Next (Wenedyk)

Tundrian (*)

Gábor Sándi

Ring R

Encontrant lâ Santa Virgë

Mî dzêu, coum xûfla el vent! Hieri és vêniyta la guerra a nostro pauvro soldat común.
« Escûlta, estûpid guarç, depois quand vole salvar-te la senhoura? »
« És el fait de questa ironía de sûa mala fortuna. »
« Questa és una senhoura quen le genti sûppounen que lé gûsten le cantzouni ê li poêmi, mâs qui espeira a insûltar-te, a occideir-te, a devorar-te, ê qui, pensant qu’al fiyn tûa anma és damnata, te jêitará dâ lâ fenestra.»
« Por qué pensas ço? Diyce en lo noum de lâ bendiyta virgë, por qué pensas tu ço? »
« Jo non m’escondo dâ lo encontro con lâ vêritat, ê cel consilh és nulla qu’oncoura ne saipas. Mâs li homni han una melhour sort con los interrogatours qui demandan es qüessouns a los jôuns. »

No translation available yet.

Some notes on grammar

I have an 8000+ word dictionary (both ways) of Tundrian on my site, as well as a fairly thorough grammatical survey. One word comes up in the text that is not yet in my dictionary (ironía), I don't suppose this will pose a problem. :)

As to a historical grammar, I should prepare one - some of the phonological history îs on the introductory page on Tundrian on my site. Some things that might help:

1. a (short or long), ô and î are always retained in word-final syllables. e, i and u in such syllables are less predictable - they are retained as supporting vowels when necessary (Latin -u- being spelled -o- in Tundrian), but -e-/-i- also as morphological markers in verbs (and -ae survives as -e (pronounced as a schwa) in the nominative plural of feminine nouns/adjectives).

2. Latin stressed ê and i, ô and u, respectively, didn't merge in Tundrian, at least not at first. In spelling they are still distinguished today: as ei and i, ou and û, respectively. In pronunciation there is merger (dating to the late Middle Ages): /i/ and /u/, respectively. Many of the morphophonological alternations in Tundrian verbs are due to these developments: deveir/deivo (must), cognosceir/cognousco (know).

3. Latin û became /y/, as in French. The spelling is u (in some proper names, uy).

4. Latin stressed î became /øi/ (spelled iy) in originally open syllables, but remained i otherwise: viyta and mil.

5. Latin a, e and o (stressed or unstressed) developed slightly differently depending on whether they were in open or closed syllables. But this is mostly not evident in writing.

6. Latin stressed -a- (short or long) mostly became -ai- before a nasal + another vowel. But this happened after the loss of some vowels in final syllables, hence the alternations: can/caini (dog/dogs), amar/aimo (love).

7. Word-final -ll (after loss of final vowels) forced the development of an -i diphthongs preceding it, hence the alternations cavail/cavalli/cavâls (horse), bêil/belli/bêls (beautiful [m.]).

8. Double consonants have become single, although the originally doubled consonants are still written as such when a vowel follows: flamma, bella, villa, pûlli. When word-final, or before a consonant, only a single consonant can be written, with a circumflex on the preceding vowel (mostly): ân (year), xîcs (dry [masc. acc. pl.]). But: aprendeir (no circumflex!). -rr and -ss can be written doubled word-finally, though: tûrr (tower), class.

9. No intervocalic voicing of voiceless stops: sapeir (know), poteir (can), pacar (pay). But intervocalic -s- is voived to /z/ (written -s-, except when from Latin -ns-, when it's spelled /z/, for reasons best known to medieval pedantic monks: meiz (month)). But before -l- and -r- voiceless stops became voiced fricatives (which may have vocalized later on): cavra (goat), paire (father), povlo (people), sairat (sacred).

10. Early Vulgar Latin changes are the same in Tundrian as elsewhere: loss of h- (retained in spelling of course), intervocalic -b- > -v- (haveir [a'vir] (to have) illustrates both).

11. Palatalization of c- and g- as in Italian.

12. Secondary palatalization of dental consonants before short stressed e and i (and occasionaly elsewhere): tzerra, dzent, xit [Sit] (thirst), nhive ['ñiv@] (snow). But this never shows up in verbal paradigms: one or other of the consonants have generalized: tzeneir/tzenho (hold), niar/nîo (deny). Sometimes both possiblities have survived, with a split in meaning: serviyr and xerviyr both exist.

13. In morphology, note the survival of the accusative (also used after prepositions), with an 8-way possibility in the definite article: el/lo/li/los and la/lâ/le/las. In nouns and adjectives the accusative survives only in the plural (universally marked with an -s). -i has generalized as the marker of the nominative plural, except in feminines in -a, which have -e. Thus: case, muri, pedi. The dative survives in personal pronouns: me (accusative), mi (dative).

14. The verbal paradigm is almost the same as in Portuguese. Note the loss of the -s in the 1st person plural: cantam, vendeim.