Iermansc 2.0

The key design goal of Iermansc 2.0 is to simulate the effects of language contact between a ruling Romance-speaking class and a subject Germanic-speaking class in the area roughly corresponding to OTL Bavaria and Austria. The chronology assumes the conquest of southern Germania was accomplished at least tentatively in the first century AD, with a period of several centuries of romanization.

Northern Romance
The Roman settlers of Germania came mostly from northern Italy, Norica and Rhaetia. Iermansc has the closest family resemblance to OTL Romansh, Ladin, Venetian and Fruilian (In the Iermansc timeline Switzerland is a Romanized kingdom called Recia, with a national language similar to Romansh, while the Venitian Republic is a major power in the Mediterranean). However, due to its location on the periphery of the Empire, it shares some features with Iberian Romance and Romanian.

Pre-Old High German
The state of the language of the conquered Bavarians can best be characterized as somewhere between proto-Germanic and Old High German, namely Pre-OHG. The consonant and vowel shifts which distinguish between proto-Germanic and OHG not yet under way during the invasion. OTL the high German shift began 400 AD at the earliest, and is not attested until at least the 600s AD. However, it is possible that some sound changes analagous to the OHG shift could take place.

Phonemes in Germanic
Proto-Germanic contained the following consonants: /p b t d k g f þ s[z] χ[h] m n w r l j/ Vowels: /i ī u ū e ē a ō/

and Diphthongs: /ei ai eu au/


 * In words with Latin ō, the vowel was raised to ū rather than lowered to ā, as in Go. Rumoneis, corresponding to Lat. Rōmānī, and OHG Rūma, ON Rūma-borg to Lat. Rōma.

This fact will influence the /ō u/ > /u/ sound shift.