THE YUKLANDIC LANGUAGE

Introduction

Yuklandic (Jœkklænzk or Jœkklskmál) is the official language of the Republic of Yukland and spoken by the majority of the population in that country. Outside Yukland, there are small immigrant communities in USA and in some other countries, such as Kronenburg, where the language did not disappear completely. Yuklandic evolved from Old Norse, brought by the Vikings when they populated the archipelago in the nineth century. Like Icelandic and Faroese, the language is close to Old Norse, although significant phonological and grammatical changes occurred throughout the centuries. Considering the growing awareness about the risk of its disappearance and the fact that the language is the most important cultural heritage for the Yuklandic people, the government of Yukland has strongly encouraged its use in detriment of Danish - for long, the language of the aristocracy and culture - and, in modern times, of English, that was gaining more and more importance especially among the youngsters.

Classification

Indo-European, Germanic, West-Scandinavian, Yuklandic (jok).

Phonology

Consonants

Stop: p, b, t, d, k, g

Fricative: f, v, ð

Sibilant: s, z, ʃ, ʒ

Non-sibilant: ç, x

Approximant: l, R

Nasal: m, n, ŋ
Trill: r

Semi-vowels: j, w

Vowels

Short vowels: i, e, ɛ, a, æ, ǝ, o, œ, y, ʌ, o, ɔ, u

Long vowels:  i:, u:

Diphtongs: aj, ej, iw, aw, ow

Morphology and Syntax

Nouns

Modern Yuklandic nouns are inflected in four cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive), three grammatical genders and two numbers. For the most words, nominative and accusative have the same inflection.

ǽ - island (feminine):

vatn - water (neuter):

dac - day (masculine):

Adjectives, possessive pronouns and numerals are not inflected in modern Yuklandic.

Verbs are conjugated for tense, mood, person, number and voice. Yuklandic forms most of tense conjugations with auxiliary verbs, like in English.

Some examples:

Ðri riggar fjer Álfkonuggunurn undr himnin

Sjó fjer Dverchœrrunurn i ðéra hœllum af sténi

Ní fjer dóðlec mœnnurn dœmt til dǽja,

Én fjer Blakk Hærrin at hæns blakk stœlli,

I Lændeð Mordors var Skuggarne liggja.

Three rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,

Nine for the mortal men doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne,

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

                                    J.R.R. Tolkien

Tími hæf komin til spara mat fjer harð veti

Time has come to store food for a hard winter

                                     Yuklandic Proverb

“Æru ðæt drómar énlec
 ðæt ec sjá sœm?
 Eðr Racnarákk?
 Ríða men dóð!”

“Are that only illusions
 which I seem to see?
 Or the end of the world (Ragnarok)?
 There are dead men riding!”

            Translation of some verses of Helgakviða Hundingsbana into modern Yuklandic

The Ísðorian Institute of Languages (ÍSMÁL - Ísðorsk Stofnunín af Málum), dedicated to promote endangered languages of the world by translating and publishing books, comics and films into these languages, published Hergé's Tintin albuns in Yuklandic (The Blue Lotus, The Black Island, The Crab with the Golden Claws, Tintin in the Land of the Black Gold, Tintin in Tibet, Destination Moon, Flight 714 to Sydney):