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 |
Indo-European
| |
Early form | |
| 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 (NMG), and some that are related to the standard form.
Eastern is divided into Near and Far. Far Eastern Gothic (FEMG) has heavy Slavic influence, such as both stages of Slavic palatalization. Near Eastern Gothic (NEMG) only went through the second stage.
Southern Gothic (DMG) 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 / NMG kyms, 'to come'.
/mn/ assimilated to /mː/.
- Gothic himins → *himns → emm, 'heaven'.
Elision
Unstressed, short vowels are elided when near stressed and/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'.
- Gothic hlahjan → *lhahjn → ȃȃjz / ȃȃjs, 'to laugh'.
H-Lowering
V + h clusters, or h + V, caused the vowel to be lowered. If the /h/ was after the vowel, said vowel gets lengthened.
- Gothic hardus → ȃrd, 'hard'.
- Gothic saihs → *saas → saa, 'six'.
W-Rounding
V + w clusters, or w + V, caused the vowel to be rounded. If the /w/ or /u̯/ was after the vowel, said vowel gets lengthened. Back vowels, /u ɔ uː oː ɔː/, become longer.
- Gothic wintrus → *iuntrus → iuttre / uttre / NMG yttr, 'winter'.
- Gothic fidwor → fidoer / fidor , 'four'.
- Gothic thiuda → thiudh / thuth, 'people'.
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.