Lugoruthenian

Classification and Dialects
Lugoruthenian is a Germanic language and also the only tongue being part of the Balto-Germanic linguistic subbranch. It's spoken in the Lugoruthenian Commonwealth. It's also the only Germanic language that's being written in the Cyrillic script. The language is strongly influenced by its neighboring languages, namely Ukrainian, Polish and Lithuanian.

Writing System
The Lugoruthenian writing system is based on the Cyrillic alphabet. As the Lugoruthenian tribes have been Christianized by Byzantine and Moravian missionaries, the Early Cyrillic script has been adopted to transcribe the Lugoruthenian language. It was also the first time in Lugoruthenian linguistic history that the language became a written one. Lugoruthenian Cyrillic is very conservative and retains a lot of letter coming from the Early Cyrillic script. Also the spelling contains a handful of archaisms. There are some spelling rules and phonological changes that one should be aware of:


 * If preceded by a vowel, the letter В being followed by a consonant is pronounced as /w/, e.g.: гавло /hawla/ (=hall)
 * If unstressed, the letter E gets reduced to /ji/ in a process called ikanya (iканя), e.g.: преëчѫ /prjijɔtʃɔ/ (=to overlook)
 * The unstressed E preceded by a vowel gets reduced to /jɔ/ in a process called okanya (оканя), e.g.: лечее /ljɛtʃjijɔ/ (=easily)
 * The letter I is the default letter in order to represent the sound /i/, while the letter И is used to write the sound /i/ in final position, e.g.: прави (=almost)
 * The letter Л being followed by consonant and preceded by a vowel changes to /w/, e.g.: волфсъ /vɔwfs/ (=wolf)
 * The letter O undergoes a sound reduction called akanya (аканя) if unstressed, e.g.: Ржечпоспоблiто /rʒjɛtʃpaspablita/ (=Commonwealth)
 * The diagraph ЧТ stands for /ʃt/, e.g.: почто /pɔʃta/ (=post office)
 * The letter Ъ must be added in final position if the considered word ends in a hard consonant, e.g.: лекъ (=easy)
 * The letter Ъ also prevents the default iotation of the letter E, so the sound changes to a simple /ɛ/, e.g.: объещанiя /abɛʃtʃanija/ (=promise)
 * The so-called nasal letters Ѫ and Ѭ, even if undistinguishable from the stressed O or the simple Ë, are used for etymological and grammatical like indicating the infinitive present ending
 * The iotified and nasal letters never get reduced in speech, except of E
 * Iotified letters being grammatical endings may induce alterations for the last consonant of the word stem as follow: м to мл, п to пл, б to бл, ф to фл, в to вл, т to ц, д to s, к to ч, г to ш and ґ to ж

Nouns
Nouns in Lugoruthenian retain a lot of flexions. Indeed, all the six cases of Proto-Germanic have been maintained in Lugoruthenian due to Baltic and Slavic influence.

First Declension
The First Declension gathers all masculine nouns ending in -съ and all neuter nouns ending in -a up. A lot of word stems of the masculine noun category do not allow the nominative singular ending -съ, depending on the last consonant of the word stem. Some consonants will voice the /s/-sound to a /z/-sound, meanwhile other consonants will simply delete that final ending.


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

Second Declension
The Second Declension contains all the feminine nouns ending in -о.

Third Declension
The Third Declension groups all nouns ending in a soft consonant marked by -ь. The nouns of the Third Declension may be masculine, feminine or neuter and their respective gender must be learnt by hard, as there are no grammatical rules that might help predict the grammatical gender. The masculine and feminine nouns follow the same flexion, meanwhile neuter nouns are the only ones with a different flexional paradigm.

Fourth Declension
The Fourth Declension groups all the masculine nouns ending in -усъ and all the neuter nouns in -у. A lot of masculine nouns ending in -ў (being borrowed from Slavic languages) follow the neuter declension. Indeed, the /w/-sound changes to a /lj/-sound whilst following the paradigm, e.g.: учiцеў - учiцели - учiцел ë съ (=teacher).