Thedish Language

The Thedish language (Thd. Theodisc Rasda /ˈθɛː.ðiʃ ˈraz.ða/), also known as the Fulkreyksk language (Thd. Fulkreyksk Rasda /ˈfulk.reːksk ˈraz.ða/), is the official language of the Isarnareyksk Federation. It was constructed by the Committee for a Unified Language (Thd. Kommissariat vur anemm Fareynihtau Rasdae), which was specially organized by the Thedish Assembly of the First Fulkreyksk Authoritariat for the purpose of creating a one-world language.

Phonology

In general, Thedish consonants are devoiced at the ends of words. Voiced consonants that alternate between stops and fricatives are devoiced to voiceless fricatives, such as word-final d becoming /θ/ and word-final g becoming /x/. Voiced stops that are never pronounced as fricatives are devoiced to voiceless stops, such as word-final b becoming /p/ and word-final dj becoming /tʃ/. The voiced fricative j /ʒ/ is devoiced to /ʃ/, and the voiced consonant v, which alternates between /v/ and /w/, is devoiced to /f/.

An s in the onset of a syllable before a p or t is pronounced /ʃ/, not /s/ or /z/. Intervocalic s is pronounced /z/; when doubled as ss, it is pronounced /s/.

A y after a consonant and before a vowel palatalizes the preceding consonant, e.g. the word styeorna "star" is pronounced /stʲɛːrna/.

The consonant sound /k/ can be written arbitrarily as either c, k, or q, owing to the various spelling schemes of Theden's pre-Fulkreykk natural languages. Similarly, the sound /x/ can be spelled ch, gh, hh, kh, or qh.

The letter x is always pronounced /ks/, never as /ɡz/.

Some consonants can be written as being doubled in the coda position. This does not have any effect on pronunciation, merely being done to mark historical palatalization of word-final consonants. Examples are the final kk in Fulkreykk, the rr in forarr "leader", and the dd in stadd "city, town".

Thedish vowel spelling is unintuitive, owing to its origin as a constructed interlanguage of every major natural language on Theden. Thedish distinguishes vowel length by spelling long and short vowels differently. The letter y, which is pronounced as the palatal approximant /j/ when used as a consonant, can also be pronounced as a close central unrounded vowel /ɨ/.

Thedish is lacking in diphthongs; to avoid being difficult to pronounce for some constituent subject peoples of Fulkreykk, the Unified Language Committee decided not to use diphthongs when constructing Thedish, opting instead for simple vowel sounds. This official explanation is contradicted by the complex nature of Thedish vowels, with a short-long distinction that is disambiguated with up to several different spellings per vowel.

In later Thedish, when it becomes necessary to mark diphthongs from loanwords in writing, the second vowel is marked with a diaeresis, e.g. the Tylan name "Keisarelka" is written in Thedish as Keïsarelka and pronounced /kɛɪ̯.za.rɛl.ka/. This only occurs with the Thedish writing system that uses the Latin alphabet, sanctioned by the Second Fulkreyksk Authoritariat; the Thedish alphabet itself uses an apostrophe between vowels that form a diphthong, e.g. Ke'isarelka.

Writing system

The Thedish writing system was designed by the Committee for a Unified Language by taking letters from the various pre-Fulkreyksk languages' writing systems. It has 25 letters, in both majuscule and miniscule forms, and a base-10 counting stystem.

Names of the letters

The names of the letters of the Thedish alphabet, in Thedish order, are as follows: Alef Bit Cadet Gamil Dalet Essil Vav Zet Hit Ivot Jenna Kaf Lamed Mem Nun Xen Oyin Pit Qvaf Rhesh Satha Tav Ussil Yot Fit.

Morphology

Thedish has a fusional inflectional morphology; nouns, verbs, and adjectives are inflected to show various grammatical properties.

Nominals

Nominal declensions use five cases: nominative, instrumental, genitive, dative, and accusative; two numbers: singular and plural; and two genders: common and neuter. The typical uses of each noun case can be summarized as:

• Nominative (kasus Haytand):
  • Subject of a sentence
  • Predicate nominative, e.g. Pyoter ist an laysarr "Peter is a teacher" (i.e. Peter has a natural talent for teaching)
  • Essive case, e.g. Pyoter taveth an laysarr "Peter works as a teacher" (i.e. Peter has a current career as a teacher)
  • Translative case, e.g. Scvaerdoen Plogscari Dag "Swords into Plowshares Day", literally "Day of (turning) Swords into Plowshares"
  • Default case, e.g. on signs, in dictionaries, etc.
• Instrumental (kasus Tauyand):
  • Instrument/means of carrying out an action, "with"/"using"/"by means of"
  • Agent of passive verbs (using the periphrastic conjugation)
  • Durations of time, e.g. threy dagomis "for three days"
  • Locations in time, e.g. thrystau dagau "on the third day", nevasdagau "yesterday", Heymati Dagau "on Homeland Day"
  • Some prepositions, usually those not indicating motion towards, e.g. mid "with, accompanied by", en "inside of", ober "above", vun "about", vur "for, on behalf of"
  • Absolute construct, e.g. tyuhanau scvaerdau "with drawn sword", numanau veraldau "after the planet was taken", valithomis Ansumis "Gods willing"
  • kasou "if", instrumental of kasus "case", literally meaning "with the case (that)..."
• Genitive (kasus Gebirand):
  • Possession, "of"
  • Some adjectives, e.g. fol "full of (+genitive noun)", friy "free of (+genitive noun)"
• Dative (kasus Giband):
  • Indirect object, "to"
  • Some impersonal verbs, e.g. mys kalteth "I am cold", literally "to-me it-is-cold"
  • Some intransitive verbs, e.g. Nayv bakutyouhan Khorr anbauth tham generalimis "Khorr ordered the generals (lit. gave an order to the generals) never to retreat"
  • Person observing, e.g. Mys ist sihvan "It seems (lit. is seen) to me"
  • Person affected, e.g. Nyhht ek stal thys "I did not steal from you (lit. to you)"
  • Introducing oneself by name, i.e. tho naman ist mys (name) "the name is to-me (name)"
  • Stating one's age, i.e. yeora sind mys (age) "years are to-me (age)"
• Accusative (kasus Fayrinond):
  • Direct object
  • Other prepositions, usually those indicating motion towards, e.g. tou "to", en "into", thverkh "across", geyn "against", vur "before, in front of", etc.

Noun declensions

Thedish uses four noun declensions:

• The first declension is for common nouns ending in -a
• The second declension is for nouns ending in a consonant (if common) or -o (if neuter)
• The third declension is for nouns ending in -is (if common) or -e (if neuter)
• The fourth declension is for nouns ending in -us (if common) or -ou (if neuter)

First declension

Common nouns ending in -a

Second declension

Common nouns ending in a consonant

Neuter nouns ending in -o

Third declension

Common nouns ending in -is

Neuter nouns ending in -e

Fourth declension

Common nouns ending in -us

Neuter nouns ending in -ou

Tylan declensions

Middle Tylan loanwords into the dialects of Thedish spoken around Tyulareykk used to use Tylan declension patterns during the time of the Fulkreyksk Occupation. Since Middle Tylan lacked an instrumental case, the dative case forms were used for both the dative and instrumental cases.

The Tylan language has three noun genders: terrestrial (masculine), ethereal (feminine), and spiritual (neuter). Thedish has two: common and neuter. Tylan loanwords from the terrestrial and ethereal genders are merged into the Thedish common gender, while Tylan spiritual nouns are put into the Thedish neuter gender.

The practice of using Tylan declensions in Thedish speech has since stopped, due to its reputation as a marker of pretentiousness. The declension patterns, as they are respelled into Thedish and expanded to all five noun cases, are listed below:

A-stem nouns

T-stem nouns

S-stem nouns

N-stem nouns

I-stem and U-stem nouns

Unlike most Tylan declension patterns, the I-stem and U-stem nouns were merged into native Thedish declensions; I-stem nouns became a part of the third declension ending in -is (if in the terrestrial or ethereal classes) or -e (if in the spiritual class), while U-stem nouns were adopted into the fourth declension ending in -us (if in the terrestrial or ethereal classes) or -ou (if in the spiritual class).

L-stem and R-stem nouns

Likewise, Tylan's L-stem and R-stem declensions became a part of the Thedish second declension, taking an -o suffix if originally in the spiritual noun class, e.g. the Tylan ethereal noun nivegal "(archaic) friendship" became loaned into the Tyulareykk dialect as nevgal "friendship" (displacing the native Thedish word fryundskapht within Tyulareykk), while the Tylan spiritual noun kashel "mythical road to the afterlife/home of the Pantheon" became loaned into Thedish as kaschlo "Veil rift".

Adjectives

Thedish adjectives use two different declension patterns: the second declension for "strong" adjectives, and the third declension for "weak" adjectives. Nouns described by strong adjectives are unaccompanied by any article, while weak adjectives describe nouns that are accompanied by a definite article. There is also a mixed declension, for nouns that are accompanied by either an indefinite article, possessive determiner, or deictic pronoun.

The mixed declension usually takes the forms of the second declension, except for when the ending is a short vowel or null ending, then it takes the equivalent form of the third declension.

Exceptional uses of adjectival declension patterns

Note that some noun phrases, comprised of an adjective and a noun, keep the adjective in the strong inflection even when the phrase is accompanied by a definite or indefinite article. For example, the phrase guminsklyk rhyngbildyang "walking dictionary" is literally translated as "human encyclopedia". The adjective is always kept in the strong declension since the phrase doesn't refer to an encyclopedia with traits of a human, but to a human with traits of an encyclopedia. The phrase's modified concept is the adjective, and its modifier is the noun; they are switched around for the purpose of idiomatic humor.

This does not apply to all idiomatic noun phrases. For example, the phrase flougand sviyn "unattainable goal" is literally translated as "flying pig". Here, the adjective is the modifier and the noun is the modified concept; they are not switched around for humor. The adjective flougand in the phrase is therefore declined normally: in the strong declension with no article, the weak declension with a definite article, and the mixed declension with an indefinite article.

Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives are formed fairly regularly, with few adjectives taking on suppletive forms for such degrees. The regular comparative is formed with the suffix -ar, and the superlative is formed with the suffix -ast. Examples are given below:

Adjectives with suppletive forms for the comparative and/or superlative degrees are listed below:

The adjective mikel can mean either "great" or "much". When it is used to mean "great", it takes regular forms for the comparative and superlative degrees. When it is used to mean "much", however, it takes suppletive forms for those degrees.

Articles

The Thedish language has both a definite article and an indefinite article. The definite article, coming from the word for "this, that" in the local dialect of Krimland, is inflected as follows:

The indefinite article comes from the numeral word for "one" in the Vendyš language of Theden, and it is inflected as follows:

Note that the indefinite article does not have plural forms, despite the fact that the mixed declension of adjectives, which is normally only used with the indefinite article, does have plural forms. When a plural noun is described with a strongly-declined adjective, it implies the meaning of "all <noun> that are <adjective>". When an adjective in the mixed declension describes a plural noun, it implies the meaning of "some <adjective> <noun>".

Pronouns and Determiners

Thedish personal pronouns in the third-person singular distinguish between four genders: masculine, feminine, epicene, and neuter. Masculine is used to describe male sapients, feminine to describe female sapients, epicene to describe sapients of unknown or unspecified sex, and neuter to describe animals, objects, and ideas or concepts.

In the third-person plural, there are only two genders: common and neuter. Common is used for a group that includes at least one sapient being, while neuter is used for a group that does not include any sapients.

Thedish second-person pronouns are subject to T-V distinction. The polite form of the singular "you" is the same as the plural form, except it is always started with a capital letter.

Thedish possessive pronouns are declined in various ways. With singular possessors myn- "my" and thyn- "your (singular)", they are declined with the forms of the second declension. With plural possessors nosr- "our" and yusr- "your (plural)", the possessive pronouns are declined with the forms of the third declension.

There are two sets of deictic pronouns: proximal/medial "here" and distal "there".

Interrogative pronouns in Thedish distinguish between singular and plural, as well as common and neuter, in the expected answer, as well as distinguishing between forms of domain (scope or universe of the question) and range (expected answer of the question).

There is a set of interrogatives meaning "who/what" with a universal or unspecified domain, there is a set of interrogatives meaning "which" with the range being a member of a specified domain, and there is a set of interrogatives meaning "what kind of" with the range being a superset of the specified domain.

Similarly to the Mechyrdian language, adverbial question words such as "where", "how", and "why" are formed with an inflected form of the interrogative pronoun and a particular preposition.

Universal pronouns are formed by appending the suffix -ach, originally meaning "and" in the Rumonis dialect, to the interrogative pronoun hvas.

Negative pronouns are formed by declining the word nyhht "not" in the third declension.

Numerals

Numerals ending in a vowel are usually indeclinable, unless they end in -a, then they use the first declension's forms. Numerals ending in a consonant use the second declension's forms.

Verbs

Thedish verbs are conjugated in two types: strong and weak. Strong verbs are conjugated with vowel alternation or reduplication, while weak verbs are conjugated purely by appending suffixes.

The present and preterite tenses are conjugated in the verb itself, while perfect, pluperfect, future, and future perfect use periphrastic conjugations. There are two voices: active and passive, and three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. There is an active participle and a passive participle, but only one infinitive.

Strong verbs

After the syllable that is subject to apophony, strong verbs take the following endings:

Endings marked with an asterisk * either drop the stem's final consonant or assimilate it into the ending, depending on the consonants involved. Each ending is numbered based on the pattern of the stem:

1. Present tense stem
2. Past tense indicative stem
3. Past tense subjunctive stem
4. Passive participle stem

Strong class I - liythan "to undergo, suffer"

Strong class II - lougan "to lie, tell an intentional falsehood"

Strong class III - drinkan "to drink"

Strong class IVa - niman "to take"

Strong class IVb - trudan "to step, tread"

Strong class V - qvithan "to say, speak"

Strong class VI - alan "to grow, increase, be augmented, (of numbers) be added"

Strong class VII - valdan "to rule, govern"

Weak verbs

Weak verbs are conjugated with a single thematic vowel; which vowel this is determines which weak class the verb falls into. Weak class I uses the vowel a, weak class II uses the vowel o, weak class III uses the vowel e, and weak class IV uses the vowel i.

The past tenses of weak verbs are formed with these suffixes:

Weak class I - havan "to have"

Weak class II - militon "to serve as a soldier"

Weak class III - soken "to seek, search for"

Weak class IV - botin "to benefit, cause profit for, be of advantage to"

Irregular verbs

Thedish has only two highly irregular verbs: visan "to be", and don "to do, make".

The passive participle visan is only used to conjugate the passive voice in the perfect and pluperfect tenses. It does not have any meaning outside of such usage.

Suppletive verbs

Thedish also has a suppletive verb: gangan, which uses the forms of a different verb in the past tense. This different verb is also irregular, conjugated in accordance with the former local language of Severnaia region; its native infinitive form is idti. For the past subjunctive forms, Thedish inflections were used with the stem id- since the Severnaian language lacked any subjunctive mood.

Periphrastic conjugations

Periphrastic conjugations are used for the perfect, pluperfect, future, and future perfect tenses, as well as for the passive voice in all tenses. The perfect tense uses the present forms of the weak class I verb havan "to have" with a passive participle that agrees with the object of a transitive verb, or the subject of an intransitive verb. Likewise, the pluperfect tense functions similarly, except it uses the preterite forms of havan.

The future tense uses the present forms of the strong class III verb virthan "to become" with an infinitive. and the future perfect tense uses the preterite forms of virthan. The passive voice uses the irregular verb visan "to be" with a passive participle.

A full table of periphrastic conjugations, using the first-person singular forms of the strong class II verb tyouhan "command", is displayed below:

Syntax

Word order

The word order of Thedish is fairly free, with its pragmatism on a level comparable to Old Tylan. Thedish has a basic neutral word order:

• Subject - Nominal Verb Complement - Verb (Auxiliary, then Head) - Direct Object - Indirect Object - Goal, Source, or Beneficiary - Adjunct

A nominal verb complement is a direct object that does not reference any particular argument of the sentence, but instead specifies the action of the verb itself, e.g. the word vygo "war" in the phrase vygo tyouhan "to wage war".

Some examples of neutral word order include:

• Vrankenn Kassck nevyota Fulkreykko en 1781 PC yeorau "Vrankenn Kassck founded Fulkreykk in the year 1781 PC"
• Aedonau vygo tyauhh geyn Fulkreykko "Aedonau waged war against Fulkreykk"
• Praethoris Khorr gatyauhh esch flota geyn than vygyarl Aedonau that vygo tou andyon "Praethoris Khorr led his fleets against the warlord Aedonau to end the war"
• Fulkreykk bisigarota Aedonau undar Praethoriys Khorri forarheydau en 1699 PC yeorau "Fulkreykk defeated Aedonau under Praethoris Khorr's leadership in the year 1699 PC"
• Vy havam tavetha mikila vorsta "We have worked great deeds"

Emphasizing various elements of a sentence is usually done by moving it to the initial position, with the exception of the subject; since the subject is already in the initial position with neutral word order, the verb is instead moved to the final position in the sentence:

• Vrankenn Kassck nevyota Fulkreykko en 1781 PC yeorau "Vrankenn Kassck founded Fulkreykk in the year 1781 PC"
• Vrankenn Kassck Fulkreykko en 1781 PC yeorau nevyota "It was Vrankenn Kassck, who founded Fulkreykk in the year 1781 PC"
• Fulkreykko Vrankenn Kassck nevyota en 1781 PC yeorau "It was Fulkreykk, that Vrankenn Kassck founded in the year 1781 PC"
• Nevyota Vrankenn Kassck Fulkreykko en 1781 PC yeorau "It was the act of founding, that Vrankenn Kassck did for Fulkreykk in the year 1781 PC"
• En 1781 PC yeorau Vrankenn Kassck nevyota Fulkreykko "It was the year 1781 PC, when Vrankenn Kassck founded Fulkreykk"

In imperative statements, the verb is always put first. In wh-questions using an interrogative pronoun, the question word is always put first and the verb second. In wh-questions using an interrogative adjective, the question word is put first, the noun it describes is second, and the verb third. If the interrogative pronoun is the object of a preposition, the preposition is put at the end of the sentence. In yes/no questions, the word tscy "if" is put first, followed by the verb:

• Commands
  • Ran thans kumpous! "Clean the dishes!"
  • Laet nos gangan! "Let's go!" (to a single listener)
  • Laeted nos gangan! "Let's go!" (to a group of listeners)
• Wh-questions
  • Hvath ist thiyso? "What is this?"
  • Hvas naman ist thys? "What is your name?"
  • Hves hande ist thiyso? "Whose phone is this?"
  • Hvaryane raumau iysem vy en? "What room are we in?"
  • Hvae iysem vy at? "Where are we?"
• Yes/no questions
  • Tscy ist naman thys Dagobar? "Is your name Dagobar?"
  • Tscy havest thue an mobile? "Do you have a car?"
  • Tscy vreystilend ayqverni yeineis? "Are those squirrels wrestling?"

Adjectives are usually put before nouns, but on occasion they are put after the noun. Thedish syntax allows for hyperbaton, or the separation of adjective and noun by intervening words, with the result of emphasizing the adjective or the noun.

Pokhvalish dialect

The Pokhvalish dialect (Pochvalsko jargo) of Thedish refers to the current form of what was originally the Pokhvalish language. When the Fulkreyksk government was centralizing the various languages of Theden into a single tongue, Forarr Vrankenn Kassck and his successor Dagobar Orsh specifically allowed people who spoke Pokhvalish to continue doing so. Over time, however, the language naturally became assimilated to become more like the worldwide Thedish speech, though it retained some idiosyncrasies that distinguish it as a dialect.

The following table contains some of the words or phrases that are unique to Pokhvalish speech:

Note that this is not a comprehensive guide to the Pokhvalish dialect of Thedish.

The Pokhwalish dialect also has its own alphabet, separate from the Thedish alphabet:

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