Erish phrasebook
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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 Anglic, 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 Anglic; even if spelling is not immediately derivable from pronunciation, pronunciation is almost always derivable from spelling. Although there is no official 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(ʷ)]).
a
- (Long, short) like "a" as in spa (IPA: [ɑ(ː)])
e, 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, í
- (Long) like "ea" as in bead (IPA: [iː])
- (Short) like "i" as in bit (IPA: [ɪ])
o, á, aù, où
- (Long) somewhat similar to "ow" as in cowed (IPA: [ɔʊ̯ː])
- (Short) like "augh" as in caught (IPA: [ɔ])
u, ó, ú
- (Long) like "oo" as in food (IPA: [uː])
- (Short) like "oo" as in foot (IPA: [ʊ])
y, iú, ý
- (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, 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(ʷ)])
- (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(ʷ)]); 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(ʷ)])
- (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 Anglic, 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.
Personal pronouns
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The Erish personal pronouns include the equivalents of Anglic "I, you, we", as well as of "himself, herself, itself, themselves", and are more akin to Anglic than most of Erish grammar; the equivalents of "he, she, it, they" are more typical, and thus categorized separately. Despite this relative similarity, there are still some important differences:
- The nominative (subjective) forms of the personal pronouns are used correctly, only used for subjects and complements. The correct equivalent of English "You are me?" is not *Zú er mig?, but Zú er ig? ("You are I").
- There are two equivalents to Anglic "we".
- The "exclusive" pronoun wid is used when "we" does not include the person being spoken to.
- The "inclusive" pronoun wis is used when it does.
- There are three different equivalents to Anglic "you".
- Zú is used when you are addressing one person, and are in an informal context and have a personal relationship with the person you are talking with.
- Jid is used when you are addressing one person, and are in any context in which zú is inappropriate.
- Jis is used when you are addressing multiple people.
- The reflexive ("-self"; when the subject and object are the same) forms of the first and second-person pronouns are the accusative/dative forms. For example, the appropriate Erish equivalent of "I see myself" is Ig seher mig (lit. "I see me").
- The equivalents of the third-person pronouns, as well as all other nouns and pronouns, use sig as their reflexive form. For example, the Erish equivalent of "The man sees himself" is Mannen seher sig.
Case
Erish is a language with grammatical cases, which are suffixes and other ways of marking the role of a noun in a sentence.
- Erish has four cases:
- The nominative indicates who is doing the action (the subject).
- the accusative indicates whom the action is done to (the direct object). It is also used with prepositions of motion.
- The dative indicate to whom the action is directed (the indirect object). It is also used with prepositions of location.
- The genitive case indicates a possessor, or whose a noun is.
- Except for the personal pronouns, the nominative and accusative use the same forms, as do the dative and genitive.
- In common speech, the preposition til ("to; of") tends to be added to the genitive (and, less often, the dative), making the following example in common speech "...sustrer til koner sír...".
- Southern dialects also increasingly drop grammatical case outside of pronouns, although case is still expected in more formal speech.
For example, in the following sentence, all four cases are used:
- Mannen sænde sustrer koner sír pá studenten
- The man (nom.) sent the sister (dat.) of his wife (gen.) the student (acc.)
Gender
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.)").
Articles
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In Erish grammar, students are usually taught that nouns use three different "states", two of which are indicated by articles. The adjacent table displays the regular inflections of these states, with the specific and definite articles bolded.
- 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 uses the specific article en, which 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 article, which is a suffix -en and corresponds to the English "the". An example is Ig will hæbbe hunden "I want the dog".
Third-person pronouns
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The Erish third-person pronouns include the definite, demonstrative, interrogative/relative, and negative pronouns, which are some of the most commonly used words in Erish. All of them inflect for case, gender, and number, and have a possessive determiner form distinct from the genitive.
- The forms of the definite pronoun gen are the normal equivalent of Anglic "he, she, it, they", but they also have functions that can be extremely strange, even for speakers of non-Anglic Germanic languages.
- Because Erish is a language that has grammatical gender, the definite pronouns are used with reference to the grammatical, not natural gender of a noun. The proper pronoun for gáso ("the goose (f.)") is not ged ("it"), but gjo ("she").
- When there is a group that includes nouns from different genders, the nominative/accusative pronoun is ges ("they (m.)").
- When a noun in the definite state is described by an adjective, it is normally required that the adjective be preceded by the appropriately inflected definite pronoun. For example, the equivalent of "the green house" is ged grœne húsed.
- Proper names (and proper nouns) are usually preceded by the definite pronoun. For example, to say one's name is Erik, one says Ig heter gen Erik.
- Because Erish is a language that has grammatical gender, the definite pronouns are used with reference to the grammatical, not natural gender of a noun. The proper pronoun for gáso ("the goose (f.)") is not ged ("it"), but gjo ("she").
- The forms of the demonstrative pronoun zen are mostly equivalent to Anglic "that, those", as well as "this, these".
- Zen can also be used as a third-person pronoun, in which case it usually refers to the second of two possible nouns.
- For example, in the sentences Ig seher Biólv end Bœrn. Gen er góden. ("I see Biolv and Boern. He (Biolv) is well."), "he" refers to Biolv because gen is for the first of the two.
- If the second sentence was instead Zen er góden ("He (Boern) is well."), "he" would refer to Boern because zen is for the second of the two.
- Zen can also be used as a third-person pronoun, in which case it usually refers to the second of two possible nouns.
- The forms of the interrogative and relative pronoun gven correspond to Anglic "who, what", as well as "that" and "which".
- When used interrogatively, the neuter gved and its plural gvo are used for inanimate objects ("what"), and the masculine gven and gves for animate objects ("who"). The feminine forms gvo and gvos are only used when the person or people being asked about are known to be female.
- The negative pronoun nen, when used as a pronoun, can mean "nobody" or (specifically with nett) "nothing".
- Nen can also be used like an adjectival no, as in Ig haver nett bil ("I have no car"). This use is much more common than in Anglic, with many sentences, such as the aforementioned example, being the regular equivalents of English "do not" (i.e., the example also means "I don't have a car").
Adjectives
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Erish adjectives, like nouns and pronouns, inflect for case, gender, and number.
- They use two different declensions (sets of suffixes), called "strong" and "weak".
- The most basic rules of which is used is that an adjective for an indefinite or specific noun is strong, and one for a definite noun is weak.
- An adjective that stands alone after the verb were ("to be"), along with a few other verbs, is strong, and agrees with the case, gender, and number of the subject.
- For example, the equivalent of the sentence "The men are Erish" is Mænnes sind ærskes.
- The regular comparative ("-er/more") and superlative ("-est/most") forms of adjectives are made through the addition of the suffixes -ere and -est respectively.
- -ere inflects as a weak adjective, but -est can be both strong and weak.
- In common speech, multi-syllabic adjectives often use meze ("more") and mest ("most") to form their comparative and superlative, especially if the first syllable is stressed. The written language, however, proscribes against this.
- Adverbs, which are words describing verbs (i.e., slowly, quietly, etc.), are commonly just the neuter singular form of an adjective. A common example of this is gód't, which means "well".
Possessives
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Erish possessive adjectives akin to Anglic "my, your, etc." are formed through the possessive forms of the pronouns previously listed.
- Unlike English, the possessive forms normally follow the nouns they describe, and the nouns will, furthermore, usually use the definite article.
- For example, the Erish equivalent of "I'm reading my book" is Ig leser bóko mí, literally "I read the book of mine".
- Only the first person and second person possessives, as well as the third person reflexive possessive, inflect; all others only use their listed forms.
- Ykren, okren, osren and jóren all inflect like strong adjectives, but have neuter singular forms yckert, ockert, ossert, and jórt.
- The others have an irregular inflection pattern demonstrated by mín to the right.
- When a third person subject possesses a noun, the appropriate genitive/possessive pronoun is sín, not gens ("his/its") or gers ("hers").
- For example, in the sentence Lezern skrev studentem sím "The teacher wrote his student", sím (a form of sín) indicates that the teacher wrote to his own student.
- In Lezern skrev studentem gens, gens indicates that he wrote to somebody else's student.
- The possessive forms of the non-reflexive third-person pronouns are not interchangeable with their genitive forms. The possessives are used when the noun the pronoun refers to is not mentioned, whereas the genitive is used when it is.
- For example, Ig will hæbbe húsed gens ("I want his house") has gens because the referent is not described.
- Ig will hæbbe húsed gem Gríme ("I want Grime's house"; lit. "I want to have the house of Grime") has gem because the referent, Grime, is described.
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?
- Gved hete jid? (Ghuh SHI-tuh yih)
My name is...
- Ig heter gen... (Ish SHI-ter yull) (male)
- Ig heter gjo... (Ish SHI-ter yaw) (female)
Nice to meet you.
- Hyggeligt ad mœte yck. (SHIH-juh-lisht ah MOY-tuh itch)
Please.
- Wes sá gód't. (Ghice 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)