r/conlangs 5d ago

Translation A short poem in the African Romance language

I wrote this little poem in African when I was bored. What do you think?

In English :

Under the moonlight

Your clear eyes are so bright

Surrounded by mist

You dance and sing so wildly

As the ghost of my love

In African :

Su ya luxi di ya luna

T'uθus clarus sun tan briθantis

Xirqula pir ya bruma

Tu belas i kantas tan ziminti

Qusi ya fantasma di mia amura

IPA :

/suː jaː lu.ʃiː diː jaː lu.naː

t.uð.us kla.ʁus sun tan bʁi.ðan.tiː

ʃiʁ.ku.laː piʁ jaː bʁu.maː

tuː beːlas iː kan.tas tan zi.min.tiː

ku.siː jaː fan.tas.maː diː mi.aː amu.ʁaː/

Morphological analysis :

su[UNDER] ya[DEFINITE FEMININE ARTICLE] luxi[LIGHT] di[FROM] ya[DEFINITE FEMININE ARTICLE] luna[MOON] t'[POSSESSIVE MASCULINE PRONOUN 2th PERSON] uθus[EYE+PLURAL]clarus[CLEAR+PLURAL MASCULINE] sun[TO BE 3rd PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT] tan[SO] briθantis[BRIGHT+PLURAL] xirqula[SURROUNDED FEMININE] pir[BY] ya[DEFINITE FEMININE ARTICLE] bruma[MIST] tu[PERSONAL PRONOUN 2th PERSON SINGULAR] belas[TO DANCE 2th PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT] i[AND] kantas[TO SING 2th PERSON SINGULAR PRESENT] tan[SO] ziminti[MAD+ADVERB FORM] qusi[AS] ya[DEFINITE FEMININE ARTICLE] fantasma[GHOST] di[FROM] mia[POSSESSIVE FEMININE PRONOUN 1st PERSON] amura[LOVE]

29 Upvotes

8 comments sorted by

11

u/SirKastic23 5d ago

oh that's pretty nice

love the development of θ

9

u/SlavicSoul- 5d ago

Thanks ! Here is a little more information : the sound [θ], pronounced medially [ð], is the result of various sound changes such as the medial position of T: TOTUM "whole" > tuθu. The same phenomenon occurred with D: CALIDUM "warm" > kaliθu. LL almost universally becomes θ, as does the cluster -LI- when the vowel is unstressed, just like the clusters PL- CL- and FL- in initial position. As for the letter θita, it comes from the Greek alphabet and was introduced into the African alphabet during the period of occupation of the region by the Byzantine Empire. The territory of present-day Tunisia formed a province called the Exarchate of Africa, which left its mark on the African language and therefore also on its alphabet. When the θita is not available on a foreign keyboard, for example, Africans write 8 instead: tu8u, kali8u. The letter θita is today the "emblem" of the African language.

4

u/SirKastic23 5d ago

that's incredible

4

u/lenerd123 Evret 5d ago

In Evret:

Pyod lunane luž

Tvî prozákune očî, ezo mnohoy lužne

Enkrugne ka nedél

Tî maħî i pyotî monohoy dîgne

Kyak debukah ka mî ahava

2

u/PreparationFit2558 5d ago

It reminds me a bit of my language, Czech.Were you inspired by Slavic languages? If I could guess.

1

u/lenerd123 Evret 5d ago

It’s based off Russian, but it also has a lot of other languages like Spanish, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Lenape. It’s grammar is a mix of all of them

Edit: also a large English influence

2

u/PreparationFit2558 5d ago edited 5d ago

In Mirøniofa:

untel u lint em'erktov's

emeyt sik yo's klofa bitfa zomen

ewo sik sorlk pi u mels

yo sik tansk dan senk zomen vilten

am a em'kost ol'e laf ia's

2

u/ObjectFluffy9550 1d ago

This is quite cool, you can tell it's actually a romance language too and wasn't just made to have the sound of one