Archaic Sombrandian Language

The Sombrandian language is dubbed as archaic due to it only have been used during the reign of Technomania before the Great Falloit of 1384. The language takes inspiration from both English, German, as well as some of its own rules and translations. Despite modern day Sombrandia occupying previous French lands, the ancient Sombrandian Kingdom previously expanded to Germanic lands, and bordered multiple Germanic countries, so the ancient language is similar to German and not French.
*Please remember this is a WIP :)
Here is an overview of the language:
== Basic Grammer ==
=== Word Order ===
Sombrandian word order is the same as English, with the Subject-Verb-Object word order used in the language. However, after a connective/conjunction, the word order switches slightly, with the verb going to the end of the clause. For example,
Pre Connective/conjunction - The dog fell. The dog hurt itself
With Connective/conjunction - The dog fell and the dog itself hurt
This change in word order originates from Germanic languages, with certain connectives/conjunctions in German sending the verb to the end of the clause, such as weil and obwohl.
=== The Alphabet ===
Here is a list of what each letter of the alphabet is and how it sounds:
* a - pronounced “aso”
* ä - pronounced German way (“e”)
* b - pronounced “bah”
* c - pronounced “ca”
* ç - pronounced French way (“s”)
* d - pronounced “dah”
* e - pronounced “ays”
* f - pronounced English way
* g - pronounced “gah”
* h - pronounced “hah”
* i - pronounced “ika”
* j - pronounced “jah”
* k - pronounced English way (“kay”)
* L - pronounced “ells”
* m - pronounced “muh”
* n - pronounced “nah”
* o - pronounced “ose” (like how it is pronounced in “hose”)
* ö - pronounced German way
* p - pronounced “peh”
* q - pronounced “kwey” (“w” pronounced German way (“v”))
* r - pronounced English way
* s - pronounced German way
* t - pronounced “tuh”
* u - pronounced “uts”
* ü - pronounced German way
* v - pronounced German way
* w - pronounced German way
* x - pronounced English way
* y - pronounced German way (“oopsilon”)
* z - pronounced German way
The main theme of the Sombrandian vowels is that they all contain the letter “s” in their pronunciation. This links to the frequent use of the letter “s” in other words in the language, with the letter “s” being the most commonly heard sound in Sombrandia, due to it being the first letter in the country’s name, signifying it’s importance. The common trend with the Sombrandian alphabet is that a majority of the first half of the alphabet has its own unique pronunciation, however the latter half takes the pronunciation of itself in the Germanic alphabet.
=== Common sounds in archaic Sombrandian ===
* th - pronounced English way in words of English origin, and pronounced German way in words of German origin
* äu - pronounced German way (“oy”)
* ch - pronounced German way
* äs - pronounced “esh”
Archaic Sombrandian is mostly a phonetic language, with most of the non phonetic parts of the language being of English origin.
== Past Tense ==
Once again taking inspiration from German, the archaic Sombrandian Language changes the infinitive form of the verb to work with past tense. However, unlike German, the past tense verb does not have to be partnered with a conjugated form of haben or sein, instead it can be a stand alone verb and it does not have to be at the end of the clause, For example,
German - Ich habe eine Katze gekauft
Archaic Sombrandian - Ich gekauft eine Katze
In Archaic Sombrandian, the letters Sa- are added to the beginning or end of the present tense infinitive verb, unlike German which adds ge- to the infinitive at the beginning or middle or not at all depending on the verb
== Future Tense ==
The future tense is similar to English. Using verbs such as will and other modal verbs indicate the use of the future tense. Pairing these verbs with the standard present tense verb creates the future tense. However, there is 2 different future tenses. Future Certain is through the use of will alongside the standard present tense verb, whereas Future Uncertain is using modal verbs such as would and should which indicate a future time period, but are not as obvious as through the use of the verb will. For example,
Certain - I will buy the game
Uncertain - I should buy the game
== Popular Greeting Translations ==
* Hello - Hallos (Hallo originates from German, with the s at the end being a common addition in archaic Sombrandian words, however in this case the letter s creates a “sh” sound. This is a strange anomaly in the archaic Sombrandian language than happens very rarely in different words. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern in the words which the different “sh” sound is used, so the reason for this change is currently unclear)
* Good Day - Gutes Deg (Gutes links to Guten in Guten Tag from German, the s once again being a common addition to archaic Sombrandian words. Deg is pronounced “dayg” with the e being an “ay” sound. This suggests that the word originated from the English word Day, with the addition of the G linking to the German word for day, “Tag”)
* Please - Blitts (This originates from the German word for please, “bitte”. This also links to the English word “please” with the inclusion of the letter “l”. The s is once again a common trend in archaic Sombrandian words)
* Thank You - Thenk Däch (“Thenk” mostly originates from the English word “Thank”, with the inclusion of the e being a slight change. “Däch” originates from German, with the word both looking and sounding similar to the German word for you, “dich”. The inclusion of the a with an umlaut “ä” further suggests this German origin of the word. With the inclusion of the umlaut, the word “Däch” is roughly pronounced “Dech” with the “ch” sounding the same as it does in German)
Category:Languages