Vårfolgsk

Introduction
Vårfolgsk is a North Germanic language related to Norwegian, Faroese, Icelandic, Swedish, and Danish. It forms a separate branch from Old Norse. It is neither a descendant from 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.

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 OBJ, and the default fundament is the SUBJ. But other constituents can be fundaments, include the subordinate clause. If the verb is to be a fundament, the dummy verb, gärve from gerva, is the finite verb. If there is no fundament, then the sentence takes a dummy SUBJ, der from ''þar. ''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 ä from þat. 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  (from  láta ) 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 INF. This syntax is similar to English's She helped build the house.

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 GEN (Genitive). Some I Subclass nouns have ve-stem reflexes.

There are I Class Nouns (tid, from tíðr) 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, from ǫr), J Subclass (häl, from hęl), I Subclass (ärm, from ermr), and O Subclass (gøv, from gjǫf).
 * 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, from ǫgn)).
 * 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 PL except for the NOM.PL and ACC.PL being the same. Many don't have any inflectional distinction in SG except the GEN. Neuter has 2 Classes: V Class (träd, from tré) and A Class.
 * The A Class can be subdivided into A Subclass (blod, from blót), J Subclass (näs, from nęs), and U Subclass (barn, from barn). The A Class descend from Proto-Germanic Ą and.Ją Nouns.
 * The V Class descend from Proto-Germanic Wą Nouns.


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

Neuter GEN and DAT mirror the Strong Masculine Declension.

Weak Nouns
One main feature is that they form a NOM-OBLQ case dynamic, wherein only NOM 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 GEN.PL (termed the N Substrate in a few grammar books).

The PL Masculine declension is the same as the Strong Masculine Declension PL. They include nouns with -inge and weak versions of Strong Nouns, names, and endings. The NOM and OLBLQ used to end in -i and -a, respectively. Then neutralisation of wordfinal a and i, merging all cases in the SG. The Weak MASC nouns are known as the I Class,(boge from bogi) because of their historic endings. As for the NEUT nouns, their NOM and ACC are the same, and have a NOM-OBLQ dynamic, so all the cases have merged in the SG. The NEUT Weak nouns are known as the N Class (åuge from auga). The N Class contains 6 body part nouns (åuge) and objects (sime). The FEM nouns have an additional 0 Class (äve from ævi), which do not decline. They're abstract nouns and so only have one form.
 * The Weak FEM Nouns are known as O Class, because they descend from Proto-Germanic Ǫ nouns. They are subdivided into J Subclass (ävje from efja) and A Subclass (eyge from eiga).
 * 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 DEF attached in the GEN.PL, but no longer, very few nouns, do. They belong to the AD Group (sage from saga) (A Subclass) and JD Group (gydje from gyðja) (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. SUBJ 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 PRS.PTCP used to be used for the verbal noun, but it ceased to be productive. The PRS.PTCP is a Weak ADJ, 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 ACC objects, but some take ACC primary and DAT secondary objects (gäve, colloquial gi from geva), while others have ACC, GEN, and DAT direct objects.

The PST.PTCP 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 PST forms. If there are 3, the 2nd is for IND.PST.SG and the 3rd for all other PST.IND 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 PST.PTCP. There is sometimes also a 5th vowel which either only appears in the INF or in the PRS 1~3S. The PST.SUBJ is the 6th vowel.

The PST.PTCP 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 PST.PTCP.
 * The O Subclass doesn't end in -n or -g and has o as the vowel root in PST.PTCP.

The Class IV and Class V verbs are the same except for their PST.PTCP, 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 from blóta), E Subclass (ey, ä) (heyde from heita), A Subclass (a/å, ä, (ø/i)) (gråde from gráta), O Subclass (åu, y, (u/ey)) (hlåube from hlaupa), J Subclass (a/ø, y, jo) (høgv from hǫggva), and Y Subclass (ú, y, y) (búgv from búa). 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 from slá) and R Subclass (snúe from snúa). 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 PST.IND.PL, PST.SUBJ, and PST.PTCP.
 * The R Subclass have r in the weak PST.

Weak Verbs
They distinguish the tenses by adding a suffix with d. This is the main characteristic of Weak verbs. The SUBJ.PST take PRS.SUBJ endings. The IND takes the endings of SUBJ, changing the inflectional vowel to u. The d is preceded by a in some verbs, making the PST 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 from glęðja) and I Subclass (døme from dœma). 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 (PST.PTCP and PST.IND) 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 CAUS. 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 FEM. The J subclass's non-umlaut form gets affixed by -ing/-ning to form the verbal noun, for example, spurning is derived from spyrje.

Class II Verbs
It is marked by a consistent -e suffix, with no i-umlaut. It contains INC verbs with -ne (vagne from vakna), Casuals and from ADJ in -ig in -ge, ITER in -se, DIMIN in -le, and verbs in ''-je, -ve, -re. The -n ''suffix is applied to the INF to derive FEM nouns. It is divided into O Subclass and U Subclass (blåne from blána).
 * The O Subclass has the -ød suffix in PST.IND 1~3PL and PST.PTCP-FEM. 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 SUBJ.PST.

Present-Preterite Verbs
They form their PRS using Strong ablaut. The PST 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 PST.IND and PRS.IND conjugates by number. They all either have an indeclineable PST.PTCP or don't have a PST.PTCP.

Particles and Suffixes
The REF pronoun, seg from sig, is used for middle/PASS 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 NEG 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 ADJ decline differently. ADJ modifies nouns, but can be standalone (''godt "good thing"). ''GEN.PL and DAT.PL are not distinguished in gender in both ADJ and pronouns. The NOM.NEUT and ACC.NEUT 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 REL pronouns, -r/-er and ''som. ''They can also be ADV and do not decline. The former carries the REL, noninterrogative 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 ADJ function. They require a different translation than their pronominal function.

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

Here's the declension of hvär and ''hvader.  The word hvär's NEUT.SG 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 NOM.SG.MASC.

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 REF, but the 3P uses seg as the REF. The word seg is also for DL and PL. 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 POSS. 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 PRS.PTCP. 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 NOM.SG.MASC.
 * 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 NOM-OBLQ case dynamic or no case distinction in SG. 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 PL.DAT. 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 PL.DAT. The E Class is of PRS.PTCP and COMP.
 * The U Class is the same as the E Class except it ends in -u in FEM.OBLQ.SG and PL.NOM/PL.ACC/PL.GEN. 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.