Re: constructed romance languages
| From: | Dale Morris <dmorris12@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, January 20, 1999, 2:39 |
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In a message dated 99-01-19 02:28:38 EST, you write:
<< >Has anyone else on this list created constructed romance languages? I've
>already seen Brithenig (which I love).
>
I've done one, and I'm currently putting it on the web. I know
others that
exist but I must find their URL. I think the creators will know better than
me.
>>
I'm working on a project tenatively called Ierma^nsc (<GERMANICE) which I
intend to be the hypothetical Romance of Germania, if the events of 9 A.D. had
gone a little better for the Romans. It's inlfuenced a lot by Rhaeto-Romance,
Franco-Provencal, and Italian, with substantial Germanic lexical component.
It's the dominant dialect of my "North Romance" family, which shares features
with both East and West, along with some peculiar innovations of its own.
Anyway, the beginings of a web page are attached for your amuzement...critique
and suggestions welcome :-)
Dale Morris
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<CENTER><h1>La Lengua Ierm=E2na</h1>
<h3><i>The Ierm=E2nsc Language</i><BR>By Dale Morris</h3></CENTER>
<h3>I. Introduction</h3>
The Ierm=E2nsc language is the sole representative of the Northern subfam=
ily of the Romance languages. This statement may strike the linguisticly=
inclined as odd, for in fact there <i>is</i> no Northern Romance subfami=
ly. But what if there had been? My hypothesis is that it would have bee=
n derived from Vulgar Latin just as its cousins - though with its own par=
ticular sound changes, and a decidedly Germanic substratum. Closly relat=
ed to Northern Italian, Franco-Provencal, and Romansch, Ierm=E2nsc is thi=
s language.
<h3>II. Spelling and Pronunciation</h3>
The scribes of the ages following the collapse of the Roman Empire did no=
t write down the local speech until hundreds of years later, and when the=
y did so, the Roman alphabet was employed for the task. Since then, of c=
ourse, there have been some sound changes, so the correspondence of lette=
r to sound is not always perfect:<BR>
<=FC=F6=E2=F0=FE>
<table border =3D 0 width =3D 250>
<tr><td><h4>Letter</h4></td><td><h4>Sound</h4></td></tr>
<tr><td> a </td><td>/a/ fAther
<tr><td> =E2 </td><td>/O/ bOUght
<tr><td> b </td><td>/b/ Bin
<tr><td> c </td><td>/k/ Cat
<tr><td> d </td><td>/d/ Dog
<tr><td> =F0 </td><td>/D/ THose
<tr><td> e </td><td>/e/ thEy
<tr><td> f </td><td>/f/ Ford
<tr><td> g </td><td>/g/ Go
<tr><td> h </td><td>/x/ German BaCH
<tr><td> i </td><td>/i/ machIne
<tr><td> </td><td>/j/ York
<tr><td> ie </td><td>/jE/ YEn
<tr><td> l </td><td>/l/ Lump
<tr><td> m </td><td>/m/ Moon
<tr><td> n </td><td>/n/ North
<tr><td> o </td><td>/o/ rOpe
<tr><td> =F6 </td><td>/0/ German =F6st
<tr><td> p </td><td>/p/ Pin
<tr><td> r </td><td>/r/ Road
<tr><td> s </td><td>/s/ Size
<tr><td> sc </td><td>/S/ SHoe
<tr><td> t </td><td>/t/ Tomb
<tr><td> =FE </td><td>/T/ THin
<tr><td> u </td><td>/u/ glUE
<tr><td> =FC </td><td>/y/ German =FCber
<tr><td> v </td><td>/v/ Very
<tr><td> z </td><td>/ts/ biTS
</table>
The vowels letters <i>a </i>and <i>e</i> are prnounced as /@/ (schwa) in =
final position. Therefore the final sounds in the forms <i>bona~bone</i>=
rhyme.
<h3></h3>
<h3></h3>
<h3></h3>
<h3>III. Phonology.</H3>
<i>Vowels.</I> The vocalic system of Northern Romance is unique, though =
it bears some resemblance to Western Romance, especially early varieties =
of Gallo-Romance. Tonic vowels are the most radically affected. The Pro=
to-Romace /a/ was retained as such, except before nasals where it was rai=
sed to /O/. The /E/ from Latin 'short e' dipthongised universally to /jE=
/. /e/ from Latin 'long e' and 'short i' remained as such. Likewise, /i=
/ did not change except before nasals, lowering to /e/. 'Short' /O/ tran=
slated to /o/ in most cases, unless it was in an umlauting environment, w=
hich is to say it is followed directly by /i/ or /u/ in the next syllable=
. In such an environment, the front vowel /0/ arose. In all cases /o/ r=
ose to /u/, while /u/ fronted to /y/.<P>
The diphthongs are not complicated: /aw/ became /O/ very regularly; /oi/ =
and /ai/ were realized as /e/ and /E/, respectively.<P>
Atonic (non-final) vowels aside from /a/ were usually eliminated by syn=
cope.<P>
Final vowels are another matter. /u/ and /o/ disappeared altogether. =
The front vowels fared better: /i/ survived though reduced to /e/, while =
/e/ was retained only when supporting certain consonant clusters (such as=
in the old word /nuSre/ 'our'). Final /a/ was the only one to survive u=
naltered. Eventually conditions conspired to eliminate the distinctions =
between the three remaining sounds, reducing all of them to /@/.<P>
<i>Consonants.</i> Ierm=E2nsc underwent the process of lenition in its o=
wn peculiar Germanicized way. The stops /p t k/ and /b d g/ become /v D =
G/ intervocalicly (including consonants between vowels and liquids, notab=
ly /r/, as well). The first of these two resultant phonemes were stable,=
as long as they did not become final through apocope. /G/ on the other =
hand, always became /j/ (=91y=92 in the old orthography) and sometimes di=
sappeared. Hence AMICA > /OmiGa/ > /Omj@/. When these voiced fricatives=
become final (a frequent occurrence in many masculine nouns), they also =
devoiced. Therefore /v D G/ give way to /f T x/. This produced many con=
sonant variations between singular and plural in masculine nouns: =E2mih~=
=E2mie /Omih Omj@/ < AMICU~AMICI, l=FCf~l=FCve /lyf~lyv@/ < LUPU~LUPI, ha=
=FE~ha=F0e /xaT~xaD@/ < CATTU~CATTI, etc.<P>
The plural -s common in so many Western Romance tongues has been lost, =
not only in substantives but in verbs and almost everywhere else, saving =
a few monosyllabic particles.<P>
The status of palatalized /k/ and /g/ is relatively straightforward. I=
n the old language, the segments would become /tS/ and /dZ/. The former =
has softened to /ts/, while the latter has gone even further to /j/ proba=
bly via /Z/. The standard orthography reflects the /ts/ pronunciation as=
'z'; the /j/ is represented by =91i=92. When Latin =91c=92 and =91g=92 =
occurred before /a/ (which would sometimes later became /O/ ), they palat=
alized. The outcome is /x/ and /G/. Again, the derivative of /g/ soften=
s to /j/. Hence ziel /tsjEl/ < CAELUM, ient /jent/< GENTEM, h=E2n /xOn/ =
< CANEM, Iala /jal@/ < GALLIA.<P>
<h3>IV. Morphology.</H3>
<i>Nouns.</i> The great majority of nouns are either masculine or femini=
ne, coming from the second and first declensions of Latin, respectively. =
Masculines end in '-e' or a consonant in the singular, and '-e' in the p=
lural. As discussed earlier, the nouns ending in /f T x/ in the singular=
regularly alter these to /v D j/. Feminines take '-a' (or more rarely, =
a consonant) in the singular and '-e' plural. There is a small class of =
nouns (arm, braz, zil, c=F6rn, di=FE, f=F6l, ien=FCl, gr=E2n,
lavre, lenz=F6l, len, ovre, =F6f, vazel, and v=F6=FE) which are masculine=
in the singular, but feminine in the plural. <P>
The singular forms are derived from the Latin accusative while the plural=
comes from the nominative, as in the Eastern Romance languages.
Those nouns of the other declensions mostly followed suit with one of the=
surviving declensions. The most prominent example is to be found in the=
case of third declension masculine nouns, which all take the '-e' plural=
, by analogy to the second declension inherited terms (e.g. hypothetical =
MONTE~MONTES > *mont~mont; only application of '-e' by analogy produces t=
he correct mont~monte.<P>
<i>Adjectives.</i>
The adjective is a little more complex than the noun. There are two type=
s of adejective. One is the variable adjective, which when used attribut=
ativly agrees with the number and gender of the word it modifies, meaning=
this type inflects for masculine and feminine, singular and plural. Tak=
e for example the common b=F6n~b=F6ne~bona~bone < BONU~BONI~BONA~BONE. T=
he other kind of adjective varies only in number (e.g. fort~for=F0e < FOR=
TEM~FORTES).<P>
The comparitive degree is expressed by the term pl=FC < PLUS. A few word=
s which use flexion rather than the particle survive: mielur < MELIOR, pe=
ur < PEIORE, maur < MAIOREM, menur < MINIOREM. The term senur < SENIOREM=
is used as a title conveying respect. The complement of the comparative=
is expressed by ha < QUAM (e.g. mielur ha Pie=F0re).<P>
The superlative is in general expressed by m=FC=FE < MULTU, though again =
there are a handful of exceptions: mase < MAXIMUM, mienen < MINIMUM, pese=
m < PESSIMUM, pr=F6sen < PROXIMUM.<P>
<i>Numerals.</i>
The term for 'one' has quite a large semantic area to cover, meaning not =
only the number, but also serving as the term for "a certain" and as the =
indefinite article. Its forms are: =FCn~=FCna~=FCne. The rest of the fi=
rst ten numerals are highly unchanged from the Vulgar Latin: d=FC, tre, h=
a=F0or, zenc, sesc, se=FE, o=FE, n=F6f, dez. Up to seventeen, the forms =
=FCndez, d=FCdez, tredez, etc. are found. Eighteen is dezo=FE, nineteen =
dezn=F6f. Compounds of ten starting with twenty ascend as vent, trenta, =
haranta, zencanta, sezenta, se=F0enta, o=F0enta, novanta. One hundred is=
zient. Thousand is mil.
<P>
The the first ten ordinals are: premar, seunt, ter=FE, har=FE, zin=FE, se=
zen, se=F0en, o=F0en, noven, dezen.
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