Fevornian - a non-Romance Italic language on the shores of the Danube

[þeprussianfrog]

Native-root Latin replacement examples

Just like all other languages in the Balkans, Fevornian had underwent an influx of Latin and Latinate words at different stages of its history, from the ancient contacts of Liburnians with the early Roman state to the wave of scientific, technical and political terminology that started to enter the language in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was not unique in this question. What was unique about Fevornian, though, was it's existence as a non-Romance Italic language and thus, being related to Latin in a unique way for the time.

It's distant indirect connection to the most influential classical language in Europe was already understood by linguists of the 19th century, the time of rising purism, which started influencing the Fevornian, which was on it's way to standardisation at the time. Similarly, for example, to Russia, which had movements for accepting the borrowings and for eliminating them in favour of neologisms, Fevornian linguist circles also experienced the rise of these two ways of approaching...

But in addition, one other also came to be: the native-root Latin adaptation. It seeked a "middle ground" of sorts, specifically with Latin, Latinate and, occasionally, modern Romance words: not replacing them with fully purist neologisms or semantic calques nor taking them in with retained sounds, but using the corresponding forms of the same word roots that exist in Fevornian or can be reconstructed from the common Italic stage (at least as it was understood at the time*). These would not even necessarily be direct calques as the Latin and Fevornian words may have different meanings, or, in rare cases, these words may even be full-on artificial constructions rather than attested lemmas (for example, *рис in риспаплꙓꙉꙓ - no direct descendants of Proto-Italic *reis exist in modern Fevornian).

In this timeline, Proto-Italic was reconstructed more thoroughly by the late 19th century and generally attracted more scientific attention, because it wasn't just seen as "ancestor to Latin and a few extinct languages that left no descendants", but as one ancestral to two living branches. Ancient Italic languages in general were also more well-understood thanks to more comparative possibilities than exist in OTL.

Many Slavic languages, neighbours of Fevornian, already sometimes used a similar way of adapting words from each other: see, for example, Russian местечко "shtetl" from Polish miasteczko (would have been *мястечко/*мистечко if borrowed phonologically); Russian Свиноустье "Świnoujście (a city in Poland)" from Polish Świnoujście (the phonetically borrowed form Свиноуйсьце is used as well, and is the official one, but both do exist and are used).

So, in the 19th century, various new words began to appear in standardising Fevornian to replace direct Latin borrowings. This way of approach lasted for decades, and, despite periodical declines (for example, in the post-WW2 period and immediately after the collapse of socialist government), is still notably prevalent in some case. Not all of the words stuck, with both loanwords and full-on neologisms frequently "triumphing" over them, but plenty are used in the modern language. Some examples are provided below:

трожинꙓз [troʒinʲez] - trans man, трожинꙓжꙓ [troʒinʲeʒe] - trans woman.
Adapted from English transgender. Constructed from Modern Fevornian трос + жин (stem жинꙓз-) + -∅/-ꙓ; equivalent to PI *trān(t)s + *genos (stem *genez-) + *-os/-ā; Latin *trans + genus (stem *gener-) + -us/-a.
Uncommon, the native equivalent terms are used more often.

фугорес [fugorʲəs] - vowel.
Adapted from Latin vocalis. PI *wōks "voice" only left affixed descendants in Fevornian, such as фуꙉꙓлс "echo". To construct new forms, the root from these words, фуг-, was taken, and a different suffix, -орес (from PI -ālis, equivalent to Latin -alis), forming a directly equivalent form.
Commonly used.

физ [fʲiz] - virus.
Adapted from Latin virus. PI *weizos "poison" left no direct descendants in Fevornian and, thus, was reconstructed and its reconstructed descendant was used.
Commonly used.

[hwhatting]

Where do the imperfect forms of "to be" come from?

[þeprussianfrog]

Where do the imperfect forms of "to be" come from?

Suppletive, as in Latin.

Proto-Italic *fu-, from *bʰúHt in PIE, cognate with Latin fui.
Imperfect, so suffixed with imperfective *-βa-, which later became Fevornian -в-.

[þeprussianfrog]

Personal pronouns

The system of personal pronouns in Fevornian is quite typical for an Indo-European language. Unlike nouns, in which dative and genitive are the same case, some (not all) pronouns have those as distinct; on the other hand, there is no distinct vocative case for pronouns.
3rd person plural pronouns in Fevornian is not distinguished by gender (similar to English they, Russian они; unlike Icelandic þeir/þær/þau, Latvian viņi/viņas). Plural nouns/adjectives do have distinct grammatical gender, though. So, the pronoun agreement will be done according to the noun it replaces:

брынус отрус (black crows, брынс "crow" is masculine) - ѣше отрус

обнес отрес (black sheep, обнꙓ "shoop" is feminine) - ѣше отрес

карнꙓ отрꙓ (black horns, карно "horn" is neuter) - ѣше отрꙓ

If the noun is of common gender itself (thus, can agree as different genders, compare Russian неряха, убийца), the alignment will be solely semantic and depend on the meaning. In case there are multiple nouns of different grammatical genders replaced by this pronoun, the adjective will typically be masculine.

If third person pronoun is replacing a neuter word, its accusative form will be replaced by nominative form, similarly to neuter nouns having ACC = NOM. If 1st/2nd person pronouns are replacing a neuter noun, they will also share this feature.

I (1st person singular)

NOM ѣх [ex]
ACC ми [mʲi]
GEN мис [mʲis]
DAT мꙓхи [mʲeçi]
ABL мꙓд [mʲed]

Thou (2nd person singular)

NOM ты [tɨ]
ACC ти [tʲi]
GEN тис [tʲis]
DAT тꙓви [tʲevʲi]
ABL тꙓд [tʲed]

He (3rd person singular masculine)

NOM са [sa]
ACC су [su]
GEN сош [soʃ]
DAT суј [suj]
ABL суд [sud]

She (3rd person singular feminine)

NOM шꙓ [ʃe]
ACC шꙩ [ʃo]
GEN шꙩш [ʃoʃ]
DAT шꙓј [ʃej]
ABL шꙓд [ʃed]

It (3rd person singular neuter)

NOM со [so]
ACC со [so]
GEN сош [soʃ]
DAT суј [suj]
ABL суд [sud]

We (1st person plural)

NOM нус [nus]
ACC ну [nu]
GEN настер [nastʲər]
DAT настер [nastʲər]
ABL нуви [nuvʲi]

You (2nd person plural)

NOM фус [fus]
ACC фу [fu]
GEN фꙓстер [fʲestʲər]
DAT фꙓстер [fʲestʲər]
ABL фуви [fuvʲi]

They (3rd person plural)

NOM ѣше [eʃə]
ACC ѣш [eʃ]
GEN ѣшю [eʃu]
DAT ѣшю [eʃu]
ABL ѣшис [eʃis]

[rotting bones]

This looks so cool.

[Travis B.]

I do have to say that before I saw Fevornian I'd never've seen an iotated yat myself!

[WeepingElf]

I do have to say that before I saw Fevornian I'd never've seen an iotated yat myself!

Seconded! I didn't know that iotated yat was a thing at all!

[þeprussianfrog]

This looks so cool.

Thanks!

[þeprussianfrog]

I do have to say that before I saw Fevornian I'd never've seen an iotated yat myself!

Seconded! I didn't know that iotated yat was a thing at all!

It is only known historically from a single Old East Slavic document AFAIK. Not the most commonly used letter in the world.
Interestingly, in the context of the setting Fevornian will probably be the only vernacular language to actively use yat in general. Unless I make another Cyrillic conlang from the same worldbuilding...

[Zju]

I must say a lot of effort and passion have been put into this. I like its aesthetics so far.
I'd love to see the sound changes that have occurred.

[þeprussianfrog]

I must say a lot of effort and passion have been put into this. I like its aesthetics so far.
I'd love to see the sound changes that have occurred.

Thanks!
I plan posting a few lil updates this week. Depends a lot on my free time and mood.

[þeprussianfrog]

I'd love to see the sound changes that have occurred.

Some major ones:

More: show

Code: Select all

[b]Treatment of Proto-Italic voiced fricatives[/b]

β ð ɣ ɣʷ -> b d g gʷ, word-medially
β ð ɣ ɣʷ -> f f h f, word-initially

[b]Vowel shift, loss of long vowels[/b]

a o e i u ā ō ē ī ū -> a ɔ e e o o u i i ɨ
ɔ -> o/_C[j i]
ɔ -> o/_[j i]
ɔ -> a, in other contexts

[b]Treatment of labiovelars[/b]

kʷ -> k/_[u w]
gʷ -> g/_[u w]
kʷ -> k/[u w]_
gʷ -> g/[u w]_
kʷ -> p, in other contexts
gʷ -> b, in other contexts

[b]Appearance of voiceless fricatives in some contexts[/b]
p t k -> f θ x/[r l]_
kk -> x
pp -> f
tt -> θ
hp -> f
ht -> θ
hk -> x
Aspirated stops in Grecisms borrowed early on also became those.

[b]Intervocalic lenition[/b]
p t k b d g -> b d g w ð ɣ, intervocally
Is still productive when making compounds, except for g, which no longer does turn into ɣ (and historical ɣ devoiced to x later).

[b]Proto-Slavic vowels[/b]

ь ъ ě ę ǫ ǭ ę̄ -> a a e e o o e
While not native Fevornian phonemes, I still had to research those because Fevornian gets plenty of early Slavicisms. Also, this explains the usage of yat in the script.

[b]Regular metathesis[/b] 

m V n -> n V m

[b]s dropping initially before voiced labials[/b]
s -> ∅/#_[voiced labial]

[b]Initial f is dropped[/b]*
f -> ∅/#_

[b]a becomes e between palatalized consonants[/b]
a -> e/[palatalized C]_[palatalized C]

[b]Welcome back initial F[/b]*
v -> f/#_

*These changes occured after palatalization appeared, and do in fact include palatalized variants.

I will share more later as I'm suddenly busy rn. There are more, obviously.

[WeepingElf]

Thank you! They look nice.

[Glenn]

As other people have said, I like the look of your initial presentation, and found the language interesting, especially the use of native-root Latin replacements.

[þeprussianfrog]

Cardinal numbers

Unlike, for example, Latin, and more similarly to Balto-Slavic languages, all the basic cardinal numerals of Fevornian are declinable. Similarly to adjectives, they inflect for gender and case; on the other hand, they're not typically inflected for number (except for rare usages in certain contexts); all but 1 are identical to plural forms of nouns/adjectives. Most inflect regularly.

Below, only the nominatives are provided.

1 - declined as a singular o/ā-stem (1st, 2nd declensions)

инс, ину, инꙓ - M, N, F (same order for all following examples)
[ins inu inʲe]

2 - declined as a plural o/ā-stem, BUT feminine form has [e] instead of [ə], because root is zero-vowel and stressed schwa cannot occur in Fevornian

дус, дꙓ, дꙓс
[dus dʲe dʲes]

3 - declined as a plural i-stem (3rd declension).

трꙓс, трꙓ, трꙓс
[trʲes trʲe trʲes]

4-10 - decline as plural o/ā-stems. Words for 6 have Obligatory Stem Palatalization (OSP) (going to be explained when describing declension overall).

4
паѳварус, паѳварꙓ, паѳварес
[paθvarus paθvarʲe paθvarʲəs]

5
пимпус, пимпꙓ, пимпес
[pʲimpus pʲimpʲe pʲimpʲəs]

6
шꙓшюс, шꙓшꙓ, шꙓшес
[ʃeʃus ʃeʃe ʃeʃəs]

7
шꙓтымус, шꙓтымꙓ, шꙓтымес
[ʃetɨmus ʃetɨmʲe ʃetɨmʲəs]

8
октус, октꙓ, октес
[oktus oktʲe oktʲəs]

9
навынус, навынꙓ, навынес
[navɨnus navɨnʲe navɨnʲəs]

10
дꙓгымус, дꙓгымꙓ, дꙓгымес
[dʲegɨmus dʲegɨmʲe dʲegɨmʲəs]

Associated with a nominal, cardinal numbers precede it (unlike adjectives).

[þeprussianfrog]

Some animals

[þeprussianfrog]

кодꙓбинꙓ [kodʲebʲinʲe] - bat
парꙓжꙓ [parʲeʒe] - owl
пꙓгс [pʲegs] - woodpecker
шꙓрэвс [ʃerəvs] - deer
уфꙓжярс [ufʲeʒars] - hare
фать [fatʲ] - bear
урс [urs] - wolf
илꙓрс [iʎers] - hedgehog
илпарꙓ [iɫparʲ] - snake
мыстрꙓ [mɨstrʲe] - marten
фꙓвꙓрꙓ [fʲevʲerʲe] - squirrel
нымабс [nɨmabs] - bison (European)
сордошюнс [sordoʃuns] - capercaillie
рышес [rɨʃəs] - lynx, bobcat

[Emily]

фать [fatʲ] - bear
урс [urs] - wolf

what are the etymologies of these ones?

[þeprussianfrog]

фать [fatʲ] - bear
урс [urs] - wolf

what are the etymologies of these ones?

Bear - from Proto-Italic *wat- "bent, with deformed legs/feet", related to Latin vatax, vatius (directly equivalent to the latter one). Semantic shift comparable to Latvian lācis (originally "trampler, stomper"), Russian косолапый ("crooked-pawed"), Finnish leviäkämmen ("broad-pawed"), all euphemisms or nicknames for bear.

Wolf - from Proto-Italic fōr "thief", related to Latin fur. Originally a consonant-stem, reanalysed as an o-stem. Semantically equivalent to Proto-Germanic *wargaz meaning both "outlaw" and "wolf".

[þeprussianfrog]

Some more animals