A Romance-English Hybrid: "Lingua Communis"
Here's a draft for an artificial language based on words shared by English and Romance languages:
Core Vocabulary:
* Nouns:
* person: persona (Latin), person (English)
* thing: cosa (Italian), thing (English)
* place: loco (Spanish), place (English)
* time: tempo (Italian), time (English)
* day: dia (Spanish), day (English)
* night: noche (Spanish), night (English)
* water: aqua (Latin), water (English)
* fire: fuego (Spanish), fire (English)
* earth: terra (Latin), earth (English)
* sky: cielo (Spanish), sky (English)
* Verbs:
* to be: essere (Italian), to be (English)
* to have: avere (Italian), to have (English)
* to go: ir (Spanish), to go (English)
* to come: venire (Italian), to come (English)
* to see: vedere (Italian), to see (English)
* to know: sapere (Italian), to know (English)
* to speak: parlare (Italian), to speak (English)
* to eat: mangiare (Italian), to eat (English)
* to drink: bere (Italian), to drink (English)
* to sleep: dormire (Italian), to sleep (English)
* Adjectives:
* good: buono (Italian), good (English)
* bad: malo (Spanish), bad (English)
* big: grande (Italian), big (English)
* small: piccolo (Italian), small (English)
* new: nuovo (Italian), new (English)
* old: viejo (Spanish), old (English)
* hot: caliente (Spanish), hot (English)
* cold: freddo (Italian), cold (English)
* happy: feliz (Spanish), happy (English)
* sad: triste (Spanish), sad (English)
Grammar:
* Word Order: Subject-Verb-Object (SVO)
* Articles: Use of "the" or "a/an" for definite and indefinite articles, similar to English
* Plural: Add "s" to most nouns for pluralization, similar to English.
* Tenses: Use of "to be" and "to have" for verb conjugations, similar to English and Romance languages.
* Gender: Nouns have gender (masculine/feminine/neutral), although this is not as rigid as in traditional Romance languages.
* Pronouns: "yo" (I), "tu" (you), "el/ella/ello" (he/she/it), "nosotros/nosotras" (we), "vosotros/vosotras" (you), "ellos/ellas" (they)
Sample Sentence:
* El persona come el cosa. (The person eats the thing)
Challenges and Considerations:
* Lexical Gaps: There will be gaps in the vocabulary, particularly in abstract concepts and specialized terms.
* Pronounciation: Finding a standardized pronunciation system that reflects the different phonetic systems of English and Romance languages.
* Cultural Nuances: The choice of words can reflect cultural biases, so careful consideration is needed to avoid imposing one culture's perspective on another.
Further Development:
* Expanding Vocabulary: Build on the core vocabulary by adding words from different Romance languages, focusing on the most frequent and useful terms.
* Grammar Refinement: Develop more detailed grammatical rules, including prepositions, conjunctions, and more complex sentence structures.
* Writing System: Choose a writing system that is familiar to speakers of English and Romance languages.
Conclusion:
This is a starting point for creating a Romance-English hybrid language. Through careful planning and development, "Lingua Communis" could be a fascinating tool for communication and cultural exchange.