Oscanez

General
Oscanez, or Oscan ( English: / ɒs.kə.ˈnez, ˈɒs,kən/ primarily called Oscan in English) [os.ka.ˈnez] is a Romance language originated in the destroyed Roman city of Oscansium. It is spoken in the north of Spain, near southern France. It shares several features with the Benasque dialects and High Aragonese, as well as French and Spanish. Oscanez is spoken by 1,721 people, primarily the older generation. It is a highly endangered language.

Its name, Oscanez, comes from the old city Oscansium (Oscaso, in Oscanez), in northern Spain. Historically, the inhabitants of Osca were ancient Iberians, and their language influenced Oscanez. The Oscanses were also influenced by the Arabs in the middle ages, and the French, Portuguese and Spanish in the modern age.

Phonology
Oscanez is a (C)(C)V(C)(C)(C) language, with basic phonological rules.

Consonants
Notesː


 * /n/ assimilates to the place of articulation of the second consonant if it is a cluster. For example, the word ìnca /inka/ is pronounced [iŋka].
 * In certain environments with vowels, nasal consonants can become syllabic.
 * Betacism is a major part of Oscanez. /b/ and /v/ are in free variation. The sound /b/ also has the allophone /β/ between vowels, but all three are correct in every part of a phrase. Usually /b/ begins.
 * /p/ voices to /b/ when before plosives, such as in the word optimo [obtimo], [oβtimo] or [ovtimo].
 * Voiced plosives have the allophones [β], [ð], [ɣ] (/b/, /d/, /g/ respectively) between vowels. A similar phenomenon occurs in Portuguese and Spanish.
 * /t/ and /d/ are laminal denti-alveolar, but are called dental for simplicity.
 * /tʃ/ is not a common sound in Oscanez, but is found in loanwords, especially deriving from Spanish or English, but it is also an allophone of /ʎ/ at onset position.
 * /ɸ/ has the allophone [h] when it is after /m/, such as in the word triomfo [triomho]. /ɸ/ before /i/ or /e/ is preserved. It is in free variation otherwise.
 * /s/ turns to the allophone [s̪] before dental plosives.
 * Unvoiced fricatives become voiced before a voiced plosive or nasal. Unvoiced plosives become fricatives and voice as well. For example, the borrowed word atmosfera /atmosɸera/ is realized as [aðmosɸera] and is sometimes just dropped [amosɸera]. Other examples include amigdala or administrajón.
 * /ʎ/ has a tendency to be pronounced as a fricative [ʝ].
 * /r/ and [ɾ] are in free variation, but it is always /r/ at the beginning of words and when represented by a double r. /r/ is the default pronunciation.

Vowels
There are 5 distinct vowels in Oscanez, but has many more allophones for different environments, including nasality and stress.

Allophones
/a/ and /o/, being the most sonorous vowels have the least change besides nasalization. /e/ can be pronounced like a schwa (such as English creation) in unstressed position. /e/ with a nasal coda causes a loss of the nasal consonant. This leads to an articulation like [ẽtẽdẽmos] for entendemos. Note that vowels followed by nasals are also affected, but within words the consonant is still articulated if it is the onset. Only with /y/ is the nasal consonant always articulated.

Liaison
Final nasal vowels are pronounced with their consonant in environments when the next syllable begins with a vowel (including a mute h). This process is similar to French liaison and is called such by linguists studying Oscanez. In the grammar it is called Yajón, a cognate of English and French "liaison".

Diphthongs and Triphthongs
Oscanez has nine rising diphthongs, and three falling diphthongs /au/ /ai/ and /ei/. The falling diphthongs include all instances of /j/ or /w/ followed by a vowel. A sequence of /kw/ can be analyzed as [kɥ]. Triphthongs are generally falling diphthongs merged with a rising one /wai/.

Prosody
Oscanez is syllable-timed. All syllables take the same amount of time to produce.

Words generally have stress on the final or penultimate syllable. Some words have natural stress on the third syllable but this is not marked.

At the end of a question intonation rises at the first word, and also at the end of the phrase. Otherwise, it is exactly like English.

Phonotactics
Oscanez has a (C)(C)V(C)(C) syllable structure.


 * Onset (can be null)
 * First consonant (C1): anything except for clusters including nasals or /s/.
 * Second consonant (C2): rhotic or lateral (if C1 is a plosive or /s/ /ʃ/ /ʒ/). The clusters /tl/ and /dl/ are not allowed.
 * Nucleus
 * Any vowel or diphthong can be positioned in the nucleus (/w/ is analyzed as the vowel /u/ as a rising diphthong in the nucleus).
 * A maximum of two vowels/semivowels are allowed together in the nucleus.


 * Coda (can be null)
 * First consonant (C1): /r/ /n/ /s/ /t/ or null.
 * Second consonant (C2): If there is a C1, then C2 is generally /s/ /z/ /t/ or /k/. Otherwise, C1 is null and the final coda is /p t d s r n l/. /f/ is found in loaned words from Latin, such as subjuntif /sub.ʒy.ˑtif/.

Allowed clusters across syllable boundaries include plosives followed by a rhotic, and nasals by their place of articulation plosive (/nk/, but not /mk/). /s/ is followed by unvoiced plosives, but when beginning a word must have a prosthetic /e/ (escuila, not scuila). /r/ can be followed by any sound, and /r/ can be followed by /s/ and vice versa. Plosives can also be followed by /ʃ/ or /ʒ/, with unvoiced taking the unvoiced fricative and vice versa. The dental fricatives cannot be followed by those two consonants. This rule also applies to /z/ and /s/ after dentals. /j/ and /ʎ/ cannot exist in clusters. In terms of other clusters, a maximum of three consonants can be grouped. If there is a plosive + liquid cluster, a fricative can precede them. Note that these words are generally Latin loanwords into Oscanez.

Orthography
Oscanez has very regular spelling, with each letter almost having a 1 to 1 correspondence in pronunciation. Much of it is based on Italian and Spanish orthography, with few inventions. At the end of syllables the nasal letter is purely orthographic, only showing that the vowel before is nasalized. An example of this is in the word formajón, formation /for.ma.ʒõ/.

Notesː


 *  and  represent the same sound, but generally  starts a word.
 *  is /s/ when followed by an /i/ or /e/, due to palatalization in Vulgar Latin. The same shift occurs with  to /ʒ/. To have a sequence like /ge/, it would be written with an , such as Ghinea, an African country.


 *  is totally null, only occurring orthographically when etymology is wanted. This is showcased in the word honye which means man, but is pronounced [õɲe].


 *  is /ʎ/, such as in the world muyer.
 *  beginning a word represents /tʃ/, such as in the word xobea.


 * /ɲ/ is represented by .

Accents
Oscanez uses the acute accent over any vowel á é í ó ú, and the grave accent over ì before a nasal vowel to show that the vowel is not /y/ but /i/. The accent determines stress and pronunciation in Oscanez. There are four types of words in Oscanezː adas, grabes, estrogelas, and sublestrogelas. They go ascending from stress on the ultimate syllable, penult, antepenult, and before the antepenult. Estrogelas and subestrogelas never have an accent.


 * All adas which do not end in t, z, r or l or a vowel must have an indicated acute accent. For example, cultivajón.
 * Graves which end in t, z, r, or l must have an indicated acute accent. For example, Gómez.

Oscanez orthography is influenced by Spanish orthography. While in Spanish accents are also used to break up different vowels (Spanish salía [sa.ˈli.a]), Oscanez accents are never used in this way, and these usually simplify to a diphthong (creit, not *creít). When a diphthong exists with an accent, it will always go on the stronger vowel. Thereforeː If two weak vowels are creating a stressed and accented diphthong, the one which is after the semivowel is written with a stress. A good example would be the 3rd person singular past historic endings of -er verbs.

= Nominals = The grammar follows the general structure of most Romance languages, differing from Latin in its syntax and loss of grammatical case. Many verb affixes are preserved, and new compound tenses are created.

Nouns and Personal Pronouns
Nouns in Oscanez have lost their Latin case endings, but preserved two of the three Latin genders. Personal pronouns have distinct forms for their position in the sentence, and are the only words inflected for case. write some things

Gender
Every noun is either masculine or feminine, with the old Latin neuter merging with the masculine. Regarding living things, most nouns correspond with the gender of the living thing described.

Not every noun can have its gender predicted, but there are several general rules. Generally, if a word ends in -o, -or, -n, -z (-z endings can be masculine adjectives) it is masculine. Nouns that refer to males such as pare (father) are also masculine. If the word ends in -a, -at, -jón, then it is feminine. Words referring to females are also feminine.

Number
There are two numbers: singular and plural. The singular is the lexical meaning of the noun, while the plural is counted as an inflection of the noun. Plurality in Oscanez is more complicated than most standard Romance languages. All nouns ending in t or n pluralize with a final /s/, creating consonant clusters with /t/. Nouns ending in z are changed to j and add -es.

Otherwise, plurals are identifiable with a -s or -es if it ends with a consonant (l'amor, los amores).

Most mass nouns are simply treated as plural, such as “las aréns” meaning English “sand.”

Articles
The masculine singular definite article has three acceptable forms. The most common are lo and o, with o most common and lo used with substantive adjectives suggesting generality, or with titles (lo senyor).

The masculine and feminine singular forms elide to  before null  and . For example, the grammatically correct form is “l’abentura” instead of suspected la abentura. However, in words such as osa, the correct way to both say and write "the (female) bear" is la osa.

Thus:


 * o calo = "[the] horse"
 * los calos = "[the] horses"
 * la Yenua = "[the] language "
 * las Yenuas = "[the] languages"

Like the definite article, the singular forms elide. The feminine changes to un before vowels. For example, the grammatically correct form of “an ear” is un oreya

The article is almost always carried by the noun, with the only exceptions being when other determiners modify the noun. In places where English drops the article, the article is kept. These include the subject for general nouns, objects, and almost any place where English could delete its article. For example, to write “Summer is good,” one writes “O verán e bon.”

Possessive Determiners

 * 1) The formal second person voté takes its determiners from the 3rd person part of the chart, as does its plural votés. It can also take them from the vostre form as well.

Like other Romance languages, these determiners are used with the definite articles, creating la mean caisa meaning both "my house" and "the house of mine."

These agree in gender and number, which means that even if a group of people are possessing a singular noun, the noun takes the singular third person form.

Demonstrative Determiners
There are three degrees of proximity expressed by the four sets of determiners. They developed from Vulgar Latin eccuiste, iste and accuiste, respectively. These roughly correspond to English “this here” "this / that" and “that over there,” with the remote determiners having a farther spatial distance than English “that.” For this reason, many speakers use est when referring to objects that in English would normally be determined with “that.”

Interrogative Determiners
The interrogative determiner che means what or which depending on the modified noun.

Che can be used in exclamations meaning something along the lines of “how!” or “what!” For example, saying “Che caisa!” means “What a house!”

Quantifiers
The Latin adjective multus evolved into Oscanez muit. This corresponds to “much, a lot, many” in English. As before, it agrees in gender and number. In adverb form, it is muit.

Its antonym meaning “very little, a small amount, little” is three different words strung together with an article. It is un poz de, cognate to Spanish un poco de.

There are other quantifiers which are vocabulary, such as tres de, meaning “three of.” One other major quantifier is the collective, shown by the adjective tot. Tot does not decline for gender and functions as an adverb. It translates to english "all of, all, every." When used with the article (tot los calos) it means "all of the horses" or "every horse" in the singular. Tot is cognate with Spanish todo/a.

= Verbs = Verbs in Oscanez are categorized into four classes of infinitives, those that end in -ar, -el, -er, and -ir. There are three moods in Oscanez, indicative, imperative, and subjunctive. There are five simple tenses in the indicative: future, present, imperfect, perfect, and conditional. Of these tenses, there are only two in the subjunctive: present, imperfect. All of the tenses can be combined with forms of her to form perfect compound tenses. Using the gerundive and forms of estar, all continuous tenses can be formed. There are two copulas, estar and esir.

Present
The present indicative is used to describe actions that exist currently and are inherently imperfect. It describes the subject in a state of being or in action. It is used to describe ongoing actions occurring at one time, states of being in a present time frame.

In general, O present is used forː


 * events happening in the present -- Nos vibimos na cibtat (We live in the city).
 * habitual actions -- Jo trayo pol las nuits (I work at night)
 * current states of being and conditions -- Agora, remans con lo Ayejandro? (Now, do you live with Alexander?)
 * actions planned to occur in the future -- El estuja na univelsidat l'anyo projimo (He is studying in university next year)
 * protasis of a condition when the apodosis is in the future tense -- Si te-o doz, te comportarás bien. (If I give it to you, you will behave well)

Irregular Present Verbs
The present tense in Oscanez is full of irregular verbs in the first and third person singular. There are four classes of irregular verbs, and the irregularities go almost across all conjugations. There are some times where the irregularities are different in each conjugation.


 * T-stems are the present stems (the verb without the infinitive ending) ending in a /t/. For example, the verb sotar is a t-stem. These are the same across all conjugations, with the replacement of the thematic vowel (for example, sentar, although it is a t-stem does not have its 3rd person singular as sente).
 * N-stems have their present stem ending in a . N-stems are irregular in the 3rd person singular in all conjugations except -ar. In those conjugations, the form is identical to the 1st. Otherwise, they are the same irregularity across conjugations.
 * Z-stems are a verb type whose infinitive stem can end in  or . In -er verbs, Z-stems have the same 3rd and 1st person singular.
 * Inchoatives are -el verbs descending from verbs with the Latin infix -sc-, denoting a beginning. Such verbs in Oscanez are cognate to Spanish -ecer, and Portuguese -escer verb types.

Other notable irregulars are in the following chartː As evidenced by a a few verbs above, in Oscanez short latin e and o diphthongized into ie and ui respectively. Over time, these developments became regularized and only apply to those few verbs and the isolated nouns with those changes.

Future and Conditional
The non-periphrastic future in Oscanez refers to events which areː


 * probable or uncertain actions in the future -- Elo xoberá est nuit (It might rain tonight)
 * occurring in the future, with a specific lack of habituality -- Jo veajaré a París la semaina projima (I will travel to Paris next week)
 * commands and obligations more strong than the imperative -- Vos vendrez cras (You will come tomorrow)

The conditional is an innovation of the Romance languages not found in Classical Latin. It is used forː


 * creates a future meaning in the past in a subordinate clause (analogous to English was going to or would) -- L'anyo pasat, jo pensé che serea duitor (Last year, I thought that I would be a doctor)
 * creates a sense of certainty in the past -- Estarean ací. (They must be here).
 * creates a polite and possible action used with verbs of wanting -- Jo cherrea ir a caisa (I would want to go home)
 * used in the apodosis of a condition when the protasis is in the imperfect subjunctive -- Si fuises meyor, ganareamos (If you were better, we might win)

In the future and conditional tense, the above endings are affixed to the infinitive stem.

There are several verbs in Oscanez which undergo a stem change in the future and conditional. These are those verbs.

Past Tenses
There are two different past tenses in Oscanez, which are differentiated by aspect. The perfective aspect creates the preterite tense (also called the past historic), and the imperfective creates the imperfect.

Imperfect
The imperfect in Oscanez is used to denote habitual or continuous action in the past. In English, it can be translated as "used to X, or was Xing." There are certain words which, in the imperfect, can be translated with the English simple past. These include: sabre, conocer, voller, sentir, potre, and deber.

The imperfect is the most regular tense system in Oscanez, with its only irregulars in the word esir and ir.

It expressesː


 * habitual or repetitive action in the past -- Cuán jo era rabaz... (When I was a boy...)


 * an action interrupted by another action as in conjunction -- Durant jo correa, o-oí (While I was running, I heard him)


 * general description of the past -- Elo tronaia (It was thundering)

Preterite / Past Historic
The preterite in Oscanez views an action or state of being as fully completed, and as its own. It is analogous to the Spanish pretérito and French passé simple.


 * used as a singular act with a definite beginning and end -- Trayemos nel oficín pol dos semains (We worked in the office for two weeks)
 * used in a narrative as an interruption -- Jo correa cuán el me trobó (I was running when he found me)
 * used as a description / action fully completed -- Voté nacié nel 1977 (You were born in 1977)

Because of this, the verbs saber, conocel, chelel, bolyer, poder, and deer are translated differently from an English simple past. In the preterite of Oscanez, since the verb is fully completed and has its own action unrelated to any other at any time, the verb "to know" would be translated as "he found out." That change is an act of knowing that is fully completed.

The preterite is a tense with much irregularity, with several sets of endings and stem changes. All are added to the stem of the verb (formed by removing the infinitive). There are several notable irregular preterite forms, and most have drastic stem changes. As can be seen, most irregular verbs have a similar set of endings matched with a stem change. This is similar to other Romance languages like Spanish and Portuguese. Inchoative verbs with the -sc- Latin infix are regular in the preterite.

The verbs esir and estar are also irregular in the preterite, but their conjugations are shown in the copular section.

Perfect Constructions
The Oscanez perfect is formed with a form of the auxiliary verb her together with the past participle of the main verb. The auxiliary is inflected for tense and mood, and can also appear in non-finite forms (infinitive or gerund), thus giving rise to a number of constructions which combine the perfect aspect with other verbal properties. All tenses can be combined with the auxiliary her to add perfect aspect.

To form the past participle of an Oscanez verb, the infinitive stem (the verb minus -ar, -er, -el, and -ir).


 * -ar verbs add -at/-á for masculine and feminine singular (he aimat, he aimá), and their respective plurals.
 * -er, -el, and -ir verbs ad -it/-ida for masculine and feminine singular (he partit, he partida), and their respective plurals.

These participles combine with her in its present conjugation (he, hes, ha, hemos, hez, han) to create a meaning almost exactly like English "have X."

The participle is always in its masculine form unless there is a pronoun object explicitly stated. Thereforeː


 * I have loved him -- O he aimat
 * I have loved them (masculine) -- Os he aimats
 * I have loved her -- A he aimá
 * I have loved them (feminine) -- As he aimás
 * I have loved the houses -- He aimat las caisas

There are a few irregular past participles. These never agree with the object and always stay in their masculine singular form in perfect constructions. When functioning as an adjective, they decline for gender and number.

Present Perfect
The present perfect is a past action with present results or consequences. It is the same as English "have X."

The forms of her in this tense are he, hes, ha, hemos, hez, han.

Recent Pluperfect
The recent pluperfect (like all other tenses of her and perfect combinations) uses the same rules of agreement as the present perfect. The only thing changing is the form of her and consequently its meaning. In the recent pluperfect, it is similar to English "had X (recently)," or "had been Xing" with connotations of the simple imperfect. The forms of her in this tense are hea, heas, hea, heamos, heaz, hean.

Remote Pluperfect
The remote pluperfect is the recent pluperfect with a more distant meaning and different forms. Its meaning is similar to English "had X (some time ago)." It is used normally in conjunction with another action which occurs after the pluperfect (I had seen the cat before he jumped on me).

The forms of her in this tense are hoi, huiste, hubo, huimos, huístez, huiron.

Future Perfect

The future perfect in Oscanez is used with deadlines (by X), or with a sense of certainty "I must have left my coat at home". The "must have" translation is usually used in conjunction with certain adverbs, similar to English. Otherwise it is similar to English "will have X."

The forms of her in this tense are habré, habrés, habrá, habremos, habrez, habrán.

Conditional Perfect
The conditional perfect is generally translated exactly like English "would have," with use in the apodosis of a condition, or by itself in a hypothetical statement "I would have liked to go, but I'm okay now." The conditional perfect also has a use of unconfirmed guesses. This is similar to English "may have" "might have" "had probably."

The forms of her in this tense are habrea, habreas, habrea, habreamos, habréaz, habrean.

Progressive Constructions & Estar
There are three main verbs used with the gerundif, they areː estar, seghir, ir. These forms are combined with the gerundif, or the Classical Latin future passive participle. Similar constructions are present in other Romance languages. With estar, the verb has a progressive meaning. It is generally the same as English "is Xing," but cannot be used to mean in a future time. The simple present expresses that.

There is a distinction between imperfect estaia cantant and preterite esteji cantant. The imperfect is closer to "was Xing" but denoting more habituality, while the preterite is "has been Xing." Estar is never used in any other tense.

Seghir has a meaning of "continues Xing" or "keeps Xing." It is used in the imperfect or present tense only.

Like seghir, ir is only used with the imperfect and present tenses. It means "goes around Xing."

Subjunctif O subjuntif
The Oscanez subjunctive most often, although not exclusively, is in subordinate clauses, introduced by che (that). It is used mostly with verbs or adverbs expressing desire, doubt, hypothetical statements or eventuality; it may also express an order. There are several set phrases in Oscanez which take a subjunctive.

Esir
Esir is the essential copula. It descends from Vulgar Latin *essere, with major irregularity. Esir is generally used as a personal linking verb describing occupation / profession, nationality / origin, personal (permanent) adjectives. When used as a simple linking verb, esir does not take articles. Generally, estar is used in emotional or physical condition, but esir can be used for permanent condition. For example, to say “She is a beautiful woman” with the specific connotation of this woman always being beautiful, one says “E muyer bela.”

If the present indicative or subjunctive first person links with a word with a vowel, the form of esir contracts into s' (I am tall -- Jo s'ot).

Estar
Estar is the stative copula. It descends from Vulgar Latin *stare, with some irregularity. Estar is generally used whenever esir would not be used. It is used in all progressive tenses with the gerundive, and in time, emotional or physical conditions, location, and temporal descriptions. For example, to say, “She is beautiful today,” one says “Está bela hui.”

Her
= Conversational Words = As Oscanez has a distinction similar to Spanish in formal vs. informal speech, the conversational table reflects that. Informal takes the tu conjugation while the formal takes the vostet.