Nousuerian

Nousuerian (Nousuerian: nusveska; French: nousuédois; Swedish: nusveska) is a constructed, a posteriori language in the North Germanic family of languages, descended from the Old Norse language. Most of the vocabulary of Nousuerian is directly borrowed from the French language. With the Nousuerian language comes an alternate history of the places in which it developed and is spoken; namely, the real-life Faroe Islands.

Nousuerian
nusveska
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|nu'sveskə]]
Created by	--
Setting	Nousueria
Native speakers	66,000 (2011)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic North Germanic East Scandinavian Continental Scandinavian Nousuerian
Early forms	Old Norse Old East Norse Old Swedish Modern Swedish
Dialect	N/A
Official status
Official language in	Kingdom of Nousuerian Isles
Recognised minority language in	France, Sweden
Regulated by	Det Nusveska Spròkets Monakakademi (The Royal Academy of the Nousuerian Language)

Introduction

Nousuerian (in Nousuerian: nusveksa [nusveskə] or det nusveska spròket [de nusveskə sprɔke]) is a North Germanic language spoken in the Kingdom of Nousuerian Isles. It is spoken by about 66,000 people, a majority of whom live in the Kingdom. Nousuerian is a member of the Scandinavian family and shares a common ancestor with contemporary Swedish. Nousuerian is a descendant of Modern Swedish, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in the Nousuerian Isles at the time. Nousuerian has also heavily borrowed vocabulary from French with whom the islands have a strong, shared ancestral, linguistic and cultural past.

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Phonology

Consonants

Most consonants in Nousuerian have English equivalents; namely, b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t and v.

Other required a bit of practice for native English speakers:

• j is pronounced like y in yard
• r is pronounced like a Spanish r, as in rojo

Consonant Clusters

Normally, consonant clusters are pronounced simply as a combination of the two sounds:

• nusveska

However, there are certain consonant clusters which are pronounced is a very particular way.

Written As	Pronounced As
rn	ɳ
rt	ʈ
rd	ɖ
rl	ɭ
rs	ʂ or ʃ
tj	ɕ or ʃ
sj	ɧ or ʃ

As seen in the table above, there are three different combinations which could be represented by the sound [ʃ]. These differences in pronunciation will allow you to be understand by a native speaker of Nousuerian and is generally accepted. They are generally maintained solely for orthological reasons. However, there are some cases of classicism in which the "correct" or "elite" pronunciation would be the first example, while the "vulgar" or "common" pronunciation would be the second.

Vowels

Nousuerian vowels, like Spanish or Italian, are always pronounced as they are written.

• A is pronounced [a] as in English ‘father’ or Spanish ‘adiós’
• E is pronounced [e] as in French ‘été’ or Italian ‘prego’
• I is pronounced [i] as in English ‘bee’ or Spanish ’ir’
• O is pronounced [o] as in English ‘open’
• U is pronounced [u] as in English ‘doom’ or ‘moon’
• È is pronounced [ɛ] as in English ‘pen’ or ‘best’
• Ò is pronounced [ɔ] as in English ‘Oscar’ or ‘operate’
• Y is pronouns [y] as in French ‘plus’ or Swedish ‘byxor’
• EU is pronounced [ø] as in French ‘peu’

Diphthongs

When i or u precede another vowel, they form a diphthong with [j] or [w], respectively. If a diphthong precedes an n at the end of a word, it is not nasalised. However, this is not applied whenever the letter j appears before a nasalised vowel at the end of a word.

Examples

• avion (airplane) is pronounced [af.'jon]
• moien (average) is pronounced [mo.'jen]
• lujen (away from) is pronounced [lu.'jɛ̃]
• seduisan (attractive) is pronounced [se.dwi.sɑ̃]

Nasal Vowels

There are only four vowels in Nousuerian which have a nasalised variant. It should be noted that they are only nasalised when at the end of a word.

Written As	Pronounced As
an	ɑ̃
en	ɛ̃
on	ɔ̃
un	œ̃

Prosody

Stress & Intonation

One syllable and non-compounds are stressed on the final syllable. Compounds are double stressed; they have a falling tonal stress on the first syllable of the first word and a rising tonal stress on the last syllable of the second word. When one is inflected, the stress stays on the same syllable, so the endings aren't stressed.

Sentence Stress

When the subject of a sentence is a noun, it is stressed. Pronouns, however, are unstressed. When the object is a noun, it is also stressed. Pronouns, like subjects, are normally unstressed. Object pronouns, however, are stressed when they are at the beginning of the sentence. For contrast, objects are stressed. When there is a verb but no object, the verb is stressed. However, when there is an object, the verb is unstressed. This also applies to verb complements, which are stressed while the verb isn’t. For contrast, verbs are stressed. Adverbials are usually stressed whether first or last in the sentence.

Word Stress

Word stress is found only in words that have sentence stress.

• Non-compounds – these words are pronounced monosyllabically.
• Compounds – these words have a stress on each of the parts of the compound, but the melody of each part is different. The first stress has a falling pitch and the last stress has a rising pitch.

Morphology

Nouns

Nousuerian nouns are divided into common and neuter genders. This division is most commonly expressed in the choice of the indefinite article.

Common	Neuter
en père	et buro
a father	a desk
en fisk	et duat
a fish	a finger

Gender also determines the definite article placed at the end of a word. The form of the definite article depends on the final letter of the noun to which it is attached.

Common/Neuter	Ends in Consonant	Ends in Vowel
Common	-en	-n
Neuter	-et	-t

Gender is also important for the selection of a plural ending and for the agreement of pronouns, adjectives and past participles.

Example:

• Èr burot grant? Is the desk big?
• Ja, dèn èr grant. Yes, it is big.
• Vi èr protetjade. We are protected.

Gender is only partly predictable in Nousuerian. The meaning or form of some nouns may tell us whether we are dealing with a commong or neuter noun. But, in other cases, we cannot predict gender accurately by either form or meaning.

Common Nouns

About 75% of Nousuerian nouns are common in gender. This usually includes:

• most nouns denoting living beings
• nouns denoting seasons, festivals & holidays
• nouns ending in -ad, -are, -dom, -het, -ing, -ion and -lek.

Common Declension

Common nouns ending in en, el, et, and er drop the -e- when the singular definitive ending is added:

• en serpet (a snake) becomes serpten (the snake)

However, this is not applicable to nouns ending in -het.

• en kuarahet (a belief) become kuaraheten (the belief)

This is the only irregularity with common nouns in the singular. The plural has slightly different rules governing its formation.

Only the common nouns ending in el and er drop their -e-. The rest keep them, unlike in the singular definitive form. Then, ar is added to the final consonant in the nouns or the final vowel is changed to ar if it is not an a. If it the final letter in a common noun is a, then the plural form ends in or. The plural definitive form is made by adding na to the end of the word.

• en gafel, galfen, gaflar, gaflarna (fork)
• en druva, druvan, druvor, druvorna (grape)
• en om, omen, omar, omarna (man)
• en serpet, serpten, serpetar, serpetarna (snake)

Neuter Nouns

Neuter nouns usually include:

• the names of most inanimate things
• nouns ending in -em, iv, -eum or -ium
• the names of countries, mountains, rivers, towns and the letters of the alphabet

Neuter Declension

Like common nouns, neuter nouns delete e before the final l, r, t or n. If the word ends in um, it is deleted after e or i. Then the singular definitive ending is added.

• et tempel (a temple) becomes templet
• et museum (a museum) becomes muset

Several things are considered when forming the plural form of neuter nouns.

If the noun ends in a consonant that is not s, n or r, then er is added to the end. If the noun ends in a vowel, then an n is simply added. And this is where things can get a bit complicated. Depending on the final vowel and consonant(s), the final vowel may change quality to express plurality. Hopefully, this chart will help explain both visually and more easily.

From	To	Before Final
a	o	n
a	è	s
o	eu	n, s, -ter, -ker

To form the plural definite in Nousuerian, several endings are considered. An a is added to a final n, while na is added to the final r and final vowels. With every other final consonant, en is added to the end.

• et bregundan, begrundanet, begrundon, begrundona (meditation)
• et gras, graset, grès, grèsen (fat)
• et os, oset, eus, eusen (bone)
• et tjeut, tjeutet, tjeuter, tjeuterna (meat)
• et barn, barnet, barn, barna (child)
• et tempel, templet, templen, templena (temple)

Adjectives

Nousuerian adjectives inflect. In the indefinite declension they agree with the noun in gender (singular only) and in number. They also add inflexed endings in the definite declension.

Common Declension

Definite/Indefinite	Singular	Plural
Definite	dén ___(i)a	dom ___(i)a
Indefinite	--	___(i)a

Note however, that if an adjective ends in an ada, then the final a is changed to e. Also, if an adjective ends in a vowel that is not i, then an i is added before the final a.

• dèn rursa uason (the red bird)
• dom rursa uasorna (the red birds)
• rurs uaso (red bird)
• rursa uasor (red birds)

Neuter Declension

Definite/Indefinite	Singular	Plural
Definite	det ___(i)a	dom ___(i)a
Indefinite	t	___(i)a

The declension of neuter adjectives is a little complicated. In the indefinite singular, first, an n is changed to t after a final e. If the word does not already end in t, then it is added. The following table shows changes to consonants before final t.

From	To	Before Final
g	k	t
v	f	t
b	p	t

For the plural indefinite neuter, delete e before final l, r or n. Then add an a to the end of the word. Like the common, there is a change of final a to e after ad.

• det boia barnet (the handsome child)
• dom boia barna (the handsome children)
• lònkt vi (long life)
• nuvoia templen (new temples)