Modern Gothic

Modern Gothic
Gusenskius, Gusskus
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|[[ˈgu.səns.kys] [ˈgʊsː.kʊs]]]]
Created by	sjacik
Setting	Yrof Unnamed Alternate Timeline MLP AU
Native to	Seefirian Kingdom, Gothia, Windish Atheldom
Ethnicity	Seefir, Human, Pegasus
Language family	Indo-European Germanic East Germanic Biblical Gothic Modern Gothic
Early form	Biblical Gothic
Official status
Official language in	Seefirian Kingdom Gothia Windish Atheldom

Modern Gothic is an East Germanic language descended from a language similar to Biblical Gothic. Words will be given in Standard Modern Gothic and Colloquial Modern Gothic, if they differ.

Settings

Modern Gothic is used in three different settings. The first is Yrof. Yrof is a fantasy world. The next is an alternate timeline where the Ostrogoths survived as a culture to the modern day. The last is a My Little Pony alternate universe called Constraints on Harmony.

Dialects

There are 6 main dialects of Modern Gothic. These are divided into 3 branches: Coastal, Eastern, and Southern. Coastal is comprised of the Standard form of the language, the Northern varieties, and some that are related to the standard form.

Eastern is divided into Near and Far. Far Eastern Gothic has heavy Slavic influence, such as both stages of Slavic palatalization. Near Eastern Gothic only went through the second stage.

Southern Gothic has significant Greek influences. It is the most conservative of all the dialects.

Sound changes from Biblical Gothic to Middle Gothic

General

/kʷ/ was re-analyzed as /kw/. Gothic qiman → *kiuman → kiumaz / kumes, 'to come'.
/mn/ assimilated to /mː/. Gothic himins → *himns → emm, 'heaven'.

Elision

Unstressed, short vowels are elided when near stressed or long occurrences of the same vowel.

Metathesis

This primarily happened with liquids. if /l r/ are adjacent to /h/, they are switched so /h/ is either directly before or after a vowel. Gothic marhs → *mahrs → mȃr, 'horse'. Or Gothic hlahjan → *lhahjn → ȃȃjz / ȃȃjs, 'to laugh'.

W-Rounding

Original	Change	Environment	Exception	Comment
kʷ	kw	(C)_V
kʷ	wk	V_(C)
rh	hr	V_(C)
hr	rh	(C)_V
lh	hl	V_(C)
hl	lh	(C)_V
ha	ɑ
hɛ	a
hi	e
hu	o
hɔ	ɑ
haː	ɑː
hɛː	aː
heː	ɛː
hiː	eː
huː	oː
hoː	ɔː
hɔː	ɑː
wa	ɔ
wɛ	œ
wi	y
wu	u
wɔ	ɔː
wɑ	ɔː
waː	ɔː
wɛː	œː
weː	øː
wiː	yː
wuː	uːː
woː	oːː
wɔː	ɔːː
wɑː	ɔː
ah	ɑː
ɛh	aː
ih	eː
uh	oː
ɔh	ɑː
aːh	ɑːː
ɛːh	aːː
eːh	ɛːː
iːh	eːː
uːh	oːː
oːh	ɔːː
ɔːh	ɑːː
aw	ɔː
ɛw	œː
iw	yː
uw	uː
ɔw	ɔː
ɑw	ɔː
aːw	ɔːː
ɛːw	œːː
eːw	øːː
iːw	yːː
uːw	uːː
oːw	oːː
ɔːw	ɔːː
ɑːw	ɔːː
mn	mː
pː	ʔ, p	, _C		The first outcome occurs in the north, while the second happens in the southern dialects.
tː	ʔ, t	, _C		The first outcome occurs in the north, while the second happens in the southern dialects.
kː	ʔ, k	, _C		The first outcome occurs in the north, while the second happens in the southern dialects.

Coastal Gothic also went through a variant of the first two stages of the High German Consonant Shift, but the results varied between the north and the south. In the north, it closely followed the Bavarian dialects of German.

Standard New Gothic

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal	m	n	(ŋ)1
Stop	p2 b	t2 d	k2 g
Affricate		tʃ dʒ
Fricative	f v3	t s ʃ ʒ	x	h4
Approximant			j
Trill		r

¹ /ŋ/ is found only before the velar stops
² The voiceless stops are unaspirated
³ /v/ is realized as [w] intervocally
⁴ /h/ is only found between vowels, and is used to break up vowel sequences

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː iə̯ y yː yə̯		u uː uə̯
Close-mid	eː eə̯ øː øə̯		oː oə̯
Open-mid	ɛ ɛː ɛə̯ œ œː œə̯	ə	ɔ ɔː ɔə̯
Open	a aː aə̯		ɑ ɑː ɑə̯

The centering diphthongs come from overlong vowels in Middle Gothic. No surviving dialect kept them as overlong. They were either broken or shortened.