Linguifex

Verse:Irta/Judeo-Mandarin/Ballmer

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Ballmer Ăn Yidiș (נ-אידיש אס בּאַמאר n-Idiș ăs Bamăr or אַ בּאַמאריש a Bamăriș) originates from the Eastern European city of Ballmer (בּאַמאר, from בּאַלא מוֹר Bală Mur 'Big Village', Ḷbāḷdimōra in Palkhan; same location as our Satmar). It's now the most common Ăn Yidiș dialect in Haredi communities in Irta's US, whereas the Bohemian dialect is the most prevalent in Europe. Bamăriș descends from Ăn Yidiș dialects that were spoken in our timeline's Germany in the late 19th century, though it shows influence from Baltic Ăn Yidiș dialects.

Formal written Ăn Yidiș in Bamăriș-speaking communities is close to Standard Ăn Yidiș. However, spoken Bamăriș (described in this page) is highly innovative and is also influencing other spoken Ăn Yidiș dialects due to its prevalence.

Phonology

  • ăm ăn ăl can become syllabic m n l like in our Yiddish. Unstressed i in closed syllables reduces to ă after this sound change, and older fortis resonants don't become syllabic (ən:(vel) > O:n > ən), so the new syllabic resonants are potentially phonemic: Cheșvn 'Cheshvan' and tfilăn 'tefillin'
  • It has a 5-vowel system like Yiddish, with the following vowel shifts; the resulting Hebrew reading is coincidentally similar to our Satmar/Poylish Hebrew, just with Tsarfati Hebrew stop voicing.
  • ř (from OIr /R'/) is Spanish y
  • ņ has shifted to a velar nasal
  • gimel rafe and native gh are [g]
  • d z ģ /t t͡s t͡ʃ/ are [ð z ʒ] after a vowel as in the Baltic dialect
  • Bamăriș has a broad and slender L merger, but in many words broad L is deleted before /u/ (reflecting *u and *å): אָך uch 'mouse' (Std. לוֹך luch; Irish luch, with broad L); אָצאר uzăr 'strong' (Std. ĂnY ל׳אָצאר łozăr, Irish láidir). This shows non-Eastern European Ăn Yidiș behavior in that broad L did not dissimilate before historical /u/.

Vowel diaphonology

Due to vowel shifts, Ăn Yidiș vowels have more complex diaphonology than in any Irish variety in Irta or CF Tricin. Ballmer vowels don't correspond 1-1 to orthographic vowels which are based on Standard Ăn Yidiș; this causes problems for learners learning the Ballmer dialect.

Historical short vowels

  • /*a/ ămách 'out' (Irish amàch)
  • /*e/ סעך țeych 'house' (*ćech, Irish teach)
  • /*i/ rih 'run' (Irish rith)
  • /*o/ טאבאן dovn 'world' (Irish domhan)
  • /*CoC'/ tel 'will, pleasure' (Irish toil)
  • /*u/ uch 'mouse' (Std. luch, Irish luch)
  • /*CuC'/ cir 'put' (Irish cuir)

Historical long vowels

  • /*å/ gru 'love' (Irish grá), uv (Std łov, Irish lámh)
  • /*í/ țir 'country' (Std. ibid, Irish tír)
  • /*ů/ mowăr 'big' (Scottish Gaelic mòr /mo:r/)
  • /*au/ own 'in him' (Irish ann), Chownă 'Hannah'
  • /*ò/ broyn 'sadness' (Scottish Gaelic bròn /prɔ:n/)
  • /*è/ ian 'bird' (Std ean, Irish éan)
  • /*əi, *é/ nay 'nine' (Irish and Gaelic naoi)
  • /*ai/ faaiŋ 'catching' (Std ĂnY fayiņ), aa 'face' (Irish aghaidh)
  • /*ú/ bri 'belly' (Std brü, Irish brú)
  • /*ua/ crua 'hard' (Std. ibid, Irish crua)
  • /*ia/ gșien 'sun' (Std. ibid, Irish grian)

Intonation

Like our Satmar Yiddish but no rising intonation for questions

Grammar

Bamăriș has lost gender, case and grammatical mutations.

Nouns

Noun mutation has lexicalized to the form that came after the definite article. h- is still added to vowel initial plural nouns but not adjectives.

Bamăriș gained an animacy distinction. Animate singular nouns always take the definite article n/m (from Proto Ăn Yidiș *ənt, the masculine sg. nominative article before vowels), which triggers h-prothesis in vowel-initial words, while the inanimate singular article is a before a consonant and n before a vowel. Non-Hebrew/Aramaic noun plurals are regularly -(ă)n, or for loans from English, -s.

  • m břeythin 'the judge', nă břeythinăn 'the judges'
    • Hebrew plurals are kept in Hebrew words: n șowfăd, nă șowfdăm 'judge'
  • n leynăv 'the child', nă leynăvn 'the children'
  • m beybi 'the baby', nă beybis 'the babies'
  • n h-Idăch 'the Jew', nă h-Idăchn 'the Jews'
  • a rowșin 'the rose', nă rowșinăn 'the roses'
  • n ofis 'the office', nă h-ofisăs 'the offices'

Verbs

Bamăriș prefers to borrow Hebrew verbs in their participle forms (תא מי מוחל Tă mi mowchl 'I forgive'), whereas Standard Ăn Yidiș prefers borrowing verbal noun forms (תא מי א מחילה To mi ă măchílă). These participial forms are treated as adjectives.

Sentence structure

The auxiliary bi (used for all sentences that are not "is-the") has lost tense inflection; it only marks truth value and subordinate clauses.

Object pronouns of transitive verbs are forms of the preposition ghă.

Hence a sentence that doesn't use the copula now always displays the following word order:

truth value -- subject -- tense -- preverbal particle -- verb -- object.

The truth value slot is always occupied by one of these 6 words:

  • תּא tă/tu affirmative
  • בּאס băs affirmative in subordinate clauses
  • וועל vel interrogative
  • כנעל, נעל (ch)nel negative
  • נאכעל năchel neg. interr, negative in subordinate clauses
  • בּי bi: used for contradicting a negated sentence

The tense slot is always occupied by:

  • (NONE) present
  • mbí past
  • ze(ș)l vi, zăví future (< *deiseil bhith 'ready to be')

The preverbal particle is

  • ăg for native verbs
  • nă for predicate nouns (is-a; is-the uses the copula)
  • zero for adjectives and Hebrew participle verbs

The 2nd person singular familiar pronoun is ti (thu in Standard Ăn Yidiș). The present tense auxiliary תּאָ is pronounced tu when stressed (when a subject pronoun follows or when used as "yes") and t' or tă when unstressed (when a noun follows).

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