Bresserian

Bresserian
broisseureis
Pronunciation	[bʁwasøʁaj(z)]
Created by	SJ
Date	2022
Native to	France
Ethnicity	Bresser
Native speakers	11000 (2020)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Bresserian
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	France
Bresserian is classified as Definitely Endangered

Bresserian (/brəˈsiːriɪn/; broisseureis or broisseurêche togne) is a Germanic language of the Indo-European family spoken by the Bresser people of Eastern Normandy.

Phonology

Bresserian phonology is largely similar to that of modern French, although retains certain archaic features.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Bresserian

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal/ Postalv.	Velar/ Uvular
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	(ŋ)
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	tʃ~ʃ	(x~χ)
	voiced	v	z	dʒ~ʒ	ʁ
Approximant	plain		l	j
	labial			ɥ	w

Oral   Front Central Back unrounded rounded Close i iː y yː u uː Close-mid e ø~œ ə o~ɔ ɔː Open-mid ɛ ɛː Open a ɑː

Nasal Front Back unrounded rounded Open-mid ɛ̃ œ̃ ɔ̃ Open ɑ̃

• [œ] is the realisation of /ø/ in closed and/or unstressed syllables
• [ɔ] is the realisation of /o/ in closed and/or unstressed syllables.
• /ə/ could be described as the unstressed allophone of [ɛ]
• Some speakers are undergoing a vowel shift in long vowels in which /iː/ > [ɛi], /yː/ > [œy], /uː/ > [ɔu], /ɛː/ > [ɪə], /ɔː/ > [ʊə], /ɑː/ > [ɒː]
• /g/ is pronounced as [x] or [χ] word initially before back vowels

Writing System

Despite its status as a minority language, Bresserian has maintained a strong written tradition throughout its history. Due to this, and likely the influence of other conservative scripts such as French and English, Bresserian spelling tends to preserve the obsolete pronunciations of an older form of the language. It should be noted, however, that Bresserian spelling is largely more consistent and less irregular than that of French or English.

Alphabet

The Bresserian alphabet is based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with five diacritics and two orthographic ligatures.

Letter	Name	Name (IPA)	Notes
A	a	/a/
B	bé	/be/
C	cé	/se/	is pronounced as soft [s] before i and e but hard [k] otherwise – occurs as [x] at the end of words
D	dé	/de/
E	e	/ə/	often becomes silent word-finally
F	effe	/ɛf/
G	gé	/(d)ʒe/	is pronounced as soft [(d)ʒ] before i, e and a, but as [χ] before other vowels when word initial, and as [g] otherwise
H	ache	/aʃ/	rare, only in loanwords
I	i	/i/
J	ji	/ʒi/
K	ka	/ka/	rare, only in loanwords
L	elle	/ɛl/
M	emme	/ɛm/
N	enne	/ɛn/
O	o	/o/
P	pé	/pe/	silent at the end of words
Q	qu	/ky/	often seen in the digraph qu, although still pronounced as [k] (not [kw] as might be expected) – occurs as [k] at the end of words unlike c
R	erre	/ɛʁ/	unlike in French, is never silent
S	esse	/ɛs/	is pronounced as [z] between two vowels or beside a voiced consonant
T	té	/te/	silent at the end of words
U	u	/y/
V	vé	/ve/
W	tiévaut vé	/tjɛvo ve/	rare, only in loanwords
X	ixe	/iks/
Y	croyeis i	/kʁwajaiz‿i/
Z	zède	/zɛd/

Ligatures, Digraphs, Trigraphs and Diacritics

Alongside the core letters, Bresserian makes extensive use of letter combinations and ligatures. Diacritics are also widely used.

Letters	Name	Name (IPA)	Notes
Æ	âche	/ɑːʃ/	pronounced as [ɛ]
Â	a mé reuf	/a me ʁøf/	pronounced as [ɑː]
Ai	a mé i	/a me i/	pronounced as [ɛ]
Ain	a mé i mé enne	/a me i me ɛn/	pronounced as [ɛ̃(ː)]
An	a mé enne	/a me ɛn/	pronounced as [ɑ̃(ː)]
Au	a mé o	/a me o/	pronounced as [o~ɔ]
Ç	cé mé cédille	/se me sedij/	pronounced as [s]
Ch	cé mé ache	/se me aʃ/	pronounced as [(t)ʃ]
É	e mé acute	/ə me akyt/	pronounced as [e]
È	e mé grave	/ə me gʁav/	pronounced as [ɛ]
Ê	e mé reuf	/ə me ʁøf/	pronounced as [ɛː]
Ei	e mé i	/ə me i/	pronounced as [aj]
Ein	e mé i mé enne	/ə me i me ɛn/	pronounced as [ɐ̃j]
En	e mé enne	/ə me ɛn/	pronounced as [ɑ̃(ː)]
Eu	e mé u	/ə me y/	pronounced as [ø~œ]
Eau	e mé a mé u	/ə me a me y/	pronounced as [o]
Gn	gé mé enne	/(d)ʒe me ɛn/	pronounced as [ɲ]
Î	i mé reuf	/i me ʁøf/	pronounced as [iː]
il(le)	i mé elle	/i me ɛl/	found in words such as bouil [buj], étaille [etaj], meil [mɛj]. May still be pronounced as [ʝ] for some speakers (e.g. [buʝ], [etaʝ], [mɛʝ])
In	i mé enne	/i me ɛn/	pronounced as [ɛ̃(ː)]
Œ	œil	/œj/	pronounced the same as eu; generally found with u as œu
Ô	o mé reuf	/o me ʁøf/	pronounced as [ɔː]
Oi	o mé i	/o me i/	pronounced as [wa] or [wɛ] depending on speaker
Oin	o mé i mé enne	/o me i me ɛn/	pronounced as [wɛ̃(ː)]
On	o mé enne	/o me ɛn/	pronounced as [ɔ̃(ː)]
Ou	o mé u	/o me y/	pronounced as [u]
Oû	o mé u mé reuf	/o me y me ʁøf/	pronounced as [uː]
Ph	pé mé ache	/pe me aʃ/	pronounced as [f]; only in loanwords
Û	u mé reuf	/y me ʁøf/	pronounced as [yː]
Ui	u mé i	/y me i/	pronounced as [ɥi]
Un	u mé enne	/y me ɛn/	pronounced as [œ̃(ː)]

Grammar

Bresserian is a moderately inflected language and is generally considered a Fusional language, though it does have strong Analytic tendencies much like neighboring languages such as French and German. Bresserian also shares many similar developments grammatically to neighboring languages, such as:

• Development of indefinite and definite articles (‘a’ and ‘the’)
• Loss of the neuter gender
• Loss of case marking in nouns
• SVO word order

Nouns

All Bresserian nouns are either masculine or feminine. Generally, although with notable exceptions, feminine nouns will end with an -e, while masculine nouns do not. While the gender of a majority of nouns is arbitrary, those referring to people and living things often correspond to the perceived gender of the referent. For example, a male teacher is en tiègar while a female teacher is enne tiègâtre. When referring to multiple teachers of varying gender, the masculine plural tiègars would be used. Terms for common animals, primarily domesticated ones, also have distinct gendered forms. Some are simple, such as male chat and female chatte meaning “cat”, while others use different words, such as ceu "cow" and bou "bull" referring to a female and male bovine respectively. The default form for animals is most often the feminine form, which is used when referring to an animal generally or a mixed-gender group. A notable exception is besse "dog" which, despite being a feminine noun, is used to refer to both male and female dogs.

Due to sound changes, a majority of nouns’ singular and plural forms are pronounced identically. For example, ‘tiègar’ and the plural ‘tiègars’ are both pronounced [tjɛʒaʁ], with the final -s being a historical spelling much like the silent letters in English words such as knee and night. As many plural nouns are pronounced identically to their singular forms, the distinction between singular and plural is distinguished by the article de/da, which becomes der in the plural. For example, “the man” is de gom [də χɔ̃ˑ], while "the men" is der goms [dɛʁ χɔ̃ˑ]

Adjectives

Adjectives order is complex and not fixed, with some being strongly pre-nominal, some strongly post-nominal and some varying in position depending on meaning or context. the noun and agree with gender and plurality. See the differences between:

• d’écourt gom [d.ekuʁ χɔ̃ˑ] – “the short man”
• d’écourte quienne [d.ekuʁt(ə) kjɛn] – “the short woman”
• der écourts goms [d(ə)ʁ.ekuʁ χɔ̃ˑ] – “the short men”
• der écourtes quiennes [d(ə)ʁ.ekuʁt(ə) kjɛn] – “the short women”
• de gom gamau [də χɔ̃ˑ ʒamo] – “the old man”
• da quienne gamalle [da kjɛn ʒamal] – “the old woman”
• der goms gamaux [dəʁ χɔ̃ˑ ʒamo] – “the old men”
• der quiennes gamalles [dəʁ kjɛn ʒamal] – “the old women”

While the plural marker of nouns is always silent, the plural forms of adjectives may occasionally be pronounced in a phenomenon known as bendenge (aka. liaison in French) which occurs when preceding a noun beginning with a vowel. In this context, the final (usually mute) consonants of masculine adjectives may also be pronounced:

• en meille éterre [ɑ̃ˑ mɛj etɛʁ] – “a big star”
• meilles éterres [mɛjz‿etɛʁ] – “big stars”

Verbs

Bresserian verbs are arguably the most challenging aspect of the language’s grammar, being highly irregular due to extensive sound changes to both strong and weak verbs. Verbs conjugation for person, plurality, tense, imperative mood and present and past participles. Like English and other Germanic languages, verbs are divided into two main categories, “strong” and “weak”, with strong verbs conjugating in more irregular and unpredictable ways, while weak verbs have the -de suffix in the past tense and are as a whole more predictable and regular. Below will be example conjugation tables for the strong verb ‘écrive’ (“to write”) and the weak verb ‘bleue’ (“to bleed”).

Strong verb écrive ("to write")

	Present	Past
1st person	écrive	écroif
2nd person	écriver	écroives
3rd person singular	écrivé	écroif
3rd person plural	écrivant	écroivant
Participle	écrivant	écroivé

Weak verb bleue ("to bleed")

	Present	Past
1st person	bleue	bloude
2nd person	bleuer	bloudes
3rd person singular	bleué	bloude
3rd person plural	bleuant	bloudant
Participle	bleuant	bloudé

Pronouns and Determiners

Pronouns (reduced forms in brackets)

Number	Person	Gender	Nominative	Accusative	Disjunctive	Genitive
singular	1st	–	y (y')	me (m')	moi	min/mine
	2nd	–	du (d')	de (d')	doi	din/dine
	3rd	masculine	ir (r')	emme		jes
		feminine	si (s')	jer
		inanimate	dé (d')	dé	dé	(ve dé)
plural	1st	–	voi (v')	us		ure
	2nd	–	joi (j')	jus		jure
	3rd	–	si (s')	jer

• The third person plural is the same as the third person feminine singular, with the only distinction being the verb conjugation (ending in -ant) used:

S’éteuf à bouil. – She walked home.

S’éteuvant à bouil. – They walked home.

• the disjunctive forms are used following a preposition and when stressed, while the accusative forms are used only as the direct object of a verb
• reduced forms occur before a vowel

Determiner

	masculine	feminine
singular	des	desse
plural	dêtre

• There is no distinction between “this”, “that” or “it”, with all three of these concepts being covered by ‘dé/des/desse’. See the following sentences:

Dé regné. [de.ʁəɲe] – It is raining.

Desse quienne est grau. [dɛs.kjɛn.e.ɢʁo] – That woman is tall.

D’est mine meure. [de.min.møʁ] – This/that/it is my mother.

Articles

Bresserian has two articles, indefinite and definite, with both agreeing with gender, as well as the definite article with plurality.

Articles

		masculine	feminine
singular	indefinite	en	enne
	definite	de (d')	da (d')
plural	indefinite	(somme)
definite	der

• somme translates directly to 'some' and is used as a partitive article for plural or uncountable nouns.
• de/da reduces to d' before vowels

Numerals

Numerals

Bresserian	English	German	Dutch	French
en/enne	one	ein/eine	één	un/une
tié	two	zwei	twee	deux
dri	three	drei	drie	trois
fèvre	four	vier	vier	quatre
fenf	five	fünf	vijf	cinq
seis	six	sechs	zes	six
sief	seven	sieben	zeven	sept
aite	eight	acht	acht	huit
nion	nine	neun	negen	neuf
tion	ten	zehn	tien	dix
enneuf	eleven	elf	elf	onze
tauf	twelve	zwölf	twaalf	douze
tentif	twenty	zwanzig	twintig	vingt
ondre	hundred	hundert	honderd	cent
dusont	thousand	tausend	duizend	mille