Ionian (conlang)

Ionian or Lingua Ioniâno /liŋɡʷa jonʲa:no/ is a constructed language that started as an idea to create a romance language without grammatical gender, a feature in all of the romance languages spoken today. Even though Ionian lacks this feature, there are words with gender distinctions such as, mother and father or 'matra' and 'patra' respectively.

Ionian was made to be a constructed romance language. Main inspiration behind the creation of Ionian vocabulary has been Latin and Italo-Dalmatian languages.

Ionian is spoken on a fictional island nation called The Ionian kingdom, situated between Italy and Greece in an alternative universe.

Ionian vocabulary

Ionian words have mainly derived from Latin, but have been artificially evolved or altered.

Main source of Ionian root words come from two Latin dictionaries: Latinaa liikemiehille - Caveat emptor! -Latin for businessmen and Suomi-latina-suomi : sanakirja = Finnico-Latino-Finnicum : lexicon

Alphabet and pronunciation

Ionian uses the Latin alphabet and features 16 consonantal sounds and a simple five vowel system; A, E, I, O and U.

Ionian vowels use the caret symbol to indicate a long vowel sound.

Ionian alphabet

Uppercase letters

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

I

J

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

X

Z

Lowercase letters

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

i

j

l

m

n

o

p

q

r

s

t

u

v

x

z

IPA phonemes

a

b

k / t͡ʃ

d

e

f

g / d͡ʒ

i

j

l

m

n

o

p

k

r

s

t

u

v

x

z

Notes

• C is [t͡ʃ] before i and e, [k] elsewhere
• G is [d͡ʒ] before i and e, [g] elsewhere
• Sc always stays as [sk]
• The caret symbol [^] makes vowels long
• Ng is ŋg
• Nk is ŋk
• Ionian alphabet also has the letter H, but it is silent
• Th is [θ]
• Cs is [ks] (consonant cluster)
• Ts is [t͡s]
• Nj is [ɲ]
• Lj is [ʎ]

Labialized velar consonants:

• Q preceded by Ua, Ui, Ue and Uo become [kʷa], [kʷi], [kʷe] and [kʷo], respectively
• G preceded by Ua, Ui, Ue and Uo become [gʷa], [gʷi], [gʷe] and [gʷo], respectively

Dialects

Central Ionian is the standard form of Ionian. Besides Central Ionian, it has four dialects.

• Flumian
• Vidrolagian
• Dursovadian
• Cavotellian

Differences in pronunciation for each dialect

• Flumian

[x] → [k]

H is not written

[θ] → [t]

[t͡s] → [z]

S before consonant → [ʃ]

• Vidrolagian

x is not written

h is not written

r is [χ] before T and D, otherwise [r]

rr → [χ] (Voiceless uvular fricative)

• Dursovadian

[t͡ʃ] → [ʃ] (Voiceless postalveolar fricative)

[d͡ʒ] → [ʒ]

dd → [ɖ]

• Cavotellian

[t͡ʃ] → [ʃ] (Voiceless postalveolar fricative)

[d͡ʒ] → [ʒ] (Voiced postalveolar fricative)

[θ] and [d] → [ð]

rr → [χ] (Voiceless uvular fricative)

[t͡s] → [z]

[g] before A, U and O → [ɣ], otherwise [g]

References

This article "Ionian (conlang)" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Ionian (conlang). Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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