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
De Huylands' flág

Background

Buerkáns is spoken in the fictitious country of De Huylands, known as such in English, even though the translation is literally The Highlands. I like to imagine De Huylands exists in the same world as Alska, where it would be known in Alska as Højlandene. 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 of 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. There is a large vowel inventory of 13 distinct vowel quantities and a typical Germanic consonant inventory with the exception of [d͡ʒ].

Vowels

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

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 z	ʃ		x	h
Approximant			ɾ		j
Lateral approximant		w	l			ɫ

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:.lai̯n/ - capital city's metro line (CVVC.CCVCC.CVCCV.CVC)
• straade /'ʃtɾæ:də/ - street (CCCVVCV)
• regtíg /'ɾʌx.ti:g/ - correct (CVCVC)
• de /dʌ/ - the (CV)
• ag /æx/ - 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/ 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 /ai̯/

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/
  • g /g/ when word-final
• l /ɫ/ when word-initial
• s /z/ when word-final
  • s /ʃ/ when preceding t or p
• ng /ŋ/
• x /d͡ʒ/
  • xésus /'d͡ʒe:s.us/ - jesus
• e /ʌ/ when following r or d
  • hede /'hɛ.dʌ/ - had
• e /ə/ when unstressed
• y /ai̯/
• w /w/

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:

• aui /ø/
• aae /æ:e̯/
• aai /æ:i̯/

Sound Shifts from other Germanic Languages

Perhaps the largest change from Germanic phonology in Buerkáns is the voicing of the original Germanic /f~v/ or /ʋ to /b/, however, this does not occur when the sound is word-initial, as shown in the last example:

Buerkáns	IPA	Danish	IPA	German	IPA	English
hoeb	/hɔɛb/	hoved	/'ho:.ʋɛð/	Kopf	/'kɔpf/	head
bebége	/bə'be:.xə/	at bevæge	/bɛ'ʋai̯.gɛ/	bewegen	/bɛ've:.gɛn/	to move
graabe	/'græ:.bɘ/	at grave	/graʊ̯.ʋɛ	graben	/'gra:bɛn/	to dig
foerstaande	/fɔɛ̯r'ʃtæ:n.dɘ/	at forstå	/fɔʁ'stɔ:/	verstehen	/fɛʁ'ʃte:.ɛn/	to understand

• foerstaande has a word-final E following the letter D, but it is pronounced /ɘ/ because it is unstressed.

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, Á, E, or O. 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 /dʌ'd‿ˈa:pəl/ - the apple
• jik spyltet epik /'jɪk 'spai̯l.təd‿ˈɛpɪk/ - I played fantastically (epically)
• jep, oemkí ánaars es hyr /'jɛb‿ˈɔɛ̯m.ki: 'ɛs 'hai̯r/ - yep, uncle Ánaars (anders/andrew) is here