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 | |
