Syrunian
| SYRUNIAN al-laez sirunija : אל־לאעז סירונײא | |
| Pronunciation: | / alːaʕz sirʊˈnija / |
| Spoken in: | once: Roman Province of Syria now: Syria, Israel |
| Timeline: | Alternate |
| Total speakers: | 3 million |
| Genealogical classification: | Indo-European
|
| Written in: | a Hebraic alphabet and the Latin alphabet |
| Historically also written in: | the Hebrew, Arabic and Syriac abjads; the Greek and Coptic alphabets |
| Created by: | |
| Iuhan Culmæria | December 2010 |
| Relevant admired projects : |
Carrajina; Bâzrâmani |
Syrunian is a Romance conlang, or romlang. The goal was to create a plausible descendant of Latin, that sounds (and acts, at times) like a Semitic language.
It is derived from a Vulgar Latin used in Roman Syria. There are influences from the Aramaic language. There are ‘late’ borrowings from Arabic and contemporary loans from French and English, like l-aurdinatur from the French “l’ordinateur” (computer).
Etymology
al-Laez sirunyya is derived from the Syrian-Latin phrase illa lahez Siria Romane : ‘the language of Syrian Roman’ (= the Latin of Syria).
- AL : definite article, “the.” [> L illa (cf: Arabic ‘al’)]
- LAEZ : language [> SrL lahez > Heb la`az (לעז) foreign, non-Hebrew/Aramaic language]
- SIRUNΥΥA [> L Siria+Romane → sirya rumanya → sir_runanya → sirunyya] Syrian Roman/Latin, a type of Vulgar Latin spoken in Roman Syria.
Alt-history
[elements of history that are different from reality are given in italics]
Aramaic had served as a language of administration in Mesopotamia and was the day-to-day language in Judea from about 539 BCE to 70 CE.
In the Roman period, the great city of Antioch was the capital of Syria. It was one of the largest cities in the ancient world, as well as one of the largest centres of trade and industry. Although Koine Greek was the lingua franca of the eastern Empire, in Syria, Latin remained the language of trade and administration, and was widely understood by those in the urban spheres of influence. Latin was also spoken by the Roman army. The Latin was greatly influenced by Aramaic in terms of pronunciation and geographic and Judaic terminology due to their close contact. The Vulgar Latin of Syria was different to European Vulgar Latin and is referred to as Syrian Latin to avoid confusion.
Syria remained a Roman (Byzantine) province until 636 CE, when it was conquered by Islam.
By the late 11th century, Syria was conquered first by the Seljuk Turks and then carved between Turkmen tribes and participants of the first Crusade.
Sections of the coastline of Syria were briefly Frankish crusader states, which reintroduced Latin (via Old French) to what had become Early Syrunian.
Syria was occupied, first by the Mongols (from 13th century), and then became part of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th through 20th centuries, and found itself largely ignored by world affairs.
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and in 1922 the League of Nations split the dominion of the former Syria. France received what was to become modern-day Syria and Lebanon. This gave rise to numerous French-isms in the Syrunian idiom.
Syrian independence was acquired in April 1946.
Syrunian in Modern times
The Syrunian language is that of a minority community in South-western Syria and Lebanon bordering Israel. Due to their language, Syrunian communities have been generally distanced from society – including the Israeli-Palestinian/ Arab conflict.
Phonology
Writing systems
Syrunian is written with a Hebraic alphabet, although the oficial Syrunian-Latin alpahbet is becoming more popular.
Note that the Syrunian dagesh functions differently to the Hebrew and Aramaic dagesh.
Consonants
| Consonants | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilabial - | Labiodental - | Dental - | Alveolar - | Post-alveolar - | Palatal - | Velar - | Uvular - | Glottal | |||||||||||
| Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | |||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | /p/ | /b | /t/ | /d/ | /k/ | /g/ | [q] | /ʔ/ | |||||||||||
| Fricative | /f/ | /v/ | /θ,ð/ | /s/ | /z/ | /ʃ/ | /x/ | [χ] | /h/ | ||||||||||
| Affricate | /ts/ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Approximants | /w/ | /j/ | |||||||||||||||||
| Trill | [r] | [ʀ] | |||||||||||||||||
| Lateral Approximant | /l/ | ||||||||||||||||||
Vowels
/a/ - /e, ə/ - /i/ - /u, ʊ/
/aj/ AI אי - /aw, ɔ/ AU או - /eɪ/ EI עי - /ij/ II ײ - /wi/ UI וי
Allophones
I, as creator reserve the right to create formal allophonic rules.
I don’t find phonology as interesting as the other parts of language and believe that any potential speaker community will naturally develop allophones.
General linguistic characteristics
Syntax
The predominant word order in Syrunian is VSO (Verb – Subject – Objects). VSO is the word order of Biblical Hebrew, Classical Arabic and probably Literary Syriac as well. Within the noun phrase, both adjectives and possessors follow nouns. Possessors precede adjectives when modifying the same noun. Syrunian uses prepositions, some of which are prefixing clitics.
- duna Heva ah-Adamim al-fruṡtim
give (V) Eve (S) to Adam (O¹) the fruit (O²)
Eve gives the fruit to Adam
Most romance languages use the VSO order for question. Syrunian retains the order, but uses a question phrase as well:
- es-xe qe duna Heva al-fruṡtim ah-Adamim
it-it that give (V) Eve (S) the fruit (O¹) to Adam (O²)
Is it that Eve gives the fruit to Adam?
Morphology
Syrunian is more inflecting than most Romance languages and is comparable to Romanian. Nouns resemble Syriac/ Aramaic nouns, but their forms derive from Latin.
Pronouns
When using pronouns, there are optional isolated forms which may be used. The meaning does not change - only the emphasis and focus of the statement.
| Isolated Pronoun Forms | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 sg - | 2 sg - | 3M sg - | 3F sg - | 1 pl - | 2 pl - | 3M pl - | 3F pl | ||
| Emphatic | iħ | ti | lu | la | nus | vus | ilar | ilat | |
| Absolute | miħ | tiv | lui | nust | vust | luir | |||
| Construct | me | te | eu | eut | nuσt | vuσt | eur | eurit | |
| Pronominal Forms | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 sg - | 2 sg - | 3 sg - | 1 pl - | 2 pl - | 3 pl - | |||
| Subject | -eħ | -ta | -le | -ni | -vi | -se | ||
| Direct object | -mi | -ti | -eu | -nuσ | -vuσ | -er | ||
Indirect objects cannot be conjugated/ suffixed unto the verb
- sabaq Ihedas Ieσuim ahal-Senhedris
betrays Judas Jesus to-the-Priests' Council
Judas betrays Jesus to the Council of Priests. - Pronominal form:
sabaqleheu ahal-Senhedris
sabaq-le-eu ah-al-Senhedris
betrays-he-him to-the-Priests' Council
--or-- - Isolated form:
sabaq lu lui ahal-Senhedris
betrays he him to-the-Priests' Council.
Both forms translate to "He betrayed Him to the Council of Priests."
Nouns
Syrunian only has a definite article «al-» which is a contraction of the Latin pronoun illa and resembles the Arabic article al-. It is used in all numbers, states and genders.
Syrunian has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine. The feminine absolute singular is usually marked by the ending -ah or -at.
Nouns can be either singular or plural, but an additional 'dual' number exists for nouns that usually come in pairs.
Syrunian nouns and adjectives can exist in one of three states; these states correspond in part to the role of cases in other languages.
- The emphatic or determined state is the basic form of the noun and is used to mark the topic, subject and sometimes the direct object of a sentence.
- The absolute state is a prepositional state. In the singular, it is oftem markd with the suffix –im.
- The construct state is a form of the noun used to make possessive phrases. Unlike a genitive case, which marks the possessor, the construct state is marked on the possessed. This is mainly due to Aramaic word order: possessed[const.] possessor[abs./emph.] are treated as a speech unit, with the first unit (possessed) employing the construct state to link it to the following word.
Often, the direct object is marked by a prefixed ah- (the preposition 'to') if it is definite.
Adjectives agree with their nouns in number and state, but only attributive. Predicative adjectives are in the construct state regardless of the state of their noun (a copula can, but need not be written). Thus, an attributive adjective to an emphatic noun, as in the phrase 'the good king', is written also in the emphatic state : al-malaq ben — the king[emph.] good[emph.]. In comparison, the predicative adjective, as in the phrase 'the king is good', is written in the construct state: al-malaq bene — the king[emph.] good[abs.] // or : es bene al-malaq – is good[cons.] the king[emph.].
Note that Dual numbers take plural adjectives. Adjectives never inflect for the dual.
| Inflection of "meleq" (govenor) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | ||
| Emphatic | meleq | meleqi | |
| Absolute | melqim | melqis | |
| Construct | melqe | melqes | |
| Inflection of "regiσ" (king) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | ||
| Emphatic | regiσ | regiσi | |
| Absolute | regσim | regσis | |
| Construct | regσe | regσes | |
| Inflection of "ejh" (eye) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | dual | ||
| Emphatic | ejh | ejhi | ejhajn | |
| Absolute | ejhim | ejhis | a-ejhajn | |
| Construct | ejhe | ejhes | d-ejhajn | |
Examples:
- duna al-meleq al-livre Cefa Iuhanim
gives the-mayor the-book-(of) Peter (to)-John - luqat al-meleq al-regσim
speaks the-mayor (to)-the-king
Verbs
Syrunian verb conjugations only indicate tense. Verbs have simplifies immensely from thier Latin roots.
There are four different conjugations:
- The verb eʦer
- terminaison -er
- terminaison -ir
- terminaison -ar
| Conjugation of "eʦer" (to be) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present - | Past - | Future - | Conjunctive | ||
| Masculine | es | fi | ser | etej | |
| Feminine | es | fi | ser | esej | |
| Gerund | al-esse | ||||
| Imperative | ha-serta! | ||||
| Descriptive | esse | ||||
| Conjugation of "luqer" (to speak) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present - | Past - | Future - | Conjunctive | ||
| Masculine | luq | luqib | luqreh | luqeh | |
| Feminine | luq | luqiv | luqr | luqej | |
| Gerund | al-luqer | ||||
| Imperative | ha-luqata! | ||||
| Descriptive | luqis | ||||
| Conjugation of "sabaqir" (to forsake) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present - | Past - | Future - | Conjunctive | ||
| Masculine | sabaq | sabaqab | sabaqib | sabaqaj | |
| Feminine | slabqav | sabaqiv | sabqaj | ||
| Gerund | al-sabaqir | ||||
| Imperative | ha-sabaqta! | ||||
| Descriptive | sabaqs | ||||
| Conjugation of "amar" (to love) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present - | Past - | Future - | Conjunctive | ||
| Masculine | am | amb | amr | amaj | |
| Feminine | am | amv | amaθr | amθaj | |
| Gerund | al-amar | ||||
| Imperative | ha-amrata! | ||||
| Descriptive | amah | ||||
Texts
This text represents my earliest draft of Syrunian. The text is in dire need of an update
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Sunt nasħuntaθs aunes ħuni libers, eħuals et sam al-dihnte al-żihursqe. Sunt dunati luir dal raσnim dal cusħentsimsqe et est-ċi avulet q’ agiσint ilar sifral-autres sam al-sfirte fraθres.
סונט נאסחוטאתס אונעס חוני ליבערס ,עחואלס עט סאם אל-דיהנטע אל-זּיהורסכע. סונט דונאטי לויר דאל-ראשנים דאל-קוסחעצימסכע עט עסט-צּי אוּולעט כ אגישינט ילאר סיףראל-אוטרעס סאם אל-סףירטע ףראתרעס.
