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Northeadish is a Germanic language which, while similar toNorth andWest Germanic languages due to many areal similarities, does not belong to either of these branches. The name “Northeadish” is a compound of ‘north’ and ‘thead’ (an ancient word referring to a folk or people). A late sound change (metathesis) in the language caused the word*nurþ ‘north’ to become*nruþ, which, being difficult to pronounce, corrected itself through a process of stop-insertion (becoming*n̩druþ). Later still, the nasal component of word-initial pre-nasalized stops (all of which occur only because of this process) were deleted, leaving present-daydruðþ. A similar process occurs with other Germanic words such as ‘morning’ (*murganaz →mrugan →m̩brugan →brugɴ).

Writing Systems

Alphabet & Pronunciation

[a,ə] aſc ‘ash’	[ɑː] āher ‘maple’	[ɛ] æſʌ ‘ass’	[eː] ǣðra ‘vein’	[b] berca ‘birch’	[k] cᵫn ‘family’	[(u̯)k(w)] qᵫtɴ ‘quince’	[d] dag ‘day’	[ð,θ] ǣða ‘either’
[ɛ] eɧ ‘horse’	[eː] ēc ‘oak’	[f] feha ‘cattle’	[ɡ] geva ‘gift’	[(u̯)ɡ(w)] aᵹa ‘terror’	[h,ç,x] hagʌ ‘hail’	[(u̯)x(w)] ƕal ‘whale’	[ɪ] iecʌ ‘shard’	[iː] īs ‘ice’
[j] iār ‘year’	[l] laga ‘lake’	[ɫ̩,əɫ] lītʌ ‘small’	[m] man ‘man’	[m̩,əm] meðᴍ ‘gift’	[n] nōðþ ‘need’	[n̩,ən] nevɴ ‘nephew’	[ŋ(ɡ)] eŋᵹ ‘Ingwaz’	[ŋ̍(ɡ),əŋ(ɡ)] cᵫnx ‘king’
[ɔ] åns ‘deity’	[oː] ōðʌ ‘land’	[œ] œ̄l ‘oil’	[øː] œ̄g ‘island’	[p] perðþ ‘luck’	[ɾ] rēðþ ‘wheel’	[ɾ̩,əɾ] regʌ ‘rule’	[s,z] ſeᵹʌ ‘sun’	[t] treᵹ ‘tree’
[θ] þrun ‘thorn’	[ʊ] ucs ‘ox’	[uː] ūra ‘aurochs’	[ʏ] ᵫvʌ ‘evil’	[yː] ȳq ‘toad’	[v,w] veða ‘wood’	[w] wᵫn ‘joy’	[ɔ,ɒ] ål ‘ale’	[ɔː] ā̊hʌ ‘seed’

(NB: The Northeadish alphabet, while latin-based, contains several characters which are not readily representable using the standard Unicode latin subsets. The forms presented are a rough approximation of the actual letters shown in the table above. Typically, however, when appropriate characters or fonts are unavailable, Northeadish is written using theReform Alphabet)

Orthography

a

The letter ‹a› can double as a short open low vowel and a schwa.

• ‹a› is pronounced as [ə]:
  • At the end of a word or morpheme when unstressed.
    • vata ‘water’ [vá.tə]
    • (ec) vacna ‘(I) awake’ [vák.nə]
  • In the definite article:
    • þa ‘the’ [θə]
    • þas ‘of the’ [θəs]
  • When unstressed before non-sonorant phonemes (usually before /s/ or /t/).
    • mīnas ‘of my’ [mí:n.əs]
    • grōtat ‘big’ [gróːtət]
  • In unstressed prefixesba-,ga-,ha-, andta-.
    • haqelðþ ‘this evening’ [hə.kwɛ́lθ]
    • balīvɴ ‘to stay behind’ [bə.líːv.n̩]
  • In inflexional suffixes; specifically, in the past and subjunctive tenses of verbs, in the second person conjugation of verbs (all tenses), in the third person present singular indicative, and in the superlative forms of adjectives.
    • grœ̄taſt ‘biggest’ [grǿː.təst]
    • helpaðþ ‘helps’ [hɛ́l.pəθ]
  • In other common unstressed suffixes:
    • -ag (‘-y’ adjective ending)
    • -cunðag ‘able’ [cʊ́n.ðəg]
    • dǣgag ‘doughy’ [déː.gəg]
  • -tag (‘-ty’ decimal ending)
    • tvæntag ‘twenty’ [tvɛn.təg]
    • ſecstag ‘sixty’ [sɛks.təg]
  • -aðþ (‘th’ nominal ending)
    • daᵹaðþ ‘death’ [daug.wəθ]
    • hœ̄gaðþ ‘coziness’ [høː.gəθ]
  • -at (nominative and accusative neuter ending for adjectives)
    • gōðat ‘good’ [goː.ðət] (alsogōðþt.)
    • yvlat ‘bad’ [ʏ.vlət] (alsoyvʌt.)
• ‹a› is pronounced as [a] in all other cases.
  • man ‘man’ [man]
  • ſcap ‘shape’ [skap]

æ and e

The letters ‹æ› and ‹e› are both pronounced as [ɛ]; however, ‹æ› only occurs as the i-umlaut of ‹a›. (Historically, ‹æ› was pronounced [æ].)

• hændɴ ‘to catch’ [hɛn.dn̩], from *handjaną
• henðɴ ‘to catch’ [hɛn.ðn̩], from *henþaną

ǣ and ē

Similarly, ‹ǣ› and ‹ē› are both pronounced as [eː], but ‹ǣ› only occurs as the i-umlaut of ‹ā› while ‹ē› is the realization of the Proto-Germanic diphthong *ai or the result of ŋ-deletion after *e. (Historically, ‹ǣ› was pronounced [æː].)

• bǣgʀ ‘quarrels’, plural ofbāg.
• ſtēn ‘stone’, from *stainaz.
• þēht ‘tight’, from *þenhtaz.

q, ᵹ, and ƕ

The “labiovelar” letters ‹q›, ‹ᵹ›, and ‹ƕ› have several possible articulations depending on their placement in a word and their proximities to other vowels and consonants. The letter ‹ᵹ› in particular is the realization of Germanicverschärfung, which comes from Proto-Germanic combinations such as *gg, *gw, *ww, and *gwj. It may also arise from an intervocalic *w in certain circumstances. The other labiovelar consonants, *hw and *kw, followed the pattern of *gw later in the development of Northeadish. The rules for these letters, while many, are all the same. ‹q›, ‹ᵹ›, and ‹ƕ› are pronounced as:

• [k, g, x], respectively, between two consonants, or after a consonant when word-final.
  • ſteŋqdȳr ‘skunk’ [stɛŋk.dyːr]
  • æŋᵹleſca ‘English’ [ɛŋg.lɛs.kə]
  • hulɧ ‘hollow’ [hʊlx]
• [kʊ, gʊ, xʊ], respectively, after a consonant and before a syllabic.
  • ſeŋqɴ ‘to sink’ [sɛŋ.kʊn]
  • æŋᵹʌ ‘angle’ [ɛŋ.gʊl]
  • arƕʀ ‘arrows’ [ar.xʊr]
• [kw, gw, xw] before a vowel, when after a consonant or word-initial.
  • qerna ‘millstone’ [kwɛr.nə]
  • aŋᵹa ‘narrow’ [aŋ.gwə]
  • melcƕīt ‘calcium’ [mɛlk.xwiːt]
• [ukʊ, ugʊ, uxʊ] after a vowel and before a syllabic.
  • ſleqɴ ‘to extinguish’ [slɛu.kʊn]
  • baᵹᴍ ‘tree’ [bau.gʊm]
  • ſeƕɴ ‘to see’ [sɛu.xʊn]
• [ukw, ugw, uxw] when intervocalic.
  • eqarn ‘acorn’ [ɛu.kwarn]
  • beᵹa ‘grain, cereal’ [bɛu.gwə]
  • aƕa ‘water’ [au.xwə]
• [uk, ug, ux] after a vowel and before a consonant or when word-final.
  • þeq ‘thick’ [θɛuk]
  • daᵹ ‘dew’ [daug]
  • ſeɧcunðag ‘visible’ [sɛ́ux.kʊn.ðəg]
• In simpler terms:
  • The “nucleus” (k, g, or x) is always fully pronounced.
  • The onset labiovelar is not pronounced whennot preceded by a vowel.
  • The coda labiovelar is not pronounced when word-final or before a consonant.
  • The coda labiovelar becomes vocalic ([ʊ]) when followed by a syllabic.
• When any labiovelar consonant is followed by ‹v›, the pronunciation of ‹v› changes from [v] to [w].
  • treᵹvetſcap ‘dendrology’ [trɛug.wɛt.skap]
  • naɧventʀ ‘next winter’ [naux.wɛnt.r̩]

h

The letter h may have three different pronunciations depending on its position relative to neighboring phonemes.

• ‹h› is pronounced as [h] when initial except before a sonorant.
  • hūs ‘house’ [huːs]
  • helpɴ ‘to help’ [hɛl.pn̩]
• Before a sonorant, ‹h› is pronounced as [x].
  • hryg ‘back’ [xɾʏg]
  • hnuta ‘nut’ [xnʊ.tə]
• After a back vowel, ‹h› is pronounced as [x] (c.f. German “ach-laut”).
  • þrūh ‘through’ [θruːx]
  • hlah ‘laugh’ [xlax]
• After a front vowel, ‹h› is pronounced as [ç] (c.f. German “ich-laut”).
  • tehɴ ‘ten’ [tɛç.n̩]
  • līht ‘easy’ [liːçt]

ƕ, ɧ

In addition to the pronunciation complexities mentioned above, the letter ƕ has the additional complication of an orthographic convention whereby it is written as ‹ɧ› when in final position in a word or word segment.

ſ, s

The letter ‹s› sports both phonemic and orthographic variation.

• It is written ass when word- or word-segment-final; otherwise it is written asſ.
  • þas ſeᵹlas ſcīn ‘the sun’s rays’ [θəs sɛugləs skiːn]
• It is voiced [z] when intervocalic or after a vowel before a syllabic; otherwise, it is always unvoiced [s].
  • rīſɴ ‘to rise’ [riː.zn̩]
  • æſʌ ‘donkey’ [ɛ.zl̩]

v

The letter ‹v› has two pronunciations.

• It is pronounced [w] after a labiovelar consonant (‹q›, ‹ᵹ›, or ‹ƕ›).
  • treᵹvetſcap ‘dendrology’ [trɛug.wɛt.skap]
  • naɧventʀ ‘next winter’ [naux.wɛnt.r̩]
• In all other instances, it is pronounced as [v].
  • varm ‘warm’ [varm]
  • vruðþ ‘word’ [vrʊθ]

ðþ, vf

The letters ‹ð› and ‹v› become unvoiced at the end of a word or before another unvoiced consonant (see Obstruent Devoicing), but when they occur word- or word-segment-finally, the voiced consonants remain in the orthography.

Deprecated Characters

Three letters – all of them short vowels – are no longer used in Northeadish: ‹ı›, ‹o›, and ‹œ›.NB: This may have to change if I bring ı back into the language in light of the new rules surrounding i-umlaut and first umlaut. TBD...

Syllabics

There are five “syllabics” in the Northeadish alphabet, all of which stem from syllabic sonorants (or, depending on dialect, a sonorant – specifically a nasal or liquid – preceded by a schwa). When a schwa is followed by a sonorant consonant, it becomes a syllabic. Conversely, when a syllabic is followed by a vowel, it reverts to its non-syllabic equivalent. (We do this in English too; in fact, most languages have some version of this – we just don’t usually have the same sort of rules around how it’s spelled.)

• When a schwa is followed by a sonorant, they form a syllabic:
  • a+l → ʌ, *apalaz ‘apple’ →apʌ
  • a+m → ᴍ, *aþala-dōmaz ‘nobility’ →aðʌdᴍ
  • a+n → ɴ, *etaną ‘to eat’ →etɴ
  • a+ŋ → x, *kuningaz ‘king’ →cȳnx
  • a+r → ʀ, *fader ‘father’ →faðʀ
• When a syllabic is followed by a vowel, it reverts to a non-syllabic sonorant; however, this change does not apply to x:
  • ʌ+V → lV,yvʌ ‘bad’ → neuteryvlat
  • ᴍ+V → mV,mēðᴍ ‘gift’ → dativemēðma
  • ɴ+V → nV,œ̄ðbrucɴ ‘fragile’ → feminineœ̄ðbrucna
  • ʀ+V → rV,faðʀ ‘father’ → gentive pluralfæðra
  • but x+V → xV,cynx ‘king’ → genitive pluralcynxa, not **cynŋa
• When two syllabics occur in succession, the first syllabic is reduced to a non-syllabic sonorant (since, per the rule above, a syllabic may also be interpreted as beginning with a schwa). The same exception also exists for x.
  • ʌ+S → lS,yvʌ ‘bad’ → masculineyvlʀ
  • ᴍ+S → mS,mēðᴍ ‘gift’ → accusative pluralmēðmɴ
  • ɴ+S → nS,œ̄ðbrucɴ ‘fragile’ → masculine œ̄ðbrucnʀ
  • ʀ+S → rS,faðʀ ‘father’ → dative pluralfæðrᴍ
  • but x+V → xV,cynx ‘king’ → pluralcynxʀ, not **cynŋʀ

Punctuation

For the most part, punctuation in Northeadish is the same as it is in English or most European languages. There tend to be a few more commas than English, (for example, commas are required before any subordinate conjunction), though not quite as many as might be found in German. Quotation marks, which tend to vary in every language, are represented by a single mid-level (reverse) comma (just as single quotes in English, but slightly lower). E.g.

‘She said, “Let them eat cake!”’ (For display purposes, standard-height quotes are used exclusively in this text.)

There are also some spacing conventions regarding quotation marks which allow for most base-level punctuation to occupy the same space as the quotation mark(s), so a series like ,” would be stacked:

The only truly odd punctuation mark in Northeadish is the question mark, which is really more of a comma over a period, or a sort of inverse semicolon:

This sign is falling out of use, however, and a standard question mark is used now almost interchangeably with the older symbol.

Abbreviations

Logographemes: Symbols

There are several common abbreviations found in Northeadish, most inherited from early Germanic writings in Old English or Old Norse. The following symbols are considered proper for most writing in Northeadish:

	ænðþ, ōc, iah, ōɧ	This is equivalent to the ampersand used in most modern writing. It can stand in for all translations of ‘and’. When used to replace the suffix ‘-ōɧ’, it is written as if it were a letter of the word.
	þa, þɴ, þet, þas, þer, þᴍ	This character fills in for any declension of the definite article, though in some texts or scenarios it may be appropriate to add a letter to indicate case or number.
	het, hī, hes, hem, hen	Like the previous symbol, this originally stood for the proximal definite article, though now it has been relegated to the neuter pronoun ‘it’ and is sometimes also used as an abbreviation for the masculinehī.
	þæt	This symbol stands in for the subordinate conjunctionþæt.
	-r, -ʀ	The raised comma may be added to particles (determiners, pronouns, prepositions, &c) to indicate a rhotic ending. It is sometimes used in longer words to indicate a plural or masculine declension, though this is not generally acceptable in professional writing. The most common examples can be found below.
	þer	This symbol, while widely used, is more correctly transcribed as þr in professional writing (see above).
	her	‘her, hers’
	ner	‘noöne’
	ƕer	‘who’
	tel	This indicates the prepositiontel. This differs from other abbreviations using the raised comma in that the rest all indicate some form of rhotic (either ‹r› or ‹ʀ›).

Morphographemes: Scribal Shorthand

In addition to the common abbreviations above, some texts use a sort of “scribal shorthand” which takes the place of most common inflections of both nouns and verbs, as well as adjectives (if they are inflected at all). Most commonly, this type of shorthand replaces pronouns with a single-character signifier, surrounded by periods, appended to the front of their accompanying verb. Inflection of the verb is thereby also elided. In cases where i-umlaut occurs in the paradigm (usually in the second and third person singular), the vowel may optionally change, or a raised comma may be added to the vowel.

( = gaŋɴ)

Normally only the root of the verb is used, but in some cases, there are also further abbreviations for common verbs.

[more details coming soon]

Alternative Writing Systems

The Reform Alphabet

In addition to the standard alphabet (also called the “Standard Literary Alphabet”), Northeadish can also be written with a simplified script called simply the “Reform Alphabet.” Whereas the Standard Literary Alphabet conforms to many of the rules of more traditional Germanic languages such as Old English, Old Norse, Old Saxon, &c, the Reform Alphabet is much more consistent with the orthographic conventions of modern Germanic languages like Swedish, Icelandic, or Dutch, and can be a bit of a stickler for function and efficiency at the expense of form and æsthetics.

Non-alphabetic variants:

The Reform Alphabet has many fewer letters than the Standard Literary Alphabet (twenty-seven as opposed to forty-four), and, alphabetically, long and short variants of vowels are considered the same letter. It follows the standard alphabetical order of other Germanic languages (that is, the standard Latin order, followed by thorn, a-ring, and o-slash). Unlike Icelandic, however, long vowels are not considered separate letters alphabetically. Long vowels are indicated by an acute accent, as in Icelandic or Faroese; those long vowels which no longer have a short equivalent (i, and ø) can be written without any diacritic.

The names of the letters are standardized to Latin letters and are no longer associated with earlier runic names. All characters fall within the Basic Latin and Latin-1 Supplement Unicode character ranges.The schwa is represented by ‘e’ rather than ‘a’. Syllabics do not have their own characters, but are instead represented by digraphs of a vowel (usually ‘e’) and the corresponding sonorant. The labiovelar letters are broken down by their equivalent onsets (always ‘u’), nuclei (g, h, or k), and codas (always ‘w’), and only those parts which are pronounced are written out; i.e., they are written as Cw- when word-initial, -uCw- when medial, and -uC when word-final. (A ‘u’ is used before a syllabic instead of ‘w’.) The velar nasal is represented by the digraph ‘ng’.

Punctuation in the reform alphabet uses no special symbols (such as the lowered quotation mark). Single- and double-quotes are written at their standard height and are not kerned with lower punctuation, and only the standard question mark is used.

The Hyper-Reform Alphabet

There is also the “hyper-reform alphabet,” which does not have official status, but is in common use on the internet. It is largely based on the rules of the Standard Reform Alphabet, but, whereas the Reform Alphabet is simplified to the Basic Latin and Latin-1 Unicode Subsets, the Hyper-Reform Alphabet is further simplified to include only twenty-three letters of the Basic Latin set; no Latin-1 Supplement characters are used, nor are ‘c’, nor ‘q’, nor ‘x’. All other sounds are represented by digraphs.

Non-alphabetic variants:

The Eastheadish Alphabet

[NB: table coming soon... updating fonts...]

Some phonetic differences exist in Eastheadish in the table above, mainly because this alphabet represents an earlier realization of the Northeadish language; for instance, the sounds /ɪ/, /o/, and /œ/ still existed in the language at that time, and syllabics had not yet developed from earlier /ə/+sonorant. Initial sonorants after /h/ were merely unvoiced. Other differences include /z/ as a separate grapheme from /s/, /ɛ/ and /eː/ not distinct because of umlaut. However, even as many of these sounds or conventions are no longer used, the Eastheadish alphabet continues to be used to transcribe modern Northeadish in a sort of nostalgically sentimental way.

Approximately 500 years ago, the Eastheadish alphabet was used nearly exclusively to write what is now considered Middle Northeadish. The name ‘Eastheadish’ came into being when the Eastern dialect of Northeadish started to diverge. Many years later, the few remaining speakers of Eastheadish found themselves part of the Soviet Union in what is modern-day Slovakia and Hungary. An effort was made by the Soviets in the 1940s to create a Cyrillic-based alphabet for the language, but this was eventually abandoned as the population was so small. Vladimir Zubarev, the last known native speaker of Eastheadish, died on August 31st, 1977 at the age of 103.

Phonology

In opposition to historical sound changes which have shaped the development of the language so far, this section refers to those synchronic changes which occur within the present spoken language when certain sounds find themselves in certain positions.

Final Obstruent Devoicing

This is a phenomenon common to all Germanic languages at some stage of their evolution. What this means for Northeadish is that the voiced continuant obstruents (i.e. ‘ð’, ‘v’, and ‘ſ’) become unvoiced at the end of a word. Orthographically, this does not affect ‘ſ’, since it is not voiced when final anyway. However, ‘ð’ and ‘v’ would be expected to change to ‘þ’ and ‘f’, respectively. In order to preserve the root of the words to which this rule applies, however, ‘ð’ and ‘v’ are preserved and merely followed by ‘þ’ and ‘f’, respectively.

• dœ̄vnɴ ‘to become deaf’, butdōvf [doːf] ‘deaf’.
• clǣðʀ ‘clothes’, but clǣðþ [kleːθ] ‘cloth’.

See alsoOrthography

Assimilation and Insertion of [ð]

The letter ‹ð› is slippery. It appears in the darnedest places. In addition to its refusal to go away when it is unvoiced, as above, it also pops up as a result of two specific sound changes when other letters get near /r/.

Do you have one of those friends who just wants everyone to get along and goes around trying to make everyone happy? In the Northeadish alphabet, ‹ð› is that friend. Meanwhile, ‹r› is that friend that you all sort of have to be nice to but no one really likes. ‹d› and ‹n› in particular can’t stand to be around ‹r›. Whenever ‹d› finds itself stuck talking to ‹r›, it usually just kind of walks away, leaving ‹ð› to take over the conversation. ‹n›, on the other hand, is ready to punch it out with ‹r›, and ‹ð› is always rushing in to break things up. At least that’s how I like to think of them, but some might say I’m spending too much time with my letters.

Change of [d] to [ð]: d → ð / __r

This means simply that the letter ‹d› becomes ‹ð› when followed by ‹r› or ‹ʀ›. While this is an historical sound change in the language, it is persistent, which means that it is still going on in the language and may appear without warning in inflections. So, in other words, some words are permanently and irrevocably altered (e.g. *fader ‘father’ → /fadr̩/ →faðʀ: this word will never be written with a ‹d› in any form), while others will dither depending on what tense or case they may find themselves in (e.g.ænd ‘end’, butænðʀ ‘ends’).

Insertion of [ð]: Ø → ð / n__r

Very similar to the above rule, this means simply that whenever ‹n› finds itself next to ‹r› or ‹ʀ›, ‹ð› magically appears between then. Once again, some of these are permanent sound changes (e.g. *þunraz ‘thunder’ → /þunr̩/ →þunðʀ, which will never become **þunʀ again), while others are variable (e.g.mīn ‘mine’, but with dative feminine ending ‘-ʀ’ →mīnðʀ). (We actually had a variant of this rule in English, too, which is no longer persistent, but which gave us words likethunder from the same PGmc. *þunraz.)

Assimilation of Coronal Consonants before [st]: t,d,þ,ð → Ø / __st

That is, the letters /t/, /d/, /þ/, and /ð/ are deleted when followed by /st/ in the same syllable. This rule is common to most older Germanic languages in various forms, and is a reflex of an earlier rule of IndoEuropean. This is the same rule that gives us the wordbest from earlier *'batistaz: batist → betest → betst → best, orlast, a reflex oflatest. In Northeadish this specifically applies to superlative adjectives (where –ſt is added to an adjective) and to the second person singular indicative past and present forms of verbs.

I-Umlaut: V[+back] → [+front]

While i-umlaut (also known as “i/j-umlaut” or sometimes just “umlaut”) is no longer productive in Northeadish, it does continue to have an impact on inflections (much as it does in modern German), appearing in the following environments:

• Verbs:
  • Second person present indicative of strong verbs
  • Third person present indicative of strong verbs
  • Second person imperative of strong verbs
• Nouns:
  • Plural forms of monosyllabic nouns.
  • Feminine nouns with the suffix –aðþ (nominal ending)
  • Feminine nouns with the suffix -x (nominal ending)
  • Nouns with the suffix -a (masculine agentive ending)
  • Nouns with the suffix -ena (feminine ending)
  • Nouns with the suffix -aſtra (feminine agentive ending)
• Adjectives:
  • Comparative adjectives
  • Superlative adjectives
  • Adjectives with the suffix –ag
  • Adjectives with the suffix –lec
• Adverbs
  • Adverbs with the suffix –ega
  • Adverbs with the suffix –līga

Syllabics

There are five “syllabics” in the Northeadish alphabet, all of which stem from syllabic sonorants (or, depending on dialect, a sonorant – specifically a nasal or liquid – preceded by a schwa). When a schwa is followed by a sonorant consonant, it becomes a syllabic. Conversely, when a syllabic is followed by a vowel, it reverts to its non-syllabic equivalent. (We do this in English too; in fact, most languages have some version of this – we just don’t usually have the same sort of rules around how it’s spelled.)

• When a schwa is followed by a sonorant, they form a syllabic:
  • a+l → ʌ, *apalaz ‘apple’ →apʌ
  • a+m → ᴍ, *aþala-dōmaz ‘nobility’ →aðʌdᴍ
  • a+n → ɴ, *etaną ‘to eat’ →etɴ
  • a+ŋ → x, *kuningaz ‘king’ →cᵫnx
  • a+r → ʀ, *fader ‘father’ →faðʀ
• When a syllabic is followed by a vowel, it reverts to a non-syllabic sonorant; however, this change does not apply to x:
  • ʌ+V → lV,ᵫvʌ ‘bad’ → neuterᵫvlat
  • ᴍ+V → mV,mēðᴍ ‘gift’ → dativemēðma
  • ɴ+V → nV,œ̄ðbrucɴ ‘fragile’ → feminineœ̄ðbrucna
  • ʀ+V → rV,faðʀ ‘father’ → gentive pluralfæðra
  • but x+V → xV,cᵫnx ‘king’ → genitive pluralcᵫnxa, not **cᵫnŋa
• When two syllabics occur in succession, the first syllabic is reduced to a non-syllabic sonorant (since, per the rule above, a syllabic may also be interpreted as beginning with a schwa). The same exception also exists for x.
  • ʌ+S → lS, 'ᵫvʌ ‘bad’ → masculineᵫvlʀ
  • ᴍ+S → mS,mēðᴍ ‘gift’ → accusative pluralmēðmɴ
  • ɴ+S → nS,œ̄ðbrucɴ ‘fragile’ → masculine œ̄ðbrucnʀ
  • ʀ+S → rS,faðʀ ‘father’ → dative pluralfæðrᴍ
  • but x+V → xV,cᵫnx ‘king’ → pluralcᵫnxʀ, not **cᵫnŋʀ

Assimilation of [ɾ]: ɾ → Ø / __ɾ̩

A complicated name for a simple sound change: when ‹r› is followed by ‹ʀ›, it is deleted. This applies mostly to nominative plural nouns and comparative adjectives ending in ‹-ʀ›.

Insertion of [ə] after Voiced Obstruent: Ø → ə / C[+voice]___+[-voice]

When a root ends in a voiced obstruent (i.e. ‹b›, ‹d›, ‹g›, ‹v›, ‹ð›, or ‹ſ›), a schwa is inserted before unvoiced suffixes, (e.g. second person singular indiciative -ſt, third person singular present indicative -ðþ, nominal ending -ðþ, feminine agentive ending -aſtra, or superlative ending -ſt). This also applies to ‹t› – an unvoiced obstruent – before the third person present indicative and nominal -ðþ. (However, as already discussed in theCoronal Consonant Assimilation rule, ‹t› is deleted beforeſt.)

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Relative Pronouns

What follows here are the “true” relative pronouns, though several words may take over this function, such as those mentioned in the Indefinite Pronouns below (qer,qīr, andqet), the wordſᴍ.

Reflexive Pronouns

Other Pronouns

ⁱ When the following word begins with a vowel, numerals and pronouns ending in a vowel are followed by ‹r›. This applies to the numbers tvē, tvō, and þrī, and the pronouns hī, ſī, vī, and iȳ. E.g.ſī gǣðþ ‘she goes’, butſīr ærðþ ‘she is’.

ⁱⁱ The neuter genitive forms may also be rendered ashets,ƕets, andqets, though that is more vernacular and not standard.

ⁱⁱⁱ By definition, reflexive pronouns cannot exist in the nominative case.

^iv Though it is in common usage, having been assimilated from the other reflexive pronouns, the wordsſeſc andſīſc are technically not correct. The common–ſc ending on the reflexive dative and accusative pronouns comes from an earlier compounding of the third person reflexive pronoun (ſec) onto the non-reflexive pronouns, much in the same way that the North Germanic medio-passive was formed. Appending ſec onto itself is redundant, but assimilation will out.

Numbers

The first three numbers decline according to case and gender. In addition, all higher numbers ending in these numbers will decline accordingly (e.g. 21, 22, 23, 31, 32, 33, &c. Eleven and twelve are exceptions: see Indeclinable Numerals.)

In addition to the numerals, ‘two’ and ‘three’ also have distributive forms. The dual distributive is equivalent to the English ‘both’; there is not a direct equivalent for the trial distributive, but it would translate to ‘all three’.

(For the declension of the number ‘one’, see theIndefinite Article.)

Dual Numeral (‘two’)

Dual Distributive (‘both’)

Trial Numeral (‘three’)

Trial Distributive (‘all three’)

Undeclinable Numerals

Ordinal Numbers

To make most numbers ordinal, simply add–ðþ to the end of its cardinal counterpart. When a number ends in an unvoiced consonant or a syllabic (most notably -ɴ), add-þ. The numbers ‘one’ and ‘two’, as well as any numbers ending with them, are the only glaring exceptions to this rule.

ⁱ Our English word ‘hundred’ is actually a compound of two words, from Proto-Germanic *hundą ‘hundred’ and *raþjō ‘count’. In Northeadish, the singular wordhund ‘hundred’ does not have the–raðþ ending, but it is added in the plural. Note, however, that–raðþ is dropped for ordinals.

ⁱⁱ The larger “-illion” numbers, borrowed in most languages from Latin roots, start out simply enough in Northeadish:meliōn andbeliōn are fairly direct borrowing. By the third iteration, ‘trillion’, the initial ‹t› has been replaced to make it resemble the native word for ‘three.’ The fourth through sixth iterations are also fairly standard, but the seventh through ninth are indisputably nativized. The tenth iteration,decteliōn, is back to a Latin root, but the ‹te› preceding–liōn since the fifth iteration has been retained. Numerals higher thandecteliōn are still in dispute among Northeadish scholars; fortunately they are not used often enough to cause many problems.

ⁱⁱⁱ In addition to the standard forms (“one hundred, one hundred ten, &c.”) Northeadish also retains the termstehɴtag ‘“ten-ty’”,eleftag ‘“eleven-ty’”, andtveleftag ‘“twelf-ty’”, hearkening back to an earlier duodecimal system.

Articles & Determiner

Definite Article (‘the’)

ⁱ When the following word begins with a vowel, the masculine, feminine, and plural nominative article and the feminine and plural accusative article change fromþa toþɴ (much in the same way Englisha changes toan.)

Indefinite Article (‘a’, ‘an’, ‘one’)

Possessives & other Determiners (‘my’, ‘this’, ‘which’, &c)

Possessives, demonstratives, and other determiners decline likeēn, but also have a plural. (Ēn does have a plural which is used in very specific circumstances, but in those cases it is not considered a determiner.) All determiners in Northeadish end in ‹n›, ‹r›, ‹ʀ›, ‹s›, or ‹t›. Each will have a slightly different declension depending on this final letter. (NB: These are not dissimilar to the declension of adjectives, but since these words are used more frequently and have a few other quirks, I do not want to conflate the two categories here.)

‹n›-stem

All determiners which end in ‹n› follow the first paradigm, which is likeēn. (Note that, as with the indefinite article, the stressed vowel is shortened for the neuter singular nominative and accusative. This is common to all determiner paradigms, because the phonology of Northeadish does not allow a long vowel in a “heavy” syllable, i.e. when a long vowel is followed by more than one consonant.)

Unique to these determiners in ‹n› is the declension of the feminine genitive and dative and the plural genitive, where ‹ð› is inserted before the ending to break up the illegal ‹nr› combination that would otherwise result (see Phonology: Insertion of [ð]). Included in this first category aremīn ‘my’,þīn ‘thy, your’,ſīn ‘his, her, its’,ēn ‘a, an, one’, andiēn ‘yon, yonder’.

‹r›-stem

Those determiners ending in ‹r›, includingher ‘her’,hīr ‘their’,ƕīr ‘whose’,iȳr ‘your’,qīr ‘whose’, andſīr ‘their (rfl.)’ decline as follows. (Her does not have a long vowel, so the neuter singular is not shortened.) The main distinction with this and the next group is that those declensions in ‹ʀ› (feminine genitive and dative and plural genitive) are deleted because of the phonology of the language (See Phonology: Assimilation of [ɾ].)

‹ʀ›-stem

Similar to those determiners in ‹r› are those in ‹ʀ›; the main difference between them is that the syllabic becomes non-syllabic is all but a few of the declensions. This group includes the first and second person dual and plural possessivesiᵫŋcʀ ‘your’,ɴſʀ ‘our’, andxcʀ ‘our’.

‹s›- and ‹t›-stems

Finally the last two groups are those determiners in ‹s› (hes ‘his, its’,ƕes ‘whose’,nes ‘noöne’s’,qes ‘whose’, andþes ‘their’) and those in ‹t› (hat ‘this’,ƕat ‘what’,ƕet ‘which’,iat ‘that, yonder’,nat ‘no, none’,qat ‘which’,qet ‘which’, andþat ‘that’). The only difference between the two is the neuter singular, which is elided after ‹t›.

Correlatives & Pro-Forms

The Northeadish system of correlatives is similar to those in many other Germanic languages, though, through analogy, it has grown to be far more extensive than any other. The correlative system is based on six simple roots:

Though the Northeadish correlative system is more thorough than those of other Germanic languages, it is still by no means complete. Many other common words already hold the place of some of the correlatives; they are noted below.

Deictics

Qualifiers

ⁱ Northeadishq- is believed to have developed from a stressedƕ-, and is used exclusively for relatives. This is one piece of evidence that the Northeadish people may have lived for a time in proximity to a Uralic-speaking population which preserves the distinction between interrogative and relative adverbs and pronouns, though others argue that Proto-Norse may have borrowed heavily from Sami and Finnic (and vice versa), yet it did not assimilate this sort of distinction.

ⁱⁱ These pronouns also decline in regular ways. SeePronouns.

ⁱⁱⁱHer has been replaced by the dative and accusative inflection of the third person singular feminine pronounſī in Northeadish (‘her’, from *hėzō), though if the correlative were assimilated, it would have meant something like ‘this person’. Similarly, the inflections which would have been extrapolated from this form would have been occupied by the third person singular masculine pronoun: genitivehes ‘his’, dativehem ‘him’, and accusativehen ‘him’.

^ivThe medial version of the above,þer (‘that person’), has come to be used as a non-specific third person singular pronoun, much like we usethey,them, ortheir in (prescriptively-incorrect-but descriptively-happening-whether-you-like-it-or-not) English to refer to someone whose gender is unknown, e.g. “Someone lefttheir book here.”

^vÞū has been replaced entirely by the second person singular nominative pronoun (‘thou’, from *þū).

^viİū has been replaced entirely by the “affirmative rebuke” (‘yes, it is’, ‘“yuh-huh”’, from *jō?).

^viiNū shares a space with the descendant of *nu, whose primary semantic role was taken over byhan (above), but which is still widely used, particularly in th sense of ‘right now, immediately’.

^viiiHī shares a space with the third person masculine singular pronoun (‘he’, from *hėz), thoughhī does still appear occasionally with the meaning ‘for this reason.’

^ixİet has been replaced entirely by the adverb ‘yet’ (from *juta).

Verbs

I haven't got quite as far as describing the verbs yet, but everyone likes a good conjugation of their favorite irregular verbs, right? So here you go:

verɴ ‘to be’

gān~ganɴ ‘to go’

dōn ‘to do’

ſtān~ſtandɴ ‘to stay, to stand, to be’

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