Yosman

Yosman
غوېٓسِنہ Ghwűsene
[Pending] Flag of the Yosman Republic of Nabataea
Pronunciation	[ˈʝyːzɛnɛ]
Created by	Vrianne
Date	2024
Setting	Alt-History Europe & Near East
Native to	Nabataea
Ethnicity	Yosman, Nabataean
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic North Sea Germanic Anglo-Frisian Anglic Yosman
Early forms	Proto-Indo-European Proto-Germanic Old English Old Yosman Middle Yosman Early Modern Yosman
Standard form	Standard Yosman (---)
Dialects	Northern Yosman (--) Central Yosman (--) Southern Yosman (--) Western Yosman (--)
Writing system	Arabic
Official status
Official language in	Nabataea

Yosman (endonym: ثِتونج ځوېٓسِنہ, th'Tundj Ghwűsene, /θɛˈtund͡ʒ ˈʝyːzɛnɛ/), also known as Nabataean, is a Germanic language belonging to the Indo-European language family. Nearly all of its speakers are within the borders of the Yosman Republic of Nabataea, wherein it is the sole official language. It is also one of the two only Anglic languages, with Englisc being the second.

Classification

Yosman is an Indo-European language belonging to the West Germanic branch of the Germanic language family. The closest relatives to Yosman are those of the Anglo-Frisian languages such as Englisc and the Frisian languages.

History

Etymology

The endonym "غوېٓسِنہ" (Ghwűsene) is derived from غوېٓسِن (Ghwűsen, "a Yosman"), from Middle Yosman غِويسّمَن (ɣewissman), a fossilization of غِويسّ (ɣewiss, "Geuisse") + مُن (mon, "man"), from Old Yosman yws mn (/yewisse monn/), from Old English Ġewisse monn.

The exonym "Yosman" is an anglicization of French Yœssmanes (with the accurate Englisc exonym being Eizmenasisc), itself borrowed from Middle High German Jewissmaneisch (hence modern High German Jewissmännisch), ultimately from Middle Yosman غِويسّمَن (ɣewissman). The Englisc exonym particularly is a borrowing from Brithonech Euuzmenasech, itself borrowed from Middle French Yœssmanes.

Phonology

Vowels

Modern vowels

Standard Yosman vowels

		Front				Back
		Unrounded		Rounded
		Short	Long	Short	Long	Short	Long
Close			iː		yː		uː[1]
Close-Mid		ɪ	eː	ʏ	øː	ʊ[1]	oː
Open-Mid		ɛ		œ		ɔ
Open		ɐ	æː				ɑː

1. nonnative phonemes

Consonants

Modern consonants

Standard Yosman consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m		n
Plosive/Affricate	Voiceless	p		t	t͡ʃ		k
	Voiced	b		d	d͡ʒ[1]		ɡ[2]
Fricative	Voiceless	f	θ	s	ʃ	(ç)[3]	x
	Voiced	v	ð	z	ʒ[1]	(ʝ)[3]	ɣ
Trill				r
Tap				ɾ
Approximant		w		(ɹ)[4] (l)[5]	j[1]		ɫ

1. nonnative phonemes
2. [ɡ] also surfaces as an allophone of /ɣ/ before a lateral consonant.
3. allophones of /x ɣ/ near front vowels.
4. allophone of /r ɾ/ post-vocalically.
5. allophone of /ɫ/ when both word-final or word-initial and near front vowel.