Grammar of Kronenburgish

Kronenburgish is considered a West- (North Sea) Germanic language. It has some distinct features like e.g. the almost entire lack of a dental infix in the past tenses of weak verbs.

Alphabet and pronunciation

The Kronenburgish alphabet has 21 letters: A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, W, Y

C, Q, V, X and Z are used in some loan words, although the official rule will be to write these loan words according to Kronenburgish spelling rules, or to search for a suitable translation.

Long and short vowels

Kronenburgish has so called 'long' and 'short' vowels, a name that applies mostly to the way they are spelled and less with their phonetical length. A, e, i and o can be spelled single and double.

• a is pronounced 'short' ([ɑ]) when followed by two or more consonants. When it appears in the last syllable of a word and is followed by one or more consonants, the pronunciation is [ɑ] as well. The pronunciation is 'long' ([a]) when followed by one consonant which is directly followed by a vowel or located at the end of the word.
• aa is always pronounced as [a]; a double spelled aa can be found before two or more consonants or, when in the last syllable of a word, before one or more consonants. A word never ends in -aa.

The same applies for o (pronounced 'short' as [ɔ] and 'long' as [o]), and i (pronounced 'short' as [ɪ] and 'long' as [i]).

e has slightly different rules:

• a single written, unaccented e is pronounced [ə], including at the end of the word. An single written, accented e is pronounced 'short' ([ɛ]) when followed by two or more consonants, or, when it appears in the last syllable of a word, by one or more consonants. The pronunciation is 'long' ([e]), when followe by one consonant, which is directly followed by a vowel.
• ee is always pronounced as [e]; a double written ee can be found before two or more consonants, or, when in the last syllable of a word, before one or more consonants. A double ee can be found at the end of a word as well.

u and ou do have a difference in length: u is pronounced [u], ou [u:].

y is pronounced [i]; this letter appears in situations where g or k are followed by [i] without causing both to change into [ʃ].

Diphtongs

There are ea [ɛə], ei [ɛi], eo [øə], eou [əʊ], eu [ɑʊ], oa [uɑ] and uo [uə] (on the Oostereiland and in Dietzland) or [ɔə] (in other parts of Kronenburg).

Consonants

B [b], d [d], f [f], g [g], h [h], j [j], k [k], l [l], m [m], n [n], p [p], s [s], t [t] and w [ʋ].

The combinations gi and ki (sometimes also gj and kj) are pronounced [ʃ], [ʃi] or [ʃɪ]; see above under y for more information.

R is pronounced [r] before a vowel; before a consonant and at the end of a word it normally disappears, causing a lengthening of the preceding vowel: freo 'woman' is pronounced as [frøə], feorste 'first' as [føəstə] and heower 'what kind of' as [høəʋə]. Sometimes the r is omitted in the spelling as well: feou 'four', fas 'father', meou 'mother', breou 'brother', sist 'sister' en deou 'daughter'.

Words ending in a voiced consonant add [ə] to their pronunciation.

Text sample

Ean monoloog is allinspraak; ean uteansetting fan ean persoon dom allinne ean ferhaal fertel (en fertelje blif). In ean gesprek op ean gierkomst hald dist in, dat de oden leou it wird neit kriigje kinne of meie. It stuos derfeor gienour ean dialoog.

[ʔə monol'o.gə ɪs ɑ'lɪnspra.k; mut'ɛənsɛtɪŋ fɑn ə pə'so.n dɔm ɑ'lɪnə. fə'ha.l fə'tɛl (ɛn fə'tɛljə blɪf). ɪn ə gə'sprɛk ɔp ə 'ʃɛ.kɔmst 'hɑldə dɪst ɪn, dɑt də 'o.dən 'ləʊ 'tʋɪədə nɛit 'kri.ʃə 'ʃɪnə ɔf 'mɛiə. ɪt stuəs 'dɛ.føə ʃə'nuə. dial'o.gə.]

Morphology and syntax

Nouns

Main Article: Kronenburgish nouns

Kronenburgish has preserved the three genders masculine, feminine and neuter, although the difference between the first two is minimal.

Plural is formed by putting -en or -a to the singular form, and/or by changing the stem vowel, or by leaving it as it is.

Personal pronouns have four possibilities to translate 'you':

• do, which is used to address one person you know (friends, family). This form is the officially preferred form for this situation by Kronenburg linguists, but it is considered somewhat archaic by most speakers, as it has suffered heavy competition since the end of the 19th century from
• jee, which means exactly the same thing, but is borrowed from Dutch jij.
• jo, which is used to addres more than one person you know (friends, family).
• Ha (written with a capital letter), which is the polite form to address people you don't know or to whom there is a certain distance (by means of unfrequent meeting, higher social level, elderly people (including grand-parents), etc.).

Interrogative and relative pronouns exhibit a difference between singular wa?/semwa (who) and plural waleou?/semwaleou (who).

Verbs

As many other Germanic languages, Kronenburgish has weak and strong verbs, some of which are conjugated irregularly.

The infinitive of regular weak and strong verbs ends always in -je.

The personal endings are (almost) always identical. There are two possibilities for the second person singular: if the pronoun jee is used, no special ending is added; if do is used, the ending -st is added in the present tense (-t if the stem already ends in an s).

The participle II is never used for the perfect tense, which doesn't exist in the same way in Kronenburgish as in other Germanic languages. It is however used for the passive voice and for a construction indicating obligation: ik hee ean stut keout (I have to buy a piece of bread), ik haadt ean stut keout (I had to buy a piece of bread), etc.

Weak verbs without sound change

	present indicative	present conjunctive	preterite indicative	preterite conjunctive	infinitive	participle I	participle II
ik/jee/wi/jo/ha	nam	namje	namme	namme	namje (to call)	namjend	namme
do	namst	namjest	namme	namme
hi/si/it	nam	namje	namme	namme

Weak verbs with sound change

These verbs change sound in the present tense (following do and in the third person singular), in the preterite and in the participle II. Verbs with a monosyllabic stem containing a long vowel or diphtong belong to this category as well as a group of polysyllabic verbs ending in -eerje preceded by d, g, k, s, or t.

	present indicative	present conjunctive	preterite indicative	preterite conjunctive	infinitive	participle I	participle II
ik/jee/wi/jo/ha	meak	meakje	makke	makke	meakje (to make)	meakjend	makke
do	makst	meakjest	makke	makke
hi/si/it	mak	meakje	makke	makke

	present indicative	present conjunctive	preterite indicative	preterite conjunctive	infinitive	participle I	participle II
ik/jee/wi/jo/ha	studeer	studeerje	studerre	studerre	studeerje (to study)	studeerjend	studerre
do	studerst	studeerjest	studerre	studerre
hi/si/it	studer	studeerje	studerre	studerre

But:

	present indicative	present conjunctive	preterite indicative	preterite conjunctive	infinitive	participle I	participle II
ik/jee/wi/jo/ha	probeer	probeerje	probere	probere	probeerje (to try)	probeerjend	probere
do	probeerst	probeerjest	probere	probere
hi/si/it	probeer	probeerje	probere	probere

Strong verbs

Strong verbs have the same endings as weak verbs in the present tense, but no endings in the preterite indicative, contain more sound changes and the participle II ends in -en. The preterite conjunctive is not identical to the preterite indicative and is formed by removing -n from the participle II.

	present indicative	present conjunctive	preterite indicative	preterite conjunctive	infinitive	participle I	participle II
ik/jee/wi/jo/ha	kys	kysje	keas	kese	kysje (to choose)	kysjend	kesen
do	kuost	kysjest	keas	kese
hi/si/it	kuos	kysje	keas	kese

Main Article: List of Kronenburgish strong verbs

Irregular verbs

These contain verbs with infinitives ending in -n or -e as well as modal verbs and to have and to be.

Main Article: List of Kronenburgish irregular verbs