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Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:11 pm
by spanick
I've posted this all over at CBB even though I did most of the original work here, so I'm just reposting here (never hurts to save your work in more than one place, I guess). Special thanks to Jan and méþru who gave me lots of good advice (méþru basically completely created the orthography).

External History
This was born of an idea I had a while back while I was studying Proto-Germanic. As we all know, PGmc split into North, West, and East branches; Gothic being the only real remnant of the East Germanic languages. My not so original idea was to create a South Germanic language which shared key features with East Germanic, such as no umlauting and lack of (pervasive) rhoticism as well as some of the grammatical features like a passive voice. Ultimately, I'd say I was not successful at creating a mythical South Germanic, but rather a variant East Germanic language. Indeed, in its initial stages of sound changes, it looked very similar to Gothic. At this stage, which is supposed to be spoken in the early modern era, it's still obviously related but pretty different. Ultimately, I decided this language is spoken somewhere in the Balkans; the speakers are Eastern Catholic; and the language is influenced by Old Church Slavonic (something analogous to Latin for English).

Sound Changes PGmc > Old Gotski
I can't remember where I wrote the original rules, I mostly just have them in my head. This is the list and rough order they go in as best as I can remember, although I'm sure some stuff has been left out.

V[+nas] > [-nas]
a > Ø / #_
V [+long] > [-long] / #_
V[+overlong] > [+long] / #_
o > a / #_
z > r / V_V
b, d, g > ʋ, ð, j / V_V
w, j > u, i / V_C
w > ʋ
z > s
a > Ø / #_s (-as ending reduced to -s)
CC > C (degemination)
ai > ē
au > ō
ui > y
eu, oi > ö
V > [+nas] / _nC
[+nas] > [-hi] (high nasalized vowels lower to mid vowels)
n > Ø / [+nas] _C
V > [-hi] / _C[+ant] (high vowels lower to mid vowels before alveolars)
alveolars palatalize when followed by /j/ or /i/
/j/ and /i/ disappear after (alveo)palatals except when: /i/ is the nucleus of the syllable or word finally.
Vowel breaking: long vowels break in open syllables using the following pattern: ī > ai; ē> ie; ō >uo; ū > au; ȫ > uö; ȳ >oy
V > [-long] /#_

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:13 pm
by spanick
The following posts will all be for Old Gotski (also known as Ekljeski Jęsük).
Phonology and Orthography(Romanization and Cyrillic)
/p t k b d g/ <p t k b d g> <п т к б д г> (plus ѯ for /ks/ and ѱ for /ps/ in loanwords, only in Cyrillic)
/ts dz tʃ dʒ/ <c dz č dž> <ц ѕ ч ꙉ>
/f θ s ʃ ʒ x/ <f þ š ž h> <ф ѳ с ш ж х>
/m n ɲ/ <m n nj> <м н нг>
/ʋ j/ <v j> <в ь> (/j/ followed by a vowel is represented by an ioated form, except for /ji jü ju je jö jã/)
/l λ/ <l lj> <л ꙥ>
/r/ <r> <р>

/i y u/ <i ü u> <и ю у>
/e ø o/ <e ö o> <е ѡ о>
/a/ <a> <а>
/ẽ õ ã/ <ę ǫ ą> <ѧ ѫ ꙛ>
/ie uø uo/ <ie uö uo> <ѥ уѡ уо>
/oy ai au/ <oü ai au> <оу аі ау>

Nominal Morphology
The Various declensions of PGmc have collapsed into four declensions in Gutisk.

First Declension: Directly descended from a/o-stems. r-, z-, and consonant-stems all merge into this declension as well.
Second Declension: Essentially a simplification of PGmc i-stems which have been merged with ī/jo-stems.
Third Declension: From the original PGmc u-stem.
Fourth Declension: Merging of the an/on/in-stems.

First Declension
Masculine Singular/Plural
Nom. -s/-os
Acc. --/-ąs
Voc. --/as
Dat. -e/-ams
Gen. -s/-a
Ins. -a/-ames

Neuter Singular/Plural
Nom. --/-os
Acc. --/-as
Voc. --/-a
Dat. -e/-ams
Gen. -s/-a
Ins. -a/-ames

Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. -a/-os
Acc. -a/-os
Voc. -a/-os
Dat. -ö/-oms
Gen. -os/-a
Ins. -a/-omes

Second Declension
Masculine & Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. -s/-es
Acc. -i/-ęs
Voc. -i/-es
Dat. -i/-ems
Gen. -s/-(i)a
Ins. -i/-emes

Neuter
Nom. -i/-es
Acc. -i/-es
Voc. -i/-es
Dat. -i/-ems
Gen. -es/-(i)a
Ins. -i/-emes

Third Declension
Masculine & Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. -us/-üs
Acc. -u/-ǫs
Voc. -u/-ü
Dat. -ü/-oms
Gen. -os/-ü
Ins. -u/-omes

Neuter
Nom. -u/-us
Acc. -u/-us
Voc. -u/-u
Dat. -ü/-oms
Gen. -os/-ü
Ins. -u/-omes

Fourth Declension
Masculine & Neuter Singular/Plural
Nom. -a/-an
Acc. -an/-an
Voc. -o/-anes
Dat. -eni/-ams
Gen. -enes/-ana
Ins. -ene/emes

Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. -o/-on
Acc. -on/-on
Voc. -o/-ones
Dat. -oni/-oms
Gen. -ones/-ona
Ins. -one/-omes

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:14 pm
by spanick
Adjective Declension
Originally, I had articles but I’ve since decided to eliminate them. However, strong adjectives are used to help convey a sense of definiteness while weak adjectives convey a sense of indefiniteness.

Strong Endings
Masculine Singular/Plural
Nom. -s/-e
Acc. -an/-ąs
Dat. -ame/-ems
Gen. -as/-ero
Ins. -an/-emes

Neuter Singular/Plural
Nom. --/-a
Acc. --/-a
Dat. -ame/-ems
Gen. -as/-ero
Ins. -an/-emes

Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. -a/-os
Acc. -a/-os
Dat. -erö/-ems
Gen. -eros/-ero
Ins. -ero/-emes

Weak Ending
Masculine & Neuter Singular/Plural
Nom. -a/-an
Acc. -an, -a/-an
Dat. -eni/-ams
Gen. -enes/-ana
Ins. -ene/emes

Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. -o/-on
Acc. -on/-on
Dat. -oni/-oms
Gen. -ones/-ona
Ins. -one/-omes


Pronouns

Personal pronouns
First Person Singular/Plural
Nom. ek/ves
Acc. mek/ǫs
Dat./Ins. mes/ǫses
Gen. mens/ǫsers

Second Person Singular/Plural
Nom. þu/er
Acc. þek/erös
Dat./Ins. þes/esös
Gen. þens/erörs

Third Person Masculine/Neuter/Feminine/Plural
Nom. es/et/se/jos
Acc. ena/et/ja/jos
Dat./Ins. eme/eme/erö/ems
Gen. es/es/eros/ero

Dual
First Person
Nom. vet
Acc. ǫk
Dat./Ins. ǫkes
Gen. ǫkers

Second Person
Nom. jut
Acc. ęk
Dat./Ins ękös
Gen. ękörs

Interrogative Pronouns
who/what
Nom. hos/hot
Acc. hona/hot
Dat./Ins. home/home
Gen. hös/hös

Demonstrative Pronoun
The demonstrative pronoun is jens and is declined like a weak adjective. It functions for both this/that in English.

Relative Particle
Gotskihas retained the indeclinable, relative particle ðe which introduces relative clauses and covers English pronouns such as 'that, which, who, etc.'

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:14 pm
by spanick
Verb Morphology

Personal Endings
Present Indicative Singular/Plural
1 -a/-am
2 -s/-aþ
3 -þ/-ąþ

Preterit Singular/Plural - Weak verbs generally add -eþ before personal endings.
1 --/-om
2 -s/-od
3 --/-on

Present Subjunctive Singular/Plural
1 -o/-em
2 -es/-eþ
3 -e/-en

Preterit Subjunctive Singular/Plural
1 -ü/-em
2 -es/-eþ
3 -i/-en

Passive Singular/Plural - may attach to a present stem or a preterit stem
All -aþe/-ąde

Participles
Present: -ąds
Past: -ans

Strong Verb Ablauts
The distinct ablauts for plural have collapsed and merged with the singular. Class 7 strong verbs collapsed and became weak. Class 3b and 4 strong verbs merged. Rounded variants in Classes 1, 4-6 are due to a phonological process which caused original PGmc unrounded vowels to round when preceded by Cw. This process was blocked by nasalization.

Class Infinitive/Past/Past Participle
1 ai, i, oü, ü/i, ü/i, ü
2a oü, ü/uo, o/u
2b au, u/uo, o/u
3 ę/ą/ǫ
4 e, ö/a, o/u
5 e, ö/a, o/e, ö
6 a, o/uo, o/a, o

Class VII Strong Verbs
There are three remaining Class VII strong verbs listed here with the infinitive followed by the preterite:
gągan ~ gejąg "to go"
saltan ~ seralt "to pickle"
hatan ~ hehatan "to call"

Verbs: Perfective/Imperfective
The notion of inherently perfective/imperfective verbs has also be borrowed into Gutisk. For the most part, unmarked verbs are considered imperfective and perfectivity is marked with the prefix ga-.

Ex: sehan "to see (impf)" > gasehan "to see (perf)"

In some cases, the addition of the perfective prefix also slightly alters the meaning of the verb.

Ex: sican "to sit (impf)" > gasican "to sit down (perf)"

Verbs which take inseparable prefixes cannot take the perfective prefix and fall into a class of bi-aspectual verbs such as biköman "to arrive, to come around (impf/perf)". Borrowed verbs retain their aspect: ženan "to marry (impf)." Their perfective forms may also sometimes be borrowed oženan or they can be formed with the native perfective prefix gaženan, often this have slightly different meanings.

Normally irregular verbs are regularized by the perfective prefix.

Ex. vesan "to be (impf)" Ek em, þu er, es est
gavesan "to be (perf)" Ek gavesa, þu gavesas, es gavesaþ

Verb Tenses
Present: influenced from OCS, the unmarked present is by default imperfective while the perfective is marked with the prefix ga-: Ek maca "I am eating" but Ek gamaca "I eat".

Preterit: like the present, the unmarked preterit is imperfective and the perfective takes the perfective prefix. Ek maceþa "I was eating" but Ek gamaceþa

Perfect: periphrasic construction formed by the present imperfective form of vesan "to be" plus the past participle: Ek em macans "I have eaten"

Pluperfect: periphrasic construction formed by either the perfective or imperfective of the preterit form of vesan "to be" plus the past participle: Ek vas macans "I had eaten."

Future: the future can often be indicated by the perfective present form which in context or in conjunction with an adverb indicates the future: After ek em mik þohans, ek gamaca "After I wash myself, I will eat.". Alternatively, a periphrasic construction can be formed by the perfective present form of veljan "to want" plus the infinitive: Ek gavelj macan "I will eat."

Future Perfect: periphrasic construction formed by the perfective present form of veljan "to want" plus the infinitive of vesan "to be" plus the past participle: Ek gavelj macans vesen "I will have eaten."

Imperative
The imperative is typically formed by fronting the either the imperfective or perfective present form of the verb followed immediately by the pronoun: Macas þu "Eat!" This form however, is considered rather harsh and rude. The present imperfective subjunctive often functions as a mild command or suggestion: Maces þu "You should eat."

Passive
The simplest way to construct the passive is by applying the passive personal endings to the verb. These endings no longer distinguish between person but retain their number distinction: singular -aþe, plural -ąde: Boka meljaþe 'The book is being written'. Occasionally, these endings will follow the preterite endings to form passives of the various past tenses. When this construction is used it is most often (but not exclusively) used with strong verbs: Hǫds gasahaþe 'The dog was seen.' However, most often a periphrasic construction using the preterite form (either imperfective or perfective) of verþan followed by the past participle is used Gers gaverþaþe verpans 'The spear was thrown.' The periphrasic construction is always used when constructing the future passive: Mats gavelj macans verþan 'The food will be eaten.'

The agent of a passive is introduced as a prepositional phrase with fram (+dat): Boka meljaþe fram mes 'The book is being written by me.'

Syntax
Word order is relatively free due to the strong declension system and influence from OCS. The only fixed word order relates to verbs, which come second in independent clauses and are final in dependent clauses. There is a general tendency towards SVO in simple independent clauses but it is not a hard and fast rule and the object may be fronted to give it greater emphasis. There is also a tendency to put adverbial or prepositional phrases in the first position of clauses. Datives also have a tendency to precede accusatives.

Some examples:
Ek melja boka. or Boka melja ek. 'I am writing the book.'
Ek gameljaþ boka, þa þu ussęgs . or Boka, þa þu ussęgs, gameljaþ ek. 'I wrote the book that you are reading.'
Gestr meljaþ ek boka or Gestr meljaþ boka ek 'Yesterday I was writing the book.'
Ek gagab þes boka. but also Boka gagab ek þes. or þes gagab ek boke, etc. 'I gave you the book.'

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:17 pm
by spanick
Cardinal Numbers
The number 1-3 are still declined for gender

Masc/Neut/Fem
1 ens/en/ena
2 tuö/tos/tuo
3 þris/ þris/ þria
4 fedor
5 fęf
6 sehs
7 sevon
8 ahta
9 nevon
10 tehon
11 enlif
12 tolif
13 þritehon
14 feþortehon
15 fęftehon
16 sehstehon
17 sevǫtehon
18 ahtotehon
19 nevǫtehon
20 töcives
21 enjahtöcives
30 þricives
40 fedorcives
50 fęfcives
60 sehssives
70 sevǫcehǫd
80 ahtocehǫd
90 nevǫcehǫd
100 hǫd
1,000 þausǫde

Colors
rods - red
gelu - yellow
grones - green
bruns - brown
sorts - black
aranč - orange
golþ - gold
blös - blue
grös - grey
porpor - purple
hüts - white
asurna - sky blue, azure
rosa - rose, pink

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:19 pm
by spanick
Irregular Verbs
The most common irregular verb in Gutisk is vesan 'to be (impf)' the full conjugation of which is:
Present Indicative
Singular/Plural
1 em/erom
2 er/erod
3 est/sęd
Preterite Indicative
Singular/Plural
1 vas/vierom
2 vast/vierod
3 vas/vieron
Present Subjunctive
Singular/Plural
1 ša/šim
2 šes/šeþ
3 še/šen
Preterite Subjunctive
Singular/Plural
1 vieri/vierem
2 vieres/viered
3 vieri/vieren
Present Participle: vesąds
Past Participle: vesans


There are also the preterite-present verbs which are partially regularized so that they follow the typical verbal paradigm except in that the first and third person singular, present indicative do not take endings. Below is a list of all the preterite-present verbs. Preterite-present verbs have retained singular/plural ablaut in the singular indicative. Preterite-present verbs are also inherently perfective, unlike other verbs. I have the full conjugations of some of these worked out, but others I haven't done. For now, I won't post them.
iejan - to own, posses
ganugan - to suffice
konan - to be able to, can
leran - to understand
majan - to be able to, may
muotan - to be allowed to, may
monan - to suppose
uojan - to fear
skolan - to ought to, shall
vetan - to know
þorban - to need

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:21 pm
by spanick
Phonological Changes: Old Gotski > Modern Gotski (Tözski Jezük)

þ > t / #_
þ > z / V_V
þ > d (everywhere else)

Diphthong Leveling
ai, au > aː
uo > uː
ie > iː
uø > yː
oy> øː

Denasalization
Ṽ > V

L-vocalization
l > o / V_(C)(#)
This results in /ol/ > /oː/; /al/ > /ao/; and /el/ > /eo/

Sibilant Palatalization
s, z > ʃ, ʒ / _C[+hi]

Some examples of the above sound changes:

þ > t / #_ þausǫde > tasode 'thousand'
þ > z / V_V köþan > közn 'to say (impf)'
þ > d (everywhere else) mǫþs > mods 'mouth'

Diphthong Leveling
ai, au > aː snaivan > snavn 'to snow (impf)'
uo > uː huožan > hužn 'to hear (impf)'
ie > iː mieno > mino 'moon'
uø > yː tuö > 'two'
oy> øː þoüþisk > tözisk 'common'

Denasalization
Ṽ > V fęf > fef 'five'

L-vocalization
l > o / V_(C)(#)
golþ > god 'gold'
helpan > heopn 'to help (impf)'
dal > dao 'valley'

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:21 pm
by spanick
Nominal Morphology
Modern Gotski joins the Balkan Sprachbund by the merging of the dative with the genitive. It has also lost the vocative and instrumental. There has also been significant leveling and regularization although the four basic declensions still remain intact.

First Declension
Masculine Singular/Plural
Nom. -s/-as
Acc. --/-as
Gen. -s/-as

Neuter Singular/Plural
Nom. --/-as
Acc. --/-as
Gen. -s/-as

Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. --/-os
Acc. --/-os
Gen. -os/-as

Second Declension
All Genders Singular/Plural
Nom. -s/-es
Acc. -i/-es
Gen. -s/-es

All Genders when ends in coronal
Nom. -(i)/-es
Acc. -(i)/-es
Gen. -(i)/-(i)

-(i) indicates palatization of the preceding consonant.

Third Declension
Masculine & Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. -os/-üs
Acc. -u/-os
Gen. -os/-ü

Neuter
Nom. -u/-os
Acc. -u/-is
Gen. -os/-ü

Fourth Declension
Masculine & Neuter Singular/Plural
Nom. --/-an
Acc. -an/-an
Gen. -ens/-an

Feminine Singular/Plural
Nom. -o/-on
Acc. -on/-on
Gen. -ons/-on

Adjective Declension
Strong/weak distinction in adjectives is lost in favor of the strong declension which has undergone some leveling and regularization.

Masculine/Neuter/Feminine/Plural
Nom. -s/--/-o/-os
Acc. -an/--/-o/-os
Gen. -as/-as/-ero/ero

Pronouns

Personal pronouns
First Person Singular/Plural
Nom. ek/ves
Acc. mek/os
Gen. men/oser

Second Person Singular/Plural
Nom. tu/er
Acc. tek/erös
Gen. ten/erör

Third Person Masculine/Neuter/Feminine/Plural
Nom. es/et/se/jos
Acc. en/et/ja/jos
Gen. es/es/ero/ero

Interrogative Pronouns
who/what
Nom. hos/hot
Acc. hon/hot
Gen. hös/hös

Demonstrative Pronoun
The demonstrative pronoun is jen and is declined like an adjective. It functions for both this/that in English.

Relative Pronouns
hos and hot function as relative pronouns for introducing relative clauses which refer to people (hos) or other nouns (hot).

The former relative particle now surfaces as te and is used only in a conjunctive way to subordinate clauses such as English "that" or German "dass"

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:22 pm
by spanick
Verb Morphology
Again, there's been some leveling and simplification. The subjunctive endings have merged into one set. There are two conjugation classes. The first class has the infinitive marked with -n the second class has the infinitive marked with -in. The first class is by far the most common. The second is a relic of some old causatives. The second class is unique in that the -i is present as part of the stem. Stems which have a coronal coda palatalize and the -i does not surface.

Personal Endings
Present Indicative Singular/Plural
1 --/-am
2 -s/-ad
3 -d/-an

Preterit Singular/Plural - Weak verbs generally add -ez before personal endings.
1 --/-om
2 -s/-od
3 --/-on

Subjunctive Singular/Plural
1 -o/-em
2 -es/-ed
3 -e/-en

Passives not longer have verbal conjugation and rely entirely on periphrastic constructions

Participles
Present: -ads
Past: -ans

Strong Verb Ablauts
These don't differ greatly from the church language except for the simplification of the diphthongs as described above.

EDIT: Class three, which was composed of nasal vowels merged with class four after the loss of nasalization.

Class Infinitive/Past/Past Participle
1 a, i, ö, ü/i, ü/i, ü
2a ö, ü/u, o/u
2b a, u/u, o/u
3 e, ö/a, o/u
4 e, ö/a, o/e, ö
5 a, o/u, o/a, o

Verbs: Perfective/Imperfective
The inherent (im)perfective aspect of verbs has not changed in Tözisk.

Verb Tenses
Only the tenses which have significant changes will be presented here.

Future: the future can often be indicated by the perfective present form which in context or in conjunction with an adverb indicates the future: After ek em mek tohans, ek gamaca "After I wash myself, I will eat.". In more formal or academic language, the construction of veljn plus the infinitive still exists. However, in daily speech, a different construction is most common: the conjugated perfective of 'veljn' followed by the (impferective or perfective) conjugated subjunctive (without pronoun) of the main verb which is introduced by 'te'. Ex: Ek gavelj te (ga)maco. "I will (be) eat(ing)."

Imperative
The imperative is most commonly formed by fronting the subjunctive and dropping the pronoun: Maces! "Eat!" The older form of using the indicative still exists but would normally be considered quite rude or used in emergency situations.

Passive
The passive endings have been lost in Tözisk and entirely replaced by the periphrastic construction: using the conjugated form (either imperfective or perfective) of verdn followed by the past participle is used Gers gaverd verpans 'The spear is thrown.'

The agent of a passive is introduced as a prepositional phrase with fram (+gen): Boka verd fram men. 'The book is being written by me.'

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:25 pm
by spanick
History of Sortsberg
Introduction
Before beginning, I want to make a few notes because thus far, everything has been scattered and inconsistent. Some of this history will be copied and pasted from previous posts and some stuff will be new but this document is intended to be canon of the history and culture of Sortsberg and the Gotski.

For consistency’s sake, I’ll be referring to Ekljeski Jęsük (Church Language) in this history simply as Old Gothic (OG). I will likewise be referring to Tözski Jezük (Common Language) simply as Modern Gothic (MG). These terms are meant only to ease in writing and reading this document.

Likewise, I will be referring to the Gotski as the Goths for simplicity’s sake unless I am purposefully distinguishing them from other gothic tribes, in which case they will be called the Gotski. This is also the term which would be used to describe this group in-world by English speakers. However, I will continue to refer to the country as Sortsberg in order to avoid confusion with the real world country of Montenegro, even though in-world Montenegro would still be the exonym used by English speakers.

Early History
The origins of the Gotski are not exactly known. It has widely been accepted that they were among the group of Ostrogoths which moved into Illyria in the mid 5th Century, however some recent archaeological evidence suggests the Gotski may have already been in the area as early as 400 AD, predating the arrival of the Ostrogoths by nearly half a century. This has caused some to hypothesize that the Gotski left their homeland shortly after the invasion of the Huns after which they traveled to and settled in Illyria to serve as foederati for the Western Empire.

Regardless of their origins, their tribal name is lost to history and they were referred to as either Ostrogoths or Goths. What is known is that during the reign of Theodoric the Great, they would not join in the move to Moesia or the conquering of Italy.

Early Middle Ages
For a couple centuries, they governed themselves according to their own code of law. The earliest extant copy of which is written in Latin document Lex Ostrogothorum. This code had many similarities to other Germanic codes of law.

It legally defined a three-tiered, hierarchical society of nobles (OG: aþlos), freemen (OG: karelos), and serfs (OG: þevos) which was ruled over by an elected king (OG: Konęgs). It established a weregild (OG: bluoþasgeld) of 200 shillings (OG: skelęgos) for the death of a freeman and, unusually, a serf. This amount was doubled for nobles and 100 shillings was added in the case of the death of a woman. Bishops and priests were reckoned as nobles and freemen, respectively.

The Ostrogothic Law was also somewhat unique in its extension of the death sentence to premeditated murder along with rape, incent, and treason. Other heinous crimes were punished by outlawry (OG: abduomenes).
During this time, the Goths were frequently fighting against groups of invading Slavs and were slowing losing ground until finally being conquered and incorporated into the medieval Principality of Serbia in the 8th Century.

Serbian Rule
By the 9th Century, with the mission of Ss. Cyril and Methodius to the Slavs, the Arian Goths were converted to Byzantine Rite, Nicean Christianity. While the Goths remained the dominant ethic group in their area, they now lived closely with significant minorities of Serbs, Bosniaks, and Albanians. Because the Serbs now ruled the area and the liturgical language was Old Church Slavonic, the Goths were largely bilingual but chaffed significantly under Serbian rule.

After the fall of the Serbian Empire in the 14th Century, the local Serbian noble family ruled the area with de facto independence.

Saint Vereks
In the late 15th Century a gothic hieromonk, St. Vereks happened upon several ancient Gospel manuscripts written in Wulfila's Gothic. Vereks was an avid student of language, having mastered Greek, OCS, and Latin and studied Aramaic, and quickly recognized the importance of these manuscripts. This would inspire St. Vereks to begin his own translation of the Bible into Old Gothic. In his lifetime, he completed the New Testament, the Psalms, and several liturgical books. The remainder of the Bible was completed by subsequent monks who were his students. It is St. Vereks' language that comes down to us as Ekljeski Jęsük (Old Gothic).

Amongst St. Vereks' students, a school of thought developed that the Goths should conduct liturgy in their own language. The local Bishops agreed. They also began to demand their own, separate hierarchy. This this bishops would not agree to. Eventually, this would lead to the Gotski turning to Rome and establishing their own Eastern Catholic Church known as the Gothic-Greek Catholic Church (OG: Gotska-Grieka Kaþolika Eklješa). It was little known at the time, but the idea was not as novel as it seemed. Decades later, it was demonstrated from the private writings of St. Vereks that his views on the Papacy were changing. This was apparently planted in the minds of his students, in particular St. Volfel, who would become the first Eastern Catholic bishop of the Goths on 18 September 1526.

Kingdom of Sortsberg
Shortly after the establishment of the Gothic-Greek Catholic Church, Sortsberg was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and became a Viayet. While humiliating for the Goths, who grew to hate the Turks, they were eventually granted more self-rule than other regions of the Empire. Regardless, Svartsberg joined in the Great Turkish War, after which they were successful in shaking off Turkish over-lordship.

Using the principles of the Lex Ostrogothorum, the nobles met in the first parliament (Ričmost) and established the Kingdom of Sortsberg (Rič Sortsbergs), electing Vladzimer fram Loske as the first King of Sortsberg.

Border wars with the Ottomans were common. At the conclusion of the Balkan Wars, definite borders were arranged between Svartsberg and its neighbors: Serbia, Albania, and Austria-Hungary.

During the First World War, Sortsberg joined on the side of the Allies. By 1916, the country had been occupied and the King and other government officials fled to France. This would mark the end of the Kingdom of Sortsberg. The bishops (who were also members of the governemnt and the Archbishop (nominally co-regent) did not flee. At the conclusion of the war, Svartsberg was annexed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. This was a cause of frequent, but short lived, insurrections and significant ethnic tension.

Second World War
During the Second World War, the Germans invaded Yugoslavia and created a Gothic puppet state. The Gothic people were mostly ambivalent towards their Nazi occupiers. They were quite glad to be rid of the rule of Yugoslavia but were very wary of the Nazis. The archbishop in particular was very anti-Nazi. However many Gothic nobles were fervent collaborators. All things being equal, the Goths faired rather well during the war. Hitler and Himmler were quite interested in this group of Germanic speaking peoples in the Balkans and the Ahnenerba presence was quite strong.
That being said, the puppet government was complicit in the massacre and ethnic cleansing of Slavic and Romani minorities in Sortsberg. As the end of the war approached and the Yugoslav Partisans began to liberate the country, the Svartsberg resistance finally gained enough momentum to liberate itself. After the war, Sortsberg gained its independence from Yugoslavia becoming the Republic of Sortsberg (MG: Republik Svartsbergs) in 1946.

Republic of Sortsberg
Tensions ran high between Sortsberg and Yugoslavia during the Cold War. The ethnic Goths generally became anti-communist in part due to their disdain for their Slavic neighbors, which colored their relationship with the USSR. Sortsberg had managed to resist communist control and eventually joined NATO in 1956, putting it on the front lines of the great ideological divide of the 20th century.

Membership in NATO initially protected it from the War but by 1995, Svartsberg was at war with Serbia and Serb rebels. In 1999, the war ended for Sortsberg. Many of the ethnic Serbs had left after the war to Serbia. Sortsberg received about 25,000 ethnic Gutisk refugees, mostly from southern Serbia.

The ten most populous cities in Sortsberg are listed below preceded by their real-world Montenegrin names for reference:

Montenegrin/Modern Gotski
Zeta/Losk
Podgorica/Dzoku
Nikšić/Angast
Pljevlja/Monjičip
Herceg Novi/Nüborgs
Budva/Bodva
Bijelo Polje/Hötafeod
Bar/Ativaž
Ulcinj/Olčenj

Re: Gotski

Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2017 1:27 pm
by spanick
Government
Kingdom of Sortsberg
The kingdom itself became a dual, elective monarchy. One monarch, who is elected for life from among the nobles by the parliament the second is the Archeparch of the Gothic-Greek Catholic Church. The parliament itself is composed of 118 members whose votes are weighted and thus there are a total of 261 votes. The vote breakdown is as follows:
7 bishops with 6 votes each for a total of 42
33 nobles with various votes each for a total of 102
23 counties with 1 vote each for a total of 23
10 chartered cities with 1 vote each for a total of 10
12 large guilds with 2 votes each for a total of 24
60 small guilds with 1 vote each for a total of 60

Both monarchs have veto power which can only be overturned with an absolute majority of the parliament. The monarchs also sit as the high judges of the kingdom and the nobles and bishops vote as a jury (each with only one vote in this case). The rest of the parliament cannot sit in judgement of others. In this way, there is a de facto upper house.

Each delegate to the parliament must cast all his votes the same way (no vote splitting). Nobles are seated for life and their seats are hereditary. Bishops are chosen from amongst the priests by the other bishops are also seated for life. The counties are represented by royal appointees for life, the position is not inherited. The cities are represented by their mayors who are elected from amongst the citizens of that city. The guilds may choose their delegates however they like. Their status as voting guilds is dependent on a royal charter which can be revoked. In practice, they are not revoked often but it has been known to happen.

The kings can issue and revoke royal charters on their own prerogative and they have a handful of other privileges. Regular legislation is voted on by the parliament, which in particular retains the right to vote on new taxes, finances, and budget.

Republic of Sortsberg
The republic is a parliamentary, unicameral, constitutional republic.

The parliament (MG: Lödsmot) consists of 78 voting members and seven non-voting members. The seven non-voting members are the bishops of the Gothic-Greek Catholic Church, which is written into the Constitution as the State Church. This is a holdover from the parliament of the Kingdom of Sortsberg, on which the current parliament was modeled. In fact, the original draft for the constitution also included a large number of seats for the nobles just as the Ričmot had. However, this was widely unpopular because many noble families collaborated with the Nazis and was ultimately not approved. Regardless, a large number of politicians come from the noble families.

Each Minister of Parliament (MG: Abahts) is elected for a four year term and may serve up to five terms. The whole of the parliament is elected at once using a closed-list proportional system. The Prezident President (MG: Prezident) is elected by the people separately using single transferrable vote. The President serves for a term of six years and may serve up to two terms. One of his duties is to nominate a candidate for Prime Minister (MG: Premjer) to be approved by parliament.

The current President is Petros fram Nüborgs (KP) and the current Prime Minister is Vladzimer Herdz (HDP). The most recent election for parliament was in 2014. Elections for the Eighteenth Parliament will be held 30 June 2018. The current seated parties are as follows (ranked from most seats to least):

Hhrestljeko Demokratsko Parti (HDP) “Christian Democratic Party” – 38 seats
Koservatorsko Parti (KP) “Conservative Party” – 12 seats
Demokratsko Socialistsko Parti (DSP) “Democratic Socialist Party” – 9 seats
Socialistsko Löds Parti (SLP) “Socialist People’s Party” – 6 seats
Liberal-Demokratsko Parti (LDP) “Liberal-Democratic Party” – 5 seats
Srbskis Anasos (SA) “Serbian Unity” – 3 seats
Anasos fož Sortsberg (AfS) “Unity for Sortsberg” – 3 seats
Bošnjaksko Parti (BP) “Bosnian Party” – 1 seat
Hrvatsko Gabed (HG) “Croatian League” – 1 seat

The ideologies of the parties in parliament:
HDP – Christian Democracy; Liberal Conservatism
KP – Sortsberg Nationalism; Euroscepticism; Conservatism
DSP – Social Democracy; Pro-Europeanism
SLP – Left Wing Populism; Social Democracy
LDP – Classical Liberalism
SA – Serbian Unionism; Conservatism
AfS – Sortsberg Nationalism; Centrism; Populism
BP – Bosniak minority interests; Social Conservatism
HG – Croatian minority interests; Social Conservatism

The HDP and the KP have historically worked closely together and are currently in a coalition giving them an impressive 50 seats (64% majority) in parliament. The DSP and SLP are the main opposition coalition. The LDP and the AfS often form an independent coalition and are together seen as swing votes. The remaining parties are all independent although they do sometimes join other coalitions.

Parliament meets in the capital city of Losk, which is the historic capital of the Kingdom of Sortsberg and meets in the historic Meeting House (MG: Mothus). The President resides in the former residence of the King which is now called the Presidential Palace (MG: Prezidentspalac). Losk is also the site of the National Court of the Republic (MG: Nacjonal Vetodhus Republikos) which is the highest court in the country. There are seven judges (MG: stuvan) who are nominated by the President and approved by parliament.

Re: Gotski

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 1:39 pm
by spanick
I recently worked out the names for the months and weekdays. They’re given in Old Gothic below.

The months are all borrowed from Latin:
Januoži “January”
Februoži “February”
Marci “March”
Apriel “April”
Maj “May”
Jaunji “June”
Jaulji “July”
Ogust “August”
Septęber “September”
October “Oktuober”
Novęber “November”
Dekęber “December”

The days have various sources:
Nedelja “Sunday” from OCS недѣлꙗ
Frumdags “Monday” lit. ‘First-day’
Ąþerdags “Tuesday” lit. ‘Second-day’
Medzdags “Wednesday” lit. ‘Middle-day’
Feþorþdags “Thursday” lit. ‘Fourth-day’
Paraskevi “Friday” from Greek Παρασκευή
Savaton “Saturday” from Greek σάββατον

Re: Gotski

Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 9:27 am
by Grunnen
That's a nice read! Is there going to be any borrowing from Turkish, Italian or Albanian? Also, the greek influence, is that intirely through liturgical in origin? Does that also mean more Latin influence after the 1500's?

Re: Gotski

Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2017 2:01 pm
by spanick
Grunnen wrote:That's a nice read! Is there going to be any borrowing from Turkish, Italian or Albanian? Also, the greek influence, is that intirely through liturgical in origin? Does that also mean more Latin influence after the 1500's?

Thanks!

Yes, there will be other influences as well. I’ve just been focusing on the Slavic influence for the time being. One example of a Turkish borrowing is džin meaning “demon” also used as a derogatory word for a Turk as well as jok “no” (colloquial). I also have an Albanian borrowing kintar “coin, money”. This is an area I need to work on.

Greek has so far been largely liturgical, yes, as with OCS (although I do use OCS as a basis for secular loans as well since I take for granted that it was at least similar to the early Slavic languages in the area). So far, they’re mostly words which were also present in Wulfila’s Gothic.

I have some borrowings from Latin from ancient contact but I hadn’t considered post 15th Century borrowings or Italian until you mentioned it!

Re: Gotski

Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 3:03 pm
by spanick
I saw Sal's Øynduyska bestiary in the C&C quickies a while back and was inspired to add some vocab for animals myself, though mine will be far less comprehensive.

aves "sheep (in general)"
avedz "flock (of sheep)"
avestr "sheepfold"
ehos "horse (in general)"
éls "eel"
elpądus "camel"
fesks "fish"
fugos "bird" stem in other cases is fugl-
gąs "goose"
gašnjedads "gelding"
géts "goat"
govęda "cattle"
han "chicken"
hana "rooster"
hanjče "chick"
hano "hen"
hǫds "dog"
katos "cat"
kús "cow (female)"
ląbs "lamb, young sheep"
lahs "salmon"
marhio "mare"
marhs "pony"
rams "ram, male sheep/goat"
skép "ewe, female sheep/goat"
sujo "sow, female pig"
sǘn "swine, pig (in general)
sǘnjče "piglet, young pig"
sǘns "boar, male pig"
volfs "wolf"