Nousuerian
DO NOT CHANGE OR EDIT PLEASE! THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS Nousuerian (Nousuerian: nusveska; French: nousuédois; Swedish: nusveska) is a constructed, a posteriori language in the North Germanic family of languages, descended from the Old Norse language. Most of the vocabulary of Nousuerian is directly borrowed from the French language. With the Nousuerian language comes an alternate history of the places in which it developed and is spoken; namely, the real-life Faroe Islands.
Nousuerian nusveska | |
---|---|
Pronunciation: | nu.sve.skə |
Spoken in: | The Kingdom of Nousuerian Isles |
Region: | Northern Europe |
Total speakers: | 66,000 |
Ranking: | N/A |
Language family: | Indo-European > Germanic > North Germanic > East Scandinavian > Continental Scandinavian > Old Swedish > Modern Swedish > Nousuerian |
Writing system: | Latin |
Official status | |
Official language in: | The Kingdom of Nousuerian Isles |
Regulated by: | Det Nusveska Spròkets Monakakademi |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | {{{iso1}}} |
ISO 639-2 | {{{iso2}}} |
SIL | {{{sil}}} |
See also: Language – Lists of languages |
Introduction
Nousuerian (in Nousuerian: nusveksa [nusveskə] or det nusveska spròket [de nusveskə sprɔke]) is a North Germanic language spoken in the Kingdom of Nousuerian Isles. It is spoken by about 66,000 people, a majority of whom live in the Kingdom. Nousuerian is a member of the Scandinavian family and shares a common ancestor with contemporary Swedish. Nousuerian is a descendant of Modern Swedish, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in the Nousuerian Isles at the time. Nousuerian has also heavily borrowed vocabulary from French with whom the islands have a strong, shared ancestral, linguistic and cultural past.
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Phonology
Orthography
Consonants
Most consonants in Nousuerian have English equivalents; namely, b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t and v.
Other required a bit of practice for native English speakers:
- j is pronounced like y in yard
- r is pronounced like a Spanish r, as in rojo
Consonant Clusters
Normally, consonant clusters are pronounced simply as a combination of the two sounds:
- nusveska
However, there are certain consonant clusters which are pronounced is a very particular way.
Written As | Pronounced As |
---|---|
rn | ɳ |
rt | ʈ |
rd | ɖ |
rl | ɭ |
rs | ʂ or ʃ |
tj | ɕ or ʃ |
sj | ɧ or ʃ |
As seen in the table above, there are three different combinations which could be represented by the sound [ʃ]. These differences in pronunciation will allow you to be understand by a native speaker of Nousuerian and is generally accepted. They are generally maintained solely for orthological reasons. However, there are some cases of classicism in which the "correct" or "elite" pronunciation would be the first example, while the "vulgar" or "common" pronunciation would be the second.
Vowels
Nousuerian vowels, like Spanish or Italian, are always pronounced as they are written.
- A is pronounced [a] as in English ‘father’ or Spanish ‘adiós’
- E is pronounced [e] as in French ‘été’ or Italian ‘prego’
- I is pronounced [i] as in English ‘bee’ or Spanish ’ir’
- O is pronounced [o] as in English ‘open’
- U is pronounced [u] as in English ‘doom’ or ‘moon’
- È is pronounced [ɛ] as in English ‘pen’ or ‘best’
- Ò is pronounced [ɔ] as in English ‘Oscar’ or ‘operate’
- Y is pronouns [y] as in French ‘plus’ or Swedish ‘byxor’
- EU is pronounced [ø] as in French ‘peu’
Diphthongs
When i or u precede another vowel, they form a diphthong with [j] or [w], respectively. If a diphthong precedes an n at the end of a word, it is not nasalised. However, this is not applied whenever the letter j appears before a nasalised vowel at the end of a word.
Examples
- avion (airplane) is pronounced [af.'jon]
- moien (average) is pronounced [mo.'jen]
- lujen (away from) is pronounced [lu.'jɛ̃]
- seduisan (attractive) is pronounced [se.dwi.sɑ̃]
Nasal Vowels
There are only four vowels in Nousuerian which have a nasalised variant. It should be noted that they are only nasalised when at the end of a word.
Written As | Pronounced As |
---|---|
an | ɑ̃ |
en | ɛ̃ |
on | ɔ̃ |
un | œ̃ |
Prosody
Stress & Intonation
One syllable and non-compounds are stressed on the final syllable. Compounds are double stressed; they have a falling tonal stress on the first syllable of the first word and a rising tonal stress on the last syllable of the second word. When one is inflected, the stress stays on the same syllable, so the endings aren't stressed.
Sentence Stress
When the subject of a sentence is a noun, it is stressed. Pronouns, however, are unstressed. When the object is a noun, it is also stressed. Pronouns, like subjects, are normally unstressed. Object pronouns, however, are stressed when they are at the beginning of the sentence. For contrast, objects are stressed. When there is a verb but no object, the verb is stressed. However, when there is an object, the verb is unstressed. This also applies to verb complements, which are stressed while the verb isn’t. For contrast, verbs are stressed. Adverbials are usually stressed whether first or last in the sentence.
Word Stress
Word stress is found only in words that have sentence stress.
- Non-compounds – these words are pronounced monosyllabically.
- Compounds – these words have a stress on each of the parts of the compound, but the melody of each part is different. The first stress has a falling pitch and the last stress has a rising pitch.