Slevian: Difference between revisions
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====Possessive pronoun/adjectives==== | ====Possessive pronoun/adjectives==== | ||
Slevian | Slevian uses the same forms for possessive adjectives and pronouns (contrary to English ''my / mine''). They agree with their substantives according to genre and number as adjectives. | ||
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If the '''''subject''''' | If the '''''subject''''' coincides with the '''''owner''''', for the 3rd persons you have to use '''svoj''': | ||
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<center>pisan (-a, -o, -y)</center> | <center>pisan (-a, -o, -y)</center> | ||
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[[Category:Conlangs]] |
Revision as of 02:54, 15 November 2009
Slevian is a costructed language, created to be related to the Slavic languages' family.
Differently from most Slavic languages, but similar to Bulgarian and Macedonian languages, it lost all the original cases, and developed a definite and an indefinite article (but set before its substantive). Differently from Bulgarian and Macedonian it has a semplified verbal system.
It is written with the Latin Alphabet, but can be adapted to the Cyrillic one.
Phonology
Vowels
Slevian has a reduced vocalic system, with only six vowels:
Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||
Close |
| |||||
Close-mid | ||||||
Mid | ||||||
Open-mid | ||||||
Near-open | ||||||
Open |
Consonants
Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | |||||||
Nasal | |||||||
Vibrant | |||||||
Fricative | |||||||
Affricate | |||||||
Approximant | |||||||
Lateral approximant |
Alphabet
Š, ž, č, s, z, l, j are called soft consonants and they tend to modify the use of the morphological endings.
Morphology
Slevian has a semplified morphology, in contrast with other Slavic languages.
Substantives
Substantives have three genres (masculine, feminine and neuter) and two numbers (singular and 'plural)
Number
Substantives form their plural by modifying their endings oder by adding a new one:
- If they end with normal consonants, they add -y
- If they end with -š, -ž, -č, -s, -z, -l, -j (called soft consonants): they add -i
- If they end with -a, -e, -u: they drop these vowels and add -y
- If -a, -e, -u, are preceded by a soft consonant, they add -i instead of -y.
- If they end with -o: they drop it and add -a
- If they end with -ja, -je: they drop them and add -ji
Gender
Slevian substantives can be masculine, feminine or neuter.
- If the substantive ends with a consonant, it is masculine
- If it ends with -a, it is feminine
- If it ends with -o, it is neuter
- If it ends with -e, it can be feminine or neuter:
- Normal consonant + -e, it is neuter
- Soft consonant + -e, it is feminine
The plural substantives have no genre.
Articles
Slevian developed a system of articles, differently from the other Slavic languages, and similar to Bulgarian and Macedonian, but it places its articles before the substantives, as in English and contrary to the two Slavic languages:
Indefinite Articles
Articles | |
---|---|
Masculine | Jedin |
Feminine | Jedna |
Neuter | Jedno |
Plural | Jedny |
The plural form is used as the English adjectives some, any.
Definite Articles
Articles | |
---|---|
Masculine | Ton |
Feminine | Ta |
Neuter | To |
Plural | Ti |
Slevian has not an independent form for this and that: they are built by adding an adverbial particle to the articles:
- To- + Articles = this
- Tam- + Articles = that
Examples:
- Mjesto = city, neuter
- Jedno mjesto = a city
- To mjesto = the city
- Toto mjesto = this city
- Tamto mjesto = that city
Adjectives
Adjectives do agree with their substantives in genre and number. They are placed before their substantives as in English. The base form is masculine which generally ends with -y or -i, but some adjectives (most of all passive participles) can end with another consonant. To agree, they modify their endings:
- If the root ends with normal consonants, the masculine form is -y
- If the root ends with soft consonants, the masculine form is -i
- To form the feminine, just drop the masculine ending and add -a
- To form the neuter, just drop the masculine ending and add -o
- To form the plural, just drop the masculine ending and add -e
Examples:
- Ton krasny mir = the beautiful world, masculine
- Ta krasna noče = the beautiful night, feminine
- To krasno mjesto = the beautiful city, neuter
- Ti krasne mjesta = the beautiful cities, plural (no genre recognized)
Comparative
To form the comparative degree, drop the masculine ending and add:
Ending | |
---|---|
Masculine | -eji |
Feminine | -eja |
Neuter | -ejo |
Plural | -eje |
The comparison is made by the particle čim.
Example:
- Mojo mjesto je krasnejo čim tvojo: My city is more beautiful than yours
Superlative
To form the superlative, place before the declined adjective the particle samej
Example:
- Tota je ta samej interesna kniga mežo toti ktere počital jeso: This is the most interesting book among the ones I read
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Slevian retains an accusative/object form for the personal pronouns, similar to the difference between the English I / me:
Person | Nominative Subject |
Accusative Object |
---|---|---|
1st sing. | ||
2nd sing. | ||
3rd. masc. | ||
3rd fem. | ||
3rd neu. | ||
1st plu. | ||
2nd plu. | ||
3rd fem. |
As the verbs already show their person with conjugation, the nominative/subject personal pronouns are not very used.
Possessive pronoun/adjectives
Slevian uses the same forms for possessive adjectives and pronouns (contrary to English my / mine). They agree with their substantives according to genre and number as adjectives.
Person | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
---|---|---|---|---|
1st sing. | ||||
2nd sing. | ||||
3rd. masc. | ||||
3rd fem. | ||||
3rd neu. | ||||
1st plu. | ||||
2nd plu. | ||||
3rd fem. |
If the subject coincides with the owner, for the 3rd persons you have to use svoj:
Person | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Plural |
---|---|---|---|---|
refl. |
Examples:
- On jede se svoja mašina: He goes with his own car
- On jede s jevo mašina: He goes with his (of another man) car
You can use svoj also with the other person:
- Ja jedu se svoja mašina: I go with my own car
- Ja jedu s moja mašina: I go with my own car
Both sentences are correct.
Interrogative pronouns
- Čto: what?
For the pronoun who there are a subject/nominative form and a separated object/accusative form:
- Kto: who? (subject/nominative)
- Kogo: who(m) (object/accusative, it is used with prepositions)
Gender | Which? |
---|---|
Masculine | |
Feminine | |
Neuter | |
Plural |
The word for Where has two forms, according if there is a static situation or a motion:
- Gde: where? (state)
- Kud: where? (motion)
Examples:
- Čto maš?: What do you have?
- Kto ješ?: Who are you?
- Kogo ješ povidel?: Who did you see?
- S kogo ješ pogovoril?: Whom did you talk with?
- Kaka kniga ona je počitala?: Which book did she read?
- Gde ješ?: Where are you?
- Kud jdeš?: Where are you going?
Relative pronoun
Gender | That/Which |
---|---|
Masculine | |
Feminine | |
Neuter | |
Plural |
Example:
- Tamta je kniga ktera jeso počital: This is the book (that) I read
Prepositions
Since Slevian does not use any case, it makes use of a lot of prepositions. Main prepositions are:
Preposition | English counterpart |
---|---|
Two prepositions can change when used:
- s: an -e is added before a word beginning with s- or z-
- v: an -e is added before a word beginning with v- or f-
Numbers
Cardinal
The first 10 numbers are irregular:
Number | Name of the number |
---|---|
Numbers from 11 to 19 are constructed regularly unit+na+deset, except for 11:
Number | Name of the number |
---|---|
Numbers 20, 30, 40, etc are costructed regularly, more than 100 are irregular:
Number | Name of the number |
---|---|
Until Sto, cardinal numbers behave like invariable adjectives, i.e they do not change. Sto, Tisiče, Miljon and Miljard behave like nouns and they have a plural form.
Composed numbers are formed with the linker i, and, between the penultimate and the last name of the number:
- 32: Trideset i dva
- 345: Tri sta četyrideset i pjat
- 2007: Dva tisiči i sem
- 1.976.845.203: Jedin miljard devet sta semdeset šest miljony osem sta četyrideset pjat tisiči dva sta i tri
Ordinal
Ordinal numbers are mostly regularly formed, except for some forms. Usually they form from the cardinal form + the adjectival endings. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 8th are irregular, and the numbers which behave like nouns are irregularly formed:
Number | Name of the number |
---|---|
In composed numbers only the last noun of the numbers take the ordinal form:
- 32nd: Trideset i duvy, -a, -o, -e
- 345th: Tri sta četyrideset i pjaty
- 2008th: Dva tisiči i osmy
- 1.976.845.203rd: Jedin miljard devet sta semdeset šest miljony osem sta četyrideset pjat tisiči dva sta i trety
Verbs
Slevian verbs do conjugate according to tense, aspect, person, number and in the past tense with genre of the subject.
Aspect
The Aspect reflects the completeness/incompleteness of the action the verb expresses.
- The Imperfective aspect denotes an action which has not come to an end, or an action which happens/happened/will happen many times
- The Perfective aspect denotes an action which has completely come to an end, an action which is complete, or an action which happened/will happen only once
A verb can be perfective or imperfective, never both ones. Typically the verb has a counter-part and both they appear in pair, the Aspectual pair, two verbs with different aspect, but the same meaning. The aspectual pair usually appears as "imperfective verb-perfective verb
- čitat-počitat: to read
- pisat-napisat: to write
Examples:
- Ja jeso čital tamta kniga: I was reading that book (and in that moment I did not finish it)
- Ja jeso počital tamta kniga: I read that book (and I finished it)
- Ja budu pisat jedno pismo: I will be writing a letter (and I don't know if I'll finish it)
- Ja napišu jedno pismo: I'll write a letter (and I will surely finish it)
Perfective verbs are usually derived from its imperfective companions by mean of prefixes. Regular verbs add po- to form their perfective counter-parts, irregular verbs use irregular prefixes.
Since a present action cannot be completed, perfective verbs do not have a present tense in conjugation. Their present form is used as future.
Tense
Slevian verbs have only three tenses: past, present and future.
- Present tense is a simple form, which is conjugated according to number and person with its subject. Only imperfective verbs have a present tense form since present actions cannot be perfective.
- Ja pišu, I write
- Future tense is a composed form for imperfective verbs and a simple form for perfective verbs. The perfective form has the same features as imperfective present forms and it's conjugated according to number and person. The future imperfective form is a compound; it's formed with the future form of the verb byt, to be, and the infinitive form of the imperfective verb.
- Ja napišu, I will write
- Ja budu pisat, I will be writing
- Past tense is always a composed form for both imperfective verbs and perfective ones. It's formed with the present forms of the verb byt, to be, and the past participle of the verb, declined according to genre and number of its subject.
- Ja jeso pisal, I was writing
- Ona je pisala, She was writing
- My jesom napisaly, We wrote
Participles
Slevian has two kinds of participles, past participle and passive participle:
- The Past participle is formed by dropping -t from the infinitive form and adding -l. It's used only in the construction of the past tense. It is declined according to the genre:
- On je napisal, He wrote
- Ona je napisala, She wrote
- Ono je napisalo, It wrote
- Ony jeson napisaly, They wrote
- The Passive participle is used in construction of the passive voice and as an adjective with substantive. It has many rules for its own construction.
- Tamta kniga je byla počitana prid jego, That book was read by him
Voice
Slevian has a passive voice, but it does not use it very much. Its constructions is: conjugated verb byt + declinated passive particle. It can be imperfective or perfective and it follows the rules for aspect and tenses, even if byt is conjugated according with tense and passive participle take perfective prefixes.
- Tamta kniga je čitana prid to deto, That book is read by the child
- Tamta kniga je byla počitana prid ta žena, That book was read by the woman
- Tamta kniga budu byt počitana prid ton muž, That book will be read by the man
Byt
The verb byt, to be, has an irregular conjugation:
Person | Present | Past | Future |
---|---|---|---|
Mit
The verb Mit, to have, has an irregular conjugation:
Person | Present | Past | Future |
---|---|---|---|
Conjugation
Slevian verbs are conjugated according to the ending of their infinitive forms. There are four conjugations:
Conjugations | Infinitival endings |
---|---|
1st conjugation
The first conjugation include all verbs which end with -at in their infinitive form. To conjugate these verbs, drop the infinitival ending and add the following endings:
Persons and moods | Endings |
---|---|
2nd conjugation
The second conjugation include all verbs which end with -et and -it in their infinitive form; even if infinitival endings are different, the conjugation features are the same. To conjugate these verbs, drop the infinitival ending and add the following endings:
Persons and moods | Endings |
---|---|
3st conjugation
The third conjugation include all verbs which end with -ovat in their infinitive form. To conjugate these verbs, drop the whole infinitival ending and add the following endings:
Persons and moods | Endings |
---|---|
4th conjugation
The fourth conjugation include all irregular verbs. These verbs have an irregular stem, but all they add the same personal endings:
Persons and moods | Endings |
---|---|
Examples
Persons and moods | 1st conjugation | 2nd conjugation | 2nd conjugation | 3rd conjugation | 4rd conjugation |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
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