Blylandic language

The Blylandic language (blyylęnsk tunge) is a language that is spoken in Blyland and surrounding regions. It is the official language of the Republic of Blyland, and is a recognised minority language in Likkra and Namari.

Consonants

 * [ŋ] is the general realisation of the nasals /m/ and /n/ before /k/ and /g/. Note that at the end of words, /g/ when following a nasal may disappear completely, resulting in /mg/ and /ng/ being pronounced [ŋ].
 * [ʔ] is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ before /n/, and of /p/ and /b/ before /m/.
 * [β], [ð] and [ɣ] are intervocalic allophones of /b/, /d/ and /g/ respectively in many dialects, including the Lobehaben dialect.
 * While /ɕ/ occurs as a phoneme in Blylandic, it is also an allophone of /s/ before /i/ and /y/.
 * [ʑ] is an allophone of /z/ before /i/ and /y/. However, it is extremely rare in native words.
 * [ç] is an allophone of /h/ before /i/ and /y/, and likewise [x] is an allophone of /h/ before /u/.
 * The phones [n] and [ɲ] occur in free variation before /i/ and /y/; the difference between /n/ and /ɲ/ is lost before either of those vowels.
 * /kʷ/ cannot occur next to /u/ (it is delabialised to /k/ if /u/ is next to it).
 * While /t͡ɕ/ and /d͡ʑ/ are phonemes in Blylandic, historically they also occurred as allophones of /k/ and /g/ respectively before /i/ and /y/. In the modern language, however, the "soft k" and "soft g" have been phonemicised due to loanwords.
 * [r] and [ɾ] are the same phoneme /r/ in Blylandic. The short /r/ is generally realised as [ɾ], while the geminated /rː/ is [rː].

All voiceless stops in Blylandic are heavily aspirated, with the only exceptions being before a consonant, word-finally and after /s/. The voiced stops may be realised as unaspirated voiceless in many situations, including word-initially, and one of the sandhi rules is that voiced stops become voiceless next to a voiceless stop or affricate or after a voiceless fricative.

Vowels
Blylandic has ten short vowels, five long vowels and six diphthongs. The short vowels are listed below: /ə/ never occurs in stressed syllables. Note that while /e/ and /ə/ are both written &lt;e&gt;, they are separate phonemes and the phonetic value of &lt;e&gt; must be determined from context. In unstressed word-final position, /ə/ is &lt;e&gt; while /e/ is &lt;ei&gt;, with all exceptions limited to loanwords.

The long vowels are listed below: Long /aː/ is rare in native words, but does exist (e.g. the indicative past tense singular of sein "to see" is saa "I/he/she/it saw", with /aː/).

The diphthongs are /ai̯/, /ei̯/, /au̯/, /eu̯/, /iu̯/ and /ou̯/. The diphthongs /ei̯/ and /ou̯/ never occur in word-final position when unstressed; the digraph &lt;ei&gt; represents /e/ instead, and &lt;ou&gt; is pronounced the same as &lt;o&gt; in the same position.

Phonotactics
Blylandic phonotactics is somewhat complex. In general, the maximal form of a syllable is CCCVCCCCs(p,t,k)s. However, there are several restrictions on the ordering of consonants in a syllable:

* /t/ after /m/ is only found word-finally, and only in the second person singular past indicative of strong verbs.

The consonants /j/ and /h/ can only occur alone in a word. The consonants /w/ and /kʷ/ are prohibited in finals, and /kʷ/ also has the additional restrictions that it must be followed by a vowel and cannot be next to /u/ (&lt;q&gt; is pronounced /k/ word-finally). Geminates are prohibited in clusters and word-finally (any orthographic double consonants in such positions actually indicate short consonants and are only doubled due to etymological or morphophonological reasons). The consonant /s/ can attach to any final that does not already end in a sibilant. This /s/ may be followed by a /p/, /t/ or /k/. This final stop can, in turn, be followed by another /s/, but only if said /s/ is an inflectional ending (e.g. hęrfsts "autumn/fall" (genitive)).

In some cases one may find /r/, /l/, /m/ or /n/ in an environment that violates the above rules (e.g. hagls "hail" (genitive)). In such cases, the liquid/nasal is to be interpreted as a sequence of /ə/ followed by the consonant. This schwa is deleted when the consonant is instead followed by a vowel (e.g. hagli "hail" (dative)).

Hiatus is permitted between syllables, provided that the first vowel is not high (/i/, /y/ or /u/), the second vowel is not identical to the first vowel, and neither vowel is a schwa. If the first vowel is /i/ or /y/, an intervening /j/ is inserted, while if the first vowel is /u/, an intervening /w/ is inserted. In both cases the first vowel is shortened if it is long. If either vowel is a schwa (but not both), the schwa is deleted. If both vowels are schwas, then an /a/ is inserted in their place.

The high vowels cannot follow their corresponding semivowel (/j/ for /i/ and /y/, and /w/ for /u/); the vowel is lowered (*/ji/, */jy/ and */wu/ become /je/, /jø/ and /wo/ respectively) should such a combination occur.

''This section is incomplete. The above lists of valid onsets and finals may not be exhaustive.''

Umlaut
Umlaut is a significant part of Blylandic grammar. It involves the change of a particular vowel to another vowel depending on the grammatical category. There are two forms of umlaut in Blylandic: i-umlaut and u-i-umlaut.

i-umlaut
This form of umlaut is found in nouns and adjectives. Typically, for nouns, the singular is the non-umlauted form, and the plural is the umlauted form, while for adjectives, the umlauted form is used for the comparative and superlative. The following vowels and their umlauted forms are listed below: The /o/~/ø/ alternation is rare, as it only occurrs in words that had a specific Proto-Germanic form (if the Proto-Germanic form was *-unC-, where *C is not a stop, or *-uNN, where the nasal is geminated).

u-i-umlaut
This form of umlaut is found in the past tense of strong verbs and the present tense of preterite-present verbs, as well as in some strong nouns and adjectives. For strong verbs, the u-form is used for the indicative plural and the i-form is used for the subjunctive. For adjectives, the u-form is used for the positive, while the i-form is used for the comparative and superlative. For nouns, the singular uses the u-form, while the plural uses the i-form. The forms are listed below:

Sandhi
Blylandic has a few rules governing the phonological shape of words derived from compounding or inflection:
 * Voiced stops become voiceless next to a voiceless stop or affricate or after a voiceless fricative. This is not always indicated in the orthography, and in some cases, the resulting voiceless stop still contrasts with an originally voiceless stop in the same environment (e.g. /pg/ is pronounced [pk], while /pk/ is pronounced [pkʰ]).
 * The addition of a suffix beginning with /t/ or /d/ induces several changes to any stop or coronal directly preceding it (a direct descendant of the Germanic spirant law):
 * /p/ + /t/ or /d/ → /ft/
 * /b/ + /t/ → /ft/
 * /b/ + /d/ → /ud/ (the /u/ may be monophthongised by a further rule)
 * coronal + /t/ or /d/ → /st/
 * /k/ or /g/ + /t/ → /tː/
 * /k/ + /d/ → /tː/
 * /g/ + /d/ → /dː/
 * Additionally, /p/ and /b/ become /f/ before /s/, and /m/ and /b/ become /f/ before /n/ and /ɲ/. Any coronal stop preceding /s/ is assimilated, forming /sː/.
 * All geminates are degeminated in consonant clusters and at the end of words.
 * The diphthongs /eu̯/ and /iu̯/ become /ø/ and /y/ respectively before a cluster if it is not preceded by a /w/.
 * As mentioned above, hiatus is prohibited after both short and long /i/, /y/ and /u/. Should such a situation occur, the /i/, /y/ or /u/ is shortened if long and a /j/ (for /i/ and /y/) or /w/ (for /u/) is inserted between the vowels. This rule feeds into the next rule.
 * If /i/ or /y/ follows /j/, it is lowered to /e/ or /ø/ respectively. Likewise, /u/ becomes /o/ after /w/.
 * Any /əə/ sequence is transformed into /a/.
 * Finally, any /ə/ occurring next to a vowel is deleted. The main exceptions are the postposition -iþer and the dative plural before postpositions. Instead of deleting the schwa, the former inserts a /w/ (this also occurs after all other vowels), while the latter inserts an /r/.

These rules are reflected in the orthography only in derivation and the formation of the past tense of weak verbs. Case and number marking, as well as personal marking and the gerund form, do not show these changes in the orthography (e.g. bluumner "flowers (nominative)" is pronounced /ˈbluːf.nəɾ/ despite being written with an &lt;m&gt;); the sole exception is in the second person singular past indicative of strong verbs and the second person singular present indicative of preterite-present verbs.

An example of these rules in effect is the formation of þysk ("German") from þeud ("pertaining to the people") + -sk ("of a place, nationality; associated with", which induces i-umlaut):
 * þeud + -sk → þiudsk (i-umlaut)
 * þiudsk → þiussk (spirant law)
 * þiussk → þiusk (degemination)
 * þiusk → þysk (monophthongisation)

The main, and most important, exception to all of these rules is the genitive singular ending and third person singular present indicative ending -s. Under no circumstance will it induce any form of sandhi (however, the ending becomes -es after any sibilant). Another common exception is the present participle suffix -nde, where the lack of monophthongisation can be attributed to morphological levelling (as the present participle is normally derived from the infinitive). The third person plural present indicative ending -nt also does not induce monophthongisation, except in a couple of highly irregular verbs (beun and duun). The mediopassive suffix -sk only induces degemination; any /ts/ sequences formed remain /ts/. The subjunctive form follows its own rules, which are detailed in the section on verbs. The genitive plural ending -a becomes a schwa -e if and only if it is used to form a compound and the second component of such a compound begins with a consonant (e.g. louba "leaves (genitive)" + habn "harbour" → Loubehabn "Lobehaben").

Orthography
The modern Blylandic language is written using a modified version of the Latin alphabet. The letters of the Blylandic alphabet are listed below:

In some cases, one might encounter &lt;v&gt; instead of &lt;w&gt;. Officially, both are considered equivalent, although &lt;w&gt; is preferred due to &lt;v&gt; usually referring to /v/ in other languages, a phoneme that does not exist in Blylandic.

The following digraphs are used: While not officially considered a digraph, &lt;sk&gt; represents /ɕ/ before /i/ and /y/.

Nouns
Nouns in Blylandic can have one of three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. They decline for two numbers (singular and plural) and four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative, a select few nouns, typically names, also have a vocative). In general, there are three declensional classes of nouns, of which two are still productive.

Nouns may or may not display i-umlaut in the plural. Note that all nouns have an alternate dative plural form ending in -mme (-mmer in some dialects) instead of -m. This form is used before postpositions that take the dative. Note that after a long vowel, this same alternate ending is -me instead of -mme.

Strong declension
The strong declension is one of the two productive declensional classes. Its declensional suffixes differ depending on the gender of the noun.

The following table demonstrates this declensional class:

Note that if the stem ends in a vowel, if the ending begins with -e-, then it is deleted. The dative singular -i never directly follows a -i(i)-, -y(y)- or the diphthongs -ai- and -ei-; in those cases the ending -jei is used instead (-ijei, -yjei, -ajei, -ejei).

The genitive singular suffix -s becomes -es after a sibilant (-s- /s/, -z- /z/, -sj- /ɕ/, -kj- /t͡ɕ/, -gj- /d͡ʑ/).

Some strong declension nouns end in a schwa. If that is the case, then the dative singular and genitive plural endings replace the schwa. An example is given below:

Weak declension
The weak declension is the other productive declensional class. This declensional class is distinguished by the -n- infix in many of its endings. Note that the terms "strong" and "weak" are misnomers when applied to substantive nouns; the weak declension has been remodelled significantly in the genitive and dative by taking endings from the strong declension.

The weak declension is only of limited productivity. Most new words, even those that end in a vowel, will fall into the strong declension. Only if a loanword ends in a schwa will it fall into the weak declension. Thus the majority of words in the weak declension end in a schwa in the nominative singular. The exceptions typically end either in a long vowel, a diphthong or -i (the last largely restricted to some feminine names and a small, closed class of weak feminines).

The feminines ending in -i decline slightly differently:

When the stem ends in a vowel, the beginning schwa of the ending is always deleted. When the stem ends in a vowel or a single ungeminated consonant, the nominative and genitive plural forms use the following suffixes: The dative singular behaves similarly to the genitive plural.

r-stem declension
The r-stem declension is a relic class, and is no longer productive. All nouns in this class display i-umlaut, if applicable.

Irregular nouns
Some nouns form their plurals irregularly, whether it be from an irregular umlaut or an irregular Old Blylandic plural form.

List of nouns with irregular plurals: Historically, glas ("glass", n) had the plural form glare. However, in the modern language, glar is now a separate lexeme meaning "amber".

The noun dor ("door", n) has a regular plural dore, but it also has a special dual form dyr (genitive dyra, dative dyrem). This dual form is only used to refer to double doors.

A few nouns have unique nominative singular forms: For all neuter nouns listed above, the nominative singular form is also used for the accusative singular.

A few nouns show separate nominative/accusative and oblique (genitive/dative) stems: In some dialects, the words ruut and urt (both meaning "root", but with slightly different meanings) themselves form such a paradigm.

The noun kaur ("cow", f) is highly irregular:

Postpositions
Unlike in other Germanic languages, where prepositions are dominant, all particles in Blylandic are postpositional. Postpositions may govern the accusative, dative or (rarely) genitive cases.

List of postpositions (not exhaustive): Note that if the noun modified ends in a schwa (such as for strong feminine accusatives) and the postposition begins with a vowel, the schwa is deleted, with two exceptions (-iþer, which instead inserts a -w- between it and a vowel, and the dative plural, whose -emme becomes -emmer).

Adjectives
Most adjectives have separate strong and weak declensional forms. The more distinct strong forms are used in the absence of a demonstrative, while the less distinct weak forms are used in conjunction with a demonstrative.

The strong declension is as follows: If the stem ends in a vowel, the beginning schwa (for endings that possess it) is deleted. Endings beginning with -i- lose the -i- if it directly follows -ii-, -yy-, -ai- or -ei-; after -y-, -i- and -y- are lengthened before the -i- is deleted. Like with strong nouns, the masculine/neuter genitive singular -s becomes -es after a sibilant.

The -imme forms are only found directly before a postposition.

The weak declension is as follows: Like with weak nouns, if the stem of an adjective ends in a vowel, the beginning schwa is deleted. For the genitive plural, this also applies if the stem ends in a single ungeminated consonant (as seen above). Unlike with nouns, no remodelling has occurred in the weak declension; this reduces the number of distinct forms to four (two or three in some dialects).

The -emme forms are only found directly before a postposition.

Some adjectives only have strong forms, while comparatives, present participles and ordinals (other than fyrst and anner) only have weak forms. For the adjectives that only have weak forms, they must be paired with a determiner (iin, a demonstrative or a possessive pronoun) in order to act as substantives.

With the exception of comparatives, superlatives and a few irregular adjectives, adverbs are formed with the strong (if applicable) neuter genitive singular, while all adjectives use the strong (if applicable) neuter genitive singular when they are used as a predicate. Comparative adverbs remove the -e ending from the original adjective, while superlative adverbs have no ending.

Comparatives are formed by suffixing -ere to the adjective, while superlatives use -est. However, there are some exceptions, which are listed below: The irregularities are explained below:
 * The adjectives guud, ybl, mikl and laitel have suppletive forms for the comparative and superlative (bęt-, wirs-, mii-, minn-). guud and ybl also have suppletive adverbial forms (wel, wirs).
 * The adjective maneg loses its -eg in the comparative and superlative.
 * The adjective fau has irregular comparative and superlative forms due to sound changes (PG *fawizô → OBly fęwiro → Bly fööre).
 * The adjectives ald and jung displayed Verner alternation in the comparative and superlative, which was later obscured by sound changes
 * PG *aldaz/*alþizô/*alþistaz → OBly alder/ęlliro/ęllister → Bly ald/ęlle/ęlst
 * PG *jungaz/*junhizô/*junhistaz → OBly junger/yyhiro/yyhister → Bly jung/iure/yst
 * Originally, iirtid lacked a positive adjective form; this form combines the adverbial form with the bound form of taid.
 * The adjective saiþ was in Old Blylandic siiþer/siiþiro/siiþist. However, the comparative and superlative had alternate forms with a short vowel, and it is these forms that survive in the modern language.

Only one adjective (sann "true") shows irregularity within its declensional paradigm. In this case, its feminine stem shows i-umlaut (sęnn-) in both its strong and weak paradigms.

Numerals
The following lists the cardinal numerals:

The numeral iin (1) declines as follows: This resembles the strong declension; however, it shows significant irregularity.

The numeral twii (2) declines as follows:

The cardinal numeral þrair (3) declines as follows:

The cardinal number föder (4) declines as follows:

The cardinal numbers from 5 to 19, with the exception of 8, decline identically. They form their genitives with -a and their datives with -em(me), and for the masculine and feminine gender, their accusatives with -en. The numerals fef (5) and ses (6) have the roots feff- and sess-, respectively. The numeral atte (8) declines as follows:

Note that even though atten (eight, masculine/feminine accusative) is written the same as atten (eighteen, nominative and neuter accusative), they are pronounced differently, with the former being /ˈat.tən/ and the latter being /ˈat.ten/.

The cardinal numerals from 20 onwards are syntactically nouns, not determiners, and thus require the noun to be quantified to be declined in the genitive plural. There are two different forms for the decades, with the Lobehaben dialect using the forms ending in -nd and the Widberg dialect using the forms ending in -ger. The -nd decades behave as plural strong neuter nouns with irregular nominative/accusative forms, the -ger decades behave as plural strong declension masculine nouns, hunderd and miklund as strong declension neuter nouns, and þausend as a strong declension feminine noun. Numerals that modify these nouns must agree in gender, and hunderd, þausend or miklund by itself (or with iin) is grammatically singular, meaning that adjectives and verbs that agree with it must use singular forms.

The numerals twiiger (20), þrairtiger (30) and födertiger (40) decline irregularly:

Additive numerals are formed in two different ways, depending on the magnitude of the numerals in question. For the decades, the lower value addend is placed before the higher value addend, as if the smaller addend modifies the larger addend as an adjective. The powers of 10 instead use the conjunction ǫk ("and") and place the smaller addend after the larger addend (only the last conjunction is mandatory, when combining multiple numerals).
 * As an example, 54,321 is rendered as fef miklunde föder þausender þrai hunderde ǫk iini twiiger or fef miklunde föder þausender þrai hunderde ǫk iine wiund.

Even larger numbers can be represented, with tund (hundred million), þrijund (trillion), and even higher powers of 10,000 (föderund, fefund) made by suffixing -und (which declines as a strong neuter noun) to a numeral. However, in practice, one typically does not see values requiring numerals larger than þrijund (just as "quadrillion" and larger numerals are uncommon in English).

The ordinal numerals are listed below: Additive and multiplicative compounds are formed nearly identically to the cardinal numerals, except that ordinals are used instead. All ordinal numerals in compounds must agree with each other. For the decades, numeral prefixes are used to indicate an additive compound with a unit.
 * As an example, 54,321st is rendered as fefmiklunste föderþausenste þrihunderste ǫk ęntwitte or fefmiklunste föderþausenste þrihunderste ǫk ęnwiunste.

Note that Blylandic has five words that can be translated as "first". The usual is fyrst "first", which is used in reference to sequences of three or more items. The others are iirst "earliest", which is used for three or more sequential events separated in time; iire "earlier", used for two sequential events separated in time; frume "former", used for pairs of items; and frymest "foremost", used as emphatic version of the other four given adjectives. Note that iire and iirst lack a positive form, and the same applies to frume and frymest.

For sequences of two, anner is not used. Instead, siþre "latter, later" is used instead (the superlative sist means "last" or "latest").

Blylandic also possesses special numeral prefixes for half (sem-), one (ęn- or in-, depending on dialect; ęn- is standard), two (twi-), three (þri-) and four (feder- or föder-, depending on dialect; feder- is standard), while other numbers use the bare cardinal numeral as its prefix. These prefixes can be used to form various compounds, such as twifald ("twofold, double", twi- + -fald).

The following table lists the fractional numerals: All further fractional numerals are formed by replacing the ending of the corresponding ordinal with the suffix -l, which declines as a masculine strong noun. All fractional numerals, except hiil and halb, are nouns and require special syntax to quantify a noun.

Personal pronouns
Blylandic has personal pronouns in the first and second person.

The genitive forms, if used attributively, behave as determiners that inflect as strong adjectives. The use of the dual first person and second person pronouns are rare in colloquial language, having largely been replaced by their plural counterparts, but they are still used in formal language.

There are multiple ways a Blylandic speaker may refer to a third person. Typically, this is done using the proximal or medial demonstratives, with the latter typically used for emphasis. There is an additional set of dedicated third person pronouns (which bear similarity to the proximal demonstratives), but they are rarely used:

The third person dual pronoun bears no resemblance to any other pronoun. It is declined as follows: This can also be used as a determiner, meaning "both".

Interrogatives
Blylandic possesses three different interrogative pronouns. The general interrogative is declined as follows: This pronoun retains an instrumental form, wai (meaning "how"). This pronoun has no plural forms.

The other interrogatives are węr (which of many) and waþer (which of two), both of which decline as strong adjectives.

Demonstratives
Blylandic has three levels of demonstratives. The distal jein declines as a strong adjective, while the proximal hir and medial sa decline irregularly.

The medial demonstrative can also be used as a definite article.

The dative plural forms of the proximal and medial demonstratives may or may not end in -er. This -er is typically omitted if the demonstrative is used as a determiner, while it is retained if it is used as a pronoun (including when used as the object of a postposition).

Other correlatives
The following is a general table of correlatives in Blylandic:

Relative pronoun
The pronoun þiss, which declines as a strong adjective, serves as a placeholder for the argument within a relative clause that corresponds to the noun phrase associated with the clause.

Verbs
Verbs in Blylandic show considerable inflection. These inflections are split into "basic" inflections and "composed" inflections, which reflect the earlier state of the verbal system in Old Blylandic.

The basic inflection system conjugates verbs in the following:
 * Two tenses (present/future and past)
 * Three moods (indicative, subjunctive/optative and imperative)
 * Person (first, second, third)
 * Three numbers (singular, dual and plural; apart from the copula, which very rarely shows a dedicated second person dual, the dual is only distinguished in the first person)

The use of the dual is rare in the colloquial language, and is tied in with the use of its corresponding dual pronouns. The use of nominative pronouns for the dual is mandatory; the plural forms are to be used instead if the pronouns are to be omitted. Historically, the second person dual present indicative was distinguished from the second person plural present indicative by the lack of i-umlaut (where applicable). However, the elimination of i-umlaut forms in the present indicative has merged the two forms.

The endings vary depending on the conjugational class of the verb and the tense and mood, and the endings beginning with -e- drop the -e- if it directly follows a vowel. The subjunctive, in particular, is marked with an infixed -i-, while the present indicative third person forms are unique (singular -s and plural -(e)nt, as opposed to null and -(e)n respectively). The distinction between the first and third person singular is only made in the indicative (other than in the copula, whose present subjunctive forms are irregular). The third person singular present indicative ending -s becomes -es after a sibilant.

The formation of the subjunctive from a stem ending with a vowel requires some explanation. This is because the subjunctive endings not only do not follow the normal sandhi rules, but also follow different rules depending on the conjugational class of the verb and the tense. The following table lists the possible outcomes for the formation of the subjunctive: The above rules are inapplicable to the weak past, as they always end in a dental. For the rules where the infixed -i- becomes -e-, the ending -i becomes -ei instead of -e to reflect the /e/ pronunciation.

Blylandic verbs possess two participles, one for each tense. The present participle is almost always formed by adding -de to the infinitive (the sole exception, the negative form of the copula, has two present participles, one of which is regular). This participle, which declines as a weak adjective, generally has an active meaning, hence it may be referred to as the "active" participle. The form of the past participle varies depending on the conjugational class of the verb, but is typically the last principal part. Strong verbs have past participles ending in -(e)n, while weak verbs have past participles ending in the same dental suffix used to mark the past tense. The past participle, unlike the present participle, declines as a strong adjective and generally has a passive meaning. Both participles can be used as the base of composed inflections.

The infinitive and gerund are the verbal nouns of the Blylandic verb. The infinitive is the lemma and first principal part of every verb, while the gerund is formed from the infinitive by replacing the -(e)n with -ing (if the stem ends in any vowel, this creates a hiatus between the stem and the suffix). The infinitive has multiple purposes, such as being the base of composed inflections, forming accusative and infinitive constructions (e.g. Ja Loubehabni gein wil "I want her to go to Lobehaben"), denoting the purpose of an action (e.g. Hir mek sein qam "He came to see me"), and denoting an abstraction of the action/state described by the verb. The infinitive is generally uninflected, as it tends to occur either as an adverb or a subject. The gerund is generally used as an action noun, and can function either as a noun or an adverb. The gerund declines as a singular strong feminine noun; however, the accusative and dative forms are almost exclusively associated with postpositions, while the genitive is generally used attributively. When used adverbially, the gerund takes the nominative form.

Strong verbs
The following is an example of a strong verb, beren ("to bear"): The bir- forms listed above are archaic and no longer in regular use. They are formed by i-umlaut of the first principal part.

A strong verb has five principal parts: the infinitive, the third person singular past indicative, the third person plural past indicative, the third person singular past subjunctive and the past participle. They form their past tenses by ablaut (what were once reduplicating subclasses in Old Blylandic have since been converted into ablauting classes, with only two exceptions). All forms of a strong verb can be derived from one of these five principal parts.

The second person singular past indicative form is normally marked with the suffix -t attached to the second principal part. However, if the second principal part ends in a -k, -p or -t, then the form of the verb changes:
 * For -k + -t, the resulting form replaces the -k with -t (e.g. souk → sout, lak → lat, wesk → west).
 * For -p + -t, the resulting form replaces the -p with -ft (e.g. gap → gaft).
 * For -sp + -t, the resulting form replaces the -p with -t (e.g. resp → rest).
 * For -t + -t, the resulting form replaces the -t with -st (e.g. wart → warst).
 * For -st + -t, the second person singular past indicative is unmarked (e.g. brast → brast).

Some verbs display grammatischer Wechsel, in which the final consonant of the stem changes depending on the tense. The following alternations are observed (note that final consonant of the second principal part arose from an Old Blylandic sound change): In Blylandic, only a handful of verbs display an alternation between the past indicative and past subjunctive/participle. The most common verb that displays this alternation is sein ("to see"; 3s past indicative saa 3p past indicative sougen, 3s past subjunctive söö, past participle söön). These verbs, while classified as strong verbs, are considered not to fall into any subclass due to their anomalous conjugation. The other verbs are lain ("to lend"; lii, ligen, lyy, lyyn), sain ("to filter"; sii, sigen, syy, syyn) and the sein derivative ossein ("to look out, to look up").

The following is a list of subclasses of strong verbs (with examples): † This principal part is archaic. The forms that were once governed by this principal part are now governed by the infinitive.

Not all strong verbs neatly fit into one of the above subclasses. In particular, verbs derived from Old Blylandic verbs with word-medial -h- typically have lengthened vowels (such as the class 6 j-present lein "to laugh"), and verb forms that would have had -eu- or -iu- will monophthongise those diphthongs to -ö- and -y- respectively if they are followed by a consonant cluster and not preceded by a /w/.

The "j-present" verbs form a sub-subclass within classes 5, 6 and 7, with anomalous present tense forms (shown in the above table). There are only three class 7 j-present strong verbs, and two of them (ęren "to plow" and dein "to die") are irregular (ęren, jar, ören, iri, aren; dein, ded, döden, dödi, daun), being among the last Blylandic strong verbs to show reduplication.

Only a handful of verbs (including the "to see" homophone sein "to sow" and the aformentioned dein) mark the second person singular past indicative with the ending -et instead of -t. All of them show reduplication in the past tense (e.g. ser, ded), and as such it is easy to deduce whether a verb takes -et. The following verbs take this ending:
 * dein ("to die", ded, döden, dödi, daun)
 * gruun ("to grow (plants, intransitive)", grer, grören, gröri, gruun)
 * luun ("to shout", lel, lölen, löli, luun)
 * ruun ("to row", rer, rören, röri, ruun)
 * sein ("to sow", ser, sören, söri, sein)

While standen ("to stand") is nominally a class 6 strong verb, it has irregular past forms (3s past indicative stuut, 3p past indicative stuuden, 3s past subjunctive steudi, past participle staden).

Weak verbs
The following is an example of a weak verb, warnen ("to warn"): Weak verbs only have two principal parts: the infinitive and the past participle.

Preterite-present verbs
A small, closed class of verbs show an unusual conjugational pattern. These verbs, the preterite-present verbs, have present tense forms that behave as if they were the past tense forms of strong verbs, and have weak past tense forms.

The following is an example of a preterite-present verb, skolen (future tense auxillary): Preterite-present verbs have five principal parts, like strong verbs; however, their set of principal parts is different.

List of preterite-present verbs:

Irregular verbs
The copula wesen is the most irregular verb in Blylandic: Very rarely, one can find sumer for the first person plural present indicative, and ste for the second person plural present indicative. Even rarer are swar for the first person dual, and stir for the second person dual (this form is one of the few dedicated second person dual forms in Blylandic). Note that the second person dual present subjunctive form is meant to be saider, and is the form prescribed by prescriptivist grammarians; however, lack of use has meant that most speakers will simply use the plural form sait even with an explicit jut.

The third person singular present indicative form is not used in conjunction with a predicate adjective. Instead, the adjective is used alone, with a null copula. With other present forms, it fuses with the predicate adjective. Optionally, if the predicate adjective only has weak forms, -'s may be used as the copula (for the third person singular present indicative).
 * An example is Suu wereld mikls þai... ("Because the world is large...")
 * Þii męnner aldsint. ("Those people are old.")
 * Sa fogl minneren's. ("That bird is smaller.")

Related is the negative form of the copula, mesen: Very rarely, one can find nissum for the first person plural present indicative, and nist for the second person plural present indicative. Even rarer is nisser for the first person dual.

This verb has two present participles. The first participle, mesende, is only used in conjunction with an auxillary verb.

There is a third form of the copula, beun, used to denote permanent truths. It is defective, as it only has an infinitve, present participle and fully conjugated present tense forms. It cannot take auxillaries, its past forms use wesen, and its negative forms use mesen. By definition, it lacks imperative forms. This form is never used with predicative adjectives. Like with sait and saider, the form byyder is prescribed; however, most speakers use byyt instead, and in any case the subjunctive of this form is very rare. The alternate present participle bönde applies a sandhi rule that is typically ignored in the formation of present participles due to morphological levelling.

The copula cannot be used as an existential, and it cannot be used to mark the location of the subject. These roles are taken by oren and njoren.

The other two irregular verbs are duun ("to do") and gein ("to go").

The weak verbs hęben ("to have") and wilen ("to want") are regular in Blylandic (past participles: hadd and weld, respectively), despite them being irregular in Old Blylandic.

Additional forms
Blylandic verbs also possess additional forms to denote additional tenses, aspects and moods. Unlike in most Germanic languages, where participle/infinitive and verb are separate, these forms are fused together.

Mediopassive
The Blylandic mediopassive is marked with the suffix -sk, attached to the end of a fully conjugated verb. The full conjugation is as follows, using beren as an example: The participles and the gerund add the -sk after the inflectional ending.

Negative
The negative simply concatenates the infinitive with the negative form of the copula.

An example is berennis ("[he/she/it] does not bear")

Perfect tense
The perfect tense is formed using the past participle in combination with wesen or hęben. There are eight different paradigms, depending on the form of the past participle and whether the verb is negated.

Note that historically, more verbs used wesen as its auxillary. However, due to confusion between forms, as well as a drive towards more regular inflection, most verbs that used wesen ended up using hęben instead. In the modern day, only gein, qemen and wesen itself use wesen as an auxillary. And with gein, the difference between the negative and the perfect is a matter of consonant length (the negative uses geminated consonants), because it has an identical infinitive and past participle.

Strong past participle, positive, wesen:

Strong past participle, negative, wesen:

Weak past participle, positive, wesen (obsolete in most dialects):

Weak past participle, negative, wesen (obsolete in most dialects): Note that the -d- in the forms listed above may differ depending on the actual form of the past participle.

The forms using hęben simply remove the h- from the auxillary then concatenate the participle and verb. Examples include borenadde ("I had borne") and borenębennim ("I have not borne").

Progressive aspect
The progressive aspect is formed by combining the present participle with werþen. However, the initial w- is removed from the auxillary:

Syntax
The normal word order of Blylandic is subject-object-verb (SOV). V2 word order, in which the fully conjugated verb, whether it be the main verb or an auxillary, is placed second in a clause, is possible in main clauses, but in the modern language is largely limited to poetry and deliberately archaicising texts. Dependent clauses are always SOV.

Adjectives and genitives normally occur before the noun they modify, and only in a few cases (such as in names) do they occur after the head noun. Postpositions are always placed directly after the head noun, regardless of the presence of adjectives and/or genitives.
 * As an example, the name Mattild Oudakrsdutter Roudfordur becomes Mattildimis Oudakrsduttri Roudfordur when the postposition -mis is added. The patronymic is also declined in the dative but does not take the postposition, while the surname is a fossilised genitive and thus indeclinable.

As mentioned before, Blylandic has four cases (Blylandic: falle, singular fall): A few nouns have a vocative case (Blylandic: hiitfall, or þrize fall) separate from the nominative. Historically Blylandic also had an instrumental case (Blylandic: tuulfall or seste fall); however, by the Early Modern period the instrumental was only distinguished in adjectives and pronouns, and only in the singular (in many cases in Middle Blylandic, umlaut distinguished the dative and instrumental in the plural; however, this alternation was eliminated by regular sound changes). The dialects that still use the instrumental use -en (masculine/neuter in the strong declension, all genders in the weak declension) and -ir (feminine in the strong declension).
 * The nominative case (Blylandic: namenfall, or fyrstet fall based on Namari grammar), which is used to mark the subjects of transitive verbs and the sole core argument of intransitive verbs; it is also used as a vocative and is the lemma of a Blylandic noun.
 * The accusative case (Blylandic: þolfall, or anneret fall), which is used to mark the direct objects of transitive verbs and the destination of verbs of motion. It is also used as the object of certain postpositions.
 * The genitive case (Blylandic: iigfall, or föderþe fall), which is used to mark a noun that modifies another noun or noun phrase. It is also used as the object of certain postpositions.
 * The dative case (Blylandic: þigjfall, or fefte fall), which is used to mark the indirect object, or the receiver. It is also used as the object of certain postpositions.

A Blylandic clause consists of several components. The most important component is the verb phrase, which is traditionally held to form the "core" of a clause, especially as it is the only component that can form a complete clause by itself. The other components are noun phrases, postpositional phrases, adverbial phrases and subordinate clauses.

Numerals
The syntax of numerals and their associated noun phrases is rather complex. Unlike many Western European languages, special considerations must be given to the actual form of the noun phrase to be quantified.

The following illustrates some of the possible forms the combination of a numeral and a noun phrase may take: In the above sentences, the words in bold indicate the words that show the case of the actual noun phrase within the clause (as well as the gender of the quantified noun if an adjective). The other words (not including the conjunction ǫk "and") take different forms:
 * In wiund staba, the noun quantified is in the genitive plural, with adjectives modifying the numeral itself agreeing with the actual numeral. This applies to all numerals from 20 onwards.
 * Even though niin is an adjective, the noun quantified must be in the genitive singular. This is because when used as an adjective, niin means "nonexistence" rather than "zero". This syntactic peculiarity of zero can be found among many Likkran languages (e.g. in Namari, the word for zero is a stative verb whereas all other numerals have nominal properties, while in Guruni, zero only occurs as a standalone noun instead of a prefix as with all other numerals and requires the quantified noun to be in the instrumental plural).
 * As halb is an adjective, the noun quantified takes the case of the entire noun phrase. An alternative way of saying "half a stick" is hęlft stabs, where the noun quantified is in the genitive singular.
 * In niinemmimis fef stabs and immimis fef stabs, the noun quantified is in the genitive singular, and the whole number component of the numeral is in the dative case, in combination with the postposition mis. The fractional component is given digit-by-digit, and takes the case of the noun phrase. The actual number of the noun quantified depends on the value of the whole number component; zero, one and negative one use the singular, while all other values use the plural, as seen in twiimermis fef staba. Noun phrases formed from this construction are always plural, even if the fractional component consists only of zeros and ones; this is reflected in the fact that iin takes plural forms in this construction.
 * In iin þrizl stabs, the noun quantified is in the genitive singular, as þrizl is a noun. Note that if the numeral modifying the fractional numeral is 20 or greater, it itself is in the genitive plural, as seen in þrynd hunderstle stabs.
 * In hiilid ǫk hęlft stabs and twii ǫk hęlft staba, the noun quantified is in the genitive (singular or plural depending on the whole number component). The gender of the numeral component is dependent on the value of the numeral and the gender of the noun quantified:
 * For 1.5, the gender is neuter, regardless of the gender of the noun quantified. This is because hiilid is masculine and hęlft is feminine.
 * Otherwise, if the fractional component is exactly one half and there is no decade or hundred numeral, the gender of the numeral component is feminine if the noun quantified is itself feminine, and neuter if the noun quantified is masculine or neuter. If there is either a decade or a hundred numeral (or both), the gender of the numeral component is neuter, regardless of the gender of the noun quantified.
 * If the fractional component is not one half and there is no hundred or thousand numeral, the gender of the numeral component is masculine if the noun quantified is masculine, and neuter otherwise. If there is a hundred or thousand numeral, the gender is neuter. Whether the existence of a decade numeral forces a neuter gender is dependent on dialect (dialects with wiund force the neuter gender, while those with twiiger do not).

Vocabulary
Family members: Note that the suffix form of dotter is -dutter (e.g. barnsdutter "granddaughter").
 * fader (m, plural fęder) – father
 * muuder (f, plural meuder) – mother
 * bruuþer (m, plural breuþer) – brother
 * swester (f, plural swister) – sister
 * sun (m, plural syner) – son
 * dotter (f, plural dytter) – daughter
 * nefe (m) – nephew
 * nift (f) – niece
 * atte (m) – grandfather
 * amme (f) – grandmother

Colours:
 * roud – red
 * göl – yellow
 * greun – green
 * blöö – blue
 * braun – brown
 * wait – white
 * swart – black
 * gröö – grey
 * oranj – orange (borrowing from Dutch oranje)
 * roz – pink (borrowing from Latin rosa)
 * jol – purple (borrowing from Latin viola)

Compass points: The above are adverbial forms. The nominal forms (all strong neuter nouns) attach -r to the end (oustr, norþr, soþr, westr), while the adjectival forms attach -renj (oustrenj, norþrenj, soþrenj, westrenj).
 * oust – east
 * norþ – north
 * soþ – south
 * west – west

Time:
 * taime (m) – time
 * sekond (n) – second (borrowing from Latin secundum)
 * minut (f) – minute (borrowing from Latin minūta)
 * stunde (f) – hour
 * dag (m) – day
 * wike (f) – week
 * meineþ (m) – month
 * jeir (n) – year
 * jeiretög (m, plural jeiretiger) – decade
 * ęldi (f) – generation (between 20 and 50 years, typically 30)
 * jeirehunderd (n) – century
 * jeireþausend (f) – millennium
 * natt (f, plural nętter) – night
 * morgen (m) – morning
 * middag (m) – noon
 * aftermiddag (m) – afternoon
 * eibenn (m, genitive oubends) – evening

Relative time: Note that gister- is a prefix, and thus applies to any measure of time (e.g. gisterjeir "last year"); however, this is uncommon outside of gisterdag. The adjectives frumere ("previous") and niist ("next") are used instead.
 * forgisterdag – day before yesterday
 * gisterdag – yesterday
 * þedag – today
 * þemorgen – tomorrow
 * ubermorgen – day after tomorrow

Days of the week:
 * sondag – Sunday
 * meindag – Monday
 * tyysdag – Tuesday (Blyland)
 * uudensdag – Wednesday (Blyland)
 * þorsdag – Thursday (Blyland)
 * friirdag – Friday (Blyland)
 * lougerdag – Saturday (Blyland)
 * fyndag – Tuesday (Namari)
 * wętendag – Wednesday (Namari)
 * boumsdag – Thursday (Namari)
 * golsdag – Friday (Namari)
 * erþerdag – Saturday (Namari)

Months of the year: The year in Blyland begins on the first day of wyntermeineþ, which corresponds to January.
 * wyntermeineþ
 * snöösmeineþ
 * bluumeineþ
 * warsmeineþ
 * oustremeineþ
 * sonnemeineþ
 * sumersmeineþ
 * höösmeineþ
 * arnermeineþ
 * hęrfstsmeineþ
 * wainsmeineþ
 * jeulemeineþ

Seasons:
 * warr (n) – spring
 * sumer (m) – summer
 * hęrfst (m) – autumn/fall
 * wyntr (m, plural wintrer) – winter

Rune names: These represent the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark. They are no longer used in Blylandic because they have long been unable to represent all sounds in the language.
 * föö (n, plural fii) – /ɸ/
 * aur (m) – /u/
 * þyrs (m) – /θ/
 * ǫss (m, plural ęsser) – /a/
 * riid (f) – /r/
 * koun (n) – /k/
 * geb (f) – /g/
 * ynj (f) – /w/
 * hagl (m) – /h/
 * neud (f) – /n/
 * ais (n) – /i/
 * jeir (n) – /j/
 * yy (m) – /e/
 * perþ (f) – /p/
 * ęlg (m) – /z/
 * suul (f) – /s/
 * tyy (m) – /t/
 * berken (n) – /b/
 * ei (m) – /ɛ/
 * manne (m, plural męnner) – /m/
 * lǫg (m, plural lęger) – /l/
 * ing (m) – /ŋ/
 * uuþel (n) – /ɔ/
 * dag (m) – /d/

Lists split off into their own articles:
 * Blylandic Swadesh list
 * Geography
 * Metalanguage
 * Religion
 * Science

Notable texts in Blylandic
The following is a list of notable texts in Blylandic in Innocence Seekers:
 * Saga of Gakran (Gakrans Sage), a retelling of the quest to defeat Gakran, by Emme Willemsdutter