Alska/Dialects
Dialect Classification
Alska has six primary dialects. Four of these form a continuum across the main island of Alsland; the fifth and sixth dialects are not related to each other, but are easily recognizable as Alska.
On Alsland Proper, there are four dialect regions: East, West, North, and South. Southern Alslandic is the standard, and Northern Alslandic is the farthest from it. The two colonial dialects are even further, but are not spoken on the main island. These regions in turn have their own dialects, but they are far too small to be recognized by non-speakers as such.
Sydalska
<url=http://linguifex.com/index.php?title=Alska>Southern Alslandic<url> - Will fix later
Nordalska
Northern Alska is one of the least spoken of all the dialects, and is the farthest away from Southern Alska on the dialect continuum. Major differences include pronunciation, spelling, and small grammar changes.
Phonology
-| Letters | Pronunciation | Further information |
|---|---|---|
| a | [a:]/[ɑ] | can make two different sounds, but has no short version |
| b | [b] | - |
| d | [d] | - |
| e | [ɛ] / [e:] | - |
| f | [f] | - |
| g | [g] | - |
| h | [h] | - |
| i | [i] | No short version |
| j | [j] | corresponds to y in English you |
| k | [k] | - |
| l | [l] | - |
| m | [m] | - |
| n | [n] | - |
| o | [ò]/[o̞] | - |
| p | [p] | - |
| r | [ʁ] | |
| s | [s] | - |
| t | [t] | - |
| u | [u:] | has no short version |
| v | [f] | - |
| y | [i:] | pronounced like 'e' in English 'me' |
| å | [au] | - |
| ø | [ø] | - |
| æy | [aj] | - |
| ey | [ei:] | - |
| uy | [u:i] | - |
| iy | [i:j] | Mid-closed version of [i:] |
| øy | [øy] | - |
The Northern Alska alphabet has 28 letters. The five digraphs, æy, ey, ui, iy, and øy, are counted as single letters. All of these sounds can be made with Standard Alskan (SA) orthography, with the exception of [au], which is represented by the letter å in Northern Alska.
Certain letters, such as å and y do not correspond to their Standard counterparts. Compare the SA versions of å and y ([ɔ] and [y:]) to NA's [au] and [i:].
The letter s is also pronounced [ʃ] in many cases, and the digraph sj is pronounced [sj]
Another overarching rule for NA pronunciation is that most consonants switch with their voiced or unvoiced versions when they are used in a word, but are pronounced normally when they start a word.
- [k] - [d]
- [g] - [k]
- [d] - [b]
And so forth.
Pronunciation Differences/Spelling Differences
Many words are spelled the same in both dialects, but can be pronounced very differently from each other:
| Word | Pronunciation (NA) | Pronunciation (SA) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alsland | [alʃ'lɑ:nt] | [als'la:nd] | alsland |
| Flyge | [fli:'kɛ] | [fly:'gɛ] | girl, woman |
| Vadr | [fa:'tɛr] | [fa:'r] | father |
There are certain common words that are spelled differently but are pronounced the same:
| Word (SA) | Word (NA) | Pronunciation (Both) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hej | Hæy | [haj] | hello |
| Sju | Su | [ʃu] | shoe |
| Dig | Dæyg | [dajg] | you (acc.) |
Finally, there are many words that are spelled differently and pronounced differently:
| Spelling (SA) | Pronunciation (SA) | Spelling (NA) | Pronunciation (NA) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ja | [ja] | Jå | [jau] | yes |
| Nej | [naj] | Næy | [nei:] | no |
| ett Vere | [et vɛrɛ] | i Ve | [i: ve:] | to be |
Grammar
Grammar is largely the same in Northern Alska as it is in Standard Alska, with a few execptions.
When verbs are in the infinitive, i is placed in front of them instead of SA's ett:
- i køyke (NA) - ett kyke (SA) - to cook
Notice the spelling change from 'y' to 'øy' to accommodate the missing [y:] phoneme in NA.
The formation of past tense endings also changes in NA. Words that have an '-r' ending in the past tense in Standard Alska have a '-kk' ending in Northern Alska:
- gikk (NA) - gir (SA) - went
- fikk (NA) - fir (SA) - found
This change applies only to '-r' words and the other past tense suffixes are the same in Northern Alska as they are in Southern Aslka.