Re: Hellenic Romance? (was [CONLANG] Re: Babel text in Spanzhol)

Paul Bennett wrote:


> On Wed, 07 Apr 2004 19:51:56 -0400, ROGER MILLS <rfmilly@...> wrote:
>
> > Ray-- you seem to have assumed (unless I mis-read) that W.Europe would
> > still
> > have used Latin, but with Graecified sound changes....?  My
> > interpretation
> > of Paul's question was: That the languages of present day W.Eur. would
> > be
> > descended from Greek rather than Latin (though maybe some Latin-derived
> > vernaculars might have survived in dark corners, like Dacia, Rhaetia).
> > Consequently we might not be talking about _lenguas románicas/langues
> > romaines...etc._ but _glossa rumaika_  (I'm making up endings here, as I
> > know poco Greek)-- or however those two words might have developed in
> > various areas ("glosa rumiega, glosse roumèche"??.)
> >
> > I guess what would have happened is: Greek with Celto-Germano sound
> > changes
> > in Gaul, Vasco-Ibero changes in Hispania, Britannic changes etc etc.
>
> I think the point Ray was making (and a bloody good point it was, too, and
> one which I admittedly had failed to consider) was "What happens in those
> cases where Greek has phonemes not present in Latin?"
Well, OK,  I see--- if Greek became the language of the Empire, then it
would be a L2 for the much more numerous Romans, at least for a generation
or two, during time which it would undergo some changes.

But all that many?? Mispronunciation of upsilon, probably.  But as I
understand it, the rule "aspirates > fricatives" is somewhat later, and
would simply be a rule common to our New Greek and all its descendants.
(Latin presumably ceases to be a factor).

>
> Also, some of the sound change rules in Romance require changing phonemes
> into slots already occupied by Greek phonemes....
But there might be entirely different sound change rules-- cf. the modern
Grk. merger of all those vowels > /i/; perhaps different regions would merge
then in different ways.  Given the simpler Grk. 4-case system, maybe the
daughter languages wouldn't mess it up they way they did the Latin system.