Buerkaans: Difference between revisions

|nativename = Buerkáns

|pronunciation = [buɛ̯ɾ'kaːns]

|mapcaption    = ''Dí Huílands' flág''  

|iso1 = bu

|iso2 = bue

|script        = [[w:Latin script|Latin script]]

Buerkáns is spoken in the fictitious country of ''Dí Huílands'', known as such in English, even though the translation is literally ''The Highlands''. It has not yet been decided whether Buerkáns shows a strong enough resemblence to Dutch grammar to be classified as Low Franconian, or if it deserves its own branch in the Germanic family.   

Buerkáns takes influences from Dutch/Afrikaans, English, and the Scandinavian Languages.  I wanted to make something in between all three, with the primary vocabulary a mix of Dutch-Danish/Swedish-derived roots and grammar closer to a simpler version of German.

Buerkáns has a large phonology, similar to that of Dutch or Afrikaans, mixed slightly with Danish, with a large vowel inventory of 14 distinct vowel quantities and a typical Germanic consonant inventory with the exception of /d͡ʒ/.

!'''Stop'''

|

|d͡ʒ

|x~χ

* It is important to know that /χ/ can be velarized to /x/ in fast speech, or after certain consonants, where a speaker cannot pull their tongue back fast enough to produce a full /x/.

Buerkáns' most common syllable structure is CCVCC. A single, double, or triple cluster of consecutive consonants can proceed a vowel, there may be as many as three vowels between consonants.  In some special cases there can be four-consonant clusters, but these are generally in archaic words and most have been simplified. Word structure can vary wildy, but every syllable must have at least one vowel as its nucleus.  The only syllalbe construction that is not allowed is CVCV, which must be interpreted as two seperate syllables of CV.  These sound clusters can be repeated to create longer words which are still phonotactically correct, but this implies a constructed word.     

* ''hoebstedsmetrólyn'' /'hoɛb.stɛdz.mɛtɾo:.ləi̯n/ - capital city's metro line (CVVC.CCVCC.CVCCV.CVC)

* ''straade'' /'ʃtɾæ:də/ - street (CCCVVCV)

* ''regtíg'' /'ɾʌχ.ti:χ/ - correct (CVCVC)

* ''alg'' /ælχ/ - interjection, similar to 'ew' (VC)

* ''áppel'' /'a:p.əl/ - apple (VCCVC)

Vowels with diacritics over them are not indicative of stress, nor do they signify a long version of the unmarked vowel.  They are letters in their own right, seperate from vowels without an accent.  All letters with ''´'' are inherently long, and have no short version.  In order to make the unmarked vowels long, one simply doubles them:

* ''a'' /æ/ - ''aa'' /æ:/

* ''á'' /a/

* ''e'' /ɛ/, /ə/, or /ʌ/ - ''ee'' /ɛ:/ or /ʌ:/

* ''i''  /ɪ/ - ''ii'' /ɪ:/

* ''ó''  /o:/

The sounds /d/, /k/, /b/, /v/, /t/, /j/, /h/, /f/, /r/, /l/, /p/, /z/, /s/, /m/, and /n/ are all represented by their corresponding letters.  There are some special cases where single letters are pronounced differently depending on placement, and some letters do not represent sounds they would normally represent in other germanic languages:

Perhaps the largest change from Germanic phonology in Buerkáns is the voicing of the original Germanic /v/ or /ʋ to /b/:

!'''Buerkáns'''

|/hɔɛb/

|bebége

|/bə'be:.χə/

|/'χræ:.bɘ/

!'''Buerkáns'''

Buerkáns also experiences a general voicing of plosives in mid-word positions.  Word-final plosives are subject to change with voicing sandhi, and word-intial plosives can be pronounced either way, depending on where the speaker is from.  Southern Buerkáns tends to lean heavily towards mostly-voiced plosives, and Nothern Buerkáns always devoices intial plosives.

There is a small Sandhi factor to Buerkáns which occurs with the voicing of the last letter of a word in relationship to the phoneme that begins the word after it.  This only occurs when a Stop is the last letter of a word, and is followed by an near, mid, or fully-open vowel quality in the next word.  If the Stop is not already voiced, it becomes so.  In Buerkáns, this means that the letters ''P~B'', ''T~D'', and ''K'' are all affected when the next word starts with a single ''A'', ''Á'', ''E'', or ''O''. (This rule does not apply to di/trigraphs)  The only sound excepted from this function is /ʌ/, which only occurs after ''R'' and ''D'', and therefore cannot appear on its own.

| phrase = det áppel

| phrase = jep, oemkí ánaars is hyr

| IPA = /'jɛ'''b'''‿'''ˈɔ'''ɛ̯m.ki: 'a:n.æ:rs 'ɨs 'həi̯r/

==Morphology==

Buerkáns morphology is rather simple, and lies somewhere between German and Danish.  There are two genders, Common and Neutral, and verbs do not conjugate for person.  There are however, three cases for noun declension.  Unlike German, Buerkáns is a very regular language.   

|èn métj

|métjes

|de métj

|dí métjes

|èn knaag

|dí knaags

|èn hoond

|dí hoonde

|èn riuksak

|riuksakke

|de riuksak

|dí riuksakke

|et huus

|huuser

|det huus

|dí huuser

|et áppel

|áppeler

|det áppel

|dí áppeler

|et ár

|ár

|de ár

|dí ár

As shown above, there are 3 different ways to express plurality in Buerkáns.  The first two are by suffixing ''-s'' or ''-e'' to words of the common gender.  There is no pattern for this, some words recieve the 'e-plural' while others receive the 's-plural'.  However, most common gender words are made plural by the addition of '-s'.  In the neuter gender, the plural marker is always '-er'.

When using the '-e' suffix, word-final consonant doubling sometimes happens, as shown in ''riugsak'' --> ''riugsa'''kk'''e''.   

The common-gender indefinite article, ''èn'', is pronounced /ən/, but is shortened to just /n/ in almost all cases.

 

* ''riuksak''  -  ''riuksakke''  -  backpacks

There are also a few special words which cannot be put into plural form, analagous to 'information' in English.  An example is given in the table above with the word ''ár'' - 'year'.  The ony way to tell if the word is being used plurally is in when it is definite. There can one see the definite plural article ''dí''.

There are two diminutive suffixes in Buerkáns: ''-kí'', and ''-ken''.  Common gender words take ''-kí'', and neuter words few use ''-ken''.  Words that have no plural form tend to favor the ''-ken'':

The diminutive form is often used to convey an affectionate or nepotic feeling towards the noun being marked  For example, one would say ''sokkís'' instead of just ''soks'' to denote their favorite pair of socks from all the other pairs.  Other times it is used to literal effect, and sometimes just for poetic license (for example, to fit a rhyme scheme).

|métj

|métjkí

|knaagkí

|huus

|huusken

|kóelkaast

|kóelkaastken

This is the only facet of Buerkáns that retains a three-gender system, as it is necessary to distinguish between masculine and feminine when speaking about people.   

|díe

|én

|anen

|vir

|vird

|séks

|séksd

|trytyndí

|virtyn

|virtyndí

|fyftyndí

|sékstyn

|sékstyndí

|sebtyndí

|agtyndí

|nytyndí

|tvytí

|tvytíte

|énantvytí

|énantvytíte

|tvyantvytí

|tvyantvytíte

|trytí

|trytíte

|énantrytí

|tryantrytíte

|virtí

|virttíte

|fyftí

|fyftíte

|sékstíte

|sékstíte

|sebtí

|sebtíte

|agtí

|agtíte

|nyntí

|nyntíte

|hundrí

|hundríte

Numbers have a very regular structure in Buerkáns, with the exception of numbers 1 and 2, which are irregular.  The ordinal ending for numbers 3 to 20 is simply ''d''. The ordinal ending for all numbers after 20 is ''te''.   

Double-digit numbers are produced as in German.  To make the number 21, one must say ''énantvytí'', literally 'one-and-twenty'.

===Verbs===

Verbs are only conjugated for tense in Buerkáns, not number/person.  Beyond this, all conjugations of a given verb are usually regular according to other verbs in their category. There is only one irregular verb, each verb class has a distinct conjugation pattern.  Every verb conjugates the same in Present Tense, and verbs are kept in the infinitive if they are not the primary verb in the sentence.  However, this functions more like English and the Scandinavian languages in that two verbs can follow each other directly, as opposed to German where and secondary verbs must be at the end of a sentence or phrase.

There is only one irregular verbs in Buerkáns:  to be

!'''syne'''

|hét gesynd

|hétte gesynd

====Regular Verbs====

!'''Verb'''

!'''Meaning'''

!'''te gaae'''

|gaar

!'''te eide'''

|eider

!'''te loobe'''

|loober

|to run

Here is a full conjugation table

!'''Verb'''

!'''Present'''

!'''Past'''

!'''Past Participle'''

!'''Meaning'''

!'''te gaae'''

|gaar

|gaan

|hét gigaan

!'''te schude'''

|schuder

|schkod

|hét gigschod

!'''te hore'''

|horer

|hort

|hét gihort

''Én luus dág, in de midnagt,'' <br />

''tvy tode knaags stud op om te schlooes.'' <br />

''Riug géen riug konfrontírt díe daamánder,'' <br />

''toog sye swárdkís ut en schod daamánder.'' <br />

''Dí dauife polísman hétte dehyr klaang gihort:'' <br />

''kom en schkot dí tvy tode knaags.'' <br />

''ib ní jy trauwe dehyr luug ní sant is,'' <br />

''frag énmál de blinde man; hy sá et aukso.'' <br />

[[Category:Conlangs]]