Skundavisk

Skundavisk (/ ʃynda β ɪ ʃ/)  is a constructed language that I started to build around the year 2010. At the beginning it was just a mix of Dutch and scandinavian languages, but then it became a more regular and complex language. My attempt was to create a hypothetic West Germanic language derived from old Northern German dialects from the 4th-5th centuries, next to the boundary between the West and North Germanic languages. Thus it is virtually a language that could sound familiar to every Germanic language speaker, including English, Dutch, High and Low German, Luxembourgish, Frisian, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. It's a rather modern sounding language, with very few cases and a quite simple grammar, therefore it is quite distant from archaic languages such as Icelandic and Faroese. However it is quite archaic, and it preserves a lot of the old Germanic consonants, while having undergone a lot of vowel shifts.

One of the main features of this language is that it has very few loanwords from non-Germanic sources, thus its vocabulary is mostly Germanic. I have tried to create Germanic equivalent to Greek and Latin loanwords like "biology" or "litterature" that exist in almost all the Germanic languages (except Icelandic which also builds words from Germanic roots). Despite this, Skundavisk does contain Latin words, but they are mostly old loanwords that were borrowed during the Proto-Germanic time or the early stages of the Germanic languages, for example the word "mylle" (="mill"), from Latin "molinum". Most of the remaining loanwords that are present in the language concern mainly food (exotic fruits and vegetables).

From my point of view, the language sounds like a very archaic form of English, and is also very close to Dutch, especially in terms of vocabulary. It didn't take part in the High German consonant shift, and is overall quite conservative. The syntax most closely ressembles that of German (including the rules concerning the place of the verb) and the phonology has Scandinavian features (especially the vowels), though it is mostly West Germanic-sounding. The consonant stock is almost identical to that of early Middle English and Middle Dutch.

Classification and Dialects
Skundavisk belongs to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic languages. It lies somewhere between the Anglo-Frisian and the Low Saxon languages, sharing some elements with the former (such as the preservation of the "w"and "th" sounds) and the latter (the presence of a guttural "gh" sound, and rounded vowels like "ø" and "y"). I built the words by applying regular changes to the vocabulary of the reconstructed Proto-Germanic language, so once these rules are known, every word can be guessed from its Proto-Germanic ancestor.

I have built seven dialects of Skundavisk, all of which differ in grammar, phonology, vocabulary and syntax. But I will only present one dialect here.

Phonotactics
/g/+/h/=/x/ or /ɣ/

/n/+/g/=/ŋ/

/s/+k/=/ʃ/

/t/+/h/=/ θ/ or / ð/

/h/+/w/=/ʍ/

Grammar
The grammar of Skundavisk is quite close to that of German, Dutch and early Middle English. The typically Germanic concepts such as strong and weak verbs, modal verbs and umlaut are present in the language, and I tried to make them quite regular.

Nouns
Gender and articles

There are three genders, masculin, feminine and neuter. I didn't change the original Proto-Germanic genders of the nouns, so the nouns mostly have the same gender as their German cognates. Like in English, there are two types of articles that can precede a noun: the definite and the indefinite articles. The table below shows the different articles for each gender and number: As we can see, the plural forms are common for all genders. The masculine and feminine share the same definite article, while the masculine and the neuter share the same indefinite article. Like all the Germanic languages, Skundavisk has no plural indefinite article.

Example:

Definite article:

the man=the mann (masculine singular)

the woman=the frawe (feminine singular)

the house=thet hous (neuter singular)

the men=the mænne (plural)

Indefinite article:

a man=een mann (masculine singular)

a woman=eene frawe (feminine singular)

a house=een hous (neuter singular)

men=mænne (plural)



Unlike German, Skundavisk has no cases, the articles don't change according to grammatical function in the sentence:

Example:

The man has seen a dog.=The mann hat een hund geseen.

I saw a man in the street.=Ik så een mann in the stråte.

He sold a dog to the man.=Hi sålde een hund tou the mann.

As we can see, there are a lot of evident cognates with English, and I would like to know how much of Skundavisk a speaker of English would understand without having learned it, and the same for Dutch or German speakers (I am sure that Dutch speakers can understand quite a lot of it).



 Plural of nouns

Concerning the plural, there are various ways to form the plural in Skundavisk, all of which go back to the Proto-Germanic noun classes. In order to make the plurals easier to learn, I preserved these classes by making each class follow its own way and develop plural ending from the original plural nominative of Proto-Germanic. Here are some examples:

1. plural in -s: only masculine nouns (from the "az" class of Proto-Germanic)

weg-wegs (=way-ways), dag-dags (=day-days), arm-arms (=arm-arms), wagen-wagens (=car-cars)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">2. plural in -r: only feminine nouns (from the "o" class of Proto-Germanic)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">tunge-tunger (=tongue-tongues), nase-naser (=nose-noses), stråte-stråter (=street-streets), stunde-stunder (=hour-hours)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">3. Plural ending in -e without umlaut (from a merging of the "a" class of Proto-Germanic, which contained only neuter nouns, and the "iz" class, where the three genders were present)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">hous-house (=house-houses), been-beene (=leg-legs), kind-kinde (=child, children), sted-stede (=city-cities),

<p style="font-weight:normal;">4. Plural ending in -e with umlaut (from a merging of the consonant class of Proto-Germanic and a part of the neuter nouns "a" class through analogy)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">jår-jære (=year-years), mann-mænne (=man-men), foot-føte (=foot-feet), mous-myse (=mouse-mice)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">5. Plural ending in -n (from a merger of various "-n" classes of Proto-Germanic, and some nouns from the other classes through analogy, here again all genders may be found)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">frawe-frawen (=woman-women), ooge-oogen (=eye-eyes), oore-ooren (=ear-ears), sterne-sternen (=star-stars)

Verbs
There are five classes of verbs in Skundavisk, all of which go back to the older Proto-Germanic classes:  the weak verbs,   the strong verbs, the mixed verbs, the modal verbs and the irregular verbs. There are only two simple tenses: present and past, but like in English there are various compound tenses using auxillary verbs, including a present perfect, which is formed using the auxillary verbs haven (=have) and wesen (=be) with the past participle.

1. Weak verbs:

It is the most common class of verbs, and is the only productive class, therefore a newly created verb is generally weak. The endings of the simple present tense are very similar to their German equivalents.

Example: maken (=make)

ik make=I make

thou makst=you make (sing., cf archaic English thou makest)

hi, si, hit makt=he, she it makes

wi maken=we make

ji makt=you make (plu., cf archaic English ye make)

si, Si maken=they, you (formal) make

The weak verbs form their simple past by adding a dental suffix to their roots, generally "t" or "d" depending on the preceding consonant, which is analogous to the English suffix "-ed", which is always spelled with a "d" but may either be pronouned with a "d" or a "t" sound. Here are the rules to choose the right consonant:

root ending in g, j, l, m, n, r, w: -de (ex. hiwen-hiwde=form-formed)

root ending in gh, k, kk, p, s, sk: -te (ex. maken-makte=make-maid)

root ending in d, gg, mm, rr, th, v: -ede (ex. grynden-gryndede=found-founded)

root ending in t: -ete (ex. haten-hatete=hate-hated)

The endings of the simple past tense are mostly the same as in the present tense.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Example: maken (=make)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">ik makte=I maid

<p style="font-weight:normal;">thou maktest=you maid (sing.)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">hi, si, hit makte=he, she it maid

<p style="font-weight:normal;">wi makten=we maid

<p style="font-weight:normal;">ji maktet=you maid (plu.)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">si, Si makten=they, you (formal) maid

<p style="font-weight:normal;">

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The past participle of a weak verb is formed by adding the prefix ge- to the past form without the final -e.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Example: gemakt=maid (participle)

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The past participle is required to form the present perfect form.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Example: hi hat gemakt=he has maid

<p style="font-weight:normal;">

2. Strong verbs:

Like every Germanic language, Skundavisk has a strong verb class, which is composed of the oldest verbs of the language. In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is a verb that forms its past forms through vowel alternation (or ablaut) instead of using a dental suffix (ex. English drive-drove-driven). This class is no more productive, which means that no newly formed verb can be strong. The Skundavisk strong verbs are basically the same as in German, and are divided in seven subclasses that follow quite regular patterns to form their past forms. The following table displays the various patterns of the Skundavisk strong verbs. Several features can be noticed in this table. First, the vowel of the root may change at the present tense. This happens only for the 2nd and 3rd persons, and is similar to what happens in German. Moreover, there are two forms for the past tense, one for the singular and one for the plural, which also used to be the case in Middle English and Middle High German, but in these languages the two forms merged in the early modern period. We also notice that unlike English, but like Dutch and German, the past participle of strong verbs always end in "-en" (it used to be the case in English, but several verbs lost their "-en" ending over time, while others kept it).

As for the conjugation, the endings are basically the same as for the weak verbs:

Example: drijven (=drive)

ik dreef=I drove

thou dreefst=you drove (sing.)

hi, si, hit dreef=he, she, it drove

wi driven=we drove

ji drift=you drove

si, Si driven= they, you (formal) drove

Note that when the voiced letter  "v"   of the root comes in contact with the "t", it shifts to its voiceless counterpart "f".

Unlike English which only uses the auxillary "have" to form the present perfect, Skundavisk may also use the verb "wesen". This only concerns the stative verbs like "wesen" (="be") and "werthen" (="become) and verbs that can't have a direct object, like "fallen" (="fall") or "kommen" (="come"). Similar rules exist in German and French, among others.

Example:

ik im gekommen=I have come

hi is geworden=he has become

3. Mixed verbs:

This class consists mainly of descendants of Proto-Germanic weak verbs ending in "-jan". The "j" caused i-mutation of the preceding vowel in the present form, but in the past form the original vowel remained. This is why the verbs of this class are called mixed verbs, they combine the characteristics of weak verbs (dental suffix in the past forms) and strong verbs (vowel alternation). In some cases the vowel alternation is only reflected in a difference of vowel length. This class also exists in English, and is composed by verbs such as think-thought-thought, sell-sold-sold or feel-felt-felt.

Examples: Here are some very frequent mixed verbs. Their pattern often closely resembles that of English

bringen-braghte-gebraght=bring-brought-brought

bygen-bughte-gebught=buy-bought-bought

kennen-kande-gekand=know (cf Scottish English "ken")

leggen-lagde-gelagd=lay-laid-laid

møten-motte-gemot=meet-met-met

reeken-reghte-gereght=reach-reached-reached

rennen-rande-gerand=run-ran-run

segen-sagde-gesagd=say-said-said

sellen-sålde-gesåld=sell-sold-sold

senden-sandte-gesandt=send-sent-sent

setten-satte-gesat=set-set-set

søken-soghte-gesoght=seek-sought-sought

spreeden-spredde-gespred=spread-spread-spread

stellen-stålde-geståld=put-put-put (cf Scottish English "stell")

tellen-tålde-getåld=count, tell

thenken-thaghte-gethaght=think-thought-thought

4. Modal verbs:

This is a quite small category, as in English. The verbs of this class all descend from the preterit-present class of Proto-Germanic, that is verbs whose present conjugation looks like a strong preterit conjugation (no "-e" ending at the 1st person singular and no "-t" ending at the 3rd person singular). This is reflected in English by the absence of the "-s" ending for the modal verbs "can", "may", "will" or "shall". As in English, the Skundavisk modal verbs usually don't have a past participle, except the verb "witen" (=know). These verbs mostly serve as auxillary verbs and are used to express different mood and, as it will be seen further, tenses (future and conditional).

Example:

ik kann skundavisk spreken=I can speak Skundavisk

thou mootst gån=you must go

hi mag lat ankommen=he may arrive late

wi skullen hin besøken=we should visit him (cf English "beseech")

ji thurft hier røken=you may smoke here (it is permitted, cf Middle English "tharf")

Si willen thig møten=they want to meet you

The verb "willen" is used in the sense of "want", even if there is no infinitive after it:

ik will een niw wagen=I want a new car

5. Irregular verbs:

This last category consists only of six verbs, the most frequent. These verbs are sometimes suppletive, which means that their forms descend from different Proto-Germanic verbs that merged together. For example, the English verb "go" is suppletive, because its simple past "went" originated from another verb. The table below shows the conjugation of the 6 irregular verbs of this class: We notice that the Skundavisk irregular verbs correspound to highly irregular verbs in English, these verbs are indeed cognates. In the present tense, the English verb "be" has two translations: "wesen" and "beun". "Beun" is only used to form the passive voice (followed by the past participle) and can never be used alone, whereas "wesen" translates "be" in all other cases.

Example:

hi biet geluved=he is loved

ik im åld=I am old

As the two verbs share the same past forms, they are indistinct in the past.

Example:

hi was een seer skøn geskenk gegeven=he was given a very nice present

si was seer blijth=she was very happy

Of course, the root "beun" shares the same origin as English "be", but the two languages developped totally different usage of this ancient Germanic verb, whose original meaning was "become".

Compound tenses:

Like all the other Germanic languages, Skundavisk has a lot of compound tenses, especially to express progressive aspect (like in English) but also the future. There are two progressive tenses: the present progressive and the past progressive. Both require a present participle, which is formed by adding the suffix "-end" to the root of the verb. Unlike English, these tenses are facultative and are only used to emphathise the progressive aspect. Thus the sentence "hi løpt the stråte" may either mean "he walks in the street" or "he is walking in the street", whereas in English the simple present can never be understood with a progressive aspect. The future is constructed with the verbs "willen" and "skullen", which is similar to the English constructions with "will" and "shall", although the meanings are slightly different. The plue perfect is constructed in a similar way to English, except that, like for the present perfect, some verbs require the auxillary "wesen" instead of "haven".

Present progressive: "wesen"+present participle

Example:

ik im loopend=I am walking

Past progressive: "wesen" in the simple past+present participle

Example: hi was slåpend=he was sleeping

Plue perfect: "wesen" in the simple past+past participle

Example: si hadden gefunden=they had found

Future: "willen" (with a meaning of will) or "skullen" (with a meaning of duty)+infinitive

Examples:

ik will thar gån=I will go there (because I want it)

ik skall thar gån=I will go there (because I have to do it)

Subjunctive:

The subjunctive mood is expressed in Skundavisk by applying mostly the same rules as in German and Old English:

Present subjunctive:

All the endings are the same as the simple present, except at the 3rd person singular for which the "-t" ending is replaced by an "-e". Thise tense is used to express hypothetical or uncertain actions like sentences reported by a journalist. Thise tense is quite rare and can be replaced by the simple present, as in English.

Examples:

ik fortherde, that hi um 8:00 ankomme=I required that he arrive at 8:00 (note that English also uses a subjunctive form, which is marked by the absence of the "-s" ending)

the kyning komme um 8:00 an=the king will arrive at 8:00 (according to some sources, but it's not certain)

Past subjunctive:

The past subjunctive is far more useful, and it is used to express the conditional mood. As in German, there are two ways to form the past subjunctive, through vowel alternation (ablaut) and with an auxillary.

The strong verbs form their past subjunctive by applying these vowel changes (which historically correspound to umlaut), and by adding a final "-e":

class 1: dreef-dreeve

class 2: koos-køse

class 3: sang-sænge

class 4: sprak-spræke

class 5: gaf-gæve

class 6: took-tøke

class 7: fell-felle

The subjunctive forms of the weak verbs are however completely identical to their simple past form (ex. "hi makte"="he maid" or "he would make"). Only context indicates which form it is (like the English "could" which is both the past tense and conditional of the verb "can").

The mixed verbs form their subjunctive following the same rule as the strong verbs, the only difference being that no extra "-e" is added because the past form of these verbs already have an "-e" ending. (ex. "hi thaghte"="he thought", "hi thæghte"="he would think"). As for the weak verbs, some mixed verbs have the same form for both their simple past and past subjunctive (ex. "hi reghte"="he reached" or "he would reach").

the modal verbs use quite irregular ways to form their past subjunctive forms:

konde-kynde (=conditional "could")

moste-møste (="would have to")

moghte-myghte (="might")

skolde-skylde (="should")

thorfte-thyrfte (="would need")

wolde-wolde (="would" or "would like to")

wiste-wiste (="would know)

The irregular verbs form their subjunctive using the same rules as the strong verbs, that is, through umlaut:

was-wære (="were" or "would be")

deed-deede (="would do")

hadde-hædde (="had" or "would have")

ging-ginge (="would go")

stod-støde (="would stand")

To avoid ambiguity (when the simple past and past subjunctive are indistinct), the verbs "wolde" and "skylde" can be used in a similar way to the conditional use of "would" and "should in English. The differences in meaning between both auxillary are more or less the same as in English, with "skylde" being more associated with moral duty.

Example:

ik wolde reeken=I would reach (if I wanted)

ik skylde reeken=I should reach

Adjectives
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Inflection:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Like in English, the Skundavisk adjectives are invariable if they follow a stative verb.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Example:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">the mann is åld=the man is old

<p style="font-weight:normal;">the frawe is åld=the woman is old

<p style="font-weight:normal;">However, the adjectives agree with the noun that they qualify if both are part of a nominal group. The mark of the adjective depends on the determiner that precede the noun: if the determiner is a definite article or a demontrative adjective, the adjective takes "-e" in the singular and "-en" in the plural. In all other cases (including indefinite articles, possessive pronouns etc...), it takes no mark in the masculine and neuter singular, and "-e" in the feminine singular and plural. this rule may seem random, but in fact it is a remnant of the older case system and especially the notion of strong and weak declension (still present in Modern German).

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Example:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">the ålde mann=the old man

<p style="font-weight:normal;">the ålde frawe=the old woman

<p style="font-weight:normal;">thet ålde hous=the old house

<p style="font-weight:normal;">the ålden mænne=the old men

<p style="font-weight:normal;">een åld mann=an old man

<p style="font-weight:normal;">eene ålde frawe=an old woman

<p style="font-weight:normal;">een åld hous=an old house

<p style="font-weight:normal;">ålde mænne=old men

<p style="font-weight:normal;">

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Comparative and superlative forms:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The comparative and superlative forms of Skundavisk are generally formed by using the same rules as the other Germanic languages, including English. The short adjectives (one syllable) and the adjectives ending in "-lijk" and "-ig" form their comparative by adding the suffix "-er" and their superlative by adding the suffix "-est".

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Example:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">heet-heeter-heetest=hot-hotter-hottest

<p style="font-weight:normal;">wirklijk-wirklijker-wirklijkest=real-more real-most real

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The long adjectives (including all the participles) form their comparative with "meer" and their superlative with "meest" (correspounding to English "more" and "most).

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Example:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">bekand-meer bekand-meest bekand=famous-more famous-most famous

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Like in English, the basic adjectives "good" and "boos" (="bad") have irregular forms, which come from now extinct Proto-Germanic adjectives:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">good-beter-best=good-better-best

<p style="font-weight:normal;">boos-wers-werst=bad-worse-worst

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The same umlaut phenomenon as in German can be observed for short adjectives whose vowel is "a", "å", "eu", "o", "oo", "ou", or "u". These forms are not considered irregular since the umlaut is systematically applied on the vowel (sometimes it is facultative, mostly for less frequent adjectives).

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Examples:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">lat-læter-lætest=mate-later-latest

<p style="font-weight:normal;">åld-ælder-ældest=old-older-oldest (cf English dual forms "elder" and "eldest")

<p style="font-weight:normal;">deup-dieper-diepest=deep-deeper-deepest

<p style="font-weight:normal;">skort-skørter-skørtest=short-shorter-shortest

<p style="font-weight:normal;">groot-grøter-grøtest=great-greater-greatest

<p style="font-weight:normal;">foul-fyler-fylest=dirty-dirtier-dirtiest (cf less common English "foul")

<p style="font-weight:normal;">jung-jynger-jyngest=young-younger-youngest

<p style="font-weight:normal;">

Pronouns
While Skundavisk doesn't distinguish grammatical cases for nouns and adjectives anymore, it still has 4 distinct cases for pronouns: subject, direct object, possessive and indirect object. The following table shows the different pronouns:

Subject:

Direct object:

Possessive:

Indirect object: Note that some verbs like "segen" (="say", "helpen" (="help") or "geven" (="give") take an indirect object although no preposition is used.

Example:

hi segt mir=he tells me

ik helpe thir=I help you

wi gaven hir=we gave her

Syntax
Generally Skundavisk follows the same syntactic rules as German. Therefore, the word order of simple sentences (with one verbal form) is SVO, but if there is an adverb at the beginning of the sentence, the verb must follow at the second position (it used to be the case in English, hence some sentences like "yesterday went he" in Middle English texts). This syntax is called V2.

Example:

hi wæskt his wagen=he washes his car (or "he is washing his car")

toudag wæskt hi his wagen=today he is washing his car

However, when there are two verbs in the sentence, the conjugated verb comes at the second position, while the participle or infitive goes to the end of the sentence.

Example:

hi is his wagen waskend=hi is washing his car

hi hat his wagen gewasken=he has washed his car

toudag mag hi his wagen wasken=today he may wash his car

In subordinate clauses the word order becomes SOV, which means that all the verbs go to the end of the clause, the conjugated one being always the last.

Example:

hi thenkt, that hit eene goode mynd is=he thinks that it is a good idea

si sagde mir, that si tou lat wesen mag=she told me that she may be late (note the indirect object pronoun "mir")

Lexicon
The Skundavisk vocabulary is Germanic by a vast majority. The main vocabulary comes from an old northern dialect of West Germanic, and bears therefore many similarities with English, Frisian, Low German and Dutch. The lack of the High German consonant shift makes the word more distant to their German cognates, but they are still easily identified by a German speaker. A handful of words of Scandinavian origin are present, due to contact with North Germanic languages, especially Danish.

The language containes very few non-Germanic words. Only some very old Latin and Greek loanwords are present in the standard register, most of which were borrowed in Proto-Germanic times. A few words of Slavic origin can be found in the Eastern dialects, but these are not part of the standard language.

The table below gives some basic Skundavisk vocabulary, with their equivalents in English: