Virskalli (viːɽrskaliː)

Virskalli is a language spoken by the secretive and often aggressive barbarian tribes of the Bloodforest and the region of Vreskalli. The language evolved from the now dead language Vir. Virskallian used to be a rather isolated language but are today (essentially due to the Virskallian migration inte the Bloosforest) more in contact and influenced by other languages. The main influences comes from Sezarian, Sorion and the Fundi languages.

Distinctive features

Distinctive for Skallian is it's rolling r's and clear v's. Grammattically is it a rather ordinary language with a SVO (subject–verb–object) sentence structure. What could be described as a bit uncommon feature is the nouns numerus, since it beyond the common singular and plural forms also has a dual form.

Phonology

Vocals

IPA	Runes	Letters		Example	Example IPA		English approximation
a		a		skalli	/'skaliː/		cut
ɑː		a		sela	/seːlɑː/		bra
æ		ae		tar	/'tæɽr/		trap
æː		ae		tammbal	/'tambæːl/		ham
eː		e		sela	/seːlɑː/		mayhem
ɛ		e		thengi	/ðɛngiː/		hell
ɛː		a		zra	/sɽrɛː/		pair	as in British English
ɪ		i		thing	/ðɪng/		hit
iː		i		thengi	/ðɛngiː/		leave
ɔ		o		volk	/ˈvɔlk/		off
oː		aa		gorth	/goːɽrð/		floor
œ		oe		jura				somewhat like hurt
œː		oe						somewhat like herd
øː		oe						somewhat like herd
ɵ		u		hula	/hɵlɑː/		moot
ʉ		u		surg	/sʉɽrg/		moot
ʉː		u		luna	/lʉːnɑː/		mood
ʊ		u		jurr	/jʊɽr/		pull
uː		o		sor	/suːɽr/		fool
ʏ		y		ylk	/'ʏlk/			somewhat like cute
yː		y		vythr	/vyːðr/			somewhat like cube

Consonants

IPA	Runes	Letters		Example	Example IPA		English approximation
b		b		bor	/boːɽr/		book
tɕ		tj		tjurr	/tɕʊɽr/		cheap
d		d		dil	/'diːl/		dad
ɽrd		rd		verd	/vɛɽrd/			rolling r as in Dutch riem /ɽrim/ followed buy an English d as in dad /dæd/.
f		f		fanna	/'fana/		foot
g		g		gorth	/goːɽrð/		gone
h		h		hula	/hɵlɑː/		hot	as in British English
ɧ		sh		shar	/ʃɑːɽr/		sheep
j		j		jurr	/jʊɽr/		yoyo
k		c, k		catti, kinnya	/kati/, /kɪnyɑː/		kin
ks		cz, x		seczhar, aluxe	/sɛkshar/, /alɵks/		sex
l		l		loss	/lɔs/		lack
ɭ		rl		serla	/seːɭa/			retroflex /l/
m		m		mackan	/makɑːn/		mode
n		n		nar	/nɑːɽr/		node
ŋ		ng		seng	/sɛːŋ/		long
p		p		kapa	/kɑːpɑː/		pole
ɽr		r		nar	/nɑːɽr/
s		c, s, z		cilone, seng, za	/siːlɔn/, /sɛːŋ/, /sa/		soot
t		t		tirack	/tiːɽrak/		tool
v		v		volk	/ˈvɔlk/		vote

Long or short vocals

As shown does Virskalli have both long and short vocals. In writing does the amount of consonants following the vocal decide of the vocal is long or short.
A short vocal indicates by a double konsonant like bb, tt or ll. The only consonant that doesn't double up for short vocal is k, instead if its a short vocal followed by the k-sound the consonant combination ck is used.
The double consonants is the a main rule when it comes to short vocals and is a heritage from vriskallians parent language Vir. However there is exceptions to the rule, these exceptions are mostly short words with their etymologian roots in Vir like o, al, or words borrowed from other language like volk and dos (Fundi), or aluxe (Sezarian).

Morphology

Morphology in linguistics is how words changes, how they morph. In Virskalli the morphology of the nouns are affected by numeral and cases, the verbs by tempus and the gender of the noun or pronoun, while adjectives are affected by the comparative.

Numeral

Vreskallian nouns can be singular, dual or plural and has therefore both dual morpheme as well as plural morpheme. The form of the morpheme also depends on if the noun ends with a consonant or a vocal.
The consonant morphemes is -o (dual) and -r (plural) and the vocal morphemes is -a (dual) and -s (plural).
Examples

Numeral	English	Virskalli
singular	ancestor	vir
dual	(two) ancestors	viro
plural	(many) ancestors	virr
singular	moon	engari
dual	(two) moons	engria
plural	(many) moons	engaris

There are also a couple of nouns that does not have a dual or plural form, like water or air for example. Naturally they don't have any morphemes either.
Examples:

English	Virskalli
air	kott
salt	tar
sand	samli
water	jurr

An other factor that affect the root words are gender. In Virskalli is the gender of the subject that is important, while the gender of the object does not affect the morphology of the language. Only nouns and pronouns are given a gender, and the gender of the noun (or pronoun) affects the verb. Depending on gender different suffixes are used.
There are three genders. These are feminine, masculine and neuter. Each gender has its own morpheme. They are:

• Feminine, -em (or just -m if the verb ends with a vocal) in preterite and -ma (or just -a if the verb ands with a consonant) in perfect tense.
• Masculine, -at (or just -t if the verb ends with a vocal) in preterite and -ed in perfect tense.
• Neuter, -an (or just -n if the verb ends with a vocal) in preterite and -un (or just -n if the verb ands with a vocal) in perfect tense.

The nouns gender depends on the last letter of the root word:

• Nouns ending with a vocal except those ending with an o are feminine
• Nouns ending with a consonant are masculine
• Nouns ending with an o are neuter

Examples:

English	Virskalli	Gender
star	sestra	feminine
ancestor	vir	masculine
door	hero	neuter

When it comes to pronouns the rules are the same but the suffixes are not added. And since gender in linguistics has nothing to do biological gender, we get:

• Feminine: I (ena), they (ha) we (azi)
• Masculine: he (loss), it (es), she (hoss)
• Neuter: you (o), You (oro)

With knowledge about both the morphology of the verb and how to decide the gender of the noun and pronoun we can now correct morph them and make some examples.
Examples:

Tens		English		Virskalli		Gender
Infinitive		I see the child		Ena zenn zra kinnya		feminine
Preterite		I saw the child		Ena zennem zra kinnya		feminine
Perfect		I have seen the child		Ena zenna zra kinnya		feminine
Infinitive		The chieftain sees the spears		Zra vosh zenn za borr		masculine
Preterite		The chieftain saw the spears		Zra vosh zennat za borr		masculine
Perfect		The chieftain has seen the spears		Zra vosh zenned za borr		masculine
Infinitive		You throw the spear		O kasti zra bor		neuter
Preterite		I saw you threw the spear		Ena zennem o kastin zra bor		neuter
Perfect		You has thrown the spear		O kastin zra bor		neuter

Defenite and indefinite

In Virskalli a destination between senses or referents that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). This is called article. In English the articles the and a/an are articles, which combine with nouns to form noun phrases. In Virskalli the English the kan be compared to zra (singualar) and za (dual and plural), eva to a and eta to an.
But there are also a parallel system where zra and za are exchanged for the suffixes -et (-t) and -en (-n). Why there are two systems are not known, but the system with suffixes seems younger.
Definite article examples:

System		English		Virskalli
Zra/za		Give me the spear		Gif en zra bor
Zra/za		Give me the spears		Gif en za borr
Suffixes		Give me the spear		Gif en boret
Suffixes		Give me the spear		Gif en borren

Indefinite article examples:

English		Virskalli
A big fish		Eva fah shar
A big spear		Eva fah bor
An ugly abomination		Eta uffa irikisi
An ugly unicorn		Eta uffa evharc

Cases

Examples:

Case	Example	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	A new blade	Isti vast gerr	Zina vast gerro	Dos vast gerr
Genitive	The cabin's door	Zra nids hero	Za nidam hero	Za nidaas hero
Dative	The chief buys the cabin	Zra vosh venga zra nidi	Zra vosh venga za nidom	Zra vosh za nidaum venga
Instrumental	The chief paints the cabin with a brush	Zra vosh zra nid ferru elmakila	Zra vosh za nido ferru elmakili	Zra fundiel za nido ferru elmakilur
Prepositional*	The paint is in the cabin	Za ferru e nideso	Za ferru e nidoeso	Za ferru e nidaeso

*only used to describe something that are inside.

Adjective comparation

In Virskalli, most adjectives is inflected to comparative and superlative forms by adding the suffixes -er and -ast (the former for comparative and the later for superlative). Which can be compared to the English -er and -est. 
Examples:

	Root form	Comparative	Superlative
English	ugly	uglier	ugliest
Virskalli	uffa	uffaer	uffast
English	nice	nicer	nicest
Virskalli	gamm	gammer	gammalt

Vocabulary

Virskallian has evolved from Vir, so naturally comes the main part of the word corpus etymological from there. A language evolves constantly, Vir and Virskalli are no exceptions, this makes it hard to determine when the language of the Virskallian peoples stopped being Vir and became Virskalli. However most academics adhere to the Vir-etymology defenition or the Migration defenition.
The Vir-etymology defenition draws the line between the two at the point where the word Vir changes from meaning blood relative or kin to ancestor or for goers. The Migration definition on the other hand separate the two with the migration of Virskallian tribes south east into the Bloodforest where they come in contact with the Fundi and later the Sezar Empire.
Fundi languages and Sezarian has had essential influence on the Virskalli word corpus. The Fundi words is diverse but then to be around the topics of the household, agriculture and forestry, while the Sezarian words mainly deals with trade, war and food. An interesting element in the Virskalli word corpus is the fact that the names of the produce and the dish often differs, where the dish often have Sezarian roots while the produce have Vir or Fundi roots.

Swadesh list 100

A Swadesh list is a tool to compare languages with each others. By translating a set of sample words from different languages can these be compared. There are many Swadesh lists today but the original Swadesh list is the Swadesh list 100, that contains one hundred carefully chosen words.

Swadesh list

Number	English	Virskalli	Phonology		Number	English	Virskalli	Phonology
1	I	ena	/ɛnə/		51	breast
2	you	o	/oː/ or /ɔ/		52	heart
3	we	azi	/ɑːsi/		53	liver
4	this	ti, tith	/tiː/, /tiːð/		54	drink (verb)
5	that	ta, tath	/tɑː/, /ta/, /tɑːð/v /tað/		55	eat (verb)
6	who?	kim	/kim/		56	bite (verb)
7	what?	kadd	/kad/		57	see (verb)	zenn	/sɛn/
8	not	ecz, nar	/ɛks/, /nɑːɽr/		58	hear (verb)
9	all	al	/ɑːl/, /al/		59	know (facts, verb)
10	many	dos	/dɔs/		60	sleep (verb)
11	one	eva			61	die (verb)
12	two	zina	/siːna/, /siːnɑː/		62	kill (verb)
13	big	fah			63	swim (verb)
14	long				64	fly (verb)
15	small				65	walk (verb)
16	woman				66	come (verb)
17	man				67	lie (on side, recline, verb)
18	person				68	sit (verb)
19	fish (noun)	shar, cilone (fresh water)	/ʃɑːɽr/, /siːlɔn/		69	stand (verb)	farogg	/fɑːɽrɔg/
20	bird				70	give (verb)
21	dog	tirack	tiːɽrak/, /tiɽrak/		71	say (verb)
22	louse				72	sun
23	tree	vyrthr	/vyːðr/		73	moon	engari
24	seed (noun)				74	star	sestra
25	leaf				75	water (noun)	jurr	/jʊɽr/
26	root				76	rain (noun)
27	bark (of tree)				77	stone	dako
28	skin (a person's)				78	sand	samli	/samliː/
29	flesh				79	earth (soil)	gorth	/gɔɽrð/ or /goːɽrð/
30	blood	, surg (outside body)	, /sʉɽrg/		80	cloud (not fog)
31	bone				81	smoke (of fire, noun)
32	grease (noun)				82	fire
33	egg				83	ash(es)
34	horn (of bull etc.)				84	burn (verb)
35	tail				85	path (road, trail, not street)
36	feather				86	mountain (not hill)
37	hair	ile			87	red (color)
38	head (anatomic)	kapa	/kɑːpɑː/		88	green (color)	verd	/vɛɽrd/
39	ear				89	yellow (color)
40	eye				90	white (color)
41	nose				91	black (color)
42	mouth				92	night	serla	/seːɭa/
43	tooth (front, rather than molar)				93	hot (warm, of weather)
44	tongue (anatomical)				94	cold (of weather)
45	claw				95	full
46	foot (not leg)				96	new	vast
47	knee				97	good	miska
48	hand				98	round
49	belly (lower part of body, abdomen)				99	dry
50	neck (not nape)				100	name	alla	/ala/

Dictionary

29 Words.

Root Languages

• Vir