Note: This site is completely a work of fiction, a background for my fictional language Wessisc. For real information on tourism on the Isle of Wight, a site we may suggest is http://www.iwight.com/.

Wight Tourist Information

Wessisc Language Primer Text Examples of Wessisc

The text of the following was written by Geowan Smaþwyr, who as all know, is the patron saint of the Wessisc people. He was originally an English speaker, and learnt Wessisc (not very well) when he was assigned to a parish on Se Wight.

The translation is also reflective of the Wessisc language in its dying stages, in the fact that the Wessisc speakers had abandoned their native word for "and" a, and had adopted a modified form of the invaders' word, ond. Smaþwyr, not knowing better, thought it was the natural word. So the Babel text will stand, as an example of Wessisc as it was on its last legs, before being  snuffed out by the bloody English until the revival movement.

It should be noted however that this text is riddled with mistakes and grammatical errors, as well as misusages of vocabulary. A more accurate translation will be posted shortly.

1 Bæwðad Weorðe allre an Yæiþ ond an Spracwis.
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 Ond hwanne hie ocahmað frum Eæstum, fændað hie an cwm yn ðam Lond Scynar ond þær libbedan.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 Ond hie segedan ynterð hæ: A cahme, mahghe we Brycce ond bacane we hæ yn fyr. Ond ðy Brycce becahmað teihe Stænas ond se Weorðtrewu becahmað teihe ða Lim.
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4 Ond hie segedan: A cahme, beweorce we teihe an Dref ond anen Twr, hweacs Top geræcseþ Heofenum, ond we begottað ær ere we forðgoað owfyr ðar Weorðe allre.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 Ond ða Hleord downcahmeþ tu gwel se Dref ond ðæn Twr hweacse ðy Mannbegrn bæwðad beweorced.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 Ond ða Hleord seged: Hiere ys an Folc, ond an Yæiþ bæwð gennie allum; ond hiere hwæt beganað hie mahgh, ond hie wær maen na ungehilfed gæn allum, hwæt teekað hie tu dw.
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Ha downdode We, ond misce We hier Yæiþ, yn so ðat naman wæreð wnderestand ðy Ondere.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 Ond ða Hleord brædedeþ hie owfyr ðæt Bred Weorð all, ond hie mostedan hear tei ðam Hleorde, ond na beweorc se Dref.
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 So næmedeþ man se Dref Babel, fwr ða Hleord miscedeþ se Yæiþ Weorð all ond frum þær brædedeþ owfyr ðæt Bred Weorð all.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

(C) 2001 Damon M. Lord