We all have witnessed the hopeless attempts of European integration. The pan-European consensus will never be reached, since the “rich” countries will always be afraid of being overcome and burdened by the people from “poor” countries, and minor nations will always be afraid of being absorbed/assimilated by larger nations. There is no use in trying to find unification principles that would be accepted by all the European nations. The ones who want integration should participate in it, the ones who don’t — should stay aside. Instead of organization of All-European conventions (that can’t produce anything except some extremely abstract and vague documents) it would make sense to create a “center of crystallization” — the first “snowflake” around which later the rest of the European nations that have desire for unification could gather.
At very first we need just two nations that could work out together the principles of the future union. The point is these countries should not be afraid of each other. The history of their relationship should be as clean as possible; they should have similar level of economical development, number of citizens, and power in the European policy.
The best candidates for the two seem to be Czechia and Portugal. The former is the country in the Eastern Europe, the latter in the Western. The former has population 10.2 million, the latter 10.6 million. The former has GDP $199 billion, the latter $204 billion. The former has GDP per capita $19,500, the latter $19,300. Their relationship is a blank page (at least I don’t know a thing about it), and they have no reason for vengeance or something. Both are members of NATO and EU. They are “twin nations” — their equality hardly can be undisputed, and they hardly can have any objections against union with each other. Later other European countries can join them, but for all that a parity should be kept: admission of ‘poor’ country(-ies) should be balanced by admission of ‘rich’ country(-ies) with more or less similar population. This union country should have some privileged position within the European Union, e.g. it could be its permanent presiding member.
The original two nations should build up a truly state-like union: with one president, one parliament, one constitution, one flag/coats etc., and of course one official language.
The name for the country I propose is “The Republic of Xektugal” (pronounced /šektugal/) — a word coined from the names “Czechia” and “Portugal”.
The flag of Xektugal
The Xektugesque language should be of course a mixture of Portuguese and Czech. It should embrace most features shared by both languages. There is no reason in over-simplifying it, supervising the principle of minimalism would be enough: the Czech has three genders, the Portuguese has two genders, ergo the Xektugesque should have two genders etc. The sounds or grammar categories unknown to the speakers of one of the original languages should be avoided.
Alphabet/Phonetics
The Xektugalese alphabet is the next:
a b d e f g i j k l m n ny o p r s t u v x y z
It has mostly one-to-one correspondence, though it’s complicated sometimes.
Letters
g and
z are always pronounced like in Czech. Letter
j is always pronounced like in Portuguese (i.e. like Czech
ž). Letter
y always is like in English
yes.
n — Portuguese seem to have some difficulties with pronunciation of this sound at the end of words — historically it usually disappeared there and left nasalization of the previous vowel after it. That’s why I introduced the next rule: when
n does
not precede a vowel it’s pronounced as ‘soft
n’. The soft
n is pronounced like
ň-sound by Czech speakers and like nasalization of the previous vowel by Portuguese speakers:
den (Czech pronunciation: /deň/; Portuguese pronunciation: /de˜/) (‘day’).
ny — always precedes a vowel. It may be pronounced as two sounds (/nj/), but normally it’s pronounced as
nh-sound by Portuguese speakers and
ň-sound by Czech speakers: ganyas /gaňaš/ (‘you gain’).
s — never is voiced in intervocalic position. The Portuguese voiced
s is represented as letter
z in Xektugesque:
roza (‘rose’). The Portuguese speakers seem to have some difficulties in pronunciation of
s sound in syllable final position; they tend to convert it into /š/. Since Czechs have no trouble with /š/ in this position, I introduced the next rule: when
n does
not precede a vowel it’s pronounced as /š/:
lista /lišta/ (‘list’),
nas (naš) (‘us’). When
s is followed by a voiced consonant, it can be voiced as well:
Lisbon /ližboň/ (‘Lisbon’).
x — always precedes a vowel. It is pronounced like English
sh, Czech
š, Portuguese
ch. The Czech sound
č has no analog in Portuguese, and can’t be used in Xektugesque. When
č occurs in Czech words it usually is simplified to
š sound; hence we have
Xekia /šekia/ (‘Czechia’).
Note that the pronunciation rules of
n/ny and
s/x are nearly the same.
The Czech sound
c is too difficult for Portuguese pronunciation and is usually represented as letter/sound
s (compare with the fate of the Czech
č). Letter
c can be used for words of both Portuguese and Czech origin, but normally it should be substituted by either
s or
k, depending on its pronunciation.
There is nothing like Czech
ch or
h sounds in Portuguese. The borrowing of words with these sounds should be avoided, and when it’s impossible this sound should rather be represented as if it was mute. Word
Praga (‘Prague’) has
g where Czech has
h, because this word is borrowed by Xektugesque from Portuguese!
Of course the Portuguese speakers can’t pronounce Czech sound /ř/ (nobody can
), the hear it the same as /ž/, and that’s why it’s usually is represented as
j in Xektugesque:
jeka /žeka/ (‘river’). Portugese
ll sound usually is treated like
ly or
li.
Normally vowels are pronounced the same way as in both Portuguese and Czech. But for the Portuguese speakers it’s difficult to pronounce sounds
e and
o in unstressed syllables. That’s why there is the next rule: when unstressed both
e and
i are pronounced like weak sound /i/, and both
o and
u are pronounced like weak sound /u/. Similarly, unstressed
a is rather pronounced like schwa-sound.
The words starting in a consonant cluster
s+fricative are difficult for Portuguese too. They usually get a short weak sound /i/ in the beginning. The sound is pronounced, but is not marked in spelling: Spania /(i)špania/ (‘Spain’). The Portuguese words starting with
e before a cluster
s+fricative tend to lose the vowel and be pronounced with the same short weak sound /i/: skala /(i)škala/ (‘scale’, from Portuguese
escala; the same word means ‘rock’ when being borrowed from Czech).
I was tempted to use completely phonetic one-to-one spelling (i.e. always use
x for sound /š/;
i for /i/ and
u for /u/), but later I decided against it: it looks rather scary than useful — too many x’s, and the words with
o and
e replaced with
u and
i look too corrupted and difficult to be recognized (not to mention that it would need to be decided on where the stress falls in every word). The only exception where I’m trying to be ‘phonetic’ concerning vowels are grammatical endings and unstressed auxiliary words.
Vocabulary
The vocabulary of the language may be divided into three main parts: the words borrowed from Czech, the words borrowed from Portuguese, and the composite Frankestein-like words that are mixture of Czech and Portuguese. Sometimes all the three variants co-exist for the same meaning, e.g.:
oen (/oiň/, from Czech
oheň),
fogu (from Portuguese
fogo), and
fogen (/fogiň/, a mixture word) all three mean ‘fire’. The official policy is ‘the free competition of vocabularies’.
Morphology
In terms of morphology the language tends to use both Portuguese and Czech grammatical markers simultaneously. E.g. the usual plural ending is
-is — a combination of the Czech ending
-i, and Portuguese ending
-s (doesn’t it remind you anything?
).
Morphology of noun
Portuguese has no cases and Xektugesque has no cases too. Portuguese has no neuter gender, and Xektugesque doesn’t have it too. (The Czech neuter words become masculine words in Xektugesque). Normally the words end either in a single liquid consonant (
l,
m,
n,
r), or in a vowel (
a,
i, or
u). The original words that and in a ‘fobidden’ (fricative etc.) consonant and have zero ending usually get
-i ending in Xektugesque:
ostrovi /oštruvi/ (‘island’).
The plural form of nouns is formed by means of the ending
-is. When the word in its main form ends in a vowel, it is superseded with the ending
-is:
fatu —
fatis (‘fate’),
fotografia —
fotografiis (‘photograph’) etc.
Morphology of adjectives
The adjectives agree in number with the noun they modify, the same way as in both languages. The singular
-a/-u adjectives agree in gender as well: they have ending
-u for masculine, and
-a for feminine. The plural of adjectives is formed the same way as the one of nouns:
federal (sg. m.&f.) —
federalis (pl.) (‘federal’); Xesku (sg. m.) — Xeska (sg. f.) — Xeskis (pl.) (‘Czech’).
Like in both original languages, the adjective can both precede and follow the noun they modify. By default, following the noun is preferred.
There are no special adjective markers. The adjectives are derived from nouns by means of different suffixes. One of the popular suffixes is
-esk-, which comes from Portuguese suffix
-ês and Czech suffixes
-sk- and
-ičk-. This suffix is used in the adjective
Xektugesku, and is usually rendered as
-esque in English:
Xektugesque.
Adverbs
There are primary adverbs, and adverbs derived from adjectives. Hardly anything can be said about the primary adverbs — just unchangeable words without any ending. Adverbs usually are derived from adjectives by means of suffix
-um (combination of the Czech
-o, and Portuguese
-mente).
Morphology of verbs There are three main verb conjugations Xektugesque. Their endings are result of combinations of the Czech and Portuguese ones:
| | Port. | Czech | Xekt. |
| Sg.1 | -o | -o | -o | -ám | -ím | -u | <p align="center">-u </p> |
| Sg.2 | -as | -es | -es | -áš | -íš | -eš | -as | -is | -is |
| Sg.3 | -a | -e | -e | -á | -í | -e | -a | -i | -i |
| Pl.1 | -amos | -imos | -emos | -áme | -íme | -eme | -amis | -imis | -imis |
| Pl.2 | -ais | -is | -eis | -áte | -íte | -ete | -atis | -itis | -itis |
| Pl.3 | -am | -em | -em | -ají | -í/-ěji | -ou | -an | -in | -un |
Note that Portuguese
-o is actually pronounced /u/,
-as and
-es — /aš/ and /iš/.
The past tense is a more difficult case. The Czech
-l participles themselves have no conjugation, ergo the Xektugesque shouldn’t have it too. I chose the paradigm to be the next:
| Port. | Czech | Xekt. |
| -ou | -iu | -eu | -al | -il/-ěl | -al | -au | -iu | -au |
The Portuguese endings presented here are the ones for 3rd person singular of preterit. Note that Portuguese imperfect in the first conjugation has suffix
-av- for all the persons and numbers. Also note that Polish ending
-ł is pronounced /w/, and Ukrainian has past endings
-av/-iv. I know we shouldn’t consider the languages other than Portuguese and Czech, but still.
The other endings are:
| | Port. | Czech | Xekt. |
| Infinitive | -ar | -ir | -er | -at | -it/-ět | -át/-ít/-out | -arti | -irti | -urti |
| Ptc.pret. | -ado | -ido | -ido | -án | -en | -án/-en/-at/-át/-ít/-ut | -atu | -itu | -utu |
| Ptc.pres. | -ando | -indo | -endo | -ajicí | -ajicí | -oucí | -ansu | -insu | -usu |
| Imper. | -a | -e | -e | -ej | -/ěj | -i | -a | -i | -i |
The participles agree in number and gender with the noun they modify. I don’t like the infinitive ending, but I couldn’t invent anything better than this scheme: a conjugation vowel + Portuguese
r + Czech
t + ‘smoothening’ vowel
i. Note that present participles are derived from 3rd person plural of present verbs, just like in Slavic languages.
Articles and prepositions
In Xektugesque articles and preposition are very close to each other. Every preposition has an article corresponding to it. The only difference between them is the fact that articles agree in gender and number with the noun they modify (the same way as adjectives do), while the prepositions remain unchanged. Usually the masculine singular form of the article is the same as the preposition.
The main ‘default’ preposition is
u; the article corresponding to it has forms
u/a/is. It means something like ‘concerning’ or ‘belonging to’. It comes from Czech prepositions
o and
u, and Portuguese article
o/a/os/as (
o is pronounced /u/). This word is the most often to be used as an article, i.e. rather can meet
a republica, than
u republica, though both are considered correct.
The main ‘locative’ preposition is
na; its article forms are
nu/na/nis. It can have any meaning describing the place or time, i.e. ‘on, at, in’ etc. It comes from the Czech preposition
na, and Portuguese concatenated form
na (=
em+
a, i.e “in the”). It is the main exception from the rule “the preposition is the same as the article in masculine”, because in this case the preposition coincides with the feminine article.
The main ‘ablative’ preposition is
odu; its article forms are
odu/oda/odis. Its main meaning is ‘from’. It also can have possessive meaning, when the ‘default’ preposition seems ambiguous for some reason. It comes from the Czech preposition
od, and Portuguese concatenated form
do (/du/ =
de+
o “of the”).
Pronouns
| | personal | possessive |
| | subj. | obj. | masc. | fem. |
| I | ya | me | meu | mea |
| thou | tu | te | tu | tua |
| he | ou | ou | (su) | (sua) |
| she | ea | ea | (su) | (sua) |
| we | nas | nas | naxu | naxa |
| you | vas | vas | vaxu | vaxa |
| they | eis | eis | (su) | (sua) |
The subject and object forms of personal pronouns are the same, because they are the same in Portuguese (the ‘minimalism principle’). The plural possessive forms are regularly derived from the feminine forms. The
su/sua forms should be avoided, because they can have undesirable reflexive meaning for Czechs. The third person pronouns are formed by the scheme
e+ending (masculine, feminine, or plural). (
E- is the first vowel of Portuguese 3rd person pronouns). The masculine form should be
eu, but it can’t be accepted, because
eu means ‘I’ in Portuguese; I took
ou instead because it somewhat reminds Czech
on.
The third person pronouns can be concatenated with the preceding articles/prepositions:
| u+ou=ou | nu+ou=nou | odu+ou=odou |
| a+ea=ea | na+ea=nea | oda+ea=odea |
| is+eis=eis | nis+eis=neis | odis+eis=odeis |
Etc.
Example
Below is the Czech dialect of Xectugasque:
| Na mestu Lasnik, nen daleku odu Lublin, jiviu yen muju i jena ou. Imen ou fiu Kaim Nosen, imen ea fiu Taibele. Eis nen mau detis. Nen to je mariaj fiu pustu; Taibele porodiu u muju ea yen sin i duis deseris, ale todis tris moriu na infansia: yen odu xernu kaslu, yen odu spala, i yen odu difteria. Apo to, lunu a Taibele zavirau si, i nada serviu: ni modlisionis, ni majika, ni posionis. Desastri tornau Kaim Nosen odustranyarti odu jena ou, pejestau paparti masu, i uja spau nen na dom ou, ale na lavisi a sirkevi. Taibele mau yena loja u tekstil (ea erdau odu padris ea), i ea sedeu tam todu den, konu yena regula na ruka prava, nujkis na ruka leva, i yen livru is modlisionis jeneskis pejedea. | In the town of Lashnik, not far from Lublin, there lived a man and his wife. His name was Chaim Nossen, hers Taibele. They had no children. Not that the marriage was barren; Taibele had borne her husband a son and two daughters, but all three had died in infancy — one of whooping cough, one of scarlet fever, and one of diphtheria. After that Taibele’s womb closed up, and nothing availed: neither prayers, nor spells, nor potions. Grief drove Chaim Nossen to withdraw from the world. He kept apart from his wife, stopped eating meat and no longer slept at home, but on a bench in the prayer house. Taibele owned a dry-goods store, inherited from her parents, and she sat there all day, with a yardstick on her right, a pair of shears on her left, and the women’s prayer book in Yiddish in front of her. |
XEKTUGAL: SNIS BUDUN TORNARTI REALITA!
