Wessedian
| Wessedian | |
|---|---|
| væssoyisk | |
| Pronunciation | [/ˈvɛsː.ɔɪ̯.isk/] |
| Created by | Freyja |
| Date | 2024 |
| Native to | Republic of Wessey |
Early forms | Old West Norse
|
| Official status | |
Official language in | Wessey |
Recognised minority language in | Scotland |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ws |
| ISO 639-2 | wsd |
| ISO 639-3 | wsd |
Wessedian (endonym: væssoyisk; Wessedian: [ˈvɛsː.ɔɪ̯.isk]) is a North Germanic language it is spoken by about two million people, principally in and around Wessey, where it is the official language. Communities of Wessedian speakers also exist in England and Scotland, where it is recognised as a minority language. Minor Wessedian-speaking communities also exist in Norway, the United States and Canada.
Wessedian, like all other North Germanic languages, is descended from Old Norse, the common language of the Norsemen during the Viking Age. Wessedian is descended from the West Norse dialect group, along with Icelandic, Faroese and Norwegian. However, unlike the continental Scandinavian languages — namely Swedish, Danish and Norwegian — Wessedian is not easily mutualy intelligible with other Scandinavian languages. Wessedian has borrowed some vocabulary from the Goidelic languages, especially Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Northern English dialects, due to shared historical contact between between the languages in the region.
History
Orthography
The Wessedian alphabet consists of 25 letters, nine of which are vowels and 16 are consonants. Some people also consider â and ô to be separate letters, and not just a and o with a circumflex.
| Letters of the Wessedian alphabet | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aa | (Ââ) | Bb | Dd | Ðð | Ee | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ii | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | (Ôô) | Pp | Rr | Ss | Tt | Uu | Vv | Xx | Yy | Øø | Ææ | Åå |
Non-native letters mostly appear in some foreign proper nouns, like toponyms and given names. They can also be found in some loanwords, but are usually spelt with the native equivalent of their sound instead, compare centimeter and sentimeter.
Wessedian letters almost always correspond to their pronunciation, Some graphemes however do not correspond directly to their pronunciation, these are:
- The letters k and g become palatised, i.e. are pronounced as /c/ and /ɟ/ respectively, when followed an e, i or j. Examples: tba
- The combinations sj, skj, stj and very rarely ti are pronounced as /ʃ/
Diasystems
Words written in Wessedian are generally spelt the same across every dialect, regardless of the speakers pronunciation. This is accomplished with the use of diasystems, which are always spelt the same but can be pronounced differently depending on the speakers dialect.
- A list of diasystems will be added soon
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ* | (ŋ) | ||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||||
| Affricate | t͡ʃ* | (t͡ɕ)* | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | θ* | s | ʃ | (ɕ)* | (x)* | h |
| voiced | v ~ ʋ | (ð)* | ||||||
| Approximant | j | |||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | ʎ | ||||||
Notes:
- Sounds with an asterisk indicate that the usage of said consonant depends on the speaker's dialect.
- /x/ is only ever found as /xʷ/.
- /ŋ/ is an allophone of /n/ in front of /k/ and /g/.
- In fast speech /r/ is often pronounced as [ɾ].