Wexalian

General Informaton
Wexilian comes from Old High German. The speakers live on the islands of Terschelling, Vlieland, Ameland, and in a reletively large chunk of lang in the modern-day Netherlands in order of incorporation into the ethnic groups majority. The name came from the medevil name of the island, Wexalia. The Wexalian name for itself, Feschle [ˈfɛʃlə], comes from the native term wecsile.

Consonants
¹ Also an allophone before /k/ or /g/ ² Allophone of [x] finally

Vowel
Phonemic Diphthongs: {aɪ̯ eɪ̯ oʊ̯ oʏ̯ oɪ̯} [ʁ] allophonically becomes [a̯ˤ] in a closed syllable or [ə̯] in an open one. This allophony doesn't occur in an initial open syllable.

Stress
Stress usually falls on the antepenultimate syllable. In syllables with three or less syllables, the closed syllable take precedence.

Yod Metaphony
The yod metaphony occurs when [i eː l j eɪ̯] occur in the adjacent syllable. It's going to referred to with +j in paradigms.
 * u > y
 * o/ɔ > ø/œ
 * ɑ > æ
 * oʏ̯ > oɪ̯
 * ə > ɪ

Alphabet
(1) Only appears in the digraph ck representing the old geminate K, but now that just means a short vowel before it (2) Stressed E and O in an open syllable are long. E is always [ɛ] in a closed syllable. Unstressed E in an open syllable is [ə]. E is [ə] finally. (3) [ʁ] allophonically becomes [ə̯ˠ] in a closed syllable or [ə̯] in an open one. This allophony doesn't occur in an initial open syllable. (4) S is [z]  intervocalically or pre-voiced consonant. S is [ʃ] before another consonant and initially. It's [s] finally. (5) H is always silent within a word. Initially, it's either [ç] before [i y ɪ ʏ e: ø:] and [h] elsewhere.. (6) Closed syllable. (7) [v] before another consonant (8) Before [ə], initially, finally after a consonant.

Diacritcs and Multigraphs

 * Tz tz - [t͡s]
 * Ch ch - [x] or [ç] ([ç] allophonically before [i y ɪ ʏ e: ø:])
 * Sch sch - [ʃ] anywhere
 * SS ß – [s] anywhere
 * Sz sz - [z] anywhere
 * (double letter) - pseudo-closed syllable (or geminate ^)
 * Ei ei - [aɪ̯]
 * Ie ie - [eɪ̯]
 * Ou ou - [oʊ̯]
 * Eu eu - [oʏ̯]
 * Oi oi - [oɪ̯]
 * Oa oa, Ea ea, Öa öa - [ɔː ɛː œː]
 * Ä ä - [æ] ([ɛ] before [j])
 * Ü ü - [y] or [ʏ] (the latter in a closed syllable)
 * Ö ö - [øː] or [œ] (the latter in a closed syllable)
 * Ë ë - [ə]
 * -en, -el, -er - [n̩/ən] [l̩/əl] [ə]
 * -eC - [əC] (where C = consonant)
 * Pr - [ʁ] (where P = plosive)
 * Bf bf - [v]

Puntuation

 * « . » - ends of normal sentence
 * « : » - leads into a relative clause
 * « ; » - leads into a closely related sentence to the first
 * « , » - seperates lists, introductory clauses, and dependent clauses other than that
 * « • » - natural pause (for speech-like writing. Very unofficial and used primarily in quotes or speechs)
 * « ? » - question mark
 * « ! » - exclemation mark
 * « '' » - abbreviations 
 * « « x » » - quotation marks (also writ "")
 * « ‹ x › » - single quotes (also writ '' )
 * « ( x ) » - used for side-notes and embedded clauses

Grammar
The superscript +j means that the yod metaphony is applied.

Noun Declension
Gerunds (ending with -eng from OHG -ung) are called "Class G." gen. -e | prep. -s | plural -en.
 * Nom-Acc : nominative and accusative
 * Gen : genitive/possessive
 * Prep : within a prepositional phrase (including dative)

Class I – masculine a/o declension
It came from the a-stems (where the ja-stems merged). däj is from tag.

Class II – eo declension
It came from the wa-stems. njee is from kneo.

Class III – feminine a/o declension
It came from the ō-stems. gebe is from gëba. ¹ Since gebe already ends in [ə], the genitive form doesn't change.

Class IV – long i-declension
It came from the "feminine abstract noun" declension. höchi comes from hōhī.

Class V – masculine i/0 declension
It came from the masculine i-declension. gäst is from gast.

Class VI – feminine i/0 declension
It came from the feminine i-declension. stad comes from stat. Staþ and others like it (where the word ends in /ɑC/ where C = {f d x}) suffer a regular irregularity where in the nom-acc form, they're their standard form (staþ), but /ɑ/ becomes /æ/ and the fricative if fortified to {p t͡s k}.

Class VII – n-declension
It came from the n-stem weak declension. All of the gendered declensions fused in declension, but not in gender. herze comes from hërza.

Class VIII – fused declension
It came from the masculine and feminine monosyllabic declensions and applies to the old OHG -nt declension. man came from man.

Class IX – r-declension
It came from the -r declension. fazer came from fater.

Class X – os/es declension
It came form the os/es declension. lam came from lamb.

Class I – Masculine
Applies to Noun Classes I, II, V, VII, IX, X, and G. blinter comes from OHG blintēr.

Class II - Feminine
Applies to Noun Classes III, IV, VI, and VIII.

Article
The only article in Wexalian is the definite article which acts similar the one in Modern Standard Arabic in that it is used in contexs where the applied noun has been previously mentioned and/or the noun is specific. The lack of an article (or the zero article) acts as referring to any single noun (if singular) or a mass noun (if plural). (*) Often becomes [ʃ] before another consonant in familiar speech

Pronouns
The 5th person conjugates to the third person

Reflexive
Attatch these suffixes to the possessive pronoun (turn -er to -ë-).

Verbs
The Subjunctive is much more common in Wexalian than most germanic laguages because it began to mean anything that's irrealis. This can be used in various paraphrastic phrases for more moods such as the conditional and exhorative among others. Verb conjugations have been standardized to two sets of suffixes based on the first and second weak conjugations (though, there are a few irregulars for many common verbs such zenken, to think, furken, to work, and häven, to have).

The change from present to preterite and past participle has an ablaut (which is affected by the yod metaphony): A zero ablaut (or a verb without an ablaut) is referred to as 0.

Paraphrastic Phrases Add the following suffixes from fessen: {-fem+j -fs+j -sch+j -sm -st -sn} in order of person. Note that tense and mood are from the base verb's conjugation. Conjugate the main verb in the present and put fellen (which is class II, type IIIb) in the infinitive as an auxillary. Conjugate the main verb in the preterite and put fellen in the infinitive as an auxillary. Conjugate the main verb in the indicative present or pretrite and put habfen as an auxillary. The future perfect is formed by making the future as normal but placing habfen as the past participle after fellen. Conjugate the main verb into the imperative (for the second person) or the indicative present (for the first and third persons) and place fellen in the past participle. Add the following suffixes : {-ffe -ef -fe -fen -fen -fen} in order of person. Note that tense and mood are from the base verb's conjugation. These suffixes developed from the old OHG word wërdan (which developed into the modern German werden) which has since been removed from the language.
 * Passive:
 * Future
 * Conditional:
 * Perfect
 * Exhortative
 * Causative

Class I
From the OHG -ōn, -ēn, and -an verbs.
 * Infinitive: -en
 * Present Participle: -nn
 * Past Participle: gë-t+j

Class II
From the OHG -en verbs.
 * Infinitive: -en
 * Present Participle: -nn
 * Past Participle: gë-t+j

to be
From the OHG wesan. (*) st is pronounced [ʃ] without [t].
 * Infinitive: fessen
 * Present Participle: schem
 * Past Participle: gëfessen

to have
From the OHG haben.
 * Infinitive: habfen
 * Present Participle: habfenn
 * Past Participle: gëchabft

Word Order and Head Direction
Wexalian is V2 where the word order is SV₁(P₁)IO(P₂)V₂ in the proper language (S - subject | V₁ - conjugated verb | V₂ - infinitive (followed by participles) | I - indirect object | O - direct object | P₁ - preposition | P₂ - postposition). Wexalian is a a null subject language like Spanish where the subject pronoun is removed due to the conjugation revealing the grammatical information already.

The head direction depends completely on its placement within the sentence and the number of verbs. When there is one verb and no indirect object, the sentence is head final (rückkemmeng). When there are two verbs (or one verb yet a direct and indirect object), in the beginning of the sentence, from the subject to the indirect object, the head direction is final (rückkemmeng) whereas the direct object to the second verb is head initial (leizeng). Adpositions also follow this patter where there are preposition for the former and postpositions for the latter.

The former is called rückkemmeng and the latter leizeng in Wexalian and how they will be referred to for the rest of the article. rückkemmeng is rücke, back, plus kemmen, to come, plus -eng, gerund suffix. leizeng is leizen, to lead, plus -eng, gerund suffix. Another more accurate definition is that rückkemmeng is head final sentence structure such as Japanese and leizeng is head initial like French.

Non-Dative Objects: Adpositional phrases that are not dative go after the object following leizeng order in any order. Though, with one verb, it follows rückkemmeng order after the verb/object.

Noun Phrase
Adjectives: In rückkemmeng, adjectives are placed before the head noun, whereas in leizeng, adjectives are placed after the head noun. Adjectives take the case of their head noun.

Article: In rückkemmeng, they go before the entire noun phrase and after the preposition. In leizeng, they go directly before the noun.

Adverbs: They're placed directly before their head noun. If the noun has a definite article, the adverb goes before the article.

Adpositions: In rückkemmeng, they go before the enitre noun phrase and article, and vice versa in leizeng.

Genitives: A genitive phrase is (owned + fën + owner) or simply the possessive pronoun and the owned noun in the correct head direction.

Verb Phrase
Adverbs: They act just like in noun phrases where they go before the verb.

Reflexive and Causative: Reflexitive verbs are made through the use of the reflexive pronoun in the accusative or dative (they're are in Pronouns). Causative verbs use the causative suffixes (explained in Verbs)

Passive: Formed in a paraphrastic phrase (explained in Verbs)

Copula: The copula is fessen. This is used as a "filler verb" where it is describing the subject having a noun or being an adjective. Such as der man isch blinter (the man is blind) where isch is connecting man and blinter. Note that the adjective will take the accusative in these types of sentence.

Clauses
Independent: This follows the standard word order

Dependent: The dependent clause marker (words such as when, because, after, etc) is placed before the standard word order akin to a clausal preposition.

Introductory: The adpositional phrase, gerund, participle, or supine is put in the front of the sentence in leizeng (head intial word order).

Embedded: Unlike most Germanic languages, the standard word order is upheld in an embedded clause.

Interrogative: The placement of a question word or a rise in voice intonation creates a question. Though, there is a formal question "particle," steimen, which is placed at the head of the clause having the question.

Relative: These are introduced with relative pronouns and "where," far. The following dependent clauses follow the standard word order.

Sound Changes
C - consonant; V - vowel; grave - unstressed; acute - stressed; Ɵ - closed syllable; O - open syllable; C̬ - {b d g l m n}; P - plosive

/a/ is recognized as [ä]. /r/ is recognized as [r~ɾ]. /s/ and /s̱/ are recognized as [s̪] and [s~s̱]. s̱ > ʃ / _C  *s̱co:no > ʃko:no ʃk > ʃ / _# *fis̱k > fiʃk > fiʃ w > v / #_ *wīs > vīs t > t͡s / V_{i i: u u: ɛ e:} *xiutu > xiut͡su g > ɣ / V_V, _# *skuldigon > ʃkuldiɣon {p k} > {f x} / _C *weksile > vexsile d > θ / C_# t > θ / #_VCV, C_VCV x > ç / before or after {i e ī ē} *rix:i > riç:i –New Stress Rules¹– Cw{a i ɛ u ɔ} > C{ɔ ɪ ɛ _̬u: _̬ɔ:} | Cw{a: i: e: u: o:} > C{ɔ: i: e: _̬u: _̬u:} Old Dutch, Latin, and some Old French Loans ɣ > ∅ ! (_#, #_) > j ³ yod metaphony²: {u u: o o: a a:} > {y y: ø ø: æ æ:} / {i i: e: l j}$_ *ubile > ybilə V̀ > ə / C_# ! V: *ʃko:nɔ > ʃko:nə | CV̀{n l r} > Cə{n l r} / _# ! i > ɪ *ʃkuldiɣon > ʃkuldiɣən | {e a o} > ə / Ɵ_# a a: > ɑ ɑ: *furlas > fyrlɑs t > t͡s / n_# loss of intertonic vowel⁴ *ybilə > yblə {i y ø u} > {ɪ ʏ œ ʊ} / Ɵ, V_# *fyrlæs > fʏrlæs æ > ɛ / _j V́ > V́: ! Ɵ s > ʃ / #_ eɪ̯ > aɪ̯ ! _{l j} > ɛ | ie̯ > i: | io̯ > ø: | ou̯ > oʊ̯ | uo̯ > u: | iu̯ > oʏ̯ ! _{ʃ t͡s x⁵ k} > oɪ̯ oʏ̯ > oɪ̯ / {i i: e: l j}$_ (yod metaphony) r > ʁ v > f *vīs > fīs i: > eɪ̯ ! _{m n ʁ l z} > ɛ | {è: ò: ø̀:} > {ɛ ɔ œ} | {æ: ɑ: u: y:} > {æ ɑ u y} t͡:s > s: | ç: > ʃ | x: > xk C: > C {t p k} > {d b g} / V_V̀ Modern French Loans xs > ʃ *wexsile > fɛʃlə kn > nj {e: o: ø:} > {ɛ: ɔ: œ:} / Ɵ (p t k) > (f θ x) / ɑ_# *stat > ʃtɑθ ə > ∅ / Ɵ_ *sterno > ʃtɛʁn.ə > ʃtɛʁn b > v / V_C, V_Cə{n l} , V_V̀ *yblə > yvlə d > z / V_V̀ *fater > fɑzəʁ | d > d͡z / #_{i e: e ɛ æ} t͡s > d͡z / V_V̀, #_ , C̬_# s > z / V_V, _C̬ , _# *a:rlosi > ɑʁlœzə| θ > ð / V_V , #_ *tagalix:as > ðælʃæz Vʁ > Va̯ˤ / Ɵ | Vʁ > Və̯ / O _C *fʏʁlæs > fʏə̯læz ə > ɪ / {i ɪ e: l j}$_ (yod metaphony) ən, əl > n̩, l̩ {x k} > h / #_ | ç > h / #_{ɛ œ} x > χ / _# <- allophonic {V: V́ V́:}t > {V: V́ V́:}s / _# *bro:t > bro:s ç > ʃ / {i e:}_#, _{l t s t͡s}# English Loans {θ ð} > t d {ɛ̀ ɔ̀ ɑ̀} > ə (in small, unstressed words such as prepositions or) z > s / V̀_# {b d g} > {v d͡z ʁ} / #_, _# , V_V̀ (in small, unstressed words such as prepositions or the article) Pʁ > ʁ (similar to t-glottalization in English where it's unofficial but widespread) ¹ Stress usually falls on the antepenultimate syllable. In syllables with three or less syllables, the closed syllable take precedence.

² The yod metaphony in Wexalian occurs if an adjacent syllable contains one of {i i: e: l j}.

³  When lost intervocalically, vowels fuse into diphthongs and two of the same vowels don't become long

⁴ Short intertonic vowels are lost. Long intertonic vowels are shortened and simplified to their schwa sound, {ɪ ɪ ə ə ə ə ə} for {i y ø e o ɑ/æ u}. This is nullified if it would create a triple consonant cluster.

⁵ Becomes [ç]

⁶ Applies to {b d g z} –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––