Lanquanese

Lanquanese [IPA: læ̹ŋkʷəˈniːz] is a Romance language spoken by about 2.5 million people. Its vocabulary resembles that of the French language, though Lanquanese is almost mutually unintelligible to that of spoken French. However, when spoken at normal speed, the language can easily perceived to be Italian, and many Lanquanese words resemble written Italian words. Lanquanese is a synthetic language, just as are Latin, French, Spanish, Romanian, and German. Out of Latin's three grammatical genders‒‒masculine, feminine, and neuter‒‒Lanquanese has preserved two‒‒masculine and feminine. Like Spanish, distinguishing between genders is not an arduous task, as it often can be in French or Romanian. There are no cases that are formed with endings tacked on the to end of a noun, as nouns are the used in their nominative form‒‒the standard‒‒wherever they may be placed in a sentence. Lanquanese verbs are conjugated by person, number, and gender, as well as by tense/mood and voice. Nouns are declined by number and gender, and the like is also applied to adjectives.

Setting
Lanquanese is the official language in the country of Lanquania. It is broken up into two medium-sized islands and four small isles and located off the west coast of France and north coast of Spain. With almost 2.5 million people speaking it as their mother tongue, the only other official language is French. The language is also a minority language in parts of Andorra, though particularly in the French coastal region of Bordeaux. Lanquania is made up of ten states: Zacchè, Ghegna, Vacherta, Quartello, Bellagio, Monatagia, Marcetti, Iloquella, La Mezza, and Gnello. The water from the Bay of Biscay, which surrounds the nation, forms the Quanagella River, cutting the nation into two islands, dividing it in half. Lez Arge, the famous Lanquanian mountain range, sets the boundary between Bellagio and Monatagia. All the coastal land surrounding the entire nation makes for wonderful beaches during the summer with warm temperatures, especially in the peninsular state of Gnello, "the Beach State", which prides itself for its crystal clear waters. Lanquania's major exports are granite from Lez Arge, emeralds and sapphires mined from Zacchè and Iloquella, and milk from Orgêssio. "The Cow State" milk is supposedly the creamiest and tastiest due to the upbringing of their cattle and the lush pasture on which they graze. The capital city of Lanquania, Delana, is found in the south of Bellagio and is a two hour drive to Lez Arge. It is also located on the Clearwater Lake, which leads into the Quanagella River. Ferries that cross the Quanagella are often taken from the other half of Lanquania to reach Delana.

Alphabet and Phonology
The Lanquanese alphabet is made up of 41 letters, many of which may be perceived to speakers of English as two letters combined. However, in Lanquanese, these so-called double letters are actually one letter. While they head their own section in a dictionary, both letters are not placed in the same spot in activities such as crossword puzzles or word searches. Unlike other languages, particularly Latin ones, there are no loan letters. All the letters of the Lanquanese alphabet are completely Lanquanese, though some are used more than others. Lanquanese is read just as it looks.

LANQUANESE ALPHABET: Aa Bb Cc CHch CIci CEce CYcy Dd Ee Ff Gg GHgh GIgi GEge GYgy GNgn GUgu Hh Ii Jj Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp QUqu Rr Ss SCHsch Tt Uu Vv Ūū Xx XHxh XIxi XExe XYxy Zz ZZzz Yy

Consonants
There are 35 consonants in Lanquanese, seen in normal fontface in the chart above. However, only 33 of those are true consonants due to the fact that two of the consonants are actually semi-vowels. These semi-vowels can be seen italicized in the same chart. In Lanquanese, most consonants have the same sound as they would in English. These would be  Bb, Dd, Ff, Hh, Ll, Mm, Nn, Pp, QUqu, Ss, Tt, Vv, and Zz. However, there are quite a few consonants that would not always be pronounced the way an English speaker might think:


 * It is good to keep in mind that the vowels in CIci, CEce, GYgy, XExe, etc. can change pronunciation when diacritics are placed on them following the rules that that particular vowel follows.

There are also characters in Lanquanese which are not letters in the alphabet, yet are used nonetheless. Two of these have diacritic marks on them: the cedilla on the Cc and the dash on the Hh.

Here is a table of all the sounds that exist in Lanquanese using the International Phonetic Alphabet: Here is how these IPA letters are represented in Lanquanese. If the letter seem in the box above is not seen in the chart below, this signifies that it has the same sound in Lanquanese.

Vowels
Lanquanese has 6 vowels, seen in bold as in the alphabet chart above, and two semi-vowels, seen in italics in the same chart. Sometimes, when placed before or after another vowel, Ii and Uu can act as semivowels, though technically they are not. All 6 vowels can have diacritics on them, which either change the stress placed on them, alter their pronunciation, or do both. There are 4 diacritics that can be placed on them: the acute (´), the grave (`), the circumflex (^), or the diæresis (¨). In general, the acute diacritic changes stress, the grave changes stress, pronunciation or both, the circumflex changes stress, pronunciation, or both, and the diæresis changes lengthens the value of the vowel.

Here is a chart that shows the sounds of all vowels, with and without diacritics, from the IPA. Notice that the grave and circumflex serve the same purpose, but that the grave is placed at the end of a word and the circumflex is placed elsewhere. Also note that when letters with the grave are placed within a word and when letters with a circumflex are placed outside a word, the stress shifts.
 * This denotes that the letter is normally stressed. When two or more letters that denote stress are in the same word, the second one takes the stress.

†This denotes that this takes place only when (I) the grave is at the middle or beginning of a word or (II) the circumflex is at the end of a word.

Here is a chart to show how to pronounce the IPA characters: