Kastixex /kas’tiʃeʃ/ from “Castilish” from Old Spanish Castiella

This new project is based on an alt-history in which a group of mostly Old English speakers ended up on the Iberian peninsula and then their language underwent sound changes similar to those that led to the development of Spanish and Galician. I would imagine that there may also be influences from Portuguese, Asturian, Basque, Gothic (from the Visigoths and Vandals) and Arabic. This is very much a work in progress and I’m not sure I have finalized the sound changes I want to use.

Here is the preliminary phonology:

Consonants

Stops: /p t k b d g/ <p t k b d g>

Affricates: /tʃ/ <ch>

Nasals: /m n ɲ/ <m n ñ/

Fricatives / f v s θ ʃ/ <f v s z x>

Liquids: /ɾ r l/ <r r/rr l>

Glides: /j w/ <y/i w/u>

Glottal: /h/ <h> 

/ɾ r/ only contrast medially, where the former is <r> and the latter is <rr>.

<y w> are used word initially and word finally.

Vowels

/a e i o u/ <a e i o u>

Stress is usually on the root syllable.

A bit on nouns

There are three grammatical genders, masculine, feminine and neuter; two numbers, singular and plural; three cases, nominative, genitive and dative.

Example strong nouns

hond m. dog

	sg	pl
nom.	hond	hondas
gen.	hondes	honda
dat.	honde	hondon

xep n. ship

	sg	pl
nom.	xep	xebo
gen.	xebes	xeba
dat.	xebe	xebon

dun f. hill, dune

	sg	pl
nom.	dun	duna
gen.	dunes	duna
dat.	dun(e)	dunon

Example sentences

Ech beyeñe on nive yeyod.

/et͡ʃ be’jeɲe on ‘ni.ve je’jod/

I’m beginning a new language.

Ech yaf her on xep.

/et͡ʃ jaf her on ʃep/

I gave her a ship.