Viteberger

Alphabet and Pronunciation - Tékenrol ok Utal
Viteberger uses an alphabet similar to English, but missing the letters c, j, q, w, x, and z. The letters ä and ö are added, following a and o respectively on the alphabet order. The vowels marked with diacritic accents, á, é, í, ó, and ú are not considered separate letters in the alphabet but just a variation of the original vowels because all they do is mark the stressed syllable (or syllables) of a word. On foreign words and names the letters c, j, q, w, x, and z are used, but not in any Viteberger words. a = [a] = a – on the vast majority of words it is pronounced short, like a in the Spanish casa, on a few rare words it is pronounced long, as the letter a in the English far. ä = [ɛː] = ä – pronounced similar to the ai in fair, the same as a German ä. b = [b] - b – pronounced the same as in English. d = [d] - d – same as English. e = [ɛ] - e – pronounced as the e in deck, never as the e in deep. f = [f] - f – same as in English. g = [g] - g – always pronounced as the g in game with all vowels, never as the g in gesture. h = [h] - h – same as in English. i = [i] - i – always as the e in be. k = [k] - k – same as in English. l = [l] - l – similar to English, but the sound is made with a flat tongue, not with its tip curled back as in English. ly = [ʎ] - ly – pronounced as the Portuguese digraph lh as in baralho. m = [m] - m – same as in English. n = [n] - n – same as in English. o = [ɔ] - o – always as the o in forward. ö = [œ] - ö – same as a German ö. p = [p] – p - same as in English. r = [ɾ] - r – pronounced like an English r but with a single strong thrill, similar to a Brazilian Portuguese r as in prato. s = [s] - s – always as the s in same, never as the s in Asian. sy = [ʃ] - sy – pronounced as the sh in sheet, always followed by a vowel. t = [t] - t - similar to English, but the sound is not retroflex, which means it is done with a flat tongue, not with it curled back. tv - [dv] - tv – the t is pronounced as a d, and the v is fully pronounced. ty - [ʧ] - ty - pronounced as the ch in chili pepper, always followed by a vowel. u = [u] - U – similar to the oo in boot but pronounced shorter. v = [v] - v - same as in English y = [j] - y – pronounced as the y in yellow, semi-vocalic.

Grammar


Word order - Ord Ordnin
The word order in Viteberger is SOV: subject, object, verb:

ey hen vet - I know her

The only exception to the word order is when forming questions, where the word order becomes VSO:

vet du hen? - do you know her?

Personal Pronouns - Persónlisk Förnáven
There are two grammatical numbers, singular and plural; and three grammatical genders, masculine, feminine and neuter.

The masculine and feminine genders are used to denote any animal or human’s gender, the neuter gender is used for everything else. Exceptions are the use of the feminine gender for any means of transportation, and the masculine gender for all buildings or works of construction (roads, streets, bridges, etc). For insects the neuter gender is always used.

Viteberger has an unique personal pronoun on the third person singular called the Blankpérson “blank person”, that is used in situations where the gender of the third person is yet unknown, or when it is used in a generic sense. That is similar to when in English the word “one” is used to substitute a pronoun in the third person singular. For simplification purposes this pronoun will be translated as “one” henceforth.

 Personal pronouns, nominative case

ey - I

du - you

han - he

hen - she

en - it

min - one (the blank person)

os - we

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;"> Personal pronouns, dative case

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">nir - to you

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">der - to them

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;"> Personal pronouns, genitive case

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">din - your, yours

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">hans - his

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">hens - her, hers

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">vin - our, ours

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">nin - your, yours

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">der - their, theirs

Nouns and grammatical cases - Substantiven ok gramatisk Falen
<p class="western" style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,'CenturyGothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">As in German all nouns are always capitalized.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;"> Cases - Falen

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Cases are denoted simply by the ending of a noun. In Viteberger most nouns are declined. There are 3 genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) and 4 strong cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive), and one weak case (locative). There are also three grammatical articles: unspecified, indefinite and definite. Each noun gets declensed according to gender, case, article and number.

<p class="western" style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,'CenturyGothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Viteberger is not largely a grammatical language, but instead a lexical language. This means that is it is verbs and prepositions which govern cases, rather than sentence position. If there is both a verb and preposition in the sentence it will be the preposition rather than the verb which decides the case.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;"> Feminine noun: Moder –  mother

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;"> Neuter: Hund –  dog

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Váterut - the father (accusative, definite, singular)

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Móderant - the mothers (accusative, definite, plural)

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Móderet - the mother (nominative, definite, singular)

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Hundus - dog’s, the dog’s (genitive, unspecified or definite, singular)

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Hundur - dogs’, some dogs’ (genitive, unspecified or indefinite, plural)

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Hundnet - the dogs (accusative, definite, plural)

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">The Viteberger locative case is called a weak case because it is used only when used for the English equivalent preposition in for all other prepositions used for location (near, at, on top of, etc) the locative case is not used. The locative case is also the only case that is also added to another case, so that a noun in the locative case may also be in the nominative, accusative, dative or genitive case:

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Váteris Naveneti - in the name of the father

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">In the above sentence the word Váteris is on the genitive, definite, singular (Vater+is), while the word Naveneti is on the accusative, definite, singular, locative (Naven+et+i).

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,CenturyGothic,AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;"> Vokál skifin Flörtal - Vowel shift plural

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<p class="western" style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,'CenturyGothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">o > ö

<p class="western" style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,'CenturyGothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">u > ü

<p class="western" style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,'CenturyGothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Example of a vowel shift plural:

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<p class="western" style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:20px;outline:0px;font-size:13px;color:rgb(98,101,102);font-family:Futura,'CenturyGothic',AppleGothic,sans-serif;line-height:20px;">Märten - martens