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Wight Tourist Information

Wessisc Language Primer Adjectives

Introduction
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What is an adjective? An adjective is basically a word that describes the noun. Let us take a few English examples, highlighting the adjective:

The man is good.
The good man swims.
The good man is old.

It may be noted in English, that adjectives do not change their basic forms - with exceptions (e.g. good, better, best, etc.) However, it will be noted that things aren't so easy in Wessisc as the much simplified Germanic tongue that is spoken throughout England today.

Firstly it must be noted that the adjective usually follows the noun.

An Mann gud - a good man
 

Adjectives Following the Definite Article
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Adjectives are declined as follows (using leef - dear, precious) after the definite article:
 

Declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	leef	leef	leef	leefe
Accusative	leefne	leefe	leef	leefe
Dative	leefum	leefre	leefum	leefum

Adjectives Following the Indefinite Article
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Adjectives are declined as follows (using leef - dear, precious) after the indefinite article:
 

Declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	leef	leef	leef	leef
Accusative	leef	leef	leef	leef
Dative	leef	leef	leef	leefum

Adjectival Nouns
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Adjectives which stand alone and act as nouns (e.g. in english: The Good, the Bad and the The Ugly) are declined as follows (using gud - good) as per the adjectives following the indefinite article (note that some forms of the definite artcile cause mutation):
 

Declension	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	ða Gud	se Ud	ðæt Gud	ðy Ude
Accusative	ðæn Gud	ðy Ud	ðæt Ud	ðy Ude
Dative	ðam Udum	ðar Ud	ðam Udum	ðar Udum

Comparatives
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Adjectives behave when acting as a comparative quite simply: they place yn (literally: in) before the adjective and add -or to the end. Yn causes mutation only when meaning 'in', but does not cause mutation before a comparative adjective. All adjectives have happily conformed to this rule, with the exception of gud (good), yfil (bad), fel (much, many), long (long), and hygh (high, tall).

Therefore, leef, a regular adjective, becomes yn leefor with adjectival endings accordingly, but:
gud becomes yn bettor
yfil becomes yn wors
fel becomes yn mær
long becomes yn leng
hygh becomes yn hwghor

One word of importance for using comparitives is ðwn (than).

Mæry ys yn leefor ðwn Georcge.
Mary is dearer (much more precious) than George.

Geowan ys yn hwghor ðwn Georcge.
John is taller than George.

When we wish to write 'The Better', we write ð'yn Bettor, regardless of gender or declension.

Superlatives
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Superlatives are easy too: again they place yn before the adjective and add -yst to the end. Yn causes mutation only when meaning 'in', but does not cause mutation before a superlative adjective.Again there are the exceptions of gud (good), yfil (bad), fel (much, many), long (long), and hygh (high, tall).

Therefore, leef, a regular adjective, becomes yn leefyst with adjectival endings accordingly, but:
gud becomes yn bist
yfil becomes yn worst
fel becomes yn mærst
long becomes yn lengyst
hygh becomes yn hwghyst

When we wish to write 'The Best', we write ð'yn Bist, regardless of gender or declension.

(C) 2001 Damon M. Lord