Varonian [VRNS]
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Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 26 October 2022
Language type
A posteriori
Place & SpeakersVaronian is spoken by a population of around 35,000,000 in the Aquitanian Republic.
Species
Human/humanoid
About Varonian
Varonian, in Varonian Varonès, also called Aquitèn or Baḥrí, is my first major conlanging project. It is a romlang, based on Gallo-Romance under the influence of Arabic and a scarcely attested substrate, my source for a priori vocabulary. At its heart, Varonian is an artlang. Though I have gone through the effort to make sure this language mimics the way a natural language would develop, its primary purpose has always been for artistic expression, with the bonus of flushing out a worldbuilding project. As of now it has been the product of nearly four years of learning how languages work, how to create conlangs, experimentation, and a handful of reiterations. Through said iterations, my primary inspirations slowly drifted from French and German; to Spanish, Occitan, and Arabic. The current version of Varonian most closely resembles Occitan and Catalan in morphology.
(language is more or less functional, I'm just slow to upload vocabulary here lol)
(language is more or less functional, I'm just slow to upload vocabulary here lol)
Sound samples in Varonian
Some sound samples of Varonian. Maximum of 6 shown. Click the links to see the full texts.
Ameix una llengua nòva fa qu'al mond soya mond nòva
Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world.
Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world.
Çaves quan- eh- almacenas at·tianf en reloj... ¿quèf lo tornas a traer?
When, erm, you store time on a clock, how do you get it back out again?
When, erm, you store time on a clock, how do you get it back out again?
Guerra. La guerra na yecanjaña jamàs
War. War never changes.
War. War never changes.
Ya, fuix qu'eila a laihaut
Ya, aḥailé lar fara evir
Ya, esté al fin de Caile Oída
à 'He...
Well, since my baby left me Well, I found a new place to dwell
Well, since my baby left me Well, I found a new place to dwell
Fareix qu'al enfajista encolaut fedaços de faruaxe a la jjiṭarra
It looks like the taxidermist glued chunks of fur to the guitar.
It looks like the taxidermist glued chunks of fur to the guitar.
A nostra retornaya, buscans cangreils, ḥaracones ua feixes en arroyo.
On our way back, we looked for crabs, snails, and fishes in a stream.
On our way back, we looked for crabs, snails, and fishes in a stream.
Language family relationships
Language treeItalic
⤷ Italic
⤷ Latino-Faliscan
⤷
Latin
⤷ Vulgar Latin
⤷ Western Romance
⤷ Gallic
⤷ Occitano-Romance
⤷ Varano-Romance
⤷
Varonian
⤷ Italic
⤷ Latino-Faliscan
⤷
Latin⤷ Vulgar Latin
⤷ Western Romance
⤷ Gallic
⤷ Occitano-Romance
⤷ Varano-Romance
⤷
Varonian [edit] [view] Baḥrí (Bafrian )Formerly called Imperial Aqutani. Derived from the Arabic influenced Aquitanian of the nobility and Arabic-Varonian creoles of common folk spoken between the 16th and 20th century, during the rule of the Mauretanian Empire. It fell out of use in mainland Aquitania following the dissolution of the Mauretanian Empire, but persisted in the Aquitanian diaspora in Arabic speaking countries
[edit] [view] Sorièn-Vizcaín (Biscay Varonian)Dialect cluster around the Bay of Biscay, and the northern extents of Varonia. From French influence, these dialects have lost all affricates, preserved the soft g as /ʒ/, realize as [ʀ~ʁ], and lost lexical stress.
[edit] [view] Baj-Catalàn (Iberian Varonian)A dialect of Varonian spoken in Northern Spain and Catalonia. Notable for reducing the seven vowel system to five, betacism, lenition of /b, d, g/ before a continuant, a lack of final obstruent devoicing, and a soft c /θ/ which merged with ṭ /θ/. These dialects tend not to use the emphatic forms of verbs
Phonology
| Consonants | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Dental | Alveolar | Alveolo- palatal | Palatal | Labio- velar | Velar | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | |||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | b | t̪ | d̪ | k | g | ʔ | ||||||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | θ | s | ɕ1 | x | ħ | [ʕ]2 | ||||||||||||
| Affricate | t͡s | t͡ɕ3 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | ʎ4 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Approximant | j5 | w | ||||||||||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||||||||
| Flap | ɾ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Blends | xɛ | gwo | xe | sɛ | gɛ | kwe | su | kwo | kwa | kwi |
| gwa | wa | so | kɛ | gi | sa | swi | ke | gwe | ge | |
| si | wi | gwi | xi | wij | ki | se | ja |
- also described as /ʃ/
- some speakers insert /ʕ/ between identical vowels to avoid hiatus, allophone of //
- also described as /tʃ/
- merges with /j/ in most dialects
- may become fricative /ʝ/ word initially, after /n/, and intervocalically
| Vowels | Front | Back | ||
| Close | i i̯ | u [u̯]1 | ||
| Close-mid | e | o | ||
| Open-mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Open | a | |||
| Polyphthongs | aje | awo | uj | aja | eji |
- allophone of /w/
Syllable StructureGeneral restrictions are as follows:
Onset
First consonant (C₁): can be any consonant, except /ʔ/ word initially
Second consonant (C₂): if C₁ is /p, t, k, b, d, g, f/, a second consonant /l, ɾ/ is permitted. Clusters /vɾ, ħɾ/ are also allowed. The cluster /dl/ is not possible, and /tl/ only occurs word internally.
Nucleus
Semivowel (S₁)
Vowel (V)
Semivowel (S₂)
Coda
Third consonant (C₃): can be any consonant
Fourth consonant (C₄): if C₃ is /n, r, l, s/, a final /p, t, k, s/ are permitted; /ss/ however is nonexistent. if C₃ is /p, t, k/, a final /s/ is also allowed
All word initial clusters beginning with /s/ receive an epenthetic /e/, e.g. esqal [esˈkal]
Adapted words with prenasalized stops also receive this initial /e/, such as the surname Nguema [eŋˈgema]
Adaptation of words with forbidden codas will be broken up an epenthetic /e/ between the consonants
/x/ cannot occur word finally, this is replaced with [ʃ], e.g. taj [taʃ]
All word final plosives and fricatives must be voiceless
Word finally /ʝ, ʎ/ is rendered as semivocalic [i̯], e.g. aqueil [aˈkei̯]
/ʔ/ can never appear in clusters, e.g. diġa /ˈdiʔa/, cognate with Sp. lengua /ˈlen.gwa/
/r/ and /ɾ/ only contrast intervocalically. Only /r/ appears word initially, and before /l, n, s/. /ɾ/ only appears after obstruents, and in the coda.
Onset
First consonant (C₁): can be any consonant, except /ʔ/ word initially
Second consonant (C₂): if C₁ is /p, t, k, b, d, g, f/, a second consonant /l, ɾ/ is permitted. Clusters /vɾ, ħɾ/ are also allowed. The cluster /dl/ is not possible, and /tl/ only occurs word internally.
Nucleus
Semivowel (S₁)
Vowel (V)
Semivowel (S₂)
Coda
Third consonant (C₃): can be any consonant
Fourth consonant (C₄): if C₃ is /n, r, l, s/, a final /p, t, k, s/ are permitted; /ss/ however is nonexistent. if C₃ is /p, t, k/, a final /s/ is also allowed
All word initial clusters beginning with /s/ receive an epenthetic /e/, e.g. esqal [esˈkal]
Adapted words with prenasalized stops also receive this initial /e/, such as the surname Nguema [eŋˈgema]
Adaptation of words with forbidden codas will be broken up an epenthetic /e/ between the consonants
/x/ cannot occur word finally, this is replaced with [ʃ], e.g. taj [taʃ]
All word final plosives and fricatives must be voiceless
Word finally /ʝ, ʎ/ is rendered as semivocalic [i̯], e.g. aqueil [aˈkei̯]
/ʔ/ can never appear in clusters, e.g. diġa /ˈdiʔa/, cognate with Sp. lengua /ˈlen.gwa/
/r/ and /ɾ/ only contrast intervocalically. Only /r/ appears word initially, and before /l, n, s/. /ɾ/ only appears after obstruents, and in the coda.
Stress informationPenultimate syllable is stressed if word ends in a vowel, or a vowel followed by -s or -n. Ultimate syllable is stressed if word ends in any other consonant or consonant combination. If final syllable contains a diphthong, it will be stressed even if not followed by a consonant. Any exceptions are marked à, è, é, í (ý), ò, ó, ú for stressed /a ɛ e i ɔ o u/. Accent marks on í and ú are also used to clearly mark that a vowel sequence should be pronounced as a hiatus, even if the stress falls in the expected position (i.e. /aˈiɾ/ must be written 'aír', even though /i/ appears in an environment where it should be stressed. 'air' would be read as /ˈai̯ɾ/)
Other/e, o/ and /ɛ, ᴐ/ only contrast in stessed syllables. When not explicitly marked, [ɛ, ᴐ] may appear as allophones of /e, o/ in closed syllables and before /j, w, ʔ, ħ/.
Under influence of Spanish, many dialects realize /b, d, g/ as [β, ð, ɣ] in all places except after a pause, word initially, before nasals, and in the case of /d/, before /l/. This generally coincides with a loss of contrast between /v/ and /b/.
The exact realization of coda final nasals is /n/ will assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant; it is realized as [n] when word final
[m] (_b, p)
[ŋ~ɱ] (_f, v)
[n] (_ s, ts, r, l, ħ)
[n̪] (_ t, d, θ)
[ɲ] (_ ʃ, tʃ, j~ʝ, ʎ~j)
[ŋ] (_ k, g, x, w)
A similar princess occurs with coda final /l/ to a lesser extent
[l̪] (_ t, d, θ)
[ʎ] (_ ʃ, tʃ)
[ɫ] (_k, g, x) (only in certain Northern dialects)
Coda final consonants are devoiced before voiceless consonants in most dialects. Notably this produces a native [p] sound, e.g. obtenir /obteˈnir/ [ɔptɛˈnir]
A few dialects demonstrate total voicing assimilation, almost always coinciding with the realization of /b, d, g/ as fricatives. e.g. atmosfèric [aðmɔsˈfɛɾik], anècdota [aˈnɛɣðɔta]
Vowel harmony is found between the mid vowels in the standard dialect. The value of the leftmost mid vowel in a word spreads to all following mid vowels, until a stressed mid open vowel, /ɛ, ᴐ/
Under influence of Spanish, many dialects realize /b, d, g/ as [β, ð, ɣ] in all places except after a pause, word initially, before nasals, and in the case of /d/, before /l/. This generally coincides with a loss of contrast between /v/ and /b/.
The exact realization of coda final nasals is /n/ will assimilate to the place of articulation of the following consonant; it is realized as [n] when word final
[m] (_b, p)
[ŋ~ɱ] (_f, v)
[n] (_ s, ts, r, l, ħ)
[n̪] (_ t, d, θ)
[ɲ] (_ ʃ, tʃ, j~ʝ, ʎ~j)
[ŋ] (_ k, g, x, w)
A similar princess occurs with coda final /l/ to a lesser extent
[l̪] (_ t, d, θ)
[ʎ] (_ ʃ, tʃ)
[ɫ] (_k, g, x) (only in certain Northern dialects)
Coda final consonants are devoiced before voiceless consonants in most dialects. Notably this produces a native [p] sound, e.g. obtenir /obteˈnir/ [ɔptɛˈnir]
A few dialects demonstrate total voicing assimilation, almost always coinciding with the realization of /b, d, g/ as fricatives. e.g. atmosfèric [aðmɔsˈfɛɾik], anècdota [aˈnɛɣðɔta]
Vowel harmony is found between the mid vowels in the standard dialect. The value of the leftmost mid vowel in a word spreads to all following mid vowels, until a stressed mid open vowel, /ɛ, ᴐ/
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Varonian. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
| VaronianOrthography [edit] | ||||||||
| Aa a /a/ | Bb ba /b/ | Cc caf /k/, /s/ | Dd da /d̪/ | Ee é /ɛ/, /e/ | Ff fa /f/ | Gg gaf /x/, /g/ | Ġġ ança /ʔ/ | Hh hajja // |
| Ḥḥ ḥa /ħ/ | Ii i /i/ | Jj jot /x/ | Ll la /l/ | Mm mín /m/ | Nn nún /n/ | Ññ nuñe /ɲ/ | Oo o /ɔ/, /o/ | Qq cu /k/ |
| Rr arra /ɾ/ | Ss sín /s/ | Tt ta /t̪/ | Ṭṭ ṭa /θ/ | Uu u /u/ | Vv va /v/ | Xx xín /ɕ/1 | Yy i griac /j/2, /i/ | Zz ceta /t͡s/ |
| ✔ Shown in correct order [change] | ||||||||
- also described as /ʃ/
- may become fricative /ʝ/ word initially, after /n/, and intervocalically
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