Modern Gothic

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Modern Gothic
Gusenskius,
Gusskus
Pronunciation[[Help:IPA|[[ˈgu.səns.kys]
[ˈgʊsː.kʊs]]]]
Created bysjacik
SettingYrof
Unnamed Alternate Timeline
MLP AU
Native toSeefirian Kingdom, Gothia, Windish Atheldom
EthnicitySeefir, Human, Pegasus
Early form
Official status
Official language in
Seefirian Kingdom
Gothia
Windish Atheldom
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Modern Gothic, Gusenskius, is an East Germanic language descended from a language similar to Biblical Gothic. Most words will be given in Standard Modern Gothic and Colloquial Modern Gothic.

Settings

Modern Gothic is used in three different settings. The first is Yrof. Yrof is a fantasy world. The next is an alternate timeline where the Ostrogoths survived as a culture to the modern day. The last is a My Little Pony alternate universe called Constraints on Harmony.

Dialects

There are 6 main dialects of Modern Gothic. These are divided into 3 branches: Coastal, Eastern, and Southern. Coastal is comprised of the Standard form of the language, the Northern varieties, and some that are related to the standard form.

Eastern is divided into Near and Far. Far Eastern Gothic has heavy Slavic influence, such as both stages of Slavic palatalization. Near Eastern Gothic only went through the second stage.

Southern Gothic has a lot Greek influences. It is the most conservative of all the dialects.

Sound changes from Biblical Gothic to Middle Gothic

The most prominent change of the coastal varieties of Modern Gothic is how /h w/ affected the vowels. /w/ caused rounding, and /h/ caused lowering/backing. Before this happened, metathesis from liquid + /h/ clusters occured.

Original Change Environment Exception Comment
kw (C)_V
wk V_(C)
rh hr V_(C)
hr rh (C)_V
lh hl V_(C)
hl lh (C)_V
ha ɑ
a
hi e
hu o
ɑ
haː ɑː
hɛː
heː ɛː
hiː
huː
hoː ɔː
hɔː ɑː
wa ɔ
œ
wi y
wu u
ɔː
ɔː
waː ɔː
wɛː œː
weː øː
wiː
wuː uːː
woː oːː
wɔː ɔːː
wɑː ɔː
ah ɑː
ɛh
ih
uh
ɔh ɑː
aːh ɑːː
ɛːh aːː
eːh ɛːː
iːh eːː
uːh oːː
oːh ɔːː
ɔːh ɑːː
aw ɔː
ɛw œː
iw
uw
ɔw ɔː
ɑw ɔː
aːw ɔːː
ɛːw œːː
eːw øːː
iːw yːː
uːw uːː
oːw oːː
ɔːw ɔːː
ɑːw ɔːː
mn
ʔ, p , _C The first outcome occurs in the north, while the second happens in the southern dialects.
ʔ, t , _C The first outcome occurs in the north, while the second happens in the southern dialects.
ʔ, k , _C The first outcome occurs in the north, while the second happens in the southern dialects.

Coastal Gothic also went through a variant of the first two stages of the High German Consonant Shift, but the results varied between the north and the south. In the north, it closely followed the Bavarian dialects of German.

Standard New Gothic

Phonology

Consonants

Labial Coronal Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m n (ŋ)1
Stop p2 b t2 d k2 g
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Fricative f v3 t s ʃ ʒ x h4
Approximant j
Trill r

1 /ŋ/ is found only before the velar stops
2 The voiceless stops are unaspirated
3 /v/ is realized as [w] intervocally
4 /h/ is only found between vowels, and is used to break up vowel sequences

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i iː iə̯ y yː yə̯ u uː uə̯
Close-mid eː eə̯ øː øə̯ oː oə̯
Open-mid ɛ ɛː ɛə̯ œ œː œə̯ ə ɔ ɔː ɔə̯
Open a aː aə̯ ɑ ɑː ɑə̯

The centering diphthongs come from overlong vowels in Middle Gothic. No surviving dialect kept them as overlong. They were either broken or shortened.