Old Vedran
| Vjedrane (ançjane) | |
|---|---|
| Pronounced: | /ʋjɛdranə/ |
| Timeline and Universe: | none |
| Species: | Human |
| Spoken: | Castre |
| Total speakers: | extinct |
| Writing system: | Latin |
| Genealogy: | Indo-European Italic |
| Typology | |
| Morphological type: | inflecting, fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | Accusative-Dative |
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Credits | |
| Creator: | Sectori |
| Created: | Fall 2008 |
Old Vedran (Old Vedran vjedrane ançjane) was the vernacular language of the Principality of Castre from about 750 to 1300 CE. It was a Western Romance language, most closely related to Old French, although there are significant differences between the two. Although Vedran shares many phonological traits with the other Romance languages (the diphthongization of stressed Ĕ and Ŏ, e.g.), it also has a number of innovations that cannot be traced either to its Romance neighbors or its Germanic neighbors (the velarization of most consonants before a back vowel, e.g.).
Phonological Developments
Old Vedran developed from Vulgar Latin through certain sound changes. The Vulgar Latin vowel system retained its basic shape, with minor modifications. The consonant system, too, has seen no radical changes, but it has undergone some distinct developments that merit attention.
Vowel Developments
As in many other Romance languages, stressed *ɛ and *ɔ in Old Vedran diphthongized, becoming /jɛ/ and /wɔ/ respectively. Unstressed final central vowels were reduced to schwas.
| Development of vowels in Old Vedran | ||
|---|---|---|
| V. Lat. | O. Vedr. | |
| i | > | i |
| e | > | e |
| e | > | ǝ* |
| e | > | jɛ** |
| ɛ | > | ɛ |
| ɛ | > | ǝ* |
| ɛ | > | jɛ** |
| a | > | a |
| a | > | ǝ* |
| ɔ | > | ɔ |
| ɔ | > | ǝ* |
| ɔ | > | wɔ** |
| o | > | o |
| o | > | wɔ** |
| u | > | u |
* in unstressed final position
** in stressed and/or initial position
Consonant Developments
In brief, several changes can be noted in Old Vedran's consonant system:
- the consonants /b p f m d t s n r l g k/ become velarized before a back vowel or /a/
- the consonants /t d/ affricate to /ts dz/ before and after /i j/
- the consonant /k/ vocalizes to /i/ when followed by another consonant
- the consonant /s/ palatalizes to /S/ when followed or preceded by /i j/
- Vulgar Western Romance /dʒ/ becomes /ʒ/
- the consonants /l n/ palatalize to /ʎ ɳ/ when preceding /j/
