Romániço

Romániço is a constructed language, invented in 1991, which resembles Ido, and is spun off from Esperanto. According to its creator, it is a simplified language using a Romance lexicon; it aims to "bridge the gap between the schematic and the naturalistic in constructed languages", combined the "easy-to-use grammar of the former with the more rigorously Romance lexicon and orthography of the latter".^[1]

Alphabet and pronunciation

The Romániço alphabet consists of 25 letters, the same letters that are in the English alphabet, except the letter q. The letter k is used only in the digraph kh. The official website states: "In earlier days, c represented [ts] in all positions, k [k] in all positions, which made spelling easier but more artificial-looking: il Greko parlen il Grekenso, il Franco parlen il Francenso instead of il Greco parlen il Grechenso, il Franço/Franczo parlen il Francenso".^[2]

The letters are pronounced as in Esperanto, with the following exceptions: ç or cz is /ts/ before /a o u/; c is /k/ before /a o u/ and /ts/ before /e i/; ch is used for /k/ before /e i/; j is as in French; kh is /x/; sh, w, x, y are as in English; çh is /tʃ/.

An acute accent is used when stress falls on the ante-penult. Stress rules otherwise follow Ido.

Vocabulary

Lexemes are almost entirely derived from common Romance roots.

Grammar

There are several variants of Romániço, some of which differ rather substantially from the version presented here.

Romániço differs from Esperanto in not having inflection of nouns for case. At the same time, there is less flexibility in its word order. Even the personal pronouns are invariable with respect to case : mi (I/me), ti (you [singular, familiar]), vi (you [singular, formal]), ili (he/him), eli (she/her), hi (he/she/him/her), oli (it), si (oneself [reflexive]), nos (we/us), vos (you [plural]); ilos (they/them [masc.]), elos (they/them [fem.]), hos (they/them [human]), olos (they/them [non-human]). When an object appears elsewhere than after the verb, an accusative preposition je is used. For the possessives, -a is added, as in Esperanto.

The definite article is la, the generic article il. The latter is used for classes of things, as in 'birds fly'.

As in Esperanto, nouns end in -o, adjectives in -a, and adverbs in -e. However, the nominal plural takes -s, and there is no plural for adjectives.

The verbal inflections are infinitive -ar, present -an, past -in, future -un, conditional -eban, imperative -es. There is also a generic ending -en which may be used with a modal or temporal adverb. The modals are past has, future van, conditional volde, imperative fay.

Common expressions

Romániço versions of some common expressions are as follows .

• Saluto ("Hello")
• Adeo ("Goodbye")
• Bona matino ("Good morning")
• Bona véspero ("Good evening")
• Sic ("Yes")
• No ("No")
• Mi prechen ("Please")
• Regratio ("Thank you")
• Senioro ("Madam/Mrs./Sir/Mr.")
• Senioreto ("Miss/Sir" [non-adult])
• Escue vi sapen parler Romániço? ("Do you speak Romániço?")
• Mi sapen parler pauco de Romániço. ("I speak a little Romániço.")

Study by academics

Alan Reed Libert of the University of Newcastle, Australia discussed it in his Daughters of Esperanto.^[3]

References

External links

• Romániço (official website)

GEONAMES - American | Polynesian | Constructed Languages glossary

• Romániço Periodic Table (archived at Wayback Machine)
• ConLang Travel Phrases