Northian grammar

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Northian grammar is highly synthetic.

Overview

Ablaut is a system of vowel apophony, altering the quality or quantity of vowels but not their lexical meaning, that affects most classes of words in Northian. The system is most prominent in substantives, i.e. nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. Though ablaut was transparent in reconstructed Proto-Erani-Eracuran, it has been obscured by sound change and analogical replacement in the process of its evolution into Proto-Nordic-Northian and subsequently Galic Northian, the oldest attested stage of the Northian language.  In particular, the erosion of consonant clusters and sound change in unaccented and coda vowels in the immediate prehistory of Galic has made many inflectional endings unrecognizable, yet protected by poetic metre and strict tradition, Galic texts retain many archaicisms. These processes have not occurred to the same extent in the Epic language, but there the word forms were subject to more rigorous regularization.

It is generally accepted that there was a fairly rigorous system of derivation in Proto-Erani-Eracuran, extending lexical roots by various affixes, before attaching inflectional endings. In this way, roots representing abstract meanings gave rise to nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

Nouns

m-stems

This class is known from only three but important nouns, θéɣõ "earth", žõ "winter", and "house". All m-stem nouns in Northian are feminine in gender, though with only three examples, this may not be an actual rule.

se θéɣõ, "earth"
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative θéɣõ zθémē zθémes
Vocative θéɣom
Accusative zθémum zumūŋ
Genitive zu̯u̯ō zu̯ōs zu̯õ
Locative zθéi̯me zu̯ō zumsu
Dative zu̯ē zuŋu̯ō zuŋu̯ō
Instrumental zoa

θéɣõ is one of the rarer Northian words that reflects all three ablaut grades.

θéɣõ "eath" is from the full-grade stem of Proto-Erani-Eracuran *dʰeǵʰōm "earth", where final -m drops and causes the preceding long vowel to become nasalized. Gen. zu̯u̯ō and dat. zu̯ē are the results of the zero-grade stem *dʰǵʰm̥ > *zm̥- > zw-. Final *-os regularly contracts to -ō, lengthening the vowel, and *-ey monophthongized into -ē. The e-grade stem is visible in the strong cases in singular and dual, sing. loc., as well as plural nom., as zθém < *dʰǵʰem-. In the sing. loc., the lowering of final *-i triggered the regular mutation in the preceding short vowel. The plural acc. unexpectedly displays zero-grade stem; final *-n̥s regularly > *-uns > Galic -ūŋ. The stem ending in -m mutates with the initial m- of the du. and pl. dat.-ins. endings.

The behaviour of žõ "winter" is underlyingly similar to that of θéɣõ, but other phonetic changes have caused the surface forms to be altered in other ways.

se dõ, "house"
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative doma domes
Vocative dom
Accusative dōm, domum domūŋ
Genitive dēŋ demus demõ
Locative déi̯me demu deŋsu
Dative dei̯ma deŋu̯ō
Instrumental dema

"house", an extremely common noun, also displays three ablaut grades; however, its stems differ by the quantity and quality of the vowel in the same root syllable, as it has no suffix. In the sing. nom., final vowel is lengthened already in PEE. The regular strong stem is visible in the sing. acc., which has two forms. dōm stands as a poetic or dialectal term in place of expected domum sometimes; its creation is either late, as it does not have vowel nasalization, or reflects compensatory lengthening from dropping the final syllable of domum. displays a paroxytone accentual pattern and has the zero-grade endings: sing. gen. dēŋ < *dems and dat. déi̯me < *demi, the latter showing regular mutation after the lowering of the final *-i.

n-stems

HD mon PD mn AS mn

r-stems

There are three subtypes within the r-stem group. mētur "mother" represents the group with initial accent, which persists on the root syllable and always takes suffix and ending in zero-grade. βrētur "brother" is inflected in the same manner. This is a small group of nouns recognized by their unaccented endings in both nom. and gen.

sē mētur, "mother"
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative mētur mētu̯ra mēθres
Vocative
Accusative mēθrum mētu̯ruŋ
Genitive mētūr, mētūs mētu̯rus mēθrõ
Locative mēθre mētu̯ru mētuiru
Dative mēturma mēturmus
Instrumental mēθra

Gen. mētūs < *meHtr̥s, while mētūr appears to be a later regularization, restoring the *r that has been dropped in *-rs. Dat. mētrė < *meHtri, acc. mētrum show regular forms. Loc. mēteire appears with full grade suffix.

su̯éχi̯itur "daughter" represents the oxytone group of the r-stems, which includes many agentive nouns that terminate in -er and -or. They are recognizable by their zero-grade nom. endings and full-grade -ō endings in gen.

sē su̯éχi̯itur, "daughter"
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative su̯éχi̯itur duɣaterē duɣateres
Vocative su̯éχi̯itur
Accusative duɣaterum duɣateruŋ
Genitive duɣaθrō duɣaθrōs duɣaθrõ
Locative duɣaθrē duɣaterō duɣatuiru
Dative duɣaturmō duɣaturmō
Instrumental duɣaθra

patēr "father" is a variation of the pattern of "daughter", where in the nom. the accent is on the ending instead of the stem; otherwise, it follows the pattern of "daughter" exactly.

sē patēr, "father"
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative patēr paterē pateres
Vocative pater
Accusative paterum pateruŋ
Genitive paθrō paθrōs paθrõ
Locative paθrē paterō paθruiru
Dative patu̯rmō patu̯rmō
Instrumental paθra

The paroxytone declension of ster "star" is unique, sg. gen. stēr < *Hsters, dat. steire, etc.

l-stems

The l-stems originally inflect as other ablauting consonant stems, but because intervocalic *-l- regularly > -y-, the resulting paradigm presents certain quirks not seen in the normal consonant-stem paradigm.

sē slō sáyum

s-stems

i-stems

u-stems

r/n-stems

sāwwō

The noun sāuuuuō "sun" continues the PEE heteroclitic stem in -l/n-. The nominative is due to assimilation of approximants and the regular sound change of *wu > wo. Genitive xʷveīŋ shows influence from r/n-stems, for expected *xʷvēn < *swens.

d-stems

Verbs

See also