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Le Project Anglese (a Romanicized English language)



Hi Romconlang members,

I'd like to introduce to you all my 'project de le(a) langue anglese'. It's
not a Romance auxlang, so I hope I'm not ruffling any feathers by posting
here. It's not in a great state of development at the moment and it's only
an amusing pastime.

Essentially, I am trying to finish off the work of what the Normans and
others have been doing to the English language over the centuries by
turning English into a Romance language. The aim of the Anglese Project is
to use language entirely derived from the Latin and Romance heritage in the
English language. The project is not an attempt to recreate Anglo-Norman
and it's in opposition to the linguistic purification of English that the
Anglish community is striving to create.

In order to create a considerably Romanized, or perhaps more accurately,
Romanicized English I have set out the following 6 point of criteria (they
are not all finalized but they are working so far):

1) USE ROMANCE / LATIN EQUIVALENTS | USE INTERNATIONAL EQUIVALENTS
Using respectable and authoritative dictionaries, replace common English
words (of Germanic or non-international derivation) for their equivalent
Romance English synonyms. If there are no equivalents available, proceed to
step *2*.

Examples:
*belief *> *credence*
*bug *> *insect*
*daily *> *quotidian*, *diurnal*
*feeling *> *sentiment*
*island *> *isle*
*kingly *> *royal*, *regal*
*main *> *principal*
*sell *> *vend*
*wed *> *marry*
*wood *> *forest*

Words with international currency do not change:
*east*
*football*
*north*
*south*
*west*

2) REVIVE OLD TERMS
Find obsolete, rare, dialectal, poetic, dead terms from dictionaries. These
words must include an etymologically sound headword and a definition
(principally) equivalent to the English. If there are no obsolete terms
available, proceed to step *3*.

Examples:
*apple *> *pome*
*baker *> *furner*
*beard *> *barb*
*bread *> *pain*
*dead *> *mort*
*good *> *boon*
*land *> *terre*
*son *> *fitz*
*wall *> *mure*
*wrinkle *> *ruge*

3) USE TERMS WITH ETYMOLOGICALLY SOUND HEADWORDS WITHOUT ORIGINAL ROMANCE
DEFINITION
If failing to find , proceed to step *4*.

Examples:
*back** > dorse
enough** > assets
fly** > mouche
four** > cater
handle** > anse
light** > lum
listen** > scout
moon** > lune
oak** > cork
sail** > veil
tree** > arbor*

4) CREATE NEOLOGISMS
Back-formations or new coinages may be created from living affixes.
Artificiality is best avoided. If failing in this step, proceed to step *5*.

Examples:
*arm > brace (brace < bracelet)
arrow** > fletch (fletch < fletcher)
dog** > ken (ken < kennet 'small dog/puppy')
England** > Angleterre (Angleterre Angle + terre)
English** > anglese (anglese angl- + -ese)
French** > fra(u)ncese (fra(u)ncese < Fra(u)nce + -ese)
good** > bon (bon < bonity)
nose** > nas(e) (nas(e) < nasal)
oven** > furn (furn < furner)*

5) CREATE NEOLOGISMS (UNNATURAL) (not so sure about this one)
Creation of back-formations or new coinages from unproductive affixes is
best avoided because these forms are usually very artificial. If failing to
find , proceed to step *6*.

Examples:
*beautiful > bell (bell < Bellamy ?beautiful friend?)
dog > can(e) (can(e) < canid)
dog > ken (ken < kennel)
good > boun (boun < bounty)
friend > amy (amy < Bellamy ?beautiful friend?)
friend > emy (emy < enemy)
foot > ped (ped < pedal, pedestrian)**

*6)* *BORROW
if there doesn?t exist a Romance/Latin alternative, borrow from
Anglo-Norman is preferable with guidance of the other Channel Islands
dialects and French.

Examples:
*dog > chen
foot > pé
of > de
that > que*

Hope this little project of mine interests someone. I think I may create a
e-mailing group to discuss all the Romance points in English as well and
the creation of a Romance English language/Anglese.

Regards
Daniel Holland - Angleterre


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