnite	zõďite	bą́ďite
They	(ãti) vedą́	(ãti) žinóją	(ãti) cetìną	(ãti) zoďą́	bądą́(t)

The verb būti (bąsti) also conjugates for dual.

	bū́ti - to be
We two	bąďýva
You two	bąďýta
They two	bąďýte

Compound tenses

	Pefect	Continuous
You (singular)	bą́ďi zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå	bą́ďi zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå
He/She/It	bą́ďe zodie͂lu/ zodie͂li/ zodie͂lå	bą́ďe zoďą͂ťu/ zoďą͂ťi/ zoďą͂ťå
We two	bąďýva zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bąďýva zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
You two	bąďýta zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bąďýta zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
They two	bąďýte zodie͂la/ zodie͂lė	bąďýte zoďą͂ťa/ zoďą͂ťė
We	bą́ďima zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bą́ďima zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
You (plural)	bą́ďite zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bą́ďite zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo
They	bądą́(t) zodie͂lū/ zodie͂lio	bądą́(t) zoďą͂ťū/ zoďą͂ťo

Indirect mood

This mood is different from other moods and is not always considered as such, because it isn't composed of conjugatable verbs but only active participles in the nominative case. There is no future tense in this mood.

	Singular	Plural
Present	zoďą̃ťu, zoďą̃ťi, zoďą̃ťå	zoďą͂ťū, zoďą͂ťo
Past	zodie͂vušu, zodie͂vuši, zodie͂vušå	zodie͂vušū, zodie͂vušo
Present perfect	estą̃ťu zodie͂lu, estą͂ťi zodie͂li, estą͂ťå zodie͂lå	są̃ťū zodie͂lū, są͂ťo zodie͂lio
Past perfect	bùvęťu zodie͂lu, bùvęťi zodie͂li, bùvęťå zodie͂lå	bùvęťū zodie͂lū, bùvęťo zodie͂lio
Present Perfect-Continuous	e͂stevu zodie͂lu, e͂stevi zodie͂li, e͂stą͂vå zodie͂lå	są̃vū zodie͂lū, są͂vo zodie͂lio
Past Perfect-Continuous	bū́vu zodie͂lu, bū́vi zodie͂li, bū́vå zodie͂lå	bū́vū zodie͂lū, bū́vo zodie͂lio

This mood is not used in daily spoken language, but in literature, especially in folklore, usually describing actions happened a long time ago.

Passive Voice

The Pomorian passive voice is different from the active voice, always being formed analytically, like in all the Balto-Slavic languages. Is is always composed of the auxiliary verb būti in its respective tense / person and either a present passive participle (the m-paticiple) or a past passive participle (the n- and t-participles) that must match the gender and number of the subject. The n-participle indicates an imperfect mood while the t-paticiple - a perfect mood. An additional conditional mood is formed by a supine form of būti and a participle.

In order to avoid redundancy, the following table only includes the third (masculine) person of singular.

výdėti - to see		Present passive	Past simple passive	Past perfect passive
Indicative mood	Present	e͂s výdame	e͂s výdune	e͂s výdute
	Past	bū͂ výdame	bū͂ výdune	bū͂ výdute
	Future	bą́de výdame	bą́de výdune	bą́de výdute
Indirect mood	Present	bū́ťu výdame	bū́ťu výdune	bū́ťu výdute
	Past	bū́vušu výdame	bū́vušu výdune	bū́vušu výdute
	Future	bą́dąťu výdame	bą́dąťu výdune	bą́dąťu výdute
Imperative mood		bą́ďe výdame	bą́ďe výdune	bą́ďe výdute
Conditional mood		bū́tų výdame	bū́tų výdune	bū́tų výdute

Supine

In Pomorian supine is used mostly with motion verbs and indicates purpose or in the phrase meaning "to be going to". It is formed from an infinitive form of a verb by replacing the -ti ending with the -tų. For example: Jenå sklepå hlėbo kuoptų - "I go to the store to buy some bread.

Adverbs

In Pomorian adverbs have the basic stem of their corresponding adjectives and are not inflected (though they have three degree of comparison just like adjectives). Adverbs can have only an indefinite (non-pronominal) form. A lot of Pomorian adverbs are formed by replacing an adjectival ending with -ė or -au. For examle: lėpe (good) - lėpau (well). Some adverbs are derived from nouns, but probably from adjectives which were derived from nouns: kalna (high place, mountain; noun) - pakalne (being from the height; adjective) - pakalnė (downwards, downhill; adverb). Some are derived from other adverbs: ligė (being fine, allowed; adverb) - neligė (not well; adverb) - perneligė (too much; adverb). Some are very old and not comparable, they are not derived from anything: be and bu (even), šiet (here), tuo (there), kė (how, so), juo (already), doli (far), dovė (long ago) and tali (only). The word doli also has a comparable doublet dolė.

-ė			-au
Simple	Comparative	Superlative	Simple	Comparative	Superlative
far	further	the furthest	well	better	the best
dolė	doliau	doliši	lėpau	lėpėjau	lėpuši

Prepositions

Prepositions are used to clarify an object's position or direction. Each noun case can take different prepositions but only some prepositions can be used with different cases. Dialectal variations are listed in the table after slashes, non-standard but also being frequently used.

With genitive case Preposition Meaning prie near, at da/do till lig up to (about time) sker/skerz by, over pa/pu after, past uz behind ėz beyond bez without is from

With dative case Preposition Meaning kų to pa onto

With accusative case Preposition Meaning abie/abe about azu for

With instrumental case Preposition Meaning su/sų with az(u) after (motion) pad under per across, through, during

With locative case Preposition Meaning į in (often dropped) an(u) on pad under

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are used to link clauses in sentences and to establish their relation.

• a, o, je - and
• o, be - but
• da, dakal - until
• jė - if
• kad - when
• bu, ka - or/but
• čy - or (also used to start a question)
• li - because
• partė - however

Word composition

Unlike in other Balto-Slavic languages composition in Pomorian is a very productive way to form new words. The process occurs readily in Germanic languages. Along with affixation it is used to create words for describing new meanings and these newly-created words can be very long and thus used mostly in literature. Examples of both composition and affixation are shown in the table below:

Word	Meaning	Process
lė́kti	to fly
lėktù	plane	ending change
burzdalėktù	supersonic aircraft	composition
lėktapãrnė	aircraft wings	composition
lėktė́ti	to be flying	suffixation
nulėktóti	to be flying for long enough	affixation
aunulėktė́ti	to be flying around	prefixation
aulėktėmieťìme	flying car	composition
lėktė́ne	flying (adjective)	suffixation
palėktėnìme	helicopter	affixation
palėktėnìmuku	helicopter pilot	suffixation
palėktėnimzenóčini	helicopter piloting licence	composition
palėktėnimė́dlå	helicopter rotor	suffixation
supalėktėnimė́dli	coaxial rotors (dual)	prefixation
supalėktėnimė́dlike	tail rotor	suffixation

Syntax

Constituent order

Like other Balto-Slavic languages Pomorian has a SVO word order. However due to its' case system and verb conjugations the word order is actually free. The place of words in a sentence plays rather a semantic role and not the grammatic one. For example, saying Gålbėjå pamarėskają means "I speak Pomorian"; while Pamarėskają gålbėjå is "It's the Pomorian language I speak"; Az gålbėjå pamarėskają - "It's me who speaks Pomorian". There could be other meanings depending on different words position like adjectives, adverbs, or the context (when a sencence is a part of a text).

Dialects

Area with more than 4% of total population speaking Pomorian. Pamarėskė sačinė (Pomorian dialects)

Pomorian consists of

1. Northern and North-Western
2. Central-Western
3. South-Western
4. Central
5. Southern
6. Central-Eastern
7. Ežerina (Lake dialect)
8. Prūsisk, Suvalkian (Eastern)

Those dialects form three dialectal groups: Western (1,3), Central (2,4,5,6) and Eastern (7,8)

The most widely spoken dialect is Central-Western one having 1000 native speakers. Western and Eastern dialects have approximately 500 native speakers each, Central-Eastern has about 700 speakers and Southern has less than 500 speakers. The rest of the dialects are spoken by less than 800 speakers and are severely endangered (the Ežerina dialect having only 12 native speakers left). In 1984 died Anna Ribbeck - the last known speaker of the Hel dialect (Heliska guora). It was a dialect once spoken in three villages on the Hel peninsula and since the XXth century only in a small town of Jastarnia. This dialect had some distinct features absent from the rest dialects, such as the back vowel fronting, a lack of palatalization and a stress fixed on a first syllable. Also its' syntax was highly influenced by German.

There are some differences in phonology and morphology among dialects while the syntax stays pretty much the same. For example, the sentence: "I gave a few pennies to Brone (short from Bronislove)" would be "(Àz) dóďė cẽlkų gróšå Bróniau" /(ɑz.)ˈdoː.ɟeː.ˈt͡sɛːl.kũ.ˈgroː.ʃɒ.ˈbroː.ɲɑʊ̯/ in Pomorian Proper, but (Jès) dõďė kelkǻ gróšą Bróniou" /(ˌjɛz.) ˈdoː.ɟeː.kɛl.ˈkɔː.ˈgroː.ʃɒ̃.ˈbroː.ɲoʊ̯/ in Western dialect and "(Às) dā́džie cálko pènįgo Broniū́ /(ˌɑz.)ˈdaːd͡ʑɪe.ˈt͡saːl.kɔ.ˌpɛ.nĩ.gɔ.brɔ.ˈɲuː/ in Eastern dialect. The word penįgė is present in Pomorian Proper where it means "money". There is also seen a long vowel /aː/, which is a separate phoneme in Eastern dialect and did not became /oː/ like in the Proper. The word kelkå in Western dialect shows /k/ instead of expected /t͡s/, which is a common development in it. A borrowing from Polish could be also possible, but it doesn't explain the accent of the word. Major difference between Western and Central/Eatern dialectal groups is a retaining of final /ɛ/ or /ə/ sound from Proto-Balto-Slavic *-as ending (Brone, Bronislove) in former, but a complete loss in latter (Broń or Broniu, Bronislov).

Example texts

Small texts in the Pomorian Proper and dialects.

Swadesh list for Pomorian Proper and dialects.