Yorkish
Posted: 04 Apr 2024 08:22
So I've been posting translations in this lang around the place and I figured I might finally start writing up some detail about it. This first post will be more a synopsis post for the whole language, but my plan for this thread is to write up snapshot posts about the features I'd really like to talk about.
Yorkish (Eurcisc /ˈʏrcɪsc/) is an Insular North Germanic language spoken in Yorkrice (ie. across our Yorkshire and going partway south) and in pockets in Angland. It is closely related to its southern sibling Markish, but defies attempts to be categorised precisely with its other Nordic siblings. Its higher social register shows strong influences from Danish (Danish in the previous centuries enjoyed great prestige among the Scandinavian elite, and Yorkrice as a state shared close political and cultural ties with Denmark during this time), but the core of the language as spoken commonly still shows its roots as an Anglicised yet lexically conservative Nordic language, with both West and East Nordic traits.
Phonology
Consonants:
/m n/ <m n>
/pʰ tʰ cç kʰ/ <p t c k>
/p t c k/ <p/b t/d c/g(ʒ) k/g>
/f θ s ɕ ç h/ <f/v th s s(ʒ) h(ʒ) h>
/r l j w/ <r l ʒ w>
Yorkish has shifted in a similar direction to the other Insular Nordic languages (but unlike Markish) in maintaining a strong aspiration contrast between stops rather than voicing. One key difference however is that the contrast is lost after word-initial position: Yorkish does not ever use preaspiration to keep the distinction. Rather any intervocalic stops and fricatives or those in sandhi are not infrequently partially voiced, and some debuccalised (very frequently in the case of /t/).
Vowels:
/ɪ ɪə ɪʊ ʏ ʏə ʊ ʊə ū/
/ei ē/
/ε ɛa ɛi (ə) əi/
/a ɒ ɒ̄/
Yorkish is typical among the North Germanic languages in having a large amount of vowels, but follows the trend of its Anglic neighbours in retaining very few long monophthong vowels. Most historically long vowels (with the notable exception of *ū) have shifted to become diphthongs in the standard variety, although some very northerly varieties of Yorkish have again developed contrastive vowel length, albeit still mostly predictable.
Major sound changes:
Yorkish (Eurcisc /ˈʏrcɪsc/) is an Insular North Germanic language spoken in Yorkrice (ie. across our Yorkshire and going partway south) and in pockets in Angland. It is closely related to its southern sibling Markish, but defies attempts to be categorised precisely with its other Nordic siblings. Its higher social register shows strong influences from Danish (Danish in the previous centuries enjoyed great prestige among the Scandinavian elite, and Yorkrice as a state shared close political and cultural ties with Denmark during this time), but the core of the language as spoken commonly still shows its roots as an Anglicised yet lexically conservative Nordic language, with both West and East Nordic traits.
Phonology
Consonants:
/m n/ <m n>
/pʰ tʰ cç kʰ/ <p t c k>
/p t c k/ <p/b t/d c/g(ʒ) k/g>
/f θ s ɕ ç h/ <f/v th s s(ʒ) h(ʒ) h>
/r l j w/ <r l ʒ w>
Yorkish has shifted in a similar direction to the other Insular Nordic languages (but unlike Markish) in maintaining a strong aspiration contrast between stops rather than voicing. One key difference however is that the contrast is lost after word-initial position: Yorkish does not ever use preaspiration to keep the distinction. Rather any intervocalic stops and fricatives or those in sandhi are not infrequently partially voiced, and some debuccalised (very frequently in the case of /t/).
Vowels:
/ɪ ɪə ɪʊ ʏ ʏə ʊ ʊə ū/
/ei ē/
/ε ɛa ɛi (ə) əi/
/a ɒ ɒ̄/
Yorkish is typical among the North Germanic languages in having a large amount of vowels, but follows the trend of its Anglic neighbours in retaining very few long monophthong vowels. Most historically long vowels (with the notable exception of *ū) have shifted to become diphthongs in the standard variety, although some very northerly varieties of Yorkish have again developed contrastive vowel length, albeit still mostly predictable.
Major sound changes:
Spoiler: