Roman Germanech
| Germanech | |
| Spoken in: | Germany |
| Timeline/Universe: | League of Lost Languages |
| Total speakers: | ca. 5,000 |
| Genealogical classification: | Indo-European |
| Basic word order: | SVO (V2), SOV in subclauses |
| Morphological type: | fusional |
| Morphosyntactic alignment: | accusative |
| Created by: | |
| Jörg Rhiemeier | 2001 |
Germanech ([ʒɛʀ'manɛç], also known as Mosel Romance) is a conlang invented by Jörg Rhiemeier. It is a Romance language of Germany which was inspired by Andrew Smith's Brithenig. In the world of the League of Lost Languages, it is spoken in a few villages in the vicinity of Trier, Germany.
Germanech has undergone certain sound changes similar to the ones of German, including the High German consonant shift and i-umlaut. Otherwise, it is a pretty normal Romance language without any "cool" features.
Phonology
Consonants
Germanech has the following consonant phonemes:
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
| Voiceless stops | /p/ | /t/ | /k/ | ||
| Voiced stops | /b/ | /d/ | /g/ | ||
| Voiceless affricates | /pf/ | /ts/ | /tʃ/ | ||
| Voiced affricates | /dʒ/ | ||||
| Voiceless fricatives | /f/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /ç/ | [x] |
| Voiced fricatives | /v/ | /ʒ/ | |||
| Nasals | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | ||
| Lateral | /l/ | ||||
| Trill | /ʀ/ (uvular) | ||||
| Semivowel | /j/ |
[x] is an allophine of /ç/ that occurs after back vowels.
Vowels
Germanech has the vowels /a ɛ i ɔ u/ (spelled a e i o u) plus the front rounded vowels /œ y/ (spelled ö ü). The letter ä represents the same vowel as e; it is used where the vowel represents an umlauted /a/.
Alphabet and pronunciation
The consonants are pronounced as in English, with the following exceptions:
| c | like sh before front vowels, like k elsewhere |
| ch | as in German |
| cj | always like sh |
| dj | like j in job |
| g | like s in measure before front vowels, like g in good elsewhere |
| gj | like s in measure |
| gu | as in guitar before front vowels |
| h | very lightly pronounced if at all |
| j | like y in yes (but see cj, dj, gj and tj) |
| qu | like k before front vowels |
| r | uvular r as in French |
| s | always as in sing |
| tj | like ch in chin |
| x | the same as s |
| z | the same as s |
The vowels are pronounced as in German.
Accent
Accent falls on the last non-e vowel, unless there is an e with an acute accent (é), in which case the latter is stressed.
