Beloruthenian

Classification and Dialects
The Beloruthenian language is a the only surviving East Germanic language and it is the official language of the Beloruthenian Commonwealth (in Beloruthenian : Бѣлоруценско Ржъечьпоспоблiто). This language has absorbed many features of the surrounding Slavic languages, namely Russian, Polish and Ukrainian. It is also the only Germanic language being written in Cyrillic.

Writing System
The Beloruthenian language has retained a relatively archaic spelling with a lot of orthographic conventions :


 * The letter B preceding a consonant is pronounced as /w/, e.g. : ав т а /aw t a/ (=car)
 * The letter Г followed by a palatalized letter (notably E, Ё, И, I, Ю, Я and Ѭ) is pronounced as /ç/, but followed by the letter O, it changes to /vw/, e.g. г i во /ç i va/ (=gift) vs. г о дасъ /vw ɔ das/ (=good)
 * Ikanya (in Beloruthenian : Iканя) is the reduction of the unstressed E to an /i/-sound, e.g. : объéщенiя /ab ɛ ʃtɕiɲija/ (=promise)
 * Okanya (in Beloruthenian : Oканя) is the reduction of the unstressed E following another vowel to a /jɔ/-sound, e.g. : лёк е е /ʎɔcijɔ/ (=easily)
 * The letter И is only to be found in final position, e.g. : Джiми Картеръ (=Jimmy Carter)
 * The letter Л preceding a consonant is also pronounced as /w/, e.g. : вол ф съ /vɔw f s/ (=wolf)
 * Akanya (in Beloruthenian : Aканя) is the reduction of the unstressed O to an /a/-sound, e.g. : гíво /ç i va/ (=gift)
 * The letter Ъ is in final position after a consonant or stops the palatalization induced by E, e.g. : объ e щенiя /ab ɛ ʃtɕiɲija/ (=promise)
 * The letters Ѫ and Ѭ are purely etymological, as they stand for a nasal vowel having evolved to /a/, respectively /ja/
 * Iotified letters (notably Ё, Ю, Я and Ѭ) can never be reduced

Nouns
Nouns in Beloruthenian have highly complex flexions, even arguably the most complex ones out of all the living Germanic languages. Having been surrounded by Slavic and Baltic languages, the Beloruthenian tongue tended to preserve its declension system inherited from Proto-Germanic. Even if Germanic languages like German and Icelandic retained four cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive) out of the six from Proto-Germanic, Beloruthenian managed to keep all the six cases (nominative, vocative, accusative, dative, genitive and instrumental).

First Declension
The First Declension groups masculine nouns, mostly ending in -съ, and neuter nouns ending in -а. Some stems of masculine nouns cannot take in the nominative singular the ending -съ due to their last consonant. The consonants that forbid the final /s/-sound are ж, з, s, с, х, ц, ч, ш and щ. Other consonants soften the -съ to -зъ, notably б and ґ. Finally, some consonants change by including the /s/-, respectively /z/-sound : т+съ = цъ and д+зъ = sъ.

Second Declension
The Second Declension contains only feminine nouns ending in -о. The Second Declension, which includes flexions with palatalized letters (here : ё), shows an important phenomenon in Beloruthenian inherited from the Slavic languages : iotified softening. Some consonant of the noun (or adjective or verb) stem get softened after a palatalized letter. The iotified softening goes as it follows :


 * м -> мл
 * п -> пл
 * б -> бл
 * в -> вл
 * ф -> фл
 * т -> ц
 * д -> s
 * к -> ч
 * г –> ш
 * ґ -> ж

The reader must also take care of the fact that the letter B followed by its softening Л is pronounced as /w/ as the convention obliges, e.g. : гiв л ё /çiw ʎ ɔ/ (note also that the iotified letter isn't reduced to /a/, i.e. it omits the akanya as the convention obliges).

Third Declension
The Third Declension contains nouns being either masculine, feminine or neuter, all ending in -ь. The masculine declension doesn't differ from its feminine counterpart, however the neuter does.

Fourth Declension
The Fourth Declension groups masculine nouns ending in -усъ and neuter nouns ending in -у.

Verbs
Verbs in Beloruthenian show a lot of tenses and moods, which have arisen organically due to the Slavic and Baltic influences.

Specificity
Specificity defines, whether or not the noun, which is talked about, is specified. Specificity is mainly done in Beloruthenian through the difference of the synthetic and analytic verb conjugation. The synthetic conjugation (also called the synthetic I) is used to express specificity, e.g. : Бакѫsiмъ чясто. (=I'm baking a [ certain ] cake.) ; while the analytic conjugation is used to express the contrary, e.g. : Ей бакатъ чясто. (=I'm baking a cake [ whichever it might be ].). As expressed by their linguistic names, the synthetic I contains verb endings expressing the subject in it, while the analytic form needs the personal pronoun in the nominative case. However, the analytic form can be rendered into a synthetic form, called the synthetic II, which is done by inverting subject and verb and gluing the subject into the verb. The analytic and the synthetic II convey the same meaning : Ей бакатъ чясто. = Бакацей чясто. (=I'm baking a cake [ whichever it might be ].). The specific synthetic I is considered as the default verb form, whereas the unspecific analytic and synthetic II are the usual verb forms, if :


 * the sentence is negative
 * the sentence is interrogative
 * the sentence has to convey some form of evidentiality