Grammar Crumbs: Articles and Body Parts

Grammar quirk: Valthungian has two definite articles – he and sa – which are inherited from the Germanic proximal and medial demonstratives, *hiz and *sa, respectively, and counterparts to the demonstratives his and sā. Sa is usually the default (as became the case in most Germanic languages), but you can use he if your “the” feels more “this-y” than “that-y.”

However, when referring to personal body parts, always use he for your own and sa for others’.

E.g. ‘my heart’ is always he hreta mīna – never þa hreta mīna; conversely, you would never say he hreta þīna – always þa.

Some other useful body parts:

	“mine”	“yours”
hair:	he hēr mīna	þa hēr þīna
head:	he hǭviþ mīna	þa hǭviþ þīna
brain:	he hrežne mīna	þa hrežne þīna
eyes:	hīž·ǭgana mīnan	þ·ōgana þīnan
nose:	he nasa mīna	þa nasa þīna
ears:	hi hǭsana mīnan	þo hǭsana þīnan
mouth:	he munþs mīna	sa munþs þīna
tongue:	hi tunga mīna	so tunga þīna
teeth:	his tynþis mīnans	þe tynþis þīnans
throat:	he haus mīna	sa haus þīna
neck:	he þnaka mīna	sa þnaka þīna
arm:	he rams mīna	sa rams þīna
hand:	hi handus mīna	so handus þīna
fingers:	his fingras mīnans	þe fingras þīnans
nail:	he naglas mīna	sa naglas þīna
chest:	he brust mīna	sa brust þīna
heart:	he hreta mīna	þa hreta þīna
lungs:	hi lungna mīnan	þo lungna þīnan
stomach:	he maga mīna	sa maga þīna
leg:	hīž·anke mīna	s·anke þīna
knee:	he knio mīna	þa knio þīna
shin:	hi skina mīna	so skina þīna
calf:	he waþua mīna	þa waþua þīna
ankle:	his anklas mīna	s·ānklas þīna
feet:	his fœučis mīnans	þe fœučis þīnans

The Old Valthungian Alphabet (ca. 950ᴀᴅ)

Most of my posts about Valthungian have something to do with the modern Valthungian language, but I wanted to share a little bit about a stepping-stone we cross on our way from Griutungi (a dialect or close relative of Gothic) to Valthungian.

Old Valthungian, the language spoken by Goth descendants living in parts of Northern Italy between 800 and 1200ad, had a unique writing system which seems to have been largely based on Gothic, but with a few innovations possibly inspired by some of the interesting things that were happening to “Latin” at the time (before it really consciously registered for anyone that they weren’t really speaking Latin anymore). There were very often Latin characters mixed into the Old Valthungian texts as well.

Of course, spelling was very inconsistent, and what I’ve attempted to regularise here is merely academic; a more thorough list of variations and exceptions can be found at the link below. The order of the alphabet as shown is also approximate, based on Gothic and modern Valthungian alphabetic orders; no extant documents or artifacts contain the Old Valthungian alphabet in full.

For more information on Old Valthungian, please visit:

https://linguifex.com/wiki/Old_Valthungian

Update: Yeah, so I’ve totally rearranged and reconstructed all of this. The link above is current. The table below is out of order and missing a couple of letters. Also, just kidding about the “exact order of the alphabet is unknown” thing. Now it’s mostly known.

O.V.	Rom.	Gothic	IPA	E.g.
	a	𐌰	ɑ	apls ‘apple’
	b	𐌱	b	bagyms ‘tree’
	g	𐌲	ɡ	gaets ‘goat’
	d	𐌳	d	dagyz ‘day’
	ð	(𐌳)	ð	aeðij ‘mother’
	e	𐌴	ɛ	erða ‘earth’
	qv	𐌵	kw	qvernu ‘mill’
	z	𐌶	ʐ	þizae ‘to that’
	h	𐌷	h~x	herjis ‘army’
	þ	𐌸	θ	þjuþ ‘people’
	i	𐌹	i~ɪ	igyil ‘hedgehog’
	j	𐌾	j	jeir ‘year’
	k	𐌺	k⁽ʰ⁾	korts ‘short’
	l	𐌻	l~ɫ	langz ‘long’
	m	𐌼	m	maeðms ‘gift’
	n	𐌽	n	naoþs ‘need’
	o	𐍉	ɔ	ortigardz ‘garden’
	p	𐍀	p⁽ʰ⁾	paeða ‘shirt’
	r	𐍂	r	riqvus ‘darkness’
	s	𐍃	s	sougila ‘sun’
	t	𐍄	t⁽ʰ⁾	tungl ‘star’
	u	𐌿	u~ʊ	ulbvandus ‘camel’
	f	𐍆	f~ɸ	fimf ‘five’
	v	𐍅	w	vilðijs ‘wild’
	y	(𐍅)	y~ʏ	hyhsopus ‘hyssop’
	k	𐍇	kʰ	korts ‘short’
	hv	𐍈	xw	hvilftri ‘curve’
	aa	𐌰	ɑː	haah  ‘curtain’
	ae	𐌰𐌹	ɛː	aens ‘one’
	ao	𐌰𐌿	ɔː	kaupoun ‘buy’
	bv	(𐌱)	β	gibvan ‘give’
	ea	𐌰	ɛ	eandjis ‘end’
	eao	𐌰𐌿	œː	leaosjan ‘liberate’
	ei	𐌴	eː	meina ‘moon’
	eo	(𐌰𐌿)	œ	andweordjan ‘answer’
	eou	(𐍉)	øː	afmeouðij ‘disagreement’
	eu	(𐌿)	y	feutlijns ‘fulfillment’
	euv	(𐌿)	yː	heuvhjan ‘hoard’
	gy	(𐌲)	ɣ	aogyou ‘eye’
	ij	𐌴𐌹	iː	ijs ‘ice’
	ju	𐌹𐌿	ju	jup ‘up’
	ng	𐌲𐌲	ŋɡ	singan ‘sing’
	nk	𐌲𐌺	ŋk	drinkan ‘drink’
	nqv	𐌲𐌵	ŋkw	inqvar ‘your’
	ou	𐍉	oː	ous ‘river-mouth’
	uv	𐌿	uː	uvhtvou ‘pre-dawn’