Greko-Latina
Introduction
Græko-Latina is intended as a way to take the international scientific and Græko-Latin vocabulary and make an International Auxiliary Language. It arose from my disfavor with the vocabulary, phonology, etc. of other IALs such as Esperanto and Interlingua. As a secondary matter, I hope it could be used by the Catholic Church as a way to simplify Latin to bring back for mass.
Phonology
Orthography
Græko-Latina uses the 26 standard letters of the Latin alphabet with the addition of æ and œ, which may be written as ae and oe if it's more convenient. All letters have their IPA values except c, q, and x, which are /t͡s or t͡ʃ/, /kʷ/, and /ʃ/ respectively. Four digraphs (ai, au, eu, oi) make the implied diphthong, and ch, rh, and th have their Greek pronunciations (/x/, /r̥/, and /θ/, respectively). Q does not pair with u, as in most European languages, as this is redundant.
This way the letters and digraphs have as close as possible to their pan-European values as possible while also being phonetic.
Letter | IPA (preferred) | IPA (alternate) |
---|---|---|
a | ɑ | |
æ | æ | ɛ |
b | b | |
c | t͡s | t͡ʃ |
d | d | |
e | e | |
f | f | |
g | g | ɣ |
h | h | ɦ |
i | i | |
j | j | |
k | k | |
l | l | |
m | m | |
n | n | |
o | o | |
p | p | |
q | kʷ | kw, kv |
r | r | any voiced rhotic |
s | s | |
t | t | |
u | u | |
v | v | |
w | w | |
x | ʃ | |
y | y | ɪ, ʏ, ɨ, ə |
z | z |
The digraphs are:
Digraph | IPA |
---|---|
ch | x |
rh | r̥ |
th | θ |
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palato-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | labialized | Glottal | |||||
Nasal | m | n | |||||
Plosive | p b | t d | k g | kʷ | |||
Affricate | t͡s ~ t͡ʃ | ||||||
Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ | ||||
Approximant | j | w | h | ||||
Rhotic | r | ||||||
Lateral | l |
Consonants are never geminated. As a matter of coincidence, this is similar to the consonant inventory of Welsh without the voiceless nasal series.
Vowels
Front | Back | |
---|---|---|
Close | i y | u |
Mid | e œ | o |
Open | æ | ɑ |
The vowel system is similar to Finnish, except without length distinction.
Prosody
Stress
Stress is always on the penultimate syllable, unless the word is more than two syllables AND has a diphthong, then the stress is on the antepenultimate.
Intonation
Phonotactics
Morphophonology
Morphology
Syntax
Constituent order
Since there are few inflections, a strict word order of SVO is required, and adjectives come after nouns.
Noun phrase
Verb phrase
Sentence phrase
Dependent clauses
Example texts
The Lord's Prayer:
"Nostro patre, ki stas in cælo,
santifakato stare tutro nomene,
tutro regita avenas,
tutro volunto stare fakato,
in geo et in cælo,
das a nos hodi nostro diese pane,
et dismisa nostro debito tam nos dismisa le debite de alio,
et no indukas nos a tentace,
pero liberas nos de malo.
Ka tutro stas la regita, potenca, et glori,
en æternita, amen."