Draft:Frislondisc language

Frislondisc
Region	Frisland
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic West Saxon Frislondisc
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Frislondisc is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, it is one of the two official languages of Frisland and its realms. Frislondisc is a constructed language based on the West Saxon dialect of Old English, though there is some disagreement about whether it’s best to call it a constructed language or a reconstructed language. While the language is based heavily on the West Saxon dialect of Old English, Old Norse, Old Frisian, and other Germanic languages were utilised in the construction of Frislondisc.

History

Frislondisc was developed for use in the context of Frisland and its realms as a fun side project and linguistic experiment. The fictional history of Frisland is built on a hypothetical group of West Saxon speakers settling a mythical archipelago to the west of Ireland and south of Iceland rather than Great Britain. The Frislondisc language is based on the hypothetical development of their language in the Frislander archipelago, which would have had limited contact with non-Germanic languages. The language is named after the Kingdom of Frisland.

Features

Frislondisc is phonetic, every letter is pronounced, though some letters have more than one pronunciation depending on the placement in the word and the surrounding letters. There are 25 letters in the Frislondisc language, all of the letters of the English alphabet with the exceptions of k, q, v, and z, and the remaining letters are þ (named “thorn”), ð (named “eth”), and æ (named “ash”).

Nouns decline for four cases: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive; three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter; two numbers: singular and plural; and are classified as either strong or weak.

Adjectives agree with their nouns in case, gender, and number, and can be either strong or weak. Pronouns agree in case, gender, and number. The definite article “se” and its inflections serve as the definite article, demonstrative adjective, and demonstrative pronoun.

Verbs conjugate for three persons: first, second, and third; two numbers: singular and plural; two tenses: past and present; three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative; and are either strong or weak. Finite verbs agree with their subjects in person and number. The future tense and passive voice are formed with compounds. The default word order is subject-verb-object, and adjectives generally come before the noun they modify.

Dialects

Officially, there is only one dialect of Frislondisc with only one accent. Unofficially, syntaxes and pronunciations that differ from the established form are considered different dialects and accents. The term “High Frislondisc” is used to refer to the “official” form of the language, and the term “Low Frislondisc” is used to refer to variant dialects.

As with any language, other dialects and accents are likely to develop as use of the language becomes more widespread. Since the phonology of Frislondisc is roughly the same as in English, non-native English speakers will most likely develop more accents and dialects of Frislondisc than their native English-speaking counterparts. Local dialects and accents are encouraged, the language is meant to be a unifying feature of Frisland and its realms, but the people should feel free to make Frislondisc their own in everyday use. Part of the purpose of Frislondisc's existence is to observe how native speakers of various languages will develop their own dialects and accents of Frislondisc and study why and how the language evolves over time. The usage of the language among people who are not citizens of Frisland is encouraged to help with the experiment.

Regulation

There is no law regulating Frislondisc, but the Stedefæstung ðæs Geðeodes Frislondisc (the Institute of the Frislondisc Language) developed the language and regulates the “official” form of the language. Local dialect variations are not formally regulated, so it is technically possible for several local dialects to develop within the same city. Anyone who is interested in learning Frislondisc is encouraged to contact the government of Frisland or Landseofon.

Sample text

The following is an example of a Frislondisc translation of Genesis 1:1-5.

On angyne gesceof God heofenan ond eorðan. Seo eorðe wæs unþah ond æmtig, ond wæron þeostra wæron oferswiðra þæs deopnese ymbring, ond micel wind bleow ofer wæs geferod ofer wæteru. Ond cwæð God, "gewurðe leoht," ond wearð geworht leoht. Ond geseah God þa þæt hit gud wæs, onde todælde he þæt leoht fram þam ðystrum. Ond het þæt leoht dæg ond þa ðystru niht, ða wæs geworden æfen ond merigen an dæg.