Luthic: Difference between revisions

The initial trouble for the later Roman Empire came from East Germanic speakers, with various tribal groups such as the Vandals and Burgundians traversing Europe. However, it was the Goths who notably contributed to the linguistic record of the East Germanic languages. Originating from the lower [[w:Vistula|Vistula]], they migrated to present-day [[w:Ukraine|Ukraine]]. Later, facing pressure from the [[w:Huns|Huns]], they moved into the [[w:Balkans|Balkans]] and eventually into [[w:Western Europe|Western Europe]]. Among them, the Visigoths settled in [[w:Spain|Spain]], shaping its post-Roman state, while the Ostrogoths became custodians of the last Roman emperors in Italy. By the eighth century, linguistic assimilation into Romance-speaking populations had largely absorbed the Goths of Spain and Italy. Wulfila, a prominent Christian missionary and later bishop of the Visigoths, translated the Bible into Gothic while they resided in the northeast Balkans, providing a significant linguistic record of Gothic and East Germanic. A small group of Ostrogoths left in [[w:Crimea|Crimea]] resurfaced in the sixteenth century through a wordlist compiled by [[w:Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq|Ogier de Busbecq]], the [[w:Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor’s]] ambassador to the [[w:Sublime Porte|Sublime Porte]]. However, these [[w:Crimean Gothic|Crimean Gothic]] speakers disappeared linguistically shortly after Busbecq documented their vocabulary.

::It contains scattered passages from the New Testament (including parts of the gospels and the Epistles), from the Old Testament (Nehemiah), and some commentaries. The text likely had been somewhat modified by copyists. It was written using the [[w:Gothic alphabet|Gothic alphabet]], an alphabet used for writing the Gothic language. It was developed in the 4th century AD by [[w:Ulfilas|Ulfilas]] (or ''Wulfila''), a Gothic preacher of [[w:Cappadocian Greeks|Cappadocian Greek]] descent, for the purpose of [[w:Gothic Bible|translating the Bible]].

There is a maximum of 8 oral vowels, 5 nasal vowels, 2 semivowels and 31 consonants; though some varieties of the language have fewer phonemes. Gothic, Frankish, [[w:Suebi|northern Suebi]], Langobardic, [[w:Lepontic language|Lepontic]] and [[w:Cisalpine Gaulish|Cisalpine Gaulish]] ([[w:Roman Gaul|Roman Gaul]]) influences were highly absorbed into the local Vulgar Latin dialect. An early form of Luthic was already spoken in the Ostrogothic Kingdom during Theodoric’s reign and by the year 600 Luthic had already become the [[w:Vernacular|vernacular]] of Ravenna. Luthic developed in the region of the former Ostrogothic capital of Ravenna, from Late Latin dialects and Vulgar Latin. As Theodoric emerged as the new ruler of Italy, he upheld a Roman legal administration and scholarly culture while promoting a major building program across Italy, his cultural and architectural attention to Ravenna led to a most conserved dialect, resulting in modern Luthic.

{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="wikitable" style="width: 350px; "style="width: 350px; "

! rowspan="2" style="text-align: center; "|Rising

| style="text-align: center;"|jɛ

| style="text-align: center;"|jɐ

| style="text-align: center;"|ju

| style="text-align: center;"|wɛ

| style="text-align: center;"|wo

| style="text-align: center;"|wɔ

|}

{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="wikitable" style="width: 350px; "

|+ '''Falling diphthongs of Standard Luthic'''

! rowspan="2" style="text-align: center; "|Falling

| style="text-align: center;"|ɛj

| style="text-align: center;"|oj

| style="text-align: center;"|ow

| style="text-align: center;"|ɔw

|+ '''Rising triphthongs of Standard Luthic'''

! style="text-align: center; "|Rising

| style="text-align: center;"|jwo

{| border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" class="wikitable" style="width: 350px; "

|+ '''Falling triphthongs of Standard Luthic'''

! rowspan="2" style="text-align: center; "|Falling

| style="text-align: center;"|jɛj

| style="text-align: center;"|jɔj

| style="text-align: center;"|jɐj

| style="text-align: center;"|wɛj

| style="text-align: center;"|wɔj

| style="text-align: center;"|wɐj

Luthic allows up to three consonants in syllable-initial position, though there are limitations. The syllable structure of Luthic is (C)(C)(C)(G)V(G)(C)(C). As with English, there exist many words that begin with three consonants. Luthic lacks bimoraic (diphthongs and long vowels), as the so-called diphthongs are composed of one semiconsonantal (glide) sound [j] or [w].

| f ~ ɸ v ~ β p b t d k ɡ || r || j w

| s || p k || r l

| s || f ~ ɸ t || r

| z || b || l

| z || d ɡ || r

| z || m n v ~ β d͡ʒ r l || —

| p b f ~ ɸ v ~ β k ɡ || r l || —

| ɡ || n l || —

| p t k d || r || —

| θ ð || v ~ β r || —

| t || v ~ β || —

| kʷ ɡʷ t͡s t͡ʃ d͡ʒ ʃ r ɲ l ʎ || — || —  

* /s/ + any voiceless stop or /f ~ ɸ/;

* /z/ + any voiced stop, /v ~ β d͡ʒ m n l r/;

* /f ~ ɸ v ~ β/, or any stop + /r/;

* /f ~ ɸ v ~ β/, or any stop except /t d/ + /l/;

* f ~ ɸ v ~ β s z/, or any stop or nasal + /j w/;

* In Graeco-Roman words origin which are only partially assimilated, other combinations such as /pn/ (e.g. ''pneumaticu''), /mn/ (e.g. ''mnemonicu''), /tm/ (e.g. ''tmesi''), and /ps/ (e.g. ''pseudo-'') occur.

As an onset, the cluster /s/ + voiceless consonant is inherently unstable. Phonetically, word-internal s+C normally syllabifies as [s.C]. A competing analysis accepts that while the syllabification /s.C/ is accurate historically, modern retreat of i-[[w:Prothesis (linguistics)|prosthesis]] before word initial /s/+C (e.g. ''miþ isforzȧ'' “with effort” has generally given way to ''miþ sforza'') suggests that the structure is now underdetermined, with occurrence of /s.C/ or /.sC/ variable “according to the context and the idiosyncratic behaviour of the speakers.”

* /s/ + voiceless stop or /f ~ ɸ/ + /r/;

* /z/ + voiced stop + /r/;

* /s/ + /p k/ + /l/;

* /z/ + /b/ + /l/;

* /f ~ ɸ v ~ β/ or any stop + /r/ + /j w/.

| a ɐ e ɛ || i [j] u [w] || —

| o ɔ || i [j]|| —

| i [j] || e o || —

| i [j] || ɐ ɛ ɔ || i [j]

| i [j] || u [w] || o

| u [w] || ɐ ɛ ɔ || i [j]

| u [w] || e o || —

| u [w] || i || —

The nucleus is the only mandatory part of a syllable and must be a vowel or a diphthong. In a falling diphthong the most common second elements are /i̯/ or /u̯/. Combinations of /j w/ with vowels are often labelled diphthongs, allowing for combinations of /j w/ with falling diphthongs to be called triphthongs. One view holds that it is more accurate to label /j w/ as consonants and /jV wV/ as consonant-vowel sequences rather than rising diphthongs. In that interpretation, Luthic has only falling diphthongs (phonemically at least, cf. [[w:Synaeresis|Synaeresis]]) and no triphthongs.

| m n l r || Cₓ

* A nasal consonant that is either /n/ (word-finally) or one that is homorganic to a following consonant.

* /r/ and /l/.

* /s/ (though not before fricatives).

* ''rasda'' (ʀᴀ-sda ~ ʀᴀs-da) /ˈra.zdɐ ~ ˈraz.dɐ/;

* ''Italia'' (i-ᴛᴀ-lia) /iˈta.ljɐ/;

* ''approssimativamente'' (ap-pros-si-ma-ti-va-ᴍᴇɴ-te) /ɐp.pros.si.mɐ.θi.βɐˈmen.te/.

* ''panzar'' + ''campo'' + ''vagnu'' > ''panzarcampovagnu'' (ᴘᴀɴ-zar-ᴄᴀᴍ-po-ᴠᴀ-ġnu) /ˌpan.t͡sɐrˌkam.poˈβaɲ.ɲu/;

* ''broþar'' + ''-scape'' > ''broþarscape'' (ʙʀᴏ-þar-sᴄᴀ-pe) /ˌbro.θɐrˈska.ɸe/.

Luthic is a well-studied language, and multiple universities in Italy have departments devoted to Luthic or linguistics with active research projects on the language, mainly in Ravenna, such as the '''Linguistic Circle of Ravenna''' (Luthic: ''Creizzo Rasdavitascapetico Ravennae''; Italian: ''Circolo Linguistico di Ravenna'') at '''Ravenna University''', and there are many dictionaries and technological resources on the language. The language council ''Gafaurdu faul·la Rasda Lûthica'' also publishes research on the language both nationally and internationally. Academic descriptions of the language are published both in Luthic, Italian and English. The most complete grammar is the ''Grammatica gli Lûthicae Rasdae'' (Grammar of the Luthic Language) by Alessandro Fiscar & Luca Vagnar, and it is written in Luthic and contains over 800 pages. Multiple corpora of Luthic language data are available. The ''Luthic Online Dictionary project'' provides a curated corpus of 35,000 words.

* '''Ravenna University Circle of [[w:Phonological Development|Phonological Development]]''' (Luthic: ''Creizzo Sviluppi Phonologici gia Accademia Ravenna'') was developed in 1990, however very little research has been done on the earliest stages of phonological development in Luthic.

* '''Ravenna University Circle of [[w:Theology|Theology]]''' (Luthic: ''Creizzo Theologiae gia Accademia Ravenna'') was developed in 2000 in association with the [[w:Ravenna Cathedral|Ravenna Cathedral or Metropolitan Cathedral of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ]] (Luthic: ''Cathedrale metropolitana deï Osstassi Unsari Signori Gesusi Christi''; Italian: ''Cattedrale metropolitana della Risurrezione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo; Duomo di Ravenna'').