Rutian (language)

Spoken by almost 6 billion inhabitants of Rutianas, Rutian has strong roots in German as the stranded colonists were German. After Rutianas was founded, the language began to evolve along a different path from German. While the Republic still speaks German, Rutian hasn't lost popularity and is still taught in schools across the nation.

Alphabet
The Rutian Alphabet is comprised of 20 consonants and 6 vowels. There are 4 special characters.

Consonants

 * b - beh
 * c - tseh
 * d - deh
 * f - feh
 * g - geh
 * h - han
 * j - yet
 * k - koh
 * l - el
 * m - em
 * n - en
 * p - peh
 * q - koo
 * r - ar
 * s - iz
 * t - teh
 * v - feh
 * w - veh
 * x - iks
 * z – tsen

Vowels

 * a - ah
 * e - eh
 * i - ee
 * o - oh
 * u - oo
 * y - yot

Special Characters

 * ä - ai
 * ö - eh
 * ü - ew
 * ß - ss

Sound Combinations

 * sh, sch sounds as [sh]
 * ph sounds as [f] unless there's a letter break between them
 * ch sounds as a soft hiss, similar to sh, but more in the middle of the mouth
 * th always sounds as [t]

Nominative
The Nominative in Rutian determines the subject of a sentence.

For example:

Ich gebt eith kinder eithem büchin.

I give the book to the child.

The word Ich is in the nominative. It is also the form that will be found in the dictionary.

Accusative
The Accusative determines the direct object.

Using the sentence above, the word kinder is in the accusative. The child is the direct object. It is who is getting the book.

The Accusative declines only in the masculine, by adding -er to the definite article and -en to the indefinite.

Dative
The Dative determines the indirect object. All nouns in the Dative gain an -in ending.

Using the sentence above, büchin is in the dative, as it is the indirect object. It is what is being given.

The Dative declines with all genders. See the table below for references.

Possessive
The Possessive case shows possession. The formation is done by using a dative personal pronoun + vor + object being possessed.

Certain cases can be formed with adding an 's' to the word. Only proper nouns can be formed in this way. There is no 'apostrophe s' used.

The case does decline in all forms.

Nominative

add -s, unless the word ends in -s, then add -is

Accusative

add -es, unless the word ends in -e, then add -s

Dative

add -en, unless the word ends in -e, then add -n

Nouns
Nouns are split into three different classifications. Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter. As in German, the gender of the noun determines how many different words are constructed. Fortunately, for learners of Rutian, the determination is much easier than German.

Natural Gender
Any noun that relates to men or women is always the natural gender.

Masculine Nouns
Any noun ending in a consonant is defined as a masculine noun.

Feminine Nouns
Any noun ending in -a, -e, or -i is feminine.

Neuter Nouns
Any noun ending in -o, -u, -y, or -ch is neuter.

Compound Words
Compound words follow the last word to determine gender.

Pronouns
Some pronouns have not changed from German in Rutian, however, those that have are almost no longer recognizable.

The prefix mur loosely translates to 'many', however, it cannot be used by itself. The phrase 'many children' cannot be spoken as murkindern, but rather using the word murjin, which also means 'many'. 'Many children' would be murjin kindern.

The prefix kai is an honorific prefix, being formed from Kaisen (Emperor).

Formal or Informal
The formal you is only used when speaking to someone of a higher social status than yourself. Social Status is typically determined by one's profession or title. Those in the military are of higher social status than a civilian. The police are of higher social status than a civilian, but lower than the military.

When in doubt of social status, it is always best to use the formal you.

The informal is used when speaking to someone of a lower social status, or among friends. Because of social status, it is never wise to use the same age as a determiner.

The only person in Rutianas that may be addressed only in the Formal is the Emperor. To address him informally would be courting a charge of treason. Should the Emperor give permission for someone to address him informally, it would never be a good idea to do so in public.

Plurals
Formation of plurals is fairly easy and regular, though there are a few exceptions to the rules. The words that are exceptions are usually not common words. Most follow these rules.


 * If a word ends in a -d or -r, drop the last letter and add –der
 * If a word ends in a -ch, then add -er
 * All other consonants, add –a
 * If a word ends in -a, -i, -o, or -u, then add –ie
 * If a word ends in -e, add –ai
 * If a word ends in -y, drop -y and add –eai

Adjectives
All adjectives decline based on noun gender. The pattern is fairly simple, with only the Neuter gender throwing a curveball. Masculine gain -en. Feminine gain -er. Neuter gains -es in the Nominative and Accusative, but the Dative gains -en. All Plurals gain -er.

Verbs
Verbs in Rutian are inflected. Their form changes based on the subject of a sentence. Fortunately for learners of Rutian, there are only three irregular verbs. The rest are regular.

The infinitive (to form) can always be spotted by the -ar ending.

Irregular Verbs
The irregular verbs are the three most common in many languages. To be (sent), to have (hol'dar), and to become (wen'dar) in the present tense.

Regular Verbs
Regular verb formation is simple once the endings have been established. The verb gehar (to walk) will be conjugated in the present tense to show the pattern.

Once the verb stem is identified, the following applies:

Ich gehe

Du geht

Nihr/Hie/Es gehie

Jir gehar

Hihr gehent

Mursie gehar

Kaisie gehar

The verb stem is identified by dropping the -ar ending.

Present Perfect
The present perfect is translated with the conjugated form of holdar or sent. Either one can be used, though holdar seems to be growing in popularity. The auxilliary verb is then used in the past participle form.

The majority of past participles are created by adding 'w-' or 'wa-' as a prefix. Verbs that begin with a vowel gain a 'w-' and verbs that begin with a consonant gain a 'wa-'.

Simple Past
The simple past isn't as straightforward as the present tense is. Some verbs need extra letters added due to their ending. Most verbs will work in one of two ways. Here are gehar (to walk) and asbreitar (to work) to show the typical pattern for verb stems ending in a 't' and verbs with other letter endings.

Ich gehte

Ich asbreitete

Du gehtest

Du asbreitetest

Nihr gehte

Nihr asbreitete

Jir gehtar

Jir asbreitetar

Hihr gehtet

Hihr asbreitetet

Mur'sie gehtar

Mur'sie asbreitetar

Ki'sie gehtar

Ki'sie asbreitetar

In spoken Rutian, the past tense is hardly used. Most Rutians prefer a time modifier + present tense.

Future Tense
The future tense is simple to form. It is the verb wendar + the infinitive of the verb to be put into the future.

Again, in spoken Rutian, most people use a time modifier + present tense.

Negation Words
There are two ways to negate a sentence. Verb and noun negation.


 * nichten
 * kanen

The first, nichten, is used to negate a verb. The word is used immediately after the verb to be negated. If there are more than one verbs in a sentence, the conjugated verb is always the one that is negated.

The second, kanen, is used to negate a noun. The word is used immediately before the noun to be negated. If more than one noun is to be negated, multiple instances of kanen must be used.

Many Rutians prefer kanen to nichten unless more than five kanen would be spoken in a sentence.

Sentence Structure
Rutian sentence structure is fairly free due to the case system, but the word order typically follows a SVO pattern.

Many textbooks teach the SVO format, but neglect to teach conversational Rutian, which many things are inferred.

For example:


 * Gehe filmen geste.
 * Geste, gehe ich ins filme sehar.

Both sentences mean 'Yesterday, I went to the movie.' The second sentence is what is likely to be taught in schools, and while it is not incorrect to use, many Rutians will go in favor of the first sentence.

The hard and fast rules of sentence structure are as follows:


 * The conjugated verb is always in second position.
 * Time modifiers will always go first.
 * Auxiliary verbs will always go to the last position.

Numbers
Rutian numbers follow a base ten system. The numbers 1 - 10 are as follows:


 * ein
 * zwo
 * drei
 * vier
 * fünf
 * sechs
 * sieben
 * acht
 * neun
 * tsen

The numbers haven't changed much from German, however, counting past ten is easier.


 * tsenein
 * tsenzwo
 * tsendrei
 * tsenvier

and so on. The numbers twenty through ninety are as follows:


 * zwotsen
 * dreitsen
 * viertsen
 * fünftsen
 * sechtsen
 * siebtsen
 * achtsen
 * neuntsen

Numbers between are formed as such:


 * einzwotsen (21)
 * fünffünftsen (55)
 * achtsiebtsen (78)
 * vierneunsten (94)

Numbers one hundred and higher are as follows (note, numbers are separated by a period and a comma is used instead of a decimal):


 * hunertein (100)
 * hunertzwo (200)
 * einzwotsenhunertdrei (321)
 * tausenvier (3000)
 * neuntsenfünfhunertausensechshunertdrei (306.590)

As you can see, larger numbers can create very long words in Rutian.