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As promised i said i'd do an intro to Montreiano (following Eric's model somewhat) History: Montreaino originates in Spain, probably somewhere near Galicia (i have to figure that part out). It's similar in many ways to Spanish and Portuguese, with some of it looking similar to French. During the late 1600's when California was discovered by the Spanish, colonies were established mainly by Montreianos who were fleeing Spain to avoid persecution (most having ancestors who were converts to Christianity from Judaism and Islam). They established themselves on the coast of California, stretching from present day San Francisco, down to Ventura in the south, and east out to the Sierra Nevadas near present day Fresno. About the same time Mexico in our world gained independance from Spain, Montrei, which was in their time a second smaller province, broke away and the citizens declared themselves a separate nation (On the coast the provinces were: Alta California, Montrei (or Monterey as the Spanish called it), and Baja California). By the late 1700's Montreiano had.gained much of its current structure and sound. About the mid 1800's there was a revision in the standard orthography to represent a little more how the language was actually spoken. Until that time for instance, intervocalic and final d's were still written, even though they had dropped out of speech for quite some time. The name Montreiano is derived from the name of the capital city, Montrei (when Montrei was under Spanish rule the name was Monterey).I will probably have lots of borrowings from Arabic and Hebrew, as well as the words I gained from Rumsien (these almost all pertain to native plants and animals actually). I'm thinking also words from a Chinese language, probably Cantonese (since in this timeline the Chinese did set up a small village on the outskirts of Monterey which sadly mysteriously burned down), and maybe also Tagalog (having Filipino sailors decide to settle/jump ship here). Phonology & alphabet: I'm only going to describe the modern language here. I know in my head which sound changes occured over time in which order (such as the change from final r l coming after the change of final and pre consonantal l to u) Vowels and diphthongs: a /a/ e /e/ è /E/ i /i/ o /o/ ò /O/ u /u/ ai /aj/ au /au/ áo /au/* áe /ae/, often /aj/* éa /ea/* ei /ej/ éo /eo/* éu /eu/* eu /ew/ ía /ia/* ia /ja/ íe /ie/* ie /je/ ío /io/* io /jo/ íu /iu/* iu /ju/ iú /iw/ óa /oa/* óe /oe/* oi /oj/ ói /oi/* óu /ou/* ou /ow/ ua /wa/ úa /ua/* ue /we/ üe /we/ (when g comes before) úe /ue/* ui /wi/ úi /ui/* uo /wo/ úo /uo/* * means these are a result of a loss of an intervocalic consonant, almost always d. The first vowel in the dipthong is always marked with an accent to indicate the loss of d. In careful speech the vowels are usually said separate, in rapid, often blending the two vowel sounds togther. I included all possible combinations (except "doubled"ones because i'm not quite sure how they'd really be handled in fast speech). These are all possible combinations. Some probably wont exist. Consonants: b /B/, or /b/ c /k/ in front of a, o, u. Treated like ç in front of e, è, and i in borrowed words ç /ts/ d /D/, or /d/ f /f/ g /g/ before a, o, ò, u. /Z/ in front of i, è, or e h silent, usually sporadically found, mostly in learned words. Initially it's often dropped, and the vowel that followed is accented: has ás j /h/ (this is used in borrowed words) k /k/ mostly in borrowed words l /l/ ll /lj/ m /m/ n /n/ ñ /ng/ p /p/ q /k/ with u + i/e,è, /kw/ when combined with u + a, o, ò, u r /r/ rr /rr/ (trilled) s /s/ t /t/ v /B/, /b/ w /w/ rarely used x /S/ y /j/ rarely used z /s/ Info: Well, i've been striving for Montreiano to look very much like it's sister languages, but not quite, which explains all of the sound changes i keep adding so it doesnt look so much like Spanish or Portuguese. However, it still looks very much like Spanish and Portuguese, and as I said above, sometimes like French (such as the masculine definite article; le). To me, it's very full of vowels since the dropping of intervocalic and final d, the changing of intervocalic and pre r and l b and v to u, and the change of preconsonantal and final l to u (/w/). For instance: Each day I go to the valley to watch the horses - Cáa día, vó au vau pora vel les cauallos. (In Spanish it would be: Cada dia, voy al valle para ver los caballos) I'm starting to get settled on the sounds finally. Good thing, i'm done with the semester and have 6 weeks of vacation to work on the language.