Old Shax

General Information
This is the long lost North African romance language. It manifested in the Maghreb: specifically in modern-day Morocco, the Roman Empire's Mauritania. The East Roman Empire's side of North Africa was influenced by Greek and gave birth to coptic and other such languages.

("wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" <- for collapsible tables)

Sound Changes
´ = stressed, ` = unstressed, V = vowel, C - consonant, (S) = closed syllable, (Ṩ) = open syllable.

Classical Latin Stress Rules
Usually, stress is on the penultimata; however, if both the penultima and ultima are short and are not separated by two consonants, stress is on the antepenultima.

Rules of Assimilation
Usually the first consonants determins the assimilation (ex: zt > zd, gt > gd, etc), but fricatives hold more weight in these sound changes so the voicing goes to that (ex: gs > ks, ds > ts, bɬ > pɬ). Liquids don't have phonemic voice and are therefore irrelevant.

Classic Latin > Vulgar Latin

 * [yː], [ʏ] > [iː], [ɪ]
 * m > ∅/_# (except in monosyllable words)
 * m, n > ∅/(fricative)
 * w > β
 * h > ∅
 * b > β/V_V
 * syncope of vowels in unstressed medial syllables ending in [l] or [r]
 * oi̯ > e
 * ai̯ > ɛː
 * Removal of phonemic length (except in open stressed syllables and monosyllable words)
 * (e, i) > j/_V
 * ɪ > e
 * ʊ > o

Vulgar Latin > Mauritanian Romance

 * (o, u) > w/_V
 * au̯ > ɔ
 * pʰ > f
 * tʰ > tː
 * kʰ > x
 * β > v
 * s > ∅/_#
 * s > z/_#
 * iː > i
 * uː > jo
 * aː > ɛa
 * eː > je
 * oː > wa
 * ɛː > ɛ
 * z > θ
 * t > t͡ʃ/_(i, e, j)
 * d > d͡ʒ/_(i, e, j)
 * (e, i) > j/V_C
 * (o, u) > w/V_C
 * ú > jo/#_
 * s > θ/_(i, e, j)
 * á > ɑ/!ɛ_
 * à  > a
 * í, è > i
 * é > ɛ
 * ì > e
 * ó > ɔ
 * ɛ́ > je/!#_ (polysyllable)
 * ɔ > ɑ
 * V̀ > ◌/e, o, a, je_, jo_, ja_, we_, wo_, wa_ (unstressed closed syllable in multisyllabic words)
 * plosive + [l] > plosive + [r]
 * Arabic words
 * Arabic words' (Qur'anic) sound changes
 * ʕ > ∅
 * ħ > h
 * ʔ > ∅/#_
 * ʔ > t/!#_
 * tˤ, dˤ, sˤ, zˤ~ðˤ > ts, dz, sː, zː
 * aː > ɑɛ
 * iː > ea
 * uː > oa
 * tˤ, dˤ, sˤ, ðˤ, ɮˤ > ts, dz, sː, ðw, zː
 * ɟ > ʒ
 * q > k
 * χ > x
 * ʁ > ɣ
 * l > r/V_V
 * Lenition
 * b > β/V_V
 * d > ð/V_V
 * g > ɣ/V_V
 * s > z/V_V
 * z > j/V_V
 * k > x/V_V
 * t(r, l, w) > θ(r, l, w)
 * ɑ̀ >  ɤ/S
 * ɑ̀ >  ʌ/Ṩ
 * Vm > Ṽᵝ/!_V
 * V(n, ŋ) > Ṽ/!_V
 * Ṽ(plosive) > Vn(t, d); Vm(p, b); Vŋ(k, g)
 * p > w/#_
 * Final lenition
 * b > m/_#
 * d > n/_#
 * g > ŋ/_#
 * p > f/_#
 * t > d/_#
 * k > g/#_
 * kʷ(o, u) > ku
 * kʷ(i, e) > kʷʌ
 * kʷ(a, ɑ) > kʷɑ
 * kʷ > kf!_(ɑ, ʌ)
 * s, t, d > ∅/_#
 * Vk > Ṽ/_#

Mauritanian Romance > Shax
Stress moves to the penulimate syllable and monosyllable words carry no stress


 * l > ɬ/#_
 * θ > ∅/_#
 * l > ɬ/_VC
 * ɣ > j/V_V
 * ɣ > ∅
 * d͡ʒ > t͡ʃ
 * jo > ɤ
 * ʌ > ɤ
 * e, o, ɤ, ẽ, õ, ɤ˜ > ɛ, ɔ, ʌ, ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ʌ̃/S
 * ɛ, ɔ, ʌ, ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ʌ̃ > e, o, ɤ, ẽ, õ, ɤ˜/Ṩ, _#
 * u, o, ɤ > eu/C_#
 * (z, v, ð) > (θ, f, θ)/_#
 * Vj(i, e) > Vʒ(i, e)
 * b, m > β/_#
 * p > f/_#
 * w > v/V_V
 * eu > ju
 * h > ∅/_#
 * ɑ > a/S!_#
 * ɑ > a/#_
 * (for reiteration of the previous rule with the new vowels)
 * Vm > Ṽᵝ
 * Vn > Ṽ
 * Ṽ(plosive) > Vn(t, d); Vm(p, b); Vŋ(k, g)
 * ĩ, ẽ > ɪ̃
 * ɛ̃, ã > æ̃
 * ũ, õ, ɤ̃ > ø̃
 * ʌ̃, ɔ̃, ɑ̃ > ɔ̃
 * (ĩ, ẽ, ã, ɛ̃, ɤ, ʌ̃)ᵝ > ɯ̃ᵝ
 * (ũ, õ, ɔ̃)ᵝ > ỹᵝ
 * l(j, u, o) > ɬ(∅, u, ∅)
 * j > l/#_
 * ɬj > ɬ
 * Cl(j, u, o) > t͡ʃ
 * Geminates
 * lː > ɫ
 * ɬː > t͡ʃ
 * jː > ʒ
 * wː > β
 * Cː > C

Vowel
O = rounded

– = unrounded

Stress
Stress always falls on the penultimate syllable.

Alphabet
(*) they are [j] and [w] respectivally before another vowel

Diacritics
Note: because of vowel assmilation, vowels with accents, except á, don't need to be repeated (ex: éó -> éo [ɛɔ]). Exceptions use the umlaut (ex: éo -> éö [ɛo]).

Case
In the vulgar latin dialect Shax descended from, the first declension was kept for feminine nouns, and the third was kept masculine nouns. There are two cases: the nominative and the oblique: the nominative comes from the latin nominative (the nominative and genitive merged); the oblique comes from the latin accusative (in which the dative and ablative merged). There are exceptions.

Plural
In old Shax, there were three plurals: the nom-acc plural, the gen-abl plural, and the dat plural. Because the nom-acc plural looked identical to the regular nom-acc, the dat plural's ending, <-f> was borrowed and therefore turned into the plural marker. The gen plural was since dropped from modern Shax. There are exceptions.

Gender
There are two genders: masculine and feminine. Masculine can end in any vowel other than [a] and [e]. Feminine nouns always end in [a] or [e]. To make a feminine noun, you would convert the ending of the original masculine noun's vowel to one of these: [ɛ, ɑ, ɔ, ʌ] > [a] and [i, ɤ, u, o] > [e]. There are, of course, exceptions.

Definite
The definite article is taken from the latin word hīc, for proximal, and ille, for medial-distal.

Indefinite
The indefinite is taken from the latin word ūnus, for proximal, and is, for medial-distal.

Zero
The zero article in Shax corresponds to the partative article.

Adjectives
Adjectives were heavily simplified in Shax: only the stem was kept and declention was removed; there are some exceptions (e.x.: bonus).

General Information
The perfect, pluperfect, and future past conjugations were dropped in favor of a paraphrastic conjugation. The perfect and imperfect lost their meaning and merged into the preterite in the indicative; the subjunctive perfect merged with the imperfect semantically and became the general past. The conditional mood came from the antique latin future perfect tense. The interrogative tense came from the passive subjunctive tenses (the passive became paraphrastic where to be and the participle of the desired tense).

Paraphrastic
= present participle

= past participle

=  future participle

Éser
éser [ɛser] = to Be

–

Avfir
–

-ari
améari = to Love

(*) Changes to condition (where the final conosnant is assimilated into the nasal): final velar > ñ, final labial > m