Theodish

1. Introduction

The purpose of this language is to be quite comprehensible for English, High German, Dutch speakers, as well as those of North Germanic modern languages.

Its aims are:

to that one of modern English, but with Old English spellings; influenced vocabulary, avoiding words and roots from other branches outside the Germanic languages; possible;
 * To work with a phonological system identical
 * To use Old English
 * To have got a minimalistic vocabulary and grammar, reducing the rules as much as

2. Phonology:

2.1. Vowels:

ə

æ

a – ɑ

á – ɑ:

e – e

é – e:

ë - ɛ

i - ɪ

í - i:

o - ɔ

ó - ɔ:

ö - ɒ

u - ʊ

ú - u:

y - ʏ

ý - ʏ:

œ - as eu in French “bleu”

2.2. Consonants

c – /k/ voiceless velar plosive as in English “cat”

b – /b/ voiced bilabial plosive as in English “bat”

d – /d/ voiced alveolar plosive as in English “dental”

f – /v/ voiced labio-dental fricative as in English “voiced”

g – /g/ voiced velar plosive as in English “gang”

ġ – /j/ voiced palatal approximant as in English “yard”

l – /l/ voiced alveolar lateral approximant as in English “load”

m – /m/ voiced nasal bilabial as in English “much”

n – /n/ voiced nasal alveolar as in English “next”

p – /p/ unvoiced plosive bilabial as in English “peace”

r – /r/ voiceless alveolar flap as in Portuguese “cara”

s – /z/ voiced alveolar fricative as in English “zoo”

t – /t/ unvoiced alveolar plosive as in English “tube”

ṡ – /s/ unvoiced alveolar fricative as in English “sad”

þ – /θ/ unvoiced dental fricative as in English “think”

ŋ – /ŋ/ voiced velar nasal as in English “going”

w – /w/ voiced labial-velar approximant as in English “was”

ǥ – /x/ as in German “macht”

ç – /ç/ voiceless palatal fricative as in German “Licht”

v – /f/ voiceless lábio-dental fricative as in English “force”

h – /h/ voiceless fricative glottal as in English “have”

cg – /

ċ

ż – /ts/ as in German “zu”

 

Radicals

Radical is an original idea which many different kinds of words derive from. They are the root words for nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Attaching prefixes, suffixes or modifying their sounds through umlaut can change their grammatical classes. The radicals are not words used without any compliments.

 

Combining radicals

One or more roots can be combined in order to get a new word. As the aim of this is language is to have the shorter vocabulary necessary, then even if a word is not a compound in Old English, it can become a composition here because in doing so we can use less words, even if the roots become a bit more complicated. See for example:

High: heah (Old English) but uppgréatiç (“greater upwards”)

Large: miċel, stór (Old English) but sídegréatiç (“greater sidewards”)

Short, small: uppscortiç (“short upwards”)

Thin: sídescortiç (“short sidewards”)

Declension

The Þéodiç language decline its nouns and pronouns in five declensions: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive and instrumental.

Nominative is the grammatical case used for the subject of a sentence. The accusative is used when any verb describes an action did upon something, material or not. The dative is the direct object of a sentence, the one towards the action was made to. The genitive indicates possession or a characteristic. The instrumental is used for any kind of compliments of place, time, medium, etc. through which something is explained.

The usual order of the sentence in the language is as follows:

''(Genitive*) nominative + verb(s) + (genitive*) accusative + (genitive*) dative + (genitive*) instrumental''

* When required by the context.

Articles, relative pronouns and Gender

Articles

There are four articles, which have as primary function to mark the gender of the nouns. They have a masculine, feminine, neuter and a plural form.

Þe beǥa – the man

Þéo beǥa – the woman

Þæt beǥa – human with no gender identified

Þá beǥa – the humans

Þæt éaġə – the eye

Þe beǥa éaġəvélən þéo beǥum – the man sees (feels with the eyes) the woman

Relative pronouns

The articles also can work as relative pronouns, connecting two sentences.

Þe beǥa þe ġéaġəvélənd þéo beǥum – the man that saw the woman

Nouns

Type

The nouns are formed with radicals. To the radicals we first attach an ending which indicates its type, in the nominative form. The basic suffixes are:

For example:

be – radical of being

beǥ- – humanish being

beż- – wightish being

bes- – otherworldish being

beþ-  - outer-yardish being

Grammatical case endings

To the end of the nouns, after indicating the type, one must attach the case endings, according to the function of the noun in the sentence:

For example, with be transformed in a noun:

The plural form is made through the umlaut of the main vowel of the radical. The umlaut follow this rule:

a, æ > ë

e, o > œ

i, u > y

y > iu

Note that ə cannot suffer umlaut as it is never found in a main syllable.

Using, once again, be as an example:

Adjectives

To form adjectives one must take a radical and then attach to its end the suffix -iç.

Wódena béən óṡiç – Wóden is divine.

When directly modifying a noun, it always comes before it.

Óṡiç Wódena – The divine Wóden.

Comparative

The comparative form is made through the addition of -ra to the end of the radical + iç:

Iċəṡ Hús béən ṡídegréatiçra þonne þæt þúwit -  My (literally “of me”) house is larger (literally “greater sidewards”) than yours (literally “of you”).

Superlative

The superlative is indicated through the addition of ­-est to the radical + iç:

Þæt uppgréatiçest Tréowa ''þæt stándən in Tréowalandwit. ''– The highest (literally “greater upwards”) tree that stands in the forest (literally “land of the trees”).

Demonstrative and personal and possessive pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are þæt-, translated as “this” and þærþæt-, “that” (literally “this there”). They follow the same declension of the nouns:

Example:

''Ælfrǽda sé Gréata earəvélən þærþætum þrotehlydum'' – Alfred the Great hears/is hearing (literally “feels with the ears”) that voice (literally “throat sound”).

Personal pronouns

Personal pronouns are used to avoid the repetition of a noun. iċ (I), wit (we two – dual), wé (we), þú (you – singular), ġit (you two – dual), ġé (you – plural), hé (he), héo (she), hit (it). They also follow the same declension of the nouns (excepting in the nominative case):

Possessive pronouns

The genitive form of the personal pronouns are used as possessive pronouns. For example:

Héo habbiən iċəṡ lufuum – She has my love (“I love her”).

Verb formation and tenses

The tenses follow simple rules:

Present tense:

Radical + -ən ending. Also note that the vowel sound in the first syllable becomes long.

 

Infinitive:

Żu + presente tense

 

Past tense:

Ġ(e)- + Present tense + -d

If the root begins with an e, then only ġ is attached to the beginning of the verb.

 

Future tense:

Wéorþən + infinitive

Examples:

be-: being, thing

żu béən: to be

Iċ béən beǥa. (I am a human)

''Iċ ġebéənd beǥa. ''(I was/have been a human)

Iċ wéorþən żu béən beǥa. (I will/am going to be a human)

Adverbs

The adverbs are formed through the addition of the suffix -iċe to the end of the radical:

Yfel – root of “evil, bad”

Yfeliċe – badly, in a evil, ill manner

It always precedes the verb it is modifying.

Hé yfeliċe ġedóənt Bœżum – He did things in an evil manner.

ÞþÆæŋŒœǽǼəƏċġǥṡż