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>>> Wow! A cople questions:
>>> * Could we perhaps get a description of the sound changes
and the sound system of New Oscan?
Difficult since it exists as one sentence at the moment.
Basically, the sound system is as follows:
Dental stops: /t/, /d/
The stop /t/ has the allophone /tS/ before a front vowel. /d/ has the allophone /dZ/ before a front vowel.
Labial stops: /p/, /b/
Velar stops: /g/, /k/ <c>
Fricatives: /Z/ <g+FRONT vowel>, /S/ <ç>, /s/, /z/, /v
The fricative /s/ has the allophone /S/ at the end of the word and /z/ in the middle of the word.
Nasals: /m/, /n/, /N/
At the end of the word or before a consonant, /n/ is dropped and the preceding vowel is nasalized.
Vowels: /a/, /i/ /o/, /u/, /e/
At the end of the word only /u/ or /i/ are found, unless the vowel is stressed. (Note that this means in my previous post <tangine> should be pronounced /ta~Zini/).
Diphthongs: /oi/, /ai/, /ei/, /ou/, /au/, /eu/
liquids /l/ /r/
-----
Sound changes:
/g/ > /Z/ before front vowels, otherwise stays.
tangin- /tangin/ > /ta~Zin/
/k/ > /S/ before front vowels, otherwise stays.
kerssnú > /Sesnu/
/ks/ > /S/ everywhere.
*exusc > /Sos/
Final consonants are lost:
patir > /padi/
Intervocalic voiceless consonants are voiced:
touto > /todu/
High vowels are lowered before consonant clusters (except for nasal + consonant)
iusc > /Zos/
I think that's all I am going say at the moment. I'm still working it out.
In monosyllables, final nasals nasals the vowels and then drop:
pún > /pu~/
Nasals drop intervocalically, and diphthongize preceding vowels. This only happens if the first vowel
is lower than the second:
múiníka- > /mojegu/
>>> * What is the sound value of _ç_ and _z_ and of _c g_ in
various positions?
This has been answered above.
* Is the grammar (very) different from that of Romance natlangs?
Not terribly different. There are pre-verbal clitic pronouns. See my sentence that I posted: ze patesens.
The case system has broken down and there are now only two cases: nominative and everything else.
It has predominately SVO word order.
It has indicative and subjunctive moods. It has periphrastic passives. It has present, imperfect, future and past tense. It also has a future perfect tense, but no pluperfect (at least morphologically). It has an imperative as well and an infinitive.
This may change as I think about it more... I think at some point there will be some Greek influence.
>>> * Where is it spoken? Some scholars used to think that at least
some Ibero-Romance had a marked Oscan substrate, so it may in
fact be spoken there.
Yes, that is true. I think it will be spoken across southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearics. Perhaps also Catalonia.
>>> On the rather stubby WP page on Oscan someone has written:
>>>> "Short u generally remains unchanged. After t, d, n, the sound
becomes that of iu. Long /u:/ generally remains unchanged.
It may have changed to an /i:/ sound for final syllables."
>>>> To me this seems to imply that Oscan *u(:) was fronted.
What's your take on that? Not meaning to upset your
creativity, just a reflection.
Actually, I take this as indicating palatalization of /t/ /d/ /n/ before /u/. This is just like British pronunciation of <tune> as more like /tjun/.
In New Oscan this /t/ > /tS/, /d/ > /dZ/ and /n/ goes to /nj/ in this environment (unless the vowel preceding it is low and then it becomes /j/.
So for example, tiurrí > ciurre /tSurri/ 'tower'.
Elliott
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