Niemish

Niemish
Nimsk
Pronunciation	[/nʲimsk/]
Created by	User:Tardigrade
Date	2015
Language family	Indo-European Germanic East Germanic Gothic Post-Gothic Niemish
Official status
Official language in	Niemgard
Language codes
ISO 639-3	qnm
BRCL	grey

Niemish (Nimsk) is an East Germanic language descended from Wulfilan Gothic, the oldest Germanic language with a sizeable text corpus. The name originated from Proto-Slavic *němĭcĭ, an exonym given by speakers of Slavic languages to Germanic speakers. Niemish has undergone extensive influence by Slavic languages and is a member of the Balkan sprachbund, having such features as suffixed definite articles and deriving the future tense from present subjunctive. There is also considerable influence from languages such as Turkish, Hungarian, Greek, Latin and Romance languages.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Denti-alveolar		Postalveolar	Velar		Glottal
		hard	soft	hard (Dental)	soft (Alveolar)	hard	soft	hard	neutral
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	mʲ ⟨mj⟩	n̪ ⟨n⟩	nʲ ⟨nj⟩		ŋʲ ⟨ngj⟩	ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	pʲ ⟨pj⟩	t̪ ⟨t⟩	tʲ ⟨tj⟩		kʲ ⟨kj⟩	k ⟨k⟩
	voiced	b ⟨b⟩	bʲ ⟨bj⟩	d̪ ⟨d⟩	dʲ ⟨dj⟩		ɡʲ ⟨gj⟩	ɡ ⟨g⟩
Affricate	voiceless			ʦ̪ ⟨tz⟩	ʦʲ ⟨tzj⟩	ʧ ⟨cz⟩
	voiced			ʣ̪ ⟨dz⟩	ʣʲ ⟨dzj⟩	ʤ ⟨dsz⟩
Spirant	voiceless	f ⟨f⟩	fʲ ⟨fj⟩	s̪ ⟨s⟩	sʲ ⟨sj⟩	ʃ ⟨sz⟩	xʲ ⟨chj⟩	x ⟨ch⟩	h ⟨h⟩
	voiced	v ⟨v⟩	vʲ ⟨wj, vj⟩	z̪ ⟨z⟩	zʲ ⟨zj⟩	ʒ ⟨zsz⟩
Approximant		w ⟨w⟩		ɫ̪ ⟨l⟩	lʲ ⟨lj⟩	j ⟨j⟩
Tap				ɾ̪ ⟨r⟩	ɾʲ ⟨rj⟩
Trill				r̪ ⟨rr⟩	rʲ ⟨rrj⟩

Vowels

Vowels in stressed syllables

	Front		Central		Back
	Long	Short	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close	/iː/ ⟨i⟩	/ɪ/ ⟨i⟩	/ɨː/ ⟨y⟩		/ʊ/ ⟨u⟩	/uː/ ⟨u⟩
Mid	/eː/ ⟨e⟩	/ɛ/ ⟨e, ä⟩	/ə/ ⟨y⟩		/ɔ/ ⟨o⟩	/oː/ ⟨o⟩
	/ɛː/ ⟨ä⟩
Open			/a/ ⟨a⟩	/aː/ ⟨a⟩

Vowels in unstressed syllables

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/ɪ/ ⟨i, e¹⟩	/ə/ ⟨y, e²⟩	/ʊ/ ⟨u, o⟩
Mid
Open		/ɐ/ ⟨a⟩

A sequence of a hard consonant followed by a front vowel is realised with a velar offglide inserted (or a labiovelar offglide after labial consonants):

• dächs /dɛːxs/ [dɰɛːxs]~[dɰeːxs]
• bärs /bɛɾs/ [bwɛɾs]~[bweɾs]

This also holds in dialects where /ə~ɨː/ have merged with /ɪ~i/ː

• kyna /ˈkɨːnɐ/ Standard: [ˈkɨːnɐ], Dialectal: [ˈkɰiːnɐ]
• ęfynund /ɪ̃ˈfwɨːnʊnd/ Standard: [ɪ̃ˈfɨːnʊnd], Dialectal: [ɪ̃ˈfwiːnʊnd]

Glide insertion is not phonemic and thus not indicated in most IPA transcriptions.

Scripts

Alphabet

The Niemish alphabet consists of 33 letters.

Majuscule Minuscule IPA A a /a~aː/ Ą ą /ã~ãː/ Ä ä /ɛ~ɛː/ Ą̈ ą̈ /ɛ̃~ɛ̃ː/ B b /b~bʲ/ C c /k~ʦʲ/ D d /d~dʲ/ E e /ɛ~eː/ Ę ę /ɛ̃~ẽː/ F f /f~fʲ/ G g /g~gʲ/

Majuscule Minuscule IPA H h /h/ I i /ɪ~iː/ Į į /ɪ̃~ĩː/ J j /j/ K k /k~kʲ/ L l /l~lʲ/ M m /m~mʲ/ N n /n~nʲ/ O o /ɔ~oː/ Ǫ ǫ /ɔ̃~õː/ P p /p~pʲ/

Majuscule Minuscule IPA (Q) (q) /k~kʲ/ R r /ɾ~ɾʲ/ S s /s~sʲ/ T t /t~tʲ/ U u /ʊ~uː/ Ų ų /ʊ̃~ũ/ (V) (v) /v~vʲ/ W w /w~vʲ/ X x /ks~kʲsʲ/ Y y /ə~ɨː/ Z z /z~zʲ/

The acute and grave accent can respectively mark stressed long vowels (or diphthongs) and stressed short vowels. These are generally not used except in dictionaries for clarity.

In addition, Niemish orthography uses six digraphs: ⟨Ch, Cz, Ph, Sz, Th, Tz⟩ and two trigraphs:⟨Dsz, Zsz⟩ These function as sequences of two or three letters for collation purposes.

Outside digraphs, the letters ⟨C, Q, V⟩ only appear in loanwords, as do the digraphs ⟨Ph, Th⟩ and the trigraph ⟨Dsz⟩.

Historical changes

Wulfilan Gothic to Post-Gothic

Vowels

Wulfilan Gothic had three (in some analyses five) short vowels and seven long vowels. The short vowels were maintained in Post-Gothic and the long vowels reduced to five; Wulfilan Gothic already showed signs of merging close-mid vowels with close ones:

• Got. mēs /eː/ → Post-Got. meis /iː/
• Got. blōma /oː/ → Post-Got. blūma /uː/

This is attested in variant spellings such as leikeis for lēkeis. In Post-Gothic this merger was complete.

The most important sound change with respect to short vowels was loss of syllable-final h /h/ with compensatory lengthening:

• Got. mahts /mahts/ → Post-Got. māts /maːts/
• Got. raíhts /rɛhts/ → Post-Got. ráits /rɛːts/
• Got. slaúhts /slɔhts/ → Post-Got. sláuts /slɔːts/

This promoted ā /aː/ from a marginal phoneme to a common one.

Consonants

The proposed Thurneysen's law became fully operational in Post-Gothic, although it was modified:

1. Spirants gained or lost voice in dissimilation with the consonant beginning the previous syllable. This occurred in all syllables, not only unstressed ones.
2. The condition for the law depended only on the voicing of the consonant beginning the previous syllable, and the effect of consonant clusters beginning that previous syllable did not differ from simple consonants.

• Got. hlifan → Post-Got. hliban
• Got. qiþus → Post-Got. qidus
• Got. áikklēsjō → Post-Got. áikkleizjū

• Got. giba → Post-Got. gifa
• Got. bida → Post-Got. biþa
• Got. dagam → Post-Got. daχam
• Got. máiza → Post-Got. máisa

Note that medial b, d, g, /b, d, g/ had the allophonic values [β, ð, ɣ] between vowels.

h did not voice to g because it was a glottal fricative [h], not [x]. It remained unchanged except syllable-finally when it elided with compensatory lengthening of the previous vowel.

g devoiced to a velar fricative [x], transcribed here as χ.

Between a nasal and a following liquid consonant, a voiced plosive was inserted:

• Got. timrjan → Post-Got. timbrjan (note that timbrjan already existed as a variant in Gothic)
• P-Gmc. *þunraz → Got. *þunrs → Post-Got. þundrs

Prefixes such as in- and un- were unaffected however.

Development of Niemish proper

Prepalatal gemination

With the exception of h, w, consonants followed by j were geminated in a similar process to that seen in West and East Germanic but much more extensive, as in Italo-Romance. Sievers's law was no longer operational at this time, as the change also occurred after long vowels (which were subsequently shortened):

Coronal consonants were palatalised during this gemination, and the voiced affricate /dz/ converted to /z/. It is thought that voiced sibilants degeminated before compensatory lengthening occurred, but it is also possible that - as with h, w - geminated voiced fricatives were simply disallowed at all stages (this also accounts for why b, d, g ceased to be fricatives with gemination).

tj, dj, sj, zj → /tts, ddz, ʃʃ, ʒʒ/ → /tts, z, ʃʃ, ʒ/

• Got. *platja → *plattsa → platz

• Got. daddjan → *daddzan → dazund

• Got. láisjan → *lεʃʃan → leszund

• Post-Got. aíkkleizjū → *klīʒʒū → klizsza

The prepalatal gemination was a very early sound change, likely beginning in late Post-Gothic itself. The coronal palatalisation is also found in early Romance and what little is attested of the closely related Vandalic language.

It is thought that dj initially became */ddz/ before /z/, both because it patterns with tj → /tts/ and because Gothic daddjan became dazund; had degeminated /z/ arisen in the Post-Gothic period, extended Thurneysen's law would have devoiced the consonant to give *dasund. There are no examples of z arising from the coronal palatalisation being affected by extended Thurneysen's law.

Voiceless plosives also geminated before the liquid consonants l, n, r:

• P-Gmc. *aplaz → appul
• Got. táikn → tzakkan
• Got. akrs → akkar

Voiced ones did not:

• Lat. tabla → tabul ¹
• Got. tagr → tagar

1. tabul is no longer extant in Niemish, although the dual definite form Tabla is still used as a name for the game Backgammon.

First umlaut (umlaut pattern 1. or i-umlaut)

The first umlaut only affected vowels that were short in Post-Gothic; Niemish at this stage still preserved the Post-Gothic distribution of long and short vowels, where not shortened by the prepalatal gemination.

Second umlaut (umlaut pattern 2. or a-umlaut)

The second umlaut affected both long and short vowels.

The coronal palatalisation was still active when the second umlaut happened, as:

• Got. taíhun → Post-Got. taíhun → táin → tsjan → tzan
• Got. daigs → Post-Got. daiχs → djach → zach
• P-Gmc. *sairaz → Post-Got. sáirs → sjar → szar

The fricatives that arose from coronal palatalisation were analogically extended to all forms of word where it arose, even those forms where no second umlaut had taken place.

Development of nasal vowels

Wherever a nasal consonant occurred word-finally or before a spirant in Post-Gothic, it disappeared in favour of nasalisation of the previous vowel. The length of the vowel was not affected, or else any change in vowel length happened too late to affect the first umlaut and was ultimately rendered irrelevant by syllable weight neutralisation:

• Got. dagam → Post-Got. daχam → dachą
• Got. uns → ųs
• P-Gmc. *kunstiz → kųst
• Lat. amphora → Post-Got. amfaúra → ąfor → ąchor

After syncope, /ml, nl, mr, nr/ were reintroduced into the language outside of prefixes.

Subsequently, /n/ was lost with compensatory lengthening before liquid consonants /l, r/:

• Got. *kunilig̃gs → kunling → kųlling

There was no compensatory lengthening when the syllable with the nasal coda was unstressed, as with words prefixed with an-, in-, un-:

• Got. unlustus → unlust → ųlust
• P-Gmc. *unrehtaz → unrjat → ųriat

/m/ was not lost, but experienced stop insertion much as in Post-Gothic:

• P-Gmc. *sumaraz → somar → sumbar

Early medieval Niemish had forms such as somar and somor, which developed into sǫwr in the Westlandic dialect. Presumably the /b/ was inserted into the definite form somran, the /o/ lowered by the /mb/ to give sumbran, and the /b/ later spread to all forms of the word by analogy. Likewise, the Westlandic form developed from somran → sǫwran in a sound change more akin to that described above for /n/ with similar analogical spreading.

Nasal vowels followed by a fricative in unstressed final syllables lost their nasalisation:

• Got. tug̃gōns → Post-Got. tug̃gūns → tungą̄s → tungas
• Got. in → į → i (although note in before words beginning with a vowel)

Nasals that formed the end of a root, as in háims and aljan were either not lost or more likely restored by analogy with forms with inflectional endings; the Niemish descendants of these words are ham and ällin.

S-palatalisation

Much like Slavic and Indo-Iranian languages (and to an extent High German), Niemish changed s to sz /ʃ/ and z to zsz /ʒ/ before /w/ and after /r, uː, iː/:

• Got. swarts → szwart
• P-Gmc. *barsaz → barsz
• Got. þaursus → Post-Got. þaurzus → tzurzsz
• P-Gmc. *mūs → musz
• Got. *hūs → Post-Got. hūz → huzsz
• Got. mēs → Post-Got. meis → mysz

This introduced a simple /ʃ/ sound in addition to the geminated /ʃʃ/ that arose with the prepalatal gemination.

S-palatalisation was blocked before plosives:

• Got. waúrstw → Post-Got. waúrstu → wurst
• Got. beist → byst

Emergence of /ɨː/

Long /iː/ (from Gothic ei and ē) became y /ɨː/ when preceded by a labial or labialised consonant (/p, b, m, f, w, kʷ, gʷ, hʷ/) and not followed by a front vowel in the next syllable. Labialised velars and glottals were subsequently delabialised:

• Got. peiks → pyk
• Got. beist → byst
• Got. mēs → Post-Got. meis → mysz
• Got. infeinan → ęfynund
• Got. wein → wyn
• Got. qēns → Post-Got. qeinū¹ → kʷyna → kyna
• Got. ƕeits → hʷyt → hyt

1. At some point qēns and qinō merged into one word.

Rarely, y could represent a short vowel /ɪ̈/ in environments where long vowels could not occur, such as before geminate consonants:

• P-Sl.: mydlo → mỳll /mɪ̈lː/

As this sound change was blocked before palatalised consonants, all affected words gained umlaut pattern 2. (rarely umlaut pattern 1. in polysyllabic roots) if the stem alternated between hard and soft endings in flexional forms.

Syllable weight neutralisation

Although open syllable lengthening occurred in all dialects of Niemish, the result was not the same in all dialects.

Open-syllable lengthening was simplest in the Panian dialect, where it affected all stressed open syllables. Consequently vowel length is not phonemic in Panian, other than those of the lowland fringe which have regained it by ceasing to distinguish geminate consonants.

In the Great Plains dialect (and by extension the Standard), open syllable lengthening was blocked before voiceless plosives.

The Westlandic dialect underwent the law of open syllables: where possible, consonants in the syllable coda were resyllabified into the onset of the following syllable. Consequently, more syllables became analysed as open in Westlandic than in other dialects, and open syllable lengthening affected a greater number of words. It also has lost geminate consonants, although vowels before historic geminate consonants remain short.

The Capitoline dialect is a special case. It developed as a koiné from numerous dialects in the capital. It is thus broadly similar to the standard, other than shortening historically long vowels before voiceless plosives (this is due to spelling pronunciation and hypercorrection) and loss of geminate consonants.