Beloruthenian

Classification and Dialects
The Beloruthenian language is the only surviving East Germanic language and it is the official language of the Beloruthenian Commonwealth. This language has absorbed many features of the surrounding Slavic languages, namely Russian, Polish and Ukrainian, and Baltic languages, principally Lithuanian. It is also the only Germanic language being written in Cyrillic.

Writing System
In Beloruthenian spelling, there are many rules that must be considered while reading or writing, as Beloruthenian preserves a rather archaic spelling and undergoes numerous sound changes.


 * The letter A, if unstressed, is pronounced /ɐ/, e.g.: Рж е чпоспоблiта /rʑ ɛ tʃpɐspɐbʎitɐ/ (=Commonwealth)
 * The letter B in final position or followed by a consonant is turning into a w-sound, e.g.: авʼ /aw/ (=to)
 * The letter Г followed by a iotified letter, E, I or И is pronounced as /ç/, e.g.: г i во /ç i vɐ/ (=gift)
 * The letter Г followed by O is pronounced as /v/, e.g.: г о дасъ /v ɔ dɐs/ (=good)
 * The letter Г in final position or followed by a consonant is pronounced as /j/, e.g.: дзег ' /dzjɛj/ (=you - accusative singular)
 * The letter E undergoes the ikanya (iканя), if unstressed. The ikanya makes the unstressed E change to /i/, e.g.: перезн а твовѫ /pjirjizn a tvɐvɐ/ (=to realize)
 * The letter E undergoes the okanya (оканя), if preceded by another vowel. The okanya induces the sound change to /ɔ/, e.g.: маетъ /majɔt/ (=there is)
 * The letter И only occurs in final position, e.g.: гiвли (=gift - dative singular)
 * The letter Л in final position or followed by a consonant is turning into a w-sound, e.g.: волфсъ /vɔwfs/ (=wolf)
 * The letter O undergoes the akanya (аканя), if unstressed. The akanya transforms the vowel O phonetically into /ɐ/, e.g.: г i во /ç i vɐ/ (=gift)
 * The digraph ЧТ stands for /ʃt/, e.g.: почта /pɔʃtɐ/ (=post)
 * The letter Ъ is the hard sign indicating a final hard consonant or preventing the palatalization of the consonant followed by E, e.g.: волфсъ (=wolf); объ е щуѭ /ɐb ɛ ʃtʃujɐ/ (=to promise)
 * The letter Ь is the soft sign indicating a final soft (palatalized) consonant, e.g.: ръеалнiсць /rɛɐwɲistsj/ (=reality)
 * The apostrophe marks that the final consonant acts like a vowel, respectively like a semi-vowel, e.g.: дзе г  ' /dzjɛ j / (=you - accusative singular)
 * The iotified letters, I and E always induce palatalization of the preceding consonant
 * The iotified letters never get reduced, even unstressed

Nouns
Beloruthenian has four cases : nominative, accusative, dative and genitive, two numbers : singular and plural, and three genders : masculine, feminine and neuter. In comparison to its Germanic linguistic relatives, Beloruthenian has a complex nominal flexion, which has been retained due to the Balto-Slavic influence.

First Declension
The First Declension contains all masculine nouns ending in -съ and all neuter nouns ending in -a. Not every masculine nouns belonging to the first declension ends in -съ for the nominative singular. Depending on the stem of the noun, the ending drops completely or adapts to it. The changes are as follow:


 * б+съ -> бзъ
 * ґ+съ -> ґзъ
 * д+съ -> дзъ
 * ж+съ -> жъ
 * з+съ -> съ
 * с+съ -> съ
 * т+съ -> цъ
 * ц+съ -> цъ
 * ч+съ -> чъ
 * ш+съ -> шъ
 * щ+съ -> щъ

The ending -e (as every ending containing a iotified letter or -и) for the dative singular may induce a sound change through palatalization, depending on the last consonant of the noun stem.


 * м -> мл
 * п -> пл
 * б -> бл
 * в -> вл
 * т -> ц
 * д -> дз
 * к -> ч
 * ґ -> дж

Second Declension
The Second Declension contains all feminine nouns ending in -o.

Third Declension
The Third Declension contains masculine, feminine and neuter nouns ending in -ь. The masculine and feminine nouns cannot be distinguished from their declension, as they're the same.

Fourth Declension
The Fourth Declension contains all the masculine nouns ending in -усъ and all the neuter nouns ending in -у. Some neuter nouns end in -ў and palatalize their case ending, e.g.: Могiлеў (=Mogilev - city in Beloruthenia), Могiлеї в', Могiлея съ

Definitiveness
The definitiveness is done by adding -тъ to a vocalic or semi-vocalic noun ending, respectively -атъ to a consonant ending. The clitic definitiveness is a non-Germanic trait of Beloruthenian, as it is inherited from the Proto-Slavic pronoun tъ which means "this" or "that".

Сунусатъ гевѫдзестъ манетъ гiвотъ. (=The son gives the man the gift.)

Weak accusative
The weak accusative describes two different grammatical phenomena in Beloruthenian concerning the accusative case. The accusative case has a tendency (also inherited from the Balto-Slavic languages) to shift to the genitive case. The accusative gets replaced by the genitive case, when the direct object is in a negative sentence. This is also called the genitive of negation.

Сунусатъ не гевѫдзестъ манетъ гiвосатъ. (=The son does not give the man the gift.)

The second replacement happens, when the direct object is partitive. So if only a part of the direct object is talked about, the direct object is put in the genitive case. This is also called the partitive genitive.

Гевь ваторїсъ. (=Give [me] some water.)

Dative shift
In the standard word order, the indirect dative object is put before the direct object being in the accusative case or in the genitive case. But since Beloruthenian has an extended case system, the word order is free and the standard syntax is often broken in order to emphasize a particular part of the sentence. If the standard word order isn't held in, the dative shift occurs. The dative case, which in the standard syntax doesn't need a preposition, will need one of both prepositions : ав' and па - which mean "to". Whereas ав' is inherited from Proto-Germanic, па is the result of the Slavic influence. Whether ав' or па is to be used, has to be learnt by heart for every single verb.

Гiвотъ сунусатъ гевѫдзестъ ав' манетъ. (=The son gives the gift to the man .)

Гiво сунусатъ объещуетъ па гасцїтъ. (=The son promises a gift to the guest .)

Verbs
Beloruthenian verbs are probably the most complex part of the language due to the numerous inflexions.

Synthetic and analytical conjugation
The simple tenses can follow three conjugation patterns : Synthetic, Analytical I and Analytical II. The Synthetic is the default conjugation pattern of a verb in Beloruthenian. The Analytical I and II are used, when the direct object is undefined or when the sentence is an interrogation. The Analytical I and II only differ in their endings, as they convey the same meaning. The Analytical I induces the inversion of subject and verb in the standard word order (however without causing a dative shift!), whilst the Analytical II includes the inverted pronominal subject into the verb ending. Both analytical forms are equivalent.

Беўдѫдзiмъ фравли тiкетѫтъ та Могiлеў. (=I'm offering a woman the ticket to Mogilev. - Synthetic)

Беўдзетъ ег' фравли тiкетѫ та Могiлеў. (= I am offering a woman a ticket to Mogilev. - Analytical I)

Беўдзецей фравли тiкетѫ та Могiлеў. (=I'm offering a woman a ticket to Mogilev. - Analytical II)

Infinitives
There are three infinitives in Beloruthenian : infinitive present, infinitive perfect and modal infinitive. The first two infinitives give the bases of the verb stem for every simple tense. Both of them end in -ѫ, but differ in their stem. A Beloruthenian verb must always be learnt with both infinitives. The modal infinitive is relevant for complex tenses and modal constructions. It is formed by dropping the ending -ѫ from the infinitive present.

гевѫ - гафтѫ - гев ' (=to give - to have given - give)

Present
The indicative present tense describes action taking place during the present moment of the speaking. The present tense is a grammatical innovation, as it is a compound of the present participle and the verb to be in the present tense (гевѫдзъ - giving + iмъ - I am -> гевѫдзiмъ - I'm giving/I give).

Беўдзецей фравли тiкетѫ та Могiлеў. (=I'm offering a woman a ticket to Mogilev.)

Imperfect
The indicative imperfect describes past actions that were ongoing, took a long time to finish, were repetitive or have never been accomplished. The imperfect is almost a direct calque from the imperfect tense of Old Church Slavonic.

Цевiкой модзерь бачяшётъ чяста. (= Every week, [my] mother baked a cake.)

Aorist I
The aorist I, also called the popular aorist, is the default past tense for completed and unique actions. The popular aorist is deriving from the common Proto-Germanic irregular pattern of the past tense, that also English inherited. The popular aorist is commonly used in day to day speech and sometimes in the literary languages as in newspaper articles. The verb stem is the stem of the infinitive perfect.

Бачвовляшёцей телевiзiя цiл' Iвансъ рань а дверїсатъ. (=I was watching television until Ivan rang at the door.)

Aorist II
The aorist II, also called the sigmatic or literary aorist, conveys the same information as the aorist I with the main difference being that the aorist II is used in a literary context as in literature, poems, sometimes songs. The aorist II is hardly ever heard in daily speech. It is inherited from the Old Slavonic aorist. As for the aorist I, The verb stem is the stem of the infinitive perfect too.

Бачвовляшёцей телевiзiя цiл' Iвансъ ранe а дверїсатъ. (=I was watching television until Ivan rang at the door.)

The aorist II is more complex to form than the aorist I. First of all, the aorist II is the only verbal tense in Beloruthenian, preserving the umlaut-phenomenon. Some vowels of the stressed syllable of a verb may change as follows:


 * о –> а
 * е –> ѣ
 * i –> е

Secondly, the sigmatism, which appears for the first person singular and third person dual in the Synthetic pattern and for the totality of the Analytical pattern, alters the last consonant of the verb stem (hence sigmatic aorist).


 * б –> пс
 * в –> з
 * ґ –> ґз
 * д –> ж
 * ж –> жж
 * з –> зз
 * н –> нз
 * к –> ч
 * л –> лс
 * м –> мз
 * п –> пс
 * р –> ж
 * с –> сс
 * т –> с
 * ф –> фс
 * ш –> шш
 * щ –> щ
 * ч –> чт

Future
The future tense expresses actions happening in the future. The future tense is inherited from the Proto-Germanic present tense.

Пажадзiцо актѫсатъ. (=I'll put the case notes away.)

The future tense intervenes also in conditional sentences expressing a condition, which surely will happen if fulfilled. The main clause is put in the future tense, meanwhile the subordinate clause is put in the present tense.

Яко талѭдзи, пажадзiцо актѫсатъ. (= If you tell [me], I'll put the case notes away.)