Buerkaans

Buerkantch
Buerkáns
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|buɛ̯ɾ'kaːns]]
Created by	–
Native speakers	No Census Data (2014)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic Low Franconian? Buerkantch
Language codes
ISO 639-1	bu
ISO 639-2	bue
ISO 639-3	bue
Dí Huílands' flág

Background

Buerkáns is spoken in the fictitious country of Dí Huílands, known as such in English, even though the translation is literally The Highlands. It has not yet been decided whether Buerkáns shows a strong enough resemblence to Dutch grammar to be classified as Low Franconian, or if it deserves its own branch in the Germanic family.

Buerkáns takes influences from Dutch/Afrikaans, English, and the Scandinavian Languages. I wanted to make something in between all three, with the primary vocabulary a mix of Dutch-Danish/Swedish-derived roots and grammar closer to a simpler version of German.

Phonology

Buerkáns has a large phonology, similar to that of Dutch or Afrikaans, mixed slightly with Danish, with a large vowel inventory of 14 distinct vowel quantities and a typical Germanic consonant inventory with the exception of /d͡ʒ/.

Vowels

Phonemes
	Front	Central	Back
Closed	i y	ɨ	u
Near-closed	ɪ
Mid-closed	e ø		o
Central		ɘ
Mid-open	ɛ		ʌ ɔ
Near-open	æ
Open	a

For the most part, /ɨ/ replaces /ɪ/ in word-initial 'i', but can also appear in any instance of 'i', based on the speaker's accent.

Consonants

Phonemes	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Affricate				d͡ʒ
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Fricative		f v	s	ʃ		x~χ	h
Approximant			ɾ		j
Lateral approximant		w	l			ɫ

• It is important to know that /χ/ can be velarized to /x/ in fast speech, or after certain consonants, where a speaker cannot pull their tongue back fast enough to produce a full /x/.

Stress & Phonotactics

Stress generally falls on the root of a word, normally the first syllable, but this is subject to change if certain prefixes are added, which may transfer stress from the root to the prefix, or move primary stress, along with the root, to the second syllable.

Buerkáns' most common syllable structure is CCVCC. A single, double, or triple cluster of consecutive consonants can proceed a vowel, there may be as many as three vowels between consonants. In some special cases there can be four-consonant clusters, but these are generally in archaic words and most have been simplified. Word structure can vary wildy, but every syllable must have at least one vowel as its nucleus. The only syllalbe construction that is not allowed is CVCV, which must be interpreted as two seperate syllables of CV. These sound clusters can be repeated to create longer words which are still phonotactically correct, but this implies a constructed word.

• hoebstedsmetrólyn /'hoɛb.stɛdz.mɛtɾo:.ləi̯n/ - capital city's metro line (CVVC.CCVCC.CVCCV.CVC)
• straade /'ʃtɾæ:də/ - street (CCCVVCV)
• regtíg /'ɾʌχ.ti:χ/ - correct (CVCVC)
• de /dʌ/ - the (CV)
• alg /ælχ/ - interjection, similar to 'ew' (VC)
• áppel /'a:p.əl/ - apple (VCCVC)

Orthography

Vowels with diacritics over them are not indicative of stress, nor do they signify a long version of the unmarked vowel. They are letters in their own right, seperate from vowels without an accent. All letters with ´ are inherently long, and have no short version. In order to make the unmarked vowels long, one simply doubles them:

• a /æ/ - aa /æ:/
• á /a/
• e /ɛ/, /ə/, or /ʌ/ - ee /ɛ:/ or /ʌ:/
• é /e:/
• i /ɪ/ - ii /ɪ:/
• í /i:/
• o /ɔ/ - oo /ɔ:/
• ó /o:/
• u /u/ - uu /u:/

U is the only vowel that does not have a marked counterpart. Furthermore, it is not common to see a doubled I or E.
Y is treated as a diphthong representing /əi̯/ ` is used to differentiate between èn - a, and en - and.

The sounds /d/, /k/, /b/, /v/, /t/, /j/, /h/, /f/, /r/, /l/, /p/, /z/, /s/, /m/, and /n/ are all represented by their corresponding letters. There are some special cases where single letters are pronounced differently depending on placement, and some letters do not represent sounds they would normally represent in other germanic languages:

• g /x/~/χ/ (/x/ regn ud -->after some consonants, or sometimes when weakened by a speaker)
• l /ɫ/ when word-initial
• s /ʃ/ when preceding t or p
• ng /ŋ/
• x /d͡ʒ/
  • xésus /'d͡ʒe:s.us/ - jesus
• e /ʌ/ when following r or d/t
  • hede /'hɛ.dʌ/ - had
• e /ə/ when unstressed
• y /əi̯/
• w /w/
• tj /t͡ʃ/
• sch /ʃ/ in all positions. Alternatively spelled as sj in some northern varieties

Vowels can additionally come paired with E (with the exception of E itself), which always produces the construction /Vɛ/ regardless of stress. The original vowel retains its original quality, this occurs only with unmarked vowels.

• oe, ae, ue, ie

There are also additional trigraphs, and one digraph:

• aui /ø/
• aae /æ:e̯/
• aai /æ:i̯/
• iu /y/
• ei /ei:/

Sound Shifts from other Germanic Languages

Perhaps the largest change from Germanic phonology in Buerkáns is the voicing of the original Germanic /v/ or /ʋ to /b/:

Buerkáns	IPA	Danish	IPA	German	IPA	English
hoeb	/hɔɛb/	hoved	/'ho:.ʋɛð/	Kopf	/'kɔpf/	head
bebége	/bə'be:.xə/	at bevæge	/bɛ'ʋɛi̯.gɛ/	bewegen	/bɛ've:.gɛn/	to move
graabe	/'xræ:.bɘ/	at grave	/graʊ̯.ʋɛ	graben	/'gra:bɛn/	to dig

Word-initial /v/ is left unchanged.

Dutch/Afrikaans IE~E to Y:

Buerkáns	IPA	Dutch	IPA	English
hyr	/'həi̯ɾ/	hier	/'hi:r/	here
spyle	/'spəi̯lə/	spelen	/'spe:lɛn/	to play
tyke	/'təi̯.kə/	tekenen	/'te:.kɛn.ɛn/	to draw

This tends to happen rather randomly, without a clearly seen pattern, it is most likely the beginning of a full sound shift. It can also be said that, in many cases, German /ei/ is lowered to /əi̯/.

Buerkáns also experiences a general voicing of plosives in mid-word positions. Word-final plosives are subject to change with voicing sandhi, and word-intial plosives can be pronounced either way, depending on where the speaker is from. Southern Buerkáns tends to lean heavily towards mostly-voiced plosives, and Nothern Buerkáns always devoices intial plosives.

Sandhi

There is a small Sandhi factor to Buerkáns which occurs with the voicing of the last letter of a word in relationship to the phoneme that begins the word after it. This only occurs when a Stop is the last letter of a word, and is followed by an near, mid, or fully-open vowel quality in the next word. If the Stop is not already voiced, it becomes so. In Buerkáns, this means that the letters P~B, T~D, and K are all affected when the next word starts with a single A, Á, E, or O. (This rule does not apply to di/trigraphs) The only sound excepted from this function is /ʌ/, which only occurs after R and D, and therefore cannot appear on its own.

This does not change the already voiced stops, but means that there must always be a voiced stop before an open vowel between words:

det áppel
/dʌd‿ˈa:bəl/

the apple

ik spyltet epik
/'ɨk 'spəi̯l.təd‿ˈɛpɪk/

I played well (epically)

jep, oemkí ánaars is hyr
/'jɛb‿ˈɔɛ̯m.ki: 'a:n.æ:rs 'ɨs 'həi̯r/

yep, uncle Ánaars is here

Morphology

Buerkáns morphology is rather simple, and lies somewhere between German and Danish. There are two genders, Common and Neutral, and verbs do not conjugate for person. There are however, three cases for noun declension. Unlike German, Buerkáns is a very regular language.

Nouns

Nouns in Buerkáns are only marked for number and definiteness, as is other Germanic languages. Here is a table displaying the different forms most Buerkáns nouns can take:

Indefinite Singular	Indefinite Plural	Definite Singular	Definite Plural
common:
èn métj	métjes	de métj	dí métjes
a girl	girls	the girl	the girls
èn knaag	knaags	de knaag	dí knaags
a boy	boys	the boy	the boys
èn hoond	hoonde	de hoond	dí hoonde
a dog	dogs	the dog	the dogs
èn riuksak	riuksakke	de riuksak	dí riuksakke
a backpack	backpacks	the backpack	the backpacks
neuter:
et huus	huuser	det huus	dí huuser
a house	houses	the house	the houses
et áppel	áppeler	det áppel	dí áppeler
an apple	apples	the apple	the apples
et ár	ár	de ár	dí ár
a year	years	the year	the years

As shown above, there are 3 different ways to express plurality in Buerkáns. The first two are by suffixing -s or -e to words of the common gender. There is no pattern for this, some words recieve the 'e-plural' while others receive the 's-plural'. However, most common gender words are made plural by the addition of '-s'. In the neuter gender, the plural marker is always '-er'.

When using the '-e' suffix, word-final consonant doubling sometimes happens, as shown in riugsak --> riugsakke. This happens for all plosive consonants:

The common-gender indefinite article, èn, is pronounced /ən/, but is shortened to just /n/ in almost all cases.

Consonant doubling for:

• riuksak - riuksakke - backpacks

but not for:

• uer - uere - clocks

There are also a few special words which cannot be put into plural form, analagous to 'information' in English. An example is given in the table above with the word ár - 'year'. The ony way to tell if the word is being used plurally is in when it is definite. There can one see the definite plural article dí.

Diminutives

There are two diminutive suffixes in Buerkáns: -kí, and -ken. Common gender words take -kí, and neuter words few use -ken. Words that have no plural form tend to favor the -ken:

The diminutive form is often used to convey an affectionate or nepotic feeling towards the noun being marked For example, one would say sokkís instead of just soks to denote their favorite pair of socks from all the other pairs. Other times it is used to literal effect, and sometimes just for poetic license (for example, to fit a rhyme scheme).

Word	Diminutive Form	Meaning
common:
métj	métjkí	little girl, schoolgirl
knaag	knaagkí	little boy, schoolboy
neuter:
huus	huusken	little house
kóelkaast	kóelkaastken	little fridge

Pronouns

This is the only facet of Buerkáns that retains a three-gender system, as it is necessary to distinguish between masculine and feminine when speaking about people.

Case	1st person
	Singular		Plural
Nominative	ik/ek		vy
Accusative	my		os
Genitive	myn / myt		on / ont
Case	2nd person
	Singular		Plural
Nominative	ju		jul
Accusative	jy		julle
Genitive	jyn / jyt		jullen / jullet
Case	3rd person
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	hy	sy	det	díe
Accusative	him	sy	det	daam
Genitive	syn / syt	syn / syt	syn / syt	dyn / dyt

The reflexive for all persons is the same as the accusative form. The 3rd person nominative pronouns always use syg instead of differentiating gender.

Additionally, the plural form for all 3rd Person Genitive pronouns is sye.

Ik is the official spelling for I, although ek can also be used.

Numbers

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
0	null
1	én	vauirs
2	tvy	anen
3	try	tred
4	vir	vird
5	fyf	fyfd
6	séks	séksd
7	sebe	sebd
8	ag	agd
9	nyn	nynd
10	tyn	tynd
11	elf	elfd
12	taalv	taalvd
13	trytyn	trytyndí
14	virtyn	virtyndí
15	fyftyn	fyftyndí
16	sékstyn	sékstyndí
17	sebtyn	sebtyndí
18	agtyn	agtyndí
19	nyntyn	nytyndí
20	tvytí	tvytíte
21	énantvytí	énantvytíte
22	tvyantvytí	tvyantvytíte
30	trytí	trytíte
31	énantrytí	tryantrytíte
40	virtí	virttíte
50	fyftí	fyftíte
60	sékstíte	sékstíte
70	sebtí	sebtíte
80	agtí	agtíte
90	nyntí	nyntíte
100	hundrí	hundríte

Numbers have a very regular structure in Buerkáns, with the exception of numbers 1 and 2, which are irregular. The ordinal ending for numbers 3 to 20 is simply d. The ordinal ending for all numbers after 20 is te.

Double-digit numbers are produced as in German. To make the number 21, one must say énantvytí, literally 'one-and-twenty'.

Verbs

Verbs are only conjugated for tense in Buerkáns, not number/person. Beyond this, all conjugations of a given verb are usually regular according to other verbs in their category. There is only one irregular verb, each verb class has a distinct conjugation pattern. Every verb conjugates the same in Present Tense, and verbs are kept in the infinitive if they are not the primary verb in the sentence. However, this functions more like English and the Scandinavian languages in that two verbs can follow each other directly, as opposed to German where and secondary verbs must be at the end of a sentence or phrase.

Irregular Verbs

There is only one irregular verbs in Buerkáns: to be

Verb	Present	Past	Past Participle	Pluperfect	Meaning
syne	is	wus	hét gesynd	hétte gesynd	to be

Regular Verbs

With the exception of modal verbs, all verbs conjugate in the present tense with -r or -er, depending if the word has a word-final vowel or not. This is a clear adoption from the Scandinavian langauges over a more complicated Dutch, German, or English system. The word te is used in infinitive constructions, and cannot be excluded from the infinitive version of a verb.

Verb	Present	Meaning
te gaae	gaar	to go, walk
te eide	eider	to eat
te loobe	loober	to run

Here is a full conjugation table

Verb	Present	Past	Past Participle	Pluperfect	Future	Passive	Meaning
te gaae	gaar	gaan	hét gigaan	hétte gigaan	muet gaae	gaaes	to be
te schude	schuder	schkod	hét gigschod	hétte gischod	muet schude	schudes	to shoot
te hore	horer	hort	hét gihort	hétte gihort	muet hore	hores	to hear

One can see that, for the most part, verbs in Buerkáns do not have different past and perfect/pluperfect forms. The only real difference is that the prefix gi is added to indicate the tense, as well as the use of hét and hétte.

Samples

One bright day in the middle of the night,
two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other
drew their swords and shot each other.
The deaf policeman heard this noise:
came and shot the two dead boys.
if you don't believe this lie is true,
ask the blind man; he saw it too.

Én luus dág, in de midnagt,
tvy tode knaags stud op om te schlooes.
Riug géen riug konfrontírt díe daamánder,
toog sye swárdkís ut en schod daamánder.
Dí dauife polísman hétte dehyr klaang gihort:
kom en schkot dí tvy tode knaags.
ib ní jy trauwe dehyr luug ní sant is,
frag énmál de blinde man; hy sá et aukso.