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 no extra characters. 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. 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 | a | ɑ |
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 rhotic |
s | s | |
t | t | |
u | u | |
v | v | |
w | w | |
x | ʃ | |
y | y | ɪ, ʏ, ɨ, ə |
z | z |
Consonants
Labial | 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 | o |
Open | a ~ ɑ |
Prosody
Stress
Stress is always on the penultimate syllable.
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 celo,
santifakato stare tutro nomene,
tutro regita avenas,
tutro volunto stare fakato,
in geo et in celo,
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 eternita, amen."