Arcadian

Arcadian is at the other end of the alphabet to Zelandish. It is a language sketched out by Andrew Smith -- a romance language designed reflect sound changes in Scots. As a designed language it covers no new ground than what I have already achieved in designing Brithenig, and yet it deserves a repeal from redundancy, so I describe it here.

It was once suggested in correspondence with IJzeren Jan that Arcadian's homeland lies somewhere between the borders between France and Italy.

The name of the language, Arcadian was chosen as a reference to the Otago settlement of southern New Zealand under the patronage of the Free Church of Scotland, promoted as a utopian social project called 'Arcadia'.

Sound changes

The changes in the language is treated as if it was convential romance language.

Short vowels are treated the same as other romance languages in that e and i collapse together as e /ɛ/. Original short u in a stressed open position becomes a front rounded vowel ö /ø/, otherwise o and u collapse together as o /ɔ/. Short and long a collapse together /a/.

Long u is unchanged /u/.

The other long vowels undergo a great vowel shift: long i becomes a diphthong /ɑɪ/ written ai. E rises to replaces it, written i. O becomes ö in all positions.

When a velar consonant after a vowel becomes a ʒ it creates new vowels before it disappears. Oʒ (from short u) becomes ö; uʒ (from long u) is no different to u and iʒ no different to i. Eʒ rises to become /e/, written è. A in the cluster aʒi becomes /ɑɪ/, reduced to /ɛ/ in words such as mes, but (from *magis); otherwise aʒ becomes au /aʊ/.

The loss of l after a, o, and u has created new diphthongs: au, ou, /ʌʊ/ and u (again not distinguished u from above).

Consonants show little change from early romance to Arcadian. Clusters simplify at the end of words (nt, nd become n, st to s, etc.). D is pronounced as a fricative /ð/ when it occurs between vowels. Certain consonants have become palatals: gn and ni have become ny /ɲ/ or /nj/, /ŋ/ at the end of a word. ti has become ci /ʧ/ before a vowel, and /ʃ/ where it is word-final. Likewise gi is /ʤ/ before a vowel and /ʧ/ where is word-final.