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 conventional 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 ou /ʌʊ/; 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, and u (again not distinguished u from above).
All vowels are short, except before v, s /z/, d /ð/, and r.
Consonants show little change from early romance to Arcadian. Clusters simplify at the end of words (nt, nd become n, st to s, etc.), mpt and nct become nt. The cluster rd becomes rt at the end of a word. 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. Si is pronounced /ʃ/.
V becomes f when final, it disappears before a closed syllable ending in a nasal, semivowel or liquid.
R is pronounced as a retroflex /ɾ/ except when doubled, or at the beginning or end of a word where it is pronounced as /ʀ/.
The u is pronounced /w/ in the combination qu-.
Babel Text
To whet the appetite for more:
Accöra le mön entèr avía un lenguagi e las parablas cemas. Como movían de l'öciden, venayan a un plan en la terra de Sennar e lau's stablayan.
"Venait," daicían a un autre, "alamos far uns briques e corlos a fön."
Avian le bric por la petra, e le bitume por le mortari.
"Venait," daicían, "alamos edifecarnos una ciutá, è un tör que tocci les cels. Alamos far un nome por nos; autremen seramos disperset söpra la facia de la terra entèra."
Le DOM descendía vedir la ciutá e le tör, que les umanes avian edifecat.
"Vaidit," le DOM daicía, "son un popöl, e tot an un lenguagi; ces es sölamen le començamen de le quau facessen. Nu que proponyan sera impossibel por lör. Venait, alamos descendre, e comföndre siu lenguagi lau, por que n' comprendran las parablas d'un autre."
Esai le DOM los dispersía de lau söpra la facia de tota la terra, e lausían edifecar la ciutá. Car s'appellía Babel, porque lau le DOM comföndía le lenguagi de tota la terra; e de lau le DOM los dispersia söpra la facia de la terra.
