User:Great Nortend/Erbonian English

Pronunciation

• Non-rhotic, and trilled „R”.
• „WH” has both consonants pronounced. „KN” has a glottal stop before /n/.
• „ING” is pronounced „IN” for present participles.
• A glottal stop is sounded before a vowel beginning a word, but not a syllable. E. g. „GOD ?ON HIGH” sed „INANE” not „IN?ANE”.

• ,Silent’ „GH” is pronounced /x/ after the long A and I vowels, followed by „T” in words such as „night”, „fright”, „eight” and „knight”.
• „Four” is pronounced „fower” for emphasis (like „ower” for „our”).

Punctuation

Opening quotation marks are placed on the baseline. Double quotation marks are used ordinarily, and single quotation marks for quotations within quotations. Punctuation not part of the quotation goes outside of the quotation marks E. g. —

• „The man asked whether I had seen ,The Happy Farmer’, but I had to tell him, ,No’.”
• John said, „I went to the shops to-day.”

Grammatical differences

„Twain” and „men”

Erbonian English retains grammatical gender in one situation. „Man” and words suffixed thereby such as „woman”, „policeman”, „chapwoman”, „postmen” &c. are accorded the masculine gender. However, this is not evident in pronouns and possessives as one would ordinarily expect, which rather continue to reflect natural gender. Rather, it is only in the adjective „two” where the gender expresses itself. Thus, „two” becomes „twain” or „tway”. Hence :—

Tway men came to my house but I told them that there were only twain old men living here.

You need tway strong women — or tway boys — to carry that.

„Twain”, along with „brunet” and „blond” are the only adjectives in Erbonian English that change for gender. Whilst „blond” and „brunet” are gendered in most English dialects, „two”/„twain”/„tway” is mostly unique to Erbonian English making it a recognisable quirk of the dialect. Furthermore, „blond” and „brunet” reflect natural gender, not grammatical gender. Thus, one can have „twain blonde women”, where „twain” is masculine and „blonde” feminine.

Future tense

The construction of the future tense is stricter in Erbonian English than other forms. There are two forms, one using the modal „shall” and one using the modal „will”. „Shall” is used ordinarily for the first person whilst „will” is used for the second and third persons. These are used according to the traditional prescriptions of coloured and uncoloured use. „Going to” is not used to indicate the future tense, but rather only the literal meaning of „moving in order to do something”.

Strong verbs

The past participle of certain verbs retain their strong forms such as holpen, standen or bidden or swungen. The use of the prefix „a-” as in „aclept”, „abrought”, „aholpen” or „abidden” may be used for emphasis in verbs not beginning with a vowel or a prefix, but is not common in standard speech. Some older preterits are also in use such as swang and bade.

Semantic differences

“To learn” can mean “to teach” in certain, mainly religious, contexts.

O learn me true understanding and knowledge  :
 for I have believed thy commandments.

— Psalm 119:66

Blessed be the Lord my strength :
 who learneth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight;

— Psalm 144:1

Spelling differences

• artefact = artifact
• sobre = sober
• shew = show
• ministre = minister

Lexicological differences

Erbonian English retains a relatively larger body of words from Arlethic roots in active use compared to other forms of English.

• Aurox (auroxen) < aurochs
• Elder and eldest < older and oldest (always for people)
• Rother < head of cattle
• Nought < zero (generally)

• Mere is preferred to lake in non-figurative contexts
• Sea is preferred to ocean
• Weld means “woods, forests”—historically hilly land was often kept wooded and thus “weld” is often reanalysed to mean “hilly land”.

• Swart is used to refer to a dark, deep blue colour, almost black. It is one of the three national colous of Great Nortend, the others being white and red.

Plurals

• Childer < poetic or idiomatic plural of child
• Brether < poetic or idiomatic plural of brother
• Brethren < brothers in religious contexts
• Sistren < sisters in religious contexts
• Hosen < ordinary plural of hose
• Kine < technical plural of cow

Interjections

• Ho!
• Hullo < Hello
• Cod < minced oath of “God”

Pronouns

Erbonian English uses the standard set of English pronouns. It also more frequently uses the “archaic” forms of “thou”, “ye”, “mine” &c. in poetry and figurative senses, along with their associated verb forms. The singular “they” is forbidden, and “he” is employed when the sex is unknown or irrelevant. In regional dialects, archaic forms are common, such as the use of “his” instead of “its”, and the freer use of “thou”, “ye”, “bist” &c. in ordinary conversation.

Other

• Farren = going long-distance; „a farren march”, „a farren train”
• Fare = an expedition or journey (in military context)
• Swither and winster = right and left (idiomatic/poetic)
• Even and oughten = evening and morning (idiomatic/poetic)
• Andern = undern = morning around 9 (poetic)
• Sparage < asparagus
• Withstrain = restrain; withcall = recall; gainwend = return