This is the a revision of a previous version of this conlang which I called Hálélannish and which was spoken on the island of Heligoland. That can be viewed at ZBB here http://www.incatena.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=44337. Hálélannish showed a lot of influence from Faroese, especially in the orthography, which has since been excised from Nortsääenglisch. It also included much more conservative nominal morphology which is pretty much completely gone now. These two projects are, I suppose, different enough as to be considered separate conlangs. There's a possibility that I will, in world, keep both as closely related languages but at the moment I tend to think of Nortsääenglisch as conceptually replacing Hálélannish.
To the best of my ability, I try derive these words from the Northumbrian dialect of Old English specifically. The sound change rules below include rules for sounds from West Saxon even though I am trying to avoid using WS as my base. Nortsääenglisch is meant to have broken off from the rest of Old English between the 10th and 13th centuries.
Internal HIstory
Nortsääenglisch /noɐtzɛːeŋglɪʃ/ or "North Sea English" is an Anglic language which evolved from Late Old English by speakers who settled along the northern coast and islands of Holland and Germany. It shares many characteristics of Middle English, including a number of sound changes. Due to its isolation from other English dialects and closer contact with Middle Low German, Frisian, and Middle Dutch, North Sea English has retained some older features while also innovating in unique ways.
Sound Changes
There is no standard orthography for Nortsääenglisch. The orthography presented here is what I will be using. I will indicate different orthographic options after each section following an asterisk *.
Consonants
/p t k b d g/ <p t k b d g>
/f s~z ʃ~ʒ h~x v/ <f s sch h~ch v~w>
/m n ŋ/ <m n ng>
/mː nː ŋː/ <mm nn nng>
/l/ <l>
/r/ <r>
<v> descends from historical /f/ while <w> descends from historical /w/ and /ʍ/
/h/ and /x/ are in complimentary distribution
*Other writers may:
- represent /z/ as <z> and /ʒ/ as <zh>
- represent /v/ as either <v> or <w> but not both
Long Vowels
/iː yː uː/ <ii üü uu>
/ɛː øː ɔː/ <ää öö oo>
/aː/ <aa>
*Some May:
- represent /iː/ with <ij>, especially word finally
-represent /iː/ with <ie>
Short Vowels
/ɪ ʏ u/ <i ü u>
/e ɛ ə ø o/ <e ä e ö o>
/a/ <a>
<e> is pronounced as a schwa in unstressed environments
Diphtongs
/ɛɪ œɪ/ <ei öi~üi>
/iu ɛu ou/ <iu eu ou>
/au/ <au>
*Some May:
- represent /ɛɪ/ as <äi> and /ɛu/ as <äu>
- represent /œɪ/ as <oi>
- use <j> word finally in representing diphthongs (eg: hei v. hej)
Allophones
/l/ surfaces as /ɫ/ after vowels.
/r/ surfaces as /ɾ/ when preceded by a consonant and as /ɐ/ following a vowel.
<s> is pronounced /z/ at the beginning of a word when followed by a vowel and between vowels. It is pronounced /s/ before consonants and word finally
<sch> is pronounced /ʒ/ at the beginning of a word when followed by a vowel and between vowels. It is pronounced /ʃ/ before consonants and word finally
Unlike in Hochdeutsch, voiced consonants are not devoiced word finally.
/x/ has the ich/ach-laut allophones
Grammar
Personal Pronouns
Subject S/P
1 ik/wii
2 duu/jii
3 hii, hüü, hit/hei
Oblique S/P
1 mii/uus
2 dii/jou
3 him, hir, him/hem
Possesive S/P
1 mein/uur
2 dein/jour
3 his, hir, his/hör
Verbal Morphology
Infinitive -e
Past Participle -enn
Present Participle -ed/-e
<-ed> is for weak verbs while <-e> is for strong
Personal Endings - Present Tense
S/P
1 --/-es
2 -(e)st/-es
3 -(e)s/-es
Personal Endings - Past Tense (Weak)
S/P
1 -ed/-des
2 -dest/-des
3 -ed/-des
Personal Endings - Past Tense (Strong)
S/P
1 --/-es
2 -(e)st/-es
3 --/-es
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