Pseudo-Gothic

State: WIP (out of date)

Hypothetical East Germanic descendant based on Gothic with a simplified grammar.

Realism is not a priority, but some effort is made.

Check out the dictionary.

Phonology

Vowels

• The sounds /ε, ɔ/ are written as the digraphs ⟨ai, au⟩, respectively.
• A diaeresis can be used to break the digraph apart: ⟨aï, aü⟩.
• Unlike in Gothic, vowel length is not distinctive.

Consonants

TODO

Morphology

Names

This includes nouns, adjectives and pronouns.

Adjectives follow the case of the nouns they modify.

Adjectives can also be used as nouns (nominalization).

Number

Note: Plural -n after a vowel, -o elsewhere.

Examples:

• hund — dog
• hundo — dogs
• swista — sister
• swistan — sisters

Case

Note: A final vowel is dropped before the suffix -is.

Note: Dative -m after a vowel, -a elsewhere.

Note: For the rare root ending in -s, the nominative and accusative are the same.

The dative actually has a wide range of uses, and could be considered a general contextual case. It subsumes locative, temporal, instrumental, comitative, comparative, as well as other relations.

Examples:

• hunds — dog (nom.)
• hunda — to dog
• nahtis — of night
• dagom — to/on days

Noun derivation

Note: A final vowel is dropped before the suffix -ila.

The diminutive doubles as an onomastic (proper noun) suffix.

Examples:

• hairtila — little heart (possibly a name)
• namolaus — nameless

Adjective inflection

Note: A final vowel is dropped before the suffixes -iza, -ist.

The dative case is used² to mark what is being compared against.

To restrict the superlative to a specific domain, the genitive plural form (“of Xs”) is used.

Examples:

• wildiza mis — wilder than me
• wildist diwis — wildest among (the) animals / wildest animal

There are two irregular inflections:

• god “good” — badiza “better” — badist “best”
• ubil “bad” — wersiza “worse” — wersist “worst”

Pronouns

Pronouns are, naturally, irregular, but share the case system with names.

Personal pronouns

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns, like English mine, can be formed by adding -a to the genitive form of a personal pronoun, then inflecting it like any other noun. For example, mihn “my” becomes mihna “mine (acc.)”, which can also appear in the nominative form mihnas “mine (nom.)”, genitive mihnis “mine’s” and dative mihnam “to mine”. Possessive pronouns can also be pluralized, meaning multiple possessions, e.g. mihnan “mine (things)“.

Demonstrative pronouns

TODO

Interrogative pronouns

TODO

Verbs

Tense

Note: Past -s after -t/-d, -t elsewhere.

Examples:

• hab — have
• brukt — broke (something)
• bihts — bit
• tah — is silent / be silent!

Voice

Examples:

• gabrukt — broke (was broken)

Nominalization

The suffix -an forms the infinitive or gerund.

The suffix -a after a tense suffix forms the participle.

The participles are used adjectivally, and are inflected as such.

Examples:

• haban — to have / having
• gaoga — feared (thing)
• gaogana — to the feared (things)

Derivation

Note: Telic uz- before a vowel, ur- before r-, us- elsewhere.

Examples:

• ushaban — to obtain / obtaining
• gaüzogt — was scared
• uswit — witness

Syntax

Negation

TODO

Periphrasis

Some constructions require the use of more than one verb at a time. Like in English I want to see it, a finite verb (want) and a nonfinite verb (to see) are combined together. The nonfinite verb will appear in the infinitive form, specifically the accusative case, serving as the direct object of the finite verb.

As an example, take the verb wil “want”. To translate English I want a sister, you would actually say I want to obtain a sister. Obtain is the telic form of have, so we use ushab. The direct object of the nonfinite verb (in this case, a sister) must appear in the genitive case, modifying it:

• Ik swistis ushaban wil. — I want (to get) a sister.

This also works in the passive voice:

• Kwins galihkan wilt. — The woman wanted to be pleased.

The verb stand can be used as an auxiliary with meaning still:

• Watos hrains wisan stand. — The water is still clean.

Note that, in practice, stand can be used as a copula directly.

The verb mag can be used as an auxiliary with meaning can/may:

• Ik floda bauhan ni mag. — I cannot live at the river.

Longer examples

• Hrainist gumis frodisis froda hunda.
  — The cleanest man wiser than a wise dog.

• Ak noh lohmunos himina us milmom swartam skin.
  — Yet still shines the lightning from the black clouds in the sky.

• Nahta ik nimt skima aldist swe airda undar mis.
  — At night I received a latern old like the earth under me.

• Swistanis brintis frodim ik borgo kwistan wil.
  — With the wisdom of my burned sisters I will destroy the cities.

Dictionary

Notes (out of date)

Lexicon preferably from Gothic. Vowel length compensated in stressed syllables: /aa, ii, uu/ become /ah, ih, uh/ unless prevented by context, in which case they are simply shortened. Long /ee, oo/ simply shortened, since no short equivalents occur in Gothic for these vowels. Consonant length discarded entirely. /θ, ð/ to /t, d/ according to context voicing, but /f/ before /l/. Sequences of obstruent + /l, m, n, r/ + obstruent are broken apart by inserting /e/ after the first obstruent, possibly omitting the second one.

We can already translate almost this entire excerpt from the Gothic Bible:

𐌹𐌸 𐌸𐌰𐌼𐌼𐌴𐌹 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐌰 𐌿𐍃𐌹𐌳𐌳𐌾𐌰 𐌻𐍉𐌳 𐌿𐍃 𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌼𐌹𐌼, 𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌽𐌹𐌳𐌰 𐍃𐍅𐌹𐌱𐌻𐌰 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐍆𐌿𐌽𐌹𐌽 𐌿𐍃 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌰 𐌾𐌰𐌷 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌵𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌹𐌳𐌰 𐌰𐌻𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌼.

iþ þammei daga usiddja lōd us saudaumim, rignida swibla jah funin us himina jah fraqistida allaim.

ak sama daga ? Lods us Saudauma, rignt(bad cluster? -> rihnt) ? jah fon us himina jah kwists ala

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.