Norþimris

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Norþimris
Norþimris
Pronunciation[[Help:IPA|nɔɹˈθɪmɾɪs]]
Created by
Native toNorþimer
Native speakers13 million (2011)
Early forms
Official status
Official language in
Norþimer

Norþimris [nɔɹˈθɪmrɪs] (also Northimris or Northumbrian in English) is a Germanic language spoken by the people of Norþimer, one of the four states of Great Britain alongside Scotland, England and Wales. Physically situated between Scotland and England, Norþimris shares much in common with Scots and English, all of which descend from Old English, and may be seen as part of a dialect continuum with those two languages. However, unlike its neighbours, Norþimris has very little influence from French and retains a much stronger Anglo-Norse vocabulary.

Phonology

Dialects

There is a great deal of dialect variation across Norþimer, but there are generally considered to be four main dialects:

  • Southern, which is the closest to a 'standard' dialect, found in Yorucscir
  • Northern, extending north from Weer Ei (River Wear) to the Scottish border
  • Western, the dialect west of the moors
  • South-western, the dialect of the Þreiplands, sometimes called Þreiplandris

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Plosive p     b t     d k     g
Fricative f     v θ     ð s     z ʃ       h      
Affricate t͡ʃ     d͡ʒ
Approximant ʍ     w ɹ j
Flap or tap ɾ
Lateral app. l

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid
Mid ə
Open-mid ɛ
Near-open æː
Open a ɒ

Orthography

Graph IPA Comments
a /a/
au /oː/ sometimes /aː/ in parts of the W
b /b/
c /k/
ch /t͡ʃ/
cg /d͡ʒ/ traditionally not permitted to occur word initially, but now used in borrowings such as cgin 'engine'
d /d/
ð /ð/
e /ɛ/
ea /eː/ tending towards /eə/
/ja/ often word initially or after initial /h/, particularly in N & W (e.g. ean 'one' /jan/, heam /hjam/)
ee /iː/ often /iə/ in N & W
ei /iə/ but /iː/ in open syllables (e.g. sei 'sea'). Often /ei/ in N & W
eo /iː/ /ɪu̯/ in areas bordering Scotland
ey /ei̯/
f /f/ initially or before a voiceless plosive
/v/ medially and finally
f /f/
g /g/
h /h/ initially
/f/ medially and finally; tends to become /x/ in the far N
Ø generally before -t
i /ɪ/
ie /ɪ/ only occurs word-finally (e.g. nouhtie 'poor').
iy /æː/
l /l/
m /m/
n /n/
ng /ŋ/
o /ɒ/
oo /oː/
ou /ɔu̯/
p /p/
r /ɾ/ before a vowel
/ɹ/ before a consonant
s /s/ initially, adjacent to a voiceless consonant and sometimes finally after a vowel
/z/ between vowels or adjacent to a voiced sound, sometimes finally after a vowel
sc /ʃ/
sk /sk/ the only permitted use of k in native words
ss /s/ only occurs following short vowels
t /t/
þ /θ/
u /ʊ/
uu /uː ~ ʊu̯/
w /w/
hw /ʍ/ in some dialects, tending to become /h/ before round vowels and /w/ elsewhere
x /ks/
z /t͡s/ used mostly in borrowed words


Notes:

  • the only letter which should present any difficulty to the reader is <s>, the pronunciation of which is not always predictable. In this article, voiceless /s/ will be written <> where confusion may arise (e.g. huuṡ 'house', riyṡ 'rice').


Grammar

Morphology

Articles

The indefinite article is identical to English: a before a consonant and an before a vowel (e.g. a man, an apel).

The definite article is 't in all cases (e.g. 't man, 't apel).

Nouns

Nouns have no grammatical gender and case is limited to the genitive.

The plural of most nouns ends in -s, or -es after a sibilant (e.g. apels, huuses). A few nouns have a rare plural in -en or -er (e.g. een 'eyes', ousen 'oxen', sceon 'shoes', lamer 'lambs', caufer 'calves', childer 'children'). There is also a small number of nouns with a change of vowel in the plural: man 'man' → men, wiman 'woman' → wimen, hand 'hand' → hend, teoþ 'tooth' → teeþ, feot 'foot' → feet, geoṡ 'goose' → geeṡ, muuṡ 'mouse' → miys, cuu 'cow' → ciy.

The genitive has two forms:

  • the dependent genitive is used directly before a noun or noun phrase and is unmarked (e.g. 't man huuṡ 'the man's house', his faðer sun 'his father's son').
  • the independent genitive usually occurs as the complement in a copular construction and is marked with -s (-es after a sibilant; e.g. 't huuṡ is Cetels 'the house is Cetel's', ðat 's his faðers 'that's his fathers').

Adjectives

Adjectives precede the noun they qualify and are generally immutable, regardless of number or case (e.g. a micel hund 'a big dog', 't hwiyt deors 'the white doors').

All regular adjectives may form a comparative with the addition of -ar and a superlative with -ast (e.g. aud 'old' → audar, audast, healie 'holy' → healiar, healiast).

The following are compared irregularly: il 'bad' → wer/werṡ, werst; geod 'good' → beter, best; micel 'large' → mear/mea, meast; liytel/liyl 'small' → leeṡ, leest.

Numerals

Cardinal Ordinal
1 ean first
2 twea anar
3 þree þird
4 four ferd
5 fiyf fift
6 sex sext
7 sefen sefend
8 auht auhted
9 niyn niynd
10 tein tend
11 elefen eleft
12 twelf twelft
13 þretein þreteind
14 fourtein fourteind
15 fiftein fifteind
20 twentie twentiand
21 ean an twentie ean an twentiand
30 þritie þritiand
40 fourtie fourtiand
50 fiftie fiftiand
100 hunreþ hunreþd
1000 þuusan þuusand
1,000,000 milyoon milyoond

Pronouns


Subject Object
Unstressed Stressed Unstressed Stressed
1sg i ic mi mie
2sg ðu, -tu ðuu ði ðie
3sg m. hi hie him
3sg f. scu sceo her
3sg n. hit
1pl wi wie us uus
2pl yi yie yu yuu
3pl ðey ðam

Several of the personal pronouns have different stressed and unstressed forms. The stressed forms are only used in speech and writing when particular emphasis is put on the pronoun, such as when they occur independently (e.g. ic leof him 'I love him', hwea didd ðat? Yuu 'who did that? You') . Elsewhere, the unstressed forms are used (e.g. hi wuns in Yoruc 'he lives in York').

Notes:

  • the 2nd person singular -tu is an enclitic form used with interrogative verbs (e.g. censtu Cetel? 'do you know Cetel?').
  • the 3rd person singular forms him, her and hit are pronounced without the h in unstressed position, but this is not expressed in writing.
  • as in English, 'hi/hie' are used for male humans, scu/sceo for females and hit for inanimate objects.
  • Norþimris maintains a T/V distinction, in which 2nd person plural yie etc. can be used as formal 'you' when addressing a single person. Its use is generally more restricted than in many European languages, only used in particularly formal situations and not necessarily expected when speaking to elders or strangers.
  • there is an informal use of us/uus in place of mi/mie (e.g. gie us hit 'give me it').

The genitive pronouns have dependent and independent forms, used like the nominal equivalents.

Dependent Independent
1sg miy(n) miyn
2sg ðiy(n) ðiyn
3sg m. his
3sg f. her hers
3sg n. his  
1pl uur uurs
2pl your yours
3pl ðer ðers

There is no independent form for the 3rd person neuter.

Reflexive pronouns are formed with -(s)seln, irregularly pronounced /sɛl/ or /sɛn/ according to dialect, which is added to the object pronouns (e.g. misseln 'myself', herṡeln 'herself'). These pronouns are more emphatic than their English counterparts and the object pronouns are preferred when the sense of reflexiveness is already implied (e.g. i sau mi i 't scewer 'I saw myself in the mirror').

The demonstrative pronouns are:

  • ðiss 'this' and ðir 'these', used for objects close at hand or abstracts metaphorically so;
  • ðat 'that' and ðea 'those', used for objects or abstracts at a distance or out of sight;
  • yon 'that, those', used only for objects in sight but at a distance.

These may be employed as demonstrative adjectives, preceding the noun (e.g. ðat wiyff 'that woman', yon fel 'that mountain').

The interrogatives are:

  • pronouns: hwea 'who', hwat 'what', hwilc 'which', referring to things already mentioned or implied, hweðer 'which of two';
  • adjectives: hwilc 'what, which', hweaṡ 'whose';
  • adverbs: hwiy 'why', huu 'how', hwear 'where', hwan 'when'.

Verbs

Syntax