From 41d67edb5fd52150bb8174dfe25a9ba683e2beff Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lucien Cartier-Tilet Date: Tue, 17 May 2022 18:51:19 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] [Eittlandic] Better grammatical cases and articles --- content/eittlandic.org | 113 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------- 1 file changed, 82 insertions(+), 31 deletions(-) diff --git a/content/eittlandic.org b/content/eittlandic.org index e5422ac..75bcd68 100644 --- a/content/eittlandic.org +++ b/content/eittlandic.org @@ -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 Norse’s 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 . 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 Kingdom’s 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 Eittlandic’s 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 or an 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 +| / | | | | +| | 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 + | / | | | | | | + | | | 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