The Alternate History Conlang Development Thread

This thread is to develop and brainstorm languages that might have arisen in ATLs with a diversion point before 1900. I was fascinated by an earlier thread on a similar subject, Plausible Romance languages in non-Romance areas, and wanted to explore the idea more fully. I should state here that I am not a linguist or an amateur expert, this is just my attempt to construct a Romance vernacular with a Greek substratum that might've developed in the Latin Empire (formely the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine Empire), post 1204, assuming that the Latins remained in power longer.

OF = Old French
MG = Medieval Greek
LK = Latiniká

Latiniká

Latiniká was heavily influenced by Medieval Greek, phonetically and grammatically, but remained a Romance language. Unlike Modern French, all written consonants in Latiniká, including final ones, are meant to be pronounced, except for the t in et.

Conjugation of "To be" in Latiniká:

Estre: To be
Dje sui: I am (ʤə swi)
Tu is: You are (sing.)
Il/Ele ist: He/she/it is
Nu somes: We are
Vos estes: You are (pl.)
Ils sontes: They are

A development unique to the "being" words is that the vowels mark plurality; Tu is and il/ele ist are pronounced to rhyme with Greece, and all are markedly singular. Vos estes, ils sontes, and nu somes are all pronounced to rhyme with Countess and all are markedly plural. Vos is not used as a formal singular in Latiniká.

Notable sound shifts:
  • /tʃ/ (chevals) > /x/ (kheval), "horse"
  • /b/ (bon) > /v/ (von), "good"
A peculiar development in Latiniká was the adoption of a Greek form to create plurals; the '-es' plural ending in Latiniká rhymes with the '-ess' in countess. Unlike in Greek, the Latiniká word did not change depending on gender. Like so:
  • LK li kheval (sing. "the horse") > les khevales (pl. "the horses")
  • LK la dama (sing. "the woman") > les dames (pl. "the women")
The orthography of Latiniká, generally written in Latin script, collapse together a noun with its article if that noun began with a vowel. Contrast Modern French l'homme ("the man") with LK lom ("the man").
Latiniká, like Medieval Greek, underwent the process of so-called "liquid interchange", which is to say:
  • /l/ > /r/ when it is the first member of a consonant cluster;
  • /r/ > /l/ when another /r/ sound follows in the same word.
Ex 1: Mostly found in MG loan words
Ex 2: OF morir (int. "kill, die") > LK molir

A sample text of Chrétien de Troyes' Yvain ou le chevalier de lion into Latiniká:

Si tu veul mamor avoir / If you want to have my love
et de rien nule mavez khiere / And in any way cherish me
pansez de tost venir aliere / Make sure to come back in time
a tot li moins jusqua un an / At the very least within one year
huit jorz aprés li Saint Johan / Eight days after the feast of St. John
cui an cest jor sont les huitaves / Of which this day we celebrate the octave.
 
I'm trying to develop the Vinlandic and Primorian languages for Ivangorod 2.0, so I'll give it an explanation. Vinlandic is supposed to be modeled on the Icelandic language with loanwords from German and Swedish, while Primorian is supposed to be a Slavic-Malay creole (more on Malay but with Slavic loanwords and sentence structure)
 
The Language of Selurong or Selurongese

I(I, Mine) – Nak
Mine –(insert item)-k ex Honggok(Your books)
We(Ours)(Inclusive)-Ikkatam
Our(Inclusive)– (insert item)-tam ex. Honggotam(Our Books)
We/Ours(Exclusive)-Ikkami
Our(Exclusive) – (insert item)-mi ex. Honggomi(Our Books)
You(rs)(Singular) – Ikkamu
Yours(Singular) –(insert item)-mu ex Honggomu(Your books)
You(rs)(Plural) – Ikkayu
Yours(Plural) –(insert item)-nu ex Honggonu(Your books)
Eat – Makan
To Eat – Makkan(Mag+Kan(eat))
Love – Irru
 
Once more, with feeling; an alt-English based on a less successful Norman conquest wherein some Latinate words are introduced, but not nearly to the same extent as OTL

"Fair yenugh.

However, Ik forchoos an Anglish yewin over Normannish overswaying in ðe Kynghall of Lundenwick during ðe Middel Eretied of Briteney; at least forby about underworps suchly ðe Ricksleid (boð Þeedish and Highdeemly), how ðe fraemwork of Lendwisthood upsprang in yainhood upon ðe forgon Sibship betwixt ðe Kyng and his Earls in Saxon tieds, asf.

Þis would still forlet oðer Ladenish or sundry fremdy words ðat would inbrung-be yestand, suchliek "Republick" instead of "Leedwealð" (which nowadays stands for ðe Folkyieldskait forheld upon ðe Unbehired until ðey edstart work), "Judj" instead of "Deemgiver" (ðe latter of which stands for ðey who would acweeð wheðer a go was good or not in sundry gaempley), or "Rieffel" instead of "Yeweir" (which is not ðe Dutch "Gewehr" yeliek, but raðer means eiðer a weapon or wardgraið almainly, not oen ahoenly) wiðout yeblotting words of fulworðy nator ðat beforhand egsisted in forgon tieds, and still forletting the British folk yeharken moerso unto ðeir roots. And still, moerso ever grosser bunches of words may-be intradoosed ðanons, ðusly contribooting evermoer to ðe growð of ðe Anglish wordbook. :D"



A few notes;

-The "-th" sound in English is split between use of the Thorn for upper-case, and Eth for lower-case (I thought about using modified D's or T's, but this seemed to me to have more "flavor")

-The "ye-" prefix is meant to be a more consistently preserved variant of the Germanic "ge-" prefix.

-Vowel sounds that are lengthened by ending the word with "-e" are re-written to include the two letters together as a diagraph ("Laet" instead of "late", "tiem" instead of "time", etc.) for simplification purposes.

-Morphology has been more effectively standardized in accordance with traditional A-S spellings, even if modified, in order to prevent homonymy (the verb "to lead" is rendered as "lead/led/ledden" whilst the heavy metal is "loed", the past tense of "lay" is ALWAYS "lain" and never "layed", etc.)

-The "c" is never used by itself; it either makes a hard /k/ as in "-ck", /kw/ as in "-cw" (instead of "Qu"), or /tʃ/ as in "-ch" as a diagraph. The initial and medial, standalone /k/ sound uses only the "k", unless the word is borrowed from a foreign language, whereupon it typically uses the original "c" as the case may be.

-The /ç/ phoneme is consistently preserved, and is written as "-h" at the start of the word ("hue", "how", etc.) and the word-medial position after a consonant ("kynghall", "wordhoard", etc.). This is not the case in all other diagraphs, and the "-gh" in the middle of the word only changes the quality of the preceding vowel, while at the end of a word it makes the breathless /h/ phoneme.

-The letter "x" makes the /xz/ phoneme, as opposed to /ks/.

-"Wh" as a diagraph still exists, although it always makes the traditional /hw/ phoneme despite its backwards format.

-OE "cg" is replaced by the diagraph "dj", whereas "j" by itself makes the /ʒ/ phoneme.

-"Qu" in English is never used, "Q" by itself makes the /ɣ/ phoneme.

-Underlined words are examples of Latin/French loanwords, operating under less Normanized rules of spelling.
 
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Example of Primorian language from Ivangorod 2.0.:

Aku berbiku/Аку Бервику - I speak
Kamu berbikye/Каму Бервиките - You Speak
Diya berbikit/Дия Бервикит - He/She Speaks
Kita berbikim/Кита Бервиким - We speak
Gamu berbikyem/Гаму Бервикием - You (formal) speak
Mereka berbikyat/Мэрэка Бервикят - They speak

Primorian Cyrillic adopted by Primorye in 1812:

Аа - A
Бб - V
Вв - B
Гг - G
Дд - D
Ее - E
Ёё - Yo
Жж - Zh
Зз - Z
Ии - I
Йй - ii
Кк - K
Лл - L
Мм - M
Нн - N
Оо - O
Пп - P
Рр - R
Сс - S
Тт - T
Уу - U
Фф - F
Хх - H
Цц - Ts/C
Чч - Ch
Шш - Sh
Щщ - Shch
Ъъ - yer
Ыы - Y
Ьь - front yer
Ээ - E (backwards)
Юю - Yu
Яя - Ya
Џџ - Dzh
Ққ - Q
Ўў - W
Єє - Ye
Ӥӥ - Yi
Ңң - Ng
 
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Deleted member 67076

Can someone do a potential surviving Vulgar Latin with Greek influences, An African Romance Language or Chinese-Romance pidgin/mix, if that's not too much?
 

Zirantun

Banned
A documented African Romance language is part of my timeline with the POD of William the Bastard losing the Battle of Hastings. It goes extinct by the 15th or 16th centuries I believe though. Just as well, so is a documented form of pre-Norman Sicilian Romance.


The Sicilian language in my timeline will take a very different turn, with considerably heavier Greek influence (although I'm not sure how much will influence it phonologically) as the population remains primarily Greek, especially on the east coast until the 13th century.
 
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