Hill Dwarvish (Language)

Hill Dwarvish is the language spoken by the Hill Dwarves of Zundrbar. It differs greatly from the Dwarvish dialects of the other clans due to the isolation the Hill Dwarves had in the village of Zundrbar, combined with their own feelings of independence.

(( It is heavily related to the languages of the German and Dutch ))

Language area
The language of Hill Dwarvish is spoken primarily in the Zundrbarian Highlands, where it has around one thousand speakers, along with an additional one hundred speakers from the colony of Zundrboek in the Arathi Highlands.

The historical region of Hill Dwarvish has remained relatively the same, with a few differences including the small colonies opened up under the reign of Sven Sootbeard, which facilitated dialects which have been referred to as "lost" or "missing" dialects.

Vocabulary
The vocabulary of Hill Dwarvish is very different from the Dwarvish spoken by the Bronzebeards, Dark Irons, and Wildhammers. Its vocabulary stresses harder sounds and leaves softer sounds out. Consonants such as "s" are often left out, preferred by the consonant "Z" (ex. Sea becomes Zee in Hill Dwarvish). Additionally to having a stronger and more callous consonant usage, vowels are not used to make "soft" sounds. Vowel combinations are common, such as the word: Staan, which means Stone, and Hoek, which means settlement.

The vocabulary is constantly developing with new additions as more discoveries come into play. Words are often based off of types of metal, and Hill Dwarvish boasts nearly five hundred words for gold, all of which to describe certain minor differences.

Grammar
Hill Dwarvish grammar system is very complex, and utilizes eight case systems. The first case, the nominative case, indicates the subject of a finite verb and is used most commonly. An example sentence in the nominative case would be: Veer gitt tag det stoor- We went to the store. The articles of nominative are: Det (male), Del (female), and Dek (neutral). The indirect  The second case, the accusative case, indicates direct object. The articles of the accusative case are: Dat (male), Dal (female), and Dak (neutral). An example sentence in the accusative case would be: Iek saah dat Vaagir- I saw the father. Dat changes due to the fact it is the direct object, the object to which the subject is interacting with. The next case is the dative case, which indicates the indirect object of a verb- the object which is not being fully interacted with. The dative articles are: Dit, Dil, and Dik. An example of a sentence in the Dative would be: Det Klaark geebt aan koorgi laag naak dil froe- The clerk gives a discount to the female. Then there is the ablative case, which involves movement from one place to another- primarily centered around action verbs. The ablative case only affects the article of the individual moving, and is used in sentences which have an action verb. The ablative articles are Dor, Dol, and Dok. An example of an ablative sentence is: Dor Zwoerg raan voen Zundrbar naak Zundrboek- The male dwarf runs from Zundrbar to Zundrboek. The genetive case refers towards posession and relations. The genetive articles are: Dur, Dul, and Dok. An example of a genetive sentence is: Det Boek dul Brunhilda- The book of Brunhilda.

The basic sentence structure is: Subject-Verb-Additional Information. When asking a question, one uses the set up Verb-Subject-Additional Information, for example- Haat aarn naakt deen storr gegoeht?- Did he go to the store?

Dialects
Hill Dwarvish have numerous different dialects based on certain groups that it is spoken with. Often times, guilds will maintain their own dialects of Hill Dwarvish, which will often vary and include different alphabets than standard Hill Dwarvish.

The dialects are: Staan-sproek (Stone-speak, spoken by the Stonemason's Guild), Ankoer-sproek (Iron-speak, spoken by the Ironsmiths), Goeld-sproek (Gold-speak, spoken by the bankers), Zee-sproek (Sea-speak, spoken by the traders and merchants), Koepfaar-sproek (Copper-speak, spoken by the coppersmiths), Goer-sproek (Gear-speak, spoken by the engineers), Woegaans-sproek (Woegaan-speak, spoken by the Miner's Guild), and Hoech-Haagel-sproek (High-Hillspeak, spoken by the nobility).

Runic Alphabet
Hill Dwarvish is known for having a runic alphabet which is centered around the usage of runes instead of letters. Each rune represents a different sound, and are referred to by names which involve the sound they produce. For example, the rune of ∆, is known as "Khord," and creates the "Kh" sound. Another example is the rune of Ω which produces the "Tr" sound is referred to by the name, "Trook."

The Runic alphabet was first created by the Hill Dwarven linguist, who travelled with the original five hundred Hill Dwarven settlers of Zundrbar. The linguist was Hallbjorn Sigfastrsson of the Clan of Rune-clad Hammers. Hallbjorn was a member of the Zundrbarian Runesmithing Guild, and is regarded as their most important member, due to the common usage of the runic alphabet in place of the common alphabet.

Zundrbarian schools teach both ways of writing to students, and also teach the classical tongue spoken by the scholars of Zundrbar. In addition to these languages, guilds retain their own private sets of languages which can be either close or far from Hill Dwarvish depending on the guildmaster's commission to the linguist.

Differences with Dwarvish
The vocabulary in Hill Dwarvish varies very much with that of Dwarvish. Hill Dwarvish has more similarities with the language spoken by the Vrykul in Northrend, as both are grouped under the same language family. The one big difference between Dwarvish and Hill Dwarvish is the less usage of the vowel I. Most of the time, the vowels O and E are used in place of the vowels, for example- Dun is translated into Hill Dwarvish as "Hoek," and Draig'cyfail (Dragonheart) is translated into Hill Dwarvish as Droekenhaarz (Droeken=Dragon, Haarz=Heart). When speaking about the consonant usage, the consonants of "H," "K,", "R", "T," and "Z"  are used more, in place of "B," "M," and "G." Other consonant matches are used as well in comparison to those used in Dwarvish. For example, "Kh," is used to a medium extent, although it has mainly been replaced with "Zh," or "Zr," as well as "Dr."