[Eittlandic] Correct word order, merge strong masculine and feminine
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@ -725,8 +725,8 @@ on its syntax as well as on grammatical particules rather than on its
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morphology. Let’s take the following sentence as an example.
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1. barn fisk etar / a child is eating a fish
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| barn | fisk | et-ar |
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| child.NOM | fish.ACC | eat-3sg |
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| barn | et-ar | fisk |
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| child.NOM | eat-3sg | fish.ACC |
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In this sentence, the word order helps us understand the child is the
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subject of the sentence while its subject is /fisk/, although we have no
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@ -734,38 +734,28 @@ information on their number; the sentence could also very well mean
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/children are eating fishes/. Unlike in Old Eittlandic where we could
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have the following sentences.
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1. barn fiska etar
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| barn | fisk-a | et-ar |
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| child.NOM | fish-pl.ACC | eat-3sg |
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2. fiska barn etar
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| fisk-a | barn | et-ar |
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| fish-pl.ACC | child.NOM | eat-3sg |
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1. barn etar fiska
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| barn | et-ar | fisk-a |
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| child.NOM | eat-3sg | fish-pl.ACC |
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2. fiska etar barn
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| fisk-a | et-ar | barn |
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| fish-pl.ACC | eat-3sg | child.NOM |
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Both have the same meaning as the Eittlandic sentence. However, the
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near-complete (or even complete in Standard Eittlandic) loss of case
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marking makes the sentence /fisk barn etar/ much more gruesome.
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1. fisk barn etar / a fish is eating a child
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| fisk | barn | et-ar |
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| fish.NOM | barn.ACC | eat-3sg |
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1. fisk etar barn / a fish is eating a child
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| fisk | et-ar | barn |
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| fish.NOM | eat-3sg | barn.ACC |
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Eittlandic is now a SOV language with a much stricter word order than
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it used to be. This is an important change since Old Eittlandic which
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main word order was VSO instead. For instance, here is the same
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sentence in Old Eittlandic and in Modern Eittlandic, meaning /he
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carried him to some lake/.
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- Old Eittlandic :: Han bar hann til vatns nákkurs
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| han | bar | han-n | til | vatn-s | nákkur-s |
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| he.NOM | carry.3sg.pret | 3sg.m-ACC | to | lake-DAT | some-DAT |
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- Modern Eittlandic :: Han til vatn nákkur hann bar
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| han | til | vatn | nákkur | hann | bar |
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| 3sg.m.NOM | to | lake | some | he.ACC | carry.3sg.pret |
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Eittlandic still retains VSO word order in its relative and
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interrogative clauses, as shown below.
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- Han mér talð þat kom han hér í gær / he told me he came here yesterday
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| han | mér | tal-ð | þat | kom | han | hér | í gær |
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| 3sg.m.NOM | 1sg.DAT | tell-3sg.PRET | that | come.3sg.PRET | 3sg.m.NOM | here | yesterday |
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Eittlandic is a V-2 language, meaning in most cases, finite verbs are
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in second position in their clause and may be in first position
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interrogative clauses and dependent clauses, as shown below.
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- Han talð mér þat kom han hér í gær / he told me he came here
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yesterday
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| han | tal-ð | mér | þat | kom | han | hér | í gær |
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| 3sg.m.NOM | tell-3sg.PRET | 1sg.DAT | that | come.3sg.PRET | 3sg.m.NOM | here | yesterday |
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Loss of case marking also affected adjectives which share most of
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their declensions with nouns. The parts where Eittlandic retains its
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@ -1595,26 +1585,23 @@ table [[tbl:eittlandic-example-noun-inflexions]].
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#+name: tbl:eittlandic-example-noun-inflexions
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#+caption: Declensions for strong and weak nouns in Modern Eittlandic
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| / | <r> | | | | |
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| | | Strong Masculine | Strong Feminine | Strong Neuter | Weak Nouns |
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|---+------------+------------------+-----------------+---------------+------------|
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| | Sing. Nom. | heim-r | tíð | skip | tím |
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| | Acc. | heim | tíð | skip | tím |
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| | Gen. | heim-ar | tíð-ar | skip-s | tím |
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| | Dat. | heim | tíð | skip | tím |
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| | Plur. Nom. | heim-r | tíð-r | skip | tím-r |
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| | Acc. | heim | tíð-r | skip | tím |
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| | Gen. | heim | tíð | skip | tím |
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| | Dat. | heim-um | tíð-um | skip-um | tím-um |
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| / | <r> | | | |
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| | | Strong Common | Strong Neuter | Weak Nouns |
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|---+------------+---------------+---------------+------------|
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| | Sing. Nom. | heim-r | skip | tím |
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| | Acc. | heim | skip | tím |
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| | Gen. | heim-ar | skip-s | tím-s |
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| | Dat. | heim | skip | tím |
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| | Plur. Nom. | heim-r | skip | tím-r |
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| | Acc. | heim | skip | tím |
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| | Gen. | heim-ar | skip-s | tím-s |
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| | Dat. | heim-um | skip-um | tím-um |
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As you can see, a good amount of declensions disappeared from nouns,
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with only four marked cases for strong masculine and feminine nouns
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and two for strong neuter and weak nouns. The declension system
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completely merged for weak nouns which are no longer distinguished by
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gender, as did the different declensions among the other categories
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--- e.g. there is only one declension remaining for strong masculine
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nouns as opposed to Old Norse’s three different possible declensions
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for the nouns.
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with only four marked cases for strong common nouns and two for strong
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neuter and weak nouns. The declension system completely merged weak
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nouns which are no longer distinguished by gender. Strong masculine
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and strong feminine also got merged into strong common.
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Declensions are no longer productive in almost all Modern Eittlandic
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dialects. They are still mostly used in formal and written speech, but
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@ -1629,13 +1616,14 @@ weak nouns.
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The only exception to declensions no longer being productive is in the
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Hylfjaltr Kingdom’s exclave in southern Eittland where speakers of its
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local dialect tend to instead favor strong nouns for newer terms.
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local dialect tend instead to favor strong nouns for newer terms.
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Hence, while most dialects agree on “internet” (pl.nom /internetr/,
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pl.dat /internetum/) being a weak noun, this dialect treats it as either
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a strong feminine (sg.gen /internetar/, pl.nom&acc /internetr/, pl.dat
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/internetum/) or a strong neuter (sg.gen /internets/, pl.dat /internetum/)
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--- the difference is due to subdivisions in said dialect between
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rural and urban areas favoring the former and the latter respectively.
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--- the difference is due to subdivisions in said dialect, mainly
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between rural and urban areas favoring the former and the latter
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respectively.
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There are some regular exceptions to the declension system. The first
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one, inherited from Old Norse, is the /-r/ suffix becoming /-n/ or /-l/ when
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@ -1644,13 +1632,13 @@ a noun ends with an <n> or an <l> respectively, hence
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masculine /himn/ (/heaven/) and strong feminine /hafn/ (/harbour/, /haven/).
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#+name: tbl:irregular-noun-declensions
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| / | <r> | | |
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| | Sing. Nom. | himnn | hafn |
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| | Sing. Nom. | himnn | hafnn |
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| | Acc. | himn | hafn |
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| | Gen. | himnar | hafnar |
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| | Dat. | himn | hafn |
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| | Plur. Nom. | himnn | hafnn |
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| | Acc. | himn | hafnn |
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| | Gen. | himn | hafn |
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| | Acc. | himn | hafn |
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| | Gen. | himnar | hafnar |
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| | Dat. | himnum | hafnum |
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During the last five centuries, the root of the word got regularized
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