Aingeljã

Aingeljã (X-SAMPA: /ajNge"lja/), also referred to as Angelian in English language, is a romance artlang belonging to the western branch, Eastern-Iberian-Romance group. It is therefore very close to other languages such as Spanish, Aragonese and Catalan, although it contains important similarities with Galician-Portuguese, Occitan, French and Italian. There are some germanic traces, especially from English and German. Its phonology is very close to that of the Catalan dialect spoken in Valencia (Spain), the so-called Valencian. Any person who is able to read texts written in Spanish, Catalan, Occitan or Italian, would not have any problems when reading something in Aingeljã.

About the tildes

In Aingeljã there are some graphic symbols which are written over certain vowels to help the pronunciation. They are the nasal tilde ( ~ ), the acute accent ( ´ ), the grave accent ( ` ), the diaeresis ( ¨ ) and the breve symbol ( ă ). Not all these symbols can be used with any vowel. The only valid combinations are as follows:

ã ă à è é ĩ ì ï õ ò ũ ù ü

Nouns

Nouns can be masculine or feminine in gender, singular or plural in number:

• As a general rule, in singular all feminine nouns end in -a. Masculine nouns can end in any other letter.
• As a general rule, in order to form plural you add -s. When the word ends in -ix, -ll, -nn, -s, -z, -ç, f, you add -es.

Adjectives

Adjectives can be masculine or feminine in gender, singular or plural in number. They can appear before or after the noun they accompany, but always after other possible determiners, such as articles, possessive or demonstrative ones, among others. Adjectives always agree in gender and in number with the nount they accompany.

Determinate articles

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	ou	ous
	oul'
Feminine	a	as
	al'

These articles are used mainly to constrain the extension of the noun they accompany to entities already known by the interlocutors. They correspond in English to the.

• Ou and a are used before singular nouns that begin by a consonant other than h (this is a mute letter). They are already used before nouns beginning with the semiconsonants j or w.

• Oul' and al' are used before singular nouns that begin by a vowel or by h. In this case, there is a word bonding, so that the last letter of a word (the article) is bonded when pronouncing to the first letter of the following word. This is represented by an apostrophe ( ' ). These words are also written without intermediate blank spaces.

• The articles ous (masculine) and as (feminine) are used for plural.

Indeterminate articles

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	ũ	ũns
	ũn'
Feminine	una	unas
	un'

These articles are used with the noun they accompany, to show that it represents an unknown entity for the interlocutors, which is mentioned for the first time in the conversation, or which is going to be described in a vague and indefinite way. They correspond to the English a/an.

• Ũ and una are used before singular nouns beginning with a consonant, other than h. They are also used before nouns beginning with the semiconsonants j or w.

• Ũn' and un are used with singular nouns beginning with a vowel or with h. In this case, there is a word bonding, so that the last letter of a word (the article) is bonded when pronouncing to the first letter of the following word. This is represented by an apostrophe ('). These words are also written without intermediate blank spaces.

• The articles ũns (masculine) and unas (feminine) are written for plural.

Possessive determiners and pronouns

The possessive words indicate who the owner of something is. The possessed thing is specified by the noun they accompany. They agree in gender and number with this noun, but as well, they agree in person and number with the owner/s. These determiners have the same form as the corresponding pronouns in Aingeljã, so in order to distinguish them, you have to look for the accompanied noun.

They correspond in English to the determiners my, your (singular), his, her, its, our, your (plural) and their, as well as the pronouns mine, yours (singular), his, hers, its, ours, yours (plural) and theirs.

		Masculine		Feminine
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Singular	1st Person	mou / moul'	mous	ma / mal'	mas
	2nd Person	tou / toul'	tous	ta / tal'	tas
	3rd Person	sou / soul'	sous	sa/ sal'	sas
Plural	1st Person	nou / noul'	nous	na / nal'	nas
	2nd Person	vou / voul'	vous	va / val'	vas
	3rd Person	sou / soul'	sous	sa / sal'	sas

The forms ending in -l' are used in the same way as oul', al', ũn' and un', this is, before words beginning with a vowel or h.

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns indicate the grammatical persons. There are two types:

• Tonic, with full meaning and stress.
• Atonic, without full meaning, nor stress, so they cannot be used alone in a sentence.

Some atonic pronouns are used with the so-called pronominal verbs. These pronouns just give a special meaning to the verb (which usually presents both versions, a pronominal one and a non-pronominal one), usually a reflexive or reciprocal meaing.

		Tonic	Atonic
			Not pronominal	Pronominal
Singular	1st Person	jo	mi	mi
	2nd Person	tu	ti	ti
	3rd Person	ill illa se	ou / oul' / ïu / si a / al' / ïa / si	si
Plural	1st Person	nos	nus	nus
	2nd Person	vos	vus	vus
	3rd Person	illes illas	ous / ïus / si as / ïas / si	si

Notes:

• The direct object pronouns for the 3rd person are: ou, oul', a, al', ous, as. They correspond in English to him, her, it, them.

• The indirect object pronouns for the 3rd person are: ïu, ïa, ïus, ïas. They also correspond in English to him, her, it, them.

• Impersonal sentences do not have a real subject. In practice you can use the pronoun se (=one), which compensates the lack of a subject. The corresponding verb is always conjugated in the third person of singular. Examples: se plugge (it is raining), se njeixe (it is snowing), s'eh fret (it is cold), s'eh caude (it is warm).

Preposition + article unions

Some prepositions followed by a determinate article are contracted into one single word. This is the case of ne (in) and de (of). In case they are followed by a word beginning by a vowel or h (included the indeterminate article), they suffer a bonding and become n' and d', respectively. Bear in mind that the preposition a (at/to) is never contracted with an article, and becomes ad when it is followed by a vowel or h.

Preposition + article		With contraction
ne +	+ ou	= nou
	+ ous	= nous
	+ a	= na
	+ as	= nas
de +	+ ou	= dou
	+ ous	= dous
	+ a	= da
	+ as	= das
Preposition + Article		With bonding
ne +	+ ũ	= n'ũ
	+ ũn'	= n'ũn'
	+ ũns	= n'ũns
	+ una	= n'una
	+ un'	= n'un'
	+ unas	= n'unas
de +	+ ũ	= d'ũ
	+ ũn'	= d'ũn'
	+ ũns	= d'ũns
	+ una	= d'una
	+ un'	= d'un'
	+ unas	= d'unas
Preposition + Article		Without contraction nor bonding
a +	+ ou	= ad ou
	+ ous	= ad ous
	+ a	= ad a
	+ as	= ad as
a +	+ ũ	= ad ũ
	+ ũn'	= ad ũn'
	+ ũns	= ad ũns
	+ una	= ad una
	+ un'	= ad un'
	+ unas	= ad unas

Verbs

Verbs are much easier in Aingeljã than in other languages:

• All the verbs but two are regular.
• There is only one conjugation, as all the verbs have converged into the first Latin conjugation: -are > -re.
• There is no subjunctive mood.

The only irregular verbs are the auxiliary ones: esăre (to be), which is used in the passive voice, and hawăre (to have), which is used in the perfect tenses. These verbs are irregular only in present tense. In the remainder cases, they follow the regular rules.

All the infinitives end in -re, present participles in -ant, and past participles in -at.

Each conjugated form is created out of a lexeme plus some special endings or morphemes for each person. In general, it is not mandatory that the subject of the sentence always appears, as it can be identified by the verbal ending.

Verbal tenses:

There is only indicative mood with the following types of tenses:

• Simple, formed out of the lexeme of the verb plus personal endings. There are six simple tenses: present, imperfect past, undefined past, future, conditional and imperative.
• Compound, formed with hawăre + past participle (-at). There are five perfect tenses: perfect, pluperfect, undefined past perfect, future perfect and conditional perfect.

Types of verbs according to their lexeme:

There are three classes:

• Strong verbs, whose lexeme is obtained directly from the infinitive by removing the ending -re. The infinitive of these verbs is a paroxitone word, this is, the stressed syllable is the last but one. Example: chantre /"tSantre/ (to sing), whose lexeme is chant-. These verbs do not have 1st person ending in present tense: jo chant (I sing).

• Weak verbs, for which there is an intermediate -ă- (pronounced /@/), between the lexeme and the ending -re. The infinitive of these verbs is a proparoxitone word, this is, the stressed syllable is the last but two. Example: venăre /"ven@re/ (to come), whose lexeme is ven-. They have an extra -e in the first person singular in present tense: jo vene (I come). For the rest of the conjugation, it is the same as for strong verbs.

Examples of conjugation for normal verbs:

Present tense of strong verb "chantre"	Present tense of weak verb "venăre"
Jo chant	Jo vene
Tu chantes	Tu venes
Ill/Illa chante	Ill/Illa vene
Nos chantèms	Nos venèms
Vos chantèts	Vos venèts
Illes/Illas chanten	Illes/Illas venen

Examples of conjugation for auxiliary verbs:

Present tense of verb "hawăre"	Present tense of verb "esăre"
J'heh	Jo swi
T'has	T'es
Ill/Illa hast	Ill/Illa eh
Nos hawèms	Nos soimes
Vos hawèts	Vos ets
Illes/Illas hen	Illes/Illas sen

Some texts in Aingeljã

Our Father

Nou Pare, qwe ets nou cell,
qwe santificat eh vou nome,
qwe vene a nos vou reixĩ.
Qwe eh façata va voluntà,
tant na terra com nou cell.
Donat-nus hogge nou pã qwotiggãn
e pardonat nas ofensas,
com tantbain nos pardonèms qwĩns ofenden-nus.
E nõ deixat-nus cadre na tentacjõn
e lluwerat-nus dou Mau.
Voul'eh ou reixĩ,
voul'eh ou potre et a glorja,
pur sempre. AMAIN.

Ring's Poem (Tolkien)

Tre aneus per ous Reixes Elfes baix ou cell.
Seit per ous Moussers Nanãns nous palazes de petra.
Nou per ous Homes Mòrtals condenats a morăre.
Ũ per ou Mouser Umrerat, super oul'umrerat trõ,
na Terra de Mòrdor dõ stenden-si as Umras.
Ũn'Aneu per reixăre tots. Ũn'Aneu per trowăre-ous,
ũn'Aneu per atrajăre tots et atre-ous nas tenrewas,
na Terra de Mòrdor dõ stenden-si as Umras.

The dispersion of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9)

Tota a terra parlabe ũ mesme langaix et usabe as mesmas paraulas. Qwand ous homes emigreiren des oul'Est, troweiren illes una planura na reggõ de Senar e stauleiren-si lla. E diçeiren illes ũns ad autres:

- Vadèms façre brecs e coçre-ous a foc.

Illes useiren brecs nou loc da petra, et asfaut nou loc da mortella; e diçeiren illes:

- Vadèms costrujăre una citàt et una torra daqwe someta atangge adast ou cell; ainsĩ nos esarèms famoses e nõ dispersarèms-nus super ou fez da terra.

Meh ou Mouser baixé per vidre a citàt et a torra qwe ous homes costrujaben de segat, e diçé-si: «Tots illes formen ũ sol pouple e parlen ũ mesme langaix; e doul'eh sol ou principi de sas interprisas; naçata qwe illes proponen-si resoutré umposïul per illes. Jo vad baixăre confusjonăre sou langaix per qwe illes nõn entenden-si ũns cõn autres».

Ainsĩ, ou Mouser dispersé-ous de lla pur tota a terra et illes deixeiren costrujăre a cità. Pur dou, illa apellé-si «Babell», per qwe lla confusjoné ou Mouser ou langaix de tots ous hautants da terra, e des lla Ill dispersé-ous pur tota sa surfiza.

Rhyme VII by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (19th century Spanish poet)

Dou salõ noul'umrerat àingul,
de sa propretarja qwejaix riprowata,
silencjosa e coprata de pouve,
vidabe-si al'harpa.

Qwanta nota dormabe ne sas cordas,
com ou focle dorme nas branchas,
aspetant a mã de njeix
qwe sape arrancre-as!

Au! - pensé - qwantas voutas ou ggenn
ainsĩ dorme nou fond dal'auma,
et una voixa, com Làzar, aspete
qwe diçe-ïa «Leva-ti et anda!»!

External Links

• http://www.aingelja.com Official homepage of Aingeljã
• http://www.aingelja.com/pdf/gramatica-aingelja.pdf Complete grammar of Aingeljã written in Aingeljã (PDF format)