Atlantic/Older version

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Atlantic
ondartigor; ra nimba ondartigora
Pronunciation[[Help:IPA|[[ɔndartiˈɡɔr], [ra ˈɲimba ɔndartiˈɡɔra]]]]
Created byLili21
DateMay 2018
SettingAlt-Earth
EthnicityAtlantics (ondartigorot)
Native speakers66,000,000 (2017)
Indo-European
  • Italic
    • Romance
      • African Romance
        • Atlantic
Official status
Official language in
Atlantic Provinces

Atlantic, also known as Atlantic Latin or Atlantic Romance, natively ondartigor (ra nimba ondartigora) [ɔndartiˈɡɔr], [ra ˈɲimba ɔndartiˈɡɔra] is a Romance language spoken in an alternate history version of Earth in the Atlantic Provinces (Ondàrtigot [ɔnˈdartigot]), a country located in the northwestern corner of Africa. The country's name is a remnant of Roman history, when the area - including the Atlas Mountains as its main geographical feature - was divided in the provinces of Numidia, Mauretania Caesariensis, and Mauretania Tingitana.

It has various dialects, usually grouped in two main varieties called Mauritanian (muridoinens [muridɔˈɲens]), the one the standard is based on, and Numidian (numigens [numiˈzens] or [numiˈdzens]); some sources distinguish two further variants, Teneréïc (teneriens [teneˈʒens]) and Senegal Riparian (naia-uruminiens [ˌnæjæ.urumiˈɲens]); these two varieties are greatly influenced by the non-Romance languages they coexist with.

Diachronic development

Atlantic is part of its own branch among Romance languages, but shares many common features with Western Romance languages, notably Catalan.

The typical distinctive feature of Atlantic is its shifting of Vulgar Latin vowels which, while not completely unlike to how it developed in Sicilian, has a unique - and easily noticeable - change in having kept long and short /a/ distinct, with (Vulgar) Latin /aː/ being reflected as /o/. This is easily noted for example in all first conjugation verbs, as COMPROBĀRE > cumpuruò "to like" /kumpurˈwo/ or LV̄DITĀRE > nauuidò "to practice" /nau̯wiˈdo/.

Among mid vowels, the short ones were raised to /i u/ while the long ones remained /e o/, cf. TERRA > tira "land, earth, soil", FOCVM > fug "fire", RATIŌNEM > raçon "reason, cause", TRĒS > cet "three (m/f)".

Long vowels /iː uː/ were diphthongized to /ai̯ au̯/ when in open syllables, while they shortened and merged into /i u/ in other cases: LV̄NA > rauna "moon", VICĪNVM > uiçain "neighbour; close", MAURĪTĀNIAM > Muridonea "Mauritania", NV̄LLIFICĀRE > nuiifigò "to cancel, revoke". Latin /au̯/ had probably merged with /uː/ before, and shifted back to /au̯/ for the same reason, cf. AVRA > *ūra > aura "gold" (plurale tantum); evidence of the shift to /uː/ is given by words where it was unstressed, such as AVGVSTVM > *uuust > uust /wust/ "August".
Original /ai̯ oi̯ eu̯/, meanwhile, all merged into */eː/, following the same development mentioned before (cf. AEDICVLAM > *ēdicula > eìguea /eˈiɡuja/ "house"; EVCHARISTIAM > *ēcaristia > *egarisça > egariça "Eucharist"; POENAM > pena "pain").

Short word-final vowels except for /a/ were lost as in Gallo-Romance, but in some words short vowels, usually /i/ or /u/, were later added again in order to break clusters; typically it was inserted into a -Cr cluster (CASTRVM > *castr > càistur "city", cf. CASTRA > caistra "cities") but after a -NC cluster (QVĪNQVE > *quingui > *pimb > pimbi "five"). /-ts/ (> /s/ today in most dialects) and /s/ + stop clusters were not changed, cf. LACTEM > *nasti > nast "milk". First-person singular verbs typically added /a/ to avoid difficult clusters, as in *ADOP(E)RŌ > *dubr > dubra "I use".

/l/ completely disappeared from the Vulgar Latin dialects that became Atlantic, often by dissimilation to /r/ before other consonants (cf. (PRŌVINCIĀS) ĀTLANTICĀS > *Ordanticot > Ondàrtigot), and usually by turning into /j/ (after back vowels or /a/) or /w/ (after front vowels), cf. CABALLVM > cauài "horse", MĪLLE > miu "thousand".
Word-initially, it most commonly turned into /n/ – cf. LINGVAM > nimba "language" – but if the word contained an onset nasal, then it turned into /r/, as in LV̄NA > rauna "moon". This is the origin of the two sets of definite articles used in Atlantic, with the usual forms being in and na, but with ir and ra being used if the word they attach to has a nasal in its first syllable (cf. na rauna "the moon" but ra nimba "the language"). Originally this only applied to the feminine article, and if the word had a nasal but in coda it didn't apply, but analogy has extended this to all cases (cf. ir ondartigòr "the Atlantic man").
/l/ changed this way also in the FL- initial cluster, where (just as in FR-) the initial /f/ became first an approximant /w/ and then got fully vocalized to /u/, giving ur- or un- in such words, like FLŌREM > */wnor/ > unor /uˈnor/ "flower" or FLV̄MEN > */wrau̯m/ > uraum /uˈrau̯m/ "river". PL- and CR-, however, consistently became pr- and cr-, which means that /l/ got rhotacized there before it got lost in other places (cf. PLVVIAM > pruia "rain", ECCLĒSIAM > **ecclīsam > icraisa "church").
The -LI- cluster became a simple /j/, perhaps earlier */jj/, blocking the diphthongization of a preceding /uː iː/, as seen in the name of the Atlantic Provinces' second largest city, Iuia Uaìnça < IV̄LIAM VALENTIAM.

/l/ was later reintroduced into the language through Arabic loans and later Latin and Greek learned reborrowings – cf. luua "dialect" from Arabic لغة luḡa.

Atlantic palatalized /k ɡ/ as most Western Romance languages did, to /ts dz/; /ts/ also resulted from -TI- and -TR- (but not -STR-) clusters. These were later deaffricated to /s z/ in most dialects, but a few Numidian ones still retain the affricates. See RATIŌNEM > raçon "reason, cause" /raˈtson/ > /raˈson/, TRIA > cia "three (disj.)" /ˈtsi.a/ > /ˈsi.a/, GELĀRE > giuò "to freeze" /dziˈwo/ > /ziˈwo/. -DI- developed differently depending on whether it was followed by a front or by a non-front vowel. Before non-front vowels, the palatal element was lost so that it developed as regular intervocalic /d/ (see below); before front vowels, it palatalized to /dz/ much like -TI- did; cf. NVMIDIAM > *Numida > Numìua "Numidia" /nuˈmiwa/ and NVMIDIĒNSEM > numigens /numiˈdzens/ > /numiˈzens/ "Numidian".
As mentioned before, -S- blocked -TR- from shifting to /ts/; this /s/ was, in this environment, backed to /ʃ/, orthographically denoted by a preceding i, as in CASTRVM > *castr > */ˈkastur/ > càistur "city" /ˈkaʃtur/[1]. In what is one of the most notable sound changes Atlantic underwent, word-final -S was stopped to /t/, as noticeable in many inflectional morphemes (e.g. pluralizing -ĀS, -ŌS, -ĒS > -ot, -ot, -et).

Intervocalic lenition of stops also follows the Western Romance pattern: unvoiced stops become voiced and voiced stops become fricatives, with original /d/ becoming */ð/ > /w/ and original /ɡ/ becoming */ɣ/ > /w/ or */ɣ/ > /j/ according to nearby vowels:

CAPERE > *cabi > cab "to make an effort to understand"
VĪTAM > uaida "life"
CRVCEM > *crugi > carug "cross"
QVOQVE > *pubi > pub "also"
CABALLVM > *caual > cauai "horse"
PEDEM > *piði > piu "foot" /piu̯/
FRIGIDVM > */wriɣiðu/ > */urijið/ > urìu "cold"
MAGVM > */maɣu/ > mau "nomad"[2]

A preceding nasal prevented the consonant from being lenited, while a preceding /r/ or /l/ didn't, e.g. DIEM MARTIS > gimàrdit "Tuesday". /kt/ and /pt/ clusters were resolved by turning the backmost element to /s/, i.e. to /st/ and /ps/ respectively, see LACTEM > nast "milk"; APTVM > aps "ready".

VI- /wi/ was reduced to /j/ if a vowel followed, as e.g. in VIĀTICVM > iòdig "travel".
Sporadic posttonic syncope led to a range of newer clusters, which were often resolved through assimilation. For example, /mn/ assimilated to /nn/ and /nm/ to /mm/, as in FĒMINAM > *fēmna > fenna "woman"; ANIMAM > *anma > amma "person". Most modern dialects have further degeminated them (Senegal Riparian dialects are the main exception, as are a few ones in the Atlas valleys of Numidia), but they are still represented in the orthography.

Mauritanian palatalization

The so-called Mauritanian palatalization (palataligeoçon muridoinensa) is considered in Atlantic linguistics the main isogloss between Mauritanian and Numidian dialects; this change likely started in the 17th century and was successfully completed in the span of a few generations in the territories of Mauritania. Mauritanian palatalization, both progressive and regressive, was triggered by all instances of /j/, affecting nearby consonants (a very similar change before /i/ happened before and is reflected in all modern Atlantic dialects); the orthography still unambiguously reflects the situation as for a given word, Mauritanian dialects will have a palatalized consonant (not in the phonetic sense of "palatalized") while Numidian dialects will have /j/ and a "regular" consonant.
Mauritanian palatalization resulted in the following changes:

/t d/ > /tʃ dʒ/, cf. fuit "he was" (Mauritanian /futʃ/, Numidian /fui̯t/), nàidur "shore" (Maur. /ˈnadʒur/, Num. /ˈnai̯dur/).
/n/ > /ɲ/, cf. uiçain "neighbour" (Maur. /wiˈsaɲ/, Num. /wiˈ(t)sai̯n/). Historic /ni/ > /ɲi/ is, however, universal across the Atlantic-speaking world and therefore not a part of Mauritanian palatalization; this change is still productive and even found in loanwords.
/r/ > /ʒ/, cf. Uiolarea, capital city of the Atlantic Provinces (Maur. /ujoˈlaʒa/, Num. /ujoˈlarja/). This change also happened, as part of Mauritanian palatalization, before /i/; Numidian still has /r/ before /i/, cf. riduòi "ritual" Maur. /ʒiˈdwoi̯/, Num. /riˈdwoi̯/.
/s/ > /ʃ/, but /s/ from /ts/ was not affected (suggesting that deaffrication likely happened later), cf. fuist "you were" (Maur. /fuʃt/, Num. /fui̯st/), Asea "Asia" (Maur. /ˈaʃa/, Num. /ˈasja/).
/l/ > /ʎ/, cf. sail "flood" (Maur. /saʎ/, Num. /sai̯l/), Iulea, proper name (Maur. /ˈjuʎa/, Num. /ˈjulja/).

Orthography

Atlantic is written using the Latin alphabet, but with conventions quite different from other Romance languages:

  • i and u may both represent vowels or consonants (v does not exist in the standard Atlantic alphabet); they represent /j/ (actual or historic) and /w/ near vowels, and /i u/ near consonants.
    The sequence /ja/ is written as ea.
  • The sequences /ka ga ku gu ko go/ are, as in most Romance languages, written ca ga cu gu co go; the sequences ce ge ci gi represent /(t)se (d)ze (t)si (d)zi/. The "inverse" value of those letters is represented as follows:
    ça ço çu gea geo geu /(t)sa (t)so (t)su (d)za (d)zo (d)zu/;
    qe qi goe goi /ke ki ge gi/;
    The common word ending -ig represents /i(d)z/.
  • A grave accent is put on any stressed vowel which is not in the last syllable, unless the word ends with a vowel or the plural marker -ot. The ìu and ùi diphthongs are stressed even in the last syllable (to prevent them being mistaken with /ju wi/ respectively), as is any other diphthong if preceded by /w/ or /j/, itself preceded by another consonant (i.e. uaida "life" (Maur. /ˈwadʒa/, Num. /ˈwai̯da/) does not need a stress mark).
    Note that "diphthong" here is defined as a historic and a written diphthong, i.e. including those that resulted in Mauritanian palatalization.

Morphology

Nouns

Atlantic nouns do not decline for case and are only inflected for number.

Grammatical gender is a pervasive feature of Atlantic morphology but, due to the loss of most final vowels, often there is no synchronic rule to determine the gender of the noun directly from its form; some particular word-forming suffixes are however always of the same gender, as for example the always feminine -òdig (< -ĀTICVM; cf. na iòdig "the journey", na curòdig "courage"). Loss of Latin neuter and reassignment of those nouns to other genders often applied in different ways than in other Romance languages, so for example there's feminine ra nom "the name" (< NŌMEN) and na raum "the river" (< FLV̄MEN), and masculine it tìmpur "the time" (< reanalyzed nom/acc stem *temp-or, a regular development in Atlantic, see also in gìnir "the type" < *gen-er, ir nàidur "the shore" < *līt-or, in cùrbur "the body" < *corp-or).
Despite this, some feminine words not ending with -a in Latin were modified in order to end that way, a notable example being na uçora (< *uxōram < VXŌREM) "the wife".

Pluralization patterns

Atlantic has four different pluralization patterns (traditionally still referred to as "declensions" (decrinoçonet) by native grammarians), but for three of them it is not possible to predict which one is used just from the singular form. Only the first and second, however, are productive:

Declension Singular marker Plural marker Scope
First declension
prima decrinoçon
-a -ot Almost all feminine nouns, a few masculines
Second declension
siguna decrinoçon
-∅ Masculine nouns (their majority)
Third declension
tirça decrinoçon
-a Masculine nouns
Fourth declension
porda decrinoçon
-et Masculine and feminine nouns

Their numeration only partially reflects the Latin system: while the first and second Atlantic declensions generally continue the same-numbered Latin ones, the third Atlantic declension is a catch-all for neuters-turned-masculines (all neuters-turned-feminines have been reanalyzed), while the fourth Atlantic declension corresponds to the Latin third. Examples of plurals:

  • The first declension mostly continues Latin first declension feminine nouns:
    CANDĒLAM, CANDĒLĀScandeua, candeuot "candle, candles"
    AQVAM, AQVĀSaba, abot "water, waters"
    Some are Greek neuter nouns in -a which were generalized in the plural to be in *-ās instead of -ta, and shifted to the feminine class:
    BAPTISMA, *baptismās → bapsima, bapsimot "baptism, baptisms"
    LV̄MINA, plural of LV̄MEN, was reanalyzed as a feminine singular noun rumina "light" with the regular plural *lūminās → ruminot "lights"
    Greek masculine nouns in -a still follow this declension (e.g. all -ista-istot), as do the following two masculine exceptions:
    AGRICOLAM, AGRICOLĀSarìguea, arìguiot "farmer, farmers"
    NAVTAM, NAVTĀSnauda, naudot "sailor, sailors"
    Borrowings ending in -a are analyzed as feminine nouns of this declension:
    Arabic برقوقة barqūqahbarcuga, barcugot "plum, plums"
    Ar. ولاية wilāyahuilaea, uilaiot "region, regions"
  • The second declension continues Latin second declension masculine nouns and reanalyzed fourth declension ones (with two exceptions noted below):
    PVERVM, PVERŌSpuir, puirot "boy, boys"
    AGRVM, AGRŌSar, arot "field, fields"
    PORTVM, *portōs → pùrid, pùridot (arch. pùrdot) "port, ports"
    Virtually all borrowings not ending in -a are analyzed as masculine nouns of this declension:
    Berber ⴰⴳⴰⴷⵉⵔ agadiragàdir, agàdirot "castle, castles"
    Arabic سوق sūqsuc, sucot "market, markets"
  • The third declension, as mentioned before, contains all nouns which were originally neuter in Latin, independent of their declension, which were reanalyzed as masculines and therefore kept the -a plural ending. This declension includes all Latin third declension nouns following the TEMPVS, TEMPORA pattern, where the -or- or equivalent marker was reanalyzed as part of the stem even in the form that became the singular:
    AVXILIVM, AVXILIAuçì, uçia "aid, aids"
    PECV̄, PECVApìgu, pìgua "pet, pets"
    *lītor, LĪTORAnàidur, nàidura "shore, shores"
    *pector, PECTORApìstur, pìstura "chest, chests"
  • The fourth declension in Atlantic corresponds to the third one in Latin, and therefore contains both masculine and feminine nouns:
    AMŌREM, AMŌRĒSamor, amoret "love; romantic affair, affairs" (m)
    DVCEM, DVCĒSdug, duget "landlord, landlords" (m)
    LĪMITEM, LĪMITĒSràimid, ràimidet "border, borders" (m)
    FLŌREM, FLŌRĒSunor, unoret "flower, flowers" (f)
    NIVEM, NIVĒSnìu, nìuet "cold; cold day, cold days; snow, snows" (f)
    This declension also includes all neuters (mostly in -EN) which were reanalyzed as feminine:
    FLV̄MEN, FLV̄MINA → *flūm-em, *flūm-ēs → raum, raumet "river, rivers" (f)
    FVLMEN, FVLMINA → *fulm-em, *fulm-ēs → furim, furimet "lightning bolt, lightning bolts" (f)
    All Latin fifth declension nouns were also reanalyzed as feminine nouns of this declension:
    EFFIGIEM, EFFIGIĒSifìu, ifìuet "portrait, portraits" (f)
    DIEM, DIĒSdi, dìet "day, days" (f)
    Two lone feminine nouns of the Latin fourth declension remained feminine and therefore were reanalyzed according to this pattern:
    DOMVM, *domēs → dum, dumet "palace, palaces" (f)
    MANVM, *manēs → man, manet "hand, hands" (f)

The following five nouns are considered irregular, as they do not fit any of the patterns above; however, they were all regular in Latin:

  • NŌMEN, NŌMINAnom, nomina "name, names" (f)
  • MARE, MARIAmar, marea "sea, seas" (f)
  • REM, RĒSri, ret "object, objects" (f)
  • HOMŌ, HOMINĒSom, unnet "man, men" (m)
  • ITER, ITINERAìdir, idìnira "way(s), route(s), passage(s)" (m)

Pronouns

Atlantic personal pronouns still distinguish case: the 1SG and 2SG pronouns have two different forms for the nominative and accusative, while all other ones have a nominative form which doubles as a stressed (tonic) accusative; all pronouns have one or more unstressed (atonic) accusative forms, as well as a dative one. The nominative and accusative forms of 1SG and 2SG derive, actually, from Latin accusative and genitive respectively. The third person pronouns derive their nominative/tonic accusative form from illum, illam, illōs, illās, while the other forms are from the declension of is, ea, eī:

Person Nominative Accusative (tonic) Accusative (atonic) Dative Possessive pronoun/adjective
1SG me mai -im, -m mai mu, mia, miiot
2SG te toi -it, -t tìu tu, tùa, tuuot
3SG masc. ai -ir ii èu
3SG femm aea -a
1PL not -un, -n nouit nuistur, nuistra, nuistrot
2PL but -üi buuit uistur, uistra, uistrot
3SG aiot -iot eit ior

Note that the 3SG masculine accusative atonic eu and the possessive èu are both /ew/: the grave accent just disambiguates them in writing.

The atonic accusative form is regularly used after verbs:

  • cumiu-a "I eat it"
  • su cumeuùra "I (m.) will eat it"

It is also used, in all levels of formality (unlike many other Romance languages, which only allow this in very formal speech), after active participles, even when used as adjectives:

  • ir om cumiuonta "the man eating it"
  • ir om cumeuùra "the man that will be eating it"

In informal Atlantic, this form is replacing the dative:

  • (standard) do-a tìu "I give it to you"; su dadura(-a) tìu "I (f.) will give (it) to you"
  • (informal) dòt "I give to you" su dadurat "I (f?) will give (it?) to you"

Verbs

Example 1st conjugation verb: capsò "to get"
Person Present Imperfect Past Inferential Past Future
1SG caps capsòua fui capsont(a) capsai su capsadur(a)
2SG càpsot capsàuot fuist capsont(a) capsoist es capsadur(a)
3SG càpsat capsou fuit capsont(a) capsoit ist capsadur(a)
1PL capsom capsàuom fuim capsontet/-ot capsòuim sum capsadurot
2PL capsoç capsàuaç fuiç capsontet/-ot capsòuiç sest capsadurot
3PL càpsant capsòuant fùirunt capsontet/-ot capsèrunt sunt capsadurot
Active participles capsont capsadur
Passive participles capsod capsand

To be

As common among Romance languages, "to be" is irregular in Atlantic. Like in Iberian Romance, some forms were taken from the conjugation of SEDEŌ "to sit" (with a new, stative verb *SEDITŌ being developed for that meaning); however, there is only one copulative verb, without the general Iberian distinction between essence and state: siuè /ʃiˈwe/ is used for both. However, there are two forms of the future: the one with the sisur participle (< SESSV̄RVM) is used when the meaning is "to be in a place", while the fudur (< FVTV̄RVM) is used in all other cases, cf.:

sàmbad i geumiga su sisur imb Urumbi. "On Saturday and Sunday I'll be in Volubilis."
su fudur auna istei! "I will be a star!"
siuè "to be"
Person Present Imperfect Past Future
1SG su ira fui su fudur(a)
su sisur(a)
2SG es irot fuist es fudur(a)
es sisur(a)
3SG ist irat fuit ist fudur(a)
ist sisur(a)
1PL sum irom fuim sum fudurot
sum sisurot
2PL sest iroç fuiç sest fudurot
sest sisurot
3PL sunt irant fùirunt sunt fudurot
sunt sisurot
Participles siuent fudur
sisur

Numerals

Atlantic cardinal numerals are partially directly inherited from Latin (1-15, 17, and most tens and hundreds) and partially rebuilt on post-Vulgar Latin roots, especially where the numbers would have otherwise become too similar if not identical (as would have been the case with 13 and 16; the apparent irregularity in 7 is also a consequence of this, as *sips would have been too similar to siç). All numerals ending in 2 and 3 (except 12 and 13), as well as all hundreds except for 100, have a distinct form used only in disjunctive counting, derived from the Latin neuter.

0-9
Digit Cardinal
1 (m) aun, (f) auna
2 (m) dut, (f) dot
DISJ. du
3 (m/f) cet
DISJ. cia
4 patur
5 pimbi
6 siç
7 saps
8 ust
9 nou

10-19
Digit Cardinal
10 dig
11 aundig
12 duuig
13 ceuig
14 paturuig
15 paindig
16 siçtig
17 sapstig
18 ustondig
19 nindig

Tens
Digit Cardinal
20 uaiuint
30 ciùint
40 pageoint
50 pimboint
60 siçoint
70 sapsoint
80 ustoint
90 nonoint

Hundreds
Digit Cardinal
100 cint
200 dugint
DISJ. duginta
300 cigint
DISJ. ciginta
400 paturgint
DISJ. paturginta
500 pimbagint
DISJ. pimbaginta
600 sisagint
DISJ. sisaginta
700 sipsingint
DISJ. sipsinginta
800 ustingint
DISJ. ustinginta
900 nongint
DISJ. nonginta
1000 mìu


Vocabulary

Colours

Of the 11 basic colours in Atlantic, only four of them derive from Latin roots (ĀTRVM > ; LIGNEVM > rin; *AMARELLVM > marìu; CANDIDVM > càndiu); all others are Arabic loanwords.

English Atlantic Prototypical example
Black oç, oça / oçot
Blue arsac, arsaca / arsacot
Brown rin, rinea / riniot
Gray ramadi, ramadea / ramadiot
Green marìu, maria / marìot
Orange ranaing, ranaingea / ranaingiot
Pink uardì, uardia / uardìot
Red qirmis, qirmisea / qirmisiot
Violet nìlac, nìlaca / nìlacot
White càndiu, càndiua / càndiuot
Yellow asfar, asfara / asfarot

Notes

  1. ^ Phonemic /ʃ/, however, only arose because of successive palatalizations, and before /tr/ only because of learned Latin or Greek borrowings, as stratòs /straˈtos/ "army" - cf. EXTRĀNEVM > *istroniu > istroin /iʃˈtroɲ/ "foreign".
  2. ^ Originally "magician, fortune-teller", this term came to identify wandering fortune-tellers.