Ljóðsmálið

Ljóðsmálið Ljóðsmálið
Pronounced:	Modern: [loːm.mo.lə] Classical: [ljɔu̯ːs.m̥ɔu̯.liː]
Species:	Human
Spoken:	Shetland
Writing system:	Latin
Genealogy:	Proto-Germanic Old Norse Old West Norse Ljóðsmálið
Typology
Morphological type:	Fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Nominative
Basic word order:	SVO basic
Credits
Creator:	Lumi
Created:	November 4th, 2025

Ljóðsmálið is a North Germanic language, relatively close to Faroese and Icelandic, and like those two it remains conservative in spelling, where it almost never changes spelling (in the standard spellings). It should be noted the language(s) themselves are not conservative in the slightest, and should not be thought of as such.

Dialects

Modern Standard

Natively called Lómmolí [loːm.mo.liː].

Phonology & Orthography

Consonants

Orthography

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar¹
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p, b	t	k, g
Fricative		s	sj
Approximant	v	r, l

Phonemes

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar¹
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p, b	t	k, g
Fricative		s	ʃ
Approximant	w~ɥ~j~h	r, l

1: Also includes palatal.

Vowels

As dialects use the spelling orthography, that's all that will be presented here.

Orthography

	Front				Back
	Unround		Round
	Plain	Long	Plain	Long	Plain	Long
High	i	í	y	ý	u	ú
Mid-High	e	é	ø	ǿ	o	ó
Mid-Low	ì	î	ỳ	ŷ	ù	û
Low	a	á

Phonemes

	Front				Back
	Unround		Round
	Plain	Long	Plain	Long	Plain	Long
High	i	iː	y	yː	u	uː
Mid-High	e	eː	ø	øː	o	oː
Mid-Low	ɛ	ɛː	œ	œː	ɔ	ɔː
Low	a	aː

Further information

As can be seen from these charts, a significant amount of change has occurred from the Standard language to Dynrastarnesmál, some examples will be given below:

• Ljóðsmálið /ljoːu̯s.m̥ɔu̯.liː/ > Lómmolí [loːm.mo.liː] (En. Ljóðsmálið; Old Norse /ljoːðs/ + /mɑː.lið/)
• Hjaltland /çɔl̥t.l̥ɑnd/ > Sjullann [ʃul.lanː] (En. Shetland; Old Norse /çɑlt.lɑnd/)
• Dynrastarnes /dʏn.rɑs.tɔr.nɛs/ > Únnazonis [uːn.nas.so.nis] (En. Dunrossness; Old Norse /dyn.rɑs.tɑr.nes/)
• konungur /kʊ.nau̯ŋ.ɡʊr/ > kunùnna [ku.nɔn.nə] (En. king; Old Norse /ko.nuŋ.ɡr̩/)

Sound Changes

• Word initial fricative voicing (/ʃou̯ɡ/ > /ʒou̯ɡ/)
• /h, ɦ/ > /x, ɣ/, later /ɣ/ > /g/
• /f, v/ > /ʋ̥, ʋ/
• /d/ > /ð/ (treat like an approximant), /θ/ > /t/
• Word final devoicing of stops
• /r̥, l̥, ʍ/ > /r, l, w/
• /t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ/ > /ʃ, ʒ/, /ts/ > /sː/
• /sk/ > /ʃ/ in clusters like /skr, skl, skʋ/ (/skʋ/ often becomes /ʃw/)
• Assimilation:
  • Of approximants: Takes the first quality and turns the second into it (unless the first is /ʋ/, which never has priority), eg: /lʋ/ > /lː/, /nʋ/ > /nː/. Included in this is /ACA/ > /AA/, so /ltl/ > /lː/. An important note with this is /r/ remains when it's the onset of the first syllable and the consonant it's following isn't alveolar, so /br/ stays as /br/.
  • Of stops: Assimilates voicing (/gt/ > /kt/), and place when in a cluster of 3+ consonants (/gtm/ > /ktm/ > /kːm/)
  • Of nasals: Nasal also takes priority, there are several scenarios when nasal assimilation happens, so we'll use /n, t, s, r, l/ to demonstrate them, they are: /nt/, /tn/, /sn/, /nr/, but never /ns/, /ln/, or /nl/, and in /rn/ the /r/ takes priority.
• /ŋ/ > /n/
• /ʋ/ > /w/, lost before/after /u/, so /u.jɛn/ (earlier /ou̯ɛ̯ːn/) from /ou̯.wai̯n/
• Mid merger: /ɛ, œ, ɔ,/ merge with /e, ø, o/
• diphthong smoothing:
  • /a-/ diphthongs become mid-lows, so /ai̯(ː), ay̯(ː), au̯(ː)/ > /ɛː(ː), œː(ː), ɔː(ː)/
  • Other diphthongs just simplify, so /ei̯(ː), øy̯(ː), ou̯(ː)/ > /eː(ː), øː(ː), oː(ː)/
• /ɪ, ʏ/ > /e, ʊ/
• /ʊ/ > /u/
• /x/ > /h/
• Non-rhoticity, lengthening the preceding vowel.
• /V(ː)/ > /ə(ː)/ word finally, when this causes /Cr/ to appear, the /r/ is dropped, later schwa is dropped, and long schwa shortens (this change does not affect monosyllabic words)
• /w, j/ to /u̯, i̯/ when in the coda (both change to /y/ with front round vowels)
• Word initial geminates lost (/lːoːː/ > /loːː/)
• Late nasal place assimilation: This involves nasals assimilating to the same place, /n/ has priority over /m/.
• Loss of nasals after geminated consonants in clusters, so /kːm/ > /kː/
• /l/ vocalization in the coda of a syllable when directly followed by a consonant, /ʒol̥.po/ > /ʒou̯.po/, but /ʒol/ would remain as /ʒol/
• /ð, w, j, h/ lose their place of articulation and assimilate to the vowel, /a, ə/ take /h/. /wu, ji/ are still invalid, so they become /uː, iː/.
• /e, ø, o/ move up to /i, y, u/, then /eː(ː), øː(ː), oː(ː), ɛː(ː), œː(ː), ɔː(ː)/ shift to /e(ː), ø(ː), o(ː), ɛ(ː), œ(ː), ɔ(ː)/
• /z, ʒ/ > /s, ʃ/
• Word final gemination lost

Modern Phonotactics

• /wu, ji, ɥy/ > /uː, iː, yː/ is a constant rule after it first begins, so it is always in effect, even in the modern language.

Grammar

Syntax

Ljóðsmálið's basic word order is SVO, but this becomes VSO in questions, however, due to inflections, the word order is actually incredibly free.

Mannfjoldinn var 1.500 — The population was 1,500

However (prepositional phrase in green):

Árið 2000 var mannfjoldinn 1.500 — In 2000, the population was 1,500 (lit. The year 2000 was the population 1,500)

But for questions, SV inversion is used, so:

Stefan er svangur — Stefan is hungry

and when turned into a question:

Er Stefan svangur? — Is Stefan hungry?

Questions

As seen above, questions are formed through SV inversion (SVO > VSO), an example being:

Þú talar Ljóðsmálið — You speak Ljóðsmálið

Can be turned into:

Talar þú Ljóðsmálið? — Do you speak Ljóðsmálið?

Inversion is still used even with interrogatives, which are simply placed at the start of the sentence:

• hvat? — what?

Hvað ert (þú) (að) gera? — What are you doing?

Classical

Natively Ljóðsmálið /ljou̯ːs.m̥ɔu̯.liː/

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		(ŋ)
Plosive	Voiceless	p	t	t͡ʃ	k
	Voiced	b	d	d͡ʒ	ɡ
Fricative	Voiceless	f	s	ç, ʃ		h
	Voiced	v
Approximant	Voiced	w	r, l	j
	Voiceless		r̥, l̥

• Any of the sonorants (except /j/) may be devoiced next to a voiceless consonant.

Vowels

Unlike most vowel tables, this is made corresponding to Old Norse. This is largely due to orthographic complications arising from it being extremely historic, for example, the eð vowels are only treated differently due to the way they're written, normally such things would be disregarded, but here they're not as it is a rather important aspect of interacting with the language.

This first table is the vowel orthography, it applies to all the following phoneme tables. It's shown as a phoneme table so you can more easily see the value of each letter when put against the phoneme tables.

Vowel orthography

	Front				Back
	Unround		Round
	Plain	Long	Plain	Long	Plain	Long
High	i	í	y	ý	u	ú
Mid-High	e	é	ø	ǿ	o	ó
Mid-Low	ę	æ			ǫ	ǫ́
Low					a	á

Eð vowels are those historically containing eð as the coda.

Plain Vowels Front Back Unround Round Plain Long Plain Long Plain Long High ɪ ai̯ ʏ ay̯ ʊ au̯ Mid-High ɛ ei̯ œ øy̯ ɔ ou̯ Mid-Low ɛi̯ ɔu̯ Low ɑ ɔɑ̯

Eð Vowels Front Back Unround Round Plain Long Plain Long Plain Long High iː ai̯ː yː ay̯ː uː au̯ː Mid-High eː ei̯ː øː øy̯ː oː ou̯ː Mid-Low ɛː ɛi̯ː ɔː ɔu̯ː Low ɑː ɔɑ̯ː

Next are vowels in contact (contained in the same syllable) with labial consonants, the labels here are slightly misleading, but are again based on Old Norse.

Labial Vowels Front Back Unround Round Plain Long Plain Long Plain Long High ʏ ay̯ ay̯ ay̯ au̯ au̯ Mid-High œ øy̯ ʏ ay̯ ʊ au̯ Mid-Low œy̯ ɔ ou̯ Low ɔu̯

Labial Eð Vowels Front Back Unround Round Plain Long Plain Long Plain Long High yː ay̯ː ay̯ː ay̯ː au̯ː au̯ː Mid-High øː øy̯ː y̯ː ay̯ː uː au̯ː Mid-Low œˌ œy̯ː oː ou̯ː Low ɔː ɔu̯ː

Next are vowels in contact with a velar.

Velar Vowels Front Back Unround Round Plain Long Plain Long Plain Long High ʊ au̯ ʊ au̯ au̯ au̯ Mid-High ɔ ou̯ ɔ ou̯ ʊ au̯ Mid-Low ɔu̯ ɔ ou̯ Low ɔu̯

Velar Eð Vowels Front Back Unround Round Plain Long Plain Long Plain Long High uː au̯ː uː au̯ː au̯ː au̯ː Mid-High oː ou̯ː oː ou̯ː uː au̯ː Mid-Low ɔː ɔu̯ː oː ou̯ː Low ɔː ɔu̯ː

Another important note is irregular length, gemination was lost word finally, this happened prior to long vowel breaking, so when a geminate is present (in writing), treat it like an old long vowel, eg: "skegg" = "skég".

Egyptian

Natively Ⲕⲓⲙⲓⲥⲁⲣⲗⲓⲱⲱⲥⲙⲟⲗⲓⲓ (Kımısarlȷōōsmolıı) or Ⲕⲓⲙⲓⲥⲁⲣⲙⲟⲗ (Kımısarmol)

Phonology

Consonants

Orthography Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Nasal ⲙ ⲛ Stop Aspirated ⲫ ⲑ ϭ ⲭ Plain ⲡ ⲧ ϫ ⲕ Fricative ϥ, ⲃ ⲥ ϣ ϩ Approximant ⲩ ⲣ, ⲗ ⲓ

Transcription Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Nasal m n Stop Aspirated p t ĉ k Plain b d ĝ g Fricative f, v s ŝ h Approximant w r, l ȷ

Phonology

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n
Stop	Aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	t͡ʃʰ	kʰ
	Plain	p	t	t͡ʃ	k
Fricative		f, v	s	ʃ	h
Approximant		w	r, l	j

Vowels

Orthography Front Back Plain Long Plain Long High ⲓ ⲓⲓ ⲩ ⲩⲩ Mid-High ⲏ ⲏⲏ ⲱ ⲱⲱ Mid-Low ⲉ ⲉⲉ ⲟ ⲟⲟ Low ⲁ ⲁⲁ

Orthography (Transcription) Front Back Plain Long Plain Long High ı ıı u uu Mid-High ē ēē ō ōō Mid-Low e ee o oo Low a aa

Phonology

	Front		Back
	Plain	Long	Plain	Long
High	i	iː	u	uː
Mid-High	e	eː	o	oː
Mid-Low	ɛ	ɛː	ɔ	ɔː
Low	a	aː

Grammar

Syntax

Kimisarmol's basic word order is SVO, but this becomes VSO in questions, this is rigid despite inflections.

ⲡⲓⲙⲟⲛⲛϥⲓⲟⲗϫⲓ ⲱⲃⲟⲣ ⲁ̿ⲫ̅ (bımonnfȷolĝı ōvor 1500) — The population was 1,500

Questions

Questions are formed through question words or intonation (typically a rising tone), but the word order never changes.

ⲑⲩ ϫⲉⲑⲩⲣ ⲑⲁⲗⲁⲑ ⲭⲓⲙⲓⲥⲁⲣⲙⲟⲗ (tu ĝetur talat kımısarmol) - You (can) speak Kimisarmol

ⲑⲩ ϫⲉⲑⲩⲣ ⲑⲁⲗⲁⲑ ⲭⲓⲙⲓⲥⲁⲣⲙⲟⲗ? (tu ĝetur talat kımısarmol?) - Do/Can you speak Kimisarmol?

Morphology

Kimisarmol, like all other forms of Ljóðsmálið, is heavily inflecting, but sound changes have made many forms merge, especially in verbs, so new affixes were innovated to compensate.

Verbs

Sound changes led to a near loss of tense, so new affixes evolved to compensate, notably ō- for the past tense, from Old Norse áðr ("before"), even more notably is the development of new tenses through this, being the following:

ef- — Future tense, from "eptir", meaning "after(wards)"

ōm- — Past continuous, or imperfect, from "om-" (Continuous aspect; from "um") + "ō-" (Past tense)

emf- — Future continuous, from "om-" + "ef-"

om- — Continuous, while an aspect, it's only used with the present tense, so is treated as the present continuous.

-hvo — Perfect, attaches to a past participle, so "burĝenhvo" is "to have rescued", and "(ok) burĝenhvı..." ("I have rescued...") is an inflected form

of- — Habitual, from "opt", meaning "often"

Below is an inflection table, using "bjorga" ("to rescue") as an example:

Plain	Infinitive			bjorga
	Present participle			berganĝı
	Past participle			(ō)burĝen
	Future participle			efferganĝı
Perfect	Infinitive			burĝenhvo
	Present participle			burĝenhvonĝi
	Past participle			(ō)burĝenhvur
	Future participle			effurĝenhvonĝi
				Singular			Plural
				1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Plain	Past	Indicative	Basic	(ō)borg	(ō)bort	(ō)borg	(ō)bırgem	(ō)bırgoo	(ō)bırgo
			Continuous	ōmborg	ōmbort	ōmborg	ōmbırgem	ōmbırgoo	ōmbırgo
			Habitual	ōfforg	ōffort	ōfforg	ōffırgem	ōffırgoo	ōffırgo
		Subjunctive	Basic	(ō)bergo	(ō)berĝir	(ō)berĝı	(ō)berĝım	(ō)berĝıı	(ō)berĝı
			Continuous	ōmbergo	ōmberĝir	ōmberĝı	ōmberĝım	ōmberĝıı	ōmberĝı
			Habitual	ōffergo	ōfferĝir	ōfferĝı	ōfferĝım	ōfferĝıı	ōfferĝı
	Present	Indicative	Basic	berg	bergur	bergur	bergem	berĝıı	bergo
			Continuous	omberg	ombergur	ombergur	ombergem	omberĝıı	ombergo
			Habitual	offerg	offergur	offergur	offergem	offerĝıı	offergo
		Subjunctive	Basic	bergo	berĝır	berĝı	berĝım	berĝıı	berĝı
			Continuous	ombergo	omberĝır	omberĝı	omberĝım	omberĝıı	omberĝı
			Habitual	offergo	offerĝır	offerĝı	offerĝım	offerĝıı	offerĝı
	Future	Indicative	Basic	efferg	effergur	effergur	effergem	efferĝıı	effergo
			Continuous	emfferg	emffergur	emffergur	emffergem	emfferĝıı	emffergo
			Habitual	oefferg	oeffergur	oeffergur	oeffergem	oefferĝıı	oeffergo
		Subjunctive	Basic	effergo	efferĝır	efferĝı	efferĝım	efferĝıı	efferĝı
			Continuous	emffergo	emfferĝır	emfferĝı	emfferĝım	emfferĝıı	emfferĝı
			Habitual	oeffergo	oefferĝır	oefferĝı	oefferĝım	oefferĝıı	oefferĝı
Perfect	Past	Indicative	Basic	(ō)burĝenhvva	(ō)burĝenhvvır	(ō)burĝenhvvı	(ō)burĝenhvvın	(ō)burĝenhvvuu	(ō)burĝenhvvu
			Continuous	ōmburĝenhvva	ōmburĝenhvvır	ōmburĝenhvvı	ōmburĝenhvvın	ōmburĝenhvvuu	ōmburĝenhvvu
			Habitual	ōffurĝenhvva	ōffurĝenhvvır	ōffurĝenhvvı	ōffurĝenhvvın	ōffurĝenhvvuu	ōffurĝenhvvu
		Subjunctive	Basic	(ō)burĝenhvva	(ō)burĝenhvvır	(ō)burĝenhvvı	(ō)burĝenhvvın	(ō)burĝenhvvıı	(ō)burĝenhvvı
			Continuous	ōmburĝenhvva	ōmburĝenhvvır	ōmburĝenhvvı	ōmburĝenhvvın	ōmburĝenhvvıı	ōmburĝenhvvı
			Habitual	ōffurĝenhvva	ōffurĝenhvvır	ōffurĝenhvvı	ōffurĝenhvvın	ōffurĝenhvvıı	ōffurĝenhvvı
	Present	Indicative	Basic	burĝenhvı	burĝenhvır	burĝenhvır	burĝenhvın	burĝenhvıı	burĝenhvo
			Continuous	omburĝenhvı	omburĝenhvır	omburĝenhvır	omburĝenhvın	omburĝenhvıı	omburĝenhvo
			Habitual	offurĝenhvı	offurĝenhvır	offurĝenhvır	offurĝenhvın	offurĝenhvıı	offurĝenhvo
		Subjunctive	Basic	burĝenhvo	burĝenhvır	burĝenhvı	burĝenhvın	burĝenhvıı	burĝenhvı
			Continuous	omburĝenhvo	omburĝenhvır	omburĝenhvı	omburĝenhvın	omburĝenhvıı	omburĝenhvı
			Habitual	offurĝenhvo	offurĝenhvır	offurĝenhvı	offurĝenhvın	offurĝenhvıı	offurĝenhvı
	Future	Indicative	Basic	effurĝenhvı	effurĝenhvır	effurĝenhvır	effurĝenhvın	effurĝenhvıı	effurĝenhvo
			Continuous	emffurĝenhvı	emffurĝenhvır	emffurĝenhvır	emffurĝenhvın	emffurĝenhvıı	emffurĝenhvo
			Habitual	oeffurĝenhvı	oeffurĝenhvır	oeffurĝenhvır	oeffurĝenhvın	oeffurĝenhvıı	oeffurĝenhvo
		Subjunctive	Basic	effurĝenhvo	effurĝenhvır	effurĝenhvı	effurĝenhvın	effurĝenhvıı	effurĝenhvı
			Continuous	emffurĝenhvo	emffurĝenhvır	emffurĝenhvı	emffurĝenhvın	emffurĝenhvıı	emffurĝenhvı
			Habitual	oeffurĝenhvo	oeffurĝenhvır	oeffurĝenhvı	oeffurĝenhvın	oeffurĝenhvıı	oeffurĝenhvı

(The habitual continuous was excluded for purposes of the table's size, but it uses the prefixes ōmft- (past), omft- (present), and emfft- (future))

As can be seen from this table, an incredible amount has been gained, and it's no stretch to say Coptic helped in these developments happening. But you can also see something important has been lost, the imperative, which is now expressed primarily through intonation.

Dialectal comparison

English	Classical		Modern		Egyptian
	Word	IPA	Word	IPA	Coptic	Latin	IPA
Language	mál	/mɔu̯l/	mol	/mol/	ⲙⲟⲗ	mol	/mɔl/
Ljóðsmálið	Ljóðsmálið	/ljou̯ːs.m̥ɔu̯.liː/	Lómmolí	loːm.mo.liː	Ⲗⲓⲱⲱⲥⲙⲟⲗⲓⲓ	Lȷōōsmolıı	/ljoːs.mɔ.liː/
good (adj)	góður	/ɡau̯.wʊr/	gùva	/ɡɔ.hə/	ⲕⲟⲩ̈ⲩⲣ	goüur	/kɔ.wur/
dew	dǫgg	/dɔu̯ɡ/	vok	/wok/	ⲧⲟⲕ	dog	/tɔk/