Swamp Gothic

Classification and Dialects
Swamp Gothic is, together with the closely related Crimean Gothic, one of the few remaining remnants of the Ostrogothic language. It is spoken in a few villages in the marshy areas of Volhynia around the Pripyat and Bug rivers, in territory in contemporary Belarus and Ukraine.

There are two major dialects of the language; the western Pripyat dialect and the eastern Berezina dialect. The two dialects are mutually intelligible, and the standard orthography serves for both of them. They differ mostly in the realization of nasal vowels.

Historical phonology
Swamp Gothic is an East Germanic language, and like its sister language Crimean Gothic it preserves a number of specifically East Germanic sound changes. *vallaz > Bible Gothic waddjus > vađovs "wall"; *triwwiz > triggws > trinžovs "true"; *ajja > *addja > jožo "egg"; cf. Crimean Gothic ada.


 * 1) Graphic ai, au > e, o. I am assuming that Ulfila, who assembled his own alphabet and was free to draw distinctions, spelled them all the same way because they sounded alike to him.  air&thorn;a > *erto > jereto "earth"
 * a/o, ā/ō > o/a
 * θ, ð > t, d; þliuhan > teljuchõ "flee"
 * 1) q > k; hw > v; w > v hwaila > vjelo "while"; *bliwa > blivo "lead"
 * 2) Open syllable rule: Closed syllables are reduced, in the following stages:
 * 3) Nasals: *N indicating either *n or *m not immediately followed by a vowel: aN, eN, iN, oN, uN → õ, ẽ, ẽ, õ, ỹ; swin&thorn;s > svẽts "strong"
 * 4) In a cluster of stops or fricatives + another consonant, the obstruent is deleted unless the cluster can occur word-initially; nahts > nochs "night"
 * 5) Liquids: eR, oR > eRe, oRo (see below)
 * 6) But final -s is preserved where it has grammatical significance, without regard to the nature of the resulting cluster. However, final -s will be lost after a palatized consonant: fisks > višč "fish" (nominative case).
 * 7) Consonants are palatalized by an immediately following *j:
 * 8) * sj, zj > ʃ, ʒ
 * 9) * nj, lj, rj > ň, ľ, ř
 * 10) * tj, dj > ʧ, ʤ
 * 11) * bj, pj, mj, wj > bl, pl, ml, wl; *betists > blešč "best"
 * 12) Prothesis: Before a word-initial vowel, j or w is usually inserted, depending on the vowel: je, ji wo, wu, but either ja or wa. Grammatical particles such as prepositions are not always affected: asans > josons "harvest, crop"
 * 13) Palatalization. k, g, x > ts, *dz, *ʃ before or occasionally after e, i. This leads to regular alterations in the morphology.
 * 14) Vowel quality shifts: All pairs of long/short vowels become differentiated as well by vowel quality:
 * a, ā > o, a
 * e, ē > je (with palatizations)
 * i, u > ɪ, ʊ
 * 1) * *ī, *ū, *ȳ > i, u, y
 * 2) Breakup of liquid-final syllables: or, ol, er, el > oro, olo, ere, ele; gards > horods "town, enclosure"; fair&thorn;s > vereds "world"; wairstwo > vorostva "husband". This also holds true before semivowels; *farwa > forovo "color"
 * ur, ul, ir, il > syllabic r, l, ř, ľ
 * 1) Word final stops are devoiced.
 * 2) g > h; dags > dohs "day"
 * 3) Except in cases of VgC, in which g > j: bagms > bojms "tree"; fugls > vujls "bird"
 * 4) ŋg > ŋ, written ng.
 * 5) hj > j
 * 6) VhV > VchV, and occasionally elsewhere; hiuhma > juchmo "heap, pile"
 * CwS, CuS > Covs; fotus > fatovs "foot"; triggws > trinžovs "true"
 * 1) VfV > VvV

Phonology
While umlaut is not a feature of the inflectional system of Swamp Gothic, palatization does figure prominently and tends to be strongly regular. The following table indicates the palatized forms of the stops and sibilants. These are the palatizations that are marked specifically by diacriticals in the orthography. Other consonants are subject to palatization besides these; for these, a following j in the orthography indicates the consonant quality.

Phonotactics
The maximal size of a syllable in Swamp Gothic is SCCVCS, where S is either s or š. While Swamp Gothic exhibits a large number of consonant clusters, generally only those clusters that can begin a word can begin a syllable, and there is a historic preference for open syllables. The exception is for grammatical -s when it appears in noun paradigms, and is generally preserved.

The stressed syllable is rather unpredictable. It is almost always the first syllable of the "historic root". This means that various inflectional features, such as the imperfective prefixes of the verb, do not affect the accent; nor do modifying particles such as on-, bi-, or vỹ-. It is complicated, however, by the large number of epenthetic syllables added during the history of the language. The many words in which formerly syllabic l and r sounds attract epenthetic vowels are affected. One or another of the resulting vowels is stressed and the other reduced. This is also a dialect difference; the western dialects favor the first vowel - volofs /'ʋɔ.ɫʌfs/ "wolf" - while the eastern dialects favor the second: /ʋʌ.'ɫɔfs/.

Writing System
For most of its history, Swamp Gothic was a purely oral language. The standard orthography was devised by the missionary Fjodor Polešuk in the late nineteenth century, and is meant to create a written norm that applies equally to the eastern and western dialects.

The two dialects differ in their realization of the historically nasal vowel sounds, written Ã, Ẽ, Õ, and Ỹ. In the more conservative, western Pripyat dialect, these sounds are realized as short nasal vowels. In the eastern Berezina dialect, the nasal feature of the vowels is dropped and the underlying vowels are lengthened, making Ã, Ẽ, and Õ identical in realization to Á, É, and Ó. The historic nasal feature is retained in the orthography. The dialect spoken in the Pinsk area varies in the adoption of this sound change, although the substitution of /o:/ for /ɔ̃/ is usual in when Õ appears as the infinitive ending of the verb. The two dialects also differ in their realization of the sound represented by the character F, which in the western dialects is /f/ and in the eastern dialects /ɸ/.

A number of digraphs are used: ch represents /x/, and lj and nj will be realized as /ʎ/ and /ɲ/ respectively, and /i:/ is represented by ij.

The letter G was formerly used as a sort of an opposite to J; where j was written to indicate a palatized pronunciation, g would be used with a non-palatal consonant. This written convention is obsolete except in the digraph ng representing /ŋ/.

First declension, type A: non-palatal stems
The first declension contains masculine and neuter consonant stems. Historically, these are a-stems, and o-stems in Indo-European. For stems whose final consonant is subject to palatization changes, several pattens emerge. For roots with non-palatal stems subject to palatization, the genitive singular and plural will be subject to change. For stems whose final consonant is already in the palatized series, it is the dative singular and plural that change. The consonant to which the root changes back is lexical.

As in most Indo-European languages, for neuters the nominatives and accusatives are identical. Masculine nouns of this declension have -s in the nominative.

volofs, "wolf" (m)

Also declined like volofs: vuls "bird", himils "heaven", lebs "bread", ljubs "leaf", vlabs "grease" and many more.

Note also that in this declension, a distinction is drawn that does not entirely map onto gender in Swamp Gothic. Animate nouns that name people or familiar animals, such as volofs and vuls, have -a in the accusative plural, but -as in the nominative and vocative plurals. Inanimate masculine nouns have -as in both. Neuter nouns will have -a in all forms.

Nasal stem
ščẽs, "stone" (m)

Also declined like ščens: čudõs "people, folk, nation".

'''Neuter nasal stems
korõ (n) "grain".

Also declined like korõ: ogorõ (n) "fruit", jezorõ (n) "iron", and many more.

First declension, type B: palatizing stems
vorod "word" (n)

Many Swamp Gothic nouns are declined like vorod, including jets "oath" (m), fisks "fish" (m), vẽds "wind" (m), vosts "twig" (m). The masculines all lose the -s prefix in the vocative and accusative cases. Masculines also have -as in the nominative and accusative plural.

H-stem
Historically, these nouns have -g as the final vowel of the stem, which regularly changes to -h in Swamp Gothic. This becomes -ž before the palatizing genitive endings.

dohs, "day" (m)

Also declined like dohs: vehs "road" and vihs "soldier".

First declension, type C: pre-palatized stems
herežis, "shepherd" (m)

Other nouns declined like herežis include onis "end", vičis "wheat" (dative stem vit-), ličis "doctor, physician" (dative stem lik-)

bođi, "bed" (n)

Other nouns declined like bođi include neči "net", veđi "vow", čẽđi "family".

Second declension, type A: invariant stems
The second declension is historically the 'o' declension, corresponding to the Indo-European h2 declension. Most nouns of this declension are feminine in gender.

hibo, "gift" (f)

Also declined like hibo: ovo "river", koro "care", njelo "needle", gorovo "ditch", vjelo "time", runo "secret", and many more.

Second declension, type B: palatizing stems
The only place the palatizing stems of this declension alter the root is in the dative singular.

jereto, "earth" (f)

Many nouns are declined like jereto, including bludo "question", böko "book", heredo "herd", soroho "pain", and many more.

Second declension, type C: pre-palatized stems
These technically belong to this declension despite the divergent appearance of their nominatives. Being palatized already, the root does not change.

bõđi, "band" (f)

Many other nouns are declined like bõđi, including heči "field", movi "virgin", vošči "clothes", horođi "city", and many more.

Third declension, type A: invariant or nasal stems
The third declension continues the Proto-Germanic i-stems and u-stems. These are masculine or feminine nouns.

orõs, "arm" (m)

Many other nouns are declined like oroms, includibg boroms "breast" (f), čẽs (oblique stem čen-) "woman" (f), vẽs (oblique stem ven-) "friend" (c), homỹs (oblique stem homun-) (f) "memory", and mỹs (oblique stem mun-) "thought" (m). Most nouns in -ovs decline under this pattern, such as fatovs (m) "foot".

Third declension, type B: palatizing stems
The palatization here is simple. All plural forms get palatized.

oroblets, "work" (f)

Many other nouns are declined like oroblets, including bolohs "belly" (m), mots "meat" (m), stods "place" (m), fljuhs (m) "fly", õst "favor" (f), đeds "act, deed", haborots "birth" (f), huds "thought" (f), vorots "root" (f).

Note that there are no pre-palatizing nouns in the third declension, because ancestrally all of these nouns were i-stems.

Fourth declension: N-stems
These are nouns that take a suffix n with a theme vowel in the oblique cases. Since nouns in n are almost always invariant, these nouns do not exhibit palatalization variations. These nouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter.

Masculine
hono, "chicken" (m)

Many nouns are declined like hono, including očo "father", bljumo "flower", mjeno "month", snoho "shirt, tunic", and many others.

Feminine
čunga, "tongue, language" (f)

monohje, "crowd" (f)

Neuter
hereta, "heart" (n)

Adjectives
As in other Germanic languages, adjectives are either strong or weak, depending on the syntax of the noun phrase. Adjectives also agree in case, gender, and number with the nouns they modify. On the other hand, many of the distinctive features of adjective declension have been dropped in Swamp Gothic.

Strong adjectives
Strong adjectives are of two types:
 * The first group uses first declension endings in the masculine and neuter forms, and second declension forms in the feminine. These bear inflections identical to the corresponding nouns.
 * The second group uses third declension forms corresponding to the gender of the modified noun. In the strong paradigm, these too are identical to the corresponding noun inflections.

Weak adjectives
All weak adjectives are declined in a way similar to fourth declension nouns, and derived by rule from that declension. Where a nasal vowel appears in the noun paradigm, in the adjective paradigm the vowel is denasalised and the nasal consonant appears instead as m in the dative, and n in other cases or when followed by another consonant.

Masculine
bilẽdo, "blind" (m)

Feminine
bilẽda, "blind" (f)

Neuter
bilẽda, "blind" (m)

Personal pronouns
Subject pronouns are not routinely dropped in Swamp Gothic, though they can be and frequently are dropped when clarity allows it. In the past tense their use is more mandatory, since the past tense verb forms are declined according to gender and number rather than being conjugated by grammatical person. Here, too, the pronouns can be dropped once the identity of the subject is established.

Demonstrative pronouns
In many cases, these have the force of an article.

Verbs
The Swamp Gothic verb is much less well preserved than the noun. The conjugated past tenses have been replaced by a form that does not inflect for person, but rather for the gender and number of the subject; in origin it is a participle. The present tense also serves as a future tense, and can be made explicitly future by adding an adverbial particle. Because of this, the distinction between strong and weak verbs is much less salient, if not entirely gone, in Swamp Gothic.

On the other hand, the past tenses inflect for perfective versus imperfective states via a number of unpredictable variants.

In the present tense, the endings of the strong verbs have generally prevailed. The dual number is lost, as is the Gothic second weak conjugation.

So in essence, the conjugations of Swamp Gothic have been reduced to two: the immutable and the mutable stems. The strong/weak distinction persists in the formation of the preterit and participles.

Past
The past tense of vjesõ is regular, and inflected for gender and number, agreeing with the subject.


 * Perfective: vjaro &c.
 * Imperfective: bino &c.

Syntax
Generally speaking, the syntax of Swamp Gothic is quite free, and the language relies on case markers rather than word order to define the syntactic roles of words and phrases. The default word order is SVO. Adjectives can either precede or follow nouns.

Prepositions
Prepositions can take any of the oblique cases.

Prepositions with the accusative
These prepositions govern the accusative case:


 * for "before, in front of"
 * inoch "without"
 * drech "through, by"
 * unnar "under, beneath"
 * vidro "against, contrary to, backwards from"

Prepositions with the dative

 * af "of, from, composed of"
 * du "to"
 * olje "except, but for"
 * foro "for"
 * ferem "from"
 * njevo "near to"
 * o "of, from"
 * us "out of, from"

Prepositions with the genitive

 * čil "at, by, with"
 * šej "with, at, in the company of"

Prepositions with accusative or dative

 * bi "by, around"
 * hẽdro "behind, around"
 * mit w. acc. "against"; w. dat. "with"
 * on - w. acc. "through, towards, along"; w. dat. "on, upon"
 * ot "at, by, to"
 * ovar "after, according to"
 * u "under"
 * uvor "over"
 * ỹd w. acc. "until, up to, as far as"; w. dat. "for"

Prepositions with accusative, dative, or genitive

 * in w. acc. "into, at, towards"; w. dat. "in, inside, among"; w. gen. "because of"

Conjunctions

 * u, "and"; u viščas u vujlas "both fish and birds"
 * jeto "either, or"; jeto lõdo jeto sevo or jeto lõdo ve sevo  "either by land or by sea"  (BG ai&thorn;&thorn;au)
 * och "but"
 * ók "also, since, because"
 * ja "also, too"
 * toruch "therefore"
 * ỹči "for, since, because"
 * toči "so that, in order to"
 * jobe "if"
 * vis "if"
 * nibe "but if"
 * sve "like, as"
 * tõ "then, next"
 * vjevo "how" (BG hvaiwa)

Definiteness and indefiniteness
Swamp Gothic can use the demonstrative adjective so, sá, to as a definite article: so ščẽs "the stone", s&aacute; jereto "the earth", to vorod "the word". The same adjective can be used to mean "this": vorod to, "this word". Generally, when used as an article so precedes the word, and when used as a modifier it follows the word.

The definite article is much less used in Swamp Gothic than in English or French, and is usually omitted where the referent is otherwise clear. A text full of definite articles will have a decidedly stuffy and formal feel, like an English text full of "heretofore" and "aforesaid". The core meaning of a definite phrase in Swamp Gothic is closer to "that same...."

Strong and weak adjective phrases
Swamp Gothic preserves the separate strong and weak adjective declensions, as do other Germanic languages. But, with the relatively restricted use of articles in Swamp Gothic, the weak form has other uses.

It is used, as expected, in definite noun phrases.

It is also used as a marker of animacy, and will be used predicatively for adjectives describing animate beings. Animate beings are people, animals, trees (not plants), vehicles, and the names of rivers, countries, mountains, and bodies of water:


 * njevo ščenõ mičilõ "near the large stones"
 * -but-


 * njevo bojmõ mičilom "near the large trees"

The weak form is also used predicatively when the subject to be described is animate:


 * Meniščas šẽt bilẽdons "The people are blind" (not **Meniščas šẽt bilẽdas)

Bede's Ecclesiastical History
''Jažõ jišt Britannia in sevo; mẽ vurus jetonõs tẽ Albion. Vilič ẽt norodo u vješčo, vidro, ma v&oacute;ro, va Čudišlẽdo, H&oacute;lo, u Hispanjo, šo Ivropas delos h&oacute;bidos.''


 * Britain is an island in the ocean, formerly called Albion, lying between the north and the west, opposite, though far apart, to Germany, Gaul and Spain, the chief divisions of Europe.

Račič norodas atti hỹdra milos, u tvje hỹdra milos beredo jišt.


 * It runs northward for 800 miles, and is 200 miles broad.

Sutvara võti ta spečič h&oacute;js Gallia Belgica jetona.


 * It has on the south opposite to it the province called Gallia Belgica.

Josonos u bojmos sumos jišt jažõ fulano, u ha-m&aacute;ta ef lammos u fjechos fođõ, u vinhorodas jalodo in h&oacute;jõ sumõ.


 * The island is rich in crops and trees of various kinds, and it is suited for grazing sheep and cattle, and vineyards are grown in some places.

Čenodo &oacute;k lẽdo jičo vujla kunje sumje u đyza morjeseva, u jabija boronje u java fulana o viščje.


 * This land also produces birds of various kinds and marine animals, and (it abounds) in springs and waters full of fish.

Selkas, valas, u morjesvinas uffa fachodo hjer, u sumos kunes ščeledviščje u midije uffa nimodo, u in tõs morohoričo bleščon volje forovje uffa fẽtodo.


 * Seals, whales, and porpoises are often caught here, and various kinds of shell-fish and mussels are commonly taken, and in these are often found the finest pearls of every colour.

''Hjer ja monohje snilja, fero čem tovodo forova 'r&oacute;da ščeledviščje'; tá ni s&oacute;ls kunič blečinõ, ni rijn onmočõ, u voročič mjer sk&oacute;no čer jalodam.


 * There is also here abundance of molluscs, from which is made the dye of ‘shell-fish red’; this neither the sun can bleach nor the rain mar, and it grows fairer with age.

''Lẽdo jičo ja habič čerkas ef soloto u vodan voroman, u botanas voromas in sumõ hojõ, ha-m&aacute;tas ver volõ jalodõ u beđõ kunjẽ,


 * The land also has salt-pits and hot water, and hot baths in various localities, suitable for every age and both sexes.

Čenodo ja jezas af kuparis u ježoronis, blivo u šilobor in juchmẽ.


 * It also produces ores of copper and iron, lead and silver in masses.

''Koroban ja fẽtodo hjer; ši jišt žuvlo svoroto, vis je verepodo in fono, teljuchõt fro tiže voromos.


 * Jet is also found here, which is a black gem; if put in the fire, adders fly from it.

Vurus jažõ sá ja ukrasjodo bajm borohõ jotaliston, tve tižu u njỹ rokanje, vỹdr&aacute;dinon vađõ, čelicnõ, d&oacute;rõ, u lukõ svẽtuston, vasto borohõ võtoron vỹrokaninon je lečilon.


 * Formerly this island was also embellished with the noblest of towns, twenty-nine in number, furnished with walls, towers, gates and the strongest of locks, besides countless other towns of smaller size.

Vi jažõ sá vilič noch up čis veredis filu norods, u noches hjer šẽt bereches in sumoro, své uffa in mižinocho sakons kumič an vachvẽs, je še jovẽdis dimmo, je še morohinis vostars; mit tam skerodo vis dohas šẽt filu lanhas in sumoro, u ja nochas in vẽtoro, tẽ in veredis delõ sutfarõ.


 * As this island lies close under the very north of the world and the nights here are light in summer so that often at midnight a question arises among the spectators, whether it is the evening gloaming or morning dawn-by this it is clear that the days are much longer in this island in summer, and also the nights in winter, than in the southern parts of the world.

The Lord's Prayer
Atta vỹsoro, tu in himinõ, vjechnje noma čéna,

Kimje čudonrjeks čéna, voroče vilja čéna svo in himino, ja on jereče.

Hib vỹsis ton doh ljev vỹsoro šinčéna, u bilat vỹsis skulõs vỹsoro svo viš bilatõ jẽs skulanas vỹsis.

U ni berengje vỹčis in frjestnisa ok l&oacute;še vỹčis af ubilẽ.


 * 𐌰𐍄𐍄𐌰 𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌰𐍂 𐌸𐌿 𐌹𐌽 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌼, 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐌽𐌰𐌹 𐌽𐌰𐌼𐍉 𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌽. 𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌹 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌹𐌽𐌰𐍃𐍃𐌿𐍃 𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃. 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐌰𐌹 𐍅𐌹𐌻𐌾𐌰 𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃, 𐍃𐍅𐌴 𐌹𐌽 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌰 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐌰𐌽𐌰 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐌰𐌹. 𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍆 𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌽𐌰 𐌸𐌰𐌽𐌰 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌽 𐌲𐌹𐍆 𐌿𐌽𐍃 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌼𐌰 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐌰. 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐌰𐍆𐌻𐌴𐍄 𐌿𐌽𐍃 𐌸𐌰𐍄𐌴𐌹 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐌻𐌰𐌽𐍃 𐍃𐌹𐌾𐌰𐌹𐌼𐌰, 𐍃𐍅𐌰𐍃𐍅𐌴 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍃 𐌰𐍆𐌻𐌴𐍄𐌰𐌼 𐌸𐌰𐌹𐌼 𐍃𐌺𐌿𐌻𐌰𐌼 𐌿𐌽𐍃𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌼. 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐌽𐌹 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍃 𐌿𐌽𐍃 𐌹𐌽 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌽𐌾𐌰𐌹, 𐌰𐌺 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐍃𐌴𐌹 𐌿𐌽𐍃 𐌰𐍆 𐌸𐌰𐌼𐌼𐌰 𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌽.