Cirtanian

General information
Cirtanian, known natively as Cirtaugnan/Χιρταυνιαν <ʃir'tawɲ.ans> or Leng Cirtaugnan/Λενγ Χιρταυνιαν ('leŋg ʃiɾt'aw.ɲan) is a Romance language native to the island of Cirtania east of Italy in the Mediterranean sea. It split off from late Classical/ early Vulgar Latin and retains some aspects of Latin lost in other languages such as nouns that decline to case in number (though the ablative, dative and genitive cases merged, and the fourth and fifth declensions merged with the second and third) Due to its proximity to Greece, it picked up several Greek loanwords as well as phonological and grammatical influences. There is even a way of writing the language in the Attic alphabet used mainly in Greece and taught in most schools in Cirtania, though the Latin system is more common and will be used primarily in this grammar.

Consonants
Some notes about the orthography
 * The rule about c and g is similar Italian: c and g are pronounced  and  except before i, e and ӑ. Ch and gh are variants of c and g used to maintain the hard pronunciation even before i, e and ӑ. The Attic variant instead uses the separate letters χ and ζ to represent the soft pronunciation.
 * Z is pronounced as ts if it derives from a t in Latin (i.e. nātiō > nauziu <'naw. ts i.u>) and dz if it derives from a d (persuādeō > persuauziu 
 * X is a similar story doctus > dox <'doks>, vagus > vax <'vagz>. However, when the x is followed by a soft c, it is pronounced kʃ.
 * I and u represent  and  before another vowel.
 * The letter h is always silent and is not even represented in the Attic variant.
 * N and l have palatal allophones when followed by an unstressed front vowel and another vowel. In the Latin writing system, the Italian convention of gn and gl is used, whereas no special spelling is used in Greek since a similar allophony already exists in Greek (it is written νι or λι, hence magno is written in Greek μανιo and Itaglia is written Ιταλια)
 * ɾ and r are used interchangeably.

Vowels
Greek borrowings usually use Greek-resembling spellings in the Attic variant even when they conflict with how Cirtanian is typically spelled. Thus anoits (stupid) is spelled ανοητς instead of ανοιτς, although it is not uncommon for native speakers to misspell these words.

Sound Changes
Cirtanian sound changes happened in four stages. The first were unique to Cirtanian and define it from other Romance languages. The second were the basic changes of Vulgar Latin (of which only most occurred in Cirtanian, some sound changes did not manifest except in Romance borrowings.) Then, after the split of the Roman Empire, a series of Hellenistic sound changes occurred. Finally, a second series of Romance sound changes occurred due to influence from Italy.

Original Cirtanian Changes (100 BC - 100 AD)
Short final unstressed vowels dropped initially and finally unless a consonant other than -s follows it Long vowels diphthongize, shift place, or simply remain the same. Final plosives become affricates (except in feminine nouns/adjectives) Double vowels simplify It was also at this time that the genitive and ablative cases were lost, leaving nominative, accusative, and dative.
 * bonus (good) > bons (later > buons)
 * lātus (wide) > lauz
 * cēlō (hide) > cilu
 * rōmānus (Roman) > rumauns (urban, civilized)
 * crūdelis (rude, evil) > crodels
 * īre (to go) > ir
 * et (and) > ez > es (de-affrication is irregular)
 * per hoc (for this reason) > peróc (however, but)  > peróx
 * comēta (comet) > comit
 * tuus (your) > tos (note, the short u > o was because of analogy with tū > to, not a regular sound change.)
 * vacuus (empty) > vacus > vax (ignorant)

Vulgar Latin Changes (0 AD - 200 AD)
Diphthongs become monophthongs E turns into i before another vowel and after a lenitable consonant.
 * caelum (sky) > celo
 * deinde (then) > denz
 * deiciō (throw down) > deciu (defeat)
 * laus (praise) > los
 * persuādeō (persuade) > persauziu

E before a vowel elsewhere disappears Word-final M drops C and g palalize after i and e.
 * iāceō (throw) > giaciu
 * habeō > aveu > avu
 * templum > tempio (note the u > o resulted from analogy with the Greek neuter, not any sound change.)
 * quam > quă
 * circum > circo ('tʃir.co)
 * gēns (tribe) > gins ('dʒins)

Hellenist Sound Changes (285 AD- 1200 AD)
Unstressed vowels with no onset drop initially, and an m, n or l after the dropped vowel disappears and voices the following consonant. Sc and St metathesize at the beginning of a word (except sc doesn't metathesize before i or e) Consonants degeminate .Palatals de-affricate During this period the dative case was reinterpreted as genitive, paralleling Greek's declension system.
 * angustus (narrow) > gusz (often pronounced  rather than )
 * imperium (empire) > berio (nation)
 * stō (stand) > zu
 * σκιά (shadow) > xiă
 * sciō (know) > ciu (study)
 * callidus > caliz
 * circo ('tʃir.co) > circo ('ʃir.co)
 * gins ('dʒins) > gins ('ʒins)

Italic Sound Changes (1096 AD - present)
L becomes i after a fricative or plosive E and o diphthongize in stressed open syllables I and u lower in stressed closed syllables (except in monosyllabic words)
 * plūs (more) > pió
 * flōs (flower) > fiús
 * tepidus (lukewarm) > tiepiz (indifferent)
 * novus (new) > nuovs ('nwovz)
 * victus (defeated) > vecz

B becomes v intervocallicaly
 * iungō (join) > giongu
 * in (in) > in
 * habeō (have) > avu
 * caballus (horse) > cavals

Nouns and Adjectives
As stated previously, nouns decline in two major groups to four cases and two numbers. Below are some examples of declined nouns and adjectives.

Masculine
Standard Declension (nom sing -s)

Abnormal Declension (nom sing irregular)

Former second declension nouns (called masculi normali) are pretty much the same as Latin plus sound change. Former third declension nouns with a nominative singular ending of -is, -(C)s, -x, or -or became second declension (called masculi normali). Other third declension nouns retained their paradigm, and are called masculi gonditi.

Feminine
Standard Declension (nom sing null) Abnormal Declension (nom sing irregular) Former first declension nouns (called feminine normale) are also the same as Latin plus sound change. Former third declension nouns (feminine gondite) again retain a paradigm closer to the Latin third (none of them merged with any other declensions in the feminine gender.)

Neuter
Standard Declension (nom sing -o) Abnormal Declension (nom sing irregular) Again, both declensions remain mostly the same. Second declension nouns are called neutră normală and third neutră gondită.

As should be expected, adjectives must agree with the nouns they modify in number, gender and case. Thus large flower would be fiús magnăs (a schwa is inserted between gn or gli and -s), large girl would be corít magn, and large nation would be berio magno.

Adjective Degrees

 * The positive is the citation form (shocking!)
 * The comparative is formed with pió (more, derived from plūs) plus the positive forms
 * The superlative is formed with -issims added to the fem. nom. sing, eg liez (happy, from laetus) > lietissims (happiest.) Words ending with -ls and -r add -ims instead (facils (easy, from facilis) > facilims, liber (free, from līber) > liberims)

Articles and Prepositions
Latin prepositions that governed the ablative or genitive case now govern the dative case, and Latin prepositions that governed the accusative case still govern that case, with a few exceptions and irregularities. A few common prepositions:

in (+ABL in, inside, +ACC in, into) > in (+DAT in, inside, +ACC in, into)

ēx (+ABL out of, outside of) > es (+DAT outside of, +ACC (moving) out of)

dē (+ABL down from, about) > di (+DAT about, +ACC down from)

super (+ACC beyond) > sur

Like most other Romance languages, Cirtanian developed its definite article from Latin ille/illa/illud. The definite article, for the most part, is similar to that of Italian. It is used before all proper nouns including people (except when directly addressing those people) (thus il Efrup and sil Marx, not Efrup or Marx) and to form a generic sense of a group or category (lӑ teknӑ son filicӑ- babies are happy.) Unlike Italian or Spanish, Cirtanian articles do not change depending on the onset (or lack thereof) of the next word. Similar to Italian, Cirtanian definite article can contract with some prepositions. There's also an indefinite article, but (like Italian) it doesn't contract with prepositions.

Verbs
The conlang wikia is not friendly to porting over massive tables, and I don't feel like rewriting all of my conjugation paradigms in friendlier wikitables, so go here to see the charts.

Tense
Cirtanian's unique paradigm for tense developed during the Vulgar Latin period and into the Hellenistic period. NB: For the future tenses and the perfect tenses, the auxiliary fused with the main verb. Thus "I have spoken" is avumilaz, not avu milaz, and he will run is "vucura" not "vu cura."
 * The present tense is largely Latin with sound change, except for the second and third person singular which were borrowed from Italian.
 * The preterite is uniquely conservative from the Latin perfect, lacking the innovations other romance languages needed in order to make it comprehensible.
 * The perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect all derive from forms of aver or eser (depending on the verb) plus the past participle.
 * The future tenses are formed by the present subjunctive (formed by ablaut similar to Latin, i.e a > e, e > ea and i > a) plus worn away forms of Latin īre (to go) for the imminent future and velle (to want) for the simple future.

Syntax
Word order is freer than other Romance languages, but the general scheme is SVO. Also, adjectives come after the noun they describe (except for adjectives of quantity or size, which usually come before), although articles and demonstratives always come before their noun.

Vocabulary
See Cirtanian Lexicon (TBA)

Example text
See Cirtanian Lessons