Trachtsch

Trachtsch
Pronunciation	IPA: [tʁaːtʃ]
Native to	Trachtenberg
Native speakers	23-24 Million (2017)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German Central German East Central German Trachtsch
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	trc

Trachtsch, IPA: [tʁaːtʃ], is a West Germanic language spoken by 23–24 million people worldwide, and is one of the two official languages of Trachtenberg (the other being Markish), where it is the native language of a majority of the population. The language emerged during the 12th century in diasporic jewish communities, providing the often fragmented population centers with a transcontinental vernacular that could be used in any jewish community regardless of geographical location. Although its modern vocabulary largely derives from 17th-century East Central German, its grammar is that of a West Slavic Lechitic-parallel language branch, particularly the Silesian language and Polabian language. It also has influences from Russian and Markish. It is not mutually intelligible with standard German, and has its own distinctive grammar.

The status of Trachtsch is complex because genealogically, it belongs to the East Central dialect group of High German. Nevertheless, based on the self-identification of users as a group distinctly separate from the Germans, and the language's unique linguistic traits, it can be considered a separate language.

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Post- alveolar		Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
				ret.	pal.
Nasal		m	n			ɲ̟		ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t				c	k
	voiced	b	d				ɟ	ɡ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s	(t̠͡s̠)	t͡ʃ	t͡ɕ
	voiced		(d͡z)	(d̠͡z̠)	(d͡ʒ)	(d͡ʑ)
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	(s̠)	ʃ	ɕ	(ç)	x	h
	voiced	v	z	(z̠)	ʒ	ʑ
Trill			r
Lateral			l
Approximant		w					j

• Voiced stops, sibilant fricatives and affricates are regularly devoiced or voiceless in final position.
• The sounds of /x/ and /h/ are interchangeable among different speakers. The use of [x] is typically heard at the beginning of a word, possibly due to the influence of Silesian, even though historically in Germanic languages, the glottal fricative [h] is typically heard.
• The series of palato-alveolar /ʃ, ʒ, t͡ʃ/ and alveolo-palatal /ɕ, ʑ, t͡ɕ/ fricative and affricate sounds, are heard interchangeably among various speakers.
• [ç] is heard in word-final position, as an allophone of /x/.
• The voiced affricates /d͡z, d̠͡z̠, d͡ʒ, d͡ʑ/ are only heard in Silesian loanwords.
• A series of flat post-alveolar sibilants and affricates [s̠, z̠, t̠͡s̠, d̠͡z̠], are also heard in Silesian loanwords, interchangeably with alveolar-palatal sounds /ɕ, ʑ, t͡ɕ, d͡ʑ/.
• The labial-velar approximant /w/ is pronounced with a lesser degree of lip rounding than in English, and is more similar to the Silesian pronunciation of ł [w].

Vowels

	Front		Central		Back
Close	i	y	(ɨ)	(ʉ)	u
Near-close	ɪ	ʏ
Close-mid	e	ø	ɘ		o
Mid			ə
Open-mid	ɛ	œ			ɔ
Open			a		ɑ

• The close-mid sound /ɘ/ is phonetically more fronted as [ɘ̟].
• Mid central vowel sounds /ɘ, ə/ are also heard close central sounds [ɨ, ʉ], among speakers.

Diphthongs

	Front	Front	Back
	ascending	descending
Close	i̯ø
Close-mid	ɪ̯ɘ̟	ei̯
Open-mid		œʏ̯	ɔi̯
Open		ai̯
Triphthong	ʏ̯øœ̯

Alphabet

Trachtsch was for many centuries mostly a spoken language. It was not until the 16th century that a need for a separate version of a cyrillic alphabet arose. Jelinek, one of the most prolific playwrites of Trachtsch history wrote most of his works in plain cyrillic, which he considered better-suited for the phonetics of his language. In recent times Julius Morgenstern (1788–1860), another prolific author and founding father of Trachtenberg, devised a distinct Trachtsch alphabet, consisting of 34 letters derived from the Latin script and mostly based on Silesian as well:

Trachtsch alphabet

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)
A	AO	B	C	Ć	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	Ł	L	M	N	Ń	O	Ö	P	R	S	Ś	T	U	Ü	W	X	Y	Z	Ź	Ż
Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)
a	ao	b	c	ć	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	ł	l	m	n	ń	o	ö	p	r	s	ś	t	u	ü	w	x	y	z	ź	ż

Trachtsch orthography includes the digraph "AO", which is treated as a separate letter.

Example words and their relationship to other languages

A sample of Trachtsch words with German, Dutch and English translations. Note that ł is read in Trachtsch like English w (as in Silesian), and w like v (as in Silesian and German):

English	Trachtsch	Middle High German	German	Dutch	Frisian	Comment
alone	ałan	alein(e)	allein	alleen	allinne
and	ana, an	und(e), unt	und	en	en
bridge	bryk	brücke, brucke	Brücke	brug	brêge
dolt	duł	tol, dol 'foolish, nonsensical'	toll 'mad, fantastic, wonderful'	dol 'crazy'	dol 'furious'
hear	fulgia	< Frisian; WFris folgje, EFris foulgje 'to follow'	hören	horen	folgje	cf. German folgen, Dutch volgen 'to follow'
wholly	ganc	ganz	ganz	gans	gâns
court	gyrycht	geriht	Gericht	gerecht	rjocht	cf. German Recht, Dutch recht '(legal) right', English right)
dog	hund	hunt	Hund	hond	hûn	cf. English hound
heaven	dyr hymuł	himel	Himmel	hemel	himel
love	łiwa	liebe	Liebe	liefde	leafde
a bit	a mikieła	michel 'much'	ein bisschen	een beetje	in bytsje	Scots mickle, English much; antonymic switch 'much' → 'little'
mother	müter	muoter	Mutter	moeder	mem
middle	mytuł	mittel	Mitte	middel	midden/mid
no one	nimanda	nieman	niemand	niemand	nimmen
no	ny	ne, ni	nein	nee(n)	nee
picture	obrozła	< Slavic; Silesian obraz	Bild	beeld	byld
breath	ödum	< Middle German	Atem	adem	azem	cf. obsolete German Odem, Central Franconian Öödem
elephant	olifant	< Dutch	Elefant	olifant	oaljefant
evening	öwyt	ābent	Abend	avond	jûn
welcome	sgiöekumt	wil(le)kōme(n)	wilkommen	welkom	wolkom
write	śrajwa	schrīben	schreiben	schrijven	skriuwe
stone	śtaen	stein	Stein	steen	stien
sister	syster	swester	Schwester	zuster	suster
drink	trynkia	trinken	trinken	drinken	drinke
world	wełt	werlt	Welt	wereld	wrâld
winter	wynter	winter	Winter	winter	winter
seven	zyjwa	< Middle German siven	sieben	zeven	sân
silver	zyłwer	silber	Silber	zilver	sulver

Sample texts

A lullaby in Trachtsch with English translation:

Śłöf maj buwła fest!
Skumma fremdy gest,
Skumma muma ana fettyn,
Z' brennia nysła ana epułn,
Śłöf maj Mendl fest!

Sleep, my boy, soundly!
Foreign guests are coming,
Aunts and uncles are coming,
Bringing nuts and apples,
Sleep, my Mendl, soundly!