Saksies

Overview
Saksies is a Germanic conlang closely related to the modern Germanic languages, Dutch, German, Afrikaans, Luxembourgish and has a lot in common with the English language as well.

Saksies has a fair amount of French loanwords.

Grammar
The Saksies grammar is relatively simple compared with German or Dutch and resembles more the modern English or Afrikaans grammar.

Phonology
The Saksies vowel system consists of 12 vowel sounds: 8 simple vowels a, e, è, ë, i, ie, o, u; 4 diphthongs: au, ei, éi and y. The vowels a, e, o and u can be either long or short.'

The Saksies consonant inventory consists of 20 sounds of which [x] has no graphem of its own but is marked by ch or g and [ʦ] can be written either as z or tz (z is used after consonants, tz after vowels, the sound occurs usually only word-finally).

S is pronounced [z] word-initially and between vowels. Word-finally, b, d and g are pronounced [p], [t] and [x].

Consonants

 * The presented pronunciation of ch and z/tz is the standard, dialectal variation is great. Often they are simplified to [ʃ] and [t].
 * R [r] is often realised as the alveolar approximant [ɹ] word-finally and before consonants e.g. door [do:ɹ], kaarte [ka:ɹtə].
 * French words are mostly spelt and pronounced as in French. Nevertheless, they are usually declined as indigenous words:

Ech gonn changéiren de billeten. (I go change the tickets.) [ɛʃ gon: ʃãnʒeirən də bije:ən]

Nouns
There are no genders in Saksies. The indefinite article is e /ə/ (emphatic form: een /e:n/ and the definite article is de /də/ (emphatic form: die /di:/).

When the proceeding word begins with a vowel an -n is inserted at the end of the article e > en /ən/, de > den /dən/. This may be ignored in colloquial usage.

Plural is formed by adding the suffix -(e)n /(ə)n/.

Irregular Plurals

Articles
Articles were historically inflected. The genitive lives on in some names and fixed expression but less so in everyday language e.g. champion der wereld 'world champion'.

Diminutive
The diminutives are formed by adding the suffix -lien.

mannlien 'the little man'

susterlien 'beloved sister, little sister'

hundlien 'the little dog, puppy'

dei handlienen 'your little hands'

Adjectives & Adverbs
There is a number of real adverbs, any adjective in indefinite form can be used as an adverb. Adjectives have two forms: indefinite and definite.

Degrees of Comparision
Note the spelling!

H ee t > h e ter > (de) h ee tst(e) hot, hotter (the) hottest

Fla kk > fla kk er > (de) fla k st(e) flat, flatter, (the) flattest

Note!

The adjective gudd is declined irregularly:

gudd > besser > best

Personal Pronouns
The forms mein, dein and sein are used when the proceeding word begins with a vowel e.g. mein auto.

Interrogatives
Wer bëstu? Who are you?

Wen so du in de Staad? Whom did you see in the city?

Wem gaaf du de bicher? To whom did you give the books?

Wessen velo is dies? Whose bicycle is this?

Wat is dei naam? What is your name?

Wat for e haus wëllen ier kopen? What kind of a house do you want to buy?

Welche teidskriften lees du? Which magazines do you read?

Wenn komm du weer bei ons? When will you come and visit us again?

Weer sinn ier? Where are you?

Wie aud bëstu? How old are you?

Wéi bëstu net gekommen? Why didn't you come?

Words Derived from Proto-Germanic *se/þe, *hwa and *he

Infinite Verb Forms
pref. = prefixed verb, doesn't get ge- prefix in Past Participle

mpre. = moving prefix, note the position of prefix -ge- irr. = irregular or strong verb

The Infinitive ends in -en (except for a few irregular verbs in -[n]n). It may be used as a substantive e.g. ''Werken is hard. 'It's hard to work.'''

The Present Participle is derived from the infinitive stem with the suffix -end. It is usually used as an adjective and declined accordingly e.g. ''Ech so e jagend wolf. 'I saw a hunting wolf.''' The Past Participle is used to form perfect and pluperfect tenses and as an adjective e.g. ''Ech hunn de hele dag gewerkt. 'I have worked all day long.', De gejaagte dier. 'The hunted animal.'''

Finite Verb Forms
The first one is the singular form e.g. ech bell 'I ring' and the second one is used for plural méi bellen 'we ring'. In brief, the present tense for regular verbs in singular is formed by removing the infinitive ending -en. The plural form is identical with the infinitive. E.g. Ech/Du/Hien werk but: méi/ier/hin werken.

Spelling is adjusted in order to keep the long vowels long and the short ones short e.g. dragen [dra:gən] 'to drag/to carry': Ech draag [dra:x], méi dragen [dra:gən].

Endings -s (Singular 2nd person) and -t (singular 3rd person) may occur in dialects (ech werk, du werks, hien werkt, méi/ier/hin werken).

To form the regular past tense, the suffix -te (or -ten in plural) is added to the present tense singular form e.g. Ech werkte/draagte 'I worked/carried', Méi werkten/draagten 'We worked/carried' .

Only 4 verbs have personal inflection apart from singular/plural distinction in Present Tense:

Strong Verbs
Strong verbs have 3 main groups:

I ei-ie-ie Group: beissen - biessen - gebiessen to bite

II ie-o-o Group: fliegen - floog - geflogen 'to fly'

III ë-a-u Group: begënnen - begann/en - begunnen 'to begin'

IV The 4th Group includes 16 irregular verbs that do not fall into any of the preceding groups e.g. mogen (maag/mogen) - mochte/n - gemogen 'to like'

 Group I Verbs: 

Most of the verbs with -ei-. Group II Verbs:

biegen to bend bieden to offer ferlieren to lose fliegen to fly flieën to flee fliessen to flow geniessen to enjoy giessen to pour

riechen to smell schiefen to shove schiessen to shoot schliessen to close sieën to see spriesen to sprout

Group II Verbs:

begënnen to begin bërsten to burst bënden to bind drënken to drink ferschwënden to disappear fënden to find gelëngen to succeed

gewënnen to win klëngen to sound rëngen to ring rënnen to run schwëmmen to swim sëngen to sing sënken to sink sprëngen to jump

Group IV Verbs:

Modal Verbs
Also gonn 'to go, going to' and bleiven 'to stay, to keep' can be treated as modal verbs.

Negative
The negation net (also: na, niet) is used with verbs e.g.'' Ech wëll net kommen. I don't want to come.''

Word Origins
Indigenous Germanic Words: ech, werken, denken, hand, kopp...

Loanwords from French: velo, merci, trois-pièce, ménage, parfum, flânéiren, amuséiren...

Loanwords from German:

Loanwords from English: schéiven, schéiken, méilen...