Vāgøgjaskt

General information
Vāgøgjaskt (or in English, Vag Islander) is a classical Germanic language once spoken in and around the Norwegian fylke of Sogn og Fjordane. It gets its name from the isle of Vågsøy where the first manuscripts were discovered. Vag Islander is a Northwest Germanic language; belonging to the same primary branch as Old Norse, it has close ties to several nearby North Germanic languages.

It is an inflecting language with traits similar to and complexity hovering around that of Old Norse. It distinguishes four cases in all forms and the vocative only marginally; it has a definiteness distinction on its nouns and adjectives, marked with special inflectional endings. Unlike the definite inflections found in Old Norse, the ones in Vag Islander are more fully merged with standard case endings.

Phonology
Vag Islander has eight vowel qualities unevenly spaced across the vowel space: four front, three back and one central vowel quality. It features nasality and vowel length as distinctive features.

Any stressed vowel can be either short or long and either oral or nasal; the two features can overlap. Long vowels are marked with a macron diacritic (a long [ɒ:] would be <ȫ>) while nasalisation is marked with an ogonek (so that a nasal [ũ] would be <ų>); only [ỹ] receives a tilde diacritic, so that a long nasal [ỹ:] would be written <ỹ̄> as the vowel already has a descender.

The language has only four diphthongs: /au ei ey øy/ ; all other vowel combinations result in a hiatus.

It also has eighteen consonant phonemes, ten of which can also be geminated, alongside significant allophony.

The consonant <ʀ> can also function as a syllable nucleus alongside the vowels.

Umlaut
Vag Islander has productive umlaut: the nearly fully regular u-umlaut and the more irregular i-umlaut. Since, due to its diachronics, Vag Islander generally disallows unstressed vowels having any quality other than [a ã i ĩ u ũ], some umlauts may seem opaque and unexpected, with exceptions randomly strewn around.

The primary effect of u-umlaut is extremely limited: it changes /a a:/ to /ɒ ɒ:/. Secondarily, it changes /a/ to /u/ in unstressed positions. It is caused by most unstressed /u/ vowels. Since some do not cause it, and sometimes it is caused even when the vowel isn't /u/, the suffixes indicate where the umlaut occurs.

Allophony and Morphophonology
In non-initial position (except post-consonantal but before the root vowel) the short consonants /f b θ d x ɡ/ shift to [f~v v ð ð ɣ ɣ]; these are written as . The consonants [v ð ɣ] harden to [b d g] after nasals and /l/; they are then written as. The cluster /lj/ merges to [ʎ]. The consonants /m n ŋ l r j/ devoice to [m̥ n̥ ŋ̊ l̥ r̥ ç], and the clusters /hm hn hl hlj hr hv/ merge into [m̥ n̥ l̥ ʎ̥ r̥ w̥]. The clusters [kj kkj ɡj ɡɡj ɣj] become [c cc ɟ ɟɟ ʝ].

The consonant /v/ disappears before /y ø u ɔ/ and very rarely /ɒ/ (in analogisations). Vowels become secondarily nasalised next to nasal consonants and other nasal vowels; this isn't represented in the orthography.

Syntax
The syntax of Vāgøgjaskt deals with case assignment, word order, phrase constitution and dependency and constituency relationships.

Sentence Structure
Vāgøgjaskt, as a heavily inflected language, lacks a rigid word order. Its order of constituents is, for the most part, pragmatic. Even though the majority of word order configurations -- within reason -- is allowed, the default unmarked main clause word order is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) with a more subtle but more frequently present tendency of putting the verb second (V2).

Emphasis is acheived by pulling the verb to the front of the sentence. Verbs are rarely fronted to the absolute initial position when providing emphasis, as that may cause interrogative confusion.

Noun Phrases
Vāgøgjaskt has a very Germanic pattern of forming noun phrases (NPs): each noun phrase is made up of a head, usually a noun, NP or a nominalised adjective, and of dependents, which can be adjective phrases (APs), relative clauses (RCs) or other NPs. The most common order of constituents in an NP is head-final, though inversion may be used as a means of emphasis. There are also several special classes of NPs.

NP dependents, outside of special cases, are most frequently governed by adpositions. Those that lack adpositions but are not part of a specific specialised construction have an implied or ommitted adposition.

Double NP-phrases (DNPs) have one dependent NP and one head NP: no other elements may be inserted into the pattern. An NP may have multiple APs as dependents. DNPs come in two different shapes: the first is when the dependent NP precedes its head -- thus following normal AP/NP rules -- and the second where the dependent NP is itself preceded by its head -- forcing the insertion of a definite article between the two.

Prepositions govern the whole NP, forcing all modifiable elements to take the case they require. They usually come at the very beginning of a phrase. Postpositions likewise govern the entire phrase, but are more flexible in positioning: they usually come after the head of the NP and can be separated from it by auxiliaries, short pronouns and discourse particles. More extreme cases of postposition placement occur when the NP is simple: in such extreme situations that require extensive stylistic marking, the postposition can be moved to the end of the entire clause. This happens only in independent clauses.

A rare occurence is when there's disagreement in case between the head and a dependent of a single NP. This happens in simple NPs that have one adjective and one noun; the adjective receives normal case marking while the noun gets the genitive or dative. This happens only in NPs that indicate dual items, usually body parts. Sometimes, a DNP might have a mismatch in numbers between the dependent and head. This occurs almost exclusively with formal titles. With such mismatched DNPs, the definite article acquires the number of the dependent.

Possessive Constructions
Generally, possession in Vāgøgjaskt follows a very distinctly Norse pattern, with certain extensions. Possession is indicated using a possessive phrase (PP) that functions as a special case of an NP. The head of the PP is made up of either an NP or a DNP and is usually initial, with its dependent possessor trailing after it. Possessors come in three different varieties: they can 1) be possessive pronouns 2) be genitive NPs or pronouns 3) be dative NPs or pronouns. These have different marking mechanisms.

Possessive pronouns always follow their heads. If the head is a simple NP, the head of the NP becomes definite. There is no way to distinguish definiteness in most such situations. If the head is a DNP, an appositive in the form of a simple NP must be introduced and thus modified accordingly. There is no way to modify the DNP itself in a possessive pronoun construction. Some kinship terms may be indefinite: nuclear kin are always indefinite, and siblings once removed or farther can be either definite or indefinite.

Genitive and dative NP and pronoun constructions are for the most part unique to Vāgøgjaskt. The possessor can come either before or after its head, and this placement is more stylistic than anything. Some situations allow other constituents to come between the head and the possessor: this is primarily a feature of intransitive sentences with a simple PP made up of a short head and a pronominal possessor in the genitive or accusative. Constructions with dative and genitive possessors do not enforce definiteness: definiteness is fully contrastive in such PP constructions.

PPs can only be heads of NPs and DNPs. They cannot be the dependents of either -- such constructions require appositives or relative clauses.

Genitive Constructions
Genitive constructions are a special type of NPs where the dependent is a NP in the genitive. Genitive constructions are generally called genitive phrases (GPs), even though they work like generic NPs. Unlike DNPs, GPs usually function as partitives, quantitatives or general specifiers. They can come in many shapes, though they are most commonly headed by NPs. A specific subset of GPs are headed by adverbs, usually adverbs of quantity.

Generalised partitive GPs headed by a noun generally have a genitive dependent that is most commonly definite. Dependents can be general NPs, DNPS, PPs or GPs. The general connotation of partitive GPs is that of a segment, of belonging or material make-up.

Quantitative GPs are headed either by adverbs of quantity, such as mikilt or alla, or pronouns or adjectives that quantify something, such as allʀ or gnōgʀ, and have a definite genitive dependent. When possible, the head agrees with its dependent in number and gender, but takes the case that the phrase itself ought to normally take. Phrases headed by adverbs are usually either used as nominatives or take adpositions.

Dative Constructions
Earlier Vāgøgjaskt used lots of dative phrases (DPs) in a way similar to GPs. This usage has mostly died out. Some still remain in use as archaisms, stylistic variants or fixed phrases and sayings.

Adjective Phrases
Vāgøgjaskt adjective phrases (APs) are made up of a head that can be made up of either an adjective or an AP, and of adverbs, APs and adverbials that act as modifiers.

Adverbial Phrases
Adverbial phrases (AbPs) are not frequently used in Vāgøgjaskt. They're made up of an adverbial head and usually just one or two adverbial dependent modifiers, most frequently intensifiers.

Verb Phrases
Vāgøgjaskt verb phrases (VPs)...

Pronouns and Articles
Personal pronouns:

Possessive pronouns:

Interrogative pronouns - the singular paradigm is taken from *hwaz and the plural paradigm from *hwarjaz:

Elective pronouns - anything/something; the paradigm is a result of a merger of the interrogative pronoun and nøkkvarr:

Universal pronouns - everything, everyone; the paradigm derives from *allaz:

Relative pronouns - which, who; the paradigm derives from a reduced form of *samaz:

Universal determiner pronoun - everything, everyone, all; derived from *allaz:

Definite article - derived from *jainaz:

Nouns
Vag Islander nouns come in three genders -- masculine, feminine and neuter -- and can be in the nominative, accusative, dative and genitive cases (with a marginal vocative still somewhat distinct). They can be singular or plural (although some are singularia/pluralia tantum and have only one number; others have a new dual form that is mostly identical to the plural) and can be definite or indefinite.

R-Stems
Vag Islander ʀ-stem nouns are mostly inherited from Proto-Germanic a-stem masculines that ended in *-az. They are exclusively masculine and end in either -ʀ or a geminated consonant that's the product of a merger with the *-ʀ. Example noun  (man, human; also i-stem):

They generally take these suffixes:

Ą-Stems
Vag Islander ą-stem nouns are mostly inherited from Proto-Germanic a-stem neuters that ended in *-ą. They're exclusively neuter and are suffixless. Example noun  (animal, critter):

They generally take these suffixes:

AN-Stem Neuters
Vag Islander an-stem neuters (even though not all of them are neuter) are inherited from Proto-Germanic an-stem neuters (that ended in *-ô). They end in -a. Example noun  (eye):

They generally take these suffixes:

AN-Stem Masculines
Vag Islander an-stem masculines (even though not all of them are masculine) are inherited from Proto-Germanic an-stem masculines. They end in -i. Example noun <ękki> (ache, regret, longing):

They generally take these suffixes:

U-Stems
Vag Islander u-stem nouns are inherited from Proto-Germanic u-stems that ended in either *-u (neuter) or *-uz (animate). They either end in -ʀ, a geminate that came from the merger of an earlier *-ʀ, or in a bare stem. Example masculine noun  (mead):

They generally take these suffixes:

Example neuter noun  (spear, stick)

They generally take these suffixes:

I-Stems
Vag Islander i-stems are inherited from Proto-Germanic i-stems that ended in *-iz. They end in -ʀ and are primarily masculine, with the occasional feminine exception. Most female i-stems can also decline as ja-stems. Example noun  (paralysis, pain, anguish):

They generally take the suffixes:

Ja-Stems
Vag Islander ja-stems are inherited from Proto-Germanic jō-stems that ended in -ī with an -ijō appearing throughout the paradigm. They usually end in -ʀ or a geminate arisen from the merger of a consonant with the *-ʀ. This -ʀ is considered a Norse influence. They're invariably feminine. Some of the ja-stems can also decline as i-stems. Example noun  (fox):

They generally take these suffixes:

A-Stems
Vag Islander a-stems are inherited from Proto-Germanic ō-stems. They variably end in either -a or a bare u-umlauted stem; the choice between the two is irregular, and some nouns may have both forms simultaneously. They're generally feminine. Example a-terminated noun  (swarm, herd):

They generally take the suffixes:

Example stem-terminated noun:  (acceptance, surrender):

They generally take the suffixes:

Adjectives
Vag Islander adjectives agree in case, gender and number with the phrase they modify. They're divided into a-stems, i-stems and u-stems. Comparatives and superlatives are exclusively i-stems. They have four grades of comparison:
 * 1) Standard (1)
 * 2) Comparative (2)
 * 3) Superlative (3)
 * 4) Excessive (4)

They also have a negative form for adjectives, where they denote the absence, not the presence, of a property. All the adjectives have a default grade, this usually being the standard; some can have the negative as a default. Some adjectives lack some of the grades; if an adjective's default isn't the standard and instead is a higher number, it doesn't have grades of a lower number. Some adjectives whose default is the standard grade may sometimes also lack grades of a higher number; these are called absolute adjectives.

Most positive adjectives can be turned into negatives (and negatives into positives) using the prefixes ų̄-/ǭ-. Some adjectives have suppletive opposites.

Comparatives are formed with the suffix -ʀi (i-stem), superlatives with -stʀi (i-stem) and excessives with -spiðʀ (a-stem or u-stem).

A-Stems
Vag Islander a-stem adjectives make up the majority of the language's adjectives; most regular default-grade adjectives are a-stems, and all newly-coined or -derived adjectives (excepting analogical formations) are by default a-stems. Excessives are usually also a-stems. They derive from Proto-Germanic a-stem adjectives that ended in -az.

They generally take the suffixes:

I-Stems
Vag Islander i-stems are a minority in the language; most adjectives of this class are actually comparatives or superlatives of other adjectives. The ones that are i-stems in the standard grade were either i-stems (ending in -iz) or īn-stems (ending in -ô) in Proto-Germanic. They are invariably i-umlauted; this is significant for comparatives and superlatives.

The regular declension of these adjectives is with these suffixes:

The comparative suffix -ʀi declines as:

The superlative suffix -stʀi declines as:

U-Stems
Vag Islander u-stems are a minority in the language. They derive from Proto-Germanic u-stems that ended in -uz. They include some excessives and some standard-grade adjectives. The standard-grade adjectives of this class can either be umlauted or unumlauted. Example unumlauted adjective  (dark, dim):

They generally take the suffixes:

Example umlauted adjective  (not strong, not brave):

They generally take the suffixes:

Verbs
Vag Islander verbs are divided into 4 weak and 7 strong verb classes, with some irregular strong verbs being unclassified. They conjugate for the present and past tenses, as well as the active and passive voices. They can be either indicative or subjunctive. The passive is formed by the co-passive form of the verb (f.e.  of ) and the active forms of the auxiliary .

Auxiliaries
Vag Islander auxiliaries are irregular verbs that are primarily used as copulas or in the formation of certain tenses, voices or other periphrastic items. The most frequent auxiliary verbs are <vasa> (<abbr title="Proto-Germanic">PGmc *wesaną -- be; optative auxiliary; copula), <varða> (<abbr title="Proto-Germanic">PGmc *werþaną -- become, change (into); passive auxiliary; inchoative copula), <mēttą> (cf <abbr title="South Sámi">SSm <maehtedh> -- be able/can; future auxiliary), <bēttą> (cf <abbr title="South Sámi">SSm <båetedh> -- come, arrive; future auxiliary) and <skolą> (<abbr title="Proto-Germanic">PGmc *skulaną -- future auxiliary).

All of these verbs, except <bēttą> (and marginally <varðą>), only have active forms and all of them are irregular in their inflection. <vasą>, <skolą> and <varðą> furthermore have a suppletive conjugation, and <bētta> is very irregular though not quite truly suppletive.

The conjugation of <vasą>:

The auxiliary <skolą> had its past tense supplanted by the preterite of <*mōtaną>. It doesn't have participles or an infinitive. Its conjugation:

The verb <varðą> has multiple meanings and three different conjugations based on meaning. The first is when it means "change", where it has a passive and its past tense is formed with the co-passive of an otherwise non-extant verb <**ottą>. The second is when it means "become" and its past is supplanted by the past of <bøytą> (to arrive, to approach), otherwise a regular weak class II verb. The third is when it is an auxiliary or copula, where its past tense is supplanted by the past tense of apparently an irregular malformation, theoretically <**urðą>. Its conjugation:

The verb <bēttą> is actually the merger of a loaned Sámi verb (compare with <abbr title="South Sámi">SSm <båetedh>) and the paradigms of a native Germanic verb derived from <abbr title="Proto-Germanic">PGmc <*beuną>, otherwise unattested in Vag Islander. It is used to form the future and is extremely irregular. Its conjugation resembles that of strong verbs:

Weak Class I
Inherited from Proto-Germanic -ij- and -j- verbs, the first class of weak verbs has mostly causatives and denominatives that may have shifted semantically over time. It also includes <bringją> (<abbr title="Proto-Germanic">PGmc <bringaną> -- bring). Their infinitives end in -ją, from *-(i)janą. Example verb: <drękkją> (get drunk):

They are in general conjugated with the following suffixes:

Weak Class II
Inherited from Proto-Germanic -ō- and -ā- verbs, it has verbs of various meanings, including duty-denominalisers and some factitives. Their infinitives end in -ą, from *-ōną. Example verb: <baðą> (wash, bathe):

They are conjugated with the suffixes:

Weak Class III
Inherited from Proto-Germanic Class III -ja- verbs, it fails to include the -ā- verbs which have merged with -ō- verbs. Their infinitives usually end in -ją. Example verb <vekją> (awaken):

They are conjugated with the suffixes:

Weak Class IV
Inherited from Proto-Germanic -na-, it has since expanded to a slightly larger base of derived verbs that are mostly inchoative or fientive (adjectives conjugated as verbs). They have neither a passive nor a past participle, and are always intransitive. Their infinitives end in -ną or -nną. Due to the nature of the PGmc. suffix *-naną and due to further analogy, many of the verbs that have a stressed -o- or -e- have -u- and -i- in the subjunctive present respectively; this gives the verbs a pseudo-strong alternation. Example verb <dolną> (be mad, go crazy):

They conjugate with the following suffixes:

Strong Verbs
All Vag Islander strong verbs possess the same inflectional suffixes, but are formed from four principal parts: the present stem, two past stems and the passive stem. They fall into one of seven classes based on their parts. Some verbs may fall into a class even though not all of its forms line up. The general conjugational pattern for strong verbs is:

Class I Verbs
Class I strong verbs are inherited from Proto-Germanic class I strong verbs, and they exhibit the following generalised alternation of the stressed vowel:

In the active past plural, the sound additionally shifts to <-y-> due to u-umlaut, and in the passive present singular the vowel is instead <-i-> due to a lack of a-umlaut and secondary presence of i-umlaut. Some malformed class I verbs exist, with the following alternation: These are derived from Proto-Germanic class I verbs with an *-i- in the present instead of an *-ī-. Their first and fourth parts can contain either <-e-> or <-a->, and this is conditioned by the presence of a previous <-v->. They otherwise follow the same rules as the regular class I verbs.

Example verb <krītą> (shout, growl):

Class II Verbs
Class II strong verbs are inherited from Proto-Germanic class II strong verbs, and they come in two variants:
 * IIa -- The -jū- verbs, deriving from PGmc -eu- and -ū- in class II verbs
 * IIb -- The -øgv- verbs, deriving from PGmc -eww- class II verbs

All of the IIb verbs also have IIa variants that are used about as often as their IIb counterparts. Umlaut is especially prevalent with them. The <-v-> of <-gv-> in IIb verbs doesn't disappear before a rounded vowel, and IIb verbs are resistant to umlaut. The IIa verbs exhibit the following alternation:

Example verb <bjūðą> (invite, offer rest to):

Class III Verbs
Class III strong verbs are inherited from Proto-Germanic class IIIa and IIIb strong verbs that merged into a single class, as well as most class IV verbs that had <*-e-> in the present without a preceding <*-w->; due to a-umlaut, verbs with <*-i-> in the present have merged with those with <*-e->. Some of the verbs have an <-a-> in the present; this is conditioned by a preceding /v/. The class has split further with some verbs exhibiting e-breaking, with forms existing with both a <-ja-> form and an <-e-> form. All of the <-ja-> verbs are etymologically <*-e-> verbs, but are being analogically replaced by a generalised <-e-> form. Many verbs also retain an unrelated present tense that took a different evolutionary route.

They have two acceptable forms for the passive stem vowel: an analogical <-u-> or an etymological <-o->. Example verb <lęppą> (crawl):

Class IV Verbs
The fourth class of strong verbs is nearly defunct, with four verbs in total: <troðą> (trample), <svąrą> (fester, rot, become infected/infested), <kvamą> (approach) and <dvalą> (forget). They exhibit the following alternation:

Example verb <svąrą>:

Class V Verbs
Class V strong verbs are inherited from most Proto-Germanic class V verbs, specifically excluding verbs with <*-eha-> that turned into new class VII verbs with <-ē->. Class V verbs have one of {-e-, -va-, -ja-, -i-} in the present, but otherwise have the same alternations. Additionally, verbs with <-i-> have two different infinitives: one in <-ją> and one in <-ą>. Some verbs from other strong classes do not have the same present grade as standard class V verbs, but exhibit identical alternations.

They exhibit the following alternation:

Example verb <gjatą> (get, receive, obtain):

Class VI Verbs
Class VI strong verbs are inherited from Germanic class VI verbs, where all of the old <-j-> present verbs had gotten analogised into normal class VI verbs but usually with a <-e-> present. They exhibit the alternation:

Example verb <skeðą> (hurt, insult):

Class VII Verbs
Class VII verbs are an innovation from Proto-Germanic class V strong verbs with an <-eha-> in the present, as well as some weak verbs with <-eh->. There is a small number of these verbs.

They exhibit the following alternation:

Example verb <ēą> (explain, elaborate):