Valthungian: Difference between revisions

In most Germanic languages, nouns, verbs, and adjectives tend to be broken into categories considered “strong” and “weak.” In nouns and adjectives, “weak” means that the words cling to their determiner endings inherited from Proto-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 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.

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 and ending of -a (from Proto-Indo-European -o), while feminine nouns took -ō (from PIE -ā).

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.  

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| &nbsp;||colspan=8| <small>This is the default declension of the a-stem paradigm. Note the metathesis in the endings on the dative and accusative plural.</small>

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The strong neuter a-stems are just like the masculine, except that the neuter does not take an ‹-s› on the nominative singular (i.e. the nominative is the same as the accusative), and the nominative and accusative plurals are identical to the dative singular.  In other words, any of the irregularities discussed above that have to do with these categories will no longer apply for neuter a-stem nouns.

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The simplest noun class by far is the strong feminine ō-stem.  There is only one paradigm with no variations.

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While traditionally listed as sub-classes of a- and ō-stems, the j-stem nouns differ from these in two important ways: Umlaut and Palatalization.  In the examples below, an asterisk (*) by a form indicates that Umlaut applies to that form.  A dagger (†) indicates that palatalization '''and''' umlaut both apply.  (Umlaut can be triggered without palatalization, but wherever palatalization occurs, umlaut does as well.)

'''Palatalization''': If the stem ends in d, g, t, k, s, or v there is palatalization in this form. (In this case, b/v alternation will be considered a type of palatalization, because it occurs in the same environment.)

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These nouns are very similar to the previous category, but in Proto-Germanic an extra syllable was added after a “long stem” – a phenomenon known as Siever’s Law – which caused the discrepancy seen in Gothic between nouns with ''-jis'' and those with ''-eis''.  In Gutish, the main remnant of these long stem nouns is that umlaut applies, but ''not'' palatalization.

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(This is also sometimes referred to as ī-stem or ī/jō-stem because of the form of the nominative singular.)

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Nouns in these classes are fairly rare, but a large number of them are also fairly irregular; namely those nouns whose roots end with a vowel or h-, which causes some rather unexpected things to happen to the w. (These will be treated separately.)

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Um... stay tuned. These are a little bit too "varsity-level" for what I want to include on this page right now.

The feminine i-stem paradigm is identical to that of the masculine. There is no neuter i-stem in Gutish.

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===u-stems===

The feminine u-stem paradigm is identical to that of the masculine.

===r-stems===

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|align="center"| brōð'''ra''' ||align="center"| brōð'''ris''' ||align="center"| brōð'''ra''' ||align="center"| brōð'''ra''' ||align="center"| brœ̄ð'''ris'''* ||align="center"| brōð'''ra''' ||align="center"| brōð'''rum''' ||align="center"| brōð'''runs''' || ''‘brother’''

===an- and ōn-stems===

===jan- and jōn-stems===

===ijan- and ijōn-stems===

===wan- and wōn-stems===

===īn-stems===

This is a highly productive class of exclusively feminine nouns.