Roman Germanech
| Germanech | |
| Spoken in: | Germany |
| Timeline/Universe: | League of Lost Languages |
| Total speakers: | ca. 5,000 |
| Genealogical classification: | Indo-European |
| Basic word order: | SVO (V2), SOV in subclauses |
| Morphological type: | fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | accusative |
| Created by: | |
| Jörg Rhiemeier | 2001 |
Germanech ([ʒɛʀ'manɛç], also known as Mosel Romance) is a 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 vicinity of Trier, Germany.
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.
Phonology
Consonants
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/ (uvular) | ||||
| Semivowel | /j/ |
[x] is an allophine of /ç/ that occurs after back vowels. [z] is an allophone of /s/ that occurs between vowels.
Vowels
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). The letter ä represents the same vowel as e; it is used where the vowel represents an umlauted /a/.
Alphabet and pronunciation
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 | always 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 non-e vowel, unless there is an e with an acute accent (é), in which case the latter is stressed.
Morphology
Nouns
There are two genders, masculine and feminine. The Latin neuter has merged with the masculine. Germanech doesn't have a case system. 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
