Re: New Romance Conlang - Roumán Part I, Intro and orthography

En réponse à Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>:

> Inspired by Óskar's Thylean and Barry Garcia's Montreiano, I finally
> decided to begin a con-romance lang.  However, the internal history is
> completely improbable.
>
What about my "Roumant"? :(((( Are you saying that I'm having absolutely no
influence here? <sob><sob><sob><sob><sob><sob><sob><sob><sob>

> This language, provisionally known as Roumán, is spoken in the ruins of
> Atlantis.  Long ago, the Atlanteans possessed great magical skills.
> However, a group of powerful wizards had discovered the existence of
> parallel Universes, and were experimenting in a way to cross between
> universes.  However, their spell grew in power much too quickly,
> transporting the entire continent to a parallel universe, destroying
> many structures on Atlantis, and soaking up most of the magical energy
> of both universes, rendering magic nearly powerless.  A portal remained,
> and even today, traces of it remain as the Bermuda Triangle.  Anyway,
> around AD 20, a group of roman naval ships got caught up by the portal
> and were transported to Atlantis.  Once they realized that they were
> stuck there, they set up a colony, and began a campaign of conquest,
> establishing Provincia Atlantis.  Roumán is the descendant of Latin used
> there.  It was influenced by the native languages, which were ergative,
> and the society of the Atlantean Romans became more stratified,
> reflected in the grammar.  I will describe primarily the dialect used in
> Roum Nou, the capital.
>
Well, in all that, I think the most improbable thing is to find Roman naval
shops getting caught in the Bermuda Triangle :)) . The rest is perfectly
plausible :) .

> Roumán
>
> Vowels
> a = [A], occasionally [@] in syllables immediately preceding the stress
> e = /E/
> ei = /e/ <-- ei is actually a ligature, resembling an E with a small dot
> over it
> i = /i/; [j] before a vowel or word-finally
> ii or í = /i/ word-finally
> o = /O/
> ou = /o/ <-- another ligature, resembles a "Jesus fish" but facing
> downwards
> u = /u/; [w] before a vowel
> Stress marked by an acute if not in penultimate syllable, and sometimes
> orthographic, as in sóu, genetive plural masculine definite article
>
I like the ligatures. I can imagine what they look like and it's nice :) .

>
> Consonants
> b = /v/
> bb = /bv/ word-finally
>      /b/ elsewhere
> b' = /bv/ <-- ' indicates a cedilla in the "romanization", a dot in
>      the native alphabet (which is a descendant of the Roman alphabet)
> c = /ts/ before i or e
>     /x/ elsewhere
> ç = /ts/ <-- not actually a cedilla, actually a dot over the c
> cc = /k/
> d = /dZ/ before i or e
>     elsewhere - in conservative dialects, /D/; in Rom Nou, /v/; in
>     some dialects, /z/
> dd = /dz/ word-finally
>      /d/ elsewhere
> d' = /dZ/
> dl = /L/ (voiced lateral fricative)
> f = /f/
> g = /dz/ before i or e
>     /G/ elsewhere
> gg = /g/
> h not used
> k = /k/, an alternate to cc, obligatory when adjacent to ç
> l = /l/
> m = /m/, pronounced as /n/ when word-final
> n = /n/ or homorganic to following consonant
> p = /f/
> pp = /p/
> q not used
> r = /l/ <-- etymology determines use of l or r
> s = /s/
> t = /tS/ before i or e
>     elsewhere - /T/, /f/, or /s/ by dialect; /f/ used in Rom Nou
> t' = /tS/
> tt = /t/
> tl = /K/ (voiceless lateral fricative)
> st = /S/ before i or e
>      /st/ elsewhere
> st' = /S/
> v not used
> w not used
> x = /x/, mostly only used word-initially, reflecting historical sc-
>     (/sk/ -> /ks/ -> /kx/ -> /x/)
> y = /Z/
> z = /z/
> zd = /Z/ before i or e
>      /zd/ elsewhere
> zd' = /Z/
> /pf/ also exists, and is written {pf}
>
Strange but nice romanization. You're saying that the native script has evolved
from the Roman Alphabet. What does it look like?

Christophe.