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Brief grammar of Änglisċ
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The Änglisċ language is spoken by about 40 million people in the south of the island of Breten, chiefly in the region of Ängland where it is the official language, but also in parts of Cornƿeales and Ƿeales and parts of Myrcne and Dyre. It is one of the 4 official languages of the United Kingdom. It is most closely related to the Hymbrisċ language, which is spoken in most of Myrcne, Dyre and parts of Sċotland. In fact, Hymbrisċ is considered by some a corrupted dialect of Änglisċ, and was for a long time deeply stigmatised following the retaking of the north. It is also more distantly related to Frisian, which is spoken in parts of the Neþerlander, Ġermanie and Denmarc.
Änglisċ was introduced to the island by Anglo-Seaxen settlers in the mid-5th century. Other than scant runic inscriptions, the first significant literary works began to be written in the mid 7th century. More notably, from the 8th century onward, the latin alphabet began to replace the earlier Runic alphabet. However, the form of English spoken in the early days is hard to understand for Modern Änglisċ speakers without study. It had more complex inflectional endings and a freer word order.
The phonology of the standard Änglisċ language, as spoken in and around london, is as follows:
labial | dental | alveolar | post alv. | palatal | velar | glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||
plo/aff | fortis | p | t | tʃ | k | |||
lenis | b | d | dʒ | g | ||||
fricative | fortis | f | θ | s | ʃ | [x] | h | |
lenis | (v) | (ð) | (z) | [ʒ] | ||||
approximant | l | r | j | w |
Note that /f/, /θ/ and /s/ are voiced between vowels, and /f/ and /s/ are also voiced at the end of words, unless preceded by a voiceless consonant. Thus, /v/ /ð/ and /z/ are considered as allophones of /f/, /θ/ and /s/. However, /ð/ does sometimes also occur in initial positions but only in pronouns and determiners. Note also that /r/ turns into /ɹ/ or /ɐ/ before a consonant. Note also that /n/ also turns into /ŋ/ before a /k/.
The phonemes /ʒ/ and /x/ only occur in foreign loanwords, although /x/ occurs also in native words in dialects spoken in Ƿeales, Cent, Eastängle and parts of Defennes.
front | central | back | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | |||||||
short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | |
close | ɪ | i: | y | y: | ʊ | u: | ||
close-mid | e | e: | ø | øː | (ə) | |||
open-mid | ɛ | ɛ: | ɔː | |||||
open | a | a: | ɒ | |||||
diphthongs | eɪ, eɛ, aɪ, ɔɪ, ɔʊ, ɪə, ʊɪ |
The schwa /ə/ only occurs when an /e/ or rarely an /a/ is unstressed.
The history of writing in Änglisċ is a long one, with literacy being brought over with the earliest Germanic settlers. Following the introduction of the Latin alphabet in the 8th century, the runic and latin alphabets coexisted, with latin being the alphabet of the learned cityfolk and runes that of the rural folk. There is evidence of widespread use of runes in isolated fen communities in East Anglia and Somerset up until the spread of universal education in the 19th century, with some rare instances into the 1950s.
The latin alphabet on the otherhand was largely formalised in the 15th century, with very little change in orthographical norms eversince. The exact form of latin used to write Änglisċ is the uncial script version.
letter | IPA | name | letter | IPA | name |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A a | a(:) | a | O o | o, ɔʊ | o |
B b | b | bé | Ó ó | u: | long o |
C c | k | ċé | P p | p | pé |
Ċ ċ | t͡ʃ | soft ċé | Q q | k, kw | qua |
D ꝺ | d | dé | R ꞃ | r | ar |
Ð ð | ð, θ | eð | S ꞅ | s, z | es |
E e | e(:), ə | é | T ꞇ | t | té |
É é | iː | long é | U u | ʊ, u: | u |
F ꝼ | f, v | ef | Ú ú | ɔʊ | long u |
G ᵹ | g | ġe | V v | v | vé |
Ġ ᵹ̇ | j | soft ġe | Ƿ ƿ | w | ƿyn |
H h | h | ha | X x | ks | ex |
I i | i(:) | í | Y y | y(:) | yr |
Í í | ai | long í | Ý ý | y: | long yr |
J j | j | ja | Z z | z | zed |
K k | k | ka | Þ þ | θ, ð | þorn |
L l | l | el | Ä ä | ɛ(:) | äsċ |
M m | m | em | Å å | ɔ: | å |
N n | n | en | Ö ö | ø | öðel |
There are also several letter digraphs used in the orthography:
cᵹ̇, ꞅċ, hƿ, hꞃ, hl, and hn. cġ and ꞅċ are used for /d͡ʒ/ and /ʃ/, and hƿ is used for /ʍ/. On the other hand, the h in hꞃ, hl, and hn is silent, although in some dialects they do represent distinct sounds. For example, in anglo-welsh dialects some parts of west Mercia and the south-west, they are pronounced as /r̥/, /ɬ/ and /n̥/.
Änglisċ nouns are fully inflected, with four grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative), two grammatical numbers (singular and plural) and three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). Determiners, pronouns and adjectives agree with the nouns they modify in case, number and gender.
gender assignment
The gender assigned to a noun is often seemingly random, and can only be deduced through their plural form and sometimes their meaning. For nouns refering to people, in almost all cases the gender of a noun corresponds to its natural gender. However, the notable exceptions are ƿíf (wife), which is neuter, and ƿymann (woman), which is masculine. On the otherhand, derivational suffixes consistently relate to a specific gender. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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