Erish phrasebook

Erish (ærsked, "EAHR-shuh") is a West Germanic language most closely related to languages like Anglic and German, but which has been highly influenced by its more distant Nordic relatives. It is the national language of Erishland, and minority Erish-speaking communities can be found in other countries in northern Belisaria. Although it is not necessarily mutually intelligible with any of them (most especially in speech), the similarities between Erish and the Nordic languages mean that those familiar with a Nordic language have an easier time learning Erish and vice versa. This is especially the case from Erish's etymological spelling, which makes spotting shared vocabulary easier.

Most Erish speakers are familiar with at least some amount of Anglish, and many younger speakers are fluent, meaning that knowing Erish isn't necessarily needed for getting by. However, many Erish speakers take immense pride in their language, and even knowing basic phrases will show an interest that can get one a long way.

Pronunciation guide

Erish spelling is very etymological, meaning that words are spelled according to older pronunciations that are not necessarily similar to modern pronunciation. Nevertheless, Erish spelling is much more regular than English; even if spelling is not immediately derivable from pronunciation, pronunciation is almost always derivable from spelling. Although there is no official standard pronunciation of Erish, the pronunciation of the Homnstead dialect serves as a de facto standard pronunciation, a basic overview of which is provided below.

Vowels

Erish vowels are, compared to consonants, fairly simple - their main difficulty is that there are several which do not have an immediate Anglish equivalent.

The basic rules of Erish vowels are:

• Erish vowels have two different pronunciations, long and short.
  • Long vowels occur when the vowel is stressed and followed by no more than a single consonant.
  • Short vowels occur in any other situation.
  • The stressed syllable is normally the first syllable of a word, but in loanwords from Greek, Latin, or Romance languages, it is often the syllable before the final consonant of a word.
• Erish vowels can't be pronounced one after another. If two vowels would not otherwise form a digraph, they are treated as though a g stood between them:
  • After the vowels a, o, and u, a sound roughly similar to the w in wet is used (IPA: [ɣ̞(ʷ)])
  • After all other vowels, a sound like the y in yet is used (IPA: [ʝ̞]).

a

(Long, short) like "a" as in spa (IPA: [ɑ(ː)])

e, í, eì, aì

(Long) somewhat similar to "i...e" as in bide (IPA: [ɛɪ̯ː])

(Short) like "e" as in bet (IPA: [ɛ])

(Unstressed) like "a" as in comma (IPA: [ə])

i

(Long) like "ea" as in bead (IPA: [iː])

(Short) like "i" as in bit (IPA: [ɪ])

o, á, ú, aù, où

(Long) somewhat similar to "ow" as in cowed (IPA: [ɔʊ̯ː])

(Short) like "augh" as in caught (IPA: [ɔ])

u, ó

(Long) like "oo" as in food (IPA: [uː])

(Short) like "oo" as in foot (IPA: [ʊ])

y

(Long) somewhat similar to "ue" as in cued (IPA: [yʉ̯ː])

(Short) similar to "i" as in kit, but with rounded lips (IPA: [ʏ])

æ, iá

(Long) similar to "a" as in mad (IPA: [æɐ̯ː])

(Short) like "a" as in mat (IPA: [æ])

œ, ió, iú, ý, oì, eù

(Long) somewhat similar to "ie" as in lied, but with rounded lips (IPA: [œʏ̯ː])

(Short) similar to "e" as in let, but with rounded lips (IPA: [œ])

Consonants

Erish consonants are notoriously complicated, as they not only have length like the vowels, but many have multiple different pronunciations depending upon where they are in a word and what the neighboring letters are. Foreign students are typically taught them in the "three groups" model of plain, strong, and weak consonants.

Basic rules about consonants include:

• Consonants are long if they are not word-initial and are after a stressed vowel, and they are doubled, they are followed by a silent letter, or they precede another consonant without an intervening apostrophe.
  • The one exception is qu, which is treated like a short consonant for both consonant and vowel length.
• Several consonants can become fricative word-finally if they are short.
• When a consonant is the first letter of a two-letter cluster with d, s, or t, a consonant may also become a fricative, with the resulting consonant, in line with pronunciation rules, being long or short.

Plain consonants

Plain consonants mostly have a single "hard" pronunciation that is used when long or short, though a couple of them have an additional fricative pronunciation. A few of them also have a short pronunciation (though it is not used at the beginning of a word).

b

(Hard) like the b in bin (IPA: [b])

(Fricative) similar to the f in fight (IPA: [ɸ])

(Short) similar to the v in view (IPA: [β̞]); the hard pronunciation is used after m

c

like the ch in chin (IPA: [t͡ʃ])

f

similar to the f in for (IPA: [ɸ])

gg

like the gg in leggings (IPA: [g])

hh

similar to the ch in Scottish loch (IPA: [x])

j

(Hard) like the y in year (IPA: [ʝ̞])

(Fricative) like the sh in fish (IPA: [ʃ])

(Silent) after d, g, h, k, l, n, s, sk, t, þ

kk

like the ck in kick (IPA: [k])

m

like the m in May (IPA: [m])

ng

like the ng in sing (IPA: [ŋ])

p

like the p in path (IPA: [p])

qu

always like the qu in bouquet (IPA: [k]), never like in question

sc

like the sh in wish (IPA: [ʃ])

squ

always like the squ in brusque (IPA: [sk]), never like in squash

r

(Hard) like a trilled Scottish or Spanish r (IPA: [r])

(Short) like a tapped Spanish r, or American English kitty (IPA: [ɾ])

v

(Hard) like the b in beer (IPA: [b])

(Fricative) similar to the f in fear (IPA: [ɸ]); also used after d and t

(Short) similar to the v in wolves (IPA: [β̞])

(Silent) after g and h

w

(Hard) doesn't exist in English; similar to the w in water, but often with unrounded lips (IPA: [ɣ̞(ʷ)])

(Fricative) like the ch in Scottish loch (IPA: [x])

x

like the ch in Scottish loch (IPA: [x])

z

(Hard) like the sh in dish (IPA: [ʃ])

(Silent) after d, l, n, s, t, or þ

zg

like the dg in bridge (IPA: [d͡ʒ])

zk

like the tch in hitch (IPA: [t͡ʃ])

Strong consonants

Strong consonants mostly lack silent pronunciations, but otherwise follow the patterns of hard, fricative, and short pronunciations. All of them, however, have a soft pronunciation caused by a following soft consonant, silent j, or silent z. They may have an additional fricative version as well.

d

(Hard) like the d in deer (IPA: [d])

(Fricative) like the s in see (IPA: [s]); after l, n, or r, the hard pronunciation is used

(Short) similar to the th in breathe (IPA: [ð̞])

(Soft) at the beginning of a word, like the y in you (IPA: [ʝ̞]); elsewhere, like the j in just (IPA: [d͡ʒ])

(Soft fricative) In a consonant cluster, like the sh in push (IPA: [ʃ])

(Silent) in certain grammatical words, namely the definite article -(e)d, and the pronouns ged, zed, and gvad

l

(Hard) like the l in light (IPA: [l])

(Soft) similar to the lli in million (IPA: [ʎ])

n

(Hard) like the n in now (IPA: [n]); at the beginning of a word, also hard before a silent j

(Soft) similar to the ny in canyon (IPA: [ɲ])

(Irregular) in -en endings associated with the singular masculine, like the l in pile (IPA: [l])

s, þ

(Hard) like the s in sight (IPA: [s])

(Soft) like the sh in shelf (IPA: [ʃ])

t

(Hard) like the t in time (IPA: [t])

(Fricative) before only d, like the s in list (IPA: [s])

(Soft) like the tch in britch (IPA: [t͡ʃ])

Weak consonants

Weak consonants are identical to strong consonants in their pronunciation rules, with the important exception that softening can be caused by neighboring vowels. The consonant g also has nasal pronunciations.

cg

(Hard) like the gg in rigged (IPA: [g])

(Soft) After i, y, like the dg in midget (IPA: [d͡ʒ])

(Soft fricative) In a consonant cluster, like the sh in splash (IPA: [ʃ])

ch

(Hard) like the ch in Scottish loch (IPA: [x])

(Soft) after e, i, y, æ, or œ, like the sh in mush (IPA: [ʃ])

ck

(Hard) like the ck in thick (IPA: [k])

(Soft) After i, y, like the tch in snitch (IPA: [t͡ʃ])

g

(Hard) doesn't exist in English; similar to the w in win, but often with unrounded lips (IPA: [ɣ̞(ʷ)])

(Fricative) like the ch in Scottish loch (IPA: [x])

(Nasal) before n, like the ng in king (IPA: [ŋ])

(Soft) before or after e, i, j, y, æ, or œ, like the y in yoke (IPA: [ʝ̞])

(Soft fricative) after e, i, y, æ, or œ, like the sh in shine (IPA: [ʃ])

(Soft nasal) after e, i, y, æ, or œ, similar to the ny in canyon (IPA: [ɲ])

h

(Hard) like the ch in Scottish loch (IPA: [x])

(Soft) before or after e, i, j, y, æ, or œ, like the sh in shin (IPA: [ʃ])

k

(Hard) like the k in kin (IPA: [k])

(Soft) before e, i, j, y, æ, or œ, or after i or y, like the ch in chick (IPA: [t͡ʃ])

sk

(Hard) like the sk in skin (IPA: [sk])

(Soft) before or after e, i, j, y, æ, or œ, or after a (but not á) or a consonant, like the sh in crash (IPA: [ʃ])

Grammar

Being a Germanic language, Erish has a fairly similar grammar to languages like Anglish, but it is especially close to languages like Norsk. However, it is a bit more conservative in certain respects, as it retains case and gender more extensively, though it is not nearly as complex as German, much less Icelandic.

Erish nouns are one of three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) in both the singular and plural. Whilst human nouns generally follow their natural gender, such as with mannen ("the man (m.)") and quinno ("the woman (f.)"), others are much more arbitrary, such as with stenen ("the stone (m.)"), múso ("the mouse (f.)"), and barned ("the child (n.)").

Erish nouns also make use of four grammatical cases (nominative/accusative, dative/genitive), which are used depending upon the grammatical role of a noun in a sentence. For example, in the following sentence, all four cases are used:

Mannen sænde susterz konez síz pá studenten

The man (nom.) sent the sister (dat.) of his wife (gen.) the student (acc.)

The nominative case is used to indicate who is doing the action, whilst the dative case is used to indicate to whom the action is directed, and the accusative to indicate whom the action is done to. The genitive case is used to indicate possession, or whose a noun is. In common speech, the preposition til ("to; of") tends to be added to the genitive (and, less often, the dative), making the example commonly "...susterz til konez síz...". Southern dialects also increasingly drop grammatical case outside of pronouns, although case is still expected in more formal speech.

In Erish grammar, students are usually taught nouns do not use articles like "the" or "an", but are instead in "states" that correspond to these articles.

• The indefinite state has the noun standing alone, and is used when the noun is non-specific. An example is Ig will hæbbe hund "I want a dog", where the speaker just wants any dog.
• The specific state has the specific article en, which inflects for case, gender, and number, and is used when the speaker is introducing a specific noun. An example is Ig will hæbbe en hund "I want a dog", where the speaker a specific dog or kind of dog.
• The definite state uses the definite suffix -en, which inflects for case, gender, and number, though it can slightly vary depending upon the noun. It corresponds to the English "the", as seen in Ig will hæbbe hunden "I want the dog".

Pronouns	Singular	Plural
1st person	ig (eesh) "I"	wid (ghee) "we (not you)" wis (ghece) "we (and you)"
2nd person	zú (show) (informal) jid (ye) (formal)	jis (yece)
3rd person definite	gen (yile) "he" gjo (yow) "she" ged (yie) "it"	ges (yice) "they (m.)" gjos (yows) "they (f.)" gjo (yow) "they (n.)"

The personal pronouns often function very differently than in Anglic.

• There are two equivalents to English "we", which are used depending upon whether the "we" includes the person being spoken to (wis), or does not include them (wid).
• Similar to many other languages, Erish has two versions of a singular "you" used depending upon whether the context is formal (jid) or informal (zú). Jis is used for the plural "you" in all contexts.
• The normal Erish equivalent of the Anglic third-person pronouns "he, she, it, they" are the definite pronouns, which agree with the grammatical gender of a noun, not the natural gender.
  • For groups of mixed gender, the pronoun ges ("they (m.)") is used.
  • These pronouns are used like a definite article when a definite noun is preceded by an adjective, such as with ged grœne húsed "the green house".
  • Proper names are typically preceded by the definite pronoun, such as in the sentence Ig sog pá gen Róbert "I saw Robert".

Erish verbs are relatively simple, as they only conjugate for number and tense, and the infinitive ("to X") form of a verb is almost always the same as the present plural form ("we/you (pl.)/they X").

• The present singular is formed by adding -z to the infinitive, such as with hete ("to be named") and hetez ("I/you (sg.)/he am/are/is named").
• All verbs have a past tense form, which is regularly formed by the suffixes -de (sg.) and -do (pl.), such as with kalle ("to call") and kalde ("I/you (sg.)/he called"); many common verbs have an irregular past tense formed by changing the vowel of the verb, as in synge ("to sing") and sang ("I/you (sg.)/he sang").
  • The verb weze ("to be"), unlike any other verb, conjugates for the future tense with the forms bez ("I/you (sg.)/he will be") and be ("we/you (pl.)/they will be"). This future tense form is used to form the future tense of other verbs, such as in Ig bez sehve... ("I will see...").

Regular Erish word order is extremely similar to Anglic, with the most noticeable difference being that the verb must always be the second "part" of a sentence. For example, the equivalent of English "I quickly wrote a letter" is Ig skrev quikkt brev ("I wrote quickly (a) letter"), and not *Ig quikkt skrev brev; the sole exception is in "yes-no" questions, where the verb is always the first part of the sentence, as in Skrev ig brev? "Did I write a letter?". However, Erish word order can otherwise be fairly free, and it is possible for the subject and object to switch places without changing meaning, as in Brev skrev ig (lit. "(A) letter wrote I").

Phrase list

Basics

Hello

Hallo (KHAHL-aw)

Hello (informal)

Heì (Sheye)

How are you?

Húdan gáz ged? (KHOW-thahn woash yuh)

Fine, thank you.

Gód't, þack. (Woost, sahk)

What is your name?

Gvad hete jid? (Ghah SHI-tuh ye)

My name is...

Ig hetez gen... (Ish SHI-tuhsh yuhl) (male)

Ig hetez gjo... (Ish SHI-tuhsh yaw) (female)

Nice to meet you.

Hyggeligt ad mœte yck. (SHIH-juh-lisht ah MOY-tuh itch)

Please.

Wez sá gód't. (Gheyesh sow woost)

Thank you.

Þack. (Sahk)

Yes.

Ja. (Ya)

No.

Neì. (Neye)

Excuse me.

Onskyld mig. (aun-SHIHLD mish)

Goodbye

Farwell (Far-ghell)

Good morning

Góden morgen. (WOO-thuhl MOR-ghun)

Good day

Góden dag. (WOO-thuhl dahkh)

Good evening

Gód't queld. (Woost keld)

Good night

Góde naht. (WOO-thuh nahkht)