A recent post at the always-interesting blog Language Hat linked to a fascinating post by Lameen Souag at his blog Jabal al-Lughat about the relatively late survival of a recognizable Romance language in medieval Tunisia.
In the comments, someone shares conlanger Martin Posthumus' creation of an imagined contemporary descendant of North African Romance which he named "Tunisian". His scenario involved a 12th century conquest of much of Tunisia by Normans from Italy, leading eventually to the creation of an independent Tunisian kingdom within the European sphere.
Was this sort of thing possible? What might the consequences of this be? It goes without saying that a Christian Tunisia with a 12th century POD would have huge butterfly effects on the wider world.
Are there other imaginable scenarios? Could we perhaps have a Romance-speaking Tunisia that was still Muslim?
in the towns of southern Tunisia, the former Bilad ul-Jarid, Latin was still being spoken well into the 12th century. In his recent book La langue berbère au Maghreb médiéval (p. 313), Mohamed Meouak uncovers a short recorded example of spoken African Latin from between these two periods, which otherwise seems to have escaped notice so far.
The 11th-century Ibadi history of Abu Zakariyya al-Warjlani, he gives a brief biography of the Rustamid governor Abu Ubayda Abd al-Hamid al-Jannawni (d. 826), who lived in the Nafusa Mountains of northwestern Libya. Before assuming his position, this future governor swore an oath:
As Mohamed Meouak correctly though hesitantly notes, diyuu must be Deo; he leaves bar uninterpreted, but it is equally clearly Latin per, making the expression an exact translation of Arabic bi-llaahi. The Berber form is probably somewhat miscopied, but seems to include the medieval Berber word for God, Yuc / Yakuc.
The 11th-century Ibadi history of Abu Zakariyya al-Warjlani, he gives a brief biography of the Rustamid governor Abu Ubayda Abd al-Hamid al-Jannawni (d. 826), who lived in the Nafusa Mountains of northwestern Libya. Before assuming his position, this future governor swore an oath:
Bi-llaahi (by God) in Arabic, and bar diyuu in town-language (بالحضرية), and abiikyush in Berber, I shall entrust the Muslims' affairs only to a person who says: "I am only a weak being, I am only a weak being."In al-Shammakhi's later retelling, the languages are named as Arabic, Ajami, and Berber (بلغة العرب وبلغة العجم وبلغة البربر).
As Mohamed Meouak correctly though hesitantly notes, diyuu must be Deo; he leaves bar uninterpreted, but it is equally clearly Latin per, making the expression an exact translation of Arabic bi-llaahi. The Berber form is probably somewhat miscopied, but seems to include the medieval Berber word for God, Yuc / Yakuc.
The earliest Romance text is the Old French part of the Oaths of Strasbourg, made in 842 and opening Pro Deo amur... "for the love of God". The Ibadi phrase recorded above curiously echoes this, although it predates it by several decades.
In the comments, someone shares conlanger Martin Posthumus' creation of an imagined contemporary descendant of North African Romance which he named "Tunisian". His scenario involved a 12th century conquest of much of Tunisia by Normans from Italy, leading eventually to the creation of an independent Tunisian kingdom within the European sphere.
Was this sort of thing possible? What might the consequences of this be? It goes without saying that a Christian Tunisia with a 12th century POD would have huge butterfly effects on the wider world.
Are there other imaginable scenarios? Could we perhaps have a Romance-speaking Tunisia that was still Muslim?