Syzkyn

Syzkyn
сызқынҟы мол / სჷზქჷნყჷ მოლ syzkynqy mol
Pronunciation	[ˈsɘzˌkʲʰəɴ.qʹə mɔɫ]
Created by	rnifnuf
Date	2017-
Native to	Russia, Georgia, Turkey, with small diaspora
Ethnicity	Syzkyn
Native speakers	Approximately 400,000 (2021)
Language family	Indo-European North Germanic East Scandinavian? Syzkyn
Early form	Old Norse
Official status
Official language in	Russia Syzkyn Republic
Recognised minority language in	Jordan Turkey Israel

Syzkyn is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in the Syzkyn Republic, a Federal Subject of the Russian Federation located in the western Caucasus. It is the native language of the Syzkyn people, who are thought to be the only descents of the Scandinavian Rus' people who were not fully assimilated.

(Article under construction)

Phonology

Syzkyn's phonological inventory is similar to those of Kartvelian languages.

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		[ŋ]1	[ɴ]2
Plosive	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	kʰ~kʲʰ
	Voiced	b	d	g~gʲ
	Ejective	pʹ	tʹ	kʹ~kʲʹ		qʹ	(ʔ)
Affricate	Aspirated		t͡sʰ	t͡ʃʰ		[qχʰ]3
	Voiced		d͡z	d͡ʒ		[ɢʁ]3
	Ejective		t͡sʹ	t͡ʃʹ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s	ʃ	x~χ		ħ~h
	Voiced	v~ʋ4	z	ʒ	ɣ~ʁ
Approximant			l	j
Rhotic			r~ɾ

1. Allophone of /n/ before velars
2. Allophone of /n/ before uvulars
3. [qχʰ] and [ɢʁ] are realizations of /χ/ and /ʁ/ after nasals
4. The fricative [v] and approximant [ʋ] are in free variation
   1. [ʋ] is the most prevalent realization after a vowel
   2. /v/ is realized as [ʷ] after a consonant

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ~ə1	u
Mid	e~ɛ3		o~ɔ4
Open		a~ɑ2

1. /ə/ has several allophones:
   1. [ɘ] or [ɨ] when stressed and not following a labialized or palatalized consonant
   2. [ɪ] after a palatalized velar (in dialects that palatalize the velar stops) or /j/
   3. [ʊ] after a labialized consonant
2. Typically reduced to [ɐ] when unstressed. Broadly transcribed as /a/
3. Broadly transcribed as /e/
4. Broadly transcribed as /o/

Prosody

In Syzkyn, stress can be located on any syllable in a word. Typically, in words of Norse origin, primary stress is on the first syllable, often occurring on other syllables in words of non-Norse origin. However, stress remains on the same syllable in all inflected forms.

Orthography

The primary modern orthography for Syzkyn is the Cyrillic alphabet, which is similar to the alphabet used for Abkhaz. Historically, it has also been written in the Mkhedruli script, which some speakers in diaspora still use.

Cyrillic	Mkhedruli	Transliteration	IPA	Notes
А а	ა	A a	a
Б б	ბ	B b	b
Г г	გ	G g	g
Ӷ ӷ	ღ	Ğ ğ	ɣ~ʁ	Can be substituted with ҕ
Д д	დ	D d	d
Дж дж	ჯ	Dž dž	d͡ʒ
Дз дз	ძ	Dz dz	d͡z
Е е	(ჲ)ე	(J)E, (j)e	(j)e	/je/ initially and after vowels, otherwise /e/
Ё ё	ჲო	Jo jo	jo
Ж ж	ჟ	Ž ž	ʒ
З з	ზ	Z z	z
И и	ი	I i	i
Й й	ჲ	J j	j
К к	კ	K' k'	kʰ
Қ қ	ქ	K k	kʹ
Ҟ ҟ	ყ	Q q	qʹ
Л л	ლ	L l	l
М м	მ	M m	m
Н н	ნ	N n	n
О о	ო	O o	o
П п	პ	P' p'	pʹ
Ԥ ԥ	ფ	P p	pʰ	Can be substituted with ҧ
Р р	რ	R r	r
С с	ს	S s	s
Т т	ტ	T' t'	tʹ
Ҭ ҭ	თ	T t	tʰ
У у	უ	U u	u
Ф ф	ჶ	F f	f
Х х	ხ	X x	χ
Ҳ ҳ	ჰ	H h	h
Ц ц	ც	C c	t͡sʰ
Ҵ ҵ	წ	C' c'	t͡sʹ
Ч ч	ჭ	Č' č'	t͡ʃʹ
Ҷ ҷ	ჩ	Č č	t͡ʃʰ
Ш ш	შ	Š š	ʃ
Ы ы	ჷ	Y y	ə
Э э	ე	E e	e	Only used initially or after vowels
Ю ю	ჲუ	Ju ju	ju
Я я	ჲა	Ja ja	ja

Stress is typically unmarked, but for documentation is indicated with an acute (á).

Grammar

Syzkyn's grammar has been heavily influenced by Kartvelian languages, but continues some characteristic features of Old Norse. Broadly, Syzkyn is agglutinating, dependent-marking, pro-drop, and strongly head-final.

Morphological Alternations

Ablaut and Umlaut

Syzkyn preserved Germanic Ablaut and Norse Umlaut to a limited extent. Neither is productive in the modern language, and the u-mutation like that found in Icelandic is entirely lost in Syzkyn.

H-Vocalization

Old Norse /g/ debuccalized to /h/ after a vowel. Later, /h/ vocalized to /j/ after a non-low front vowel, /v/ after a non-low back rounded vowel, and then to /a/ after a low vowel but before a consonant or word boundary. The vocalization to /a/ did not happen before a vowel, leading to an alternation between /a/ and /h/ when a vowel-initial morpheme is suffixed to roots ending in /ea/, /oa/, and /aa/.

For example, the plural form of даа, from Old Norse dagr, is даҳар from Old Norse dagar.

Glottalization

When two obstruents come into contact through affixation, they may merge into a single ejective consonant. This change is most common in constructions preserved from Old Norse.

Spirantization

/l/ spirantizes to /ʒ/ after a voiced stop, /ʃ/ after an aspirated stop, and /t͡ʃʹ/ after ejectives.

Uvularization and Velarization

/χ/, /ʁ/, and /qʹ/ may alternate respectively with /kʰ/, /g/, and /kʹ/ due to suffixation or ablaut.

Nouns

Syzkyn nouns are formed through a root that can take up to two suffixes. The first suffix encodes number (singular or plural) and definiteness (definite or indefinite), and is usually inherited from Old Norse. The second suffix encodes grammatical case, with suffixes derived from prepositions, later postpositions, that became grammaticalized after the erosion of the Old Norse case system.

Inflection classes, number, and definiteness

Syzkyn nouns can be divided into five classes depending on how plurals and definiteness are marked.

a-class

a-class nouns reflect the Old Norse masculine a-stem and feminine ō-stem nouns. They usually end in a consonant or -ы, which is elided when a vowel-initial morpheme is suffixed.

a-class	бод 'boat'		қалақы 'city'		даа 'day'
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	бод	бод-ар	қалақ-ы	қалақ-ар	даа	даҳ-ар
Definite	бод-ын	бод-арныр	қалақ-ын	қалақ-арныр	даҳ-ын	даҳ-арныр

y-class

y-class nouns reflect the Old Norse i-stems and u-stems. They inflect similarly to a-stems but take plurals in -(ы)р. Singulars either use no suffix or -а.

y-class	сул 'sun'		ӷада 'street/road'		ҟу 'shoe'
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Indefinite	сул	сул-ыр	ӷад-а	ӷад-ыр	ҟу	ҟу-р
Definite	сул-ын	сул-ырныр	ӷад-ан	ӷад-ырныр	ҟу-н	ҟу-рныр

Cases

The set of cases and suffixes used is the same across all five classes, regardless of number, definiteness, or inflection type.