Tarmoryan

Introduction

Tarmoryan or t'tarmorij (لترماورؠج) is the official language of Tarmorya and spoken by around 850,000 people, mostly in Tarmorya but also in Morocco and Algeria. Despite the strong influence of Berber languages and Arabic, Tarmoryan in fact belongs to the Indo-European family. It is the last remnant of Latin spoken in northern Africa at the time of the Roman Empire. The African Romance or African Latin was the language spoken in the Roman province of Africa during the later Roman and earlier Byzantine Empires prior to the annexation of the region by the Umayyad Caliphate in 696. Latin was subsequently supplanted by Arabic in all the province except in the city of Portus Africæ - currently Bourzafrique or Burzafriqe (برزفريقة) - and its surroundings where it remained spoken by peasants and shepherds until present times. The language changed dramatically through the centuries under the influence of Arabic, that was used by the government, the local aristocracy and in the Islamic religious rites. Furthermore, the Berber dialect called Mesoudian or l'mesudi (لمسودي) intensively influenced the phonology, the lexicon and the grammar of Tarmoryan. Recently French also added a new superstratum to the language.

Tarmoryan served as a cultural identity for its people, distinguishing them from others in the Mediterranean coast of Africa and, after the independence, becoming the official language of Tarmorya. The language spoken today is the most divergent of the Romance languages and, for a certain period of time, considered a creole belonging to Afro-Asiatic family of languages.

The verb

Tarmoryan verbs are conjugated according to person, gender, number, tense and mood. Below is the present of indicative of the regular verb sqribr 'to write' in the present of indicative:

Present Tense	Maculine	Feminine
I write	agh sqribegh
thou writest	tu sqribt	te sqribte
he/she writes	ill sqrib	ille sqribe
we write	nus sqrebim	nust sqrebime
you write	wus sqrebimt	wust sqrebimte
they write	illi sqribent	illes sqribente

As an example of an irregular verb, see below the conjugation of esr> 'to be' in the present of indicative:

Present Tense	Maculine	Feminine
I am	agh sum
thou art	tu as	te ase
he/she is	ill ast	ille ast
we are	nus sums	nust sums
you are	wus aste	wust aste
they are	illi sunt	illes sunt