Cirtanian

General information
Cirtanian, known natively as Cirtaunians/Χιρταυνιανς <ʃiɾ'tawn.i.ans> or Ling Cirtaunie/Λινγ Χιρταυνιε ('liŋg ʃiɾt'aw.ni.e) 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 all of the declensions have merged into one pattern for masculine/neuter and one for feminine with a number of complications) 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.

Consonants
Some notes about the orthography
 * The rule about c and g is the same as Italian: c and g are pronounced  and  except before i, e and their long variants. Ch and gh are variants of c and g used to maintain the hard pronunciation even before i and e. 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 it derives from an x in Latin, it follows other rules demonstrated in the following words: exemplum > exemplăs <'eg.zem.pləs>, excelsus > excels  and ēx > eix <'ejks>. In other words, it is pronounced  when intervocalic,  before c and a front vowel, and  elsεwhere.
 * 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.

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 features extensive influence from both Greek and Italian, as well as some unique to itself.

Short initial unstressed vowels dropped initially and finally.
 * bonus (good) > bons


 * angustus (narrow) > gusz (arrogant) (commonly pronounced <'guts> rather than <'gusts>

An m, n or l after the dropped vowel disappears and voices the following consonant. Diphthongs become monophthongs E turns into i before another vowel and after a lenitable consonant.
 * imperium (empire) > berio (nation)
 * caelum > celo
 * deinde > (then) denz
 * deiciō (throw down) > deciu (defeat)
 * laus (praise) > los
 * persuādeō (persuade) > persauziu

E before a vowel elsewhere disappears Double vowels simplify Long vowels diphthongize, shift place, or simply remain the same. C and g palalize after i and e. D and t become affricates after i and another vowel I becomes gi before another vowel after another vowel or at the beginning of a word Labio-velars delabialize before front vowels L becomes i after a fricative or plosive Consonants degeminate Word-final M drops Final a becomes ă
 * iāceō (throw) > giaciu
 * pēior (worse) > peor > por
 * 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)
 * lātus (wide) > lauz
 * cēlō (hide) > cilu
 * rōmānus (Roman) > rumauns (Roman, urban, civilized)
 * crūdelis (rude, evil) > crodels
 * circum > circo ('ʃir.co)
 * gēns (tribe) > gins ('ʒins)
 * deus (God) > zis
 * natiō (nation) > naziu
 * maior (greater) > magior
 * iubeō (order) > giubu
 * quī (relative pronoun) > chi
 * quīnque (five) > chinche
 * plūs (more) > pio
 * flōs (flower) > fiăs (the ă resulted from the masculine singular removing the stem vowel, not any sound change.)
 * callidus > caliz
 * templum > tempio (note the u > o resulted from analogy with the Greek neuter, not any sound change.)
 * quam > quă
 * lauda (imp. sing praise) > lodă

Nouns
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

Feminine Neuter

Example text

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