User:Bukkia/sandboxIV
Novelatine is a language, spoken by a few thousand people in two remote mountain valleys in Central Italy. Its speakers call their own language Sa lêgwa syar dwar valyô, The language of the two valleys, or simply Sa lêgwa (nob), The/Our language. It is a direct descendent of Latin, and it retained a more conservative grammar, morphology and syntaxis than the other Romance languages. Its lexicon retains many more words directly from Latin than other Romance lexicons.
Apart from its conservatism, the main feature is the presence of two distinct dialects, one for each valleys, with some definite differences.
Noun morphology
Novelatine retains the complex system of Latin declensions, but the six cases of Latin language have merged in a three-case system: Nominative, Genitive and Accusative. Nouns are grouped in four declensions, but as phonological changes modified some endings, each declension group has more subgroups.
First declension
The first declension has both feminine and masculine nouns, but no neuter nouns. Most nouns (more than 90%) are feminine, and there is no difference in the endings between both genders. The endings are:
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -a | -e | |
| Genitive | -e | -arô | |
| Accusative | -ô | -es | |
- Example: Rosa, rose, feminine
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | rosa | rose | |
| Genitive | rose | rosarô | |
| Accusative | rosô | roses | |
- Example: Êcola, inhabitant, masculine
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | êcola | êcole | |
| Genitive | êcole | êcolarô | |
| Accusative | êcolô | êcoles | |
Even if both genders share the same endings, nouns agree with adjectives, articles, pronouns and verbs according the real gender:
- Se bone poeta: the good poet
- Sa rosa pulcra: the beautiful rose
Second declension
The second declension has only masculine and neuter nouns. Each gender forms a different subgroup. There is also a -er subgroup:
Masculine subgroup
The endings for the masculine second declension are:
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -e | -yi | |
| Genitive | -yi | -erô | |
| Accusative | -ô | -es | |
- Example: Lupe, wolf
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | lupe | lupyi | |
| Genitive | lupyi | luperô | |
| Accusative | lupô | lupes | |
Neuter subgroup
The endings for the neuter second declension are:
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -ô | -a | |
| Genitive | -yi | -erô | |
| Accusative | -ô | -a | |
- Example: Pomô, apple
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | pomô | poma | |
| Genitive | pomyi | pomerô | |
| Accusative | pomô | poma | |
-er subgroup
The -er subgroup contains only masculine nouns whose nominative singular form ends with -er. They add the usual second declension endings in other cases, losing the -e:
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | - | -yi | |
| Genitive | -yi | -erô | |
| Accusative | -ô | -es | |
- Example: Ager, field
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | ager | agryi | |
| Genitive | agryi | agrerô | |
| Accusative | agrô | agres | |
Fourth declension
The fourth declension has masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. There are two subgroups the -e subgroup and the -o subgroup.
-e subgroup
The -e subgroup contains both masculine and feminine nouns. Most nouns are masculine (more than 95 %), but the few feminine nouns are very used. These are the endings.
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -e | -os | |
| Genitive | -os | -wô | |
| Accusative | -ô | -os | |
- Example: Pase, step, masculine
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | pase | pasos | |
| Genitive | pasos | paswô | |
| Accusative | pasô | pasos | |
- Example: Dome, house, home, feminine
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | dome | domos | |
| Genitive | domos | domwô | |
| Accusative | domô | domos | |
-o subgroup
The -o subgroup contains only neuter nouns. These are the endings.
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -o | -wa | |
| Genitive | -os | -wô | |
| Accusative | -o | -wa | |
- Example: Geno, knee
| Case | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | geno | genwa | |
| Genitive | genos | genwô | |
| Accusative | geno | genwa | |
Articles, Adjectives and Pronouns
Articles
Novelatine has a definite article, se. The western dialect has an indefinite article, the numeral une, while the eastern dialect usually uses no indefinite article. The article une declines as a normal first class adjective.
Definite article
The definite article se has an irregular declension:
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
| Nominative | se | sa | sô | syi | se | sa |
| Genitive | sies | sies | sies | syor | syar | syor |
| Accusative | sô | sô | sô | ses | ses | sa |
The nominative singular masculine and neuter forms usually lose their vowel before another vowel and get an apostrophe, while the nominative neuter singular and all accusative singular forms become son before another vowel:
- S'agricola son agrô si col: the farmer cultivates his own field
In the eastern dialect the nominative plural masculine form, syi, gets shorter too:
- W: Syi agricole ses agres si col - E: Sy'agricole ses agres si col: the farmers cultivate their own fields
