Alegna

General information
Currently being Redesigned

Alegna /a.le.ɲa/ is a Western Romance language. It is notable for its sandhi (la jognêxoign di frazes /la ʒoɲexoj di fʁazes/) occuring between words. Unlike French's liason, sandi in Aleña mostly affects vowels.

L'alegna ês ugn lengudigox dil oês. Ês chognocedoix di la jognêxoign di frazes jed êxeste en pavolas.

[lal.'eɲ‿ ɛs u le.'ŋu.'di.go dil o.ɛs ɛs ʃo.ɲo.'ce.doj di la ʒo.'ɲe.xoj di fʁa.'zes ʒed ɛ.'xest‿en pa.vo.'las].

In many areas, Alegna is more conservative the other romance languages (e.g. it kept octo [okto] < OCTŌ), but Alegna was innovative in other areas (e.g. chadoi [ʃadoj] < QUATTOR]

Consonants
There are 21 consonants in Aleña.

Vowels
Alegna makes no phonemic distinction for vowel length

Dipthongs
Alegna has the following dipthings: /aj, oj, aʊ, jV, wV/

Orthography
The spelling of Alegna is mostly regular. There is an almost one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters and almost every letter written is actally pronounced (exceptions include  and  see below).

Stress
Stress in Alegna has become very regular. If the word ends in a vowel, the stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable. If the word ends in a consonant (except  or ), the stress is on the ultimate syllable.

Syllables
Syllables in Alegna are relatively simple. The are consist of at most (C)V(C)(C). Examples V - ugn [u] VC - ês [ɛs] CV - li [li] CVC - frazes [faʁ.'zes] VCC - ils [ils] CVCC - êxeste (when followed by a word starting with a vowel) [ɛ.'xest]

Morphophonology
In order to prevent hiatus, and ensure a smoother connection between words, Alegna has developed a system of morphophonology called la jognêxoign di frazes (literally "connection of phrases"). In certain environemtns, certain sounds will change or reappear. The rules are summarized below

1.  and  are silent at the end of a word unless the following word ends in a vowel. Then they become [x] and [ɲ] (gn becomes [n] when the next word starts with [i]).

2. When a word ends with the same consonant as the following word, the last consonant is dropped.

3. /i V/ > [ø‿jV] when V isn't [i]

4. /u v/ > [ø‿wV] when V is't [u] 5. When a word ends in any other vowel and the next word starts with a vowel, the lower and/or more back vowel is dropped (e.g. Alegna ês /aleɲa ɛs/ > aleɲ‿ ɛs). If the two vowels are the same, then the word final vowel is dropped and the word initial vowel is kept.

6. /n/ > [ɲ] and the end of a word when the next word starts with a vowel that isn't [i].