Henton Saxon

General Info
Though the language itself is in general referred to plainly as Sächsisch — natively rendered as Saxisch — the term Henton Saxon refers specifically to the language codified by the Henton & Ȝearliȝe Wordbook (henceforth abbreviated as H&Ȝ), pressed by the Wessiȝ Prefecture and the Burgraveship of Fromenmoot. The grammatical norms and words defined in the H&Ȝ somewhat accurately reflect the semi-standardised variety of a Saxon language spoken in eastern Cornwall, in Wessiȝ, Suthiȝ and Kent, though much dialectical standardisation and levelling is shown in the H&Ȝ forms.

The proscribed name for this form of the language is formally Henton-and-Ȝearliȝe Saxon — even as the majority of speakers use "Saxisch" as their term of choice.

Phonology
The phonology of the Wessiȝ dialect of Henton Saxon is fairly representative of the language area as a whole. It reflects several very distinct southern English features, though it is generally free of the more extensive German influence exerted on more eastern dialects. It has 26 consonant phonemes and 13 vowels.

The twenty-six consonant phonemes, along with their most common orthographical representations, are:

The 13 vowels, in the vowel space:

Stress, Phonotactics, Phoneme Distribution
As is the general case among Germanic languages, Wessiȝ Saxon allows words that are both monosyllabic and polysyllabic. Not deviating from the common Germanic norm, it allows various sorts of consonant clusters and tends to avoid vowel hiatuses. Vowels are the only permissible syllable nucleus — epenthetic vowels may be inserted to break up clusters that do not conform to phonaesthetics, and often undergo syncope when a syllabic suffix is added.

Stress in words is generally fixed. Native words are always stressed on the first syllable of the root: the stress doesn't retract to the first syllable of a word when a prefix is added. Saxon stress is a combination of pitch, loudness, and vowel quality: length is phonemic, and short vowels are quantitatively the same regardless of the stress.

Orthography
As with most English languages with a literate tradition, Henton Saxon has an orthography that is sprinkled with irregularities and odd patterns, stemming from its long history of development. It continues several prominent Old and Middle English scribal traditions and peculiarities, such as the retention of the ȝeoch and þorn.