Saksies

Overview
Saksies is a Germanic conlang closely related to the modern Germanic languages, Dutch, German, Afrikaans, Luxembourgish and has a lot in common with the English language as well.

Saksies has a fair amount of French loanwords.

Grammar
The Saksies grammar is relatively simple compared with German or Dutch and resembles more the modern English or Afrikaans grammar.

Phonology
The Saksies vowel system consists of 12 vowel sounds: 8 simple vowels a, e, è, ë, i, ie, o, u; 4 diphthongs: au, ei, éi and y. The vowels a, e, o and u can be either long or short.'

The Saksies consonant inventory consists of 20 sounds of which [x] has no graphem of its own but is marked by ch or g and [ʦ] can be written either as z or tz (z is used after consonants, tz after vowels, the sound occurs usually only word-finally).

S is pronounced [z] word-initially and between vowels. Word-finally, b, d and g are pronounced [p], [t] and [x].

Consonants
Nevertheless, they are usually declined as indigenous words:
 * The presented pronunciation of ch and z/tz is the standard, dialectal variation is great. Often they are simplified to [ʃ] and [t].
 * French words are mostly spelt and pronounced as in French.

Ech gonn changéiren de billeten. (I go change the tickets.) [ɛʃ gon: ʃãnʒeirən də bije:ən]

Nouns
There are no genders in Saksies. The indefinite article is e /ə/ (emphatic form: een /e:n/ and the definite article is de /də/ (emphatic form: die /di:/).

When the proceeding word begins with a vowel an -n is inserted at the end of the article e > en /ən/, de > den /dən/. This may be ignored in colloquial usage.

Plural is formed by adding the suffix -(e)n /(ə)n/.

Irregular Plurals

Adjectives & Adverbs
There is a number of real adverbs, any adjective in indefinite form can be used as an adverb. Adjectives have two forms: indefinite and definite.

Degrees of Comparision
Note the spelling!

H ee t > h e ter > (de) h ee tst(e) hot, hotter (the) hottest

Fla kk > fla kk er > (de) fla k st(e) flat, flatter, (the) flattest

Note!

The adjective gudd is declined irregularly:

gudd > besser > best

Personal Pronouns
The forms mein, dein and sein are used when the proceeding word begins with a vowel e.g. mein auto.

Interrogative Pronouns
Nom     Wer ObjDir   Wen ObjInd  Wem Gen     Wessen Object Wat Time Wenn Place Weer Manner Wie Reason Wéi / Wat for Which Welch/e

Verbs
INFITINE VERB FORMS pref. = prefixed verb, doesn't get ge- prefix in Past Participle

mpre. = moving prefix, note the position of prefix -ge- irr. = irregular or strong verb

FINITE VERB FORMS

The first one is the singular form e.g. ech bell 'I ring' and the second one is used for plural méi bellen 'we ring'.

Only 4 verbs have personal inflection apart from singular/plural distinction in Present Tense:

STRONG VERBS have 3 main groups:

I ei-ie-ie Group: beissen - biessen - gebiessen to bite

II ie-o-o Group: fliegen - floog - geflogen 'to fly'

III ë-a-u Group: begënnen - begann/en - begunnen 'to begin'

IV The 4th Group includes 16 irregular verbs that do not fall into any of the preceding groups e.g. mogen (maag/mogen) - mochte/n - gemogen 'to like'

IV The 16 Irregular Verbs are:

MODAL VERBS

durfen ''irr. '' Present: darf/durfen, Past: durfte/n Subjunctive: dirfte/n to be permitted, may

konnen ''irr. '' Present: kann/konnen, Past: konnte/n Subjunctive: kënnte/n can, to be able

mogen ''irr. '' Present: maag/mogen, Past: mochte/n Subjunctive: mëchte/n to like

mussen ''reg. '' Present: muss/en Past: musste/n Subjunctive: misste/n must, to have to

wëllen ''reg. '' Present: wëll/en Past/Subjunctive: wëllte/n to want

sollen ''reg. '' Present: soll/en Past/Subjunctive: sollte/n shall, should

Also gonn 'to go, going to' and bleiven 'to stay, to keep' can be treated as modal verbs.