<< Part 2 | A minor update to Askeisk >>

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Determiners

Like in Swedish (and probably the other Scandinavian languages, but I don’t know for sure since I’ve only studied Swedish), determiners are formed with a combination of tann “it” + heir/tar.

The proximal demonstratives “this/these” are:

	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	tann heir	tøn heir	tad heir	tanner heir	tønir heir	tad heir
Object	tann heir	tøni heir	tadi heir	tannum heir	tønym heir	tadum heir
Genitive	tans heir	tønar heir	tads heir	tana heir	tønæ heir	tada heir

And the distal demonstratives “that/those”:

	Singular			Plural
	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	tann tar	tøn tar	tad tar	tanner tar	tønir tar	tad tar
Object	tann tar	tøni tar	tadi tar	tannum tar	tønym tar	tadum tar
Genitive	tans tar	tønar tar	tads tar	tana tar	tønæ tar	tada tar

Examples:

• Tann heir er køttrinn minn. “This is my cat.”
• Tad tar epli eru raudt. “These apples are red.”
• Tøn tar er døttrin sin. “That is her daughter.
• Tønir tar røydhakar eru smølær. “Those robins are small.”

The Definite & Indefinite Articles

The definite article is suffixed to the noun. The indefinite article comes from the word einn meaning “one”. It declines in the way any other noun does.

Verbs

Verbs are not nearly as complex as they are in Old Norse. I prefer to create highly regular conlangs, and there was a lot that was irregular in Old Norse. Still, this is supposed to be a naturalistic language, and natlangs have a lot of irregularity and redundancy built into them.

Verbs have four classes: strong, weak, preterite-present, and irregular. There is no subjunctive mood, primarily because I couldn’t find enough examples of it on Wiktionary. That, and I didn’t want to make more verb tables.

Verbs are marked for person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular, plural), tense (present, past), mood (indicative, imperative) and have infinitive, present & past participle forms.

Strong Verbs

In strong verbs, the past tense and participle are indicated with a vowel change. This happens for every single vowel:

• /a/ → /e/
• /au/ → /ei/
• /æ/ → /ø/
• /ei/ → /øy/
• /i/ → /ei/
• /o/ → /a/
• /ou/ → /au/
• /ø/ → /y/
• /u/ → /au/
• /y/ → /ø/

The present participle ends in –andi, past participle ends in –inn, singular imperative is the stem, and plural imperative ends in –id.

Indicative verb endings are shown in the table below:

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past
1st	–	-um	–	-um
2nd	-ur	-id	-t	-ud
3rd	-ur	-a	–	-u

Example: at falla “to fall”

• Present participle: fallandi
• Past participle: fellinn
• Imperative singular: fall
• Imperative plural: fallid

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past
1st	fall	fallum	fell	fellum
2nd	fallur	fallid	fellt	fellud
3rd	fallur	falla	fell	fellu

If a strong verb starts with the consonant /v/, then the first vowel in the past tense plural and past participle shift to /u/ while the initial /v/ is dropped.

Example: at verda “to become”

• Present participle: verdandi
• Past participle: urdinn
• Imperative singular: verd
• Imperative plural: verdid

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past
1st	verd	verdum	vard	urdum
2nd	verdur	verdid	vart	urdud
3rd	verdur	verda	vard	urdu

Weak Verbs

Weak verbs have no vowel shift, only verb endings to indicate tense and person.

The present participle ends in –andi, past participle ends in –dur or –tur, singular imperative is the stem, and plural imperative ends in –id.

Indicative verb endings are shown in the table below:

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past
1st	-i	-um	-a	-um
2nd	-ir	-id	-ir	-ud
3rd	-ir	-a	-i	-u

Example: at læra “to learn”

• Present participle: lærandi
• Past participle: lærdur
• Imperative singular: lær
• Imperative plural: lærid

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past
1st	læri	lærum	læra	lærum
2nd	lærir	lærid	lærir	lærud
3rd	lærir	læra	læri	læru

Preterite-Present Verbs

These are only a handful of verbs in this class, but they were interesting enough that I decided to keep them instead of putting them with the strong or weak verbs.

Present tenses are the same as strong verbs’ past tenses, and past tenses are formed like weak verbs’ past tenses. The participles are the same as weak verbs’, the singular imperative is the stem, and the plural imperative ends in –ud.

Indicative verb endings are shown in the table below:

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past
1st	–	-um	-a	-um
2nd	-t	-ud	-ir	-ud
3rd	–	-u	-i	-u

Example: at muna “to remember”

• Present participle: munandi
• Past participle: munadur
• Imperative singular: mun
• Imperative plural: munud

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past
1st	maun	munum	muna	munum
2nd	maunt	munud	munir	munud
3rd	maun	munu	muni	munu

Irregular & Auxiliary Verbs

Askeisk only has a few irregular verbs. The most used is the copula, vera “to be”:

• Present participle: verandi
• Past participle: verit
• Imperative singular: ver
• Imperative plural: verid

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
	Present		Past
1st	em	eru	var	vøru
2nd	ert	eru	vart	vøru
3rd	er	eru	var	vøru

Auxiliary verbs follow the same declension as weak verbs.

Passive Verbs

Passive verbs are formed by suffixing –sk to the verb form.

The Future Tense

Askeisk doesn’t have a specific verb ending for the future tense. Most of the time, an auxiliary verb (munu, skulu, or vilja) is used in front of the bare infinitive form of the following verb.

Jeg munu fulgja tig. “I will (in the future) follow you.”

Jeg skulu fylgja tig. “I will (must) follow you.”

Jeg vilja fylgja tig. “I will (intend to) follow you.”

A temporal adverb can be used with a present tense verb to indicate that an action occurs in the future:

Jeg fylgjir tig senn. “I’ll follow you soon.”

Negating Verbs

The adverb ekki “not” is used to negate verbs:

Jeg em ekki gladur. “I am not happy.”

Tau er ekki fornt. “They are not old.”

The Present & Past Perfects

The weak verb hava “to hold” can be used as an auxiliary verb when the following verb is in its supine form. The supine form is formed by suffixing the verb stem with –(a)t.

Jeg havi fylgjat tig. “I have followed you.”

Jeg hava fylgjat tig. “I had followed you.”