Oscanez

Oscanez
L'oscanez
Pronunciation	[/os.ka.ˈnez/]
Created by	–
Native speakers	14,000 (2015)
Language family	Indo-European Oscanez
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Italic Romance Western Romance Ibero-Romance

General

Oscanez, or Oscan (English: /ɒs.kə.ˈnez, ˈɒs,kən/ primarily called Oscan in English) [os.ka.ˈnez] is a Romance language originated in the destroyed Roman city of Oscansium. It is spoken in the north of Spain, near southern France. It shares several features with the Benasque dialects and High Aragonese, as well as French and Spanish. Oscanez is spoken by 1,721 people, primarily the older generation. It is a highly endangered language.

Its name, Oscanez, comes from the old city Oscansium (Oscaso, in Oscanez), in northern Spain. Historically, the inhabitants of Osca were ancient Iberians, and their language influenced Oscanez. The Oscanses were also influenced by the Arabs in the middle ages, and the French, Portuguese and Spanish in the modern age.

Phonology

Oscanez is a (C)(C)V(C)(C)(C) language, with basic phonological rules.

Consonants

Consonant Phonemes

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m		n	ɲ
Plosive	Voiceless Plosive	p	t		(tʃ)	k
	Voiced Plosive	b	d		k	g
Fricative	Voiceless Fricative	(ɸ)		s	ʃ
	Voiced Fricative			z	ʒ
Approximant	Semivowel				j
	Lateral			l	ʎ
Trill				r

Notesː

• /n/ assimilates to the place of articulation of the second consonant if it is a cluster. For example, the word ìnca /inka/ is pronounced [iŋka].
• In certain environments with vowels, nasal consonants can become syllabic.
• Betacism is a major part of Oscanez. /b/ and /v/ are in free variation. The sound /b/ also has the allophone /β/ between vowels, but all three are correct in every part of a phrase. Usually /b/ begins.
• /p/ voices to /b/ when before plosives, such as in the word optimo [obtimo], [oβtimo] or [ovtimo].
• Voiced plosives have the allophones [β], [ð], [ɣ] (/b/, /d/, /g/ respectively) between vowels. A similar phenomenon occurs in Portuguese and Spanish.
• /t/ and /d/ are laminal denti-alveolar, but are called dental for simplicity.
• /tʃ/ is not a common sound in Oscanez, but is found in loanwords, especially deriving from Spanish or English, but it is also an allophone of /ʎ/ at onset position.
• /ɸ/ has the allophone [h] when it is after /m/, such as in the word triomfo [triomho]. /ɸ/ before /i/ or /e/ is preserved. It is in free variation otwise.
• /s/ turns to the allophone [s̪] before dental plosives.
• Unvoiced fricatives become voiced before a voiced plosive or nasal. Unvoiced plosives become fricatives and voice as well. For example, the borrowed word atmosfera /atmosɸera/ is realized as [aðmosɸera] and is sometimes just dropped [amosɸera]. Ot examples include amigdala or administrajón.
• /ʎ/ has a tendency to be pronounced as a fricative [ʝ].
• /r/ and [ɾ] are in free variation, but it is always /r/ at the beginning of words and when represented by a double r. /r/ is the default pronunciation.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

Te are 5 distinct vowels in Oscanez, but has many more allophones for different environments, including nasality and stress.

Allophones

Phonemic Vowel	Environment
	Stressed position	Unstressed position	Nasalized (stressed or unstressed)
a	a	a	ɑ̃
e	e	/e/ or /ə/	ẽ
i	i	e	y
o	o	o	ɔ̃
u	u	o	y

/a/ and /o/, being the most sonorous vowels have the least change besides nasalization. /e/ can be pronounced like a schwa (such as English creation) in unstressed position. /e/ with a nasal coda causes a loss of the nasal consonant. This leads to an articulation like [ẽtẽdẽmos] for entendemos. Note that vowels followed by nasals are also affected, but within words the consonant is still articulated if it is the onset. Only with /y/ is the nasal consonant always articulated.

Liaison

Final nasal vowels are pronounced with their consonant in environments when the next syllable begins with a vowel (including a mute h). This process is similar to French liaison and is called such by linguists studying Oscanez. In the grammar it is called Yajón, a cognate of English and French "liaison".

The conjunctions e and o (and and or) become ei and u before /e/ and /o/, respectively.

Diphthongs and Triphthongs

Oscanez has nine rising diphthongs, and three falling diphthongs /au/ /ai/ and /ei/. The falling diphthongs include all instances of /j/ or /w/ followed by a vowel. A sequence of /kw/ can be analyzed as [kɥ]. Triphthongs are generally falling diphthongs merged with a rising one /wai/.

Prosody

Oscanez is syllable-timed. All syllables take the same amount of time to produce.

Words generally have stress on the final or penultimate syllable. Some words have natural stress on the third syllable but this is not marked.

At the end of a question intonation rises at the first word, and also at the end of the phrase. Otherwise, it is exactly like English.

Phonotactics

Oscanez has a (C)(C)V(C)(C) syllable structure.

• Onset (can be null)
  • First consonant (C₁): anything except for clusters including nasals or /s/.
  • Second consonant (C₂): rhotic or lateral (if C₁ is a plosive or /s/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/). The clusters /tl/ and /dl/ are not allowed.
• Nucleus
  • Any vowel or diphthong can be positioned in the nucleus (/w/ is analyzed as the vowel /u/ as a rising diphthong in the nucleus).
  • A maximum of two vowels/semivowels are allowed together in the nucleus.

• Coda (can be null)
  • First consonant (C₁): /r/ /n/ /s/ /t/ or null.
  • Second consonant (C₂): If there is a C₁, then C₂ is generally /s/ /z/ /t/ or /k/. Otherwise, C₁ is null and the final coda is /p t d s r n l/. /f/ is found in loaned words from Latin, such as subjuntif /sub.ʒy.ˑtif/.

Allowed clusters across syllable boundaries include plosives followed by a rhotic, and nasals by their place of articulation plosive (/nk/, but not /mk/). /s/ is followed by unvoiced plosives, but when beginning a word must have a prosthetic /e/ (escuila, not scuila). /r/ can be followed by any sound, and /r/ can be followed by /s/ and vice versa. Plosives can also be followed by /ʃ/ or /ʒ/, with unvoiced taking the unvoiced fricative and vice versa. The dental fricatives cannot be followed by those two consonants. This rule also applies to /z/ and /s/ after dentals. /j/ and /ʎ/ cannot exist in clusters. In terms of other clusters, a maximum of three consonants can be grouped. If there is a plosive + liquid cluster, a fricative can precede them. Note that these words are generally Latin loanwords into Oscanez.

Orthography

Oscanez has very regular spelling, with each letter almost having a 1 to 1 correspondence in pronunciation. Much of it is based on Italian and Spanish orthography, with few inventions.

Oscanez Spelling

Letter	Aa	Bb	Cc	Dd	Ee	Ff	Gg	Hh	Ii	Jj	Ll	Mm	Nn
Sound	a	b	k ~ s	d	e ~ Ø	ɸ	g ~ ʒ	Ø	i	ʒ	l	m	n
Letter	Oo	Pp	Rr	Ss	Tt	Uu	Vv	Xx	Yy	Zz
Sound	o	p	r	s	t	u	b	tʃ	i	z

At the end of syllables the nasal letter is purely orthographic, only showing that the vowel before is nasalized. An example of this is in the word formajón, formation /for.ma.ʒõ/.

Notesː

• <b> and <v> represent the same sound, but generally <v> starts a word.
• <c> is /s/ when followed by an /i/ or /e/, due to palatalization in Vulgar Latin. The same shift occurs with <g> to /ʒ/. To have a sequence like /ge/, it would be written with an <h>, such as Ghinea, an African country.

• <h> is totally null, only occurring orthographically when etymology is wanted. This is showcased in the word honye which means man, but is pronounced [õɲe].

• <y> is /ʎ/, such as in the world muyer.
• <x> beginning a word represents /tʃ/, such as in the word xobea.

• /ɲ/ is represented by <ny>.

Accents

Oscanez uses the acute accent over any vowel á é í ó ú, and the grave accent over ì before a nasal vowel to show that the vowel is not /y/ but /i/. The accent determines stress and pronunciation in Oscanez. There are four types of words in Oscanezː adas, grabes, estrogelas, and sublestrogelas. They go ascending from stress on the ultimate syllable, penult, antepenult, and before the antepenult. Estrogelas and subestrogelas never have an accent.

• All adas which do not end in t, z, r or l or a vowel must have an indicated acute accent. For example, cultivajón.
• Graves which end in t, z, r, or l must have an indicated acute accent. For example, Gómez.

Oscanez orthography is influenced by Spanish orthography. While in Spanish accents are also used to break up different vowels (Spanish salía [sa.ˈli.a]), Oscanez accents are never used in this way, and these usually simplify to a diphthong (creit, not *creít). When a diphthong exists with an accent, it will always go on the stronger vowel. Thereforeː

Strong Vowels in Oscanez

	á	é	ó
Word	náutiz	anyus déi	leói
IPA	/'nautiz/	/aɲus'dei/	/le'oi/
Meaning	nautical	lamb of god (liturgical chant)	I read

If two weak vowels are creating a stressed and accented diphthong, the one which is after the semivowel is written with a stress. A good example would be the 3rd person singular past historic endings of -er verbs.

Contractions and Hypostrophes

Oscanez uses apostrophes and contractions much more than most other languages on the Iberian peninsula. An overview of them will be provided here.

Contractions

	O	La	Los	Las
A	Al	Ala	A los	A las
En	Nel	Na	En los	En las
De	Del	Da	De los	De las
Pol	Polo	Pola	Polos	Polas

The personal pronoun jo can be reduced to j' before a vowel. The same is true for the prepositions de and en, which convert to d' and n' respectively. In reflexive verbs (or situations where me, te, and se proceed a vowel), me, te, and se also lose their vowel (m').

Grammar

Oscanez grammar is how the language organizes itself. It is very similar to other Romance languages

Oscanez is a moderately inflected language. Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number (singular or plural, though in most nouns the plural is pronounced the same as the singular even if spelled differently); adjectives, for number and gender (masculine or feminine) of their nouns; personal pronouns and a few other pronouns, for person, number, gender, and case; and verbs, for tense, aspect, mood, and the person and number of their subjects.

Nouns

The grammar follows the general structure of most Romance languages, differing from Latin in its syntax and loss of grammatical case. Many verb affixes are preserved, and new compound tenses are created.

Gender

Every noun is either masculine or feminine, with the old Latin neuter merging with the masculine. Regarding living things, most nouns correspond with the gender of the living thing described.

Not every noun can have its gender predicted, but there are several general rules. Generally, if a word ends in -o, -or, -n, -z (-z endings can be masculine adjectives) it is masculine. Nouns that refer to males such as pare (father) are also masculine. If the word ends in -a, -at, -jón, then it is feminine. Words referring to females are also feminine.

Number

There are two numbers: singular and plural. The singular is the lexical meaning of the noun, while the plural is counted as an inflection of the noun. Plurality in Oscanez is more complicated than most standard Romance languages.

Plurals

	Cibdat	Pelsona	Maisón	Paz
Plural	Cibdats	Pelsóns	Masóns	Pajes

All nouns ending in t or n pluralize with a final /s/, creating consonant clusters with /t/. Nouns ending in z are changed to j and add -es.

Otherwise, plurals are identifiable with a -s or -es if it ends with a consonant (l'amor, los amores).

Most mass nouns are simply treated as plural, such as “las aréns” meaning English “sand.”

Adjectives

Adjectives in Oscanez either have a lemma ending in -o or don't. Those ending with -o (xaro, famous) inflect for number and gender. Thereforeː

• xaro → xaro, xara / (plural) xaros, xaras

Adjectives with a lemma ending in a consonant or a different vowel than -o do not have a gender distinction. Thereforeː

• fort → fort, fort / (plural) forts, forts

The adjectives blanz and bon are the only exceptions to the above rule, inflecting blanz, blanca, blancos, blancas and bon, buina, bons, bons.

Similar to irregular pluralization, if the lemma of an adjective ends in t, no, n, z, it pluralizes according to the irregular noun rules.

Grammatically, an adjective can be substantive by pairing it with a definite article. Therefore a phrase such as O malo está alant means "The bad [man] is going." Adjectives can also be paired with the article lo to mean "the X thing, the X part." A similar construction occurs in Spanish.

Adjectives go after their noun, except for numbers (cardinal and ordinal) and certain adjectives. These adjectives are bon, malo, gran, belo, nuif, and vieyo.

Thereforeː

• Cient honyes -- a hundred men
• Una bela muyer -- a beautiful woman
• Un cat trist -- a sad cat

Comparative and Superlative

The comparative and superlative from Latin was lost in all Romance languages. O superlatif asolut borrows the Classical Latin superlative, and adds the suffix -isimo/a to the end of the lemma, dropping any vowel. These forms are not grammatical superlatives, but are more emphatic than the normal muit adverb construction. Thereforeː

• Un fortisimo honye -- an extremely strong man
• Una malisima pelsona -- a really bad person
• Voté está muit ayegre huie -- you are very happy today

The true comparative adds the adverb mes with the adjective. The adjective still inflects but is modified by that adverb. The superlative uses the same construction but with a definite article (depending on the gender and number of the noun modified). In a comparative expression, the conjunction cuan is used to mean "than." Thusː

• El e meyor honye cuan tu -- he is better than you
• Somos mes inteyegents -- we are smarter
• Ela e la mes bela muyer del munt -- she is the most beautiful woman in the world

Irregular comparatives inherited from Latin are meyor and pior, for bon and malo respectively.

Articles & Determiners

Articles

Definite	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	o, lo, l'	la, l'
Plural	los	las

The masculine singular definite article has three acceptable forms. The most common are lo and o, with o most common and lo used with substantive adjectives suggesting generality, or with titles (lo senyor). Lo is also used when a proceeding syllable ended with a vowel.

The masculine and feminine singular forms elide to <l’> before null <h> and vowels. For example, the grammatically correct form is “l’abentura” instead of suspected *la abentura.

Thus:

• o calo = "[the] horse"
• los calos = "[the] horses"
• la yenua = "[the] language "
• las yenuas = "[the] languages"

Indefinite	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	un	una
Plural	uns

Like the definite article, the singular forms elide. The feminine changes to un before vowels. For example, the grammatically correct form of “an ear” is un oreya

The article is almost always carried by the noun, with the only exceptions being when other determiners modify the noun. In places where English drops the article, the article is kept. These include the subject for general nouns, objects, and almost any place where English could delete its article. For example, to write “Summer is good,” one writes “O verán e bon.”

Determiners

Possessive Determiners

			Singular	Plural
1st	Singular	Masculine	meon	mis
		Feminine	mean
	Plural		nostre	nostres
2nd	Singular	Masculine	ton	tos
		Feminine	tan	tas
	Plural		vostre	vostres
3rd	Singular		son	sos
	Plural

1. The formal second person voté takes its determiners from the 3rd person part of the chart, as does its plural votés. It can also take them from the vostre form as well.

Like other Romance languages, these determiners are used with the definite articles, creating la mean caisa meaning both "my house" and "the house of mine."

These agree in gender and number, which means that even if a group of people are possessing a singular noun, the noun takes the singular third person form.

Demonstrative Determiners

There are three degrees of proximity expressed by the four sets of determiners. They developed from Vulgar Latin eccuiste, iste and accuiste, respectively.

	Proximal		Mesio-proximal		Distal
	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	ejest		est		ajel
Plural	ejestes		estos	estas	ajeyes

These roughly correspond to English “this here” "this / that" and “that over there,” with the remote determiners having a farther spatial distance than English “that.” For this reason, many speakers use est when referring to objects that in English would normally be determined with “that.” The singular determiner can be used as a pronoun. For added emphasis, contracted forms of the adverbs ací (ci) can be added to the end of the modified noun, and for the two remote determiners the forms of elaz (laz).

Interrogative Determiners

The interrogative determiner chol means what or which depending on the modified noun.

Chol can be used in exclamations meaning something along the lines of “how!” or “what!” For example, saying “Chol caisa!” means “What a house!”

Quantifiers

The Latin adjective multus evolved into Oscanez muit. This corresponds to “much, a lot, many” in English.

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	muit	muita
Plural	muits

As before, it agrees in gender and number. In adverb form, it is muit.

Its antonym meaning “very little, a small amount, little” is three different words strung together with an article. It is un poz de, cognate to Spanish un poco de.

There are other quantifiers which are vocabulary, such as tres de, meaning “three of.” Most use de to connect to a noun. One other major quantifier is the collective, shown by the adjective tot. Tot does not decline for gender and functions as an adverb. It translates to english "all of, all, every." When used with the article (tot los calos) it means "all of the horses" or "the entire horse" in the singular. Tot is cognate with Spanish todo/a.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Nouns in Oscanez have lost their Latin case endings, but preserved two of the three Latin genders. Personal pronouns have distinct forms for their position in the sentence, and are the only words inflected for case.

Personal Pronouns Inflected in Oscanez

					Nominative	Dative	Accusative	Prepositional	Comitative	Agent
First person	Singular				Jo	Me			Comez	Promí
	Plural				Nos	Nuis	Nos		Conyoz	Pronós
Second Person	Singular		Familiar		Tu	Ti	Te		Contez	Protí
			Formal		Voté				Con voté	Pol voté
	Plural	Familiar			Vos	Vuis	Vos		Comboz	Probós
		Formal			Vostés				Con votés	Pol votés
Third person	Singular		Masculine		El	Je	O	El	Con el	Pro
			Feminine		Ela		A	Ela	Con ela	Pra
			Neuter		Elo		O	Elo	Con elo	Pro
	Plural		Masculine		Elos	Jes	Os	Elos	Elos	Polos
			Feminine		Elas		As	Elas	Elas	Polas
Reflexive					--	Se			Cosez	Prosé

Like other Romance languages, Oscanez is pro-drop, except with the use of the neuter elo. Also, Oscanez employs a T-V distinction between Tu and Voté. Tu is used among family members and friends, and voté with teachers, strangers, grandparents. God is referred to with tu. Because voté derives from a third person noun (votre melsé), it uses the third person paradigm.

Elo is used in impersonal expressions, with a similar semantic use to French ça or Spanish eso. It is also used in expressions of weather, where English would use "it." It is also used in expressions where Spanish would use se and French un, such as elo o-puide (we can do it, it can be done).

The comitative inflection (with me) comes from Latin *cum (me)cum. Similar structures exist in Ibero-Romance.

The agentive inflection is an old contraction of the preposition pol with the prepositional form of the pronouns. It is used in a passive construction with a pronoun agent (it was eaten by me).

Reflexive pronouns are used medio-passively in special verbs. They are not intensifiers (Oscanez uses mesmo/a as this).

Object Pronouns

In Oscanez, the placement of object pronouns is optional in most cases. If there is one verb, the pronoun precedes it (Jo t'aimo, I love you). If there are more, the pronoun usually procedes, but can come after marked with a hyphen (Estoz dijent-te, I am telling you).

Third person object pronouns have different forms when they are used with an indirect object pronoun. They are also hyphened.

Contractions

default	me	te	je	nuis	vuis	jes
o	mo	to	jelo	noso	voso	jelo
a	ma	ta	jela	nosa	vosa	jela
os	mos	tos	jelos	nosos	vosos	jelos
as	mas	tas	jelas	nosas	vosas	jelas

Therefore Jo to-doz means "I give it to you."

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are the same as the object pronoun, except in the third person. They are used in specific pronomial verbs which are very similar to their Romance counterparts. It is used suchː

• O Pielo se lava | O Pielo lava o cat (Peter washes himself | Peter washes the cat)
• La Marea e o Pielo s'aiman | La Marea aima o Pielo (Mary and Peter love each other | Mary loves Peter)
• O Pielo s'ofenuí (Peter got offended)
• La porta s'ablié (the door opened)

Interrogative Pronouns

Most interrogative pronouns have 1ː1 correspondences with English.

Interrogative Words

	Pronoun
Who / Whom	Chen?
To whom	Achén?
What	Che?
Where	On?
From where, whence	Deón?
To where	Aón?
When	Cuán?
How	Como?
Why	Polché?
Which; what	Chol?

The pronoun chol can also be used as an adjective, it does not inflect.

Relative Pronouns

There are two main relative pronouns in Oscanezː chen, meaning "who" and che. For non-living things the pronoun che is used. Neither have plurals. Che also means chen when it is the object of a preposition.

To refer to a situation or event, the pronoun loche is used (that which; what). The pronoun on "where" can also be used, as well as most interrogative pronouns (turned relative).

Adverbs

Oscanez adverbs are very similar to English, muit ("very, much, a lot"), poz ("a little") cuasi ("almost"), etc. To form adverbs from adjectives, the adverbial suffix -ment is generally added to the feminine singular of the adjective, whether or not it differs from the masculine singular. This is due to the old derivation of ment (mind) being a feminine nown. Thus:

• claro (clear) → clara (f) → clarament (clearly)
• nadral (natural) → nadralment (naturally)
• trist (sad) → tristment (sadly)

The adjectives bon (good) and malo (bad) have irregular adverbial forms: bien (well) and mal (badly), respectively. Mal also has the adverb malament, which means "evilly."

Some adverbs simply use the masculine singular form to create adverbial meanings. Muit is a good example.

In series of consecutive adverbs that would each end in -ment on their own, the phrase is restructured totally.

• con mente rapida e facil -- "quickly and easily"

There are also a wide variety of compound adverbial phrases in Oscanez, such as pol tot parts (everywhere)

As with adjectives, the comparative of adverbs is almost always formed by placing mes (more) or menos (less) before the adverb. Thus mes tristment (more sadly). The superlative is formed by placing the article lo before the comparative. As with their corresponding adjectival forms, bien (well) and mal (badly) have irregular comparative forms (meyor (better) and pior (worse), respectively).

Verbs

Verbs in Oscanez are categorized into four classes of infinitives, those that end in -ar, -el, -er, and -ir. There are three moods in Oscanez, indicative, imperative, and subjunctive. There are five simple tenses in the indicative: future, present, imperfect, perfect, and conditional. Of these tenses, there are only two in the subjunctive: present, imperfect. All of the tenses can be combined with forms of haber to form perfect compound tenses. Using the gerundive and forms of estar, all continuous tenses can be formed. There are two copulas, estar and esir.

Present / O present

The present indicative is used to describe actions that exist currently and are inherently imperfect. It describes the subject in a state of being or in action. It is used to describe ongoing actions occurring at one time, states of being in a present time frame.

In general, O present is used forː

• events happening in the present -- Nos vibimos na cibtat (We live in the city).
• habitual actions -- Jo trayo pol las nuits (I work at night)
• current states of being and conditions -- Agora, te remans con lo Ayejandro? (Now, do you stay with Alexander?)
• actions planned to occur in the future -- El estuja na univelsidat l'anyo projimo (He is studying in university next year)

Present Regular Conjugations of Oscanez Verbs

	-ar verbs (aimar)	-er/el verbs (veer)	-ir verbs (dormir)
Jo	aimo	veo	dormo
Tu	aimas	vees	dormis
El / Ela / Voté	aima	vee	dorme
Nos	aimamos	veemos	dormimos
Bos	aimaz	veez	dormiz
Elos / Elas / Vostés	aiman	veen	dormon

Irregular Present Verbs

The present tense in Oscanez is full of irregular verbs in the first and third person singular. There are four classes of irregular verbs, and the irregularities go almost across all conjugations.

Irregular Verbs

Conjugation	Singular	T-stem	N-stem	Z-stem	Inchoatives
-ar (cantar, ganar, sacar)	1st person	Jo cant	Jo gan	Jo saz
	2nd person	Tu cants	Tu gans	Tu sacas
-er (soliter, moner, mecer)	1st person	Jo solit	Jo mon	Jo mez
	2nd person	Tu solits	Tu mons	Tu meces
	3rd person	El solite	El mon	El mez
-el (batel, prenel, fajel, ofrecel)	1st person	Jo bat	Jo pren	Jo faz	Jo ofrez
	2nd person	Tu bats	Tu prens	Tu fajes	Tu ofreces
	3rd person	El bate	El pren	El faje	El ofrece
-ir (partir, finir, vincir)	1st person	Jo part	Jo fin	Jo vinz
	2nd person	Tu parts	Tu fins	Tu vinces
	3rd person	El parte	El fin	El vince

There are some times where the irregularities are different in each conjugation.

• T-stems are the present stems (the verb without the infinitive ending) ending in a /t/. For example, the verb sotar is a t-stem. These are the same across all conjugations, with the replacement of the thematic vowel (for example, sentar, although it is a t-stem does not have its 3rd person singular as sente).
• N-stems have their present stem ending in a <n>. N-stems are irregular in the 3rd person singular in all conjugations except -ar. In those conjugations, the form is identical to the 1st. Otherwise, they are the same irregularity across conjugations.
• Z-stems are a verb type whose infinitive stem can end in <j> or <c>. In -er verbs, Z-stems have the same 3rd and 1st person singular.
• Inchoatives are -el verbs descending from verbs with the Latin infix -sc-, denoting a beginning. Such verbs in Oscanez are cognate to Spanish -ecer, and Portuguese -escer verb types.

Other notable irregulars are in the following chartː

Irregular Present in Oscanez

	Cael	Dijel	Dar	Fajel	Haber	Ir	Poder	Saber	Tener	Venir
Jo	Cago	Diz	Doz	Faz	He	Voz	Puiso	Se	Tenyo	Venyo
Tu	Caghes	Dijes	Das	Fajes	Hes	Vas	Puides	Sabes	Tiens	Viens
El / Ela / Voté	Caghe	Dije	Da	Faje	Ha	Va	Puide	Sabe	Tien	Vien
Nos	Caghemos	Dijimos	Damos	Fajimos	Hemos	Alamos	Podemos	Sabemos	Tenemos	Venimos
Vos	Caghez	Dijiz	Daz	Fajiz	Hez	Alaz	Podez	Sabez	Tenez	Veniz
Elos / Elas / Vostés	Caigon	Digon	Dan	Fagon	Han	Van	Puison	Saben	Tienen	Vienon

As evidenced by a a few verbs above, in Oscanez short latin e and o diphthongized into ie and ui respectively. Over time, these developments became regularized and only apply to those few verbs and the isolated nouns with those changes.

Future and Conditional / O Futuro Simplice E Lo Condijonal

The non-periphrastic future in Oscanez refers to events which areː

• probable or uncertain actions in the future -- Elo xoberá est nuit (It might rain tonight)
• occurring in the future, with a specific lack of habituality -- Jo veajaré a París la semaina projima (I will travel to Paris next week)
• commands and obligations more strong than the imperative -- Vos vendrez cras (You will come tomorrow)

The conditional is an innovation of the Romance languages not found in Classical Latin. It is used forː

• creates a future meaning in the past in a subordinate clause (analogous to English was going to or would) -- L'anyo pasat, jo pensé che serea duitor (Last year, I thought that I would be a doctor)
• creates a sense of certainty in the past -- Estarean ací. (They must be here).
• creates a polite and possible action used with verbs of wanting -- Jo chelelea ir a caisa (I would want to go home)
• used in the apodosis of a condition when the protasis is in the imperfect subjunctive -- Si fuises meyor, ganareamos (If you were better, we might win)

Future Indicative Forms

	Future	Conditional
Jo	-é	-ea
Tu	-és	-eas
El / Ela / Voté	-á	-ea
Nos	-emos	-eamos
Vos	-ez	-éaz
Elos / Elas / Vostés	-án	-ean

In the future and conditional tense, the above endings are affixed to the infinitive stem.

There are several verbs in Oscanez which undergo a stem change in the future and conditional. These are those verbs.

Future stem changes

Verb	Dijel	Esir	Fajel	Haber	Poner	Tener	Voyer
1st person singular future	Diré	Seré	Faré	Habré	Poré	Tendré	Vodré

Past Tenses / Los Tempos del Pasat

There are two different past tenses in Oscanez, which are differentiated by aspect. The perfective aspect creates the preterite tense (also called the past historic), and the imperfective creates the imperfect.

Imperfect / L'imperfeit

The imperfect in Oscanez is used to denote habitual or continuous action in the past. In English, it can be translated as "used to X, or was Xing." There are certain words which, in the imperfect, can be translated with the English simple past. These include: sabre, conocer, voller, sentir, potre, and deber.

The imperfect is the most regular tense system in Oscanez, with its only irregulars in the words esir, haber and ir.

It expressesː

• habitual or repetitive action in the past -- Cuán jo era rabaz... (When I was a boy...)

• an action interrupted by another action as in conjunction -- Durant jo correa, o-oí (While I was running, I heard him)

• general description of the past -- Elo tronaia (It was thundering)

Imperfect Indicative forms

	-ar	-er, -el, -ir
Jo	-aia	-ea
Tu	-aias	-eas
El / Ela / Voté	-aia	-ea
Nos	-aiamos	-eamos
Vos	-aiaz	-eaz
Elos / Elas / Vostés	-aian	-ean

Preterite / O Pasat

The preterite in Oscanez views an action or state of being as fully completed, and as its own. It is analogous to the Spanish pretérito and French passé simple.

• used as a singular act with a definite beginning and end -- Trayemos nel oficín pol dos semains (We worked in the office for two weeks)
• used in a narrative as an interruption -- Jo correa cuán el me trobó (I was running when he found me)
• used as a description / action fully completed -- Voté nacié nel 1977 (You were born in 1977)

Because of this, the verbs saber, conocel, chelel, bolyer, poder, and deer are translated differently from an English simple past. In the preterite of Oscanez, since the verb is fully completed and has its own action unrelated to any other at any time, the verb "to know" would be translated as "he found out." That change is an act of knowing that is fully completed.

Irregular Changes in Meaning in the Preterite

	Conocel	Deer	Poder	Haber	Saber	Chelel	Voyer
Simple past meaning	knew	should have	was able to	had	knew	wanted to have, looked for	wanted
Approximate preterite	met	must have, had to	managed to	got, received	found out	tried to have, searched	tried to
Negative preterite	did not meet	must have not, did not have to	failed to	did not get, did not receive	was oblivious	refused to take, did not search for	refused to

The preterite is a tense with much irregularity, with several sets of endings and stem changes. All are added to the stem of the verb (formed by removing the infinitive).

Regular preterite endings

	-ar	-er	-el	-ir
Jo	-é	-ói	-í
Tu	-aste	-uiste	-iste
El / Ela / Voté	-ó	-uí	-ié
Nos	-emos	-uimos	-imos
Vos	-ástez	-uístez	-ístez
Elos / Elas / Vostés	-aron	-uiron	-iron

There are several notable irregular preterite forms, and most have drastic stem changes.

Irregular Preterite Forms

	Venir	Veer	Chelel	Dijel	Fajel	Haber	Poder	Poner	Romper	Saber	Tener
Jo	Vinye	Visi	Chisi	Diji	Fici	Hoi	Pudi	Pusi	Rupi	Sopi	Tebi
Tu	Vinyiste	Visiste	Chisiste	Dijiste	Ficiste	Huiste	Pudiste	Pusiste	Rupiste	Sopiste	Tebiste
El / Ela / Vostet	Vinye	Vise	Chise	Dije	Fice	Hubo	Pude	Puse	Rupe	Sope	Tebe
Nos	Vinyimos	Visimos	Chisimos	Dijimos	Ficimos	Huimos	Pudimos	Pusimos	Rupimos	Sopimos	Tebimos
Vos	Vinyístez	Visístez	Chisístez	Dijístez	Ficístez	Hubístez	Pudístez	Pusístez	Rupístez	Sopístez	Tebístez
Elos / Elas / Vostetes	Vinyeron	Viseron	Chiseron	Dijeron	Ficeron	Huiron	Puderon	Puseron	Ruperon	Soperon	Teberon

Compounds of these verbs follow the pattern set by the uncompounded form (predijel follows the dijel pattern).
As can be seen, most irregular verbs have a similar set of endings matched with a stem change. This is similar to other Romance languages like Spanish and Portuguese. Inchoative verbs with the -sc- Latin infix are regular in the preterite.

The verbs esir and estar are also irregular in the preterite, but their conjugations are shown in the copular section.

Compound Tenses and Periphrastic Constructions / Tempos Perifrastijos

Perfect Constructions / Constroijóns Perfeits

The Oscanez perfect is formed with a form of the auxiliary verb haber together with the past participle of the main verb. The auxiliary is inflected for tense and mood, and can also appear in non-finite forms (infinitive or gerund), thus giving rise to a number of constructions which combine the perfect aspect with other verbal properties. All tenses can be combined with the auxiliary haber to add perfect aspect.

To form the past participle of an Oscanez verb, the infinitive stem (the verb minus -ar, -er, -el, and -ir).

• -ar verbs add -at/-á for masculine and feminine singular (he aimat, he aimá), and their respective plurals.
• -er, -el, and -ir verbs ad -it/-ida for masculine and feminine singular (he partit, he partida), and their respective plurals.

These participles combine with haber in its present conjugation (he, hes, ha, hemos, hez, han) to create a meaning almost exactly like English "have X."

The participle is always in its masculine form unless there is a pronoun object explicitly stated. Thereforeː

• I have loved him -- O he aimat
• I have loved them (masculine) -- Os he aimats
• I have loved her -- A he aimá
• I have loved them (feminine) -- As he aimás
• I have loved the houses -- He aimat las caisas

There are a few irregular past participles. These never agree with the object and always stay in their masculine singular form in perfect constructions. When functioning as an adjective, they decline for gender and number.

Forms

Ablir	Escribel	Fajel	Poner
abelt	escrit	fait	post

Present Perfect / O Present Perfeit

The present perfect is a past action with present results or consequences. It is the same as English "have X."

The forms of haber in this tense are he, hes, ha, hemos, hez, han.

Recent Pluperfect / O Pasat Pluscuamperfeit

The recent pluperfect (like all other tenses of haber and perfect combinations) uses the same rules of agreement as the present perfect. The only thing changing is the form of haber and consequently its meaning. In the recent pluperfect, it is similar to English "had X (recently)," or "had been Xing" with connotations of the simple imperfect. The forms of haber in this tense are hea, heas, habea, heamos, heaz, hean.

Remote Pluperfect / O Pasat Antepluscuamperfeit

The remote pluperfect is the recent pluperfect with a more distant meaning and different forms. Its meaning is similar to English "had X (some time ago)." It is used normally in conjunction with another action which occurs after the pluperfect (I had seen the cat before he jumped on me).

The forms of haber in this tense are hoi, huiste, hubo, huimos, huístez, huiron.

Future Perfect / O Futuro Perfeit

The future perfect in Oscanez is used with deadlines (by X), or with a sense of certainty "I must have left my coat at home". The "must have" translation is usually used in conjunction with certain adverbs, similar to English. Otherwise it is similar to English "will have X."

The forms of haber in this tense are habré, habrés, habrá, habremos, habrez, habrán.

Conditional Perfect / O Condijonal Perfeit

The conditional perfect is generally translated exactly like English "would have," with use in the apodosis of a condition, or by itself in a hypothetical statement "I would have liked to go, but I'm okay now." The conditional perfect also has a use of unconfirmed guesses. This is similar to English "may have" "might have" "had probably."

The forms of haber in this tense are habrea, habreas, habrea, habreamos, habréaz, habrean.

Progressive Constructions & Estar / Constroijóns Progresifs Ei Estar

There are three main verbs used with the gerundif, they areː estar, seghir, ir. These forms are combined with the gerundif, or the Classical Latin future passive participle. Similar constructions are present in other Romance languages.

Formation of the Gerund

Verbs	-ar verbs	-er/-el verbs	-ir verbs
Ending	-ant	-ent	-ient
Verb	cantant	partent	partient

With estar, the verb has a progressive meaning. It is generally the same as English "is Xing," but cannot be used to mean in a future time. The simple present expresses that.

There is a distinction between imperfect estaia cantant and preterite esteji cantant. The imperfect is closer to "was Xing" but denoting more habituality, while the preterite is "has been Xing." Estar is never used in any other tense.

Seghir has a meaning of "continues Xing" or "keeps Xing." It is used in the imperfect or present tense only.

Like seghir, ir is only used with the imperfect and present tenses. It means "goes around Xing."

Subjunctive / O subjuntif

The Oscanez subjunctive most often, although not exclusively, is in subordinate clauses, introduced by che (that). It is used mostly with verbs or adverbs expressing desire, doubt, hypothetical statements or eventuality; it may also express an order in the third person, and in all negatives. There are several set phrases in Oscanez which take a subjunctive. SUCH ASː

Present Subjunctive / O Present del Subjuntif

The present tense of the subjunctive mood is used to show emotion, opinion, or desire. It is also used in impersonal expressions, commands, and certain interrogative sentences. It is used when the main clause is in any tense except for the preterite, imperfect, or conditional (in any mood).

It is used forː

• desiderative or jussive expressions -- (Che) elo xoba (Let (May) it rain)
• Nos or Voté imperatives, and negative imperatives -- No alen votésǃ (Do not goǃ)
• concessive clauses -- Ena jo sia trist... (Although I am sad..)
• indirect questions -- Pensa ch'ela esté ayegre? (Does he think that she is happy?)
• expressions of doubt, denial or uncertainty -- No creo ch'el esté na cibdat (I don't think he is in the city)
• impersonal expressions without certainty -- Elo e important ch'ela ale a l'escuila (It is important that she go to school)
• indirect commands, recommendations or desires -- Oro che Deos nuis de salut (I pray that God give us health)
• expressions with emotion -- Temo che l'ejercit venya (I fear that the army is coming)
• in conditions where the main clause is in the future tense -- Si j'ale, ela dormirá bien (If I go, she will sleep well)
• with certain adverbs to show anticipation -- Remanerá ací atá voya partir (He will stay here until he wants to leave)
• with the particle ojalá -- Ojalá puida nadar (Hopefully he can swim)

The forms of the subjunctive are mostly irregular, with a few changes that must be memorized.

Regular Present Subjunctive Forms

	-ar verbs	-er/-el/-ir verbs
Jo	aime	vea
Tu	aimes	veas
El / Ela / Voté	aime	vea
Nos	aimemos	veamos
Vos	aimez	veaz
Elos / Elas / Votés	aimen	vean

Verbs change their thematic vowel to that of the other conjugation.

The verbs esir, estar, and haber are very irregular in the subjunctive, their conjugations are in the irregular verbs section. Regular verbs take their present stem (the Jo form) and then add the appropriate ending. There are certain irregular verbs.

Irregular Verbs

	Dijel	Dar	Fajel	Ir	Poder	Tener	Venir
Jo	Diga	De	Faga	Ale	Puida	Tenga	Venya
Tu	Digas	Des	Fagas	Ales	Puidas	Tengas	Venyas
El / Ela / Voté	Diga	De	Faga	Ale	Puida	Tenga	Venya
Nos	Digamos	Demos	Fagamos	Alemos	Podamos	Tengamos	Venyamos
Vos	Digaz	Dez	Fagaz	Alez	Podaz	Tengaz	Venyaz
Elos / Elas / Votés	Digan	Den	Fagan	Alen	Puidan	Tengan	Venyan

Another notable irregularity is in the first, second, and third person singulars (which are the same) of -ar verbs of T, N, or Z stems.

Irregular -ar Verbs

	1st & 3rd person singular	2nd person singular	1st person plural
T-stems	Cant	Cants	Cantemos
N-stems	Gan	Gans	Ganemos
Z-stems	Saz	Saz	Sachemos1

1. The orthographical change to preserve the /k/ sound is to insert a <h> before the /e/ vowel. A similar process occurs in other Romance orthographies, and the process also happens with <g> (cargar becomes carghe).

Imperfect Subjunctive / L'imperfeit del Subjuntif

The imperfect subjunctive is mostly used the same way as the present subjunctive, just with a past or conditional main clause.

It is used forː

• concessive clauses -- Ena jo fuis trist... (Although I was sad..)
• indirect questions -- Pensó ch'ela estejis ayegre? (Did he think that she was happy?)
• expressions of doubt, denial or uncertainty -- No creea ch'el estejis na cibdat (I didn't think that he was in the city)
• impersonal expressions without certainty -- Elo era important ch'ela fuis a l'escuila (It was important that she go to school)
• indirect commands, recommendations or desires -- Oraia che Deos nuis das salut (I prayed that God give us health)
• expressions with emotion -- Temói che l'ejercit vinyis (I feared that the army was coming)
• in conditions where the main clause is in the conditional -- Si jo fuis, ela dormirea bien (If I were going, she would sleep well)
• with the particle ojalá -- Ojalá pudis nadar (Hopefully he was able swim)

The imperfect subjunctive is a regular tense, with the same endings for all conjugations. Verbs irregular in the preterite are irregular in this tense as well.

The stem is taking from the tu form of the preterite (dijel, dijiste) and the -te is dropped.

Imperfect Subjunctive

	Ending	Example
Tu (preterite)	-ste	aimaste
Jo	--	aimás
Tu	-es	aimases
El / Ela / Voté	--	aimás
Nos	-emos	aimasemos
Vos	-ez	aimasez
Elos / Elas / Votés	-en	aimasen

Compound Tenses

In the subjunctive mood, the verb haber can be conjugated to show the perfect aspect, exactly like the indicative. It only has six forms, present and imperfect. These are combined with the past participle to create the new tense. This form is important to keep the sequence of tenses in the subjunctive, which is much stricter than the sequence of tenses in the indicative.

Sequence of Tenses

Main Verb	Anterior Relationship	Contemporaneous Relationship	Posterior Relationship
Present, Perfect, Future, Future Perfect	Perfect	Present	Future Indicative
Any Past Tense (and the conditional)	Pluperfect	Imperfect	Conditional

Imperative / L'imperatif

There are 20 imperative forms, half of them negative and the other positive. They are for the informal (tu and vos) and the formal (voté and votés), and the nos imperative. Oscanez employs a present and a perfect imperative. If the imperative takes a pronoun, it is attached to the end with a hyphen in both positive and negative.

The present used thusː

• As a command or order -- escribe-o agoraǃ (write it nowǃ)

The perfect is also used as a command, but always with a deadline. It is similar to English "have it done by X."

• Haias trayat cras (work by tomorrow)

Imperatives of aimar

	Tu	Voté	Nos	Vos	Votés
Present	Aima	Aime	Aimemos	Aimar	Aimen
Perfect	Haias aimat	Haia aimat	Haiamos aimat	Háiaz aimat	Haian aimat

The tu imperative is always the 3rd person singular indicative present of the verb, and the vos is the infinitive. Others use the subjunctive form (and the perfect uses the subjunctive of haber). If reflexive, the pronoun is put with a hyphen at the end (of haber in the perfect subjunctive too).

There are five irregular imperatives, the verbs esir, dijel, fajel, voyer, and all -(d)ujel verbs. They are di, fa, vol, -(d)u. Esir imperatives are outlined in its section below.

Syntax

Oscanez is a strong SVO language with some variation for style and emphasis. It is also generally head-initial and right branching. Subjects are optional and in most cases discouraged from using. If the subject has been introduced in a previous sentence and it is clear that it is the same, the pronoun is dropped. Objects are to the left of the verb, with the indirect and then direct object.

A dependent clause is marked with che after the completion of the first. Generally these have different subjects (with verbs of influence and the subjunctive), but may have the same (I think that I know -- Penso che se).

Passives are created with the conjugated form of esir and the past participle, but an impersonal (we speak, it is spoken, they speak) is formed with the third person conjugation with the reflexive pronoun.

Questions are marked with a rising intonation towards the end, though inversion is allowed in declarative sentences and questions for dramatic effect.

Oscanez, unlike English, requires double negatives in a negated clause. Clauses are negated through no, and for emphasis, ...un pas (without a no), with the verb and its objects (and all auxiliary components) between them. Certain words (anything, anyone, something) in a negative clause are different in Oscanez but the same in English. Thereforeː

• Nunco vinye ací (I never came here)
• El no sabe rená (He doesn't know anything)
• Negún correa (Nobody was running)

Irregular Verbs

Copulas

Esir

Esir is the essential copula. It descends from Vulgar Latin *essere, with major irregularity.

Indicative Tenses	1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Present	son	iens	en	somos	sonz	son
Imperfect	era	eras	era	eramos	eraz	eran
Preterite (Past Historic)	fi	foiste	foi	foimos	fístez	firon
Future	seré	serés	será	seremos	serez	serán
Conditional	serea	sereas	serea	sereamos	seréaz	serean
Subjunctive Tenses
Present	sia	sias	sia	siamos	síaz	sian
Imperfect	fuis	fuises	fuis	fuisemos	fuísez	fuisen
Imperative		tu	voté	nos	vos	vostés
		se	sia	siamos	esir	sian

Esir is generally used as a personal linking verb describing occupation / profession, nationality / origin, personal (permanent) adjectives. When used as a simple linking verb, esir does not take articles. Generally, estar is used in emotional or physical condition, but esir can be used for permanent condition. For example, to say “She is a beautiful woman” with the specific connotation of this woman always being beautiful, one says “E muyer bela.”

If the present indicative or subjunctive first person links with a word with a vowel, the form of esir contracts into s' (I am tall -- Jo s'alt).

Estar

Estar is the stative copula. It descends from Vulgar Latin *stare, with some irregularity.

Indicative Tenses	1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Present	estonz	estáns	están	estamos	estanz	están
Imperfect	estaia	estaias	estaia	estaiamos	estáiaz	estaian
Preterite (Past Historic)	esteji	estejiste	esteje	estejimos	estejístez	estejeron
Future	estaré	estarés	estará	estaremos	estarez	estarán
Conditional	estarea	estareas	estarea	estareamos	estaréaz	estarean
Subjunctive Tenses
Present	esté	estés	esté	estemos	estez	estén
Imperfect	estejís	estejises	estejís	estejisemos	estejísez	estejisen
Imperative		tu	voté	nos	vos	vostés
		estáns	esté	estemos	estar	estén

Estar is generally used whenever esir would not be used. It is used in all progressive tenses with the gerundive, and in time, emotional or physical conditions, location, and temporal descriptions. For example, to say, “She is beautiful today,” one says “Está bela huie.”

Haber

Indicative Tenses	1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Present	he	hes	ha	hemos	hez	han
Imperfect	hea	heas	habea	heamos	héaz	hean
Preterite (Past Historic)	hoi	huiste	hubo	huimos	huísez	huiron
Future	habré	habrés	habrá	habremos	habrez	habrán
Conditional	habrea	habreas	habrea	habreamos	habréaz	habrean
Subjunctive Tenses
Present	haia	haias	haia	haiamos	háiaz	haian
Imperfect	huis	huises	huis	huisemos	huísez	huisen
Imperative		tu	voté	nos	vos	vostés
		ha	haia	haiamos	haber	haian

Ir

Indicative Tenses	1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Present	vonz	vans	van	alamos	alanz	van
Imperfect	iba	ibas	iba	ibamos	íbaz	iban
Preterite (Past Historic)	fi	foiste	foi	foimos	fístez	firon
Future	iré	irés	irá	iremos	irez	irán
Conditional	irea	ireas	irea	ireamos	iréaz	irean
Subjunctive Tenses
Present	ale	ales	ale	alemos	alez	alen
Imperfect	fuis	fuises	fuis	fuisemos	fuísez	fuisen
Imperative		Tu	Voté	Nos	Vos	Votés
		van	ale	alemos	ir	alen

Conversational Words

As Oscanez has a distinction similar to Spanish in formal vs. informal speech, the conversational table reflects that. Informal takes the tu conjugation while the formal takes the vostet.

English (anglés)	Oscanez
Yes	Si
No	No
Of course!	Xaroǃ / Xaramentǃ
Hello!	Haláǃ
Cheers!	Salutǃ
How are you?	Como estás? / Como pasa?
Good morning!	Bonjáǃ
Good afternoonǃ	Buina tarǃ
Good evening!	Buina seraǃ
Good night!	Buina nuitǃ
Have a nice day!	Tenya un bon dea
Enjoy the meal!	Aprofeit-te
Goodbye!	Ajósǃ
Good luck!	Buina sortǃ
I love you	T'aimo
Welcome [to...]	Bienvenit(ida) [a...]
Please	Pol fabor
Thank you!	Grajasǃ
You are welcome	De renáǃ
Excuse me	Con yejensa
Sorry	Perdón
Again	De nuif
How much? / How many?	Cuant? / Cuants?
What is your name?	Como te xamas? Como se xama voté?
My name is ...	Me xamo...
Yes, I understand.	Si, j'entén.
I do not understand.	Jo n'entén
Do you speak English?	Falas anglés? Fala anglés?
I do not understand Oscanez.	Jo n'entén l'oscanez.
Help me!	Ajut-meǃ
Where is the bathroom?	On están o banyo?
How much is it?	Cuant cost?
The bill, please.	La conta, pol fabor.
Oscanez is a beautiful language.	L'oscanez e una bela yenua.