User:Ceige/Western Romance

Phonology

Vowels

Stolen from Wikipedia:

Table of Old French outcomes of Latin vowels

Letter	Classical Latin	Vulgar Latin	Proto Western Romance	Early Old French (through early 12th c.)		Later Old French (from late 12th c.)
				closed	open	closed	open
Short A	/a/	/a/		⟨a⟩ /a/	⟨e, ie⟩ /æ, iə/	⟨a⟩ /a/	⟨e, ie⟩ /ɛ, jɛ/
Long A	/aː/
AE	/ai/	/ɛ/		⟨e⟩ /ɛ/	⟨ie⟩ /iə/	⟨e⟩ /ɛ/	⟨ie⟩ /jɛ/
Short E	/e/
OE	/oi/	/e/	/e/	⟨e⟩ /e/	⟨ei⟩ /ei/		⟨oi⟩ /oi/ > /wɛ/
Long E	/eː/
Short I	/i/	/ɪ/
Short Y	/y/
Long I	/iː/	/i/		⟨i⟩ /i/
Long Y	/yː/
Short O	/o/	/ɔ/		⟨o⟩ /ɔ/	⟨uo⟩ /uə/	⟨o⟩ /ɔ/	⟨ue⟩ /wɛ/ > /ø/
Long O	/oː/	/o/	/o/	⟨o⟩ /o/	⟨ou⟩ /ou/	⟨o(u)⟩ /u/	⟨eu⟩ /eu/ > /ø/
Short U	/u/	/ʊ/
Long U	/uː/	/u/		⟨u⟩ /y/
AU	/aw/	/aw/		⟨o⟩ /ɔ/

Chronology of Consonant related sound changes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_French#From_Vulgar_Latin_through_to_Proto-Western-Romance

• sC- initial clusters become isC- (and thus ésC)
• Loss of final -m except in monosyllables
• Loss of H
• ns > s
• rs > ss sometime, rs othertimes
• -er > -re; -or > -ro
• -cəl-, -cər-, -gəl- and -gər- > cl, cr, gl, gr
• kj > kkj
• k + e,i etc > kj
• g + e,i etc > gj
• dj, (prior dj, gj, g+e/i >) gj > j

(Gallo-Ibero-Romance)

• kj, tj > tsj ⟨c, z⟩

• kkj > ttsj

• kt > jt ⟨-it⟩
• ks > js ⟨-is⟩
• (Opt: open+stressed ɛ, ɔ > ie, uo (> ue in Fr/Sp))

• nox > nocte > nojte > nuojte > nuite in French

• First lenition: (intervocalic, and vCr) voiced plosives + unvoiced fricatives > v ð j, single unvoiced plosives > voiced

• tsj > dzj (not ttsj)
• pl > bl
• Final t/d following a vowel lost?

• nj, jn, jl, gl (from gn, ngj, gl, kl) > nj, lj
• unstressed interior vowels lost except pretonic /a/; happened at same time as first lenition, thus manica > manche but granica > grange

Diphthong and vowel-height issue

• ɛ and ɔ become ie and ue in French and Spanish open stressed syllables. They also become ie and ue in Spanish closed stressed syllables. They are merged in the case of Portuguese and most of Catalan.
• In Portuguese, probably Catalan and French, and Italian, there is a tendency to distinguish by vowel height later on in the various languages depending on syllable type (e.g. closed/open).
• Perhaps write stressed open ɔ as uè (as an example).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Spanish_language#Diphthongization_in_open_and_closed_syllables

Grammar

Noun Declension

Accent marks are temporary and for etymological reasons.

• -US as in FOCUS

• NOM SING fuègus (or fuègos), PLU fuègi
• OBL SING fuègo PLU fuègos

• -UM as in GYPSUM

• NOM SING gesso~gisso, PLU gessa~gissa
• OBL SING gesso~gisso, PLU gessa~gissa or gessos~gissos

(The problem here is that gypsum would become either [jepso] or [jeiso]; either way, the palatalisation of [e] could shift it to [i]. The palatalised [p] variant could be a loanword too, as it normally refers to blackboard chalk, not the plaster material, and almost always appears as "giz" or an equivalent.)

• -A as in CAPSA

• NOM SING cassa PLU cassè
• OBL PLU cassa PLU cassas

• -IS as in PISCIS

• NOM SING peisses PLU peisses
• OBL SING peisse PLU peisses

(piscis > pexe-? poisson, pêche, peje, peixe, pez)

• RES

• NOM SING rés PLU rés
• OBL SING rièm PLU rés

• -O as in HOMO

• NOM SING huemo PLU homnes
• OBL SING homne PLU homnes