Olivarian

Vulgariano
Pronunciation:	[vulgaɾiˈano]
Spoken in:	Vulgaria, Sea of Sardinia
Total speakers:	80,000
Language family:	Romance language
Distribution:

Vulgarian (or lingua vulgariana) is a Romance language spoken as a native language by about 80 thousand people in the Island of Vulgaria, in the Sea of Sardinia.

Vulgarian derives diachronically from Latin and is very conservative in its standard form. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive.

Writing system

Alphabet

Vulgarian is written with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, with four diacritics appearing on vowels (circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis) and the t-comma (ț).

Letters typically have the same values as in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Further details are explained below.

Diacritics

• The acute accent and the grave accent indicate that a vowel is stressed, and also the quality of the accented vowel, more precisely its height: é (/e/), í (/i/), ó (/o/), and ú (/u/) are low vowels, while à (/a/), è (/ɛ/), and ò (/ɔ/) are high vowels.
• The grave accent (either â or î) doesn't change the quality of the vowel in standard pronunciation; it serves to accommodate regional pronunciation in Lenòmia, where both letters are pronounced as a close central unrounded vowel ([ɨ]). Î is foudn only in unstressed positions , while â is always found on the root of the word, whether it is stressed (as in eo cânto or ângelo) or unstressed (as in nos cântamos).
• The diaresis (over ü) appears in the digraphs qü and gü before e or i and indicates a voiced labiovelar approximant (/w/) in standard pronunciation. Over the dialects, it can be silent or, especially in Lenòmia, pronounced as [v].
• T-comma ‹ț› represents the voiceless alveolar affricate (/ts/).

Digraphs

• CH: voiceless velar plosive (/k/).
• GU: occurs before e and i and represents the voiced velar plosive (/g/).
• GÜ: occurs before e and i and represents the voiced velar plosive plus (/g/) plus a voiced labiovelar approximant (/w/).
• LH: palatal lateral approximant (/ʎ/).
• NH: palatal nasal (/ɲ/).
• PH: voiceless labiodental fricative (/f/).
• QU: occurs before e and i and represents the voiceless velar plosive (/k/).
• QÜ: occurs before e and i and represents the voiced velar plosive plus (/k/) plus a voiced labiovelar approximant (/w/).
• RR: occurs between vowels and represents the alveolar trill (/r/).
• SC: before e and i, it represents a voiceless postalveolar fricative (/ʃ/) or does not form a digraph (/stʃ/).
• SS: occurs between vowels and represents the voiceless alveolar sibilant (/s/).
• TH: represents the voiceless alveolar plosive (/t/).

Double letters

With exception of rr and ss, mentioned above, double letters are pronounced as if they were single letters.

Letters whose pronunciation depend on their position in the word

• C: voiceless postalveolar affricate before e and i (/tʃ/); voiceless velar plosive elsewhere (/k/).
• G: voiced postalveolar fricative or affricate before e and i (/ʒ/ or /dʒ/); voiced velar plosive elsewhere (/g/).
• R: alveolar tap (/ɾ/) after vowels; alveolar trill elsewhere (/r/).
• S: voiced alveolar sibilant (/z/) between vowels; voiceless alveolar sibilant elsewhere (/s/).

Other letters that differ from IPA

• H: when it is not part of a digraph, it is silent.
• J: voiced postalveolar fricative or affricate (/ʒ/ or /dʒ/).
• W: voiced labiodental fricative (/v/).
• X: velar plosive plus alveolar sibilant (/gz/ or /ks/).
• Y: close front unrounded vowel (/i/).
• Z: voiced alveolar fricative or affricate (/z/ or /dz/).

Stress and accentuation

The default stress is on the penultimate (next-to-last) syllable on words that end in a vowel, ‹n› or ‹s› and on the final syllable when the word ends in any consonant other than ‹n› or ‹s›. Words that do not follow the default stress have an accent over the stressed vowel. Such an accent can be acute, for low vowels, or grave, for high vowels.

Vulgarian rules count syllables, not vowels, to assign written accents. A syllable is of the form XaXX, where X represents a consonant, permissible consonant blend, or no sound at all and a represents a vowel, diphthong, or triphthong. Diphthongs and triphthongs are any combination of two and three vowels, respectively. Hence, Vulgarian writes familia (ending with a diphthong) but línea (the default stress would be on e as it does not form a diphthong).

Furthermore, the high vowels è and ò always have a grave accent in stressed position, even when the stress is understood, as in pède or nòvo. If not specifically marked, the stressed vowels e and o are otherwise low by default.

Phonology

In this section, the phonology of the standard dialect is described.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Close-mid	e	o
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

1. While Vulgarian contrasts close-mid (/e o/) and open-mid (/ɛ ɔ/) vowels in stressed syllables, they are in free variation when unstressed.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental/ Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n		ɲ
Plosive	p b		t d			k g
Fricative		f v	s z
Affricate			(t)s (d)z	(t)ʃ (d)ʒ
Approximant					j	w
Trill			r
Tap			ɾ
Lateral			l		ʎ

1. Nasals assimilate to the point of articulation of whatever consonant they precede. For example, /nɡ/ is realized as [ŋɡ].

Dialects

IPA									Consonants
Standard	Dòssia	Lenòmia	Ucòsia	S. Telcapòlia	N. Telcapòlia	Pecesamia	W. Hurtòmia	E. Hurtòmia	Examples
b	b								bocca
	b, v			v	β, v	β			trabalho
v	v	v							levare
					b, v	b			vacca
p		p		b	β				sapere
	p			p					patre
d	d			d	d				dulce
					ð				nido
t	t								vita
				t					tecto
f	f								fícato
k	k			k					câne
				g	ɣ				laco
g	g								pedagogo
					g				gallo
l	l			l	l		l		luna
					ɫ				sole
				l, ɫ					palma
ʎ	j		ʎ				ʝ		palhacio
j			j						iate
							j		acţione
m	m								matre
n	n								nòstro
ɲ	ɲ	nj	ɲ						banho
r	ʀ, ʁ, r	ɾ	r	r, ʁ, x, h		r			ratto
ɾ			ɾ	ɾ		ɾ			puro
				ɾ, ɹ, ʁ, x, h					pòrta
s	s			s, ʃ	ʃ	s	s, h		pasta
				s			s		sèmpre
z	z	s, z	z	z					casa
		z		z, ʒ	ʒ	z, ʒ	z, h		metesmo
ʒ	ʒ	dʒ		ʒ		ʒ	x, h		generale
(t)ʃ	z	tʃ		z			s	θ	dícere
	s	ʃtʃ	ʃ	s, ʃ	ʃs, ʃ	s, ʃ			pesce
		tʃ		s					cèlo
(t)s		ts							cânţione
(d)z	z		dz	z		dz, z			zelare
w	Ø	v, Ø	w, Ø						qüestione

IPA								Vowels
Standard	Ucòsia	S. Telcapòlia	N. Telcapòlia	Pecesamia	Dòssia	Lenòmia	Hurtòmia	Examples
a	a	a		a	a		a	mama
		ɐ̃			ɑ̃	ɨ		ângelo
		a, ə	ə		a, ə			gallina
ɛ	jɛ	ɛ		ɛ	jɛ	je		pède
	ɛ				ɛ			tèrra
		ẽ						tèmpo
e	e			e		e		censo
		e			e, ɛ			erro
		e, i	ɨ	ə				gente
i	i, e	i		i	i, ə	i, e	i	primario
						ɨ		înterrrogare
	i	i		i				amico
		ĩ						cinqüe
ɔ	wɔ	ɔ		ɔ	ɔ, ø, œ	wo		scòla
	ɔ							còsta
		õ			ɔ̃			cònta
o	o			o		o		ponto
		o			o, ɔ, ø			pollo
		o, u	u	u, ə	o, u, ə	o, u	o	voluto
u	u	u		u	u, y	u		cubo
		ũ			u			un

Grammar

Verbs

Every Vulgarian verb belongs to one of three form classes, characterized by the infinitive ending: -are, -ere, or -ire— sometimes called the first, second, third and the fourth "conjugations", respectively.