Skundavisk: Difference between revisions

'''Shoundavish''' (sh.: ''skundavisk'', /ʃyndaβɪʃ/) is a West-Germanic language spoken in Shoundafland, a Northern Europe country located between Germany, Poland and Denmark. It evolved from the Old Saxon dialects that were spoken in the Sleswijk and Holtsat (German Schleswig and Holstein) in the early Middle Ages, and is thus closely related to English, Dutch, Low Saxon, Frisian and (High) German. Because of the huge influence it exerced on the Scandinavian languages during the Middle Ages, Shoundavish bears many similarities with Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. Reversely, Shoundavish underwent a slight North Germanic influence by contact with the Nordic countries, and which is reflected by the presence of Scandinavian loanwords in its vocabulary, especially from Old Norse and Early Modern Danish.

Shoundavish didn't take part in the High German consonant shift, and is overall one of the most conservative Germanic languages regarding the consonants. Because of its preservation of the sounds "th" and "w", along with a large common vocabulary, Shoundavish is one of the closest languages to English. However, both languages underwent very different vowel shifts over time, which makes them sound quite different. Besides, while English borrowed many words from the Romance languages (especially French), the Shoundavish vocabulary remained mostly Germanic, and very few words were borrowed from non-Germanic sources. Therefore, words like "biology" or "litterature" are built using Germanic roots instead of Latin or Greek ones. While being very conservative in its phonology and lexicon, Shoundavish didn't preserve the complex grammar of Proto-Germanic, and the medieval case system has been reduced to scattered remnants in the modern language.

There are seven dialects of Shoundavish: Sleswijksk, west Holtatisk, oost Holtsatisk, sunth Holtsatisk, west Mikelenborgisk, oost Mikelenborgisk and Seelandisk, all of which differ in grammar, phonology, vocabulary and syntax. The written standard is based on the oost Holtsatisk dialect, and is understood everywhere in Shoundafland. However, outside the region of East Holtsat, standard Shoundavish is rarely spoken, and the dialects are still widely used, unlike what happened in most West European countries.