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). 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
All masculine nouns are turned to the 3rd declension and feminine to first exceptions: feminine in the 3rd remaine and masculine in the 1st remain; other exceptions
 * (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 > we
 * 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
 * ì > e
 * í, è > i
 * é > ɛ
 * 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 > Old 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/Ṩ
 * ɛ, ɔ, ʌ, ɛ̃, ɔ̃, ʌ̃ > e, o, ɤ, ẽ, õ, ɤ˜/S, _#
 * 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/#_
 * Vm > Ṽᵝ
 * V(n, ŋ) > 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, lj > ɬ
 * Cl(j, u, o) > t͡ʃ

Old Shax > Modern Shax
Stress in VCV words becomes ultimate


 * ɑ > a
 * b > β/V_V
 * d > ð/V_V
 * g > ɣ/V_V
 * p > b/V́_V̀, _(r, l)
 * t > θ/V́_V̀; t > d/_r; tr > ðr/V́_V̀; tl > t͡ʃ
 * k > g/V́_V̀, _(r, l)
 * Geminates
 * lː > ɫ
 * ɬː > t͡ʃ
 * jː > ʒ
 * wː > β
 * Cː > C
 * β > w
 * ɣ > j
 * ɫ > g
 * r > ə̯/_#, VrC
 * l > w/#_
 * ɬ > s/#_
 * (f, v)jɛ > (p, b)ɛ
 * je > i
 * ju > ø
 * (ɪ̃, ỹᵝ, æ̃, ø̃, ɯ̃, õ) > (i, ø, ɛ, ø, ø, ɔ)
 * ɛa > i
 * VhV > Vː (if they're the same)
 * h > ∅
 * Vi, e > Vj
 * Vu, o > Vʊ̯
 * o > u/_#
 * e > i/_#
 * ɯ > ø
 * (e, o, ø, ɤ) > (ɛ, ɔ, œ, ʌ)/Ṩ, #_
 * (ɛ, ɔ, œ, ʌ) > (e, o, ø, ɤ)/S, _#
 * ɛ̀ > je
 * V̀ > ∅/#_ !#_V; (i, e, u, o)V > (j, j, w, w)V
 * w(i, e) > ɥ(i, e)
 * w > ∅/(u, o, ɔ, ø, œ)

Vowel
O = rounded

– = unrounded

Stress
Stress always falls on the penultimate syllable.

Sandhi
Words that end in a consonant that come before a word that starts with a consonant can have an optional  placed before the word for ease of pronounciation. (af zieluaf [af θjelwaf] or af r̀-zieluaf [afə.θjelwaf]).

Alphabet

 * 1)  and  is [ɛ] and [ɔ] respectivally in a closed syllable
 * 2)  is [ə̯] when a consonant follows it and a vowel precedes it
 * 3) [i] and [u] are [j] and [w] respectively before another vowel
 * 4) is [ɥ] before [i] or [e]
 * 5)  is [t͡ʃ] before, , <æ>, <œ>, , and 
 * 6)  is for loans

Multigraphs

 * 1) is used to denote [d͡ʒ] that became [t͡ʃ] through sound change
 * 2) ,, and  are from Greek loans
 * 3)  is used for words that used to be [ɫ] but became [g] with sound changes

Diacritics

 * 1) <â> and <û> follow the same principle as  and 

Case
In the vulgar latin dialect Shax descended from, the first declension was kept for feminine nouns, and the third was kept masculine nouns. In the masculine, there are three cases: the nominative, the possessive, and the prepositional: the nominative is from the Latin nominative and vocative (which was replaced with the vocative); the possessive is from the merged Latin genitive and dative; the accusative is from the Latin accusative and ablative. Note that the prepositional case is used in prepositional phrases as well as the accusative.

In the feminine, there are two cases: the nom-acc and dat-gen: the nom-acc case comes from the merged Latin nominative, accusative, and ablative cases (where the nom-acc acts like the masculine prepositional too); the dat-gen comes from the Latin dative and genintive.

Plural
Early on, the plural was standardized to use a <-f> on the singular for indication though there are exceptions. <-f> comes from the old dual number system (where the singular would have the nominative, possessive, and prepositional cases and the plural would have the nom-acc and dat-gen) where the nominative and possessive cases in the singular system merged and became the same.

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: [o, ɔ, ə, ʌ, œ] > [a] and [e, ɛ, ø, u, ɤ] > [i]. There are, of course, exceptions.

Masculine
Uazrer̀ [waθreə̯] - father (formal)

Feminine
Zielua [θjɛlwa] — forest, woods, wooland, etc

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).