Alska

Alska
Alska
Pronunciation	[[Help:IPA|als'-ka]]
Created by	–
Native to	Alsland, Grøn-in-Norderøy, Jotunsøy, Dependencies of Jansstass & Ragnargråben
Native speakers	50 million (2012)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic East Scandinavian Alslandic Alska
Official status
Official language in	Sovereign Kingdom of Alsland (Soveireinkonngsdøm Alslands)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	al
ISO 639-2	als
ISO 639-3	als

Background

Alska [als'-ka] is a Germanic language originating from the nation of Alsland, a rather large (area-wise) island in the northern sea. Alska is supposed to be somewhat related to the Scandinavian languages, although it's really more of my own take on Scandinavian languages as a whole. It is very closely related to them, to the point of being mutually intelligible in some cases, although it is just as different from them as Swedish is from Danish, or as Norwegian is from Swedish.

Basically, it has turned out kind of like Esperanto for Scandinavia, even though that isn't its intent. Alska has a bit more structure when it comes to pronunciation and grammar, and sticks to them pretty well, if not for a few irregularities.

The speakers of Proto-Alska came from an unknown land, banished by their gods, according to legends. While Alsland itself has a survivable climate, the stories tell of a paradise. As Alslandic thinking progresses, it has been suggested that the Alslanders are not actually from anywhere, but made these tales up to give a basis for the harsh conditions of Alsland's weather.

Phonology

Letters	Pronunciation	Further information
a	[a:]	has no short version
b	[b]	-
d	[d]	-
e	[ɛ] / [e:]	-
f	[f]	-
g	[g]	-
h	[h]	-
i	[ɪ]/[i]	short 'ɪ', long 'i'
j	[j]	corresponds to y in English you
k	[k]	-
l	[l]	-
m	[m]	-
n	[n]	-
o	[o̞]/[o]	-
p	[p]	-
r	[r]	can be rolled, tapped, trilled, or pronounced non-rhotically, as in most British English dialects. (depends on Alskan dialect)
s	[s]	-
t	[t]	-
u	[ʉ]	has no short version
v	[f]	-
w	[v]	rarely used, usually replaced with 'v'
y	[y:]	pronounced almost like German 'ü'
z	[ts]	rarely used
å	[ɔ]	pronounced somewhat like English 'aw' Can be pronounced 'ooh', or 'ow' depending on dialect
ø	[ø]	-
ä	[ɛ]\[e:]	short/long. depends on whether 'ä' is by itself, or near a consonant cluster
æ	[aj]	pronounced as in Latin and Icelandic. Rarely used in Standard Alska, but heavily in many dialects

Consonants

This is a table of the consonantic phonemes in Alska

Phonemes	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p b			t d			k g
Affricate
Nasal	m			n			(ŋ)
Fricative		f v		s	ʃ		ç	h
Approximant				r		j
Lateral approximant				l

In most dialects, 'sj' is pronounced 'ʃ', with the exception of the word 'sjø', which is pronounced 'syø' The Northern dialect group does not follow this rule, and pronouces it as it is spelled ([sj]). Additionally, the phoneme [ç] corresponds to the 'ch' in German (ich=[iç]) in all dialects, and is spelled 'kj' in words.

Additionally, if any consonant directly precedes 'r', that consonant is silent. For example:

• Vadr [fa:r] - Father

Not all dialects follow this rule; some would pronounce it as [fɑ:tr]

Vowels

This is a table of the vowel phonemes in Alska

Phonemes	Short		Long
	Front	Back	Front	Back
Closed	i	-		u:/ü:
Mid-closed	ø	-	e:	o:
Mid-open	ɛ	ɔ	-	-
Open	a	-	-	-

Vowel Length

Almost every vowel has a short and a long version, which changes according to whether there is a double consonant cluster immediately following it or not. Any two of the same consonants following a vowel with make it short, with the exceptions of 'a' and 'u'. For example, 'ok' (and) = 'o:k. 'okk', while not a word, would be pronounced 'o̞k'. This does not occur when two different consonants follow a vowel, such as 'ng'.

Diphthongs

Alska has three diphthongs, and one digraph.

Diphthongs	Pronunciation
ej	[ei]
ie	[i:e]
au	[øy]
ai	[e:]

'ej' is the most common diphthong, while 'ai' is the least common. There is no 'ow' sound in Standard Alska, unlike Standard German. Some dialects, mostly the northern variants, associate this sound to the letter 'å'.

Stress

Stress usually falls on the first syllable of a noun. Stress falls on every root sylable of a compound word. Words that do not follow this pattern are usually loanwords, which follow their original pronunciation rules when adopted, although the spelling is often changed to help integrate them into Alska.

Grammar

Nouns

Nouns have two genders in Alska, Common and Neuter. These nouns must always agree with their adjectives gender-wise.

Nouns can come in two numbers, singular and plural. To make a vowel plural, either the suffix '-er', '-e' or '-ene' is added to the end. Very few nouns that have a natural fminine gender get the '-e' suffix for their indefinite plural form. This can cause confusion, since '-er' is also how verbs conjugate for all persons in the present tense. When a noun is definite, the plural is '-ene'. When it is not, the plural is '-er'.

Definite vs. Indefinite

Nouns can be definite or indefinite, and this is decided by the use of an enclitic article. The common gender has the suffix '-en' to make it definite, the neuter gender has '-et'. These articles can be separated from their noun. This transforms them into indefinite articles.

For example:

• Flyge - Woman + '-en' = Flygen - The Woman. (The extra 'e' is combined)

Here is a chart showing a selection of nouns in their indefinite and definite forms, as well as the plurals for each.

Singular	Plural	Gender	Meaning	Definite	Definite Plural	Gender	Meaning
mann	manner	common	man	foten	fotene	common	foot
land	lander	neuter	land	hemmellen	hemmellene	common	sky, heaven
sju	sjuer	common	shoe	ligtet	ligtene	neuter	light
live	liver	common	life	sprokken	sprokkene	common	language
tir	tirer	neuter	animal	boket	bokene	neuter	book
elske	elsker	common	love	vulfen	vulfene	common	wolf
lørdin	lørdine	common	lady	lørd	lørdene	common	lord

Note how all definite plural suffixes are the same, no matter the gender of the word itself.

Articles

With definite and indefinite nouns come definite (demonstrative) and indefinite articles. Gender applies to these articles in both the definite and indefinite form.

Definite article	Common	Neuter	Plural	Indefinite Article	Common	Neuter	Plural
Nom. / Acc.	den	det	denne/dette	Nom./Acc.	en	et	-
Dat.	dan	dat	danne/datte	Dat.	an	at	-

There are no plural forms for indefinite articles, as the are only ever used to refer to singular things. Denne and dette can also be used for 'this'.

Demonstrative articles are used when

a) referring directly to something or someone.

• For example: Den mann - That man

b) referring back to the subject of the sentence of something previously mentioned.

• For example: Tirer er alltid duf. Det er ikke bestimmer - Animals are always stupid. This is not true. Here 'det' is referring to the previous mentioned concept of animals being stupid.

c) an adjective precedes the noun it stems from.

• For example: en mann -> den strungen mann

Often the demonstrative article is used instead of the enclitic article in speech because saying 'den strungen mann' is also the same as saying 'strungen mannen'

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns change depending on the case they are used in. (Nominative, Accusative, Dative, or Genitive) Possessive Pronouns change depending on the gender of the noun they possess.

Case	1st person
	Singular		Plural
Nominative	jeg		vi
Accusative	mig		oss
Dative	mig		oss
Genitive	minn		osser
Case	2nd person
	Singular		Plural
Nominative	du		i
Accusative	dig		ig
Dative	dig		ig
Genitive	-		-
Case	3rd person
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	han	hun	den / det	disse / disse
Accusative	han	hun	den / det	disse / disse
Dative	ham	hum	dan / dat	dasse / dasse
Genitive	-	-	-	-

This is one of the only times that defined masculine and feminine category appears in Alska, as it is a case of natural gender.

There are no genitive forms for 'du', and 'han/hun/det'. Their corresponding possessives are used instead.

Person	Singular	Plural
jeg	minn	minnene
du	dinn	dinnene
den / det	sinn	sinnene
hun	sinn	sinnene
we	osser	osser
i	ier	ierne

Possessives can have '-tt' suffixed on to them, if the noun they possess is neuter in gender. There is no suffix for common:

• Mitt hus - My house
• Minn hund - My dog

Adjectives

Adjectives come in their root form, and are inflected for gender and number, with the same two endings used for making nouns definite, '-en', and '-et'. The plural ending is '-ene' An adjective does not, however, have to be inflected if it comes after the noun it describes.

Here are some examples:

• En strungen mann - A strong man
• Et lillet hus - A little house (Can also be formed through the diminutive)
• Den er en smuken flyge - That is a pretty girl
• Den flyge er smuk - That girl is pretty
• Disse lillene huser - These little houses

Comparative

The comparative form of adjectives is formed by adding '-ere' to the adjective itself. The word 'ennd' precedes the noun being compared.

For example:

• Den mann er strungere ennd den flyge - The man is stronger than that girl.

If something is being compared on the same level, 'somm' is used before and after the adjective.

• Den mann er somm strung somm den flyge - The man is as strong as the girl.

If something is being compared as less than something, 'minntre' is used before the adjective, and 'somm' is used before the other noun.

• Den mann er minntre strung somm den flyge - The man is weaker than the woman. (This can also be formed with the adjective weak, or by using 'ikke' before 'minntre', making 'not as strong')

Irregular Adjectives

Irregular adjectives are normal until they reach the comparative stage. Instead of adding the suffix 'ere', these irregular adjectives are usually put into the comparative by changing the entire word (compare to English 'good', 'better', 'best')

Here is an example of an irregular adjective being used comparatively.

• Det hus er godt - The house is good
• Det hus er bettre - The house is better
• Dette hus er betre ennd det hus - This house is better than that house

Superlative

The superlative form of an adjective is used when saying something is the 'best'. For regular adjectives, the superlative ending is '-est'. Irregular verbs usually end in '-est', but it is part of the stem, or root. In other words, the adjective changes twice, once for comparative, again for superlative, and the superlative version ends in '-est'.

Here is a table showing regular and irregular adjectives in their three forms:

Regular Adjective	Comparative	Superlative	Meaning	Irregular Adjective	Comparative	Superlative	Meaning
strung	strungere	strungest	strong	godt	betre	best	good
lang	langere	langest	long, tall	hog	højer	højest	high
ung	ungere	ungest	young	gamell	elt	eltest	old
kald	kaldere	kaldest	cold	lille	smål	smålest	little, small

Numbers

Number	Cardinal	Ordinal	Number	Cardinal	Ordinal
0	null	-	1	ein	vørste
2	tø	sekunde	3	tre	trede
4	fjyr	fjyrede	5	fimm	fimmede
6	sex	sexede	7	sjø	sjøede
8	atte	attede	9	nan	nanede
10	tan	tanede	11	ellfu	ellfede
12	tolfu	tolfede	13	tretan	tretanede
14	fjyrtan	fjyrtanede	15	fimmtan	fimmtanede
16	sextan	sextanede	17	sjøtan	sjøtanede
18	attjan	attjanede	19	nantan	nantanede
20	Tjoi	Tjoede	21	Tjoen	Tejoenede
22	Tjoitø	Tjoitøede	30	treti	tretede
31	treen (tre-en)	treenede	40	fjyrti	fjyrtide
50	fimmti	fimmtide	60	sexti	sextide
70	sjøti	sjøtide	80	jåtti	jåttit
90	nanti	nantide	100	hundre	hundrede

Note that in some numbers, certain letters are omitted, such as the 'i' in 'tjoen'.

Ordinal numbers are created by adding '-ede' onto the end. In some cases, just'-de' is added.

Counting is relatively simple in Alska. To make two digit numbers, one simply puts two numbers together. Numbers after one hundred work in the same way:

• tjoi + en = tjoen - twenty-one
• hundre + fimmti - one hundred-fifty

The word for thousand is 'tusennd; it's ordinal form is 'tusennede'. Million is 'milliard'/'milliarde'

Interrogatives

Interrogatives	Alska
Who	hvemm
What	hvad
Where	hver
Why	hvørfer
How	hvorden
When	nør

Adverbs

Adverbs are never declined or inflected, can be placed before or after the verb.

• Jeg vil lufe i dag - I want to run today

Here, today is being used adverbially because it shows when I want to run. The reason 'vil' is not conjugated is because it is a modal verb, which do not receive the '-r' suffix. 'lufe' is still in the infinitive because any verb after a modal verb must stay that way.

Verbs

Verbs in the infinitive form are accompanied by 'ett', and 'e' on the end. For example: Kyk - Cook, ett Kyke - to cook. There are almost no irregular verbs, and conjugation of most verbs is done by adding the suffix '-r' to the infinitive.

'-r' is used for all pronouns

• Jeg kyker i dag - I cook today/I'm cooking today
• Du kyker i dag - You cook today/You're cooking today

Er is used only in the context of 'to be', not as an auxiliary verb, as in English 'I am writing'. In Alska this would be Jeg skriver, NOT Jeg er ett skrive.

Verbs appear in their full infinitive form in a sentence when another primary verb is being used, often preceded by for, but not always. The verb+e version of the infinitive can appear after a modal verb.

Here is an example of all three forms:

• Jeg skriver - I write
• Jeg vil skrive - I want to write
• Jeg skriver over for ett kyke - I write about cooking

Past Tense

Past tense of verbs is usually done through suffixing, although a small portion of them go through stem vowel changes.

The suffixes for most words are '-dde', or '-te'.

Verb	Present	Past	Meaning
ett Skrive	skriver	skrivte	to write
ett Kyke	kyker	kykte	to cook
ett Lufe	lufer	lufte	to run
ett Finne	finner	finnedde	to find
ett Spise	spiser	spisedde	to eat
ett Gå	går	gir	to go

Irregular Past Tense

There is a very short list of verbs that undergo a stem-vowel change for their past tense form, although there is order to this and if one learns what each vowel changes to, they must simply remember the specific word it occurs in.

Vowel	Changes To
a	e
e	a
i	u
o/å/ø	i
u	o

'Æ' does not go through a vowel change.

Here is a table showing the stem vowel changes for certain verbs:

Verb	Present	Past Tense	Meaning
ett Gå	går	gir (gikk in some dialects)	to go
ett Vere	er	var	to be
ett Hive	hiver	huver	to heave, lift

Note how the '-r' is not changed, even when the verb is in the past tense.

Forming Commands

Forming commands in Alska is quite simple. When one wants to form a command, such as 'give me that', they need only to move the verb to the beginning of the sentence. The verb being used as a command stays in its present tense conjugation, and will always stay in that form no matter what tense the rest of the sentence is in.

This rule applies in English, also: One might say, 'give me that' in the present tense, but later say, 'I told him to give me it.' Notice how the commanding verb is the same, even though the speaker of the sentence is referring to the actual command in the past tense.

Additionally, when referring to one's self in a command statement, the accusative form of the personal pronouns must be used.

Here are some examples:

• Giver mig det - Give me that (Jeg - Mig)
• Holder dette - Hold this
• Hjelper mig hiver den! - Help me lift this!

Notice how in all of these statements, the second person is never acknowledged (du). It is understood that you are telling another person to perform an action, so no form of du needs to be used in the sentence. However, if you were to use the verb ett Måe - (Must) in the statement, du would have to be used:

• Snaker med han - Speak with him
• Du må snaker med han - You must speak with him

Past Participle

The past participle form of a verb always comes with the verb ha - to have. Ha is always conjugated in the present tense, but the verb main verb is always in the past tense. Past participle forms retain the same suffixes they had in their regular past tense form.

For example:

• Jeg har gir till Alsland - I have gone to Alsland (before)

The main verb, or the verb in the past tense, does not have to be in any specific place in the sentence as long as it is after ha; It is just as acceptable to say Jeg har till Alsland gir

Syntax

Syntax in Alska has a rather straightfoward SVO pattern, like most Germanic langauages. Also like most Germanic languages is the switch to VSO for interrogative statements.

• Jeg vil lufe - I want to run
• Vil jeg lufe? - (Do) I want to run?

Notice how there is no auxiliary verb in the second example. Translated literally, it means 'Want I run?'.

Cases

Alska has 4 grammatical cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, and Genitive.

Nominative

Nominative Case is used to show the subject of a sentence, although there is no case marking for this case in Alska.

Accusative

Accusative Case shows the direct object of a sentence, and once again there are no case markings for it.

While there is no direct marking on the noun, pronouns do change to conform to Accusative case.

• jeg - mig
• du - dig

Dative

Dative Case shows the indirect object of a sentence, and is the one case where case marking occurs. The indefinite and definite articles undergo a vowel shift, from 'e' to 'a'.

• en/et - an/at
• *den/det - dan/dat

Genitive

Genitive Case shows possession of a noun by another entity, and is the only case that has in-depth rules.

Possession can be shown in two ways: with a possessive pronoun or in an 'of the' phrase. Using a possessive pronoun is more common in speech, although there are situations where an 'of the' phrase would be more accurate.

When showing possession with a pronoun, one simply puts the pronoun in front of the noun being possessed. For example:

• minn skole - my school
• ditt hus - your hus

Notice how the syntax here is exactly like English. This is by far the easiest way to use Genitive case. Also notice how 'dinn' changes to 'ditt'. This is because 'hus' is neuter in gender. This change applies to most possessive pronouns when they own a neuter word.

There is no actual 'of the' phrase in Alska, instead the noun being possessed is made definite and put in front of a possessive pronoun:

• skolen minn - the school (of) me
• huset hans - the house (of) his/his house

'Hans' and 'huns' are the only two pronouns that do not undergo the 'tt' change when possessing a neuter noun. They are also used instead of 'sinn

'Sinn' is used for the first kind of possession, and hans/huns is used for the second.

When a proper noun is possessing something, the suffixes '-s', or '-es' are used. '-s' is suffixed onto proper nouns, such as names and places, and '-es' is suffixed onto regular nouns. If the noun is definite, the genitive suffix comes after the enclitic article. This happens in both types of possession:

• Alslands fylger/Flygene alslands - Alslands women/the women of Alsland
• Kattenes ball/Ballet kattenes - The cat's ball/The ball of the cat

Ja and Ju

In Alska there are two affirmative words: Ja, which is used for regular yes/no answers, and Ju, which is used for negative questions.

Negative Questions are formed when ikke is used. Observe the difference between these two questions:

• Vil du lufer med mig? - Do you want to run with me?
• Vil du ikke lufer med mig? - Don't you want to run with me?

The answer to the first question would be Ja, while Ju would have to be used in the second question if the person does in fact want to go running.

This helps with the confusion that occurs with negative questions. For example, in English, the question 'don't you want to run with me?' is not seen as an inherently negative statement, but when one separates 'don't', the statement's implied meaning changes. Now it becomes 'do you not want to run with me?'. Answering yes to this question would mean that you do not want to run. However, if you do want to run, you would have to clarify the statement: 'Yes, I do want to run with you.'

The use of Ju eliminates the need for this confusion.

Examples

Here is the Lord's prayer translated from English into Alska:

   Our Father in heaven,                             Osser vadr i himmell,
   hallowed be your name.                            helighet er din Nafn. 
   Your kingdom come,                                din konngdøm kommer,
   your will be done,                                din will gør,
   on earth as it is in heaven.                      på jorden hvorden somm det er i hemmell.
   Give us this day our daily bread,                 giver oss disse dagligen brød,
   and forgive us our debts,                         ok tillgive oss osser skulder,
   as we also have forgiven our debtors.             hvorden vi har tilgivedde osser skuldmanner.
   And lead us not into temptation,                  ok leder oss ikke i på frissthellse,
   but deliver us from evil.                         men tillever oss fra ande.

A small poem in English, then in Standard Alska and its dialects:

English/SA:

          There once was a man from Japan                                                                      Der var en mann fra japan
          Whose limericks had not many a fan                                                                   Hves limerer havdde ingen mange fanatikker
          When asked why he said:                                                                              Nør spårgte hvorfer han sagdde:
          It is because I always try to fit as many syllables into the last line as I possibly can             Det er for jeg altid prøver ett fidde somm mange syllaber i den sisde linje somm jeg mulige kan       

NA/ EA:

          Der va en mann frå japan                                                                             Der vor in mann fra japan
          hves limerer havde inge mange fanatiker                                                              Hvis lim'rer hade ing'n mang' fanatikker
          Nor sporgte hvorfor han sagde:                                                                       Nor sporgte hvorfor han sade:
          Det er forde jæyg alltid prøver i fedde sum mange sylaber i den siste linje sum jæyg mulige kan      Din e forde jeg altid prøve å f'd som mang' sillaber i din sisti line som jeg mulg' kan

WA/RG:

JS:

IPA version:

• SA: [dɛr var ɛn man fra: ja'pa:n | vɛs lɪm'ɛr'ɛr hav'dɛ ɪŋ'ɛn maŋ'ɛ fan'a:'tɪk'ɛr | nør spɔrg'tɛ vɔrfɛr han sag'dɛ | dɛt er fo̞r jaj al'ti:d prøv'ɛr ɛt fɪd'ɛ sɔm maŋ'ɛ sy:l'a:b'ɛr i: dɛn sɪs'tɛ lɪn'jɛ sɔm jaj ka:n]

• NA:
• NA: [dɛʁ vaʁ ɛn man fʁau ja'ba:n | vɛs lɪm'ɛʁ'ɛʁ haf'tɛ ɪŋ'ɛ maŋ'ɛ fan'a:'dɪg'ɛʁ | nɔr sbɔʁk'dɛ vɔʁvɔʁ han sak'tɛ | dɛt eʁ fɔʁ jajg al'di:t prøf'ɛʁ i: fɛt'ɛ sʉm maŋ'ɛ sɪl'a:'pɛʁ i" dɛn sɪz'dɛ lɪn'jɛ sʉm jajg mʉl'i:kɛ ka:n]