Slevian

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	i   ɨ u ɛ ɔ      a
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p b		t d				k ɡ
Nasal	m	ɱ	n			ɲ
Vibrant			r
Fricative		f v		s z	ʃ ʒ
Affricate				ʦ	ʧ
Approximant						j	ɰ
Lateral approximant			l

Alphabet

IPA consonant	Latin
/p/	p
/b/	b
/t/	t
/d/	d
/k/	k
/g/	g
/m/	m
/n/	n
/ʦ/	c
/ʧ/	č
/ʒ/	ž
/f/	f
/v/	v
/s/	s
/z/	z
/ʃ/	š
/r/	r
/j/	j
/ɰ/	u
/l/	l

Š, ž, č, s, z, l, j are called soft consonants and they tend to modify the use of the morphological endings.

IPA vowel	Latin
/i/	i
/ɨ/	y
/u/	u
/ɛ/	e
/a/	a
/ɔ/	o

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.	ja	mine
2nd sing.	ty	tibe
3rd. masc.	on	jego
3rd fem.	ona	jeji
3rd neu.	to	to
1st plu.	my	nas
2nd plu.	vy	vas
3rd fem.	oni	ich

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.	moj	moja	mojo	moje
2nd sing.	tvoj	tvoja	tvojo	tvoje
3rd. masc.	jevo
3rd fem.	jejo
3rd neu.	togo
1st plu.	naš	naša	našo	naše
2nd plu.	vaš	vaša	vašo	vaše
3rd fem.	jejich

If the subject coincides with the owner, for the 3rd persons you have to use svoj:

Person	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
refl.	svoj	svoja	svojo	svoje

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	kaky
Feminine	kaka
Neuter	kako
Plural	kake

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	ktery
Feminine	ktera
Neuter	ktero
Plural	ktere

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
u	of, genitive
e	to, dative
s	with strumental
v	in, state/motion
na	on state/motion
od	from
k	towards, motions to someone
prid	by, with passive voice
pre	in front of
dla	for, benefactive
nad	over, without contact
pod	under
mežo	between, among
po	it has many functions

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
1	Jedin
2	Dva
3	Tri
4	Četyri
5	Pjat
6	Šest
7	Sem
8	Osem
9	Devet
10	Deset

Numbers from 11 to 19 are constructed regularly unit+na+deset, except for 11:

Number	Name of the number
11	Odennadeset
12	Dvanadeset
13	Trinadeset
14	Četyrinadeset
15	Pjatnadeset
...	...

Numbers 20, 30, 40, etc are costructed regularly, more than 100 are irregular:

Number	Name of the number
20	Dvadeset
30	Trideset
40	Četyrideset
50	Pjatdeset
60	Šestdeset
70	Semdeset
80	Osemdeset
90	Devetdeset
100	Sto
1.000	Tisiče
1.000.000	Miljon
1.000.000.0000	Miljard

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
1st	Pervy, perva, pervo, perve
2nd	Duvy
3rd	Trety
4th	Četyrny
5th	Pjaty
6th	Šesty
7th	Semy
8th	Osmy
9th	Devety
10th	Desety
11th	Odennadesety
20th	Dvadesety
100th	Stoty
1.000th	Tisičny
1.000.000th	Miljonty
1.000.000.000th	Miljardny

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
Ja	Jeso	Byl,-a,-o jeson	Budu
Ty	Ješ	Byl,-a,-o ješ	Budeš
On	Je	Byl,-a,-o je	Bude
My	Jesom	Byly jesom	Budeme
Vy	Jeste	Byly jeste	Budete
Oni	Jeson	Byly jeson	Budut

Mit

The verb Mit, to have, has an irregular conjugation:

Person	Present	Past	Future
Ja	Mam	Mel,-a,-o jeson	Budu mit
Ty	Maš	Mel,-a,-o ješ	Budeš mit
On	Ma	Mel,-a,-o je	Bude mit
My	Mame	Mely jesom	Budeme mit
Vy	Mate	Mely jeste	Budete mit
Oni	Majot	Mely jeson	Budut mit

Conjugation

Slevian verbs are conjugated according to the ending of their infinitive forms. There are four conjugations:

Conjugations	Infinitival endings
1st	-at
2nd	-et, -it
3rd	-ovat
4th	irregular

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
Ja	-ajo
Ty	-aš
On	-a
My	-am
Vy	-ate
Oni	-ajot
Past participle	-al (-a, -o, -y)
Passive participle	-an (-a, -o, -y)

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
Ja	-ijo
Ty	-iš
On	-i
My	-im
Vy	-ite
Oni	-ijot
Past participle	-il/el (-a, -o, -y)
Passive participle	-en (-a, -o, -y)

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
Ja	-ujo
Ty	-uješ
On	-uje
My	-ujem
Vy	-ujete
Oni	-ujot
Past participle	-oval (-a, -o, -y)
Passive participle	-ovan (-a, -o, -y)

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
Ja	-u
Ty	-eš
On	-e
My	-em
Vy	-ete
Oni	-ut
Past participle	-(C/V)l (-a, -o, -y)
Passive participle	-(V)n/-(C)en (-a, -o, -y)

Examples

Persons and moods	1st conjugation	2nd conjugation	2nd conjugation	3rd conjugation	4rd conjugation
	kupat	ljubit	slišet	jimenovat	pisat
Ja	kupajo	ljubijo	slišijo	jimenujo	pišu
Ty	kupaš	ljubiš	slišiš	jimenuješ	pišeš
On	kupa	ljubi	sliši	jimenuje	piše
My	kupam	ljubim	slišim	jimenujem	pišem
Vy	kupate	ljubite	slišite	jimenujete	pišete
Oni	kupajot	ljubijot	slišijot	jimenujot	pišut
Past participle	kupal (-a, -o, -y)	ljubil (-a, -o, -y)	slišel (-a, -o, -y)	jimenoval (-a, -o, -y)	pisal (-a, -o, -y)
Passive participle	kupan (-a, -o, -y)	ljuben (-a, -o, -y)	slišen (-a, -o, -y)	jimenovan (-a, -o, -y)	pisan (-a, -o, -y)