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.