Basilese

[Shemtov]

Basilese [native name <Basiles> /ba.ʃi.je/] is a Romance Language spoken in the Independent Grand Duchy of Basil, which in real-world terms, is in the Swiss Cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land and Jura, The French arrondissements of Altkirch and Mulhaus, and the German district of Lörrach and the western portions of the German districts of Waldshut and Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald including Freiburg im Breisgau. The language is in its own branch of Romance, Rhino-Romance, but has heavy influence from the Langues d'oïl. The balance between French and German influence is very important for Basilese. In fact, an almost Nynosrk/Bokmal dichotomy has evolved, with the Duchy itself officially recognizing only the more common Roumic Lhinga, as opposed to Villic Basiles, which is used in territory north of the Rhine, and some of whose literary proponents use a different orthography, which was developed in the 1960s, when there was movement for the Vill Lhinga-speaking areas to become the independant State of Wil.

PHONOLOGY:
/p b t d k g/ <p b t d c/ch/qu g>
/m n ɲ/ <m n/nh n>
/f v s ʃ ʒ x/ <f v s/sh/z/zh s/c/ç z/j/g x>
/ʀ/ <r>
/l/<l/lh>
/j/ <l>

/i y u/ <i u ou>
/e o/ <e/é o>
/a/ <è/a>
All vowels can be nasalized, and this is shown by being followed by a <n>

<c s n l g z > are pronounced /ʃ ʃ ɲ j ʒ ʒ/ before <i e è>. The spellings with an h following are used when they proceed these vowels but are pronounced in their normal way.
<h> exists in the orthography, but is silient.
All consonants are pronounced siliently word-finally except <f c r l x m>, unless there is a silient <e> after them. <é> is used when there is a /Ce/ sequence word-finally. <ë>is used when there is silient <e> that palatalizes a <c s n l g>.


SOUND CHANGES FROM LATIN:
/k g s z n l/>/t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ʃ ʒ ɲ ʎ/ _i _ɪ _e _ɛ
/z/>/s/
/w/>/v/
/kʷ gʷ/> /k g/
/u/>/y/
/ʊ o:/> /u/
/ɔ/>/o/
/ɪ/>/i/
/h/>∅
/pt kt/> /t/
/ŋn/>/ɲ/
/j/>/ʒ/
/ks/>/xs/>/x/
Word final consonants except /m k t͡ʃ f r l ʎ x n/>∅
word finally /e/>/ə/>∅
/t͡ʃ d͡ʒ/>/ʃ ʒ/
/ʎ/>/j/
/Vn/>/Ṽ/
/ɛ/>/a/
/r/>/ʀ/

Numbers 1-10:
<un> /ỹ/
<du> /dy/
<très> <tra>
<quate> /kat/
<cinq> /ʃĩk/
<sèx> /ʃax/
<sèt> /ʃa/
<ot> /o/
<nove> /nov/
<dèsë> /daʃ/

NOUNS:
Nouns have two gender, Masculine and Feminine, two cases (though only in definite nouns), Nominative and Oblique, and two numbers, singular and plural (distinguished in the spoken language only by the articles).


Most of the Nominative morphology happens on the article, though a silent <s> is appended to plurals.

Articles are required with most non-definite nouns.

The indefinite article:
MASC.: Un
FEM: Une
PLR:Pars

Examples:
Un hom
"A man"

Une fèmin
"A woman"

Pars homs
"Some men"

Definite article:
MASC NOM: El
MASC OBL: Elo
FEM NOM: La
FEM OBL: Lo
PLR NOM: Li
PLR OBL: Lo

Examples:
El hom
"The man"

La fèmin
"The woman"

Li homs
"The men"


Pronouns:
Pronouns have two extra cases, Dative and Genitive:


(Chart made by Thrice Xandvii of the CBB)

THE INDICATIVE ACTIVE VERB:
The Active Indicative has four tenses: Present, Past perfect (Simple past), Past imperfect, and Future. It also conjugates for person and number.
Conjugation of very common irregular verb "Ese" "To be"/the copula:

Active indicative conjugation of regular -er verb "Haber" "To have":


An example sentence
El Dugë Negë ediferat Lo Mason de Negë en La Vil.
El Dugë Negë edif-erat Lo Mason de Negë en La Vil
DEF.MASC.NOM duke black build-PST.3P DEF.FEM.OBL summer.home of black in DEF.FEM Vil
"The Black Duke built the Black Mansion in Vil."

[Bristel]

I'm loving it so far. I like it's flavor and the location it's been placed in.

[mèþru]

There are already two Gallo-Romance languages spoken in the general vicinity (Franco-Provençal/Arpitan/Romand and Romansh), which are far more likely to be major influences than French. I imagine that the main lexical influences on higher class speech would be Medieval Latin (Medieval and Renaissance), Middle Arpitan (Renaissance), Standard German (Reformation and afterwards). The main influences on lower class speech would be Arpitan (Medieval to 19th century) and Alemannic German (Medieval to present). Swiss French, Swiss Italian and British English become major influence during the 19th century and still are today, unless if the Basilese have an Icelander-like obsession with linguistic purity. Arptian is sometimes described as somewhat langue d'oïl, somewhat langue d'oc and somewhat neither. Romansh survived in very isolated rural communities, where it was shielded from innovations from other Romance languages. It looks very different from the "typical" Romance language.
Your language is just applying the most "typical" French sound changes and slapping them onto Classical Latin. There are many more subtle changes involved in making a language French-like. This article is a really great resource if you want to make it more convincingly French. All Romance languages come from Vulgar Latin and a derivation of habeo as an auxiliary.

[mèþru]

Your orthography seems to be part of the glorious French tradition of unnecessary complications. However, French orthography is a system which perfectly described French pronunciation centuries ago; it has merely not changed. Your language, on the other hand, has no reason to have <l> /j/. Long vowels were lost during Vulgar Latin. Where did /ŋn/ and <ç> come from? What happened to /ɪ/? Why use <ë> when the location of the language suggests <ĕ> or <je>? What are the rules for ch vs. qu? How did you get non-palatalized consonants before /i ɪ e ɛ/ anyway?

[Shemtov]

There are already two Gallo-Romance languages spoken in the general vicinity (Franco-Provençal/Arpitan/Romand and Romansh), which are far more likely to be major influences than French.

Except this is not Gallo-Romance, it is in it's own branch of Romance, but with heavy Gallic influence. Besides, Arpitan seems to have undergone similiar vowel shifts to French, so it makes sense that a neighboring Romance language would undergo the same changes, through a dialect continuum.

I imagine that the main lexical influences on higher class speech would be Medieval Latin (Medieval and Renaissance), Middle Arpitan (Renaissance), Standard German (Reformation and afterwards). The main influences on lower class speech would be Arpitan (Medieval to 19th century) and Alemannic German (Medieval to present).

There was a lot of French political interference in the Duchy in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War, as the Duchy had allied itself with France, but was sort of backstabbed in some of the terms of the Peace of Westphalia, given France began to mistrust the Duchy given The Incorporation of Vil. This political dominance (which a lot of modern Basilese historians call "a secret vassalship") highly influenced Basilese. The Northern Dialect, Villic Basiles, is more influenced by German and, as I noted, is sometimes written in a more Germanic-inspired Orthography.

[Shemtov]

Your language, on the other hand, has no reason to have <l> /j/.

Yes, because /l/>/ʎ/>/j/ _i _ɪ _e _ɛ. Modern Basilese /j/ almost always comes from Latin <l>.

What are the rules for ch vs. qu?

Just like in French, if /k/ came from Latin <qu>, it is written <qu>. Otherwise, it is written <c> or <ch>.

How did you get non-palatalized consonants before /i ɪ e ɛ/ anyway?

Borrowing, mostly from German. Suuch as <Ghelsac> "Miser" from German <Geldsack>.

What happened to /ɪ/?

Fused with /i/. I made an oversight in the sound changes. I will fix that.

[mèþru]

What is the starting phonology/dictionary for the language? Vulgar Latin or Classical?

[Shemtov]

The Non-Indicative Moods:
The Subjunctive Mood is used for wishes, doubtful statements and the protasis of conditional sentences when the protasis is doubtful, even if the apodeisis would be true, otherwise the indicative is used.
The Subjunctive is formed in way unique to Rhino-Romance, where a special form of the copula is used as an auxiliary with the infinitive. Only tense is marked, not aspect:
Present subjunctive auxiliary:

The Past Subjunctive:

And the Future:


The conditional mood is used for the apodeisis of conditional sentences. A special form of <Haber> is used as an auxiliary with the infinitive. Only tense is marked, not aspect:
Present conditional:

Past:

Future:


Example sentences:

El Dugë Negë haburit edifer Lo Mason de Negë en La Cité de Basil, sit pax.
El Dugë Negë hab-urit edif-er Lo Mason de Negë en La Cité de Basil, sit pax.
DEF.MASC.NOM duke black have-PST.3P.COND build-INF DEF.FEM.OBL summer.home of black in DEF.FEM city of Basil COP.SUBJ.3P.PRST
"If the Black Duke had built the Black mansion in Basil City, there might be peace"

El Dugë Negë haburit edifer Lo Mason de Negë en La Cité de Basil, ète pax.
El Dugë Negë hab-urit edif-er Lo Mason de Negë en La Cité de Basil, sit pax.
DEF.MASC.NOM duke black build-PST.3P.COND build-INF DEF.FEM.OBL summer.home of black in DEF.FEM city of Basil COP.3P.PRST
"If the Black Duke had built the Black mansion in Basil City, there would be peace"

Furim edifer elo.
Furim edif-er elo.
COP.1P.PST.SUBJ build-INF 3P.MASC
"If only I had built it!"

[mèþru]

Why is the subjunctive auxiliary different from the regular copula?

[KathTheDragon]

Also, why are the past and future identical in rather a number of forms? That hardly seems like a stable situation.

[Chengjiang]

You say [s] > [ʃ] / _ɛ from Late Latin, so why does the language have [s] rather than [ʃ] before [a] from earlier [ɛ], e.g. [sa] sèt? Did the palatalization of [s] actually happen later?

[Shemtov]

You say [s] > [ʃ] / _ɛ from Late Latin, so why does the language have [s] rather than [c] before [a] from earlier [ɛ], e.g. [sa] sèt? Did the palatalization of [s] actually happen later?

That was a mistake, and I'm not sure how it got past me