Valthungian

Gutish is an East Germanic language descended from a language that was probably mutually intelligible with Gothic, though much of its corpus cannot have been inherited from the language of Wulfilas. It is likely, however, that the speakers of the ancestor of Gutish did consider themselves Goths, as reflected in its name. (It is likely similar in development to Modern High German – Deutsch – which is not directly descended from Old High German, but rather a similar dialect spoken by a group who also considered themselves “Diutisk.”) While it shares many of the areal changes of the Northwest Germanic languages, it is also marked by distinctive changes in palatalization, which, while similar to those of Old English, are most likely influenced by contact with Slavic languages.

Writing System

Alphabet & Pronunciation

[ɑ] aska ‘ash’	[e̞ː] ǣjus ‘horse’	[b] berkna ‘birch’	[ɡ] giva ‘gift’	[ʤ] ǧus ‘creature’	[d] daǧ ‘day’	[ð] ǣði ‘mother’	[e̞] erða ‘earth’
[ʐ] akuža ‘axe’	[h] haglas ‘hail’	[θ] þornus ‘thorn’	[i] igil ‘hedgehog’	[j] jēr ‘year’	[k] kune ‘family’	[l] lagus ‘lake’	[m] matna ‘man’
[n] nǭþs ‘need’	[o̞] orte ‘garden’	[p] perðra ‘chance’	[r] rǣða ‘wheel’	[s] sōgil ‘sun’	[ʃ] šug ‘family’	[t] tījus ‘Teu’	[ʧ] čusins ‘chioce’
[u] uvils ‘bad’	[v] ivras ‘boar’	[f] fǣjo ‘cattle’	[w] wynia ‘joy’	[ø̞] œrča ‘farmer’	[y] ynča ‘ounce’	[o̞ː] ǭsus ‘ox’

Non-Alphabetic Variants

[ɑː] āde ‘egg’	[iː] ēls ‘eel’	[ai̯] īs ‘ice’	[uː] ōðlas ‘inheritance’	[au̯] ūrus ‘aurochs’	[ø̞ː] œ̄ja ‘island’	[yː] ȳftigi ‘timeliness’

Though the seven long vowels of the Non-Alphabetic Variants have individual names, they are not considered to be part of the standard alphabet or alphabetical order. Instead, each long vowel is considered alphabetically to be the equivalent of its doubled short counterpart. That is, ‹ā› is equivalent to ‹aa›, ‹ē› to ‹ee›, ‹ī› to ‹ii›, and so on. This becomes complicated by the fact that all long vowels except for ‹ā› are raised, though it’s not actually any different than what happens to the letter names in English. (The long vowels ‹ǣ› and ‹ǭ› are included in the standard alphabetical order, and do not have short forms, though they are written with macrons in their Romanized forms.)

(NB: The Gutish alphabet, while mainly latin- and cyrillic-based, contains several characters which are not readily representable using the standard Unicode characters. The forms presented in this wiki are a Romanization of the letters shown in the table above.)

Orthography

The orthography of Gutish is quite regular to its phonology; indeed, there are very few exceptions – four, in fact:

1. The letter ‹n› is used before ‹g› or ‹k› to indicate the velar nasal [ŋ]. Specifically, ‹ng› is [ŋg] and ‹nk› is [ŋk]. (E.g. drinkna [driŋk.na] ‘to drink’.)
2. In combinations where ‹ng› is followed by another nasal consonant, [g] is elided in speech: ‹ngm› is [ŋm] and ‹ngn› is [ŋn]. (E.g. gangna [gaŋ.na] ‘to go’; not **[gaŋg.na].)
3. The diphthong ‹eu› is realized as [ɛu̯] (rather than the expected [e̞u̯]). (E.g. sneugna [snɛu̯g.na] ‘to snow’.)
4. The diphthong ‹øu› is realized as [œy̑] (rather than the expected [ø̞u̯]).

Stress is indicated in the standard orthography with an acute accent only if:

1. The stress is not on the first syllable, and
2. the stressed syllable is a short vowel. (Long vowels cannot be unstressed, though they may sometimes take secondary stress.)

For example, fergúne ‘mountain’, but garǣts ‘correct’.

Ligatures & Liaisons

When two like vowels of equal value come together, the words may form a ligature. This is most common with the articles (sā + a-, sō + u-, etc.) and particles (e.g nī + i-).

• Articles
  • Mandatory:
    • sā, hwā, twā + a-, ā- → s’ā-, hw’ā-, tw’ā-
      • sā aplas → s’āplas, ‘the apple’
      • twā aðna → tw’āðna ‘two seasons’
    • sō, þō, hō + u-, ō- → s’ō-, þ’ō-, h’ō-
      • sō uréča → s’ōréča, ‘the persuit’
      • sō ōs → s’ōs, ‘the ewe’
    • þǣ, twǣ + e-, ǣ- → þ’ǣ-, tw’ǣ-
      • þǣ ǣjus → þ’ǣjus ‘the horses’
      • twǣ elis → tw’ǣlis ‘two others’
    • nī, þrī, hī + i-, ī- → n’ī-, þr’ī-, h’ī-
      • nī ist → n’īst, ‘isn’t’
      • hī īsran → h’īsran ‘this iron’

Alternative Writing Systems

Cursive

Coming soon...

Romanization

	a	[ɑ]		ā	[ɑː]		á	['a]
	ǣ	[eː]
	b	[b]
	č	[ʧ]
	d	[d]
	ð	[ð]
	e	[e̞]		ē	[iː]		é	['e̞]
	f	[f]
	g	[ɡ]
	ǧ	[ʤ]
	h	[h]
	i	[i]		ī	[ai̯]		í	['i]
	j	[j]
	k	[k]
	l	[l]
	m	[m]
	n	[n]
	o	[o̞]		ō	[uː]		ó	['o̞]
	ǭ	[o̞ː]
	œ	[ø̞]		œ̄	[ø̞ː]		œ́	['ø̞]
	p	[p]
	r	[ɾ]
	s	[s]
	š	[ʃ]
	t	[t]
	u	[u]		ū	[au̯]		ú	['u]
	v	[v]
	w	[w]
	y	[y]		ȳ	[yː]		ý	['y]
	ž	[ʐ]
	þ	[θ]

Transcriptional Alphabet for Intermediate Language Changes

Phonetic transliteration is not used regularly in Gutish, but is used frequently when discussing issues of historical linguistic significance to the language. This is a merger of the Latin Transliteration (above) and phonetic notation (IPA), aimed to be more precise than transliteration but less cumbersome than IPA. Characters with standard values continue to be written with the Latin transliteration (above), but others may have slightly different values. For the purposes of historical comparison, a standardized character set is used for Proto-Germanic, Gothic, and Gutish. All three alphabets are used throughout this work; those using this phonetic transcription are enclosed in slashes (/); Latin transliteration is generally italicized.

Gothic	Gothic Translit-eration	IPA	Transcription	Gutish Translit-eration	Gutish
	a	ɑ	a	a
	ā	ɑː	ā	ā
	aj	ɑi̯	ai	ī
	aw	ɑu̯	au	ū
	b	b	b	b
		β	β
		ʧ	č	č
	d	d	d	d
		ð	ð	ð
	aí	ɛ~e̞	e	e
	ai	ɛː	ɛ̄
		ɛu̯	eu	eu
	ē	eː	ē	ǣ
	f	f	f	f
	g	g	g	g
		ɣ	ɣ
	h	h	h	h
	ƕ	hʷ~ʍ	hw	hw
	i	ɪ~i	i	i
	ei	iː	ī	ē
	j	j	j	j
	k	k	k	k
	q	kʷ~kw	kw	kw
	l	l	l	l
		l̩	l̩
	m	m	m	m
		m̩	m̩
	n	n	n	n
		n̩	n̩
	gg	ŋg	ng	ng
		ŋm	ngm	ngm
		ŋn	ngn	ngn
	gk	ŋk	nk	nk
	gq	ŋkw~ŋkʷ	nkw	nkw
	aú	ɔ~o̞	o	o
	au	ɔː	ɔ̄
	ō	oː	ō	ǭ
		œ	œ1
		œː	œ̄1
		ø̞	ø	œ
		ø̞ː	ø̄	œ̄
		œy̑	œy	œu
	p	p	p	p
	r	ɾ~r	r	r
		ɾ̩~r̩	r̩
	s	s	s	s
		ʃ	š	š
	t	t	t	t
	þ	θ	þ	þ
	u	u	u	u
	ū	uː	ū	ō
		v	v	v
	w	w	w	w
		ɯ~ʏ	υ2
		y	y	y
		yː	ȳ	ȳ
	z	z	z
		ʐ	ž	ž

¹ /œ/ and /œ̄/ represent an intermediate stage in the development of the Gutish language which occurs in the phonemic inventory of neither Gothic nor Gutish.

² When it appears as a vowel, 𐍅 was used in Gothic to transliterate the Greek letter υ, and did not occur otherwise in the phonemic inventory of Gothic.

Phonology

There is a lot that happens in Gutish when words encounter other words or receive certain inflectional endings. Generally this has to do with the letter ending a root.

Roots ending in ‹d› or ‹g›, for instance, become palatalized before ‹s›. E.g. the nominative form of dag ‘day’ is daǧ rather than the otherwise expected **dags. Furthermore, ‹d› becomes spirantized between two vowels, so some roots may have as many as three forms for one declension. E.g. bard ‘beard’ has the nominative barǧ, dative barða, and accusative bard. More of this will be discussed in the chapters on declension of Nouns and Adjectives and the conjugation of Verbs, but some basics will be laid out here.

[r]-Assimilation

This is a persistent rule that does not have much effect on declensions within the language, but does have some effect on the development of certain words. This rule is described in the Rules chapter of this document in Assimilation of [ɾ]. Specifically, /r/ is deleted when immediately followed by /ž/. For example, the possessive adjective inkur ‘our’, from earlier inkwar has the genitive plural form inkuža from earlier inkwarɛ̄zō rather than the otherwise expected **inkurža.

Voicing Alternation

This rule is inherited from Gothic or perhaps even Proto-Germanic. The rule is not persistent, but the variation in forms still affects the inflections of nouns, verbs, and adjectives in Gutish. (A similar v/f alternation rule exists in English, for example in singular knife and plural knives, or the noun strife and the verb strive.) The Gothic version of this rule caused alternation between ‹f› or ‹þ›, used only at the end of a word, and ‹b› or ‹d›, used elsewhere, e.g. giban, ‘to give’, gaf, ‘gave’. There are three main realizations of this rule in Gutish:

• v → f
• ð → þ } at the end of a word, or before an unvoiced consonant.
• ž → s

The implications of this rule for Gutish are:

• ‹f› or ‹þ› occur before ‹s› in the nominative singular of masculine or some feminine strong nouns, e.g. þlǣfs ‘loaf of bread’, but genitive þlǣvis.
• ‹f› or ‹þ› occur when word-final in the accusative of masculine or some feminine strong nouns, and the nominative and accusative of neuter strong nouns, e.g. blōþ ‘blood’, but genitive blōðis.
• ‹f› occurs when word-final or before ‹t› in the preterit singular and the second person imperative singular of strong verbs, e.g. gaf, gaft, ‘gave’, but infinitive givna.
• ‹þ› also occurs when word-final in the preterit singular and imperative, but is assimilated to ‹s› before ‹t› in the second person preterit (see Coronal Consonant Assimilation below).
• The implications for ‹s› and ‹ž› can be a little trickier, because this split was not uniform in Gothic times, so many words retain ‹s› throughout the paradigm. These are noted in the lexicon and must be learned by rote.

Please note that because this rule is not persistent, there are several words which later developed an intervocalic ‹f› or ‹þ› from earlier ‹h› which is not affected by this rule.

Palatalization

Palatalization is another historic rule that is no longer persistent in Gutish, but has wide-ranging implications for inflections in Gutish. There are actually several types of palatalization that occur in Gutish, but they can all be boiled down into the following rules:

• Masculine and feminine nouns whose roots end in ‹d› or ‹g› become palatalized before ‹s› in the nominative singular of a-, i-, and u-stems (but not feminine ō-stems). E.g. Gothic dags ‘day’ becomes daǧ. This type of palatalization only occurs when there was a /dz/ or /gz/ present in the language at some point historically (from Gothic /ds/ or /gs/).
• A much more common form of palatalization, however, is that which occurs whenever the ending of a noun, verb, or adjective begins with ‹j›, e.g. strong masculine ja-stem nouns or adjectives or class 1 weak verbs. In these cases, the following occurs:
  • ‹d› or ‹g› + ‹j› → ‹ǧ›
  • ‹t› or ‹k› + ‹j› → ‹č›
  • ‹s› or ‹h› + ‹j› → ‹š›
  • ‹z› + ‹j› → ‹ž› (and so do all other instances of ‹z›, but that’s not applicable to this section.)

[b]/[v] Alternation

A less common alternation is that of ‹b› and ‹v›. This occurs specifically in inflections where some endings begin with ‹j› while others do not; for instance, the strong masculine ija-stem ending of nouns and adjectives. In this paradigm, the nominative, genitive, and accusative of the singular all have ‹v› from earlier ‹b› (because it is intervocalic), but the rest of the paradigm has ‹b›, because it was historically followed by ‹j›, which prevents the intervocalic shift. For example, the adjective drœ̄vis ‘muddy’ has the dative singular form drœ̄bia.

Umlaut

Umlaut is another of those sound laws that no longer happens actively in the language, but it has become indicative of specific tenses or cases in the language.

• Accusative singular nouns with palatalization are not umlauted. All other forms of nouns with palatalization are umlauted.
• The past subjunctive of verbs is umlauted (except for the 3rd person singular in formal speech). (First person singular is palatalized and umlauted.)
• Most class 1 weak verbs and strong verbs ending in –jan in Gothic have umlaut in the present and imperative. These verbs all end with –in in Gutish.

Umlaut in Gutish initiates the following changes in the stressed vowel of a word:

• ‹a› → ‹e›
• ‹ā› → ‹ǣ›
• ‹ǭ› → ‹œ̄›
• ‹o› → ‹œ›
• ‹ō› → ‹œ̄›
• ‹u› → ‹y›
• ‹ū› → ‹ȳ›

NB: Umlaut can refer to several different types of vowel change in Germanic languages – i/j-umlaut, u/w-umlaut, and a-umlaut most common – but only one type is present in Gutish. Umlaut here is used to refer specifically to i/j-umlaut, also known as i-umlaut, or front umlaut.

NB for Linguists: The asymmetrical nature of the umlaut is the result of a later change to the long vowels. See Umlaut in the Rules at the end of this document.

Coronal Consonant Assimilation

This rule has a formidable name, but is actually common to all Germanic languages. This rule states that whenever a coronal consonant (namely, ‹d›, ‹t›, or ‹þ›) is directly followed by ‹t› or ‹st›, the coronal consonant becomes ‹s›. This accounts for the English word best, from earlier betst, from *batest. This applies mainly to second person preterit strong verbs, e.g. ǧutna ‘to pour’ has a past of gǭst ‘you poured’, rather than the expected **gǭtt.

Syncope of Unstressed Non-High Middle Vowel

...um, working on it. I'll get back to you on this one...

Blocking of Metathetical Unpacking

Another formidable name, but what this means is that historically a sound change caused ‹a› to disappear before a sonorant (‹l›, ‹r›, ‹m›, or ‹n›), turning them into syllabics, and merging them with other pre-existing syllabics from Gothic. Later on, syllabics were “unpacked;” that is, they regained the ‹a› that had been lost, but it now appeared after the sonorant instead of before it. For example, brōþar ‘brother’ became brōðra via an intermediate *brōðr̩. However, there are a few instances where this unpacking didn’t happen because the ‹a› before the sonorant could not be deleted; if it were, the word would have been unpronounceable. Metathesis is also blocked after any non-intervocalic voiced continuant; that is, V[v/ð]S shifts as expected (e.g. widan > wiðn̩ > wiðna), but VC[v/ð]S does not (e.g. haldan > halðan, not **halðna).

The practicality of this rule as it applies to modern Gutish is that:

• Dative plural nouns whose roots end in ‹–m› have the ending of ‹–am› rather than ‹–ma›, e.g. worms ‘worm’ has the dative plural of wormam rather than **wormma.
• Masculine and feminine accusative plural strong nouns ending in ‹–n› have the ending of ‹–ans› rather than ‹–nas›, e.g. ǭns ‘oven’ has the accusative plural of ǭnans rather than **ǭnnas.
• Infinitives of strong verbs and weak class 3 verbs whose roots end with ‹lð›, ‹lv›, ‹rð›, or ‹rv› have ‹–an› instead of ‹–na›, e.g. Gothic þaurban becomes þorvan rather than the otherwise expected **þorvna.