Hurmu Norse
| norðyna, hurmunorðyna | |
| Pronunciation | /ˈnɔɾʏna/, /ˈhʉɾmʉˌnɔɾʏna/ |
|---|---|
| Spoken natively in |
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| Region |
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| Ethnicity | Hurmudans |
| Number of speakers | c. 7,000,000 |
| Language family |
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| Writing system | Machiavellian |
| Dialects |
sjoomaal ("West Lake District Norse") kaupangska (East Lake District Norse) farvelska ("Farewellish") |
| Official status | |
| Official language in |
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Recognised minority language in |
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The Hurmu Norse language (norðyna /ˈnɔɾʏna/; hurmunorðyna, /ˈhʉɾmʉˌnɔɾʏna/) is a standard of Norse in the Lake District of the Order of the Holy Lakes and in northern Elwynn.
History
Dialects
Orthography
Hurmu Norse uses the Machiavellian script and preserves many historical spellings inherited from Proto-Norse. The letter ð is retained for etymological reasons but is always silent; its phonetic presence serves only to indicate that the preceding vowel is shortened. Traditional consonant clusters such as hl, hr, and hv have been simplified to l, r, and v, respectively, bringing Hurmu Norse closer to related languages like Amalandic and Normark Norse. Between vowels, historical f is generally written as v to reflect its voiced pronunciation. A key feature of the orthography is the division of vowels into front (e, i, u, y, oy) and back (a, aa, o, oo) classes, which determine the form of many grammatical endings. Vowel spellings also reflect historical sound changes: for instance, Proto-Norse á and ǫ both became aa, while ó became oo, and diphthongs like au and ey merged into oy. Before front vowels, the consonants k, g, and sk are palatalized, a distinction relevant for both pronunciation and morphological alternations.
Native words generally avoid the letters c and q, while z occasionally appears to indicate a specific pronunciation, such as in amalenzkt ("Amalandic"; alongside the more conservative form amalendskt), where z marks a merger in which the d is dropped. Hurmu Norse generally avoids diphthongs, preferring to simplify them (e.g., Proto-Norse ei > Hurmu Norse e), with oy as the only common surviving diphthong. Some diphthongs remain in dialectal speech and loanwords, however: for example, the city name Kaupang retains its original form rather than being rendered as *Koypang. Likewise, letters common in other Norse varieties – such as þ, ø, æ, ö, ä, å – may occasionally appear in dialect writing, loanwords, or personal names, though they are not considered standard. For representing sounds foreign to traditional Norse phonology, the letters š and ž are sometimes used: š for an sh-like sound (e.g., šaah "shah", tšakare "a Çakari man"), while ž represents its voiced counterpart. In everyday speech, however, ž is often pronounced as unvoiced, as in vardžiskt ("Varjan") or Ažaroya ("Estarisa").
Phonology
Hurmu Norse (HN) preserves much of the sound system of Proto-Norse (PN), while developing a number of characteristic shifts that distinguish it from both its ancestor and its relatives. The phonology of Hurmu Norse is marked by systematic vowel changes, and above all by the role of the stressed stem vowel, which determines the quality of endings and inflectional development.
Consonants
Most consonants in Hurmu Norse are preserved from their Proto-Norse equivalents, though a number of clusters have simplified: hl-, hr- and hv- became l-, r- and v-, aligning Hurmu Norse more with Amalandic, Army Crandish, Normark Norse than with Storish.The grapheme ð is retained in orthography for etymological reasons but is always silent, but has the effect of shortening the vowel preceding closest to it. Proto-Norse's intervocalic f generally voices to v. A distinctive development is palatalization: k, g, sk are softened before e, i, y, oy, and j. (in stressed positions).
Vowels
In general terms, the Hurmu Norse vowels are systematically derived from Proto-Norse ones (exceptions exist of course, especially in non-stressed positions).
| PN vowel | HN vowel | IPA | Notes / Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | a | a, aː | Short and long preserved. PN dagr → HN dager (day) |
| á | aa | ɒː | Distinct long open back vowel. PN ár → HN aar (year) |
| ǫ | aa | ɒː | Merger with PN á. PN jǫrð → HN jaarð (earth) |
| o | o | o, oː | Preserved. |
| ó | oo | uː | Distinct long high back vowel. PN sól → HN sool (sun) |
| au | oy | œy, øy (œ, ø) | Merger into diphthong. PN auga → HN oygja (eye) |
| e | e | ɛ (ə), ɛː | Preserved. PN hestr → HN hestir (horse) |
| ei | e | ɛ (ə), eː | Simplified. PN steinn → HN sten |
| i, í | i | ɪ, iː | Preserved. |
| y, ý | y | ʏ, yː | Preserved. |
| u, ú | u | ʉ (ɤ, ɨ), ʉː | Preserved |
| ø, œ, ø̄ | y | ʏ, yː | Merged with y. PN dœma → HN dyma (to judge, deem) |
| ey | oy | œy, øy (œ, ø) | Becomes diphthong. PN ey → HN oy (island) |
The vowels of Hurmu Norse are for orthographical reasons (not necessarily always phonetic reasons) classed into front vowels and back vowels.
The back vowels are a, aa, o, and oo. The other vowels (e, i, u, y, oy) are considered front.
Front/Back vowel rule
Vocabulary
Grammar
Word order is similar to Istvanistani, with some licence for reverse word order for emphasis. There are three grammatical genders, traditionally called masculine (m), feminine (f), and neuter (n).
Nouns
Masculine
Weak
Weak masculine nouns are declined whether the stressed syllable is front or back vowel. As before, masculine nouns end in nominative either with -e, -i, -er, -ir, or -r.
We will begin with a table for a front-vowelled weak masculine noun, taking hestir ("horse") as an example. In this word, hest- is the stem from which we will decline the noun, and -ir is the front-vowelled weak masculine nominative suffix for this word.
| Case | Singular Indef. | Singular Def. | Plural Indef. | Plural Def. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | hest-ir | hest-in | hest-ar | hest-arnir |
| Acc. | hest | hest-in | hest-a | hest-ana |
| Dat. | hest-i | hest-inum | hest-um | hest-inum |
| Gen. | hest-s | hest-ins | hest-a | hest-anna |
Compare the front-vowelled weak masculine noun with the back-vowelled weak masculine noun, using alver ("elf") as an example:
| Case | Singular Indef. | Singular Def. | Plural Indef. | Plural Def. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | alv-er | alv-en | alv-ar | alv-arner |
| Acc. | alv | alv-en | alv-a | alv-ana |
| Dat. | alv-e | alv-enom | alv-om | alv-enom |
| Gen. | alv-s | alv-ens | alv-a | alv-anna |
Note therefore that where the front-vowelled weak masculine noun uses -i- and -u- in its suffixes, the back-vowelled weak masculine noun changes these to -e- and -o-.
We will now move on to weak masculine nouns ending with -i and -e in the nominative, starting with vingi (wing; front-vowelled weak masculine noun) and boge ("bow"; back-vowelled weak masculine noun)
| Case | Singular Indef. | Singular Def. | Plural Indef. | Plural Def. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | ving-i | ving-in | ving-jar | ving-jarnir |
| Acc. | ving-ja | ving-jan | ving-ja | ving-jana |
| Dat. | ving-janum | ving-jum | ving-junum | |
| Gen. | ving-jans | ving-ja | ving-janna |
And now for boge ("bow")
| Case | Singular Indef. | Singular Def. | Plural Indef. | Plural Def. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom. | bog-e | bog-en | bog-ar | bog-arner |
| Acc. | bog-a | bog-an | bog-a | bog-ana |
| Dat. | bog-anom | bog-om | bog-onom | |
| Gen. | bog-ans | bog-a | bog-anna |
Strong
A bit more complicated with ablaut/umlaut shit i can't be bothered right now... only remember that:
| Singular | Plural | Example |
|---|---|---|
| -a- | -e- | faðr ("father") → feðr ("fathers") |
| -aa- | -aa- | vaander ("wand") → vaander ("wands") |
| -jaa- | -e-- | bjaarn ("bear") → bernar ("bears") |
| -o- | -y- | son ("son") → synir ("sons") |
| -oo- | brooðr ("brother") → bryðr ("brothers") | |
| -u- | hus ("house") → hys ("houses") |
Feminine
Neuter
Adjectives
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
| Person | Number | Nom | Acc | Dat | Gen | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Sing. | ek | mik, mi | mer | min | |
| Dual | við | okker | vaar | Traditionally dual case, but more often used as inclusive marker ("you (sing.) and I; but also "you (pl) and I" | ||
| Plur. | ver | oss | ||||
| 2nd | Sing. | tu | tik, ti | ter | tin | |
| Dual | tið | yker | ykkar | |||
| Plur. | ter | yðr | yðvar | |||
| 3rd | Masc. | hann | han | honom | hans | |
| Fem. | hon | henna | henni | hennar | ||
| Neut. | tað | tað | tvi | tess | ||
| Masc. Pl. | tir | tem | tera | |||
| Fem. Pl. | taar | |||||
| Neut. Pl. | toy | |||||
Verbs
Verbs are conjugated by person and tense. There are two tenses (present and past), and there is also a perfective aspect. While there is no continuous aspect, there is a gerund that works similarly. Future is indicated by the present tense or through auxiliary verbs.