Old Tongue

Background

The Tongue of the People of the Mountains and the Forests is the language of the Nomads. It is most often referred to by the Townsfolks as "Wild Tongue" as well as "Old Tongue". For the purposes of this article (and brevity), it will be referred to as Old Tongue throughout.

Phonology

Vowels

There are nine vowels in the Old Tongue alphabet, each of which has a specific pronunciation. Some of them have English equivalents and some are slightly more complicated. The table gives an overview but below there are some more specifics.
O has no easy equivalent. It is something like the "oo" in "school" but can be shorter than that.
Y comes somewhere between "i" and "u" like the "y" in "syrup" or the vowel sound in "eat".
Ø has no English equivalent. It is similar to "u" in "burn" but has a more guttural sound behind it.

Vowel	Pronunciation
A | a	car, hard
E | e	get, bed
I | i	ski, hit
O | o	school
U | u	flu, uniform
Y | y	syrup, eat
Æ | æ	sad, man
Ø | ø	burn
Å | å	born, crawl

Diphthongs

Some vowel combinations create a sound known as a diphthong (or a gliding vowel). They make the language sound lilting. For example, the "ei" combination creates a sound similar to the word "eye".

ei, ai, au, øy

Consonant	Pronunciation	Exception
G | g	"g" in go	sometimes sounds like Old Tongue "j"
D | d	"d" in dog	silent at the end of a word
H | h	"h" in hat	silent in certain positions
J | j	"y" in yes
L | l	"l" in lamb
S | s	"s" in see
V | v	"v" in violin
T | t	"t" in tea	silent in the pronoun "dat" and in the definite form of neuter nouns
R | r	Scottish "r" rolled

Consonants

Most consonants are pronounced in Old Tongue in the same way they would be pronounced in English. However, there are some explanations in this table and below.
S should not be voiced. It is slightly swallowed when spoken and not emphasised.
R should be rolled softly so that the tip of the tongue taps the alveolar ridge.

Absent

The following consonants are not found in Old Tongue.

c, q, w, x, z

Combination Sounds

Certain combinations of letters make sounds which would otherwise not be possible (in the same way that in English "s" and "h" in the correct order make the "sh" noise).

ag

Using an "a" and a "g" together in that order creates a sound similar to the vowel combination "ei" and sounds similar to the English word "eye".

gj, g+i/y

Adding a "j", an "i" or a "y" after the "g" creates a sound similar to the vowel combination "ei" and sounds similar to the English word "eye".

kj, k+i/y

Adding a "j", an "i" or a "y" after the "k" creates a sound similar to the English "sh" noise, like the "sh" in "shop"

sj, skj, sk+i/y

Adding a "j" after an "s", or adding a "j", an "i" or a "y" after an "sk" creates a sound similar to the English "sh" noise, like the "tio" in "station".

Grammar

Nouns

Old Tongue nouns have three classes; masculine, feminine and neuter. However, all feminine nouns can also use the masculine noun class morphology. As a result some Nomads, particularly those from the Settlement In The Lowlands drop the feminine noun class entirely.

	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
	an	-an	ar	ana
Masculine	an bøt	bøtan	bøtar	bøtana
	a boat	the boat	boats	the boats
	ay	-æ	ar	ana
Feminine	ay dur	duræ	durar	durana
	a door	the door	doors	the doors
	at	-at	-/ar	æ/ana
Neuter	at bærn	bærnat	bærn	bærnæ
	a child	the child	children	the children

Adjectives

In Old Tongue, adjectives are inflected for definiteness, gender, number, and comparison (affirmative/comparative/superlative). Inflection for definiteness follows two paradigms, called "weak" and "strong".

		Affirmative			Comparative	Superlative
		Indefinite		Definite
	Common	Neuter	Plural			Indefinite	Definite
Rule	-	-t	-a	-a	-ara	-ast	-asta
Old Tongue	grunn	grunnt	grunna	grunna	grunnara	grunnast	grunnasta
English	green	green	green	green	greener	greenest	greenest
Old Tongue	mårsåm	mårsåmt	mårsåma	mårsåma	mårsåmara	mårsåmast	mårsåmasta
English	funny	funny	funny	funny	funnier	funniest	funniest

Verbs

Verbs in Old Tongue are not conjugated for person or number, unlike English. They are instead conjugated according mainly to two grammatical moods: indicative and imperative.
The imperative is formed by removing the last vowel of the infinitive verb form. Indicative verbs are conjugated for tense: present, past, and future. The present and past tense also have a passive form for the infinitive.
Below, the table shows the rules for ø lava (to live) and ø fynna (to find).

		Finite				Non-Finite
	Indicative		Imperative	Verbal Nouns		Verbal Adjectives
	Present	Past			Infinitive	Imperfective	Perfective
							Singular	Plural/Def
Active	lavar	lavda / lavat	lava	lav	lava	lavanda	lavd	lavda / lavat
Active	fynnar	fænt		fynn	fynna	(hær) fonnat	fonnat	fonna
Passive	lavas	lavdas			lavas
Passive	fyns / fynnas	fæntas			funnas	(hær) fonnas

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are declined according to case: nominative and accusative. Like English, pronouns in Old Tongue are the only class that has case declension.

			Subject Form	Object Form		Possessive
						Singular		Plural
					Male	Female	Neuter
Singular	1st Person		jag	mag	myn	my	mytt	myna
	2nd Person		do	dag	dyn	dy	dytt	dyna
	3rd Person	Male, animate	hæn	hæm / hæn	hæns	hæns	hæns	hæns
		Female, animate	hon	hanna	hannas	hannas	hannas	hannas
		Neuter, animate	han	han	hans	hans	hans	hans
		Male/Female, inanimate	dan	dan	dans	dans	dans	dans
		Neuter, inanimate	dat	dat	dats	dats	dats	dats
		Reflexive	-	sag	syn	sy	sytt	syna
Plural	1st Person		vy	åss	vør	vør	vørt	vøra
	2nd Person		dara	dara	daras	daras	daras	daras
	3rd Person	Non-Reflexive	da	dam	daras	daras	daras	daras
		Reflexive	-	sag	syn	sy	sytt	syna

Syntax

Word Order

Old Tongue syntax is predominantly Subject - Verb - Object (SVO). It also follows the V2 rule, which means that the finite verb is invariably the second element in a sentence. For example:

Jag	spysar	fysk	y dæg
I	eat	fish	today
Subject	Verb	Object

Jag	vyl	drykka kæffa	y dæg
I	want	to drink coffee	today
Subject	Verb	Object

Negatation

Negation is expressed by the word ykka, which literally translates to "not" and is placed after the finite verb. Exceptions are embedded clauses. For example:

• Hondan kåm ykka tylbæka mad bællan.
• The dog did not return with the ball.
• Dat vær hondan såm ykka kåm tylbæka.
• It was the dog that did not return.

Common Phrases

Below is a table showing a list of common words and phrases in Old Tongue. If there are more you would like to see, please add them in the comments.

Old Tongue	Pronunciation	Lit. Translation	Translation
Hay	Ha-y	Hi	Hello
Jæ	Ya	Yes	Yes
Nay	Na-y	No	No
Ver sø snyll	Ver su snill	Be so kind	Please
Tækk	Ta-kk	Thanks	Thank you
Hæ dat bræ	Hah dah brah	Have it well	Goodbye
Jag vat ykka	Y-eye vat yi-kka	I know not	I don't know
Jag hatar	Y-eye hat-ar	I called	My name is
Hvårdæn gør dat mad dag?	Vor-dan gur dah mad d-eye?	How goes it with you?	How are you?
Bæra bræ tækk	Bar-ra brah ta-kk	Only well thanks	Just fine, thank you

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