Uínlītska

This majority language of Norse America is derived from Old Norse, with adstrates from Germanic, Celtic, Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Inuit, in particular Scots, Scots Gaelic, English, Nunatsiaviummiutut, Nunavimmiutitut, Míkmak, Ojibwe, Abenaki and Beothuk.

Phonology

Consonants

p b	t d			k ɡ
f v	s z	ʃ ʒ	θ ð	x ɣ
		tʃ dʒ
	ɬ l
m̥ m	n̥ n			ŋ̥ ŋ
ʍ w	ɹ̥ ɹ	ç j

Voicing and Devoicing

In etymologically Old Norse roots, fricatives are voiced initially, finally, or between two voiced sounds (consonants or vowels). In etymologically non-Old Norse words, or in morphologically-created situations, voiceless fricatives may occur in those positions, which is handled differently by each orthography.

In etymologically Old Norse roots, liquids are devoiced immediately following a voiceless consonant. In etymologically non-Old Norse words, or in morphologically-created situations, voiced liquids may occur in these positions, which is handled differently by each orthography.

The phonemes /x/ and /ɣ/ have allophones [ç] and [ɟ] when immediately adjacent to an apical phoneme, i.e. from the second or third column of the above table.

Vowels

i	y		u
e	ø		o
ɛ	œ	ə	ɔ
a			ɑ

Sound adaptation in borrowed words

Every foreign phoneme (if possible) maps to the identical phoneme in Fínlǣsk.

The following general rules tend to apply to phonemes from various languages without exact duplicates in Fínlǣsk:

Inuktitut	q	ɢ	ɴ	ɟ
Ojibwe						ɰ
Iroquoian									ʌ
Various					h		ʔ	kʷ
Fínlǣsk	k	ɡ	ŋ*	j	ç	w	g	gw	ɑ

*Inuktitut /ɴ/ becomes /ɡ/ word-initially.

Orthography

Latin Script

p pp b		t tt d			k kk g
	f ff v	s ss z	sk ssk sg	ð ðð ðð	h hh hh
			tj ttj dj
		l hl ll
m hm mm		n hn nn			n hn nn
w hw ww		r hr rr	j hj jj

i	ᵫ		u
e	œ		o
ę	œ̨	y	ǫ
æ			a

Before the advent of printing, the Latin script orthography used an uncial hand similar to the Insular script. This is usually transliterated using the printed insular letters, e.g. ᵹ, ſ, ɼ, ƿ, and so on.

Doubled ðð, ff, hh, kk, pp, ss, tt show voiceless sounds where voicing would be expected.

Doubled bb, dd, ðð, hh, gg and liquids show voiced sounds where devoicing would be expected.

The use of single voiceless letters for voiced sounds (and vice-versa) is for etymological purposes, and is less frequent in modern texts, except as a formalism, archaism, affectation, or analogical hypercorism.

A prefixed h shows a voiceless liquid where voicing would be expected. Before a liquid, hh shows /x/. The sequence of /ɣ/ followed by a voiced liquid is shown with an h before a doubled liquid letter. For example:

ahla	/ɑɬɑ/
ahhla	/ɑxɬɑ/
ahlla	/ɑɣlɑ/
ahhlla	/ɑxlɑ/

The correct alphabetic order is:

a b d ð e ę f g h i j k l m n o ǫ p r s t u w y z æ œ œ̨ ᵫ

Diacritics are acute for long vowels, or macron (the linea nasalis) for nasalized vowels.

Runes

ᛈ ᛒ	ᛏ ᛞ			ᚴ ᚷ
ᚠ	ᛋ	ᛊ	ᚦ	ᚻ
	ᛐ	ᛣ
	ᛚ
ᛗ	ᚾ
ᚹ	ᚱ	ᛃ

ᛁ	ᛨ			ᚢ
ᛖ	ᚯ			ᛟ
		ᛡ
ᚫ				ᛅ

Morphology

Both verbs and nouns distinguish between single, dual and plural number.

Nouns

Gender

Nouns are split into masculine, feminine and neuter genders in the singular. In the dual and plural, masculine and feminine essentially collapse into identically-formed paradigms, and this combined set is often called the common gender.

Case

Nouns have six cases. They are shown in the table below with a short summary of the types of uses they have.

Nominative	Initiator
Accusative	Undergoer
Genitive	From
Dative	To
Locative	At
Oblique	Everything else

Pronouns

Pronouns are marked for person, number and case. See the respective sections above and below for more details on the individual systems.

Placeholder mostly-pure-ON pronouns

1 Sg

1 Du

1 Pl

2 Sg

2 Du

2 Pl

3 Prox Sg

3 Prox Du

3 Prox Pl

3 Dist Sg

3 Dist Du

3 Dist Pl

Nominative

ek

vit

ver

ðu

ðit

ðer

hann

hant

ðeir

ðat

ðajt

ðau

Accusative

mik

okkr

oss

ðik

ykkr

yðr

hánn

hánnt

ðá

ðat

ðajt

ðau

Genitive

mín

okkar

vár

ðín

ykkar

yðar

hans

hantts

ðeira

ðess

ðents

ðeira

Dative

Locative

Oblique

The 3rd Person Proximal/Distal forms are used to distinguish between referants that are literally closer to and further from the speaker or listener, or the events being described, as well as to distinguish between an 3rd Person who is the subject of the current sentence/clause (using the Proximal) and a 3rd person who is not the subject (using the Distal).

Other Languages

Other languages in this AU presume the gradual creation and growth of European colonies in North & Central America starting around 1000CE instead of the rapid colonization of Central America starting around 1500CE and of North America starting around 1600CE.

Finla was the first major consolidation of power, followed by "Nova Scotia" (provisional name), consisting mostly of Christian Celtic and Anglo-Saxon missionaries from England and France who established their major centers on the southwest coast of Greenland and to the south of Finla between 1100CE and 1250CE. Their Hibernian language is a Celtic koine of Old Gaelic, Old Welsh, Old Breton and Old Cornish with adstrates from Old English and Old French and a significant superstrate from Church Latin.

Fínlǣra Ethnographical Questionnaire

Dr. Zahar’s Ethnographical Questionnaire was compiled by David Zahir to help in the description of concultures, and can be found in the files section of the Conculture group at Yahoo.

Questions of Faith

What superstitions are common? What kinds of supernatural

events/beings do people fear?