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

Norþimris has only two conjugated tenses: the present and the past. Beyond this, a number of moods, tenses and voices are created using auxiliary verbs and modals.

All regular verbs follow the same pattern in the present tense, given below with leof 'love':

Sg Pl
1 leof leof
2 leofs
3

Whenever the present tense verb is separated from its pronoun or is used with a noun, the -s form is used throughout (e.g. ic, your cining, beeds yu 'I, your king, command you', 't men sings 'the men sing').

In the past tense, regular verbs may be divided into strong and weak conjugations, the former conjugating by a vowel change, the latter by the addition of a suffix. There are no distinctions of person in the past tense.

There are eight classes of strong verb, each with different changes in the past tense and the past participle:

Class Present Past Past Participle
1 biyt beat biten
2 beed bead boden
3 sing sang sungen
4 beir bar boren
5 eit eat eten
6 fear feor faren
7 mau mew maun
grou grew groun
faud feld fauden
8 cerf carf corfen

Weak verbs form their past tense with a dental suffix, the form of which depends on the stem:

  • stems ending in -l, -m, -n, -nd or a voiceless consonant take -t (e.g. smelt 'smelled', fiyct 'fidgetted', lamt 'beat');
  • stems ending in -d or -t take -it (e.g. liltit 'hummed', bratit 'curdled, breidit 'stretched');
  • other stems take -d (e.g. bleðerd 'talked loudly', ligd 'lay', hiysd 'hoisted').

A number of verbs in <ee> may undergo shortening in the past (e.g. bleedbledd, meetmett, sleepslept/sleept). A number of other verbs have a past tense ending in -ht (e.g. seecsouht, wurcwrouht, lach 'catch' → lauht).

The imperative of regular verbs is identical to the stem (e.g. leof mi 'love me', eit ðiy meit 'eat your food').

The present participle of all verbs is formed with -and (e.g. leofand 'loving', singand 'singing').

The past participle of most weak verbs is identical to the past tense form (e.g. leofd 'loved', ligd 'layed'). The strong verbs form a past participle with -(e)n and a change of vowel, as shown in the table above but a number of weak verbs ending in -d, -t also form their past participle in -en (e.g. breiden 'stretched', leaden 'loaded').

A number of irregular verbs occur in Norþimris, the most important of which is bie 'be':

Sg Pl Participle
Present is, 's ar, 'r bieand
Past wer bien
Imperative bie

The contracted forms 's and 'r are very common in all but the most formal writing and stand alone in the sentence (e.g. 't man 's singand 'the man's singing').

Other irregular verbs are:

Present Past Present Ptc Past Ptc
do deo didd deond deon
have hea, has hadd heand hadd
go gang/gea gangd gangand gean
gan gand ganand
give gie gaf giend gien
make mac mead macand mead
take tac teac tacand tean

Each of the present forms takes -s in the 2nd and 3rd person singular, but hea has the separate form has.

The majority of tenses in Norþimris are form periphrastically.

Tense Structure Example
Present Continuous present of bie + present participle i 's singand I am singing
Past Continuous past of bie + present participle i wer singand I was singing
Perfect present of hea + past participle i hea sungen I have sung
present of bie + past participle i 's faun I have fallen
Pluperfect past of hea + past particple i hadd sungen I had sung
past of bie + past participle i wer faun I had fallen
Future auxiliary sal + stem i sal sing I will sing

In the perfect and pluperfect, bie is used with unaccusative verbs, i.e. verbs in which the subject is not the agent but the patient of the verb (e.g. 't snea 's mouten 'the snow has melted').

Syntax

The basic word order of Norþimris is Subject-Verb-Object:

  • i leof ði 'I love you'
  • Cetel sang 't sang 'Cetel sang the song
  • Maria leirs Frencis 'Maria teaches French'

Unlike some other Germanic languages, Norþimris prefers to keep auxiliary and lexical verbs together:

  • Cetel 's singand 't sang 'Cetel is singing the song'
  • ðu hadd seen him 'you had seen him'

A direct object follows an indirect object, unless both are personal pronouns, in which case the direct object comes first:

  • hi gaf Askil 't beoc 'he gave Askil the book'
  • hi gaf hit him 'he gave it to him'

Adverbial expressions are not in a fixed position and generally come at the beginning or end of the sentence:

  • yestren, gangd i til 't seekhuuṡ 'yesterday, I went to the hospital'
  • i gangd til 't seekhuuṡ yestren 'I went to the hospital yesterday'

Adverbs of manner are placed close to the words to which they relate:

  • scu leyct wel 't geamen / scu leyct 't geamen wel 'she played the game well'
  • wi ran snel heam / wi ran heam snel 'we ran home fast'

When an adverbial or other element is placed before the verb, the subject is moved to come after the auxiliary verb:

  • in a circ wer ðey wedit 'in a church they were married'
  • tomorn, sal i gang til 't skeol 'tomorrow I will go to school'

The relative pronoun is at:

  • 't wiyff at i leof 'the woman who I love'
  • a barn at cens au 'a child that knows everything'