| Romance Koiné Koiné Romance | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | |||
| Fusional | |||
| Alignment | |||
| Nominative-accusative | |||
| Head direction | |||
| Head-initial | |||
| Tonal | |||
| No | |||
| Declensions | |||
| No | |||
| Conjugations | |||
| Yes | |||
| Genders | |||
| No | |||
| Nouns decline according to... | |||
| Case | Number | ||
| Definiteness | Gender | ||
| Verbs conjugate according to... | |||
| Voice | Mood | ||
| Person | Number | ||
| Tense | Aspect | ||
Romance Koiné (in Romance, Koiné Romance) is the standard language used as a means of communication and culture among the modern-day Latin peoples.
It flourished around the 12th and 13th centuries when great writers understood the distance that separated them from Classical Latin and intended to compose their work in a language that was understood by the laymen all over the Romance-speaking world. Then, Latin gave way to Romance. This Koiné model was based, specially, in the vernacular dialects of the Mediterranean Arch, being Marseille the crossroads of all Romance cultures.
With time, many other authors cultivated and consolidated the preeminent role of this koiné, that would end up being the common language of all Romance peoples, the language that would cross the pond to the New World, and the one that would dominate the entire world becoming the lingua franca of the whole planet.
Phonology
Vowels
There are five vowels in Romance: aeiou. Their phonological values are the same as they are spelled.
Consonants
There are 20 consonant sounds in Romance:
- /b/ - b
- /d/ - d
- /g/ - g, gu before e, i
- /p/ - p
- /t/ - t
- /k/ - c, qu before e, i
- /m/ - m
- /n/ - n
- /ɲ/ - gn
- /f/ - f
- /v/ - v
- /s/ - s, ss between vowels; sometimes c or z before e, i
- /z/ - z, s between vowels
- /ʃ/ - sch, sc before e, i
- /ʧ/ - ch
- /ʤ/ - j, g before e, i
- /l/ - l
- /r/ - r
- /j/ - i before a vowel
- /w/ - u before a vowel
Spelling
The Romance alphabet consists of 23 letters:
abcdefghijlmnopqrstuvxz
Letters k and y might be found in loanwords.
Accents
Although not included in the alphabet, Romance also uses accented grave a (à) and accented acute e, i, o and u (éíóú).
A word has an accent over its stressed syllable when:
- The stress is in the penultimate and the word ends in vowel, n or s.
- The stress is in the ultimate and the word ends in any other termination.
- The stress in in the antepenultimate.
Apostrophe
The words el/la/lo, de, me, te, se and ne are apostrophed to l', d', m', t', s' and n' before vowels.
Grammar
Word order
The word order is, in general:
- SVO, except in most combinations between verbs and object personal pronouns, where the order is SOV (jo t'amo "I love you")
- Noun-Adjective, Noun-Genitive
- Article-Noun, Determiner-Noun
Verbs
Verbs have three moods: indicative, subjunctive and imperative:
Indicative
There are five indicative tenses:
- Present: canto
- Imperfect: cantava
- Past: canté
- Future: cantarai
- Conditional: cantaria
Subjunctive
There are two subjunctive tenses:
- Present: cante
- Imperfect: cantàs
Imperative
There is one imperative tense:
- Present: canta
Nouns
Nouns are divided into two genders: masculine and feminine. Masculine nouns usually end in -o or a consonant, feminine nouns usually end in -a. As for plurals, an -s is added when the last letter is a vowel, -es when it is a consonant.
Sample
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Tutos les esseres humanos nascen libres e eguales en dignità e en dreitos. Son dotados de conscienza e deven agir unes con autros en espírito de fraternità.
Our Father
Padre nostro que es en el celo, / Sia santificado tuo nome, / Vegna a nós tuo regno, / Sia faita tua volontà en la terra, come é faita en el celo, / Da-nos hoi nostro pan de cada dia, / E perdona-nos nostros dettos, / Come nós perdonamos nostros dettores, / E no nos induzas a tentación, / Mas libera-nos del Mal, / Amén.