Buerkaans
| Buerkantch | |
|---|---|
| Buerkáns | |
| Pronunciation | [[Help:IPA|buɛ̯ɾ'kaːns]] |
| Created by | – |
| Native speakers | No Census Data (2014) |
Indo-European
| |
| 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.
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 | |
| Mid-open | ɛ | ə | 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 | 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. Unstressed e is often reduced to [ə].
Buerkáns' word structure is either CVC, VC, or CV, where C stands for either a single consonant or a cluster of up to three consecutive consonants, and V stands for up to three vowels. In some special cases there can be four-consonant clusters, but these are generally in archaic words and most have been simplified.