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 | ə | o |
| ɛ | œ | ɔ | |
| a | ɑ |
Vowel Harmony
A simple harmony "guideline" tends to exist (but is not a hard rule), especially in natively Norse words:
- Vowels within one word each share the frontedness and/or the roundedness of the preceeding vowel.
This is not a productive rule in the modern stage of the language, and does not apply to new compunds or borrowings. It applies sporadically to older borrowings.
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:
| Foreign | q | ɢ | ɴ | ɟ | h | ɰ | ʔ | kʷ | ʌ |
| Fínlǣsk | k | ɡ | ŋ* | j | ç / x / ∅ | w | g | kw | 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 hð ðð | h 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 |
Postpositions
Many common postpositions have become enclitics, and a process of their becoming instead enlargements of the case system is imminent, and arguably already underway in various colloquial lects.
| Postposition | Case | Meaning |
Postpositions show above with a leading hyphen have generally fused as enclitics.
Adjectives
Pronouns
Pronouns are marked for person, number and case. Additionally, pronouns carry inclusivity/exclusivity information for the first person not encoded elsewhere. See the respective sections above and below for more details on the individual systems.
Placeholder mostly-pure-ON pronouns
| 1 Sg | 1 Du Ex | 1 Pl Ex | 1 Du In | 1 Pl In | 2 Sg | 2 Du | 2 Pl | 3 Px Sg | 3 Px Du | 3 Px Pl | 3 Ds Sg | 3 Ds Du | 3 Ds Pl | |
| Nominative | eg | fitt | fé | hðu | hðitt | hðér | an | ant | hðéj | hðatt | hðætt | ðǫ | ||
| Accusative | mik | okke | oss | hðikk | ᵫkke | ᵫððe | hánn | hánnt | ðá | ðat | ðet | ðǫ | ||
| Genitive | mín | okká | fǫ́ | hðín | ᵫkkar | ᵫðar | æns | æntts | hðéjæ | hðess | hðentts | hðéjæ | ||
| Dative | ||||||||||||||
| Locative | ||||||||||||||
| Oblique |
The 3rd Person Proximal/Distal forms are used 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).
Verbs
Person
1st, 2nd, 3rd Common, 3rd Neuter
Active Voice
Simple bare verb.
Passive Voice
The use of the Passive is virtually obligatory when the agent of the verb is of lower percieved animacy than the undergoer.
Nonpast Tense
Aorist/Present Construction
Simple bare verb.
Future Construction
Auxilliary verbs or adverbs of intention or likelyhood are used.
Past Tense
Ablaut.
Moods
Indicative, Interrogative (for yes/no questions on the truth value of the predicate), Subjunctive (includes Conditional and Irrealis), Imperative (includes Hortative and Jussive).
Aspects
Imperfect, Perfect.
Attitudinal and Evidential modifiers
Equiv. doch, schon, mal, eben, ja, etc.
Gerunds, Participles, and their Adjectives and Nouns
Adverbs
Particles
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.
