Valthungian: Difference between revisions

Line 776:

==Nouns==

===A Note on Strong and Weak Nouns===

In most Germanic languages, nouns (as well as verbs and adjectives) tend to be broken into categories con-sidered “strong” and “weak.” In nouns and adjectives, “weak” means that the words cling to their determiner endings inherited from Indo-European, which usually have an /n/ inserted between the root and the ending. For the purposes of this text, I will dispense with the traditional strong and weak categories as relates to the nouns and simply relate the various categories into which nouns can be classified, based on their inherited Proto-Germanic endings (which include the /n/ infix where applicable). Since these endings can be irregular and each class must be learned by rote anyway, there is no need in the context of the Gutish language to add this additional arbitrary distinction.

Noun classes differ by stem vowel and by gender. They may also differ by glides (/j/ or /w/) suffixed to the stem and/or the presence of infixive /n/. The main classes are those stems in /a/ or /ō/, in /i/, in /u/, or in /n/ (as described above). There are also a few minor classes in consonantal stems (a.k.a. Ø-stem), in /r/ (a very small class having to do with familial relations), and in /nd/ (based on the nominalization of the present participle). These minor classes will be discussed here, but for the learner who is new to Germanic languages, these should be treated as irregular declensions and learned by rote. Many of these have also been regularized in Gutish through the process of paradigmatic levelling, and their declensions have been assimilated by analogy into other classes.

Every noun in Gutish (and most Germanic languages) has eight possible forms. These are the singular and plural forms of the nominative (those nouns which comprise the subject of the sentence), genitive (those used to indicate possession or relation), dative (the indirect object), and accusative (the direct object).

Masculine and feminine strong nouns usually take an ending of –s for the nominative singular, while neuter nouns take no ending. The genitive is almost universally indicated by –is (this is equivalent to the “ ’s ” of the English possessive). The dative usually takes –a. The accusative usually does not take any ending.

In the plural, Masculine and feminine nouns usually take –as as an ending; neuter takes –a. The genitive plural also takes –a. The dative plural takes –am, but in many cases this ending undergoes a process of metathesis, rendering it –ma (exceptions are noted in the paradigms). Finally the accusative plural of masculine and feminine nouns is –ans, but again may metathesize to –nas; neuter plurals generally take –a.

Most of the actual declensions of nouns are fairly standard – much more standardized, in fact, than Gothic – however, the various phonological rules governing the language create a great deal of variation. It is im-portant to be familiar with the rules set forth in the Phonology section of this document in order to fully understand some of the otherwise unexpected variants that emerge.

In order to give more context to the evolution of these rules and the variations that emerge, the original Proto-Germanic and Gothic forms are also examined.

===a- and ō-stem===

By far the most common type of noun in all of the Germanic languages, a- and ō-stems become the basis of several sub-classes of nouns. Masculine and neuter nouns took a-stem (from Proto-Indo-European o-), while feminine nouns took ō (from PIE ā-).

===Strong a-stem (masculine)===

This is the most common type of noun class in Gutish as well as in most Germanic languages. As such, it is also the most varied in terms of declension.

'''Proto-Germanic Masculine a-stem Paradigm'''

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! !! Nom. !! Gen. !! Dat. !! Acc.

|-

| sg. || slǣp-az || slǣp-is || slǣp-ai || slǣp-ą

|-

| pl. || slǣp-ōz || slǣp-ǫ̂ || slǣp-amaz || slǣp-anz

|-

|}

'''Gothic Masculine a-stem Paradigm'''

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! !! Nom. !! Gen. !! Dat. !! Acc.

|-

| sg. || slēp-s || slēp-is || slēp-a || slēp

|-

| pl. || slēp-ōs || slēp-ē || slēp-am || slēp-ans

|-

|}

====n.st.m.a====

The most basic sub-class (noted in the lexicon as ''n.st.m.a'' - “noun, strong, masculine, a-stem”) is comprised of those nouns whose stems end in ‹p›, ‹t›, ‹k›, or ‹l›. It may also apply to roots ending in ‹f› or ‹þ› which are ''not'' marked as alternating (Cf. ''n.st.m.ba'' or ''n.st.m.da''). These take standard endings. It is described here with the noun ''slēps'' ‘sleep’.

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! !! Nom. !! Gen. !! Dat. !! Acc.

|-

| sg. || slēp-s || slēp-is || slēp-a || slēp

|-

| pl. || slēp-as || slēp-a || slēp-ma || slēp-nas

|-

|}

====n.st.m.syl====

The second sub-class (''n.st.m.a.syl'') consists of those nouns ending in a consonant followed by a sonorant (‹l›, ‹r›, ‹m›, ‹n›) which would have been considered a syllabic in Gothic pronunciation. Because syllabics are unpacked in Gutish, a vowel must be added to some endings (those which don’t already start with a vowel, specifically the nominative and accusative singular) in order to make them pronounceable. This has the additional effect of blocking the metathesis that occurs in the dative and accusative plural.

''akras'' ‘field’

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! !! Nom. !! Gen. !! Dat. !! Acc.

|-

| sg. || akr-as || akr-is || akr-a || akr-a

|-

| pl. || akr-as || akr-a || akr-am || akr-ans

|-

|}

==Verbs==

==Adjectives==

Valthungian: Difference between revisions

Navigation menu

Search