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Grammar

Word Classes

Pronouns and Anaphoric Clitics

Personal Pronouns
1s 2s 1p 2s
Nominative ek þú vér ér
Accusative mik þik oss yðr
Dative mér þér oss yðr
Genitive mín þín vár yðr

First and second person pronouns in Eittlandic

The only notable change in written form from their Early Old Norse version is the regularization of the genitive plural second person yðar into yðr. Otherwise, most changes only happened regarding their phonology as explained in the evolution from Early Old Norse to Eittlandic.

Masculine Feminine Neuter
Singular Nominative hann han þat
Singular Accusative han han þat
Singular Dative hanum henn því
Singular Genitive hans hennar þass
Plural Nominative þeir þér þau
Plural Accusative þá þér þau
Plural Dative þeim þeim þeim
Plural Genitive þeir þeir þeir

Third person pronouns in Eittlandic

Here we also have few changes from the Early Old Norse pronouns for the third persons, singular and plural.

An additional set of pronouns contains reflexive pronouns. This one is relatively small, as it does not agree in person, number, or gender. However, it still agrees in case. Note that there is no nominative reflexive pronoun in Eittlandic.

Nominative -
Accusative sik
Dative sér
Genitive sín
Demonstrative Pronouns

During its evolution from Old Eittlandic, the Eittlandic language lost one set of demonstrative pronouns, the one containing in Old Eittlandic and Old Norse, in favour of the sets containing hinn and þessi. Thus, we have these two sets in Eittlandic.

Masculine Feminine Neuter
Sg Nom hinn hinn hitt
Sg Acc hin hin hitt
Sg Dat hinum hin hin
Sg Gen hins hins hins
Pl Nom hiner hiner hin
Pl Acc hin hiner hin
Pl Dat hinum hinum hinum
Pl Gen hinn hinn hinn

It is interesting to see that this set of pronouns retained some differences between their masculine and feminine form, which has become quite rare in Modern Eittlandic. These are used similarly to “that” or “those” in English, designating elements or things that are judged as distant by the speaker from themselves.

On the other hand, the following pronouns containing þess relate to the words “this” and “these” in English.

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns in Eittlandic simply are the genitive form of the personal pronouns shown above. The pronoun agrees with the owner in person and number, and in gender when the third person is used, as in English.

They generally replace a whole nominative proposition, such as with the example below.

::: tip Example

Havir þú historiabøk? Ek haft gleymt mín

:::

You can compare them to English possessive pronouns like mine, yours, or theirs.

Verbs

Eittlandic, as most if not all North Germanic language, is a V2 language. This implies that in most cases, the verb in sentences will come at the second position, possibly moving its subject right between the verb itself and the rest of the verb phrase. The only exception to this are questions and the use of imperative. More on that later.

Since Early Old Norse, Eittlandic evolved its verb both towards simplification on one hand, making the verb endings a lot more regular and predictable, and complexification with the addition of new moods and tenses.

Verbal Inflexions

Verbs in Eittlandic agree with their subject in person and number, though it lost a lot of its diversity Old Norse had. It also varies depending on the tense, mood, and aspect of the verbal sentence. The examples are given using the verbs far(a) (to go, a former strong verb), and berja (to beat, a former weak verb).

person Indicative Present Subjunctive Present Indicative and Subjunctive Past
1s -r -ir -t
2s -r -ir -t
3s -r -ir -t
1p -um -im -um
2p -ið -ið -uð
3p -ið -ið -uð

Typical Verb Inflexion

person far berja
1s ferr berjar
2s ferr berjar
3s ferr berjar
1p farum berjum
2p farið berið
3p farið berið

Indicative present inflexion of far(a) and berja

Note that the final vowel of berja gets replaced with the vowel from the inflexion, and the final j also disappears when it is immediately followed by an i.

Present subjunctive has similar declensions to present indicative.

person far berja
1s ferir berir
2s ferir berir
3s ferir berir
1p farim berim
2p farið berið
3p farið berið

Subjunctive present inflexion of far(a) and berja

We can see again how the ja at the end of infinitive berja got replaced by the ending of subjunctive present verbs.

The past declension is simpler as there is no difference between indicative and subjunctive past.

person far berja
1s fert berjat
2s fert berjat
3s fert berjat
1p farum berjum
2p faruð berjuð
3p faruð berjuð

Indicative and subjunctive past inflexion of far(a) and berja

The infinitive and imperative merged due to the final vowel loss, making far and berja not only the infinitive form of to go and to beat, but also their imperative form. Present and past participles are on the other hand made by appending -and and -it respectively.

infinitive / imperative far berja
present participle farand berjand
past participle farit berit

When it comes to the passive voice, inherited from the -sk form in Old Norse, its declension is a lot more regular. However, well see the remaining difference between strong and weak verbs.

person Strong Weak
1s -umk -umk
2s -(a/i)sk -(ð/d/t)isk
3s -(a/i)sk -(ð/d/t)isk
1p -umk -umk
2p -(a/i)sk -(ð/d/t)isk
3p -(a/i)sk -(ð/d/t)isk

Strong and Weak Verb Inflexion for the Indicative Present and Past in Passive Voice

person far berja
1s ferumk berjumk
2s ferisk berjaðisk
3s ferisk berjaðisk
1p farumk berjumk
2p farask berjaðisk
3p farask berjaðisk

There is only one minor difference for the subjunctive mood: both the first-person singular and plural change to -imk instead of -umk. Imperative, on the other hand, only works with the second person in the present tense by appending an -sk at the end of the infinitive of the verb.

Due to this uniformisation of the passive voice in Eittlandic, Eittlanders began using the verbs ver(a) and hav(a) (respectively to be and to have) as auxiliaries preceding the verb in order to convey the subject, tense, and mood agreement. The verb ver(a) is most often used in active verbs, while the verb hav(a) is generally used with stative verbs. While all verbs have a default auxiliary, such as ver(a) for a verb like et(a) (to eat), the speaker may choose to use the other auxiliary in order to increase or decrease the agency of the semantic agent (not the syntactic agent), even if it is not present in the sentence.

::: tip Example
  • Ek var brennumk mik

    ek var brenn-umk mik
    1s.NOM be.1s.IND.PST burn-1s.PAS 1s.ACC

    I burnt myself

  • Ek hav brennumk mik

    ek hav brenn-umk mik
    1s.NOM have.1s.IND.PST burn-1s.PAS 1s.ACC

    I got burnt

:::

The verbs var(a) and hav(a) are irregular verbs that do not follow the same inflexion rules. For a list of their inflexion, see their dictionary entry (ver(a) and hav(a)).

The passive voice inherits from the Old Norse mediopassive voice. It is often used to promote a semantic patient to a syntactic agent and to demote a semantic agent to a syntactic oblique, sometimes even completely removing it from the sentence.

::: tip Example
  • Maðrinn dragt fiskin frá vatnin

    maðr-inn drag-t fisk-in frá vatn-in
    man.NOM-DEF.NOM drag-IND.PST fish-DEF.ACC from water-DEF.DAT

    The man fished the fish from the water

  • Fiskinn var dragask frá vatnin

    Fiskr-inn var drag-ask frá vatn-in
    fish.NOM-DEF.NOM be.3s.IND.PST drag-STG.PAS from water-DEF.DAT

    The fish was fished from the water

:::

Constituants Order Typology

Questions

Questions in Eittlandic are formed by inverting the syntactic subject with its verb in a normal sentence. For example, the sentence hann komr í dag með faðin hans (hes coming today with his father) becomes a question when inverting hann and komr. This is generally regarded as a formal way of forming questions.

A more formal way of creating a question is by suffixing -vit at the end of a verb without any change to the word order of the sentence. If there is any declension at the end of the verb, -vit will bear it instead of the stem of the verb itself. It is somewhat similar to asking a question in English by simply raising the sentences tone.

::: tip Example
  • Hann komr í dag með faðin hans

    hann kom-r í dag með fað-in hans
    3s.m.NOM come-s.PRES.IND today with father.ACC-DEF 3s.m.GEN

    Hes coming with his father today.

  • Komr han í dag með faðin hans?

    kom-r hann í dag með fað-in hans
    come-s.PRES.IND 3s.m.NOM today with father.ACC-DEF 3s.m.GEN

    Is he coming with his father today?

  • Han komvitr í dag með maðin hans?

    hann kom-vit-r í dag með fað-in hans
    3s.m.NOM come-Q-s.PRES.IND today with father.ACC-DEF 3s.m.GEN

    Hes coming with his father today?

:::

The verbs ver(a) and hav(a) both cannot use this construction. Instead, Eittlandic speakers may instead simply add vit as a standalone word at the end of the question.

::: tip Example
  • Hann er konung.

    hann er konung
    3s.m.NOM be.3s.PRES.IND king.ACC

    He is the king.

  • Er hann konung?

    er hann konung
    be.3s.PRES.IND 3s.m.NOM king.ACC

    Is he the king?

  • Hann er konung vit?

    hann er konung vit
    3s.m.NOM be.3s.PRES.IND king Q

    He is the king?

:::

This also applies to general questions as shown below, where the question word takes the place of either the syntactic patient or syntactic dative of the verb.

::: tip Example
  • Ná hvar ert þú?

    hvar ert þú
    now where be.2s.PRES.IND 2s.NOM

    Where are you now?

  • Ná þú ert hver vit?

    þú ert hvar vit
    now 2s.NOM be.2s.PRES.IND where Q

    You are where now?

:::
Yes/No questions

Yes/no questions are generally answered by or nei (yes or no respectively), sometimes with a repeat of the core of the sentence to confirm the reply.

::: tip Example
  • Komr han í dag með faðin hans? Is he coming today with his father?
  • Nei, han komr eig No, hes not coming

or

  • Já, han komr Yes, hes coming
:::

The interjections and nei are often ambiguous when replying to a question employing a negative verb and are often avoided; Eittlanders will prefer to reply with part of or the entirety of the question with either a negative marker or not to confirm or deny the assumption of the question.

::: tip Example
  • Komr han eig í dag? Is he not coming today?
  • Han komr eig Hes not coming

or

  • Han komr
:::

Another strategy, a lot more common when replying to negative questions, is to reply using counter-factual interjection eng meaning yes, while speakers will consider a simple nei as an approbation of the assumption of the question.

::: tip Example
  • Komr han eig í dag? Is he not coming today?
  • Nei (han komr eig) No (hes not coming)

or

  • Áng (han komr) Yes he is coming
:::

Similarly, when a question with a positive assumption is asked, Eittlandic speakers can answer with a counter-factual náng to insist on its erroneous nature.

::: tip Example
  • Komr han eig í dag? Is he not coming today?
  • Náng (han komr eig) Of course not (hes not coming)
:::

Some yes/no questions are sometimes asked in a very reduced form, without a full verbal sentence and only consisting of a noun phrase. Think of questions like Coffee? or Another cookie? in English. Such questions in Eittlandic require the final word vit.

::: tip Example
  • Té ell kafé vit? Tea or coffe?
  • Té, þakk. Tea, please/thanks.
:::
General questions

General questions that are not yes/no questions will most of the time begin with a question word such as hvar (who), the equivalent of WH words in English.

Structure of a Nominal Group

Grammatical Case

Cases in Modern Eittlandic

Although seldom visible, as described in Case Marking, cases still remain part of the Eittlandic grammar, expressed through its syntax rather than explicit marking on its nouns and adjectives. Four different grammatical cases exist in this language: the nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative case.

  • The nominative case represents the subject of a sentence, that is, the subject of intransitive clauses and the agent of transitive clauses. As well see below, it is morphologically marked only in dialects other than Standard Eittlandic, and only if the word is a strong masculine word.
  • On the other hand accusative, like Old Norse, usually marks the object of a verb, but it can also express time-related ideas such as a duration in time, or after some prepositions. It is also the default case when a noun has no clear status in a clause, and it can as such serve as a vocative.
  • Dative usually marks indirect objects of verbs in Old Norse, though it can also often mark direct objects depending on the verb used.
Case Marking

Although present in Early Old Norse, the use of grammatical cases has been on the decline since the Great Vowel Shift (see Phonology: Great Vowel Shift). Due to the general loss of word-final short vowels and to regularization of its nouns, Eittlandic lost almost all of weak nouns inflexions and a good amount in its strong nouns inflexions. On top of this, the root of most nouns got regularized, getting rid of former umlauts. Hence, while in Old Norse one might find the table below presented in Cleasby and Vigfusson (1874), Modern Eittlandic is simplified to the table following it.

/ <r>
Strong Masculine Strong Feminine Strong Neuter Weak Masculine
Sing. Nom. heim-r tíð skip tím-i
Acc. heim tíð skip tím-a
Dat. heim-i tíð skip-i tím-a
Gen. heim-s tíð-ar skip-s tím-a
Plur. Nom. heim-ar tíð-ir skip tím-ar
Acc. heim-a tíð-ir skip tím-a
Dat. heim-um tíð-um skip-um tím-um
Gen. heim-a tíð-a skip-a tím-a
1st declension of strong nouns and declensions of masculine weak nouns in Old Norse
/ <r>
Strong Common Strong Neuter Weak Nouns
Sing. Nom. heim-r skip tím
Acc. heim skip tím
Dat. heim skip tím
Gen. heim-ar skip-s tím-s
Plur. Nom. heim-r skip tím-r
Acc. heim skip tím
Dat. heim-um skip-um tím-um
Gen. heim-ar skip-s tím-s
Declensions for strong and weak nouns in Modern Eittlandic

As you can see, a good amount of declensions disappeared from nouns, with only four marked cases for strong common nouns and two for strong neuter and weak nouns. The declension system completely merged weak nouns which are no longer distinguished by gender. Strong masculine and strong feminine also got merged into strong common.

We end up with the following declension system in Eittlandic.

/ <r>
Strong Common Strong Neuter Weak Nouns
Sing. Nom. -r
Acc.
Dat.
Gen. -(a)r -s -s
Plur. Nom. -r -r
Acc.
Dat. -um -um -um
Gen. -(a)r -s -s
Eittlandic noun inflexion

The -ar ending drops the a when an underlying ending vowel is present in a word, as with dótt (daughter) becoming dóttir in its genitive form. In some regions of Eittland, such as in the area of Vátrsteinn, a strong neuter / weak noun merger is in effect, where strong neuter merged into weak nouns. In the area of Hvítvall in North Western Eastern Eittland, a complete merger between the three types of nouns happened around the 1850s, where everything is declined as a weak noun.

Nethertheless, declensions are no longer productive in most Modern Eittlandic dialects. They are still mostly used in formal and written speech, but they are less and less frequently used in less formal circumstances and in oral speech. The Royal Academy for Literature, which authored the Standard Eittlandic, even recommends not using grammatical cases when using this dialect as they are seen as reduntand with other syntactic strategies. While the recommendation is mostly followed, speakers still tend to use the singular genetive declension oraly. Younger folks at the time of writing even tend to regularize it as -ar for strong neuter and weak nouns.

One exception to declensions no longer being productive is in and around the Hylfjaltr Kingdom exclave in southern Eittland where speakers of its local dialect tend instead to favour strong nouns for newer terms. Hence, while most dialects agree on “internet” (pl.nom internetr, pl.dat internetum) being a weak noun, this dialect treats it as either a strong feminine (sg.gen internetar, pl.nom&acc internetr, pl.dat internetum) or a strong neuter (sg.gen internets, pl.dat internetum) — the difference is due to subdivisions in said dialect, mainly between rural and urban areas favouring the former and the latter respectively.

There are some regular exceptions to the declension system. The first one, inherited from Old Norse, is the -r suffix becoming -n or -l when a noun ends with an «n» or an «l» respectively, hence the table below showing the declensions of strong masculine himn (heaven) and strong feminine hafn (harbour, haven).

himn hafn
Sing. Nom. himnn hafnn
Acc. himn hafn
Dat. himn hafn
Gen. himnar hafnar
Plur. Nom. himnn hafnn
Acc. himn hafn
Dat. himnum hafnum
Gen. himnar hafnar

During the last five centuries, the root of the word got regularized so that only one or two forms are allowed. Due to umlaut or ablaut, it is possible the main vowel of a word changes between its singular and plural form, even sometimes affecting its dative form. These changes are due to old vowels long gone since — with most even gone by the time of Old Norse. These changes mainly remains in a few common words. The table below gives some examples of such irregularities. These words are marked as irregular in the dictionary.

kettle (m.) foot (m.) book (f.) water (n.)
Sing. Nom. ketll fótr bók vatn
Acc. ketl fót bók vatn
Dat. ketl fót bók vatn
Gen. ketlar fótar bókar vatn
Plur. Nom. katll fœtr bœkr vótnn
Acc. katl fœt bœkr vótn
Dat. katlum fótum bókum vótnum
Gen. katl fœt bœk vótn

Articles and Demonstratives

When the noun of a nominal group is not a mass noun or a proper noun, an article must accompany it, except for indefinite plural nouns.

Indefinite Article

The indefinite article is einn, the same term as one in Eittlandic. It agrees in declension with its noun, though it is to be noted its declension is irregular, as seen in table below. Similarly, other numerals have declensions as discussed in Word Classes: Numerals.

Masculine Feminine Neuter
Nom. einn ein eit
Acc. ein ein eit
Dat. einn ein eit
Gen. ein einn eits
Definite articles

As in other Scandinavian languages, definite articles in Eittlandic act as suffixes to the noun and fully replace its declension as it has case marking itself. The full declension table of definite articles can be found in the table below. As we can see, the definite articles underwent an important regularization as well as merging strong neuter and weak nouns together.

/ <r>
Strong Common Strong Neuter and Weak Nouns
Sing. Nom. -(i)nn -(i)t
Acc. -(i)n -(i)t
Dat. -(i)n -(i)t
Gen. -(i)ns -(i)ts
Plur. Nom. -(i)nn -(i)tr
Acc. -(i)n -(i)t
Dat. -(i)num -(i)tum
Gen. -(i)n -(i)t

The initial i is only used when using the definite articles as a suffix would cause a consonant cluster forbidden by Eittlandic phonology, otherwise it is omitted. An example of the former case is with vatn (water) which becomes vatnits when in its definite singular genitive form, while øy (island) becomes øyns in the same form. Like the indefinite article, the suffix agrees in gender, agreeing either with strong masculine or feminine words (or as established before, strong common) or with strong neuter and weak nouns.

The use of definite articles with nouns is further discussed in Definiteness.

Definiteness

Definiteness in Eittlandic serves multiple purposes. Its most obvious one is to distinguish between an indefinite and a definite entity, as in English a dog or the dog, respectively einn hundr and hundinn, as discussed in Articles and Demonstratives.

However, definiteness is also necessary with suffixed possessives and demonstrative.

Possessives

Gender

Eittlandic inherited from Old Norse a gender system divided into three genders: male, female, and neuter. Although the number of elements marking it declined during its evolution, Eittlandic still marks gender in its strong nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and to a certain degree in its articles. However, as mentioned in Case Marking, case marking and by extensions gender marking is slowly disappearing in Modern Eittlandic nouns and adjectives.

Due to the presence of declensions with strong nouns and adjectives, its pronouns, and to a certain degree different articles, it can still be said Eittlandic is a gendered language, although it doesnt hold much importance in its grammar any more. Since strong nouns arent productive any more and weak nouns lost all obvious gender differences, we can even consider gender as not productive any more in Eittlandic and bound to eventually disappear. In fact, the loss of gender is even stronger in Standard Eittlandic due to the theoretical absence of declensions in this dialect.

In case a strong noun is used with a strong adjective, both will agree in number and gender.

::: tip Example
  • hvítr hund

    white.m.sg.acc dog.m.sg.acc

    white dog

  • langir tungir

    long.f.pl.acc tongues.f.pl.acc

    long tongues

:::