Juran scratchpad
Posted: Sat Nov 03, 2018 12:31 am
This is an attempt at creating another Yiddish--that is, a language descended from Old High German that is not exactly modern German. Tentatively, its in-universe location is in the Jura mountain region between France, Germany and Switzerland, in a small alt-country whose long tradition of independence gave rise to a separate literary standard.
It has been heavily influenced by Romance, particularly French. This can be seen in the phonology (vowel length is no longer really operable, there are more open syllables, initial /h/ has been lost) and the syntax (questions are no longer formed by verb inversion; genitive relations are formed exclusively with fon). However, there are a few archaisms not found in standard German, like the consistent dative singular marker in -e [ə] and differentiation of the 1pl (usually in -em /-əm/) and 3pl (in -en /-ən/).
Quick phonology overview
OHG is reconstructed with /i i: e e: ɛ a a: o o: u u: iŭ iĕ iŏ oŭ uŏ/ in the vowels.
In open initial syllables:
-Generally speaking non-initial short vowels go to schwa; non-initial long vowels shorten. In initial syllables, *ĭ *e: merged as /e/ <ee> and *ĕ gives /ɛ/ <e>. /o o: u u:/ yield /ɔ o u y/ <o oo u ü>. /a/ yields /a/, but /a:/ fronted and merged with falling *ɛ to give /æ/ <ä>. <e> is schwa.
-Diphthongs /iŭ iŏ/ both give /ɛw/ <èu>; /iĕ/ and /i:/ merged as /i/, usually written <ie>. /ei/ does not change; under Dutch influence the resulting diphthong is written <ij>. /oŭ uŏ/ give /aŭ/ <au> (e.g. fautz 'foot').
In closed syllables, the same as in open, but *ĭ gives /ɪ/ <i>, not /e/, and *ŭ gives /o/.
Umlaut is operable; *o(:) gives /œ/ and *u(:) gives /y/. /a/ becomes /ɛ/; /aŭ/ becomes /ɛw/. <z> is /z/.
The OHG consonant shift skips *p word-initially; it becomes /f/ word-internally (so 'horse' is pèret).
...
/h/ drops under Romance influence. Coda /l/ becomes /w/, dropping after *u *o and otherwise giving a diphthong /aŭ/ or /ɛŭ/. Unstressed syllables turn to schwa or (if originally long) shorten. The High German Consonant shift is operable; original *ts does not turn to /s/ in words like futz 'foot'. Schwas do not usually drop (with some exceptions), so the indicative and subjunctive are usually identical, even more so than in standard German: 'he takes' is nemet, not nemt. Before a consonant and after a vowel, /s/ usually turns to /h/, then this /h/ merges with old /x/ and drops, laxing a preceding vowel, which (as in French) is marked with a circumflex.
Before a consonant, nasals drop, lowering high vowels; this is one of the biggest changes in Juran. Because the preterite marker -t- of strong verbs is separated from the root by a schwa, this does not affect verbal conjugation (usually), though a small number of verbs, generally common ones, have irregularly-syncopated pasts; the most salient example is kènen 'know', past kète.
*g has merged with *x as /x/, written <g>. Original /ng/ gives /k/ after nasal-droppage, so the cognate of German eng 'narrow' is èk. *w is /v/ and written <v>. OHH *sk is preserved, but with /s/-dropping after vowels.
/r/ is /r~ɾ/.
Nouns
Three cases: nominative, accusative, dative. Three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter. Two numbers: masculine and feminine.
The dative endings have schwa; the nominative and accusative are always the same. Feminines do not get dative -e:
(As in German, most schwa-final feminines have a plural in -n; this becomes -m in the dative, which is also postposed on other dative plurals.)
The neuter nominative/accusative singular article is da before initial consonants and a clitic tz' before vowels: da broot 'the bread', da flijk 'the meat' tz'ij 'the egg'. A vowel-initial word that originally had an initial *h gets da: da üs 'the house'.
...and I'll leave this off here and go find something resembling lunch...
It has been heavily influenced by Romance, particularly French. This can be seen in the phonology (vowel length is no longer really operable, there are more open syllables, initial /h/ has been lost) and the syntax (questions are no longer formed by verb inversion; genitive relations are formed exclusively with fon). However, there are a few archaisms not found in standard German, like the consistent dative singular marker in -e [ə] and differentiation of the 1pl (usually in -em /-əm/) and 3pl (in -en /-ən/).
Quick phonology overview
OHG is reconstructed with /i i: e e: ɛ a a: o o: u u: iŭ iĕ iŏ oŭ uŏ/ in the vowels.
In open initial syllables:
-Generally speaking non-initial short vowels go to schwa; non-initial long vowels shorten. In initial syllables, *ĭ *e: merged as /e/ <ee> and *ĕ gives /ɛ/ <e>. /o o: u u:/ yield /ɔ o u y/ <o oo u ü>. /a/ yields /a/, but /a:/ fronted and merged with falling *ɛ to give /æ/ <ä>. <e> is schwa.
-Diphthongs /iŭ iŏ/ both give /ɛw/ <èu>; /iĕ/ and /i:/ merged as /i/, usually written <ie>. /ei/ does not change; under Dutch influence the resulting diphthong is written <ij>. /oŭ uŏ/ give /aŭ/ <au> (e.g. fautz 'foot').
In closed syllables, the same as in open, but *ĭ gives /ɪ/ <i>, not /e/, and *ŭ gives /o/.
Umlaut is operable; *o(:) gives /œ/ and *u(:) gives /y/. /a/ becomes /ɛ/; /aŭ/ becomes /ɛw/. <z> is /z/.
The OHG consonant shift skips *p word-initially; it becomes /f/ word-internally (so 'horse' is pèret).
...
/h/ drops under Romance influence. Coda /l/ becomes /w/, dropping after *u *o and otherwise giving a diphthong /aŭ/ or /ɛŭ/. Unstressed syllables turn to schwa or (if originally long) shorten. The High German Consonant shift is operable; original *ts does not turn to /s/ in words like futz 'foot'. Schwas do not usually drop (with some exceptions), so the indicative and subjunctive are usually identical, even more so than in standard German: 'he takes' is nemet, not nemt. Before a consonant and after a vowel, /s/ usually turns to /h/, then this /h/ merges with old /x/ and drops, laxing a preceding vowel, which (as in French) is marked with a circumflex.
Before a consonant, nasals drop, lowering high vowels; this is one of the biggest changes in Juran. Because the preterite marker -t- of strong verbs is separated from the root by a schwa, this does not affect verbal conjugation (usually), though a small number of verbs, generally common ones, have irregularly-syncopated pasts; the most salient example is kènen 'know', past kète.
*g has merged with *x as /x/, written <g>. Original /ng/ gives /k/ after nasal-droppage, so the cognate of German eng 'narrow' is èk. *w is /v/ and written <v>. OHH *sk is preserved, but with /s/-dropping after vowels.
/r/ is /r~ɾ/.
Nouns
Three cases: nominative, accusative, dative. Three genders: masculine, feminine, neuter. Two numbers: masculine and feminine.
sg | pl | |
nominative | der man | dee män |
accusative | den man | dee män |
dative | dem mane | den mänem |
sg | pl | |
nominative | dèu frauve | dèu frauven |
accusative | die frauve | dèu frauven |
dative | der frauve | den frauvem |
The neuter nominative/accusative singular article is da before initial consonants and a clitic tz' before vowels: da broot 'the bread', da flijk 'the meat' tz'ij 'the egg'. A vowel-initial word that originally had an initial *h gets da: da üs 'the house'.
sg | pl | |
nom/acc | da üs | dèu üze |
dative | dem üze | den üzem |