Thiedish

Thiedish is a direct descendant of Old and Middle English and a sibling to English and Scots. Unlike English, it preserves most of the original lexis inherited from Old English. Comparable to Scots, Thiedish has moderate influences from Old Norse, Low German, French and Latin. Old English and Modern English both exert considerable influence upon new vocabulary.

Setting[]

The language developed as a scholarly lingua franca due to the governance of a Thiedish Linguistic College, whose mandate was to establish basic rules for grammar, pronunciation, orthography, and standardisation for the burgeoning Saxon tongues across Mediaeval Britain. The language, which in the past has had a tendency to displayed intense prescriptivism, is currently evolving into a truly modern language suitable for literary and international use.

Phonology[]

Alphabet[]

Thiedish uses the Frankish/Carolingian alphabet, a descendant of the Latin, in conjunction with some Old English letters. Combinations of letters can be used to produce single phonemes, as in English.

Consonants[]

CAPITAL	small	IPA	English Example
B	b	/b/	b in boy
C	c	/k/ or /s/	c in cat or ice
D	d	/d/	d in dog
Ð	ð	/ð/	th in then
F	f	/f/	f in fond
G	g	/g/	g in girl
H	h	/h/	h in hand
J	j	/j/	y in yes
K	k	/k/	k in kit
L	l	/l/	l in like
M	m	/m/	m in man
N	n	/n/	n in net
P	p	/p/	p in pen
Q	q	/k/	q in queen, always followed by u
R	r	/r/	r in run
S	s	/s/ in initial position, /z/ in medial and final positions	s in sand, s in risen, s in his
T	t	/t/	t in top
Þ	þ	/θ/	th in thing (used in native words)
V	v	/v/	v in very
W	w	/w/	w in west
X	x	/ks/	x in box
Ȝ, Ʒ	ȝ, ʒ	/j/	y in yes
Z	z	/z/	z in zipper

Vowels[]

CAPITAL	small	IPA	English Example
A	a	/ɑ/	a in father
Æ	æ	/æ/	a in apple
E	e	/ɛ/	e in end
I	i	/i/	i in sit
O	o	/o/	o in open
U	u	/ʊ/	u in put
Y	y	/i/	y in hymn

Digraphs[]

Digraph	small	IPA	English Example
Aa	aa	/ɑː/	a in father
Ai	ai	/eɪ/	ai in rain
Au	au	/ɑː/	au in caught
Ch	ch, tch	/tʃ/	ch in chin
Dgh, Dʒh	dgh, dʒh	/ʤ/	dge in bridge
Ea	ea	/ei/	ea in great
Ee	ee	/eː/	/e:/ or ea in great
Ei	ei	/ai/	ei in heist
Eu	eu	/uː/	eu in
Gh	gh	/ç/	ch in loch
Ie	ie	/iː/	ie in believe
Ii, Ij	ii, ij	/aɪ/	i in time
( - )	ng	/ŋ/	ng in sing
Oa	oa	/oː/	oa in foam
Oi	oi	/ɔɪ/	oi in voice
Oo	oo	/oː/	o in home
Ou	ou	/aʊ/	ou in out
Ph	ph	/f/	ph in phone (used only with Greek words)
Sch	sch, sh	/ʃ/	sh in ship
Th	th	/θ/	th in thing (used only with Greek words)
Ue	ue	/uː/	ue in true
Ui	ui	/ai/	i in guide
Uo	uo	/uː/	oo in food
Uu	uu	/uː/	u in rude

Phonotactics[]

Consonant clusters are common, and phonotactic rules for Thiedish are the same as Old and Middle English. Clusters 'kn-', 'gn-', 'fn-', etc. are pronounced as they are written.

Basic Grammar[]

Typology[]

Thiedish is a Subject Verb Object (SVO) language, and specifically, a V2 language.

Gender[]

There are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. All common nouns are neuter, except where the sex is clearly discernable. Words such as: mann, boi, bull, draak, fader, sun ("son"), cock, kining ("king") are masculine. Feminines nouns are: wimman, wijf, læddiȝ, girl, muoder, swester, henn, quien ("queen"), etc. Many words can take either a masculine or feminine gender depending on the sex of the person or object being referred to, like: baker, larjow ("teacher"), hund ("dog"), fugel, dier ("animal"). In such cases, ðe larjow would be "the male teacher", while ða larjow would be "the female or lady teacher".

Articles[]

Articles are similar to those in other West Germanic languages.

Definite Articles ("The")[]

	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Plur.
Nom.	ðe	ða	ðe, ðet	ða
Obj.	ðe	ða	ðe, ðet	ða
Gen.	ðes	ðer	ðes	ðer

The neuter switch-forms ðe and ðet operate in the same way that English a and an do: when the following noun begins with a consonant, the form ðe is used ("ðe land"), otherwise ðet is the default article ("ðet æppel"). Definite articles are not declined, except in the genitive case as in ðe buok ðes manns ("the book of the man/the man's book"), and for number ða æppels ("the apples").

Indefinite Articles ("A/An")[]

	Masc.	Fem.	Neut.	Plur.
Nom.	a, an	a, an	a, an	-
Obj.	a, an	a, an	a, an	-
Gen.	anes	aner	anes	-

Pronouns[]

Demonstrative Pronouns ("That/Those")[]

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nom.	ðie	ðoa	ðæt	ðoa
Obj.	ðeam	ðear	ðæt	ðoam
Gen.	ðæs	ðear	ðæs	ðoar

Demonstrative Pronouns ("This/These")[]

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nom.	ðies	ðoas	ðis	ðoas
Obj.	ðissen, ðiesen	ðisser, ðoaser	ðis	ðissen, ðoasen
Gen.	ðisses, ðieses	ðisser, ðoaser	ðisses	ðisser, ðoaser

Interrogative Pronouns ("Who/What")[]

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nom.	hwea	hwoa	hwæt	hwoa
Obj.	hweam	hwear	hwæt	hwoam
Gen.	hwæs	hwear	hwæs	hwoar

Relative Pronouns ("That/Who/Which")[]

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nom.	ðie	ðoa	ðæt	ðoa
Obj.	ðeam	ðear	ðæt	ðoam
Gen.	ðæs	ðear	ðæs	ðoar

Personal Pronouns[]

Case	Singular First	Singular Second	Singular Third (masc.)	Singular Third (fem.)	Singular Third (neut.)	Dual First	Dual Second	Plural First	Plural Second	Plural Third (all genders)
Nom.	ik	ðou	hie	scho	hit	wit	ȝit	wie	ȝie	hea
Obj.	mie	ðie	him	hir	hit	unk	ink	ous	iew, jow	hem
Gen.	mijn	ðijn	his, sijn	hir	his	unker	inker	ouser	iewer, jower	her
Reflex.	mijnself	ðijnself	himself	hirself	hitself	unkerselvs	inkerselvs	ouserselvs	iewerselvs, jowerselvs	herselvs

Nouns[]

Nouns fall into two classes: Strong Nouns and Weak Nouns.

Strong Nouns[]

The majority of nouns fall into the Strong category, even nouns belonging to Weak declensions in Old English. All Strong Nouns are declined alike, regardless of gender. The Strong declension is declined as follows:

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural (all genders)
Nom.	loaverd	fruow	hand	loaverds, fruows, hands
Obj.	loaverd	fruow	hand	loaverds, fruows, hands
Gen.	loaverds	fruows	hands	loaverden, fruowen, handen

Weak Nouns[]

The Weak declension is preserved only for nouns derived from Weak Adjectives, as in Charles ðe Greate, or ða deaden in Crijst, and is used to refer to a specified individual with a certain quality or qualities: ðe boalde ("the bold one"). The Weak declension is declined as follows:

Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nom.	greate	greate	greate	greaten
Obj.	greate	greate	greate	greaten
Gen.	greate(s)	greate(s)	greate(s)	greaten

Irregular Nouns[]

A limited number of nouns form their plurals in an irregular or mixed way. They are declined as other Strong Nouns, appending -s to form the Genitive Singular, and -en to form the Genitive Plural (unless an -(e)n has already been added).

Singular	Plural
mann	menn
wimmann	wimmenn
chijld	childer
lied	liede
guos	gies
nut	nitte
schroud	schreid
mous	meis
lous	leis
burg	birg
muoder	mieder
bruoðer	brieðer
doghter	deghter
calf	calver
bread	breader
goat	geat
eaȝ	eaȝen
ear	earen
wijs	wijsen
schuo	schuon
flea	flean
ox	oxen
hoos	hosen
morgen	mergen
neaght	nieght

Verbs[]

Verbs in Thiedish are categorised into two classes: Strong and Weak.

Strong Verbs[]

Strong verbs show tense without the use of a dental affix (-t/-(e)d), have past participles which end in -(e)n, and mutate the Second and Third Person singular vowel stems in the Indicative.

Verb - eten ("to eat")

Present Indicative

Singular		Dual/Plural
ik eet		wit/wie eteþ
ðou itst		ȝit/ȝie eteþ
hie itþ		hea eteþ

Past Indicative

Singular		Dual/Plural
ik æt		wit/wie eaten
ðou eatst		ȝit/ȝie eaten
hie æt		hea eaten

Present Perfect

Singular		Dual/Plural
ik hæv eten		wit/wie haveþ eten
ðou hæst eten		ȝit/ȝie haveþ eten
hie hæþ eten		hea haveþ eten

Past Perfect

Singular		Dual/Plural
ik hæd eten		wit/wie hædden eten
ðou hædst eten		ȝit/ȝie hædden eten
hie hæd eten		hea hædden eten

Weak Verbs[]

Regular Weak Verbs[]

Irregular Weak Verbs[]

Conjugation[]

Verbs are conjugated for Person and Number. There are three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. There are two basic tenses: present and past; all other tenses are compound, relying heavily on auxiliary verbs, similar to other Germanic languages.