Zelandish

Zelandish Zelandisch
Spoken in:	New Zealand
Conworld:	(universe)
Total speakers:	1
Genealogical classification:	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Zelandish
Basic word order:	SVO
Morphological type:	inflecting
Morphosyntactic alignment:	nominative - accusative
Writing system:
Created by:
Andrew Smith	1996

Zelandish is a language derived from Old English by Andrew Smith and used as a journal language. At the time of writing I have been using it for several years. These pages will be an attempt to describe and remember the language as I have used it.

The name is derived from New Zealand, the locality in which I write my journal.

Orthography

Zelandish is primarily a written language. There are no hard and fast rules on how it is pronounced. It has an evolving orthography.

Vowels

A, a /a/

E, e /ɛ/

EE, ee /e/ -- Not part of my natural phonology and can be pronounced as a diphthong, also EI, ei

I, i /ɪ/

IE, ie /i/

O, o /ɔ/ -- also written as Á, á, no longer current language

OE, oe /œ/

OU, ou /y/ or /ʉ/ -- also written as Ú, ú no longer current language

U, u /ʊ/

If the second E is marked with a dieresis, ë, it is pronounced as a diphthong with schwa.

A vowel written with a circumflex is pronounced long. It generally indicates a consonant has been elided after it, usually h.

Consonants

The following consonants are pronounced the same as in English, particularly a southern hemispheric Commonwealth dialect:

B, C, CH, D, F, H, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Z

CG, cg is pronounced as 'dg', /dʒ/, in English

G, g is pronounced hard, /g/. In GJ, gj and after a vowel it is silent

J, j /j/

SCH, sch /ʃ/

There is no hard and fast rule on post-vocallic R, r. It can be pronounced as an approximant or elided. The non-rhotic pronunciations of vowels are ar /a:/, or /ɔ:/, ir, er and ur /ɜ/.

Grammar

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

The subject pronouns / direct object pronouns are:

ik /ɪk/ I, first person singular

dou /dʉ:/ thou, second person singular / familiar

hy /hi:/ he, third person singular masculine

sy /si:/ she, third person singular feminine

hit /hɪt/ it, third person singular neuter

wy /wi:/ we, first person plural

jy /ji:/ you, second person plural / formal

hylie /hi:li:/ they, third person plural

The indirect object pronouns are:

my /mi:/ me

dy /di:/ thee

him /hɪm/ him

hir /hɪɹ/ her

ous /ʉ:s/ us

ew /æʊ/ you

him /hɪm/ them

Hit with a preposition is replaced with deer or die which comes before the preposition. It is written as one word. The form depends on whether the preposition begins with a consonant or not.

The possessive adjectives are:

myn /mi:n/ my

dyn /di:n/ thy

our/ʉ:ɹ/ our

eur /æʊɹ/ your

hir /hɪɹ/ their

The above are declined as weak adjectives.

his /hɪs/ his, its

hir /hɪɹ/ her

His and hir, when it means 'her', are not declined as adjectives.

Verbs

Infinitive

The most common form of the infinitive is the verb stem plus the ending -e, such as neese, to visit. If the verb stem ends in 'l' this ending is silent, such as tell, to tell.

Subjunctive

The subjunctive verb uses the verb stem after singular subjects in the present; and an ending similar to the infinitive after plural subjects. It is usually used after verbs of communication such as tell, to tell. It may be used as the primary verb in a sentence if the primary verb is conditional or expresses possibility (may, might).

Weak Verbs

A complete paradigm is as follows:

toe loeke, to look

ik loek, I look

dou loekst, thou lookest, you look

hy, sy, hit loekt, he, she, it looks

wy, jy, hylie loekt, we, you, they look

ik, hy, sy, hit loeked, I, he, she, it looked

dou loekedzt, thou lookedest, you looked

wy, jy, hylie loeke, we, you, they looked

loekend, looking, present participle

loeked, looked, past participle

loeking, act of looking, verbal noun

As Zelandish is a journal language written in the third person the 'thou'-forms are rare. Hypothetically they should be common in spoken Zelandish, where speakers value informality.

When a weak verb ends in 'l' or 'r', such as tell or heer, the past tenses preserve the 'd' in both the singular and plural forms of the past tense: teld, telde; heerd, heerde.

To Be

Toe ben, to be.

The present tense:

ik em	/ɪk ɛm/	I am	wy 'sinde	/wi: 'sɪndə/	we are
dou ert	/dʉ: ɛɹt/	thou art	jy sinde	/ji: 'sɪndə/	you are
hit is	/hɪt ɪs/	it is	hylie sinde	/'hi:li: 'sɪndə/	they are

Ik em contracts to ikem or 'kem.

The past tense:

ik wes	I was	wy weern	we were
dou wie	thou wert	jy weern	you were
hit wes	it was	hylie weern	they were

The subjunctive forms of the verb generally only occur after a verb of expression ('they said that...'). In the present tense they are sie (singular) and sien (plural), and in the past tense they are wie and weern.

With the past participle the present tense of 'to be' is used to mark the passive verb. If a verb is intransitive it marks the past perfect verb.

The past tense of the verb 'to be' is used similarly to the present tense of 'to be' to mark the past tense of the passive and the pluperfect intransitive verb.

ik be	I be	wy bet	we be
dou bist	thou beest	jy bet	you be
hit bit	it be	hylie bet	they be

The be-forms are used in future sentences, 'will be', axiomatic sayings, and for emphasis or topic-marking, 'the fact is that...'. The subjunctive forms are be and ben. It has no special past tense.

To Have

This verb is irregular.

Toe hebbe, to have

The present tense:

ik heb	I have	wy hat	we have
dou hest	thou hast	jy hat	you have
hit het	it has	hylie hat	they have

It is quite common for the forms het and hat to become confused.

The past tense:

ik hed	I had	wy hedde	we had
dou hedzt	thou hadest	jy hedde	you had
hit hed	it had	hylie hedde	they had

The past tense is used as the auxiliary to mark the pluperfect on transitive verbs.

The subjunctive forms are heb, hebbe, and hed, hedde.

To Know

Toe witte, to know (something)

The present tense:

ik wot	I know	wy witte	we know
dou wost	thou knowest	jy witte	you know
hit wot	it knows	hylie witte	they know

The past tense:

ik wis	I knew	wy wisse	we knew
dou wist	thou knewest	jy wisse	you knew
hit wis	it knew	hylie wisse	they knew

The subjunctive forms are wit, witte, and wis, wisse. The negative adverb nie elides with this verb to form a negative verb, ik n'wot, I don't know, pronounced /nɔt/. The w becomes silent.

Note that there is also a weak verb toe wisse, to point out, to guide.

To Go

Toe gon, to go

The present tense:

ik go	I go	wy got	we go
dou gjeest	thou goest	jy got	you go
hit gjeet	hit goes	hylie got	they go

The g in the first person singular form of the verb is often elided so it is written ik'o.

The past tense:

ik eed	I went	wy eië	we went
dou eiëst	thou wentest	jy eië	you went
hit eed	it went	hylie eië	they went

The subjunctive forms are go, gon, and eed, eië.

The participles are gangend (present) and jegon (past). The past participle agon is also very common and has the implication of 'gone and done with, past'.

The present participle nearly always ends in -end. It is rarer than in English. Zelandish has not developed a present continuous tense to the same extent as English and where English uses a present participle after another verb, Zelandish prefers an infinitive, although this rule is not absolute.

The verbal noun ends in -ing. There are some latinate borrowings ending in -ación(e). These are rarer than in English.

Nouns

Plural nouns end in -s, -n, or sometimes -e. Some nouns do not change to mark a plural ending. Some irregular endings are preserved, such as childer, the plural of child.

The genitive case has become steadily unmarked in Zelandish. The s-genitive still survives and has been extended by the use of the reduced forms of the third person possessive pronouns, -'s from his, his, its; -'r from hir, her, their, and -'rn from hirn, their (in a prepositional clause or before a plural possession).

The dative case has disappear from the language except in a few fossil forms where it survives as an -o ending. In such cases it is not necessary obvious that it is dative.

In words borrowed from latin the -um ending has survived, but it is used as a prepositional ending rather than accusative.

Articles

The definite article has abandoned grammatical gender and only one form survives in the modern language.

det marks the subject and direct object of a verb in the singular, the plural equivalent is do.

des (sg.) and der (pl.) means 'of the'. It is generally used without the preposition of and comes after the possessed noun.

dom comes after a preposition. After many prepositions it is reduced to -'m. There are also contracted forms such as om, on the, and im, in the.

These forms are used as demonstratives and are qualified by hie and die, reduced forms of the demonstrative adverbs, directly after the article.

There are two indefinite pronouns: an and sum. Both are declined like adjectives. If the following noun is singular then an is used: an wief. If there is more than one indefinite object, whether plural or collective, then sum is used: sum wieve, sum folk. Sum has become an independent indefinite pronoun in its own right meaning 'of them', or 'some'. It is especially tagged to numerals. Ik heb an sum, I have one (of them).

Adjectives

Zelandish divides adjectives into weak, which have to be supported by a definite article; and strong, which stand independently of the definate article.

Adjectives are marked for case.

Riet, right

Strong	Singular	Plural
Nom. / Acc.	riet	riet
Possessive	riets	rieter
Dative	riete	riete

Weak	Singular	Plural
Nom. / Acc.	riete	riete
Possessive	riete	rieten
Dative	riete	riete