User:Ceige/Ceuja
| Ceutch language | |
|---|---|
| Léban Goceuja, Ceuja | |
| Pronunciation | [/ˈleβan goˈθeuxa, ˈθeuxa/] |
| Created by | Ceige |
Indo-European
| |
Early forms | |
Ceuja, or the Ceutch language, (also known as Thutch; Léban Goceuja and Ceuja in Ceuja itself) is a Germanic language best characterised as Proto-Germanic with Spanish sound changes (via relevant Western Romance and Iberian sound changes) applied.
Name
The name Ceuja comes from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz, and is thus cognate to Deutsch, the endonym of the German language. It is often elongated to Goceuja, related to the rare translation of Gothia in Gothic, 𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰 (gutþiuda). The association of Ceuja with the Goths does not necessarily refer to actual historical Goths so much as the medieval label given to Germanic peoples in general.
Real world development
Around June 2013, a Germanic conlang with a naïve interpretation of French sound changes applied to it was sketched up and called Jaillais (located currently on Google Sites)
Historical Phonology
Phonology
The phonology of Ceuja is not unlike that of a somewhat artificial and sanitised form of European Spanish. For more context, see Spanish phonology on Wikipedia.
Debuccalisation
The main changes concern the voiced fricatives and /ʝ/.
In Modern Spanish dialects, the voiced fricatives are often pronounced debuccalised between vowels and other voiced sounds. In addition, ⟨y ~ ll⟩ (from *j and *lj respectively, now /ʝ/) is pronounced more closed. In practice, this results in ⟨b, d, g, ll~y⟩ all having similar phonation.
In Ceuja, the voiced fricatives and ⟨y ~ ll⟩ are all generally pronounced as actual voiced fricatives in the medial position. More debuccalised pronunciations are allowed, but not considered necessary for sounding "native".
| Phonemes | Cueja initially | Ceuja medially | Ceuja devoiced | Spanish equivalents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | b | β | f | b β̞ ɸ̞ |
| d | d̪ | ð | θ | d̪ ð̞ θ̞ |
| g | g | ɣ | x | g ɣ̞ x̞ |
| y, ll | (d)ʒ | ʒ | ʃ | ɟʝ ʝ̞ *ç̞ |
This trend against debuccalisation can be seen in the treatment of fricatives before plosives, with many modern Spanish dialects debuccalising these fricatives to a breathy sound, something not as common in Ceuja (but still acceptable).