Vårfolgsk

Introduction
Vårfolgsk is a North Germanic language related to Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Swedish, and Danish. It descends from Old Norse, though neither a descendant from Old East or West Norse, though it has features from both of them. Vårfolgsk means "our people" (I didn't steal that from Swedish). It is spoken in the country of Vårfolg/Varfolg.

Phonological
This only applies to stressed syllables. Rising tone is for:closed syllables ending in an obstruent, while low tone is for:syllables ending in a sonorant.

Grammatical
This only applies to stressed syllables and the syllable after.

Low/high tone applies to: Falling/falling tone applies to:
 * masculine monosyllabic nouns
 * feminine singular monosyllabic nouns
 * neuter plural nouns


 * masculine bisyllabic nouns
 * nouns or verbs from adjectives
 * past indicative of weak verbs
 * feminine singular bisyllabic nouns

Syllabic
Rising tone applies to monosyllables, while low/rising or low/rising/falling applies to polysyllables. Low tone is for the stressed syllable, rising for the post-stressed syllable, and falling for the post-post-stressed syllable.

Prosodic

 * Declarative sentences have falling intonation.
 * Interrogative sentences have peaking intonation.
 * Suspensive sentences have rising intonation.

Combining Tones
Prosodic, Syllabic, and Grammatical tones can combine, forming a very complex pitch accent system made of multiple layers. Here's a table outlining the combinations. The ones in bold are phonological tones, the ones in italics are grammatical tones, and the ones underlined are syllabic tones. The post-post-stressed syllable can only have falling tone.

Phonotactics
At a minimum, a stressed syllable must consist of either a long vowel or a short vowel and a long consonant. Like many other Germanic languages, Varfolgian has a tendency for closed syllables with a relatively large number of consonant clusters in initial as well as final position. Though not as complex as that of Ustranian, examples of up to 7 consecutive consonants can occur when adding Varfolgian inflections to some foreign loanwords or names, and especially when combined with the tendency of Swedish to make long compound nouns. The syllable structure of Varfolgian can therefore be described with the following formula: (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C)(C).

Examples: ångst /oŋst/ (noun 'angst') or sprängt seg [spreŋt sej] (verb 'explode' past participle, passive voice, nominative neuter).

In some cases this can result in near-unpronounceable combinations, such as in väststrøndskt /vsss/s/s/s/s/s/s/, consisting of väststrønd ('west coast') with the adjective suffix -sk and the neuter suffix -t.

Varfolgian and most dialects feature a rare "complementary quantity" feature wherein a phonologically short consonant follows a long vowel and a long consonant follows a short vowel; this is true only for stressed syllables and all segments are short in unstressed syllables.

Word Order
Its basic word order is SVO and has little freedom. It is inverted in questions and when a sentence begins with an adverb. It also has V2 word order, in which finite verbs must be the second constituent in a declarative main clauses. Take the example below. In this example, var is a finite verb and so is the second constituent. Here the verb is the 2nd constituent, though it is not the 2nd word. året 2000 counts as 1 constituent. The subject follows the verb, then the object follows the subject. The exception to V2 word order comes when forming question. Instead, inversion happens: to: Here the subject and verb are inverted, so it becomes VSO. The verb so is constituent. The inversion still applies when there's an interrogative. The interrogative is at the beginning of the sentence. The basic word order, SVO, is also in dependent clauses. Adjectives precede nouns, but the inverse is common in literature. A noun qualifying another noun are always compounded. The last noun is the head. Here is the full word order. The fundament can be whatever the speaker wants to topicalise. In this way, Varfolgian employs topicalisation by moving to th beginning of the sentence. Common fundaments are adverbs and objects, and the default fundament is the subject. But other constituents can be fundaments, include the subordinate clause. If the verb is to be a fundament, the dummy verb, gärve,is the finite verb. If there is no fundament, then the sentence takes a dummy subject, der. Look at the example below.

Subordinate Clauses
Subordinate clauses have the same full word order. They can have no fundament as the conjunction replaces the fundament. Complement clauses begin with ad. Relative pronouns occupy the conjunction spot. They are interrogatives with the suffix ''-r/-er. The suffix is -r after a vowel or r, while the suffix -er ''is after any other consonant.

Questions
Let's have one more example of a yes/no question. There is no question particle for a yes/no question. Instead, intonation conveys. to: The pronoun used to be suffixed to the verb when it's after the verb, but this no longer happens.

Causatives
It uses the word låde  which means "let, make". In this example, its usage is quite similar to English. In the example below, the intermediate subject is left out, but the 2nd verb is in the infinitive. This syntax is similar to English's She helped build the house.

U-umlaut
The U-umlaut occurs when a stem vowel a changes to ø because of an u in the next syllable (arm  to ørmum). There is also the "phantom" U-umlaut where some words historically ended in an -u but dropped the vowel (järb  to jørb), the change still occurs. It is very productive in Varfolgian.

Nouns
They are divided into 2 classes: Strong and Weak. These are divided further into stem class, by their morphophonological characteristics.

Strong Nouns
There are 2 Neuter classes and 3 Common (Common means Masculine and Feminine). The Common Class is subdivided into R Class, I Class, and O Class. The R Class had the endings -ir (I Subclass), -ar (A Subclass), and -r (R Subclass).

The R Class can be divided into A Subclass (hamer, from hamarr), I Subclass (häller, from hellir), and R Subclass (arm, from armr). They are named so because of their historical endings (-ar, -ir, and -r, respectively). The Masculine A Sublass tends towards Genitive -s (though many don't). The same can be said of the R Subclass tending towards -er in the Genitive. Some I Subclass nouns have ve-stem reflexes.

There are I Class Nouns (tid) and O Class Nouns for the Feminine Nouns.


 * The O Class descended from Proto-Germanic Ō Nouns.
 * The O Class can be further divided into V Subclass (ør), J Subclass (häl), I Subclass (ärm), and O Subclass (gøv).
 * The I Class had the ending -ir. The ending is far more common than the historical -ar ending.


 * The O Subclass still had the ending -ar. (the nouns that were O Subclass but had the -ir ending belong to the IO Group (øgn)).
 * The V subclass has the ve- reflex.
 * The J Subclass descends from Proto-Germanic Jō Nouns.
 * The I Subclass descends from Proto-Germanic Ijō Nouns.

Strong Feminine Nouns have Masculine plural except for the Nominative plural and Accusative plural being the same. Many don't have any inflectional distinction in the singular except the Genitive. Neuter has 2 Classes: V Class (träd) and A Class.
 * The A Class can be subdivided into A Subclass (blod), J Subclass (näs). The A Class descends from Proto-Germanic Ą and.Ją Nouns.
 * The V Class descends from Proto-Germanic Wą Nouns.


 * The A Subclass descends from Proto-Germanic Ą Nouns..
 * The J Subclass descends from Proto-Germanic Ją Nouns.

Neuter Genitive and Dative mirror the Strong Masculine Declension.

Weak Nouns
One main feature is that they form a Nominative-Oblique case dynamic, wherein only the Nominative is distinct from the other cases. The other cases are the same. They descended from nouns that had a nasal suffix as a case marker. The suffix was lost except in Neuter and Feminine Genitive plural (termed the N Substrate in a few grammar books).

The Weak Masculine declension is the same as the Strong Masculine plural Declension. They include nouns with -inge and weak versions of Strong Nouns, names, and endings. The Nominative and Oblique used to end in -i and -a, respectively. Then neutralisation of wordfinal a and i, merging all cases in the singular. The Weak Masculine nouns are known as the I Class,(boge) because of their historic endings. As for the Neuter nouns, their Nominative and Accusative are the same, and have a Nominative-Oblique dynamic, so all the cases have merged in the singular. The Neuter Weak nouns are known as the N Class (åuge). The N Class contains 6 body part nouns (åuge) and objects (sime). The Feminine nouns have an additional 0 Class (äve), which do not decline. They're abstract nouns and so only have one form.
 * The Weak Feminine Nouns are known as O Class, because they descend from Proto-Germanic Ǫ nouns. They are subdivided into J Subclass (ävje) and A Subclass (eyge).
 * The J Subclass nouns end in -je, though a few end in -e. They used to end in -ja.
 * The A Subclass ends in -e. The A Subclass is named so because they used to end in -a ,
 * Some nouns used to have the Definite suffix attached in the Genitive plural, but no longer, very few nouns, do. They belong to the AD Group (sage) (A Subclass) and JD Group (gydje) (J Subclass).

Verbs
Verbs conjugate in person, number, present and past tense, and indicative, subjunctive, and imperative mood. Thoughout there is repetition, the verb type determines the pattern by which it conjugates. Subjunctive shows the largest and widest spread pattern, with both Weak and Strong verbs having the endings -e, -er, -e, -em, -ed, -e for 1S, 2S, 3S, 1P, 2P, and 3P respectively, except for a minor variation in Strong III, Strong IV, and Strong IV.

The -ing suffix is used to form a verbal noun/gerund. the Present Participle used to be used for the verbal noun, but it ceased to be productive. The Present Participle is a Weak adjective, and also used to denote agent nouns, though also -er takes that function. It also denotes being able to perform an action.

The case of an object of a verb is lexically-assigned. Most take Accusative objects, but some take Accusative primary and Dative secondary objects (gäve, colloquial gi), while others have Accusative, Genitive, and Dative direct objects.

The Past Participle that ends in -t doesn't decline.

Strong Verbs
Strong verbs conjugate by ablaut, unlike Weak verbs. Like Weak verbs, Strong verbs use umlaut and inflections, but much less so. Although the inflections and umlaut are the same throughout the Strong paradigm, there are different ablaut patterns. These patterns classify the Strong conjugations.

If there are 2 vowels in the pattern, such as in the VI Class and some of Class VII, the 2nd vowel is used for all Past forms. If there are 3, the 2nd is for Indicative Past singular and the 3rd for all other Indicative Past forms. The 1st is used for the remaining forms. There are some verbs which have the 4th vowel. The 4th vowel appears only in the Past Participle. There is sometimes also a 5th vowel which either only appears in the Infinitive or in the Present singular. The Past Subjunctive is the 6th vowel.

The Past Participle follows the pronominal declension. The ø is a result of changing short y to ø.

The Class III, Class IV, and Class V had -i rather than -a in PST.SUBJ.1S.


 * Class III verbs are divided into U and O Subclasses.
 * The U Subclass ends in -n or -g and has u as the vowel root in Past Participle.
 * The O Subclass doesn't end in -n or -g and has o as the vowel root in Past Participle.

The Class IV and Class V verbs are the same except for their Past Participle, where Class IV has o and Class V has e/ä. In general, a Class III stem has 2 consonants following a vowel, a Class IV one has a single sonorant following a vowel, and Class V has a single non-sonorant.


 * Class VI verbs are cognate to English's take/took/taken.
 * The Class VII verbs are further divided into Subclasses: The L Subclass (o, ä) (blode), E Subclass (ey, ä) (heyde), A Subclass (a/å, ä, (ø/i)) (gråde), O Subclass (åu, y, (u/ey)) (hlåube), J Subclass (a/ø, y, jo) (høgv), and Y Subclass (ú, y, y) (búgv). The L Subclass's ablaut came from Old Norse's long vowel ablaut (ó, é, œ).

Class C Verbs
They are strong verbs with a consonant which got lost but resisted in some places. It can be subdivided into 2 Subclasses: G Subclass (slå) and R Subclass (snúe). They can be of Class I~VII. For example, slå is a Strong R VI verb, while snúe is a Strong R II verb. In this conjugation, å is underlying lengthened a, so it still follows the paradigm.
 * The G Subclass had a velar which got lost except in the Past Indicative plural, Past Subjunctive, and Past Participle.
 * The R Subclass have r in the Weak Past.

Weak Verbs
They distinguish the tenses by adding a suffix with d. This is the main characteristic of Weak verbs. The Past Subjunctive take the Present Subjunctive endings. The Indicative takes the endings of the Subjunctive, changing the inflectional vowel to u. The d is preceded by a in some verbs, making the Past trisyllabic. There are 3 Weak Classes. These can be divided into Subclasses.

Class I Verbs
They have an -j/-e suffix. The -e used to be -i in Old Norse. They are divided into 2 Subclasses: J Subclass (glädje) and I Subclass (døme). They had the affixes -j-/-ij- (Proto-Germanic). These suffixes were lost and caused i-umlaut.
 * The J Subclass had the affix -j-. The J Subclass has vowel alternation since there are forms (Past Participle and Past Indicative) that didn't get i-umlaut because they didn't have the affix.
 * The I Subclass's form descends from Proto-Germanic -ij-.I Subclass no vowel alternation in all forms since all forms had the affix and consequently got i-umlauted.

Many verbs are derived by i-umlaut of the 2nd ablaut vowel of a Strong paradigm, forming the Causative. For example, bränne (to burn.TRAN) derives from brinne (to burn.INTR). The -ing and -ning suffixes are used to denote the verbal noun. They're added to finite forms of the verb. The verbal noun is Feminine The J subclass's non-umlaut form gets affixed by -ing/-ning to form the verbal noun, for example, spurning is derived from spørje.

Class II Verbs
It is marked by a consistent -e suffix, with no i-umlaut. It contains Incohative verbs with -ne (vagne), Casuals and from adjectives in -ig in -ge, Iteratives in -se, Diminutives in -le, and verbs in ''-je, -ve, -re. The -n ''suffix is applied to the Infinitive to derive Feminine nouns. It is divided into O Subclass and U Subclass (blåne).
 * The O Subclass has the -ød suffix in Past Indicative plural and Feminine Past Participle. The ø in the -ød has variable pronunciation, but in standard Vårfolgsk it is pronounced as reduced a. It is of very few verbs since many regularised and became of the U Subclass.
 * The U Subclass uses -ud instead of -ød.

Class III Verbs
It has i-umlaut in the Past Subjunctive.

Present-Preterite Verbs
They form their Present using Strong ablaut. The Past is weak. They're also known as Irregular Verbs. These verbs are special in that they don't conjugate by person or number, though the Past Indicative and Present Indicative conjugates by number. They all either have an indeclineable Past Participle or don't have a Past Participle.

Particles and Suffixes
The Reflexive pronoun, seg, is used for the Middle/Passive voice, and is also known as the Reciprocal Particle. Its declension is in the Pronouns and Adjectives section. It used to a suffix, but it ceased to be used. The particle is used instead.

The Negative suffix used to be for negation, but it became the Nonfactive suffix. Negation is now conveyed by using ''äge/ge. The short form, äg, ''is much more common in usage. The suffixed verb can be rendered as know.2S.PRS-NFAC (i believe you know) as opposed to ''know.1S.PRS know.2S-PRS. ''The Factive aspect requires periphrastic construction, as shown above. It can only be used for 1S, otherwise perphrastic construction requires (know.2S.PRS know.2S-PRS "you believe you know")''. The suffix is -t after a vowel, -et ''after a consonant.

Pronouns and Adjectives
Pronouns and adjectives decline differently. Adjectives modifies nouns, but can be standalone (''godt "good thing"). ''The Genitive plural and Dative plural are not distinguished in gender in both adjectives and pronouns. The Neuter Nominative and Accusative end in -t when the root vowel is short or when it's after a consonant, while -dt when the root vowel is long.

Interrogatives and Relatives
Here's a table of interrogatives.

There are two Relative pronouns, -r/-er and ''som. ''They can also be adverbs and do not decline. The former carries the relative, non-interrogative sense of ''who, what, why, etc. ''It is suffixed to the interrogative. The latter, on the other hand, means "as, as if, alike, same as, or about the same time as".

Words like någver, hvader, and hvär have adjectival function. They require a different translation than their pronominal function.

The words in bold have adjectival declension, while in italics conjugate. Only the gärve part conjugates. The -v- part is removed in all forms except the Infinitive. It has ä, ø vowel alternation and is a Weak Verb I.

Here's the declension of hvär and ''hvader.  The word hvär's Neuter singular declension comes Old Norse *hver/hvat declension, while its Common declension comes from Old Norse hverr ''declension. hvader comes from an older form ''hvaðarr. ''It is only retained in the Masculine Nominative singular.

Possessive and Personal
Det is reduced in dialects to a single vowel and may be spelled differently, much like jeg. The å in hånum may be pronounced differently, most notably like ø/o, and may also be spelled differently.

The 1P and 2P pronounces are also Reflexives, but the 3P uses seg as the Reflexive. The word seg is also for dual and plural. It follows 1P and 2P declension.
 * Its declension will be shown later (tveyr)
 * Can also be gender-neutral (3S.NEUT)

The GEN of these pronouns are also Possessive. They are minn, dinn, sinn, oger, øger, vår, edver, etc.


 * The N Class are the words min, sin, and din. They are the same in declension, and end in -n.
 * The 0 Class, which are øger, oger, hans, hänner, däss, deyrre, and tväge, do not decline.
 * The words vår and edver don't belong to any class, and are thus "irregular".

Adjectives
The comparative and superlative forms are formed by inserting -r- and -st- or -er- and -est- respectively. The e is to prevent a vowel hiatus. These affixes are between the uninflected form of the adjective and a strong or weak ending. In the strong adjectives, the uncompared form and superlative are strong when indefinite, weak when definite. The comparatives are also weak when both definite and indefinite, and are declined like the Present Participle. Some strong adjectives i-umlaut their root vowel in their comparatives and superlatives, so that stort hús (a large house) becomes størst hús (a house most large). The past participles of weak verbs decline as strong adjectives.

Henn
As the definite article, henn appears before a definite adjective and suffixed to a noun, and double definitness can never occur.

When suffixed, the h is always dropped, and the root e is replaced by any vowel at the end of the noun. In other uses, it can appear before an adverb, after a pronoun, between two nouns, or between an adjective and a pronoun (including another adjective).

Because it is so common in usage, it doesn't decline and has only one form.

Strong Declension
Keep in mind that all these classes have the same endings. The word järb is special in that its root vowel isn't ''a. This is because its root vowel used to be a but j ''fronted the vowel. The dental assimilation (-dt) shortens the long vowel. The form någver is only in Masculine Nominative singular.
 * The C Class/Common Class (eg deyg) demonstrates the general case for declension.
 * The D Class (eg god) displays dental assimilation and had a historical long vowel as the vowel root.
 * The P Class (eg någver) is of pronouns.

Weak Declension
The singulars of the weak adjectival declension are modelled after those of the weak noun declensions, and likewise have either a Nominative-Oblique case dynamic or no case distinction in the singular. The plurals are not distinguished in gender, nor in case except the dative.

The declensions are divided into two Classes: E and U Classes.


 * The E Class is not distinguished in gender, in case, or in number except the Dative plural. This is because they are modelled after weak I Class and N Class. The E Class is named so because it ends in -e except in the Dative plural. The E Class is of Present Participles and Comparatives.
 * The U Class is the same as the E Class except it ends in -u in Feminine Oblique and plural (except Dative plural0. The ordinals belong to the U Class.

Indeclinable
The indeclinable adjectives end in -e or -s. They are not comparable. They originated either from regular weak adjectives: or adjectives with a noun ending in genitive plural or singular, as they originally were nouns.

Numbers
1 (eynn) follows the pronominal declension, and hundred is a strong neuter A Class noun.

The numbers tveyr, båder, tre, and firer have only plural, and their declension is given below. All other cardinal numbers are indeclinable.

The distributives and multiplicatives are all strong adjectives. The ordinals are weak, except for anner "second", which is strong and først "first", which can be both.