Buerkaans

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Buerkantch
Buerkáns
Pronunciation[[Help:IPA|buɛ̯ɾ'kaːns]]
Created by
Native speakersNo Census Data (2014)
Language codes
ISO 639-1bu
ISO 639-2bue
ISO 639-3bue
Buerkáns.png
Dí Huílands' flág

Background

Buerkáns is spoken in the fictitious country of Dí Huílands, known as such in English, even though the translation is literally The Highlands. 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 in 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, with a large vowel inventory of 14 distinct vowel quantities and a typical Germanic consonant inventory with the exception of /d͡ʒ/.

Vowels

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

For the most part, /ɨ/ replaces /ɪ/ in word-initial 'i', but can also appear in any instance of 'i', based on the speaker's accent.

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 ʃ x~χ h
Approximant ɾ j
Lateral approximant w l ɫ
  • It is important to know that /χ/ can be velarized to /x/ in fast speech, or after certain consonants, where a speaker cannot pull their tongue back fast enough to produce a full /x/.

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:.ləi̯n/ - capital city's metro line (CVVC.CCVCC.CVCCV.CVC)
  • straade /'ʃtɾæ:də/ - street (CCCVVCV)
  • regtíg /'ɾʌχ.ti:χ/ - correct (CVCVC)
  • de /dʌ/ - the (CV)
  • alg /ælχ/ - 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/, /ə/, 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 /əi̯/ ` is used to differentiate between èn - a, and en - and.

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/~/χ/ (/x/ regn ud -->after some consonants, or sometimes when weakened by a speaker)
  • l /ɫ/ when word-initial
  • s /ʃ/ when preceding t or p
  • ng /ŋ/
  • x /d͡ʒ/
    • xésus /'d͡ʒe:s.us/ - jesus
  • e /ʌ/ when following r or d/t
    • hede /'hɛ.dʌ/ - had
  • e /ə/ when unstressed
  • y /əi̯/
  • w /w/
  • tj /t͡ʃ/
  • sch /ʃ/ in all positions. Alternatively spelled as sj in some northern varieties

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, and one digraph:

  • aui /ø/
  • aae /æ:e̯/
  • aai /æ:i̯/
  • iu /y/
  • ei /ei:/

Sound Shifts from other Germanic Languages

Perhaps the largest change from Germanic phonology in Buerkáns is the voicing of the original Germanic /v/ or /ʋ to /b/:

Buerkáns IPA Danish IPA German IPA English
hoeb /hɔɛb/ hoved /'ho:.ʋɛð/ Kopf /'kɔpf/ head
bebége /bə'be:.xə/ at bevæge /bɛ'ʋɛi̯.gɛ/ bewegen /bɛ've:.gɛn/ to move
graabe /'xræ:.bɘ/ at grave /graʊ̯.ʋɛ graben /'gra:bɛn/ to dig

Word-initial /v/ is left unchanged.


Dutch/Afrikaans IE~E to Y:

Buerkáns IPA Dutch IPA English
hyr /'həi̯ɾ/ hier /'hi:r/ here
spyle /'spəi̯lə/ spelen /'spe:lɛn/ to play
tyke /'təi̯.kə/ tekenen /'te:.kɛn.ɛn/ to draw

This tends to happen rather randomly, without a clearly seen pattern, it is most likely the beginning of a full sound shift. It can also be said that, in many cases, German /ei/ is lowered to /əi̯/.

Buerkáns also experiences a general voicing of plosives in mid-word positions. Word-final plosives are subject to change with voicing sandhi, and word-intial plosives can be pronounced either way, depending on where the speaker is from. Southern Buerkáns tends to lean heavily towards mostly-voiced plosives, and Nothern Buerkáns always devoices intial plosives.

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 single A, Á, E, or O. (This rule does not apply to di/trigraphs) 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
/dʌd‿ˈa:bəl/

the apple


ik spyltet epik
/'ɨk 'spəi̯l.tədˈɛpɪk/

I played well (epically)


jep, oemkí ánaars is hyr
/'jɛbˈɔɛ̯m.ki: 'a:n.æ:rs 'ɨs 'həi̯r/

yep, uncle Ánaars is here

Morphology

Buerkáns morphology is rather simple, and lies somewhere between German and Danish. There are two genders, Common and Neutral, and verbs do not conjugate for person. There are however, three cases for noun declension. Unlike German, Buerkáns is a very regular language.

Nouns

Nouns in Buerkáns are only marked for number and definiteness, as is other Germanic languages. Here is a table displaying the different forms most Buerkáns nouns can take:

Indefinite Singular Indefinite Plural Definite Singular Definite Plural
common:
èn métj métjes de métj dí métjes
a girl girls the girl the girls
èn knaag knaags de knaag dí knaags
a boy boys the boy the boys
èn hoond hoonde de hoond dí hoonde
a dog dogs the dog the dogs
èn riuksak riuksakke de riuksak dí riuksakke
a backpack backpacks the backpack the backpacks
neuter:
et huus huuser det huus dí huuser
a house houses the house the houses
et áppel áppeler det áppel dí áppeler
an apple apples the apple the apples
et ár ár de ár dí ár
a year years the year the years

As shown above, there are 3 different ways to express plurality in Buerkáns. The first two are by suffixing -s or -e to words of the common gender. There is no pattern for this, some words recieve the 'e-plural' while others receive the 's-plural'. However, most common gender words are made plural by the addition of '-s'. In the neuter gender, the plural marker is always '-er'.

When using the '-e' suffix, word-final consonant doubling sometimes happens, as shown in riugsak --> riugsakke. This happens for all plosive consonants:

The common-gender indefinite article, èn, is pronounced /ən/, but is shortened to just /n/ in almost all cases.

Consonant doubling for:

  • riuksak - riuksakke - backpacks

but not for:

  • uer - uere - clocks

There are also a few special words which cannot be put into plural form, analagous to 'information' in English. An example is given in the table above with the word ár - 'year'. The ony way to tell if the word is being used plurally is in when it is definite. There can one see the definite plural article .

Diminutives

There are two diminutive suffixes in Buerkáns: -kí, and -ken. Common gender words take -kí, and neuter words few use -ken. Words that have no plural form tend to favor the -ken:

The diminutive form is often used to convey an affectionate or nepotic feeling towards the noun being marked For example, one would say sokkís instead of just soks to denote their favorite pair of socks from all the other pairs. Other times it is used to literal effect, and sometimes just for poetic license (for example, to fit a rhyme scheme).

Word Diminutive Form Meaning
common:
métj métjkí little girl, schoolgirl
knaag knaagkí little boy, schoolboy
neuter:
huus huusken little house
kóelkaast kóelkaastken little fridge

Pronouns

This is the only facet of Buerkáns that retains a three-gender system, as it is necessary to distinguish between masculine and feminine when speaking about people.

Case 1st person
Singular Plural
Nominative ik/ek vy
Accusative my os
Genitive myn / myt on / ont
Case 2nd person
Singular Plural
Nominative ju jul
Accusative jy julle
Genitive jyn / jyt jullen / jullet
Case 3rd person
Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
Nominative hy sy det díe
Accusative him sy det daam
Genitive syn / syt syn / syt syn / syt dyn / dyt

The reflexive for all persons is the same as the accusative form. The 3rd person nominative pronouns always use syg instead of differentiating gender.

Additionally, the plural form for all 3rd Person Genitive pronouns is sye.

Ik is the official spelling for I, although ek can also be used.

Numbers

Number Cardinal Ordinal
0 null
1 én vauirs
2 tvy anen
3 try tred
4 vir vird
5 fyf fyfd
6 séks séksd
7 sebe sebd
8 ag agd
9 nyn nynd
10 tyn tynd
11 elf elfd
12 taalv taalvd
13 trytyn trytyndí
14 virtyn virtyndí
15 fyftyn fyftyndí
16 sékstyn sékstyndí
17 sebtyn sebtyndí
18 agtyn agtyndí
19 nyntyn nytyndí
20 tvytí tvytíte
21 énantvytí énantvytíte
22 tvyantvytí tvyantvytíte
30 trytí trytíte
31 énantrytí tryantrytíte
40 virtí virttíte
50 fyftí fyftíte
60 sékstíte sékstíte
70 sebtí sebtíte
80 agtí agtíte
90 nyntí nyntíte
100 hundrí hundríte

Numbers have a very regular structure in Buerkáns, with the exception of numbers 1 and 2, which are irregular. The ordinal ending for numbers 3 to 20 is simply d. The ordinal ending for all numbers after 20 is te.

Double-digit numbers are produced as in German. To make the number 21, one must say énantvytí, literally 'one-and-twenty'.

Verbs

Verbs are only conjugated for tense in Buerkáns, not number/person. Beyond this, all conjugations of a given verb are usually regular according to other verbs in their category. There is only one irregular verb, each verb class has a distinct conjugation pattern. Every verb conjugates the same in Present Tense, and verbs are kept in the infinitive if they are not the primary verb in the sentence. However, this functions more like English and the Scandinavian languages in that two verbs can follow each other directly, as opposed to German where and secondary verbs must be at the end of a sentence or phrase.


Irregular Verbs

There is only one irregular verbs in Buerkáns: to be

Verb Present Past Past Participle Pluperfect Meaning
syne is wus hét gesynd hétte gesynd to be


Regular Verbs

With the exception of modal verbs, all verbs conjugate in the present tense with -r or -er, depending if the word has a word-final vowel or not. This is a clear adoption from the Scandinavian langauges over a more complicated Dutch, German, or English system. The word te is used in infinitive constructions, and cannot be excluded from the infinitive version of a verb.

Verb Present Meaning
te gaae gaar to go, walk
te eide eider to eat
te loobe loober to run

Here is a full conjugation table


Verb Present Past Past Participle Pluperfect Future Passive Meaning
te gaae gaar gaan hét gigaan hétte gigaan muet gaae gaaes to be
te schude schuder schkod hét gigschod hétte gischod muet schude schudes to shoot
te hore horer hort hét gihort hétte gihort muet hore hores to hear

One can see that, for the most part, verbs in Buerkáns do not have different past and perfect/pluperfect forms. The only real difference is that the prefix gi is added to indicate the tense, as well as the use of hét and hétte.

Adjectives

Nouns

Syntax

Samples

One bright day in the middle of the night,
two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back they faced each other
drew their swords and shot each other.
The deaf policeman heard this noise:
came and shot the two dead boys.
if you don't believe this lie is true,
ask the blind man; he saw it too.

Én luus dág, in de midnagt,
tvy tode knaags stud op om te schlooes.
Riug géen riug konfrontírt díe daamánder,
toog sye swárdkís ut en schod daamánder.
Dí dauife polísman hétte dehyr klaang gihort:
kom en schkot dí tvy tode knaags.
ib ní jy trauwe dehyr luug ní sant is,
frag énmál de blinde man; hy sá et aukso.