My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
So, I have created this language- a bogolang in nature- which is basically what if Old English descended from Latin rather than Proto-Germanic.
It's not historically justified, I'm not gonna use it in any conworld, (though I might in the future) It's just a conlang.
It's still a bit historically accurate- the result is geared toward the Mercian dialect of OE, which is the dialect Modern English descended from.
And yes, I am going to develop the Romance version of ModE in a while.
Phonology
Consonants
/p t tʃ k b d g/
/f s θ ʃ h/
/w l r j/
/m n/
+ Gemination
Vowels and Diphthongs
/i y e æ ɑ o u/ + length
/iu eo æɑ i:u e:o æ:ɑ/
Allophones
[dʒ] is an allophone of /tʃ/ after /n/.
[v z ð] are allophones of /f s θ/ between vowels, or a voiced consonant and a vowel.
/h/ is realized as a fricative in coda positions: [x] after back vowels, [ç] after front ones.
/g/ is realized as [ɣ] when not geminated or after /n/.
/n/ is realized as [ŋ] when before /g/.
Sound changes from Latin (in SCA-compatible format): https://pastebin.com/8MaXeXFi
Next up: Nominal Morphology
Re: My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
Are there minimal pairs between [ɣ] and [x], or between [ɣ] and any of the other realizations of /h/? If there are, have you considered merging the two even so, to match the lack of voice distinction in the other fricatives? I think this happened in Danish. It depends how close to modern English you want to stay, given that starting with Latin means you'll have certain sounds more often than Old English did, and possibly having some consonant clusters that Old English lacked or had only very rarely.
Also I'm curious to see your next post, and what happens to the many noun declensions and their cases and their plural forms given that English sound changes were more dramatic than Latin's. Will the noun cases disappear as in Earth-English or will they be analogized to a pattern that preserves some? I'm curious about articles too.
Re: My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
As in most Romance languages, The Fifth Declension fused with the First and the Fourth joined the Second.
Due to sound/grammar changes, Latin's Complicated Case/Number/Gender system got heavily simplified:
The Masculine absorbed the Neuter
The Vocative merged with the Nominative, The Locative with the Dative/Ablative
The Genitive was expressed with de + Ablative
Similarities between the different case endings made the Nominative and the Accusative merge, and so did the Dative and the Ablative
And we end up with just two cases: the Direct, used for the subject and the direct object, and the Oblique, used for everything else.
Here's the declension of a 1st declension noun, port 'gate':
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir port porta
Obl porta perti
The 2nd declension, which consists of only male nouns (except for a few quirks like mænu 'hand' which mostly come from the former 4th declension), comes in a few flavors:
The original masculine (-us) nouns, like porcu 'pig':
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir porcu perċi
Obl porcu perċi
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir neoġōþu neoġōþ
Obl neoġōþu neġēþi
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir æġer eġri
Obl æġru eġri
pūr 'man' (in the male sense, not the general one) Has a slightliy irregular declension:
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir pūr pȳri
Obl pweoru pȳri
The 3rd declension is the widest and most complicated, and contains nouns from both genders.
The -ibus endings from the dative/ablative plural have turned into -us in the variant spoken in the Britain, which then turned into plain -u.
Standard I-stem, like tyrri 'tower':
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir tyrri turre
Obl tyrri turru
Pure I-stem, like enimæl 'animal':
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir enimæl enimǣli
Obl enimǣli enimǣlu
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir noht nohte
Obl nehti nohtu
1st: port porta porta perti
2nd -um/-us > 2nd: porcu porcu perċi perċi
2nd -r > 3rd: æġer æġru eġri eġri
3rd C/I stem > 4th: tyrri tyrri turre turru
3rd pure/mixed I stem > 5th: noht nehti nehti nohtu
Yes, Latin has 5 declinations too, but 3 of them were variable (2nd, 3rd, 4th), whereas Briþenniċean declinations are consistent.
Re: My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
True- [x]/[ç] only appear in Briþenniċea in ht and hs, the cognates of Latin x and ct, though in the development of English [ɣ] turned into [w] or [j], while [x] and [ç] disappeared altogether. I've already had this problem when I tried to create þ out of the blue, since Proto-Germanic already had it, but Latin never did. I don't think there are any minimal pairs- there's a reason [x]/[ç] are allophones of [h]- but I can flout historical accuracy and merge [x], [ç] and [ɣ], since the former two only appear before t or s, whereas the latter can appear everywhere (the spelling stays put though).Soap wrote: Are there minimal pairs between [ɣ] and [x], or between [ɣ] and any of the other realizations of /h/? If there are, have you considered merging the two even so, to match the lack of voice distinction in the other fricatives? I think this happened in Danish. It depends how close to modern English you want to stay, given that starting with Latin means you'll have certain sounds more often than Old English did, and possibly having some consonant clusters that Old English lacked or had only very rarely.
Re: My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
Adjectives in Latin had two declension patterns: The quite uniform 1st/2nd declension and the much more diverse 3rd declension.
The development of 1st/2nd declension adjectives in Briþenniċea is as follows:
æltu 'tall'
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
M. Dir æltu elti
M. Obl æltu elti
F. Dir ælt ælta
F. Obl ælta elti
Unlike the nouns, the -r Adjectives do not form their own declension: meosru 'poor' and sæcru 'bright' follow suit (Although the F. Sg. Dir declension is meosir and sæcir respectively), thus regularizing the already uniform Latin 1st/2nd declension into the Briþenniċean 1st adjectival declension.
However, there are a few Latin adjectives whose Genitive Singular ending was -īus and the Dative singular was -ī. Briþenniċea preserved these Changes, shown in tōtu 'all':
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
M. Dir tōtu tēþi
M. Obl tēþi tēþi
F. Dir tōþ tōta
F. Obl tēþi tēþi
Originally, it was divided into three categories: one-ending, two-endings and three-endings.
The one-ending adjectives, exemplified here with ætrōc 'evil, villianous' do not distinguish between genders:
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir ætrōc ætrēċi
Obl ætrēċi ætrōcu
The two-ending adjectives, like eġili 'fast (human/animal)', once had a seperate Neuter form, but Briþenniċean has collapsed the Neuter into the Masculine, and they too do not distinguish gender:
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir eġili eġile
Obl eġili eġeolu
The three-ending adjectives did distinguish gender and had -er endings like the (original) nominal 3rd dec., complete with adjectives who dropped the -e- and those who didn't. However, since the only difference between the Masculine and the Feminine forms was the Nominative Singular, the different forms were quickly levelled out, eliminating the gender distinction as well. Their representatives here are ċeler 'swift (movements)' and ælcer 'happy, jolly':
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir ċeler ċeliri
Obl ċeliri ċeolru
Dir ælcer ælecri
Obl ælecri ælæcru
1st/2nd > 1st (æltu)
3rd 1+3 endings > 2nd (ætrōc)
3rd 2 endings > 3rd (eġili)
Comparatives and Superlatives
Briþenniċea keeps latin's dedicated suffixes and their behavior (Comparatives are declined like (Latin) 3rd and don't distinguish gender, Superlatives like (Latin) 1st/2nd and do distinguish)
For example: eltīr, eltisseomu 'taller, tallest'
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir eltīr eltīri
Obl eltīri eltioru
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
M. Dir eltisseomu eltissimi
M. Obl eltisseomu eltissimi
F. Dir eltissim eltissima
F. Obl eltissima eltissimi
ċelirīr, ċelirreomu 'swifter, swiftest'
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
Dir ċelirīr ċelirīri
Obl ċelirīri ċelirioru
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
M. Dir ċelirreomu ċelirrimi
M. Obl ċelirreomu ċelirrimi
F. Dir ċelirrim ċelirrima
F. Obl ċelirrima ċelirrimi
Another handful of Latin adjectives had -eus/-ius endings and had no Comparative or Superlative endings at all, instead using magis/māximē before them. In Briþenniċea, those endings developed into -eo/-io and the adjectives decline in the standard way by removing their endings, i.e. bellǣtōrio 'violent' has the Comparative bellǣtērīr and the Superlative bellǣtērreomu, while eodōneo 'correct' has the Comparative eodēnīr and Superlative eodēnisseomu.
There are a few completely irregular adjectives when it comes to Comparatives and Superlatives, like
bonu 'good', milīr 'better', ettmu 'best'
mælu 'bad', pēġor 'worse', pisseomu 'worst'
māngu 'big', mār 'bigger', mæhseomu 'biggest'
pærwu 'small', meonor 'smaller', mineomu 'smallest'
Numbers (For good ol' Janko)
As in Latin, one, two and three, the hundreds (without one hundred) and one thousand decline; the others don't.
ūnu 'one'
du 'two'
tre 'three'
cwættūr 'four'
cwīncwe 'five'
sihs 'six'
sette 'seven'
ohtu 'eight'
nowe 'nine'
dece 'ten'
wiġinti 'twenty'
trīġintæ 'thirty'
ċeontu 'hundred'
mīlle 'thousand'
The number that do decline decline like so:
ūnu
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
M. Dir ūnu ȳni
M. Obl ȳni ȳni
F. Dir ūn ūna
F. Obl ȳni ȳni
du
Code: Select all
M. Dir du
M. Obl du
F. Dir dua
F. Obl duæ
Code: Select all
Dir tre
Obl tru
Code: Select all
M. Dir dycinti
M. Obl dycinti
F. Dir ducenta
F. Obl dycinti
Code: Select all
Sg mīlle
Pl. Dir mīli
Pl. Obl mīlu
Decline like 1st dec.
prīmu 'first'
secūndu 'second'
þertio 'third'
cwǣrtu 'fourth'
cweontu 'fifth'
sehstu 'sixth'
sitteomu 'seventh'
ohtǣwu 'eighth'
nōnu 'ninth'
diċeomu 'tenth'
The Ordinals can be used for fractions too, except for medio 'half'.
Adverbs
Latin -ē (1st/2nd) and -iter (3rd) have been preserved:
misere 'sadly'
sæcre 'brightly'
tōþe 'completely'
ætrēċþer 'cruelly'
eġiliþer 'quickly'
ċeliriþer 'swiftly'
ælecriþer 'happily'
Their Comparative and Superlative forms, however, have been lost, being replaced with placing meġi 'more' and mæhsime 'most' respectively before the adverb.
Re: My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
Latin Verbs are arugably the most intricate, complex and often baffling part of the language- but I'm not here to talk about Latin Verbs, but about their Briþenniċean offspring.
Grammatical changes ensue:
No more special Passive conjugations
The Supine is eliminated
The Future Participles are eliminated
The Gerundive is eliminated
All Infinitives except the Present Active are eliminated
The Gerund is merged into the Present Active Participle
The Past Participles are formed from the (former) Perfect Passive Participle
īre 'go' and hæbēre 'have' are used exclusively as auxiliaries
The TAM system itself underwent an overhaul:
-Indicative-
The Present is Preserved
The Past is formed from the (former) Perfect
The Future is formed with īre + The Infinitive
The Perfect is formed with hæbēre + Present Part.
The Pluperfect is formed with hæbēre + Past Part.
The Future Perfect is formed with īre + hæbēre + Present Part.
-Subjunctive-
The Present is Preserved
The Past is formed from the (former) Imperfect Indicative
The remaining tenses are formed by making the first auxiliary Subjunctive
-Imperative-
Is preserved, but only for the Present tense
-Passive-
Is made by inserting sēre 'be' between the auxiliaries and the main verb
If there is no auxiliary, sēre is conjugated according to the tense
As a result, while all auxiliaries distinguish an Indicative and a Subjunctive form, only sēre has different tenses.
The auxiliaries' conjugations:
īre
Code: Select all
Ind. Subj.
1s eo ea
2s i ea
3s iþ ēþ
1p īmu ēamu
2p īþi ēaþi
3p eont ēant
Code: Select all
Ind. Subj.
1s hæbeo hæbe
2s hæbe hæbea
3s hæbeþ hæbēþ
1p hæbēmu hæbēamu
2p hæbēþi hæbēaþi
3p hæbent hæbeant
Code: Select all
Present
Ind. Subj.
1s su si
2s e si
3s ist siþ
1p sumu sīmu
2p isti sīþi
3p sunt sint
Past
Ind. Subj.
1s fwi er
2s fwisti eræ
3s fwiþ eræþ
1p fweomu erāmu
2p fwisti erǣþi
3p fwērnt ērnt
æmǣre 'love'
Present Part. æmān
Past. Part. æmǣtu
Code: Select all
Present
Ind. Subj.
1s æmu æme
2s æmæ æme
3s æmæþ æmeþ
1p æmāmu æmēmu
2p æmǣþi æmēþi
3p æmænt æment
Past
Ind. Subj.
1s æmǣwi æmæ
2s æmǣwisti æmǣbæ
3s æmǣwiþ æmǣbæþ
1p æmǣwmu æmǣbāmu
2p æmǣwisti æmǣbǣþi
3p æmǣwērnt æmǣbænt
Imperative Pl. æmǣþe!
--Second Conjugation--
þenēre 'have' (in the possesive sense)
Present Part. þenēn
Past. Part. þeontu
Code: Select all
Present
Ind. Subj.
1s þeneo þene
2s þene þenea
3s þeneþ þenēþ
1p þenēmu þenēamu
2p þenēþi þenēaþi
3p þenent þeneant
Past
Ind. Subj.
1s þinwi þene
2s þinwisti þenēbæ
3s þinwiþ þenēbæþ
1p þinweomu þenēbāmu
2p þinwisti þenēbǣþi
3p þenwērnt þenēbænt
Imperative Pl. þenēþe!
--Third Conjugation--
ġerre 'manage, rule'
Present Part. ġerēn
Past. Part. ġeostu
Code: Select all
Present
Ind. Subj.
1s ġeoru ġer
2s ġiri ġeræ
3s ġiriþ ġeræþ
1p ġireomu ġerāmu
2p ġiriþi ġerǣþi
3p ġērnt ġearnt
Past
Ind. Subj.
1s ġissi ġere
2s ġissisti ġerēbæ
3s ġissiþ ġerēbæþ
1p ġisseomu ġerēbāmu
2p ġissisti ġerēbǣþi
3p ġessērnt ġerēbænt
Imperative Pl. ġiriþe!
--Fourth Conjugation--
eadīre 'hear'
Present Part. eadiēn
Past. Part. eadītu
Code: Select all
Present
Ind. Subj.
1s eadio eadi
2s eadi eadiæ
3s eadiþ eadīþ
1p eadīmu eadiāmu
2p eadīþi eadiǣþi
3p eadiont eadīnt
Past
Ind. Subj.
1s eadīwi eadie
2s eadīwisti eadiēbæ
3s eadīwiþ eadiēbæþ
1p eadīwmu eadiēbāmu
2p eadīwisti eadiēbǣþi
3p eadīwērnt eadiēbænt
Imperative Pl. eadīþe!
Here's an exapmle of a complete TAM conjugation of æmǣre, alongside its Latin counterpart amāre:
-Indicative-
æmu/amō 'I love'
æmǣwi/amābam 'I loved'
eo æmǣre/amābō 'I will love'
hæbeo æmān/amāvī 'I have loved'
hæbeo æmǣtu/amāveram 'I had loved'
eo hæbēre æmān/amāverō 'I will have loved'
su æmān/amor 'I am loved'
fwi æmān/amābar 'I was loved'
eo sēre æmān/amābor 'I will be loved'
hæbeo sēre æmān/amātus sum 'I have been loved'
hæbeo sēre æmǣtu/amātus eram 'I had been loved'
eo hæbēre sēre æmān/amātus erō 'I will have been loved'
-Subjunctive-
æme/amem 'I may love'
æmæ/amārem 'I would love'
ea æmǣre 'I shall love'
hæbe æmān/amāverim 'I may have loved'
hæbe æmǣtu/amāvissem 'I would have loved'
ea hæbēre æmān 'I shall have loved'
si æmān/amer 'I may be loved'
er æmān/amārer 'I would be loved'
ea sēre æmān 'I shall be loved'
hæbe sēre æmān/amātus sim 'I may have been loved'
hæbe sēre æmǣtu/amātus essem 'I would have been loved'
ea hæbēre sēre æmān 'I shall have been loved'
Re: My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
Personal Pronouns
The Personal Pronouns, as with the other romance languages, preserve case distinctions that all other nouns have lost.
They distinguish four cases: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive and Oblique.
The First person Pronouns are derived from Latin ego and nōs, as expected:
Code: Select all
Nom Acc Gen Obl
Sg. eġu me meo mi
Pl. nu nu noster nē
Code: Select all
M. F.
Sg. meo me
Pl. mī mea
Sg. noster noster
Pl. nostri nostra
Code: Select all
Nom Acc Gen Obl
Sg. tu þe tu þi
Pl. wu wu woster wē
Code: Select all
M. F.
Sg. tu tu
Pl. twi twa
Sg. woster woster
Pl. wostri wostra
Code: Select all
Acc Gen Obl
Sg. se su si
Code: Select all
M. F.
Sg. su su
Pl. swi swa
Code: Select all
Nom Acc Gen Obl
Sg. m. hiċ hunc huġu hǣc
Sg. f. hāc hænc huġu hǣc
Sg. n. hoc hoc huġu hǣc
Pl. hi hu hōru hi
The Demonstratives develop from iste (proximal) and ille (distal):
Code: Select all
M. F.
Sg. iste ista
Pl. isti isti
Sg. iolle iolla
Pl. iolli iolli
Code: Select all
Type Prox. Dist. Int. Ind. Neg.
Adjective iste iolle cwǣ eli non
Person hiċ hiċ cwi eliċwi nēmu
Object iste iolle cwu eliċwu nīl
Place hind hond ūnd eleoċūnd nullūnd
Time ġæ dīnde cwǣndu eliċwǣndu nulcwǣndu
Reason þǣli cwǣli
Manner pruioll prucu
Dist- Distal
Int- Interrogative
Ind- Indefinite
Neg- Negative
So for example, the Object row means 'this, that, what, something, nothing'.
The Definite Article
As shown earlier, ūnu 'one' can be used as the Indefinite Article.
The Definite Article, eossu, developed from Latin ipse, and now declines as an adjective- as a 2nd class noun in the masculine, as a 1st class one in the feminine:
Code: Select all
Sg Pl
M. Dir eossu issi
M. Obl eossu issi
F. Dir iss issa
F. Obl issa issi
ċi 'yes'
non 'no'
eþ 'and'
wel 'or'
se 'but'
de 'of'
ihtæ 'near'
æ 'to, at'
ænte 'before'
ċircæ 'around'
cu 'with'
contræ 'against'
ihs 'from'
in 'in'
inter 'inside'
pru 'for'
super 'above'
sū 'below'
trǣs 'after'
Days and Months
lūnǣdi 'monday'
mertidi 'tuesday'
mercyrīdi 'wedensday'
ġēwdi 'thursday'
weniridi 'friday'
sæbtydi 'saturday'
demniċydi 'sunday'
jænuǣrio 'january'
feobruǣrio 'february'
merti 'march'
epril 'april'
mæ 'may'
ġūnio 'june'
ġūlio 'july'
agustu 'august'
settēmber 'september
ohtōber 'october'
nowēmber 'november'
decēmber 'december'
Some Proverbs
iss cucull non feċiþ eossu moncu 'You can't judge a book by its cover'
ūn mēs sān in ȳni corpu sānu 'A healthy mind in a healthy body'
æ þæntu mælu iss riliġio swǣdēre poþeþ 'To such great evil religion can drive'
Re: My new Anglo-Romlang, Briþenniċea
This thread is declared obsolete. I'm reworking the language. Sorry for the inconvenience, A revised version will be up soon.