Erish language
| Erish | |
|---|---|
| ärsk | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈæːʂk] |
| Native to | Erishland |
| Ethnicity | Erish |
Native speakers | 7.5 million (2019) |
Early forms |
|
| Latin | |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Erishland |
| Regulated by | Erish Language Council |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | er |
| ISO 639-2 | ers |
| ISO 639-3 | ers |
Erish (Havnstead Erish: ärsk [ˈæːʂk]) is a West Germanic language spoken by over seven million people, mainly in Erishland, where it is the native and official language. It is most closely related to languages like Anglish or Allamunnic, though extended contact with Nordic languages has significantly influenced it. Erish is divided into the Bayland, Eastern, and Western dialect groups, which exist in a dialect continuum where Erish becomes increasingly mutually unintelligible the further one's dialects are from one another.
The earliest form of Erish, known as Old Erish, was brought to the region of modern Erishland by the Erish people during the Allamunnic migrations in the 400s. During this period, the Erish language somewhat evolved alongside Old Norse, adopting many features and changes alongside the language. After the introduction of the Latin script in the 900s, a literary period began which continued through the start of Middle Erish, marked by its independence from the Kingdom of Staalmark in 1297. Middle Erish would be marked by a drastic phonological and morphological restructuring, as the complex grammar of Old Erish changed under the pressure of the erosion of unstressed syllables, and the Erish dialects began to diverge. Modern Erish is traditionally distinguished from Early Modern Erish, the latter of which is considered to have begun in the late 1700s and ended with Ottonian annexation in 1867. Modern Erish itself is periodized as beginning with the literary movements of the early 20th century, which sought to reassert a new, modern Erish national identity, and later establish a modern standard language.
Though Erish is more closely related to West Germanic languages like Anglish or Allamunnic, extended contact with Nordic speakers has profoundly influenced the language. It has adopted many features of those languages, including vocabulary like kjåt ("meat"), and grammar like suffixed definite articles. Grammatically speaking, the language has fairly conservative features like two grammatical cases or three genders, but there is significant discontinuity between Old Erish and Modern Erish grammar, particularly with regards to verbs. Similar to other Germanic languages, it has a high number of vowels, with the major Havnstead dialect having at least 10 phonemic vowels, but it is particularly notable for having restored the original Germanic system of voiced/unaspirated stops being allophonically fricative in a variety of contexts.
Classification
Erish is an Indo-European language which belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. The West Germanic languages are divided into four branches: Ingvaeonic, which includes languages like Anglish, Irminonic, which includes German, Istvaeonic, which includes Dutch, and Northern, which includes Erish. Despite its West Germanic origins, extensive contact with Nordic languages has influenced the language to the point where it is much more in line with those languages than it is its sisters; up until the emergence of modern linguistics within the past two centuries, Erish was actually thought to be a Nordic Germanic language, if one with some peculiarities. Erish itself is divided into three dialect clusters: Bayland Erish, Eastern Erish, and Western Erish. These clusters exist in a dialect continuum in which, at the extreme ends, speakers of the same Erish language may find it difficult to understand one another, especially in informal registers.
Genetically speaking, Erish is a West Germanic language. This was not particularly apparent to many up until the emergence of modern linguistics, and the eventual realization that some of the apparent peculiarities of Erish as a Nordic language, meaning a language descended from Proto-Norse, were actually indications of its West Germanic origins. Some of the evidence pointing towards this includes:
- Word-final d - Erish has hardened the reflex of Proto-Germanic *ð to d in all positions, a sound change which occurred in Proto-West Germanic, but not in the Nordic languages. This results in vocabulary like blad ("leaf"), húd ("skin"), or vid ("wide"), which should have been *blað, *húð, and *við if Erish was Nordic.
- Reflex of Proto-Germanic *z - In both Old Erish and Modern Erish, masculine nouns of the first declension like stein ("stone"), for example, have an indefinite/specific singular nominative form hund, but an indefinite/specific plural nominative hundar; were Erish Nordic, the Old Erish singular form would have been *hunds. The singular form's lack of s, the word-final reflex of *z in Erish, reflects the loss of unstressed word-final *z in Proto-West Germanic; the plural form's -r reflects a Proto-West Germanic -ōzi, related to Old Frisian -ar.
- Absence of Holtzmann's law - Erish reflexes of Proto-Germanic vocabulary with geminated semi-vowels *jj and *ww lack the expected hardening, and instead display the reanalysis of the first semi-vowel to the second element of diphthongs, a sound change common to West Germanic languages. Erish vocabulary like ei ("egg") and tryi ("true") would be egg and trygg were this the case.
- Core grammatical words - Erish has several key grammatical words which cannot be sufficiently explained as being Nordic in origin. Forms of Erish vocabulary like hira ("her") and júg ("you") should be *hirar and *iðr if that were the case, but are explainable from coming from a Proto-West Germanic *hezō and *iuw.
- West Germanic gemination - Words like bidda ("to ask"), häbba ("to have"), sägga ("to say") should be *biða, *hava, and *säggja if Erish was Nordic. Instead, their forms are an indication that Erish was affected by West Germanic gemination, where consonants other than *r or *z were lengthened before Proto-Germanic *j.
Despite its roots, the extended contact with speakers of Nordic Germanic languages has made Erish much more akin to a Nordic language than a West Germanic language. Indeed, Erish has changed enough through exposure to languages like Norsk that it is considered to be in a North Germanic sprachbund with them, sharing features like:
- Common phonological developments - Old Erish underwent many of the same sound changes seen in Old Norse, possibly driven by the relative mutual intelligibility of the languages at their earliest stages. such as loss of word-initial j or vowel breaking, resulting in Modern Erish vocabulary like ár "year" (cf. Norsk år) and jårð (cf. Norsk jord).
- Common vocabulary - Erish shares a great deal of basic vocabulary with these languages which were either directly inherited and maintained in Erish despite being usually lost in other closely related West Germanic languages, or was loaned from the Nordic languages. Examples of the former include sky ("cloud") from Old Erish scý (cf. Norsk sky), gammli ("old") from Old Erish gamalt (cf. Norsk gammel), and stóri ("big") from Old Erish stóri (cf. Norsk stor). Old Norse loans include skóg ("forest") from Old Norse skógr (cf. Norsk skog), kjåt ("meat") from Old Norse kjǫt (cf. Norsk kjøtt), and, potentially, taka ("to take") from Old Norse taka (cf. Norsk taka).
- Plural -r marker - The earliest runic inscriptions of Old Erish seem to indicate that the "r-plural" of nouns is a direct inheritance from Proto-Germanic, but it was initially restricted to certain masculine nouns. Old Norse influence, however, likely led to its extension as a generic plural marker for non-neuter nouns.
- Suffixed definite article - The Erish definite article is suffixed to a noun, as seen in the sentence Ig sjá mannin ("I see the man"), where mann "man" has had the definite article attached (cf. Norsk Eg ser mannen). In a situation where a definite noun is preceded by an adjective, as in the Nordic languages, a demonstrative, normally ðað ("that"), must then also precede the adjective, Ig sjá ðeim gammli mannin ("I see the old man") (cf. Norsk Eg ser den gamle mannen).
- Subject-verb-object V2 syntax - Erish has a main clause syntax far more similar to the Nordic languages than to most of its West Germanic relatives. The sentence Ig kann køyra him til Serdstäd mið bilin mina i dag "I can drive him to Serdstead with my car today" has a very different word order from Dutch Ik kan hem vandaag met mijn auto naar Serdstad rijden (lit. "I can him today with my car to Serdstead drive"), but one essentially identical to Norsk Eg kan køyra han til Serdstad med bilen min i dag.
- Mediopassive construction - Erish has an analytic mediopassive voice formed by the verb bliva ("to become") and a present participle, which fulfills the same role as the -s/-st mediopassive found in Nordic languages. The sentences Rikarð and Fródi bliva slánda ("Rikard and Frodi are fighting") and Dyri kann bliva opnanda ("The door can be opened"), for example, corresponds to Norsk Rikard og Frodi slåst and Døra kan opnast.
History
Old Erish
The history of the Erish language begins in the prehistory of the Erish people, who spoke West Germanic dialects. When the Allamunnic migrations occurred in the 400s, however, Erish would be isolated from its sister languages, and begin the extended contact with Nordic speakers which has occurred ever since. During this period of Erish history, the differences between Proto-Erish and Proto-Norse were so relatively minor that mutual intelligibility would have been possible. This likely played into Old Erish undergoing numerous phonological, grammatical, and lexical developments alongside Old Norse. By the end of the Old Erish period, Erish was far more similar to Old Norse than relatives like Old Anglish. The period also saw the emergence of the literary period which continues to be a culture base for the Erish in the present day, though the Old Erish language itself can be difficult, if not impossible for Modern Erish speakers to understand without help.
The Erish people first settled what is now Erishland in the 400s, moving in the Allamunnic migrations. Though attestations are fairly scarce for Erish for the first few centuries, parts of even the modern Erish language itself attest to the extremely close contact which occurred even at its early stages. Core Erish vocabulary like kjåt ("meat") and ving ("wing") are Old Norse loans. Old Erish would also participate in many of the sound changes which occurred in the Nordic languages, resulting in Old Erish words like hjalpa ("to help"), jårð ("earth"), and ungi ("young") (cf. Old Norse hjalpa, jǫrð, ungr). It would even develop grammatical features like suffixed definite articles or subject-verb-object word order, which are common to the Nordic languages. These commonalities perhaps reflect the degree to which Proto-Erish and Proto-Norse were similar enough that common developments could affect speakers of both languages.
Old Erish did undergo a few distinct changes. One of the most important of these is the word-final devoicing of Proto-West Germanic *z to s, facilitating, for example, the alternation between hundar ("dogs") and hundas ("the dogs") which occurs in Modern Erish. Another distinct change relates to the development of the suffixed definite article. Although Old Norse also developed a suffixed definite article, the root from which it developed was not a reflex of Proto-Germanic *jainaz ("yon"), but was instead from the Old Erish third-person pronouns.
Early attestations of Erish in runic inscriptions appear throughout the latter half of the first millennium, sometimes being difficult to distinguish from Norse, but it was a predominantly oral language for the first part of its history. When Christianization missions reached Erishland in the 900s, they brought with them the Latin script. Though Erishland would ultimately remain pagan, local leaders saw the value of writing, and the Latin script remained. Though Old Erish became more consistently attested, it would take until the mid-1000s for the period most associated with Old Erish in Erish culture to finally begin, when poetry that had been oral for sometimes centuries began to be written down. These included heroic poetry like Gunnar Eldhúsis ("Gundar of the Burnt House"), which tells the tale of Gundar Grimuson and his efforts to avenge the death of his entire family, early poems describing Mannis, the first being in what would come to be the Ardist creation myth. Gradually, this literary period exploded into the foundations for Erish culture, laying down the histories of the Lands, documenting the wisdom and accounts of Thyles, and establishing the body of sacred texts for the Ardist faith. Though initially these texts were fairly varied, reflecting the Erish dialects of the time, the written Erish language gradually solidified into the standard based upon the dialect of Serdstead with the rise of the House of Tosk. After the creation of Erishland in 1297, the Old Erish period drew to a close, though the standardization of the literary language, combined with the cultural significance of the time, would mean that Old Erish would continue to be written well after it had stopped being spoken - as it may have already been doing.
The conservative nature of the Erish written language means basic vocabulary in Old Erish is somewhat recognizable, especially after normalization: Old Erish Ic com frá Ärsclandi ("I come from Erishland") is similar to Ig komi frá Ärskland. Nonetheless, the grammatical differences, and even orthographic differences, between the two languages can make reading difficult without either knowledge of Old Erish or a translation. Old Erish had a complex system of four grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative) for which nominals declined, and verbs conjugated for person in the plural, the subjunctive mood, and fell into many more irregular conjugations. Though the standard Erish language and many dialects are fairly conservative in some senses, the morphological differences between the two languages can make reading even more confusing. It is thought that the written language of Old Erish, especially starting in the 1200s, reflects an increasingly conservative version of the Erish language, given how certain errors which seem to be indicative of features associated with Middle Erish begin to appear.
Middle Erish
Middle Erish is the most formative period of time for the shape of the modern Erish language, being the era in which the language was drastically restructured in terms of grammar and phonology. Unfortunately, it is also not particularly well attested - the best attestations usually come from scribes proscribing grammatical or pronunciation "errors" made in common speech.
The Middle Erish language saw a number of changes which have shaped the nature of the modern Erish language spoken today. In terms of phonology, a few major changes occurred. The original Germanic system of voiced stops being allophonically fricative in a variety of contexts was restored, causing, amongst many features, the famous "Erish lisp" where d sounds like th in several contexts. Late Old Erish's allophonic palatalization of velar and alveolar consonants in certain contexts became phonemic as a variety of mergers occurred, the specifics of which often vary by particular dialect. One final important change was that many dialects changed the difference between voiceless and voiced stops to aspirated and unaspirated. Despite these changes and others, the Old Erish unstressed vowels /ɑ,i,u/ resisted completely merging to /ə/, though the extent to which unstressed vowels remain distinct varies by dialect, and they were also completely dropped in several contexts. These sound changes helped drive the grammatical changes which occurred during the period. Phonological erosion of the weak verb conjugations' past tense suffix eventually led to an analytic construction involving gjeru ("to do") that overtook a conjugated past tense in most verbs (though several common verbs retain it). Although Modern Erish has a fairly robust case system, the Old Erish case system underwent significant reductions: the genitive case disappeared outside of a few pronouns and the form of the feminine singular dative, whilst the accusative and dative cases gradually merged into the modern oblique case.
Despite these changes to the language, the written language continued to be Old Erish, generally following the grammatical and spelling conventions established by the late 1200s. The only major changes arose from the introduction of the printing press, which led to the replacement of older characters like ð or þ with digraphs like dh and th. Despite this conservation of the Old Erish written language, there were early debates over modernizing the language. Queen Ljosna I notably attempted to mandate that the official written language reflect the modern court speech of Serdstead, but failed to achieve any lasting change. Nonetheless, these debates foreshadowed what would come during the Early Modern Erish era.
Early Modern Erish
The Early Modern Erish era was essentially defined by a widespread debate about the modernization of the written language, and, to a lesser extent, whether the dialect of Serdstead or Havnstead should form the basis for a modern spoken standard. With the sudden arrival of the Republican era of Erish history, and the rise of the Nationalist party, essentially resolved the debate by force, attempting to promote a modern, standardized language based on the dialect of Serdstead. Ultimately, the Early Modern Erish era would end with the annexation of Erishland by Ottonia and the failure of the Nationalist effort.
Important features of Modern Erish arose during the Early Modern Erish period. Retroflexion of alveolar consonants after /r/ became a major feature of many Erish dialects during this time, as did the devoicing of all fricatives outside of intervocalic or unstressed contexts. Grammatically, the past tense began to further atrophy as dialects began replacing the Middle Erish gjeru ("to do") construction with the perfect tense; though the past tense is still present in Modern Erish, it is much less commonly used than the perfect, outside of Western dialects. Dialects in the East also lost pitch accent as well.
Modern Erish
Following Ottonian annexation, the written Erish language effectively ceased to exist, and the standard that the Nationalist regime had promoted died with it. With the new language of prestige being Anglish, the Erish language was relegated to being a spoken language, and, for decades, writing, much less reading Erish was a narrow pedantic pursuit. During this time, Anglish vocabulary began to more steadily enter the language.
The rebirth of the written Erish language, and the beginnings of Modern Erish, would in some ways perhaps be founded upon the realization that Erish was not a Nordic language. The renewed interest this brought in the older stages of Erish amongst those who were literate at the very least coincided with the emergence of new literary works in Erish like Ütlandlingas ("The Exiles") or Heuseh o' Gremehn ("The House of Grimm"), and authors like Thjudrik Rolfson. This new literary revival, in its early years, often was written according to the dialect of the author, and not in Old Erish or the Nationalist standard. As the Erish independence movement began to strengthen, and modern technologies like the radio emerged, Havnstead became prominent, but the historic Nationalist attempts to establish a spoken standard by force made and continue to make the establishment of a formal pronunciation unpopular. Nonetheless, old arguments about how the written language should be modernized re-emerged. Ultimately, the written grundmál standard promoted by philologist Jugar Raskson, which is primarily based upon the correspondences between the Erish dialects rather than a particular dialect, would be adopted by 1939 (though formally adopted in 1942). Despite some minor reforms since then, the 1939 modernization remains the basis of modern Erish orthography.
Written Erish
Erish as a single, modern, and standardized language is most realized in the written language, which provides a unifying force amidst what can be a relative diversity amongst the Erish dialects. Being a fundamentally literary language, Erish speakers mostly speak using their own particular dialect, and only use the standard of the written language for writing. Whilst the dialect of Havnstead is prominent in media and foreign language learning materials, the official policy of the Erish Language Council is that Erish speakers should speak with their dialect. This is, in part, because the orthographic and grammatical standards of written Erish do not particularly reflect any dialect of Erish, instead representing the common sound correspondences and grammatical innovations of the dialects collectively.
Alphabet
The Erish alphabet is a Latin script which utilizes 21 characters of the standard Latin alphabet, alongside accented variants of a, o, and u, and the additional letters ð, þ, ä, å, and ø. In total, there are 29 letters in the Erish alphabet. In the following table, they and their names are listed alongside their pronunciation in the Havnstead dialect.
| Letter | Name | IPA |
|---|---|---|
| A, a | a | [ˈɑː] |
| Á, á | annað-a | [ˈãnːa ˈɑː] |
| B, b | be | [ˈpeː] |
| D, d | de | [ˈteː] |
| Ð, ð | edd | [ˈɛtː] |
| E, e | e | [ˈeː] |
| F, f | eff | [ˈɛfː] |
| G, g | ge | [ˈçeː] |
| H, h | há | [ˈhoː] |
| I, i | i | [ˈiː] |
| J, j | je | [ˈjeː] |
| K, k | ká | [ˈkʰoː] |
| L, l | ell | [ˈɛlː] |
| M, m | emm | [ˈæ̃mː] |
| N, n | enn | [ˈæ̃nː] |
| O, o | o | [ˈoː] |
| Ó, ó | annað-o | [ˈãnːa ˈoː] |
| P, p | pe | [ˈpʰeː] |
| R, r | err | [ˈæɽː] |
| S, s | ess | [ˈɛsː] |
| T, t | te | [ˈtʰeː] |
| U, u | u | [ˈuː] |
| Ú, ú | annað-u | [ˈãnːa ˈuː] |
| V, v | ve | [ˈʋeː] |
| Y, y | y | [ˈyː] |
| Þ, þ | þorn | [ˈθɒːɳ] |
| Ä, ä | ä | [ˈɛː] |
| Å, å | å | [ˈɔː] |
| Ø, ø | ø | [ˈøː] |
⟨ð⟩ and ⟨þ⟩ are viewed by Erish speakers as uniquely Erish letters, though both can actually be found in other languages, both contemporary and historical. This has to do with their perceived cultural association with Erish orthography throughout its history - despite the interlude between the introduction of the printing press which supplanted them with th and dh and the Rolfson standard which reintroduced them. The sounds the two letters represent are not particularly distinct in Modern Erish - ⟨ð⟩ is either pronounced identically to ⟨d⟩ or is silent in the Erish dialects, whilst ⟨þ⟩ is only still distinct in Western Erish dialects.
The letters ⟨ä⟩, ⟨å⟩, and ⟨ø⟩ are sometimes rendered as ⟨æ⟩, ⟨ꜵ⟩, ⟨œ⟩ in poetic works, works trying to invoke an archaic mood, or by traditionalist writers. This has to do with the ligatures being the original forms of the modern-day vowel letters. Some conservatives have argued for the replacement of the three modern characters with their older counterparts, but the modern characters are viewed as being more brief and, in the case of ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨å⟩, more useful for words with umlaut, especially adjectives like allt ("all") or varmt ("warm"), which use them in their inflection paradigms.
The letters C (se [ˈseː]), Q (ku [ˈkʰuː]), W (dobbult-ve [ˌtɔpːʊltˈʋeː]), X (iks [ˈɪxs]), and Z (seta [ˈseːtʰa]) are not official components of Erish orthography, and essentially only appear in proper names; otherwise, they are always replaced by ⟨k⟩ or ⟨s⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨v⟩, ⟨ks⟩, and ⟨s⟩. They are included on the Erish keyboard, and although they are not a part of the alphabet, computers sort them as part of the alphabet in the following order: a, á, b, c, d, ð, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ó, p, q, r, s, t, u, ú, v, w, x, y, z, þ, ä, ø. Some reformers have argued for the reintroduction of the five letters, to the point that the Erish Language Council responded to one proposal in 1986, albeit with a rejection, stating that their inclusion is at odds with the principles underlying Erish orthography.
Keyboard
To write the language on a computer or typewriter, Erish uses a QWERTY-based keyboard layout. It has some influences from the keyboard layouts used to write the Nordic languages, but contains special adaptations for writing Modern Erish as well as Old Erish. Specific features of the Erish keyboard include:
- The letters Ð/ð, Þ/þ, Ä/ä, Å/å, and Ø/ø, which are entered using the dedicated keys Ð, Þ, Ä, Å, and Ø. Ð/ð is a letter also found in Faroese and Icelandic, Þ/þ in Icelandic, Ä/ä in Swedish, Å/å in Danish, Norsk, and Swedish, and Ø/ø in Danish, Faroese, and Norsk.
- The letters Á/á, Ó/ó, and Ú/ú, which are entered by pressing the dead key ´, which is located to the right of Ø, and then the corresponding unaccented variant of the letter; the acute accent may also be applied to other letters. On standard Erish keyboards, these three letters are distinctly marked on the upper right hand of the key. All three letters are also found in Faroese and Icelandic.
- The letters Ï/ï, Ü/ü, and Ÿ/ÿ, which are entered by pressing AltGr and ´, and then the corresponding letter; the diaresis may also be applied to other letters. On standard Erish keyboards, these three letters are distinctly marked on the lower left hand of the key.
- The letters Æ/æ and Œ/œ, which are entered by pressing AltGr and Ä or AltGr and Ø respectively. On standard Erish keyboards, these two letters are distinctly marked on the lower right hand of the key. They are primarily used for Old Erish texts, as the two letters do not have a place in modern Erish orthography. Æ/æ is also found in Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, and Norsk.
Sound-spelling correspondences
The following section describes the pronunciation correspondences between the written Erish language and the dialect of Havnstead, which has a strong presence in foreign language learning materials and major Erish media.
Vowels
Although several Erish vowel sounds can be represented by multiple graphemes, the pronunciation rules of Erish vowels are mostly regular, with each grapheme essentially having only one pronunciation. The main exception to this is the rule of vowel length, which is determined by stress and syllable structure: if a vowel is stressed and followed by no more than a single consonant, it is long; in any other context, it is short. Several unstressed grammatical words have irregular vowel pronunciations which simply have to be memorized by speakers.
| Grapheme(s) | Pronunciation | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long | Short | ||||
| Phoneme | Example | Phoneme | Example | ||
| ⟨a⟩ | /ɑː/ | hav "sea, ocean" [ˈhɑːɸ] |
/a/ | sand "sand" [ˈsant] |
|
| ⟨ag⟩ | /aj/ | bragn "brain" [ˈpɽ̊aɪ̯n] |
Only before ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨ng⟩, or ⟨r⟩. | ||
| ⟨av⟩ | /aʋ/ | ravn "raven" [ˈɽaʊ̯n] |
Only before ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨ng⟩, or ⟨r⟩. | ||
| ⟨á⟩, ⟨o⟩, ⟨ou⟩ | /oː/ | fá "few" [ˈfoː] |
/ɔ/ | oust "east" [ˈɔst] |
|
| ⟨ág⟩, ⟨og⟩, ⟨oug⟩, ⟨óg⟩, ⟨ug⟩, ⟨úg⟩, ⟨åg⟩ | /oj/ | fugl "bird" [ˈfoɪ̯l] |
Only before ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨ng⟩, or ⟨r⟩. | ||
| ⟨áv⟩, ⟨ov⟩, ⟨ouv⟩, ⟨óv⟩, ⟨åv⟩ | /oʋ/ | håvn "harbor" [ˈhoʊ̯n] |
Only before ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨ng⟩, or ⟨r⟩. | ||
| ⟨e⟩, ⟨ei⟩ | /eː/ | ei "egg" [ˈeː] |
/ɛ/ | eitt "one" [ˈɛt͡sː] |
|
| ⟨eg⟩, ⟨eig⟩, ⟨äg⟩ | /ej/ | segl "sail" [ˈseɪ̯l] |
Only before ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨ng⟩, or ⟨r⟩. | ||
| ⟨ev⟩, ⟨eiv⟩, ⟨äv⟩ | /eʋ/ | Hevn "(Christian) Heaven" [ˈheʊ̯n] |
Only before ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨ng⟩, or ⟨r⟩. | ||
| ⟨i⟩ | /iː/ | ni "nine" [ˈniː] |
/ɪ/ | timmur "timber" [ˈtʰɪ̃mːɔɽ] |
Unstressed ⟨i⟩ is pronounced as /ɛ/ in native Erish vocabulary. |
| /ɛ/ | ärviða "to work, labor" [ˈæɽβɛʔa] | ||||
| ⟨ó⟩, ⟨u⟩ | /uː/ | Ódun "Odin" [ˈuːðɔn] |
/ʊ/ | hund "dog" [ˈhʊnt] |
Unstressed ⟨u⟩ is pronounced as /ɔ/ in native Erish vocabulary. |
| /ɔ/ | agu "to hunt" [ˈɑːɣɔ] | ||||
| ⟨ú⟩ | /ʉː/ | húd "skin" [ˈhuːθ] |
/ɵ/ | lúdt "loud" [ˈlɵt͡sː] |
|
| ⟨y⟩ | /yː/ | hy "complexion, skin" [ˈhyː] |
/ʏ/ | rygg "back" [ˈɽʏkː] |
|
| ⟨yg⟩, ⟨øg⟩, ⟨øyg⟩ | /øj/ | høygri "higher" [ˈhøʏ̯ɽɛ] |
Only before ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨ng⟩, or ⟨r⟩. | ||
| ⟨ä⟩ | /ɛː/ | lägir "he lays" [ˈlɛːʝɛɽ] |
/ɛ/ | mänsk "person" [ˈmɛnsk] |
|
| ⟨å⟩ | /ɔː/ | hålu "to haul" [ˈhɔːlɔ] |
/ɔ/ | kåstu "to throw, cast" [ˈkʰɔstɔ] |
|
| ⟨ø⟩, ⟨øy⟩ | /øː/ | grøni "green" [ˈxɽ̊øːnɛ] |
/œ/ | sløgt "sly" [ˈsl̥œxt] |
|
Consonants
Due to a combination of both the fairly etymological spelling and the slightly complex allophony of Erish consonants, explanatory notes about their pronunciation with allophonic details when necessary will be provided below. It must be noted that the pronunciation rules provided therein only apply within the context of a word, meaning that they are unaffected by being in a compound or by a non-grammatical affix.
| Grapheme | Phoneme(s) | Example(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ⟨b⟩ | /b/ ([p]) | bidda "to ask" [ˈpɪtːa] |
At the beginning of words, as well as when after ⟨m⟩, ⟨b⟩ is pronounced as [p]. It only appears elsewhere in loanwords, where word-finally, it is realized as [ɸ]; before ⟨d⟩ or ⟨t⟩, as [f]; and, in other contexts, as [β]. |
| /b/ ([ɸ]) | lab "lab" [ˈlɑːɸ] | ||
| /f/ | Abdul [ˈaftʊl] | ||
| /b/ ([β]) | bebi "baby" [ˈpeːβɪ] | ||
| ⟨bb⟩ | /bː/ ([pː]) | krabbi "crab" [ˈk͡xɽ̊apːɛ] |
⟨bb⟩ normally represents [pː], but before ⟨d⟩ or ⟨t⟩, it represents [fː]. |
| /fː/ | sibbt "kindred" [ˈsɪfːt] | ||
| ⟨d⟩ | /d/ ([t]) | dóttur "daughter" [ˈtʊt͡sːɔɽ] |
At the beginning of words, as well as after ⟨l⟩ or ⟨n⟩, ⟨d⟩ is pronounced as [t]. Word-finally, it is realized as [θ]. In other contexts, it is pronounced as [ð]. |
| /t/ ([t]) | binda "to bind, tie" [ˈpɪnta] | ||
| /d/ ([θ]) | gód "good" [ˈxuːθ] | ||
| /d/ ([ð]) | bjóda "to ask, pray" [ˈpyːða] | ||
| ⟨dd⟩ | /dː/ ([tː]) | treddi "third" [ˈʈ͡ʂɽ̊ɛtːɛ] |
|
| ⟨ddt⟩ | /tː/ ([t͡sː]) | middt "middle" [ˈmɪt͡sː] |
⟨ddt⟩ is a morphological grapheme for adjectives, and indicates that the adjective root ends in ⟨dd⟩. |
| ⟨dt⟩ | /tː/ ([t͡sː]) | roudt "red" [ˈɽɔt͡sː] |
⟨dt⟩ is a morphological grapheme for adjectives, and indicates that the adjective root ends in ⟨d⟩. |
| ⟨ð⟩ | /θ/ | ðár "there" [ˈθoːɽ] |
Word-initially, ⟨ð⟩ represents [θ], though in all words where it appears in this context, there will be an unstressed variant with an initial [ð]. Word-finally, ⟨ð⟩ often represents [θ]; intervocalically between the stressed syllable and unstressed syllable, it represents [ð]. Elsewhere, ⟨ð⟩ is generally silent. |
| /d/ ([θ]) | varð "I/he became" [ˈʋaɽθ] | ||
| /d/ ([ð]) | bóði "the shop" [ˈpuːðɛ] | ||
| /∅/ | faðr "father" [ˈfɑːɽ] | ||
| ⟨ðt⟩ | /tː/ ([t͡sː]) | báðt "sudden" [ˈpɔt͡sː] |
|
| ⟨f⟩ | /f/ ([f]) | fjór "four" [ˈfyːɽ] |
In word-initial or geminated contexts, ⟨f⟩ normally represents /f/; in unstressed word-initial contexts, it represents [v]. It appears elsewhere only in loanwords, where word-finally it represents [ɸ], and elsewhere it represents [β]. |
| /f/ ([v]) | fur "for" [vɔɽ] | ||
| /b/ ([ɸ]) | telegraf "telegraph" [ˌtʰeːlɛˈxɽ̊ɑːɸ] | ||
| /b/ ([β]) | kafe "cafe" [kaˈβeː] | ||
| ⟨g⟩ | /g/ ([x]) | gá "to go" [ˈxoː] |
⟨g⟩ generally represents /g/, but in Erish /g/ is almost never pronounced as a stop. The usual pronunciation for ⟨g⟩ is [x]. Word-initially before the vowels ⟨e⟩, ⟨ei⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩, ⟨ø⟩, or ⟨øy⟩, ⟨g⟩ represents [ç]. In unstressed syllables or grammatical words, ⟨g⟩ is often silent. In all other contexts, it is realized as a velar fricative [ɣ] or a palatal fricative [ʝ], with the latter occurring before the vowels ⟨e⟩, ⟨ei⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩, ⟨ø⟩, or ⟨øy⟩. |
| /g/ ([ç]) | gift "poison" [ˈçɪft] | ||
| /∅/ | ig "I" [ɛ] | ||
| /g/ ([ɣ]) | skógar "forests" [ˈsxuːɣaɽ] | ||
| /g/ ([ʝ]) | dagis "the day" [ˈtɑːʝɛs] | ||
| ⟨gg⟩ | /gː/ | sägga "to say" [ˈsɛkːa] |
|
| ⟨gj⟩ | /g/ ([ç]) | gjeru "to do" [ˈçeː˧˩ɽɔ˥˩] |
|
| ⟨ggj⟩ | /xː(j)/ ([çː]) | byggja "to build" [ˈpʏ˧˩çːa˥˩] |
|
| ⟨h⟩ | /x/ ([h]) | hár "hair" [ˈhoːɽ] |
Word-initially, ⟨h⟩ is pronounced as [h]. Elsewhere, it is realized as a velar fricative [x]. |
| /x/ ([x]) | sehs "six" [ˈsɛxs] | ||
| ⟨hh⟩ | /xː/ ([xː]) | lähha "to laugh" [ˈlɛxːa] |
⟨hh⟩ represents [xː] before non-front vowels; before front vowels, it represents [çː]. |
| /xː/ ([çː]) | lähhi "I laugh" [ˈlɛçːɛ] | ||
| ⟨hj⟩ | /g(j)/ ([ç]) | hjarta "heart" [ˈçaː˧˩ʈa˥˩] |
In most contexts, ⟨hj⟩ is realized as [ç], but in some unstressed grammatical words, it is [ʝ]. |
| /g(j)/ ([ʝ]) | hjú "she" [ʝɔ] | ||
| ⟨hv⟩ | /f/ ([f]) | hvit "white" [ˈfiːt] |
In most contexts, ⟨hv⟩ is realized as [f]. In some unstressed grammatical words, though, it is realized as [v]. |
| /f/ ([v]) | hvað "what" [va] | ||
| ⟨j⟩ | /j/ | júg "you (pl.)" [ˈjʉːx] |
|
| ⟨k⟩ | /k/ | kann "(I/he) can" [ˈkʰãnː] |
⟨k⟩ generally represents /k/, though word-initially before the front vowels ⟨ei⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩, or ⟨øy⟩, it often represents /ɕ/. Before ⟨t⟩, it represents /x/. |
| /ɕ/ | kinn "chin" [ˈɕɪ̃nː] | ||
| /x/ | träkti "I/he pulled" [ˈʈ͡ʂɽ̊ɛxtɛ] | ||
| ⟨kj⟩ | /ɕ/ | kjåt "meat" [ˈɕɔːtʰ] |
|
| ⟨kkj⟩ | /ɕː/ | þäkkja "to think" [ˈθɛ˧˩ɕːa˥˩] |
|
| ⟨kk⟩ | /kː/ [k͡xː] | þakk "thanks" [ˈθak͡xː] |
⟨kk⟩ is realized as a geminated velar affricate [k͡xː] before non-front vowels or the end of a word. Before front vowels, it represents a geminated palatal affricate [c͡çː]. Before ⟨t⟩, it represents /xː/. |
| /kː/ [c͡çː] | þakki "(I) thank" [ˈθa˧˩c͡çːɛ˥˩] | ||
| /x/ ([x]) | þykkt "thick" [ˈθʏxːt] | ||
| ⟨l⟩ | /l/ | láta "to let" [ˈloː˧˩tʰa˥˩] |
|
| ⟨m⟩ | /m/ | móta "must" [ˈmuː˧˩tʰa˥˩] |
|
| ⟨n⟩ | /n/ | nyth "new" [ˈnʏt͡sː] |
⟨n⟩ is generally pronounced as /n/, but before ⟨k⟩, it is pronounced as /ŋ/. |
| /ŋ/ | tank "tank (container)" [ˈtʰaŋk] | ||
| ⟨ng⟩ | /ŋ/ ([ŋː]) | synga "to sing" [ˈsʏ̃˧˩ŋːa˥˩] |
|
| ⟨p⟩ | /p/ | pakki "pack" [ˈpʰa˧˩c͡çːɛ˥˩] |
⟨p⟩ is normally pronounced as /p/, but before ⟨t⟩, it is pronounced as /f/. |
| /f/ | køypti "I/he bought" [ˈkʰœftɛ] | ||
| ⟨pp⟩ | /pː/ ([p͡ɸː]) | eitturkopp "spider" [ˌɛt͡sːɔɽˈkʰɔp͡ɸː] |
⟨pp⟩ normally represents [p͡ɸː], but before ⟨t⟩ it represents [fː]. |
| /fː/ | toppt "top" [ˈtʰɔfːt] | ||
| ⟨r⟩ | /ɽ/ | rót "root" [ˈɽuːtʰ] |
|
| ⟨rl⟩ | [ɭ] | karl "man" [ˈkʰaːɭ] |
|
| ⟨rn⟩ | [ɳ] | horn "horn" [ˈhɒːɳ] |
|
| ⟨rs⟩ | [ʂ] | þyrst "thirst" [ˈθʏːʂt] |
|
| ⟨rt⟩ | [ʈ] | kort "short" [ˈkʰɒːʈʰ] |
|
| ⟨s⟩ | /s/ | sova "to sleep" [ˈsoːβa] |
|
| ⟨sj⟩ | /ɕ/ | sjóða "to seethe" [ˈɕuːða] |
|
| ⟨sk⟩ | /sx/ | skó "shoe" [ˈsxuː] |
⟨sk⟩ generally represents /sx/, but before the vowels ⟨e⟩, ⟨ei⟩, ⟨i⟩, ⟨y⟩, ⟨ä⟩, ⟨ø⟩, or ⟨øy⟩ at the beginning of a word, it represents /ɕ/. |
| /ɕ/ | sky "cloud" [ˈɕyː] | ||
| ⟨skj⟩ | /ɕ/ | skjåld "shield" [ˈɕɔlt] |
|
| ⟨sp⟩ | /sf/ | spinna "to spin" [ˈsfɪ̃nːa] |
|
| ⟨st⟩ | /sθ/ | stá "to stand" [ˈsθoː] |
|
| ⟨stj⟩ | /ɕ/ | stjarna "star" [ˈɕaːɳa] |
|
| ⟨t⟩ | /t/ | taka "to take" [ˈtʰɑːkʰa] |
|
| ⟨th⟩ | /tː/ ([t͡sː]) | bláth "blue" [ˈpl̥ɔt͡sː] |
⟨th⟩ is a morphological grapheme for adjectives which indicates that the root does not have an ending consonant. |
| ⟨tj⟩ | /ɕ/ | tjúg "cloth; fabric" [ˈɕʉːx] |
|
| ⟨tt⟩ | /tː/ ([t͡sː]) | kått "cat" [ˈkʰɔt͡sː] |
⟨tt⟩ is realized as a geminated alveolar sibilant affricate [t͡sː] before non-front vowels or the end of a word, and a geminated post-alveolar sibilant affricate [t͡ʃː] elsewhere. |
| /tː/ ([t͡ʃː]) | kättir "cats" [ˈkʰɛt͡ʃːɛɽ] | ||
| ⟨v⟩ | /ʋ/ | villa "to want to" [ˈʋɪlːa] |
At the beginning of words, ⟨v⟩ represents [ʋ]. Before ⟨d⟩, it represents [f]. Elsewhere, it represents the fricative allophones [β,ɸ] of /b/. |
| /f/ ([f]) | havdi "I/he had" [ˈhaftɛ] | ||
| /b/ ([β]) | skjúva "to shove" [ˈɕʉːβa] | ||
| /b/ ([ɸ]) | þjóv "thief" [ˈθyːɸ] | ||
| ⟨þ⟩ | /θ/ | þing "thing" [ˈθɪ̃ŋː] |
History
The earliest forms of Erish were written in the Runic script, the alphabet used to write ancient Germanic languages. After the introduction of the Latin script by Christian missionaries in the 900s, Erish rapidly transitioned into a literary stage which made use of that script. By the late 1200s and early 1300s, a written standard had developed that would remain in place into the 1800s, when a new written standard was briefly adopted before the annexation of Erishland by Ottonia, at which point both standards were dropped by most. The modern written standard arose during the early 1900s, and was formally adopted in 1942, and is periodically updated every five years by the Erish Language Council.
Old Erish (900s-1824)
For most of its history, Erish has more or less used a spelling system based upon the pronunciation of Old Erish. Whilst Erish was first written with the Runic script, writing with the Latin script introduced by Christian missionaries during the 900s constitutes the vast majority of all attested Old Erish. Between the 900s and 1100s, spelling was fairly flexible, reflecting the actual grammar and pronunciation of words. Characteristic traits of this period were the use of the runic characters þorn and ꝩend for the sounds /θ/ and /w/. Vowel length was not necessarily marked, though when it was, it usually involved doubling the vowel letter (Old Erish bóc, for example, would be spelled booc); fairly unintuitively for Modern Erish speakers, the long vowel digraphs for i, u, and y were actually ei, ou, and ey. Starting in the mid-1100s, a literary standard began to coalesce around the dialect of Serdstead, which had mostly entrenched itself by the early 1300s.
Whilst the Erish language in speech dramatically changed over the centuries, this standard remained fairly inflexible, particularly due to the literary culture which had developed. Scribes were trained to read, write, and speak an ever-increasingly conservative and unintelligible language, generally confining the written language to the upper classes and literati. Whilst occasional errors occur and writers of the era often criticize the spoken language, providing insights as to the state of the language, the written language remained stable enough for the introduction of printing to completely cement it for centuries to come.
The introduction of printing in the 1500s did lead to some minor changes, if but for the lack of printing presses which could completely reflect the scribal practices which had built up to that point. The consonants þ, ð, and ꝩ were replaced with th, dh, and v, whilst the long vowels æ, ꜵ were replaced with ä and å, and œ was replaced with ø. Though Queen Ljosna I famously tried and failed in 1647 to force modernization of the literary standard, these would amount to the only real changes in the written standard until the early 1800s.
The Rolfson standard (1824-49)
By the late 1700s, much less early 1800s, the Old Erish language had become mostly unintelligible for anyone who spoke the Early Modern Erish language. With the gradual development of Erish democracy, controversy gradually inflamed over the issue of whether the language should be modernized. Traditionalists advocated the continuation of the Old Erish written language, arguing that anybody who was literate could understand the foundational works of Erish culture. As reformers pointed out, however, keeping Old Erish made actually becoming literate a difficult task, effectively confining it to a few.
During this period, philologist Adolf Rolfson was amongst a few officially asked by the national Landthing in 1821 to come up with a modernization of Old Erish, to be presented before the Landthing. Amongst the proposals that followed from these requests, Rolfson's was one of, if not the most conservative proposal. Rolfson staunchly believed that not only would major reform disconnect Erish speakers from their past, but would unnecessarily engender the debates already taking place about which dialect should be the basis for the modern standard (though, in effect, his proposal slightly favored the Serdstead dialect). Consequently, his proposal primarily focused upon the principle of "one letter, one sound" for Old Erish, since the scribal practices had created inconsistencies. Old Erish vowel length was marked through either an acute accent or a ligature, the letters þ and ð were reintroduced, and the Old Erish diphthongs ai and ay were changed to ei and ey under the influence of Nordic languages. The grammar of Old Erish was essentially left in place, again in the interests of not undergoing too major a reform.
Ultimately, Rolfson's standard proved to be the most popular amongst the Landthing, and was officially adopted in 1824. Despite this official acceptance, widespread support of the reform was lacking. Many viewed it as little more than a token reform, meant to appease those interested in modernization without actually addressing the issues that were being fought over. Though this unpopularity would ultimately contribute to the downfall of the standard, the events which followed would eventually lead to its ultimate triumph.
The Nationalist standard (1849-67)
In the aftermath of the establishment of the Erish Republic in 1843, reform and modernization became the spirit of the age. In the issue of the written language, the tenor of debate changed from whether reform should take place to how it should take place, in particular whether a modernized standard language should be based upon the dialect of Serdstead, or the dialect of the rising Havnstead, which had become a major center of print media and liberal movements. With the election of 1846, the question would be resolved when the newly elected Nationalist government asked Jarlstead professor Frodi Roarson to devise a new standard. In 1849, but months before elections, Roarson presented his new standard, which was essentially based upon the dialect of Serdstead.
Despite several critics, the Roarson standard was well-received. Even if spellings and grammar like I kann skjo din nyi kotzin his ("I can see his new cat") were often utter breaks from Rolfson's Ic cann sjå þann nýa cattinn his, the public generally viewed the modernization as finally bringing literacy within much closer reach of vast swathes of the public. Even if this essentially necessitated being taught the Serdstead dialect, most ultimately regarded the new standard positively. The popularity of the Nationalist standard ultimately soured, however, when the Nationalist party took increasingly ultranationalist policy stances. Private documents were required to follow the spelling standards, and speaking local dialects in public areas was made a punishable offense. Whilst the extent to which these were actually carried out varied, the perception remained well after Ottonian annexation that the Nationalists had used modernization as a tool to suppress areas outside of Serdstead.
The Raskson standard (c. 1930-present)
After Ottonian annexation, both the Rolfson and Nationalist standards fell out of use as many switched to the now-prestige Anglish language. Beginning in the 1900s, however, Erish began to re-emerge as a written language alongside independence movements. As writers began using Erish, older standards were generally not followed in favor of writing according to one's dialect or experimenting with different standards. Anglish conventions often influenced writers like Gunnilda Smith, who based her spelling off of a regularization of English, whilst others more associated with independence movements distanced themselves and tried different conventions. This resulted in a wide variety of standards, where a word like Modern Erish djós ("animal") could be spelled anywhere between uce and dür.
As the Erish independence movement began to strengthen, the debates which had occurred a hundred years prior began to resurface once again. Prominent authors of the time like Tjudrik Rolfsun began calling for the creation of a new unified written language, ultimately resulting in the Erish Language Conference of 1927, where a group of authors and scholars met to try and agree to some basic orthographic conventions. Despite the ambitions of the Conference, it failed, though the precedent it set of working together on the question laid the groundwork for the next Conference in 1930, where the standard underlying Modern Erish would be first presented by linguist Jugar Raskson.
In 1918, Jugar Raskson began attempting to reconstruct the pronunciation of Old Erish. Though the texts of the time gave hints, Raskson was interested in finding out the specifics of how the language would have actually sounded. This necessitated his travels to various corners of the Erish-speaking realm, noting sound developments and what the correspondences between them could suggest about the finer details he was interested in. By 1923, Raskson had developed a detailed enough analysis that he gathered a group of friends and family together to listen to a speech in Old Erish he proclaimed was the first time the language had truly been spoken in centuries. Despite certain inaccuracies, it was not a claim without merit. For his reconstruction, Raskson used the orthographic standards of Rolfson, viewing them as the most succinct method of describing Old Erish pronunciation. He did, however, introduce the letters ä and å for the Old Erish vowels /ɛ/ and /ɔ/, which had previously not been consistently reflected in the orthography, and replaced what had been å with á.
Soon after his speech, Raskson gradually came to the realization that he had enough information that he could create a modernization of the written language. Over the next four years, Raskson worked to create a new written standard he viewed as reflecting the grundmál ("fundamental language") underlying Modern Erish. Raskson based his standard on a few fundamental principles: spelling and grammar should be updated insofar as it reflected common developments or changes which could be easily "reversed" by speakers of dialects which lacked them, and should not in principle favor a particular dialect; spelling and, to a much lesser extent, grammar should have consistent rules that are not arbitrary and are as regular as reasonably possible; and the form of words should not change based upon inflection, and, if they must, should change only as much as is necessary. Despite the fairly etymological standard Raskson ultimately devised as a consequence of his first principle, he explicitly rejected any etymological principles, stating that "it is as ridiculous to ask a student to learn to spell according to pronunciations long gone as it is to ask him to learn to read according to its grammar. A language changes with time, and so must its writing."
Raskson initially intended to present his standard at the Erish Language Conference of 1927, but the death of his wife prevented him from attending. He spent another three years refining his project and gathered the money to print 250 copies of a Grundärsk ("Basic Erish") textbook which included a dictionary and grammar of Erish. When he presented his standard at the 1930 Erish Language Conference, his proposal was quickly rejected for being too conservative. Though this proposal was a failure, it did pick up the interest of the editors of the rising Harbor Journal (today, Håvndagbladið). The Harbor Journal would be the first Erish media source to adopt Raskson's standard, and media across Havnstead soon followed suit. By the time of the establishment of the Erish Language Committee by the provisional government in 1937, Raskson's standard had become widespread and popular enough that more "modern" proposals adopted by the Erish Language Conferences of 1931 and 1936 were passed over in its favor. Although it was effectively adopted in 1939 through the Erish Constitution's use of it, it would only formally be adopted in 1942 - a full year after Raskson's death.
Raskson's standard has, for the most part, remained the basis of modern Erish orthography ever since. Formal periodic updates of the orthography occur through the work of the Erish Language Committee, which publishes new editions of Grundärsk every five years, but Raskson's principles, spellings, and grammar generally remain in use into the present day. The most significant change since his original proposal has been the expansion of the use of ⟨b⟩ and ⟨f⟩ - in Raskson's original proposal, the non-geminated phoneme /b/ was universally represented in non-word initial contexts as ⟨v⟩, creating spellings like lav ("lab"), bevi ("baby"), telegrav ("telegraph"), and kave ("cafe"). In 1992, ⟨b⟩ and ⟨f⟩ were introduced as representations of /b/ in loanwords, making the modern spellings lab, bebi, telegraf, and kafe. Along with a related change introducing ⟨ks⟩ for spelling /ks/ in loanwords, these changes have been controversial, as many argue that they are fundamentally at odds with Raskson's rejection of etymological principles. Nonetheless, these changes remain in place in Modern Erish.
Old Erish-Modern Erish correspondences
Written Modern Erish's central principle is the orthographic representation of the sound correspondences between modern Erish dialects, often called the grundmál ("fundamental language") underlying the language. Written Erish is thus fairly conservative by necessity, but there are more than a few differences between Old Erish and Modern Erish. Just how close or far from Old Erish the modern written language should be was and is an issue of some controversy, even with the compromise grundmál principle, between the traditionalists that want older texts to be more easily read, and the reformists who want the language to be more consistent and modernized.
The following table provides information about the most common and important spelling correspondences between Old Erish and Modern Erish.
| Old Erish | Modern Erish | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grapheme | Example | Grapheme | Example | Notes |
| ⟨au⟩ | rautt ("red") | ⟨ou⟩ | roudt ("red") | |
| ⟨c⟩ | cona ("woman") | ⟨k⟩ | kona ("wife") | In most words, Old Erish ⟨c⟩ is preserved as Modern Erish ⟨k⟩. However, at the beginning of a word where the stressed vowel is ⟨e⟩, ⟨ei⟩, ⟨ey⟩, ⟨ä⟩, or ⟨ø⟩, Old Erish ⟨c⟩ becomes Modern Erish ⟨kj⟩. In unstressed syllables and some grammatical words, Old Erish ⟨c⟩ becomes Modern Erish ⟨g⟩. |
| cänna ("to know") | ⟨kj⟩ | kjänna ("to know") | ||
| mic ("me") | ⟨g⟩ | mig ("me") | ||
| ⟨d⟩ | dýr ("animals") | ⟨d⟩ | dyr ("animals") | Old Erish ⟨d⟩ mostly continues into Modern Erish unchanged. Some grammatical words and unstressed syllables change Old Erish ⟨d⟩ to Modern Erish ⟨ð⟩. |
| håfud ("head") | ⟨ð⟩ | håvuð ("head") | ||
| ⟨ey⟩ | reyc ("smoke") | ⟨øy⟩ | røyk ("smoke") | |
| ⟨é⟩ | hér ("here") | ⟨e⟩ | her ("here") | |
| ⟨f⟩ | fisc ("fish") | ⟨f⟩ | fisk ("fish") | At the beginning of words, Old Erish ⟨f⟩ is preserved. Elsewhere, it becomes Modern Erish ⟨v⟩. |
| lifr ("liver") | ⟨v⟩ | livr ("liver") | ||
| ⟨g⟩ | gás ("goose") | ⟨g⟩ | gás ("goose") | In most words, Old Erish ⟨g⟩ is continued in Modern Erish. However, at the beginning of a word where the stressed vowel is ⟨e⟩, ⟨ei⟩, ⟨ey⟩, ⟨ę⟩, or ⟨ø⟩, Old Erish ⟨g⟩ becomes Modern Erish ⟨gj⟩. |
| gefa ("to give") | ⟨gj⟩ | gjeva ("to give") | ||
| ⟨hl⟩ | hleif ("loaf") | ⟨l⟩ | leiv ("loaf") | |
| ⟨hn⟩ | hnacki ("neck") | ⟨n⟩ | nakki ("neck") | |
| ⟨hr⟩ | hring ("ring") | ⟨r⟩ | ring ("ring") | |
| ⟨í⟩ | tíd ("time") | ⟨i⟩ | tid ("time") | |
| ⟨jó⟩ | frjósa ("to freeze") | ⟨y⟩ | frysa ("to freeze") | Generally speaking, Old Erish ⟨jó⟩ becomes Modern Erish ⟨y⟩. The main exceptions occur when ⟨jó⟩ is word-initial, or is preceded by a word initial ⟨b⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨d⟩, ⟨f⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨h⟩, ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨p⟩, ⟨s⟩, ⟨sc⟩, ⟨sp⟩, ⟨st⟩, ⟨t⟩, or ⟨þ⟩. |
| scjóta ("to shoot") | ⟨C(C)jó⟩ | skjóta ("to shoot") | ||
| ⟨jú⟩ | drjúgs ("lasting") | ⟨y⟩ | dryg ("lasting") | Similar to ⟨jó⟩, Old Erish ⟨jú⟩ usually becomes Modern Erish ⟨y⟩ unless it is word-initial or preceded by ⟨b⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨d⟩, ⟨f⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨h⟩, ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨p⟩, ⟨s⟩, ⟨sc⟩, ⟨sp⟩, ⟨st⟩, ⟨t⟩, or ⟨þ⟩. |
| ljúga ("to (tell a) lie") | ⟨C(C)jú⟩ | ljúga ("to (tell a) lie") | ||
| ⟨mb⟩ | lamb ("lamb") | ⟨mm⟩ | lamm ("lamb") | |
| ⟨qu⟩ | quickt ("quick") | ⟨kv⟩ | kvikkt ("quick") | |
| ⟨r⟩ | rád ("council") | ⟨r⟩ | rád ("council") | Old Erish ⟨r⟩ is generally preserved in Modern Erish. When proceeded by a consonant other than ⟨ð⟩, ⟨f⟩, or ⟨g⟩ and not at the beginning of a word, ⟨r⟩ oftentimes becomes ⟨ur⟩. |
| vatr ("water") | ⟨ur⟩ | vattur ("water") | ||
| ⟨t⟩ | til ("to") | ⟨t⟩ | til ("to") | Old Erish ⟨t⟩ mostly continues into Modern Erish. In unstressed syllables or some grammatical words, ⟨t⟩ becomes ⟨ð⟩. |
| hvat ("what") | ⟨ð⟩ | hvað ("what") | ||
| ⟨tt⟩ | sätta ("to set") | ⟨tt⟩ | sätta ("to set") | ⟨tt⟩ is normally continued into Modern Erish. However, in cases of adjectives with a root ending in ⟨d⟩ or ⟨ð⟩ which changes to ⟨tt⟩ in the neuter, the ⟨tt⟩ becomes ⟨dt⟩ or ⟨ðt⟩. |
| dautt ("dead") | ⟨dt⟩ | doudt ("dead") | ||
| blátt ("sudden") | ⟨ðt⟩ | bláðt ("sudden") | ||
| ⟨v⟩ | vis ("we") | ⟨v⟩ | vis ("we") | At the beginning of words, Old Erish ⟨v⟩ continues into Modern Erish; the only exceptions are before ⟨l⟩ and ⟨r⟩, where it becomes ⟨f⟩ instead. Elsewhere, it generally disappears. |
| vríða ("to twist") | ⟨f⟩ | friða ("to twist") | ||
| scauva ("to show") | ⟨∅⟩ | skoua ("to show") | ||
| ⟨x⟩ | sex ("six") | ⟨hs⟩ | sehs ("six") | |
| ⟨ý⟩ | nýi ("new") | ⟨y⟩ | nyi ("new") | |
| ⟨z⟩ | bäzt ("best") | ⟨s⟩ | bäst ("best") | |
| ⟨þ⟩ | þorn ("thorn") | ⟨þ⟩ | þorn ("thorn") | In almost all words, Old Erish ⟨þ⟩ continues as Modern Erish ⟨þ⟩. However, in a few core grammatical words, it instead becomes ⟨ð⟩. |
| þú ("you (sg.)") | ⟨ð⟩ | ðú ("you (sg.)") | ||
| ⟨æ⟩ | næra ("nearer") | ⟨ä⟩ | nära ("nearer") | |
| ⟨œ⟩ | grœnt ("green") | ⟨ø⟩ | grønt ("green") | |
Dialects
Erish is divided into three broad dialectal groupings: Baylands Erish (byttlandärsk), Eastern Erish (oustärsk), and Western Erish (vestärsk). The Erish dialects exist in a dialectal continuum, where differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary make dialects of the same Erish language become increasingly unintelligible the further two speakers' dialects are from one another, though familiarity with a particular dialect often negates this gap. Regionalization of dialects is an ongoing trend in Baylands and Western Erish, specifically with the Baylands Serdstead dialect and Western Havnstead dialect influencing their respective dialect groups (though Havnstead's prominence in media is influencing other dialects as well). Eastern dialects have generally been immune to this trend, due to the relatively sparse population and lack of any major Eastern dialect.
In contrast to several other modern languages, Erish lacks any standardized dialect. Havnstead's presence in media has certainly leant it some prestige, but most Erish speakers use their dialect, even in formal circumstances. In part, this is enabled by the standardized written language not particularly reflecting any dialect, but there is also a general cultural aversion towards attempting to promote a spoken standard.
Phonology
Voicing versus aspiration distinction
One of the most notable isoglosses between the Erish dialects is whether the Old Erish voiced stops /b,d,g/ preserve or lose their voicing. In the latter case, they become only phonemically distinct from the reflexes of the Old Erish voiceless stops /p,t,k/ through the voiced stops' lack of aspiration. Baylands dialects almost universally have a full voicing distinction, making a word like bjóda "to ask, pray" and pað "road, street" be pronounced in Serdstead Erish as [ˈbjuːðɔ] and [ˈpʰɑː], whilst other dialects are almost always aspirated, making bjóda and pað be pronounced in Havnstead Erish as [ˈpyːða] and [ˈpʰɑːθ].
The voicing versus aspiration isogloss does not completely apply to the reflex of Old Erish /g/, which was in most contexts realized as a voiced velar fricative [ɣ]; the isoglosses of its pronunciation are virtually always dependent upon whether a dialect is voiced or aspirated. Voiced dialects harden /g/ to a voiced stop in several contexts, making grava "to dig" be pronounced as [ˈgɽɑːβɔ] in Serdstead Erish; aspirated dialects, by contrast, devoice the fricative to [x], making grava be pronounced as [ˈxɽ̊ɑːβa]. Palatalization of /g/ before front vowels is also still completely allophonic in aspirated dialects, where it is realized as a voiceless palatal fricative [ç] as seen in Havnstead Erish gjóta "to pour" [ˈçuːtʰa], whilst palatalization is less so in the same contexts in voiced dialects, as seen in Serdstead Erish gjóta [ˈjuːtɔ].
Development of Old Erish /θ/
Like most other old Germanic languages, Old Erish had a phonemic voiceless dental fricative /θ/. In Old Erish, it was only realized as voiceless if it was word-initial or geminated; otherwise, it was a voiced [ð], a distinction that was and continues to be reflected in Erish orthography. All modern Erish dialects, however, have since lost this phoneme to varying degrees. Western dialects, such as that of Havnstead, are the most conservative, only phonemically merging non-geminate, non-word-initial /θ/ with /d/, though /d/ in these contexts is still realized as a dental fricative [θ,ð]; an example of this development is the stressed form of ðað "the; that", which is realized in Havnstead Erish as [ˈθɑːθ]. Eastern dialects are less conservative, completely merging /θ/ with /t/ or /d/, but the word-final reflex of Old Erish [ð] is still pronounced; in Dalthorp Erish, ðað is realized as [ˈtaːθ]. Baylands dialects are the least conservative, losing Old Erish [ð] in all contexts, and merging [θ] with /t/ or /d/; in Serdstead Erish, ðað is realized as [ˈdɑː].
Palatalization
Late Old Erish had allophonic palatalization generally triggered by a velar consonant preceding a front vowel, front diphthong, or palatal approximant /j/, or a alveolar consonant followed by /j/. The extent to which palatalization affected the latter context, as well as the reflexes of this allophony vary by dialect, but can be generally characterized along dialectal group lines.
Baylands dialects are the most affected by palatalization, with all alveolar consonants being affected by palatalization. In general, the palatal reflexes of Old Erish /k,g,sk/ are /ç,j,ʂ/, as seen in Serdstead Erish kynn "sex, gender" [ˈçʏ̃nː], biginna "to begin" [bɪˈjɪ̃nːɔ], and skjäppa "to create" [ˈʂɛpːɔ]. In terms of the alveolar consonants, the reflexes of /dj,lj,sj,stj,tj/ are generally /j,j,ʂ,ʂ,ʂ/, as seen in Serdstead Erish djós "animal" [ˈjuːs], ljúvt "lovely" [ˈjɵft], sjúkt "sick" [ˈʂɵxt], stjart "tail" [ˈʂaːʈ], and tjald "tent" [ˈʂald]. Palatalization is still slightly allophonically productive in Baylands dialects, as the fricative allophone of /g/ palatalizes to [ʝ] before front vowels, as in krigis "the war" [ˈkɽ̊iːʝɛs].
Western dialects are less affected by palatalization, although there is only one palatal reflex that is phonemic, the voiceless retroflex fricative /ɕ/. /ɕ/ is generally formed from the Old Erish palatalized velars /k,sk/, as seen in Havnstead Erish kynn [ˈɕʏ̃nː] and skjäppa [ˈɕɛp͡ɸːa], and from the sequences /sj,stj,tj/, as seen in Havnstead sjúkt [ˈɕɵxt], stjart [ˈɕaːʈʰ], and tjald [ˈɕalt]. The phoneme /g/, however, still has the same allophony pattern of palatalization as in Old Erish, except that it has been devoiced; in Havnstead Erish, biginna [pɪˈçɪ̃nːa]. Along with Eastern dialects, Western dialects turn /hj/ into a voiceless palatal fricative [ç], as seen in hjelpa "to help" [ˈçɛlpa], but these can be analyzed as merely a phonemic merger with the sequence /g(j)/ (i.e., hjelpa can be analyzed as /ˈgɛlpa/).
Eastern dialects are, in terms of phonemic palatalization, minimally affected, and only has one phonemic palatal reflex, the voiceless post-alveolar fricative /ʃ/. /ʃ/ is formed through the merger of palatalized /sk/ and /stj/, as seen in Dalthorp Erish skjäppa [ˈʃɛpʰːa] and stjart [ˈʃartʰ].
/w/-/f/ merger
Old Erish had a distinct /w/ phoneme which, depending upon dialect, can undergo a partial or complete merger with /f/. This merger is the result of the early Middle Erish shift of word-initial Old Erish /w/ to /ʋ/. There are two contexts in which the /w/-/f/ merger has taken place across all Erish dialects: Old Erish /wl/ and /wr/. This is, accordingly, reflected in the orthography, as seen in Old Erish vlit ("color") and vreitt ("angry") becoming Modern Erish flit ("color") and freiðt ("angry"). Another widespread context in the area around the Great Bay where the /w/-/f/ merger occurs is the Old Erish sequence /hw/, causing, for example, hvall "blockhead" and fall "fall" to be homophonous [ˈfalː] in Havnstead Erish. In dialects north of the Great Bay area, /ʋ/ shifted to /v/, which then devoiced alongside all other obstruents, causing a merger between fall, hvall, and vall "wall".
Phonotactic regularization
In all Erish dialects, words have a phonotactic structure which always follows the sonority hierarchy of plosives-sibilants-fricatives-nasal-approximant-rhotic-liquid-vowel in onset, and the reverse in coda. The only exceptions to these are the /sk,sp,st/ clusters in onset, and the /ks,ps,ts/ clusters in coda. In some dialects along the northern Great Bay area, including that of Havnstead, these exceptions have become invalid through the lenition of the plosives in these contexts to fricatives, making /sx/ɕ,sf,sθ/ and /xs,fs,θs/.
Development of Old Erish diphthongs, glides, long back vowels
Old Erish had three phonemic diphthongs, /au̯,ɛi̯,œy̯/. In Eastern dialects as well as most Western dialects, these diphthongs have monophthongized to /o(ː),e(ː),ø(ː)/, but Baylands dialects still preserve them, albeit having shifted them to /ɔʊ̯,ɛɪ̯,œʏ̯/; the Havnstead pronunciation of bein "bone" is [ˈpeːn], for example, whilst Serdstead has [ˈbɛɪ̯n].
Old Erish had two glides, /joː,juː/, which have generally merged to /y(ː)/ in Eastern and Western dialects if the initial /j/ is not word-initial or able to cause palatalization of a preceding consonant; in Havnstead Erish, for example, mjúkt "soft" is [ˈmʏxt]. In Baylands dialects, however, beyond causing palatalization of some vowels, these are still present, though they have shifted to /ju(ː),jʉ(ː)/; mjúkt is [ˈmjɵxt] in Serdstead Erish.
Old Erish had three long back vowels, /ɔː,oː,uː/. During the Middle Erish period, these long vowels broke into the diphthongs [aʊ̯,oʊ̯,eʊ̯] in both Baylands and Western Erish. During the Early Modern Erish period, most dialects then proceeded to monophthongize these into /o(ː),u(ː),ʉ(ː)/, but a few still preserve the Middle Erish diphthongs; compare, for example, Havnstead Erish gás "goose" [ˈxoːs] to Roudfell Erish gás [ˈxoʊ̯s]. These dialects which preserve the diphthongs are why there is ⟨å⟩ grapheme as well as ⟨á⟩ grapheme exists. For example, using a hår spelling for hár ("hair") would suggest a pronunciation of [ˈhɔːɽ] in Roudfell Erish instead of the actual [ˈhaʊ̯ɽ]; likewise, a hánd spelling for hånd ("hand") would suggest a pronunciation of [ˈhaʊ̯nt] instead of the actual Roudfell Erish [ˈhɔnt].
Vowel length
Whilst all Erish dialects can be analyzed as lacking a length contrast, and instead having a vowel system with long allophones in stressed open syllables and short allophones elsewhere, only Baylands and Western Erish dialects can be analyzed as having vowel length; beyond stress, the difference in Serdstead Erish between an emphatic hið "it" [ˈhiː] and an unemphatic [hɪ] is one of vowel length. Eastern dialects do have allophonic vowel length, but there is no difference in quality between the long and short allophones; Dalthorp Erish emphatic hið [ˈhiːθ] and unemphatic [hi] do not change the quality. The Eastern lack of vowel length is the reason for why there is a distinction between short ⟨e⟩ and short ⟨ä⟩ in Erish orthography; the use of menn for männ ("men") would suggest a pronunciation of [ˈmẽnː] in Dalthorp Erish, where the actual pronunciation is [ˈmæ̃nː].
Unstressed vowels
Old Erish had three unstressed vowels: /ɑ,i,u/. As in other Germanic languages, the strong stress on the first syllable has driven the apocopation and syncopation of unstressed vowels in Erish. Nevertheless, all Erish dialects, if to varying degrees, have not completely reduced the unstressed vowels of Old Erish to /ə/.
- Eastern dialects generally preserve the original unstressed vowel system, having /a,i,u/ as unstressed vowels.
- Western dialects, including that of Havnstead, as well as a few Baylands dialects keep the three unstressed vowels, but shift them to /a,ɛ,ɔ/.
- Baylands dialects, including that of Serdstead, shift unstressed /i/ to /ɛ/, and merge unstressed /ɑ/ and /u/ into /ɔ/.
Grammar
Strong verb-weak verb mergers
Erish is, in some respects, one of the most conservative Germanic languages when it comes to the distinction between strong verbs (verbs like wring-wrang-wrung) and weak verbs (verbs like fish-fished-fished). Specifically, Old Erish and the modern written language have a distinction between the -a infinitive and -ur(t) present of strong verbs, and the -u infinitive and -ar(t) present of weak verbs. Whilst the -ur(t)/-ar(t) distinction can also be found in Icelandic and Faroese, there is no other modern Germanic language which has this infinitive distinction.
Outside of Eastern dialects, this distinction is weaker than in the written language. Western dialects have extended the -a infinitive to weak verbs as well, whilst unstressed vowel mergers have led Baylands dialects to use an -o infinitive and -or(t) present for both strong and weak verbs. Combined with the lack of a past tense outside of around sixty verbs in the standard written language (with more or less in speech depending upon dialect), this means that these dialects have simply lost the distinction between strong and weak altogether in some contexts. This is countered, however, by weak verb u-umlaut still being a fairly productive process for verbs with a root vowel of a.
The following demonstrates some examples of how the vowel mergers have and have not affected the verbal morphology between strong and weak verbs:
| Dialect | INF | IND.PRS.3SG | SUP |
|---|---|---|---|
| skriva "to write" | skrivur "he writes" | skrivað "written" | |
| Havnstead Erish (Western) | [ˈsxɽ̊iːβa] | [ˈsxɽ̊iːβɔɽ] | [ˈsxɽ̊iːβa] |
| Serdstead Erish (Baylands) | [ˈskɽ̊iːβɔ] | [ˈskɽ̊iːβɔɽ] | [ˈskɽ̊iːβɔ] |
| Dalthorp Erish (Eastern) | [ˈʃr̥iːβa] | [ʃr̥iːβʊr] | [ʃr̥iːβaθ] |
| kållu "to call" | kallar "he calls" | kallað "called" | |
| Havnstead Erish | [ˈkʰɔlːa] | [ˈkʰalːaɽ] | [ˈkʰalːa] |
| Serdstead Erish | [ˈkʰɔlːɔ] | [ˈkʰalːɔɽ] | [ˈkʰalːɔ] |
| Dalthorp Erish | [ˈkʰɔlːʊ] | [ˈkʰalːaɽ] | [ˈkʰalːaθ] |
Syntax
Erish has, to varying degrees, been influenced by the syntax common to the Nordic languages. All Erish dialects have a main clause syntax constrained by the V2 word order rule, and use a place-manner-time adverbial word order which is similar to that found in Anglish or Norsk. However, the degree to which the underlying subject-object-verb word order of Old Erish continues into Modern Erish varies by dialect, though all Erish dialects do use a subject-object-verb word order in subordinate clauses.
The main syntactic differences between Erish dialects boil down to whether the final verb cluster of subordinate clauses "builds outward" towards the main verb, or "builds inward" from the main verb. The written Erish language, alongside Baylands dialects, makes use of the former, whilst Western and Eastern dialects generally follow the latter. Eastern dialects still have an underlyingly subject-object-verb word order in main clauses.
The following table provides examples of the syntax differences between the written language, Baylands dialects, Western dialects, and Eastern dialects.
| Dialect | Sentence |
|---|---|
| "I must tell him that she could see it" | |
| Written Erish | Ig mót furtälla him, ðað hjú hið kundi sjá lit. "I must tell him that she it could see" |
| Serdstead Erish (Baylands) | |
| Havnstead Erish (Western) | Ig mót furtälla him, ðað hjú hið sjá kundi lit. "I must tell him that she it see could" |
| Dalthorp Erish (Eastern) | Ig mót him furtälla, ðað hjú hið sjá kundi lit. "I must him tell that she it see could" |
Phonology
The phonology of Erish has a degree of variability between dialects, especially with regards to consonants. Nevertheless, the Erish dialects have enough phonological commonalities that the phonemic notation used for individual dialects influences the phonemic analysis of other dialects. Consequently, the analysis provided below of the Havnstead Erish dialect, which is a prominent dialect in Erish media, is made in light of the phonologies of other Erish dialects. Notations more specific to Havnstead Erish will be provided in the notation below each general phoneme chart.
Vowels
Similar to other Germanic languages, Erish has a large vowel inventory. In the most general analysis, Havnstead Erish has 10 phonemic monophthongs, and lacks any phonemic diphthongs.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | |||
| Close | i | y | ʉ | u |
| Close-mid | eː | ø | oː | |
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Open | a | |||
- Apart from the front unrounded and back mid-vowels, all Erish vowels have long and short allophones which involve a change in quality. Whilst the long allophones essentially use the phonemic value (except for /a/, which has the long allophone [ɑː]), the short allophones of /i,y,ʉ,u,ø,a/ are [ɪ,ʏ,ɵ,ʊ,œ,a]. The front unrounded and back open-mid vowels use the same quality for both the long and short allophones, whilst their close-mid counterparts only occur as long vowels.
- Like all other Erish dialects, Havnstead Erish has a "complementary quantity" feature where long vowels occur in stressed positions where they are not followed by a consonant cluster or geminated consonant, and short vowels occur elsewhere. The only exception to this occurs with vowel plus coda-approximant /ʋ,j/ sequences, where the vowel is always a short (though non-open vowels will use the quality of their long allophone).
- This phonemic analysis is used in light of Eastern dialects, where long and short vowels use the same qualities, and, like all other Erish dialects, have a complementary quantity feature where the long vowels only occur in stressed syllables followed by hiatus, a single, non-geminate consonant, or word-end. More simply, Eastern dialects generally use the qualities of the phonemic inventory of Havnstead Erish, regardless of vowel length.
- Another analysis more specific to Havnstead Erish can interpret the dialect as having 18 phonemic monophthongs with complementary quantity: /ɪ~iː,ʏ~yː,ɵ~ʉː,ʊ~uː,ɛ~eː,œ~øː,ɔ~oː,ɛ~ɛː,ɔ~ɔː,a~ɑː/.
- Roundedness allophonically falls into two categories
- Compression, which is used by close non-front rounded vowels, making /ɵ~ʉː,ʊ~uː/ typically [ɘβ~ɨβː,ʊβ~ɯβː]. Because /ʉː/ typically has a fairly advanced quality, this makes compression one of the key distinguishing traits from /yː/.
- All other rounded vowels use protrusion, making /ɔ~oː,ɔ~ɔː,ʏ~yː,œ~øː/ typically [ʌʷ~ɤʷː,ʌʷ~ʌʷː,ɪʷ~iʷː,ɛʷ~eʷː]. Similar to the situation between the central and front rounded vowels, the long mid-close front rounded vowel is heavily distinguished from the short mid-close central vowel by protrusion (as well as length), as the latter vowel is also fairly advanced.
- Erish has seven diphthongs which can be analyzed as a sequence of vowel plus approximant, the latter of which is typically in syllable coda before another consonant.
- /aj/, as in Ragnar [ˈɽaɪ̯naɽ]
- /aʋ/, as in ravn "raven" [ˈɽaʊ̯n]
- /ej/, as in regn "rain" [ˈɽeɪ̯n]
- /eʋ/, as in stevn "voice" [ˈsθeʊ̯n]
- /oj/, as in fugl "bird" [ˈfoɪ̯l]
- /oʋ/, as in Håvnstäd "Havnstead" [ˌhoʊ̯nˈsθɛːθ]
- In the Havnstead dialect, only the vowels /a,ɛ,ɔ/ occur in unstressed syllables of native vocabulary or inflectional suffixes. Other vowels in these positions are only found in loanwords.
Consonants
Havnstead Erish has an average-sized consonant inventory, with 18 phonemic consonants. As with other Western Erish dialects, it preserves a distinct /θ/ phoneme, and has an aspiration instead of voicing distinction for the plosives. It is notable, like many Erish dialects, for the large presence of fricatives; beyond the phonemic /f,θ,x/, the unaspirated /b,d,g/ may alternatively be analyzed as /β,ð,ɣ/ due to the frequency of contexts in which they are realized as fricatives.
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g |
| Fricative | f | θ | x | |||
| Sibilant | s | ɕ | ||||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | |||
| Rhotic | ɽ | |||||
- Geminated nasal consonants /mː,nː/, as well as all instances of /ŋ/ where it is not followed by /k/ (phonetically [ŋː]), cause nasalization of the preceding consonant, as seen in kynga "queen" [ˈɕʏ̃˧˩ŋːa˥˩].
- The stops /p,t,k/ may alternatively be analyzed as /pʰ,tʰ,kʰ/, which is typically used when considering the Havnstead Erish dialect without comparison to other Erish dialects. /p,t,k/ are realized as aspirate [pʰ,tʰ,kʰ] when word-initial. When geminated, they affricate to [p͡ɸː,t͡sː,k͡xː]. Elsewhere, they are realized with their phonemic values [p,t,k].
- Before front vowels the geminated /tː,kː/ instead affricate to [t͡ʃː,c͡çː].
- In word-initial contexts before the sonorants /ʋ,l,ɽ/, /p,t,k/ have a few different allophones:
- /p/ affricates to [p͡ɸ] before /l,ɽ/, as in ple "to care for, nurse" [ˈp͡ɸl̥eː], prikka "to hit" [ˈp͡ɸɽ̊ɪk͡xːa].
- /t/ affricates to [t͡s] before /ʋ/ and [ʈ͡ʂ] before /ɽ/, as in tveis "two" [ˈt͡sʋ̥eːs] and tryi "true" [ˈʈ͡ʂɽ̊yːjɛ].
- /k/ affricates to [k͡x] before /l,ɽ/, as in kló "claw" [ˈk͡xl̥uː] and krabbi "crab" [k͡xɽ̊apːɛ]
- Beyond the aforementioned analysis as /β,ð,ɣ/, works focusing upon Havnstead Erish generally analyze /b,d,g/ as /p,t,k/. The stops /b,d,g/ are realized as unaspirated [p,t,k] in word-initial, geminate, or post-nasal contexts (though /d/ is also a stop after /l/, and /g/ is [x] word-initially). When word-final, the stops lenit to [ɸ,θ,x]; in the only other context in which they occur, intervocalically, these fricatives are voiced to [β,ð,ɣ]. These fricative allophones are just as common as their stop counterparts, meaning many words may phonemically be composed of stops, but are phonetically fricative, as with gódi "good" [ˈxuːðɛ] (/ˈgudɛ/) or gjeva "to give" [ˈçeːβa] (/ˈgeba/).
- Before front vowels or the phoneme /j/, the [x,ɣ] allophones of /g/ palatalize to [ç,ʝ].
- In the unstressed variants of grammatical words, the fricative allophones of stops are usually dropped, as seen in ðað "the; that" [ða] and mig "me" [mɛ]. In the case of hjeis "they (m.)", similar to the phonemic fricatives, the [ç] of the stressed [ˈçeːs] becomes the [ʝ] of [ʝɛs].
- Although the allophonic lenition of the unaspirated stops to fricatives works essentially as it did in reconstructed Proto-Germanic, only aspects of the modern allophony are actually direct inheritances.
- Proto-Germanic *β shifted to [v] in Old Erish, merging with /f/ (itself shifted from Proto-Germanic *ɸ), which was voiced in non-word initial, non-geminated contexts. Across all dialects during the Middle Erish period, [v] shifted to [β], which was then devoiced to [ɸ] if word-final by the Early Modern Erish period.
- Proto-Germanic *ð had already been hardened at the Proto-West Germanic stage of Erish to [d] in all contexts, incidentally making Old Erish /d/ distinct from the [ð] allophone of /θ/. During the Middle Erish period, all dialects lenited the /d/ to [ð] in non-word initial, non-geminate, non-post nasal, and non-post lateral contexts, occurring after Baylands dialects had lost the [ð] allophone of /θ/; word-finally, this devoiced to [θ] by the Early Modern Erish period.
- In contrast to the other two stops, which have essentially re-invented the fricative allophony, Modern Erish /g/ does directly continue the original allophony of Proto-Germanic *ɣ. Erish is the only Germanic language other than Dutch to do so, although Baylands dialects have hardened word-initial [ɣ] to [g].
- The fricative phonemes /f,θ,x/ only ever occur word-initially or in geminated contexts (though /f/ occurs in the consonant cluster /ft/ as well); instances of word-final [ɸ,θ,x] are analyzed as phonemically /b,d,g/, even when the original phonemes were /f,θ,x/.
- /f/ is generally realized as [f], but in some unstressed grammatical words, it may be realized as [v], as in hveim "whom" [vɛm].
- /θ/ similarly is generally realized as [θ], but is realized in unstressed grammatical words as [ð], as in ðeim "the; that" [ðɛm].
- /x/ is realized word-initially as [h]. In geminate contexts such as in lähha "to laugh" [ˈlɛxːa] and lähhi "I laugh" [ˈlɛçːɛ], [xː] occurs before non-front vowels, whilst [çː] appears before front vowels or the phoneme /j/.
- The sonorants /n,ʋ,l,ɽ/ have voiceless allophones when they are part of an onset in which they are preceded by a voiceless obstruent, as seen in frysa "to freeze" [ˈfɽ̊yːsa].
- /ʋ/ is realized as a fricative [f] after /k/, as in kvinna "woman" [ˈkfɪ̃˧˩nːa˥˩].
- /ʋ,j/ only realize their phonemic values in syllable onsets; in syllable coda, they form diphthongs with the preceding vowel.
- The sequences /ɽl,ɽn,ɽs,ɽt/ are realized as [ɭ,ɳ,ʂ,ʈ]. The stressed mid-open vowels /ɛ(ː),ɔ(ː)/ lower to [æ(ː),ɒ(ː)] before /ɽ/. Retroflexion of these consonants causes stressed vowels to lengthen. All three of these phenomenon can be seen in the word hjårtu "hearts" [ˈjɒː˧˩ʈʰɔ˥˩], which is phonemically /ˈjɔɽ˧˩tɔ˥˩/.
- Vowels standing in hiatus have an allophonic glide between them based upon their point of articulation:
- High front vowels are followed by an allophonic [j], as in nýa "new" [ˈnyːja]
- High back vowels are followed by an allophonic [w], as in rói "calm" [ˈɽuː˧˩wɛ˥˩]
- Non-high vowels before a front vowel are followed by [j], as in blái "blue" [ˈpl̥ɔːjɛ]
- Non-high vowels before a back vowel are followed by [w], as in bláu "blue" [ˈpl̥ɔːwɔ]
- Non-high vowels before an open vowel are followed by [ʔ], as in bláa "blue" [ˈpl̥ɔːʔa]
Prosody
Similar to several Nordic languages, Erish is a pitch-accent language with two tones: a neutral tone and a rising tone. Whilst the tone distinction is not particularly distinctive, there are nonetheless a few hundred Erish words which are only phonemically distinct by tone. For example, mannis "the man" [ˈmãnːɪs] has neutral tone, whilst Mannis "Manni (Erish god)" [ˈmã˧˩nːɪs˥˩]. These tones generally correspond to originally monosyllabic words (neutral tone) and polysyllabic words (rising tone) in Old Erish, though there are several exceptions, particularly with loanwords.
Grammar
Modern Erish is a fusional language which shares many features with the Nordic languages, particularly with regards to nominal morphology and syntax. Erish is a fairly conservative Germanic language in certain aspects, as it still retains a fairly robust morphological system that has two cases or three genders, but, similar to many modern Germanic languages, it has undergone a considerable transition away from the complex grammars of older Indo-European languages. The traditional divide between "strong" and "weak" verbs, for example, is not as descriptive of the modern Erish language as it is in most others, as a combination of erosive sound changes, regularization, and an analytic perfect tense has replaced the past tense in most Erish verbs.
Nominals
Erish nominals inflect for two cases (nominative, oblique), three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter), and two numbers (singular, plural); adjectives and nouns further inflect for definiteness, and adjectives inflect for three degrees of comparison (positive, comparative, superlative). Most nominals inflect through suffixation, but certain adjectives, determiners, nouns and pronouns irregularly decline through some form of stem change.
Case and gender
The modern system of Erish case and gender arose during the Middle Erish period, when the complex Old Erish system partially collapsed. The Modern Erish system of gender is fairly faithful, as all three genders have been preserved in the singular and plural. The four-case system of Old Erish, though, has been heavily changed, as the genitive case has all but disappeared outside of a select few pronouns, whilst the accusative and dative cases have merged into an oblique case which generally follows the form of the accusative.
The function of the case system is primarily to indicate whether the noun is a subject (or complement), or not; the nominative case is used for the former, whilst the oblique case is for the latter. A noun in the oblique case without a preceding preposition generally indicates the direct object (Djósið høyrdi agarin "The animal heard the hunter"), though in some contexts it may indicate the indirect object (Drängis gjørdi synga móðrun sina hymnun "The boy sang his mother the hymn"). Traces of the oblique's partial origins as the dative remain in some verbs and verbal expressions, such as in Konun mina er kaldt ("My wife is cold"), where the subject konun mina ("my wife") is in the oblique case instead of the nominative.
Declension and definiteness
Erish nouns generally fall into one of five regular declensions, alongside an additional two somewhat irregular declensions and an assortment of irregular nouns. Similar to the Nordic languages, Erish nouns use a suffixed definite article, but because Erish has somewhat preserved unstressed syllables, the form of the definite article can vary depending upon declension. The following table provides examples of some of the various declension patterns Erish nouns can follow, with the definite articles bolded:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As opposed to the two-way article system found in most Germanic languages, Erish has a three-way system which indicates both definiteness and specificity. The specific article eitt, which corresponds to English "a, an" though not necessarily vice versa, is only used if the speaker is referring to a specific noun or group of nouns. In the sentence Løyraris gjørdi lesa bøk ("The teacher read books"), the teacher read books in general; by contrast, in Løyraris gjørdi lesa senas bøk ("The teacher read (some) books"), the teacher read some particular books that the speaker may go on to describe.
Adjectives
As in Anglish, Erish adjectives are words which normally precede a noun and provide additional information about it. These Erish words, however, must also inflect for the case, gender, and number of their nouns, and also use different declensions and suffixes depending upon their definiteness and degree of comparison. The most basic division in the use of adjectives is that the "strong" declension is used when a noun is indefinite or is preceded by the specific article, and the weak declension before a noun using the definite article; when a definite article is used for a noun, the adjective must be preceded by the determiner ðei ("the; that") or another definite determiner.
| number | case | Strong declension | Weak declension | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | F | N | M | F | N | ||
| SG | NOM | (eini) langi ver | (ei) lång kona | (eitt) langt barn | ðei langi veris | ðú langa konu | ðað langa barnið |
| OBL | (eina) langa ver | (eina) langa kona | ðeim langa verin | ðeira langa konun | |||
| PL | NOM | (einis) langis verar | (einas) langas konur | (ei) lång bårn | ðeis langa veras | ðús långu konus | ðeis långu bårnu |
| OBL | |||||||
The comparative and superlative degrees are typically formed by the suffixes -ari and ast respectively, though some words like gódi ("good") or yvli ("bad") have irregular degrees, using, for example, bättri ("better") or verst ("worst"). Comparative only use the weak adjective declension, whilst the superlative uses both the strong and weak declensions.
Pronouns and determiners
Pronouns are a class of words which are used in place of other words, with the most important being the personal, relative, and interrogative pronouns. These pronouns are actually fairly correspondent to their English counterparts because both languages retain grammatical case in these types of words, though Erish does so to a greater degree. An important difference between the two languages is that, instead of having a distinct reflexive -self form, Erish pronouns use their oblique forms or, if they are third-person, the dedicated reflexive pronoun sig.
| case | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PERS | REL | INT | REFL | ||||||||||
| M | F | N | M | F | N | M | F | N | |||||
| SG | NOM | ig | ðú | hin | hjú | hið | ðei | ðú | ðað | hvei | hvú | hvað | ― |
| OBL | mig | ðig | him | hira | ðeim | ðeira | hveim | hveira | sig | ||||
| PL | NOM | vis | jis | hjeis | hjús | hjú | ðeis | ðús | ðú | hveis | hvús | hvú | ― |
| OBL | ús | júg | sig | ||||||||||
Determiners are a special class of pronouns which can be used both attributively and substantively, meaning that they can work either like an adjective (Ig älski konun mina "I love my wife") or a noun (Ig älski mina "I love mine"). One of the most important classes of determiners are the possessive determiners, which are used to indicate ownership, and normally follow the nouns they describe. The reflexive third-person possessive determiner is used when the possessor is the same as the subject of the sentence (Hjú talar mið dóttrun sina "She speaks with her (own) daughter"), whilst the regular third-person possessive determiner is used when they are not (Hjú talar mið dóttrun hiras "She speaks with her (some other woman's) daughter").
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PERS | REL | INT | REFL | ||||||||||||
| M | F | N | M | F | N | M | F | N | |||||||
| SG | mini | ðini | his | hiras | his | ðas | ðeiras | ðas | hvas | hveiras | hvas | sini | |||
| PL | vári | jóri | hiras | ðeiras | hveiras | sini | |||||||||
Verbs
Erish verbs have undergone considerable reduction in their morphology, and generally only conjugate for two moods (indicative, imperative), two numbers (singular, plural), and three persons (first, second, third). However, these reductions have been replaced by the emergence of several analytic verbal constructions that rely on auxiliary verbs like vera ("to be"), bliva ("to become"), gjeru ("to do"), and häbba ("to have"). Erish is notable for retaining an infinitive distinction between strong and weak verbs, which are known in Erish grammar as -a and -u verbs respectively. The conjugation paradigm of a typical Erish verb looks like that followed by fisku ("to fish"):
| Mood | Tense | Person, Number |
"to fish" |
|---|---|---|---|
| INF | fisku | ||
| PTCP | PRS | fiskandi | |
| PST | fiskað | ||
| AUX | häbba | ||
| IND | PRS | 1SG | fiski |
| 2SG | fiskart | ||
| 3SG | fiskar | ||
| PL | fisku | ||
| IMP | SG | fisk | |
| PL | fiskið | ||
In the standard language, the past tense has been replaced in most verbs by an analytic construction involving the past tense of gjeru ("to do") plus infinitive, making, for example, the Erish translation of English "I bathed the dog" to be Ig gjørdi båðu hundin (lit. "I did bathe the dog"). In common speech outside of Western dialects, however, this analytic construction itself has been replaced by the perfect tense, making the spoken equivalent actually Ig häbbi baðað hundin (lit. "I have bathed the dog"). The perfect tense is normally formed by the verb häbba ("to have") and the neuter singular declension of the past participle, but some verbs that relate to change and direction instead use vera ("to be") plus past participle.
Combined with certain sound changes and morphological levelling, the loss of the past tense has greatly reduced the distinction between strong and weak verbs in Erish. In the standard language, for example, the strong verb skriva ("to write") is indistinguishable from a weak verb. Some strong and irregular verbs retain a conjugated past tense, but by and large, such conjugation is otherwise moribund.
Late Old Erish and early Middle Erish had a mediopassive voice formed through the suffix -sk, similar to the -s passive found in modern Nordic languages. However, that conjugated voice has been replaced by an analytic construction of bliva ("to become") and the present participle of a verb; the Erish equivalent of Norsk Rikard og Frodi slås ("Rikard and Frodi are fighting"), for example, is Rikarð and Fródi bliva slánda (lit. "Rikard and Frodi become fighting").
Erish has a fairly distinctive method of forming the future tense amongst Germanic languages. Similar to its relatives, the future tense can be formed simply by using the present tense and, usually, adding an adverb, as seen in Ig arviði i morgin ("I work tomorrow"). However, the future tense may also be formed by using vera ("to be"), specifically in its unique future tense conjugation bi-. Whilst it can be used as a equivalent to English "will", as in Mannis bir lesa eina bók ("The man will read a book"), it often has gnomic connotations, expressing fundamental or universal truths about something, as seen in Bårn bi leika ("Children play").
Syntax
Written Erish has a syntax which is a compromise between the different word orders found across the dialects. The basic word order is subject-verb-object, which is subject to the V2 restriction that the first constituent, the topic (most often the subject), must be immediately followed by the finite verb, which acts as a topic marker. In interrogative and imperative clauses, however, the finite verb is fronted.
Mannis singur sangin. The man sings the song "The man sings the song."
Singur mannis sangin? Sings the man the song? "Does the man sing the song?"
Sing (ðú) sangin! Sing (you) the song! "Sing the song!"
Because Erish morphologically marks the basic roles of subject and direct object through case and, to a much lesser extent, verbal subject marking, Erish word order can be fairly flexible. The following sentence provides some potential translations of the English sentence "The mother gave her son a cat":
Móðru gav sonin sina eina kått. The mother gave her son a cat
Móðru gav eina kått til sonin sina. The mother gave a cat to her son
Til sonin sina gav móðru eina kått. To her son gave the mother a cat
Gjeva gjørdi móðru eina kått til sonin sina. Give did the mother a cat to her son
Eina kått gav móðru til sonin sina. A cat gave the mother to her son
Further variations on word order are possible, but, generally speaking, these are the ones that would normally occur in common speech. Any constituent of the sentence is able to be topicalized, and word order can be shifted around for matters of emphasis. However, when the indirect object is topicalized or does not immediately precede the direct object, it has to use the preposition til ("to"). Similarly, when the verb of a sentence is topicalized, if there is not already an auxiliary verb there, the verb gjeru ("to do") must occupy the second slot of a sentence.
In contrast to the subject-verb-object word order of main clauses, subordinate clauses use a subject-object-verb word order, with the final verb cluster "building outwards" to the main verb.
Ig veit ðað ðú him móst kållu I know that you him must call "I know that you must call him."
In wh-questions, the interrogative word is almost always fronted.
Hvei gjørdi hjelpa ðig? Who did help you? "Who helped you?"
Hveim gjørdirt ðú hjelpa? Whom did you help? "Whom did you help?"
Vocabulary
The Erish lexicon is primarily composed of Germanic vocabulary, with vocabulary from Greco-Romance and other Germanic languages constituting the main sources of loanwords. The most basic wordstock of Erish is of Germanic origin, being either directly inherited from Old Erish or having been loaned from Old Norse during early Erish history. Examples of basic Erish vocabulary that was loaned from the common ancestor of the Nordic languages include gult ("yellow"), kjåt ("meat"), and skóg ("forest"). Other core vocabulary words like þyrrt ("dry"), sky ("cloud"), and barn ("child") are probably original Erish words which developed in tandem with their cognates in the Nordic languages.
| English | Erish | English | Erish | English | Erish | English | Erish | English | Erish | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ant | mýra | ash | aska | back | rygg | to bear, carry | bera | big | stóri | ||||
| bird (fowl) | fugl | to bite | bita | bitter | bittri | black | svarti | blood | blód | ||||
| to blow | blása | bone | knoki, bein (leg) |
breast | bryst | to burn (intransitive) | brinna | child | barn | ||||
| to come | koma | to crush, grind | mala | to cry | gráta | to do, make | gjeru | dog | hund | ||||
| to drink | drikka | ear | øyra | to eat | eta | egg | ei | eye | ouga | ||||
| to fall | falla | far | fjarri | fire | eld | fish | fisk | flesh, meat | kjåt | ||||
| fly | flyga | foot | fót | to give | gjeva | to go | gá | good | gódi | ||||
| hair | hár | hand | hånd | hard | hårdi | he, she, it | hin (m.), hjú (f.), hið (n.) |
to hear | høyra | ||||
| heavy | svári | to hide | gøyma | to hit, beat | slá | horn | horn | house | hús | ||||
| I | ig | in | i | knee | kne | to know | vita | to laugh | lähha | ||||
| leaf | blad, louv | liver | livr | long | langi | louse | lús | mouth | munn | ||||
| name | nami | navel | nåvli | neck | hals (front), nakki (back) |
new | nyi | night | nátt | ||||
| nose | nås | not | ikki | old | gammli | one | eitt | rain | regn | ||||
| red | roud | root | rót | rope | reip, toug | to run | loupa | salt | salt | ||||
| sand | sand | to say | sägga | to see | sjá | shade, shadow |
skú | skin, hide | húd | ||||
| small, little | lyttli | smoke | røyk | soil, earth |
jårð | to stand | stá | star | stjarna | ||||
| stone, rock | stein | to suck | súga | sweet | søti | tail | hali | to take | taka | ||||
| thick | þykki | thigh | lá | this | ðässi | to tie, bind | binda | tongue | tunga | ||||
| tooth | tann | water | vattur | what? | hvað | who? | hvei (m.), hvú (f.) | wide, broad | vidi, breidi | ||||
| wind | vind | wing | ving | wood | tre, vid | yesterday | i gistur | you (singular) | ðú | ||||
| English | Erish | English | Erish | English | Erish | English | Erish | English | Erish |
Examples
The following table provides a comparison between Erish and other Germanic languages, including Old Erish, Anglish (and Old English), the Nordic languages, German, and some other West Germanic languages.
| Language | Phrase | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modern Anglish | I come from Erishland | What is his name? | This is a horse | The rainbow has many colours |
| Erish | Ig komi frá Ärskland | Hvað heitar hin? | Ðätta er eini jó | Regnbogis havir mangis fargar |
| Old Erish | Ic com frá Ärsclandi | Hvat heitr his? | Þänna er eini jó / Þätta er eitt hross |
Regnbogins er mangvlitir |
| Danish | Jeg kommer fra Erskland | Hvad hedder han? | Dette er en hest | Regnbuen har mange farver |
| Norsk Bokmål | Jeg kommer fra Erskland | Hva heter han? | Dette er en hest | Regnbuen har mange farger |
| Nynorsk | Eg kjem frå Erskland | Kva heiter han? | Dette er ein hest | Regnbogen har mange fargar/leter / Regnbogen er mangleta |
| Swedish | Jag kommer från Ärskland | Vad heter han? | Detta är en häst | Regnbågen har många färger |
| Old Norse | Ek kem frá Ersklandi | Hvat heitir hann? | Þetta er hross / Þessi er hestr |
Regnboginn er marglitr |
| Icelandic | Ég kem frá Ersklandi | Hvað heitir hann? | Þetta er hestur/hross | Regnboginn er marglitur |
| Faroese | Eg komi úr Ersklandi | Hvussu eitur hann? | Hetta er eitt ross / ein hestur | Ælabogin hevur nógvar litir / Ælabogin er marglittur |
| Old Anglish | Ic cume fram Ærisclande | Hwat hāteþ he? | Þis is hors | Regnboga hæfð manige hiw |
| German | Ich komme aus Erschland | Wie heißt er? | Das ist ein Pferd | Der Regenbogen hat viele Farben |
| Dutch | Ik kom uit Ersland | Hoe heet hij? | Dit is een paard | De regenboog heeft veel (vele) kleuren |
| Afrikaans | Ek kom van Ersland | Wat is sy naam? / Hoe heet hy? |
Dit is 'n perd | Die reënboog het baie kleure |
| West Frisian | Ik kom út Irslân | Hoe hjit er? | Dit is in hynder | De reinbôge hat in protte kleuren |
| Low Saxon | Ik kom üüt Ärskland | Ho hit e? | Dit is een peerd | De regenboge hev völe klören |
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