Re: The Grand Master Plan for Germanech, version 1.0

Eric Christopherson <rakko@...> writes:

> On Thu, Oct 18, 2001 at 11:21:25PM +0200, Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:
> > Hi!
> >
> > I just thought that I could post the Grand Master Plan for my Romance
> > conlang, Germanech, as it is.  I have just finished it; possibly, it
> > will undergo later changes, but for now, here it is.
>
> It took me a while to read this, but now that I have, it's really cool.
Thanks!  I already feared that it would pass unnoticedly, seeing no
replies...

>       I
> was wondering about a few things, though:
>
> 1. Does Germanech do anything special with initial sC? Does /sk/ become /S/?
> Etc.
I am considering having it "the German way", i.e. /s/ becomes /S/ before
consonants initially, with /sk/ > /Sk/ > /S/.  The spelling would be
unaffected by this.  (In German, the spelling is unaffected only in the
cases of /Sp/ and /St/.)
However, I am still rather undecided about this matter.  I have been
pondering whether Germanech should develop a prosthetic vowel before
initial sC (as in French, Spanish and Brithenig), but as for now, I
think not.  So the Germanech word for "school" would be _scul_ [Sul],
not something like **escul.

> 2. You said x becomes either /k/ or /x/ -- is this x as in the Latin letter
> x, i.e. /ks/?
Yes.  All the rules as given operate on the orthographic level, as in
Andrew's Grand Master Plan for Brithenig.  The *phoneme* /x/ is written
<ch> in Germanech and has two allophones, namely [x] after back vowels
and [C] elsewhere (just as in German).

For example, "boxwood" is _boch_ in Germanech: Lat. buxus > OGch. bocho
>
ModGch. boch [box].  ("Box" is _böch_ [b%C] because the /i/ in Lat.
buxis caused the first vowel to umlaut: Lat. buxis > OGch. böche >
ModGch. böch.)

...brought to you by the Weeping Elf and the letter "ö"

Replies