Samthüdisk, a slightly different Germanic auxlang.

[HinGambleGoth]

Well, I already know of Folkspraak, Frenkish and such, but I want to try and make a somewhat different Germanic auxlang.

The existing languages feel somewhat mangled together, often English grammar with a dutch like orthography and a radically generalized morphology that doesn't really resemble a living Germanic language. I understand the point of this, making it easy and accessible, but it just feels off. I will do my own attempt, well, my first ever conlang. The idea here is to make something resembling an actual Germanic natlang, a somewhat average "standard" Germanic language, It has a slightly higher learning curve than folkspraak but it would be easy to learn for a Swedish or German speaker relatively quickly.

Let's call it Samthüdisk, "common Germanic".

I will mostly base it on Dutch, low German and continental Scandinavian. High German and insular Scandinavian are quite different, so for instance no I-umlaut in present tense or verbs or a functioning case system. While the idea is to make a somewhat simple language, I will favor more common and original forms in general. This means no secondary diphthongs and a preference for strong verbs.

Phonology:

/ai/ = /ei/
/au/ = /ou/
/eu/ = /ie/
/iu/ = /y:/

/a:/ = /a:/ (uncertain, depends on lengthened old /a/'s quality)
/i:/ = /i:/
/e:/ = /e:/
/o:/ = /o:/
/u:/ = /u:/

Umlaut.

/ou/ = /øy/
/a:/ = /ɛ:/
/o:/ = /ø:/
/u:/ = /y:/

The quantity system will be the typical modern Germanic one, vowels are short behind clusters and long consonants, and old short vowels are lengthened in open syllable old short syllable words, I want to try and keep the vowel quality distinct from the old long vowels in theory, but that will be interesting to figure out.

The consonants will be the typical low Germanic system. I'm uncertain about the dental fricative but I will keep it anyway. /sk/ won't turn to a fricative, no palatalization. Voiced stops are fricatives/approximants medially and finally.

While keeping distinct unstressed vowels like Icelandic and Swedish would be fun, it's just too rare and limited to be a generalized Germanic language. I will only have -e for schwa.


Morphology:
I-umlaut in nouns is realized much in the same way as in German and Swedish, the letters ü,ä and ä are only used when it is etymological, hence helpe and känne.
The verbs will mainly be based on Dutch and the nouns on Swedish and Norwegian.

In general:
there are two genders. common (the) and (that) neuter.
genitive is formed with -s
the verbs distinguish number and person
the infinitive is -e, the strong participle is -en

an attempt, (please correct me)

te kunne

ek kann kunde
thu kanst kundest
wi kunnen kunden
that kann kunde
i kunnen kunden

kunnende

Some more verbs.

söke - sochte - socht
helpe - halp - hulpen
geve - gaf - geven
bruke - brukede - bruked

Some nouns:

neuter.
dier - dier-∅
word - word-∅
name - name-n
ouge - ougen-n

common:
son - söne
mann - männ
hund - hunde
älg - älge
stein - steine


Adjectives:
Will be similar to Norwegian or Dutch.

ein swart hund
the swarte hund
thei swarte hunde

eint nüt hus
that nüe hus
thei nüe hus



Topics that need to be dealt with:
Pronouns.
extent of A-umlaut. stulen vs stolen, hult vs holt etc
Open syllable lengthening and vowel quality.
Copula verb
Old /j/ in medial syllables
Vocabulary.
Adverbs and function words in general.
should final /z/ be kept as /r/ ?


I would love some input and help!

[Nachtuil]

For pronouns have you considered using your demonstratives/definitely articles like Dutch often does for inanimates? (And sometimes animates)

[HinGambleGoth]

For pronouns have you considered using your demonstratives/definitely articles like Dutch often does for inanimates? (And sometimes animates)

That would be much alike north germanic that uses the demonstratives as plural pronouns.