AQDENÍZGIE: A LANGUAGE FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN (INTRO)

 Aqdenízgie (Mediterranean) is a constructed language I've been working on for the last 2 years. The language is not fully developed yet, and I may never see this language reach the level of other constructed languages, such as Esperanto. Aqdenízgie is meant to be a koiné language for the Mediterranean: the grammar, vocabulary and syntax can be easily traced back to either a language or a dialect sitting on the shores of this sea. Latin, Turkish, Syriac, Arabic and Greek have been extensively used to build the grammar, while most of the vocabulary has been drawn from romance/ semitic languages and dialects. For a long time I have dreamed of speaking all languages across the Mediterranean, and I have endeavored to learn Arabic, French, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, Kurdish, Syriac and dialects such as Provençal, Sicilian, Corsican or Tunisian Arabic. This constructed language is but a reflection of my own desires. I wish there was a Mediterranean Union much like there is a European Union, and I wish we could all speak in a language common to all, from Crete to Fez, from Tunisia to Marseille, from Valencia to Beirut. It's my belief that a better world would come out of such efforts. Sadly we live in a broken Mediterranean. And I'm forced now to speak English because it is this language the one actually spoken by most of us. Instead a language of our device, created to accomodate our own sounds, we have to resort to a Germanic language alien to our very Mediterranean.

Sounds of Aqdenízgie

The very first thing we must be able to do is to read and write. The system I've used comes from the Arabic Chat Alphabet, that uses numbers to represent the sounds that the latin alphabet lacks. In the following table you will find the aqdenizgie alphabet and the sounds the represents, as well as their equivalent in other mediterranean languages.

	IPA	ESP	AR	TR	GR
A	a		ا	a	α
2	ʔ		ء
B	b		ب	b	μπ
C	k	c “casa”	ك	k	κ
Ç	tʃ	ch		ç
D	d	d	د	d	ντ
E	e	e		e	ε
F	f	f	ف	f	φ
G	g	g “gato”		g
GI	dʒ		ج	c	γι
H	h		ه	h
7	ħ		ح
5	χ		خ
I	i	i	ي	i	ι
J	j	y	ي	y
L	l	l	ل	l	λ
M	m	m	م	m	μ
N	n	n	ن	n	ν
Ñ	ɲ	ñ			νι
8	θ	z	ث		θ
O	o	o		o	ο
3	ʕ		ع
P	p	p		p	π
Q	q		ق
R	r	r	ر	r	ρ
S	s	s	س	s	σ
X	ʃ		ش	ş
T	t	t	ت	t	τ
U	u	u	و	u	ου
V	v			v	β
W	w	w	و
Y	y			ü
Z	z		ز	z

Much like Greek and Spanish, Aqdenízgie has tonic syllables, which will be marked in the spanish fashion, using ´ above the tonic vowel of the word. The sign ` will be used for very short vowels that may infact disappear altogether in spoken language.