Selingian

Classification and History
Selingian is an East Germanic language, belonging to the same general branch that its now extinct relatives, Gothic and Vandalic, did. It gets its name from its speaker base, the Selingians, who claim descent from the ancient Vandalic tribe of Silingæ. The Selingians occupy the space of the rough Greater Poland region.

Selingian is a deceptively simple language: it makes up for its relative few contrasts between forms with a fair chunk of unpredictability and very prominent vocalic and accentual alternations that aren't always really predictable synchronically.

Diachronic History

Phonology
/p b t d ts dz k ɡ/ /f w θ s ʃ x/ < f w þ s š > /m n n̥ ŋ ŋ̊/ < m n ṇ ŋ ŋ̇ > /r r̥ l l̥ j/ < r ṛ l ḷ j >

/i iː ĩ ɨ ɨ̃ ʉ ʉː ʉ̃ u uː ũ/ < i ī į ï ı̨̈ ü ų̈ ǖ u ū ų > /e eː ẽ ø øː ə o oː õː/ < e ē ę ö ȫ ë o ō ǫ > /æ æː a aː ã ɔ ɔː/ < ä ǟ a ā ą ɔ ɔ̄ > /ɔu jæ jø ai øy/ < ɔu jä jö ai öy >

Stressed vowels may have either high or low pitch. High pitch is shown with an acute and low with a grave accent. If the vowel is written by more than one grapheme, the widest grapheme without diacritics gets the pitch marks, giving examples such as < ɔ̀u ài ȍi >. Vowels with macrons tack on circumflexes for high and carons for low pitch. Vowels with diareses tack on double acutes for high and double graves for long pitch.

Nouns
Selingian nouns come in one of three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter; the gender of a noun is very often indicated by its nominative shape. They decline for five cases: nominative, accusative, dative, genitive and a marginal vocative. They come only in singular and pural forms.

A common pattern in Selingian nouns is that all countable nouns form their plurals with an additional gë- prefix that is absent in mass nouns and certain irregular plurals. They are all generally grouped into declensions based on the shape of their nominative.

S-Stems
Selingian s-stems are nouns that have a nominative in -s, optionally preceded by a vowel. They are almost exclusively either masculine or feminine. They come in three subclasses:
 * Bare s-stems, with no vowel
 * Primary ës-stems and is-stems
 * Secondary ïs-stems and us-stems

Bare & Primary S-Stems
Bare s-stems include Proto-Germanic nouns that ended in *-az that was preceded by only one consonant, and consonant-stem animates that ended in one consonant followed by *-s/z. They overlap fairly neatly with primary s-stems, which invariably descend from *-az nouns and consonant-stem animates that ended in more than one consonant before the suffix.

Example bare s-stem noun <áls> (knife, masc; *alaz):

The affixes bare s-stems take are generally:

Example primary ës-stem noun  (wolf, masc; *wulfaz):

The affixes ës-stems usually take are:

Primary is-stems are almost exclusively found in derived nouns that take the -aris agent suffix, deriving from Proto-Germanic *-ār(i)jaz, although a lot of them derive from underived nouns formerly ending in *-(i)jaz.

An example is-stem noun: wáris (commoner/citizen, masc; *warjaz):

The affixes is-stems usually take differ slightly based on whether the stem ends in /r x z/ (thus taking -jë- suffixes) or not (taking -i- suffixes). The affixes generally are:

Secondary S-Stems
Secondary ïs-stems and the quite rarer us-stems are derived from Proto-Germanic nouns that ended in *-iz/uz and *-wiz/wuz in the nominative, respectivelly. The two Germanic declensional classes have merged uniformly in the plural; some nouns have a distinct dative and gneitive descended not from the common merged cases but from the original Proto-Germanic u-stem dative and genitive forms.

An example ïs-stem noun: <îftïs> (cramp, fem; *jihtiz):

The affixes ïs-stems generally take are:

An example outlier ïs-stem noun:  (thing, object; *kustuz):

Such nouns generally take the following suffixes:

I-Stems
Selingian i-stems are nouns that have a nominative in -i. They are exclusively feminine. They derive from Proto-Germanic ī/jō-stems.

Example i-stem noun  (rope; *bandī):

Such nouns generally take the following suffixes:

Verbs
Selingian verbs follow a traditionally Germanic model: they inflect for person and number of the subject, for two tenses, present and preterite, and three moods, the indicative and subjunctive; they come in weak, strong, mixed and irregular types.

Every Selingian verb is cited in five parts: it's listed by its infinitive, it being the dictionary form, and uses the 3rd person singular present, 1st person singular preterite, 1st person plural preterite and the past participle as its principal citation parts. Weak verbs merely get suffixes while other verbs get the full verb form cited.

Auxiliaries and Irregulars
Selingian employs a few irregular and suppletive auxiliaries to provide additional morphosemantic information. Most of its irregulars follow a preterite-present conjugation pattern, taking a strong preterite in the present and having a weak regular preterite derived from an unattested present; many of them are suppletive and may feature irregular patterns or preserve archaic features.

The primary copula in the language is wézą:

Weak Verbs
Selingian weak verbs are the most regular group of verbs in the language: they inflect in very straightforward and generally regular ways, with very little stem modification outside of the transparent processes of umlaut. There are four classes of weak verbs that primarily differ only in how they form the present indicative; the subjunctive and preterite forms of the verbs are generally inflected consistently across the classes.

Preterites of weak verbs mostly follow a generalised class four inflection, and their subjunctives follow a generalised class one inflection. Their participles all end in -ąts (present) and -ats (past), and their imperatives are a hybrid, levelled class. A generalised verb inflection table for weak verbs:

Weak Class I
The first class of weak Selingian verbs is generally made of transitive and causative verbs, inherited from Proto-Germanic *-ij- and *-j- verbs of the first and third classes. Their infinitives usually end in -į, from *-(i)janą. Example verb <álį> (cause to grow, cultivate, farm (of plants)):

Weak Class II
The second class of weak Selingian verbs is made up of varying kinds of regular verbs, inherited from Proto-Germanic *-ō- verbs. Their infinitives usually end in -ų, from *-ōną. Example verb  (stab):

Weak Class III
The third class of weak Selingian verbs is made up of varying kinds of regular verbs, inherited from Proto-Germanic *-ā- verbs of the third class. Their infinitives usually end in -ą, from *-āną. Example verb  (dawn):

Weak Class IV
The fourth class of weak Selingian verbs is made up various deponent, causative, intransitive and impersonal verbs, inherited from Proto-Germanic *-na- verbs of the fourth class. Their infinitives usually end in -ną, from *-naną. Example verb  (die):

Strong Verbs
Strong verbs are a specific, semi-regular category of Selingian verbs: they all take the same set of affixes, distinct from weak verbs, but possess prominent and extensive ablaut due to which they are divided into eleven classes. Each verb has four different grades: a present grade, a preterite one grade, a preterite two grade and a past participle grade. These make up the four principal parts of the verb.

All strong verbs share an infinitive generally in -ą (from Proto-Germanic *-aną) and go by the following pattern of inflection:

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:

Example verb  (expect, await; *bīdaną):

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

Example verb  (boil, bubble; *reukaną):

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

Example verb  (fall; *dūb[k]aną):

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

Example verb  (tie, bind; *bindaną):

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

Example verb  (take, accept item; *þigjaną):

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

Example verb  (bake; *bakaną):

Class Vb Verbs
Class Vb strong verbs are inherited from j-present Proto-Germanic class VI strong verbs, and they in general share vowel alternations with class Va verbs; they primarily differ in that they take low tone in places class Va verbs don't. They are usually a bit more irregular than class Va verbs.

Example verb <ḷašą> (laugh, cackle; *hlahjaną):

Class CëR
Class CëR strong verbs are reduplicative verbs derived from Proto-Germanic class VII strong verbs that formed their preterites with simple reduplication. In Selingian, they form their preterites by reduplicating the first consonant of the verb and using ë as the nucleus of the resulting cluster (if it starts with one) or by prefixing  (if the verb's vowel-initial). They don't feature ablaut as a productive feature.

Example verb  (forbid; *bannaną):

Class gëgR
Class CëR strong verbs are reduplicative verbs derived from some Proto-Germanic irregular strong verbs that formed their preterites with ablaut. In Selingian, they form their preterites by prefixing  and then reduplicating this resulting first syllable. They usually feature ablaut as a semi-productive feature. Most of these verbs feature gemination in their preterite forms; this derives from older vowel length.

Example verb  (eat; *etaną):