Roman Germanech
| Roman Germanech | |
| Spoken in: | Odenwald, Germany |
| Timeline/Universe: | League of Lost Languages |
| Total speakers: | ca. 500 |
| Genealogical classification: | Indo-European |
| Basic word order: | SVO (V2), SOV in subclauses |
| Morphological type: | fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | accusative |
| Created by: | |
| Jörg Rhiemeier | 2001-2013 |
Roman Germanech ([ʀɔ'man ʒɛʀ'manəç], also known as Odenwälder Welsch, or simply Welsch among the local German-speaking population) is a Romance diachronic conlang invented by Jörg Rhiemeier. It is a Romance language of Germany which was inspired by Andrew Smith's Brithenig. In the world of the League of Lost Languages, it is spoken in a few villages in the Odenwald area northeast of Heidelberg, Germany.
Roman Germanech has undergone certain sound changes similar to the ones of German, including the High German consonant shift and i-umlaut. Otherwise, it is a pretty normal Romance language without any "cool" features, though it has adopted the V2 syntax of German.
Phonology
Consonants
Roman Germanech has the following consonant phonemes:
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voiceless stops | p | t | k | ||
| Voiced stops | b | d | g | ||
| Voiceless affricates | pf | ts | tʃ | ||
| Voiced affricates | dʒ | ||||
| Voiceless fricatives | f | s | ʃ | ç | (x) |
| Voiced fricatives | v | (z) | ʒ | ||
| Nasals | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Trill | ʀ | ||||
| Semivowel | j |
[x] is an allophine of /ç/ that occurs after back vowels. [z] is an allophone of /s/ that occurs between vowels. The trill /ʀ/ is uvular.
Vowels
Roman Germanech has the vowels /a ɛ i ɔ u/ (spelled a e i o u) plus the front rounded vowels /œ y/ (spelled ö ü) and schwa (spelled e). The letter ä represents the same vowel as e; it is used where the vowel represents an umlauted /a/. The vowel /ɛ/ is spelled é when it is the last non-schwa vowel.
Alphabet and pronunciation
The alphabet of Roman Germanech is the Latin alphabet with the special letters ä, ö and ü (sorted as ae, oe, ue, respectively). There is also an accented é (sorted as e).
The consonants are pronounced as in English, with the following exceptions:
| c | like sh before front vowels, like k elsewhere |
| ch | as in German |
| cj | always like sh |
| dj | like j in job |
| g | like s in measure before front vowels, like g in good elsewhere |
| gj | like s in measure |
| gu | as in guitar before front vowels |
| h | very lightly pronounced if at all |
| j | like y in yes (but see cj, dj, gj and tj) |
| qu | like k before front vowels |
| r | uvular r as in French |
| s | like z in zone intervocalically, otherwise as in sing |
| tj | like ch in chin |
| x | the same as s |
| z | the same as s |
The vowels are pronounced as in German.
Accent
Accent falls on the last full (non-schwa) vowel.
Sound changes
- [velar] > [palatal] /_[front vowel]
- qu > k
- Short vowels:
e > ie
i > e
ae > e
oe > e
o > uo
u > o
au > o - Loss of vowel length
- a > ä /_C+{i,j}
o > ö /_C+{i,j}
uo > üö /_C+{i,j}
u > ü /_C+{i,j} - b > v /V_V
g > Ø /V_V - p > f /{V,l,r}_!{r,l}
t > z /V_!{r,l}
k > ch /V_!{r,l} - p > pf /{#,m}_
t > tz /{#,n,l,r}_
x > ch - Vowels after the stressed syllable:
i > j /_V
u > v /_V
V > ə - CRə > CəR /_#
ce > cj /_#
ge > gj /_#
ə > Ø /_#
ə > Ø /VR_C{V,#}
j > Ø /C_# - i > ei
ü > äu
u > au - ie > i
üö > ü
uo > u
Morphology
Articles
Germanech has a definite and an indefinite article. The definite article is inflected for gender and number:
masc. sg. le, masc. pl. les
fem. sg. la, fem. pl. las
The masculine definite article elides after prepositions that end in vowels:
a + le > al
de + le > del
The indefinite genitive plural is expressed by the preposition des.
The indefinite article is the same for both genders:
sg. un, plural takes no article.
Nouns
Nominal morphology in Germanech is rather simple.
There are two genders, masculine and feminine. The Latin neuter has merged with the masculine.
The Latin case system has not survived in Germanech; thus, the noun is only inflected for number (singular and plural). The plural is indicated by the suffix -s (-es after s, z, tz, cj, dj, gj, tj). Examples:
brach 'arm', pl. brachs
camer 'room', pl. camers
cas 'house', pl. cases
catz 'cat', pl. catzes
There are a few irregular plurals, e.g.
corfs 'body', pl. corfres
pfazer 'father', pl. pfatres
