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 Alsla is the standard, and Northern Alska 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 while it looks somewhat similar to Standard Alska in its orthography, the pronunciation is quite different. Many times, native speakers of SA have a hard time understanding Northern Alska, and they describe it as if 'one is speaking with marbles in their mouth.' On the other hand, speakers of Eastern Alska can understand Northern Alska the best, follows by Western Alska speakers.
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.
The letter iy is also known as 'creaky i' because of it's pronunciation.
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:'tɛʁ] | [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] | Ney | [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.
Verbs
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.
Definite/Indefinite Articles
The definite and indefinite articles are different in Northern Alska than they are in Southern Alska. Most notable is the transformation of the neuter indefinite article from et to ei
Definite article | Common | Neuter | Plural | Indefinite Article | Common | Neuter | Plural |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nom. / Acc. | der | dei | derre/deie | Nom./Acc. | er | ei | - |
Dat. | dar | dai | darre/daie | Dat. | ar | ai | - |
Personal Pronouns
Standard Alska first, Northern Alska second:
Case | 1st person | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Singular | Plural | |||
Nominative | jeg/jæyg | vi/vi | ||
Accusative | mig/mæyg | oss/uss | ||
Dative | mig/mæyg | oss/uss | ||
Genitive | minn/mæyn | osser/usser | ||
Case | 2nd person | |||
Singular | Plural | |||
Nominative | du/du | i/enne | ||
Accusative | dig/dæyg | ig/enneg | ||
Dative | dig/dæyg | ig/enneg | ||
Genitive | - | - | ||
Case | 3rd person | |||
Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural | |
Nominative | han/han | hun/hun | den/det / den/det | disse/disse / disse/disse |
Accusative | han/han | hun/hun | den/det / den/det | disse/disse / disse/disse |
Dative | ham/ham | hum/hum | dan/dat / dan/dat | dasse/dasse / dasse/dasse |
Genitive | - | - | - | - |
Comparison
Here is the Lord's Prayer, first in English, then in Standard Alska, and finally in Northern Alska:
Our Father in heaven, Osser vadr i himmell, Usser vadr i himell hallowed be your name. helighet er din Nafn. helighet e dæyn Nafn Your kingdom come, din konngdøm kommer, dæyn kunngdum komme your will be done, din will gør, dæyn vil gør on earth as it is in heaven. på jorden hvorden somm det er i hemmell. po jorden hvordan sum det e i himell Give us this day our daily bread, giver oss disse dagligen brød, giv uss disse dagligen brød and forgive us our debts, ok tillgive oss osser skulder, o tilgiv uss usser skulder as we also have forgiven our debtors. hvorden vi har tilgivedde osser skuldmanner. hvordan vi har And lead us not into temptation, ok leder oss ikke i på frissthellse, o led oss ikje i po fristhelse but deliver us from evil. men tillever oss fra ande. men tilev uss frå ande
There are several noteworthy differences in this translation:
- The dropping of double consonants where appropriate in himell and fristhelse. (The double consonant-short vowel length rule still applies in NA, but there is no short version of i
- på to po ([pɔ] - [pɔ])
- ok to o ([o̞] - [ɔ])
- ikke to ikje ([ɪg'gɛ] - [i:ʃ'jɛ]) Normally, the digraph kj is pronounced [ʃ], but in this instance the [j] is realized as well.
- somm to sum ([sɔm] - [sʉm])
- fra to frå ([fra:] - [frau])
- din to dæyn ([dɪn] - [dein])
- er to e ([er] - [e]) ett Vere changes to i Ve in Northern Alska, and the conjugation for all persons in present tense is simply e in NA.
- giver to giv ([gɪv'ɛr] - [gi:v]). The command form of a verb in SA is the exact same as it's present tense conjugation, but in NA the command form is simply the infinitive without the e attached to it. This also appears with the verbs ett lede, ett tillgive, and ett tilleve (SA versions).