This situation was a revolution for Esperanto, which had never undergone anything like this in its approximately 130-year history. As the years wore on and the language saw constant, daily use, corners were cut and already-existent colloquialisms became entrenched. Much to the displeasure of the first generation (la unuavenantoj, the firstcomers) their children and grandchildren (la alvenidoj, the children of the arrival) picked up these habits and made them a regular part of their speech. It turns out that when trying to survive in a new world, adherence to the rules of the Akademio and the Fundamento takes a back seat. The unuavenantoj derisively called this "degraded" Esperanto - which they themselves had created - by the appellation Esperantaĉo, a term that was eventually taken up with pride by the alvenidoj.
So, I've had this amusing little idea for a while, and it could end up being quite a fun endeavor. Essentially, starting from a plausible collection of phonological and grammatical changes that will form a sort of "Vulgar Esperanto", I want to try my hand at deriving a language family from Esperanto. I gladly welcome any input and ideas anyone has to offer.
I am basing "Vulgar Esperanto" on a series of changes that are already present in modern-day Esperanto, as well a few other changes that I find to be particularly plausible.
Vulgara Esperanto (Vulgar Esperanto) or Esperantaĉo (Wretched Esperanto)
* The phoneme <ĥ> /x/ merges into /h/.
* The word-initial clusters /kv/ and /gv/ develop into <kŭ> /ku̯/ and <gŭ> /gu̯/.
* The sequence /dz/ is reanalyzed as a new phoneme /d͡z/, which I will represent as <ẑ>.
* The clusters <tĉ>, <tc>, <dĝ>, and <dẑ> are reduced to <ĉ>, <c>, <ĝ>, and <ẑ>, respectively.
* The word-initial cluster /kn/ drops the /k/, leaving /n/.
* The verb esti "to be" drops the /es/ in all of its forms but the infinitive and volitive, forming Esperanto's first irregular verb. (esti, tas, tis, tos, estu, tus)
* The copula-predicate adjective construction falls out of use and is replaced by stative verbs. This also affects verbal participles, which essentially become new compound verb forms.
* The tendency towards using -e adverbs as a sort of ablative case becomes entrenched.
* The singular nominal -o is dropped.
* The vowel before the primary stressed vowel is deleted in the following situations:
V→∅/V([srl])C_CV
V→∅/VC_C([rl])V
V→∅/C_([rl])V
Keep in mind that in Esperanto, primary stress always falls upon the penultimate syllable. In Vulgar Esperanto, this is changed only by the elision of -o.
So nothing happens to the accusative quite yet, and nothing has happened to the plurals.
Some comparisons of Esperanto (E) and Vulgar Esperanto (VE):
Any thoughts on all of this?E: Esperanto
VE: Esprant
E: Esperantaĉo
VE: Esperntaĉ
E: Unuavenantoj, unuavenanto
VE: Unuavnantoj, unuavnant
E: Alvenidoj, alvenido
VE: Alvnidoj, alvnid
E: La virino estas serĉanta la edzon. (The woman is seeking the husband.)
VE: La vrin serĉantas la eẑon.
E: La knabo estos ŝia amiko. (The boy will be her friend.)
VE: La nab tos ŝia amik.
E: Li estis kvietigata. (He was calmed/made calm.)
VE: Li kŭietgatis.
