Written Example: The Tower of Babel

This is the first sample text in þeodisch, with a small written example of the new look of the language.

This is a direct translation from Modern English from the King James Bible:

1. Ænd ðe hwool erþ was uv wun længwicg, ænd uv wun spiec.
2. Ænd it keem tu pæss, æs ðee cgurnied frum ðe iest, ðæt ðee faund æ pleen in ðe lænd uv Schiinar; ænd ðee dwelt ðeer.
3. Ænd ðee sed wun tu ænuðer, "Goo tu, let us meek brik, ænd burn ðem þurohlie. Ænd ðee hæd brik foor stoon, ænd slym hæd ðee foor moortur."
4. Ænd ðee sed, "Goo tu, let us bild us æ sittie ænd æ tauür, hwuus tåp mee riec untu hevin; ænd let us meek us æ neem, lest we bie skætturd abråd upån ðe feess uv ðe hwool erþ.
5. Ænd ðe LOORD keem dauwn tu sie ðe sittie ænd ðe tauür, hwic ðe cildrin uv men bildid.
6. Ænd ðe LOORD sed, "Bihoold, ðe piepul is wun, ænd ðee hæv aal wun længwicg; ænd ðiss ðee biegin tu du, ænd nauw nuþing will bie ristreend frum ðem, hwic ðee hæv immægind tu du.
7. Goo tu, let us goo daun, ænd ðeer cunfaund ðeer længwicg, ðæt ðee mee nåt undurstænd wun ænuður's spiec."
8. Soo ðe LOORD skætturd ðem abråd frum ðenss upån ðe feess uv aal ðe erþ: ænd ðee left åf tu bild ðe sittie.
9. Ðeerfoor is ðe neem uv it kalld Bæbul; bikås ðe LOORD did ðeer cunfaund ðe længwicg uv aal ðe erþ: ænd frum ðenss did ðe LOORD skætter ðem abråd upån ðe feess uv aal ðe erþ.

1. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
5. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
6. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
7. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."
8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
8. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Nouns and Articles

Nouns function the same way in þeodisch as they do in Modern English, however, because of the spelling changes and slightly different forms of certain nouns (such as professions), they may appear alien.

Plural Nouns
Regular plural nouns are formed by adding -(i)s to the end of each noun.

Hound-->hounds = haund-->haunds
Book-->books = buk-->buks

Irregular plural nouns are formed the same way as Modern English but with phonetic endings.

Child-->children = cyld-->cildrin
Ox-->oxen = åks-->åksin

Possessive Nouns
Possessive nouns are formed the same in English, retaining the appostrophie for historical value(which is a contraction of the archaic possessive ending -es, used in the Old and Middle English periods).

The man's car.--> Ðe mæn's kaar.
I went to my cusin's house.--> Y went tu my kusin's haus.

Profession Nouns
Profession nouns are nouns that show what a person is or does. In Modern English, these are usually formed by the endings -er, -ess, -ette, or -ist. In þeodisch, only the -er and -ess forms are used.

For professions in which the practitioner is a male, use -ur.
male singer- singur
male teacher- tiecur

For professions in which the practitioner is a female, use -ur+ess
female singer- singuress
male teacher- tiecuress

I am aware that this differs from Modern English, but it employs a common, current Germanic convention to distinguish between the sexes carrying out a certain job.

Definite Articles
Definite articles are the same as Modern English, which no changes. Phonetic spelling is not applied here because of historical value and modern Germanic conventions. This word is pronounced as in Modern English, either with the 'uh' sound or the 'ee' sound.

the house- ðe haus
the angel- ðe eencgul

Indefinite Articles
Indefinite articles are the same as in Modern English, but with a certain unphonetic change.

In order to draw parallels between the article forms 'a' and 'an,' the spelling is constant throughout even though this spelling does not phonetically represent the words. The article 'a' is pronounced as it is in Modern English ('uh' or 'ay') even though the spelling does not reflect this.

a house- æ haus
an angel- æn eencgul

Pronouns

Pronouns in þeodisch differ in no way from Modern English except in the optional forms of the second person singular pronoun and the second person plural pronoun.

Subjective
I: Y*/IJ*
You (Thou): Juw (Ðau)
He: Hie
She: Sche
It: It

We: Wie
You (Ye): Juw (Jie)
They: Ðee

*This pronoun is only capitalized if it is at the beginning of a sentence. It is not capitalized elsewhere.

Objective
Me: Mie
You (Thee): Juw/Ðie
Him: Him
Her: Hur
It: hit

Us: Us
You: Juw
Them: Ðem

Reflexive
Myself: Myself
Yourself (Thyself): Joorself (Ðyself)
Himself: Himself
Herself: Hurself
Itself: Itself

Ourselves: Aurselvs
Yourselves: Joorselvs
Themselves: Ðemselvs

Possessive Pronoun
Mine: Myn
Yours (thine): Joors (Ðyn)
His: His
Hers: Hurs
Its: Its

Ours: Aurs
Yours: Joors
Theirs: Ðeers

Possessive Determiner
My: My
Your (Thy): Joor (Ðy)
His: His
Hers: Hurs
Its: Its

Ours: Aur
Your: Joor
Their: Ðeer

Verbs and Verbals

Verbs in þeodisch conjugate the same as in Modern English and do not differ at all, except in spelling.

Present Tense

Tu wryt- To write

First person:
-Singular: Y wryt
-Plural: Wie wryt

Second person:
-Singular: Juw wryt
-Plural: Juw wryt

Third person:
-Singluar: Hie, Schie, It wryts
-Plural: Ðee wryt

Past Tense
In þeodisch, regular past tense verbs are made by adding the past tense suffix -id to the infinitive form of the verb, rather than -ed as in Modern English.

Tu wånt- to want

First person:
-Singular: Y wåntid
-Plural: Wie wåntid

Second person:
-Singular: Juw wåntid
-Plural: Juw wåntid

Third person:
-Singluar: Hie, Schie, It wåntid
-Plural: Ðee wånted

Past Participles
Past participles in þeodisch to not differ from Modern English in any way and are simply spelled phonetically.

Tu hæv made- to have made
Tu hæv gån- to have gone
Tu hæv writtin- to have written

Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs do not differ from Modern English.

Tu sing, sæng, tu hæv sung
Tu bring, bråht, tu hæv bråht
Tu þink, þåht, tu hæv þåht

Gerunds
Gerunds are made by adding -ing to the end of the infinitive form of a verb (without the tu, of course) and do not differ from Modern English.

Running
Biïng*
Wisching

*You may have noticed the addition of an umlaut over the letter 'i.' This is a grammatical rule intended to signify the separate pronunciation of syllables when the letters are identical. This rule is identical to the optional Modern English option of adding umlauts to words such as coöperation or reëlection.

Orthography and Pronunciation

The orthography of þeodisch attempts to embrace the old Germanic spellings of the Old and Middle English periods as well as relying upon conventions of the modern Germanic langauges from which English descended.

I will use diacritics in this new orthography in order to eliminate some ugly letter combinations. One must not think of these as letters with fancy symbols on the top, but seperate letters themselves. I will explain more when appropriate.

All letters will be presented in the following format:

Letter (Capital, lowercase)---Pronunciation---English Word---Þeodisch Word

Vowels:
Let's start with the vowels: Vowel length is where most people get caught up in diacritics, however, in order to eliminate this, I am drawing inspiration from the Dutch, who seem to have no problem with double letters (or quadruple...but I will avoid those at all costs).

Double letters will always mark long vowels. Single letters may mark both long and short vowel sounds, but depend on consonants as well. In one syllable words with a long vowel, only one letter is used. In multisyllable words where a double vowel would seem inappropriate or look awkward, consonant length will determine whether a vowel is long or short. Again, this is a convention taken from Dutch. Double consonants will always make the preceeding vowel short.

Aa- 'ah' as in father, respelled faðer, when long

Ee- 'ay' as bake, respelled beek, when long; 'eh' as in beckon, respelled bekkin, when short

Ii- 'ee' as in heated, respelled hiitid or hietid*, when long; 'ih' as in little, respelled littil, when short

Oo- 'oh' as in boat, respelled boot

Uu- 'oo' as in boot, respelled buut, when long; 'uh' as in cut, respelled kutt, when short

Ææ- the vowel sound in cat, respelled kæt
Note- this letter may never be doubled (this is an asthetic choice of mine)

Åå- the vowel sound in gone and law, respelled gån and låw respectively
Note- this letter may never be doubled

Yy- 'ai' as in time, respelled tym or tijm**, also pronounced as short 'i' when used as the archaic perfective prefix y- (a Middle English development of the OE ge- prefix, meaning 'with, together' or the standard prefix attached to perfective participles. This survives in German and Dutch verb forms, which both use helping verb (to have or to be) ge+verb+ending.)


*For asthetic pleasure, this long vowel sound may be represented by the following letter combination: Double 'i'- ie (hiitid becomes hietid). However, when a long 'i' is in final position, ie must always be used.

**The letter 'y' (pronounced 'eye', not 'why') can be rewritten as ij. This is the Dutch convention but was also employed in the Middle English period to represent a long 'i' sound, which through the Great Vowel Shift became the 'ai' sound

Consonants:

Bb- 'buh' as in boy, respelled boi

Cc- 'chuh' as in church, respelled circ
Note- this letter is never pronounced as in Modern English. It is only representative of the 'ch' sound.

Dd- 'duh' as in day, respelled dee

Ff- 'fuh' as in fan, respelled fæn

Gg- 'guh' as in gone, respelled gån

Hh- 'huh' as in happy, respelled hæppie; also silent in words which historically held an IPA /x/ sound, in Modern English, usually spelled with a 'gh' such as light, might, and right, all respelled lyht, myht, and ryht, respectively.

Jj- 'yuh' as in young, respelled jung

Kk- 'kuh' as in cow, respelled kauw

Ll- 'luh' as in laugh, respelled læhf

Mm- 'muh' as in make, respelled meek

Nn- 'nuh' as in never, respelled nevur

Pp- 'puh' as in pig, respelled pig

Qq- this letter has been eliminated and all instances replaced by k or kw

Rr- 'ahr' as in run, respelled run

Ss- 'ess' as in say, respelled see; 'zee' as in things, respelled þings; when doubled, this letter is always pronounced 'ess'

Tt- 'tuh' as in tiny, respelled tynie

Vv- 'vuh' as in vear, respelled veer

Ww- 'wuh' as in weather, respelled weður

Xx- this letter has been eliminated and all instances replaced with ks

Zz- this letter is used in loanwords only, pronounced as in Modern English

Important letter combinations:

Sounds not represented by single letters are represented by digraphs, trigraphs, or diphthongs.

Because of the importance of these, the format is slightly different from the above examples in order to explain each choice appropriately.

'th' as in then- This phoneme will be represented by the single letter Ðð, which is called 'eth.' This letter only makes the 'th' sound like that in the words then, this, etc. This letter may not be doubled.

'th' as in thing- This phoneme will be represented by the letter Þþ, which is called 'thorn.' This letter only makes the 'th' sound like that in the words thing, thank, etc. This letter may not be doubled.

'sh' as in ship- This phoneme will be represented with the trigraph, sch. This trigraph was prevelent in the Middle English period for the same sound, which is an improvement over the Old English equivilent, sc. 'Sch' was most likely adopted because of increased international trade and the power of the Hanseatic league in the Mediteranian during the Middle English period. Note- this trigraph is never pronounced as in Modern English school.

'g' as in gym, 'j' as in jungle- These letters will both be represented with the digraph cg. This is a spelling convention taken directly from the Old English period, and thus looks alien. This is the oldest way of writing this sound using Germanic principles rather than the French orthography adopted in the Middle English period.

'ou' as in house- This digraph is replaced by au in all instances where it makes the sound in house.

'oy' as in boy- This digraph is replaced by oi in all instances.

Some Important Aspects to Spelling

Due to the archaic nature of the spelling of þeodisch, many words will come to look unfamiliar. In addition to these changes, however, are various respellings of already phonetic words in order to bring them back to their original, historic spelling.

The main spellings this will effect are words begining with 'wh,' such as 'when,' 'what,' 'who,' and so on. These initial 'wh' spellings will be switched back to their Old English format of 'hw.' Pronunciation, however, will remain the same, with the 'h' being silent.

Some words retain letters even if they do not phonetically indicate the spellings. This has already been explained with the silent 'h' attached to words that, in English's past, had the IPA /x/ sound, usually represented by 'gh,' a Dutch convention. (light, fight, might, though, etc.)

In addition to the silent 'h,' the silent 'w' is often attached to the end of a word in order to "complete" the word. The 'w' is retained in words where it has historically been held. Even though it is unpronounced, or at best only vaugly pronounced, it is retained in order to make the word look normal. This is a purely personal, asthetic choice of mine, in addition to being historically accurate.

'N,' before 'g' is always pronounced as in sing. Should the 'g' need to be pronounced as well, the 'g' must be doubled.

On Þeodisch

Þeodisch is an alternative English orthography intended to phonetically represent standard spoken American English (the Midwest accent). However, instead of embracing some outlandish and awkward phonetic spelling system, this new orthography takes English back to its historic Germanic roots by using archaic spellings of modern English words.


Why, you might ask, is it called Þeodisch? Þeodisch was the Old English (OE) term for "belonging to the people" (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Dutch). The þeod was the people and their vernacular. If you know your etymology for this word, you know that it is the root in the words Dutch and Deutsch. So is this language just a fancy OE way of saying "German"?


Yes and no. English is a member of the Germanic language family, so þeodisch certainly embraces this historical connection to our Germanic ancestors. The Proto-Germanic root *theudo is certainly the root in Danish tysk, Norwegian Bokmål tysk, Icelandic þýska, and Faeroese týskt. However, þeod is much more than German. Instead, the OE usage extended its meaning to aspects of the community. The þeod was the body of the community, one's kinsmen, one's culture. This included language. Thus, þeodisch is just a simple way of saying "the vernacular." It is the binding force between people of a particular culture and ancestry. It is the shared tongue of hundreds of millions.


However, it is important to see that English has diverged so much from its historical roots. With the Norman Conquest beginning in 1066, the English language entered a period of immense Romance influences from the language of the Norman conquerors. Old English changed to Middle, and onward to Early Modern, finally bringing us to today.


How many English speakers actually know the history of their own tongue? Too often has one heard that "Shakespeare is 'Old English'" and you must be really smart if you can use your thees, thy's, and thous. How gross a misconception!


True Old English- our language's heart, our language's soul- has been lost to time. However, it leaves us with one important reminder: words.


Words, spellings, letters. An orthography which made sense.


This is what þeodisch attempts to embrace- a phonetic spelling based on historical conventions of our own language. Yes, it is archaic. Yes, it may appear awkward, but would you not want your own lifeblood flowing throughout yourself?