Ludovian

Ludovian
Ludovin, Ludovic
ludovin, lingùa ludovina
Pronunciation	[ludoˈvin]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2025
Setting	Alt-history Europe
Native to	Ludovia
Ethnicity	Ludovians
Native speakers	450,000 (2025)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Italo-Western Western Gallo-Romance Gallo-Ludovic(?) Ludovic Ludovian
Early forms	Old Latin Vulgar Latin Proto-Romance Old Gallo-Romance Old Ludovic
Official status
Official language in	Kingdom of Ludovia

Ludovian (ludovin, lingùa ludovina [ludoˈvin]), historically also called Ludovin or Ludovic, is a Western Romance language spoken by the Ludovians native to the Kingdom of Ludovia (Ludovian: Rià Ludovina). Ludovian developed as a distinct language from Old Gallo-Romance after the establishment of the Kingdom of Ludovia by King Ludovic I, where it developed into Old Ludovic and eventually modern Ludovian. Like most Romance languages, it is an inflected fusional language with a masculine-feminine gender distinction, although unlike other Romance languages it incorporates the noun agglutination typical of German, frequently calquing German words, such as tetlingùa, a calque of Dachsprache, or manubute, a calque of Handschuh.

There are currently around 450,000 speakers of Ludovian; most live in the eponymous Kingdom of Ludovia, where it is the official language. It is also one of 25 official languages of the EU.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	[ɱ]	n	ɲ	[ŋ]
Stop	p [b]	[p̪] [b̪]	t d		k [g]
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ
Tap			ɾ
Lateral			l	ʎ
Semivowel				j

Ludovian features a phonology that is typologically rather unique among Western Romance languages.

• [b g] are allophones of voiceless /p k/ between vowels; however, ⟨b g⟩ still appear etymologically, such as in bon "good (masc.)" or guda "taste", which are pronounced [ˈpon] and [ˈkuda] respectively.
• [p̪ b̪] are allophones of /f v/ in word-initial, syllable-initial positions except before /i/, such as in vular "to want" or fuma "smoke", pronounced [b̪uˈlɑ] and [ˈp̪uma]. Before /i/, and in all other positions, /f v/ are pronounced [f v]. [ɱ], like in most languages, is an allophone of /m/ before /f v/.
• [ŋ] is only appears as an allophone of /n/ before /k/.
  • [ŋ] is sometimes deleted before stressed syllables in certain words, such as lingùa "language", pronounced [liˈgu.a] instead of the expected [liŋˈku.a]. This is because originally, to differentiate between lingua "tongue" and lingùa "language", Ludovian speakers pronounced lingùa as expected, [liŋˈku.a], which then evolved into [liˈŋu.a] through syllable liaison and then into modern [liˈgu.a] through the fortition of [ŋ].
• /z/ devoices to /s/ in the coda of word-final syllables, such as in profiz [ˈpɾofis] "teacher (m)"; however, it is voiced in all other positions, as in profiza [pɾoˈfiza] "teacher (f.)"

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a	ɑ

• /e o/ are pronounced mid [e̞ o̞] in Standard Ludovian; however, in practise, they are in free variation with /e ɛ/ and /o ɔ/ respectively.
• /ɑ/ is phonemically distinctive with /a/, and typically appears in -ar verb endings, such as bua "he/she/it drinks" and bùa "bog", pronounced [puˈɑ] and [ˈpua] respectively. As such, as verb endings are always stressed, /ɑ/ is also typically stressed.

Stress

Stress in Ludovian mostly follows the same stress patterns typical of Western Romance languages. If the final syllable is open (ending on a vowel), stress is paroxytonic (on the second-to-last syllable); otherwise, it is oxytonic (on the final syllable). If a word strays from this pattern, the stressed vowel is marked with a grave accent: ⟨à è ì ò ù⟩. Additionally, verb endings are always stressed.

Examples

• lingua "tongue" - final syllable is open - stress is paroxytonic, [ˈliŋkwa]

vs

• lingùa "language" - stress is on syllable with grave accent, [liˈgu.a]

vs

• linguiz "linguist" - final syllable is closed - stress is oxytonic, [liŋˈkwis]

Grammar

Articles

Uniquely for a Western Romance language, modern Ludovian has no definite articles, though it retains five indefinite articles. These are inflected on number and gender.

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	no	nos
		noi
Feminine	na	nei

• Nos is used before plural masculine words starting with a vowel, while noi is used before plural masculine words starting with a consonant, as in:
  • arbos "trees" - begins with a vowel - nos arbos "the trees"
  • muros "walls" - begins with a consonant - noi muros "some walls"