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Wendlandish: Difference between revisions
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===Dependent clauses=== | ===Dependent clauses=== | ||
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==Vocabulary== | |||
Despite being a Romance language, Wendlandish has a very high number of words of non-Latin origin, particularly from Old Norse and Proto-Slavic as the most ancient borrowings, then in the Middle Ages particularly from Middle Low German (and some words of Baltic origin), then Polish, and most recently Danish, High German, and up until the present day Russian, which was the prestige language in Soviet times and is still particularly high regarded and spoken in the present-day Wendlands. Examples of these borrowings are: | |||
* from Old Norse: ''kirkja'' (church (coexists with ''ikjesj'' from Latin ''ecclēsia'')), ''morgin'' (breakfast, from ''morginn'' "morning"), ''dravm'' (dream, < ''draumr''), ''oran'' (eagle, < ''ǫrn''), ''veg'' (street, < ''vegr''), and notably ''Vinnurlont'' (< ''Vindurlǫnd'') and the Old Norse genitive ''Vinnurlandana'' (< ''Vindurlandana'') which is used as a learned genitive in modern Wendlandish. | |||
* from Proto-Slavic: ''jalin'' (deer, < *elenь), ''ljað'' (winter, < *ledъ "ice"), ''lysøs'' (salmon, < *lososь), ''tjað'' (baby, < *čędo), ''sjer'' (gray, < *śěrь); | |||
* from Middle Low German: ''fangnits'' (prison, < ''vangnisse''), ''gafil'' (fork, < ''gaffel''), ''førke'' (girl, ''vroiken''), ''arvejð'' (work, < ''arbeide'' (Latin ''labor'' > ''lamir'' came to mean "task", while the learned borrowing ''labor'' means "oeuvre", "work of art")), ''forkast'' (lunch, < ''vrōkost''); | |||
* from Polish the most notable ones are many colour names, like ''tjervon'' (red, < ''czerwony''), ''sjilon'' (yellow, < ''zielony''), and probably ''lilan'' "purple" from ''liliowy''. Colour names in Wendlandish show many borrowings, like the probably Baltic terms ''ruds'' (brown) and ''gælten'' (yellow). | |||
===Russian influence and ''Savjetskalgia''=== | |||
Russian influence in Wendlandish is mostly concentrated in the last century, but there's no doubt that it has tremendously impacted the language, not only in Soviet times but, possibly even more deeply, after the Soviet Union broke up. The early post-Soviet years were marked by a huge decline in the Wendlands and people immediately developed a strong sense of nostalgia for the Golden Age of the Wendlands - the days of the Soviet Union, when the Wendlands were a strategically important and cosmopolite part of the country due to it being its westernmost extent. This sense of nostalgia — called ''savjetskalgia'' as a portmanteau of ''savjetski'' (Soviet) and ''nostalgia'' — is still enormously visible in the prestige that the Russian language, emblem of the Soviet era, has in the Wendlands, probably even more than in Russia itself. Russian loans are entering Wendlandish en masse, often with a more "official" meaning when compared to the native Wendlandish term, and Russian is the preferred language of the Academy of the Wendlandish language in order to coin terms, to the extent that Wendlandish academics have recently coined terms from Russian roots that do not even exist in Russian, like ''vadifsji'' "car" (< ''водивший'' "driven"; though colloquial Wendlandish uses ''lada'' from the car brand) or ''hadifon'' for "mobile phone" (from ''ходить'' "to walk" and Wend./international ''telefon''). | |||
Example of Russian loans into Wendlandish are: | |||
* political and learned terms, often Soviet-era borrowings: ''nizavisjmasts'' (independence, < ''независимость''), ''plosjats'' (a large square, mainly for parades, especially May 9 celebrations < ''площадь''), ''savjet'' (parliament; Soviet < ''совет''); | |||
* things used as honorifics when specifically talking about Communism or Soviet concepts: ''pavjeda'' (victory, < ''победа'' — c.f. May 9 ''dæj ið pavjedala''. Note that native ''vihtøra'' was still used in this sense when the city of ''Tjervona Vihtørala'' was founded); ''krasni'' (red, < ''красный''), ''pravitjelstva'' (government (only the Soviet and the Wendlandish ones, but colloquially often used for all), < ''правительство''). | |||
* many proper names, not just Russian ones like ''Vætjislaf'' (Вячеслав), ''Jyri'' (Юрий), or ''Lydmila'' (Людмила) but also words that have become used as names, like ''Giroj'' (''герой'', "hero"), as far as the "most uniquely Wendlandish name of all", namely ''Kamoj'', a portmanteau of ''коммунистический герой'' "Communist hero". | |||
* various words for things that were not part of everyday Wendlandish life before Soviet times, e.g. ''plitá'' (gas/electric stove), ''haladilnik'' (fridge), ''marazilnik'' (freezer), ''tilivizar'' (television); | |||
* post-Soviet coinages from Russian roots or hybrid Russian-Wendlandish ones, like the ''vadifsji'' and ''hadifon'' mentioned previously; ''viliksjetj'' (internet, from ''великая сеть'' "great net"), ''patpojst'' (subway < ''под'' (under) and ''поезд'' (train)), or ''elekpisjmó'' (e-mail, from ''электронное письмо'' (electronic letter)). | |||
==Example texts== | ==Example texts== | ||