[Eittlandic] Better grammatical cases and articles

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Lucien Cartier-Tilet 2022-05-17 18:51:19 +02:00
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@ -1037,7 +1037,7 @@ table [[tab:vow:dipththongs]] lists the Eittlandic diphthongs.
|-----------+-----------|
| ei | {{{phon(ɑɪ)}}} |
| au | {{{phon(ɔʊ)}}} |
| ey | {{{phon(œʏ)}}} |
| ey | {{{phon(œʏ)}}} |
#+name: vow-dot-gen
#+header: :var vowels=vowels-featural-list
@ -1148,7 +1148,7 @@ equivalent in Standard Eittlandic, as shown in table [[vow:accent:east]]
| Rural Eastern Eittlandic | Standard Eittlandic |
|--------------------------+---------------------|
| {{{phon(i)}}} | {{{phon(ɪ)}}} |
| {{{phon(y)}}} | {{{phon(ʏ)}}} |
| {{{phon(y)}}} | {{{phon(ʏ)}}} |
| {{{phon(u)}}} | {{{phon(ʊ)}}} |
On the other hand, Southern Eittlandic tends to front its {{{phon(ɑ)}}} into
@ -1450,45 +1450,81 @@ table [[tbl:eittlandic-example-noun-inflexions]].
|---+------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------+------------|
| | Sing. Nom. | heim-r | tíð | skip | tím |
| | Acc. | heim | tíð | skip | tím |
| | Gen. | heim-s | tíð-s | skip-s | tím-s |
| | Gen. | heim-ar | tíð-ar | skip-s | tím |
| | Dat. | heim | tíð | skip | tím |
| | Plur. Nom. | heim-r | tíð-r | skip | tím-r |
| | Acc. | heim | tíð-r | skip | tím |
| | Gen. | heim | tíð | skip | tím |
| | Dat. | heim-um | tíð-um | skip-um | tím-um |
As you can see, grammatica cases disappeared in singular nominative
(except for strong mascuine nouns), accusative, and dative as well as
in plural accusative and genitive. The only markers remaining are for
singular genitive, plural nominative and dative as well as singular
nominative for strong masculine words. Note however that strong nouns
are no longer productive and get slowly replaced with weak nouns.
As you can see, a good amount of declensions disappeared from nouns,
with only four marked cases for strong masculine and feminine nouns
and two for strong neuter and weak nouns. The declension system
completely merged for weak nouns which are no longer distinguished by
gender, as did the different declensions among the other categories
--- e.g. there is only one declension remaining for strong masculine
nouns as opposed to Old Norses three different possible declensions
for the nouns.
Note also how the last column in table
[[tbl:eittlandic-example-noun-inflexions]] is not /Weak masculine/ as in
table [[tbl:old-norse-noun-inflexions]] but /Weak Nouns/. This is due to
weak nouns inflexions merging together, yet again due to the final
vowel loss and regularization of these inflexions. Only strong nouns
remain separated, although by minor differences. All nouns get a case
marker /-s/ for singular genitive, /-r/ for plural nominative, and /-um/ for
plural dative. However, strong masculine nouns also get an /-r/ on
singular nominative nouns, strong feminine nouns get an /-r/ on plural
accusative nouns, and strong neuter nouns lose their /-r/ on plural
nominative nouns.
Declensions are no longer productive in almost all Modern Eittlandic
dialects. They are still mostly used in formal and written speech, but
they are less and less used in less formal circumstances and in oral
speech. The Royal Academy for Literature, which authored Standard
Eittlandic, even recommends not using grammatical cases when using
this dialect as they are 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.
Note also the /-r/ suffix becomes an /-n/ when added to a word ending with
an <n>. For instance, the word /brún/ (/eyebrow/) becomes /brúnn/ in its
plural nominative form instead of /brúnr/.
The only exception to declensions no longer being productive is in the
Hylfjaltr Kingdoms exclave in southern Eittland where speakers of its
local dialect tend to instead favor 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 between
rural and urban areas favoring the former and the latter respectively.
Case markers are no longer productive and only server for redundancy
with Modern Eittlandics syntax. The Royal Academy for Literature,
which authored Standard Eittlandic, even recommends not using them to
simplify the language, as they deemed them no longer necessary for
understanding Eittlandic. While this recommendation is widely adopted
by Standard Eittlandic speakers, singular genitive /-s/ still remains
used even in this dialect.
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
[[tbl:irregular-noun-declensions]] showing the declensions of strong
masculine /himn/ (/heaven/) and strong feminine /hafn/ (/harbour/, /haven/).
#+name: tbl:irregular-noun-declensions
| / | <r> | | |
| | Sing. Nom. | himnn | hafn |
| | Acc. | himn | hafn |
| | Gen. | himnar | hafnar |
| | Dat. | himn | hafn |
| | Plur. Nom. | himnn | hafnn |
| | Acc. | himn | hafnn |
| | Gen. | himn | hafn |
| | Dat. | himnum | hafnum |
*** Articles and Demonstratives :noexport:
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.
[[tbl:irregularities-root-nouns]] gives some examples of such
irregularities. These words are marked as irregular in the dictionary.
#+name: tbl:irregularities-root-nouns
| / | <r> | | | | |
| | | kettle (m.) | foot (m.) | book (f.) | water (n.) |
|---+------------+-------------+-----------+-----------+------------|
| | Sing. Nom. | ketll | fótr | bók | vatn |
| | Acc. | ketl | fót | bók | vatn |
| | Gen. | ketlar | fótar | bókar | vatn |
| | Dat. | ketl | fót | bók | vatn |
| | Plur. Nom. | katll | fœtr | bœkr | vótnn |
| | Acc. | katl | fœt | bœkr | vótn |
| | Gen. | katl | fœt | bœk | vótn |
| | Dat. | katlum | fótum | bókum | vótnum |
*** Articles and Demonstratives
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Structural-Preview-Structure-of-a-Nominal-Group-Articles-and-Demonstratives-owb6umu058j0
:END:
@ -1501,6 +1537,21 @@ used even in this dialect.
# - How many degrees of distance are there in the system of
# demontsratives?
# - Are there other distinctions beside distances?
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. The
indefinite article is /einn/, the same term as /one/ in Eittlandic. It
partially agrees in gender, being /einn/ for strong masculine and
feminine nouns and /eitt/ for strong neutral and weak nouns.
Definite articles are affixes to the noun and are inserted between the
noun itself and its declension if it has one. For instance, the
definite singular genitive of /vatn/ (/water/, strong neutral) is /vatnits/,
using /-it/ as the definite marker. Like the indefinite article, the
suffix agrees in gender with /-in/ as the suffix for strong masculine
and feminine words while /-it/ prefixes strong neutral and weak nouns.
Just like with noun endings, if the case marking is an /-r/ following an
/-in/, the latter will become an /-n/ as in /hundinn/ (/the dog/, sg.nom.m).
*** Possessives :noexport:
:PROPERTIES:
:CUSTOM_ID: Structural-Preview-Structure-of-a-Nominal-Group-Possessives-8xc6umu058j0