Difference between revisions of "Noterelenda"

Revision as of 01:40, 26 February 2005

Noterelenda is one of the four official languages of Bedistan, though it is more widely spoken in the former Bedistani colonies of Tingitana and Pedriana. It is a constructed language, drawing influences from the other three Bedistani languages (English, Spanish, and a very small amount of classical Greek).

Basic Grammar

Noterelenda uses a simple subject-verb-object (SVO) form, like English. Modifiers are usually placed after nouns.

Sample sentence: Ge tal senie'da. (I went to the store.)

Alphabet and Pronunciation

The Noterelenda alphabet has undergone a few changes in its short history. The present alphabet consists of 22 letters, each of which has a single sound:

• a - odd
• b - boy
• d - duck
• e - egg
• f - for
• g - gate
• i - evil
• j - house
• k - kite
• l - lock
• m - mouse
• n - noon
• o - ode
• p - pick
• q - check
• r - room
• s - stay
• t - tape
• u - room
• v - voice
• y - yo-yo
• z - zoo

Archaic letters

The letter q has not always existed in its present form. Originally, the /ch/ sound was represented by the letter combination "ch". The extra letter h was later dropped and the /ch/ sound was represented by a cedilla added under the c (ç). Rushed writing styles common to Noterelenda speakers eventually resulted in the morphing of this letter into a g-like entity, and eventually the stroke was reversed in direction to help in differentiation, producing today's modern letter q.

In addition, there was originally a letter c. Very recently, this letter has been deprecated in favor of k, as the two have identical sounds. The letter c is no longer recognized as being an official part of the Noterelenda alphabet.

The most recent removal from the alphabet is the letter w, which was made obsolete with the advent of diphthongs. A diphthong beginning with the letter u usually approximates the sound well enough.

Pronunciation

Unless otherwise specified, the stress of any polysyllabic word falls on the penultimate syllable (qidadi, konsike). A written acute accent mark indicates that the stress instead falls on the syllable over which it is written (jevaré). An apostrophe (') usually indicates a slightly more pronounced break between syllables. It is typically used when there is an awkward transition in sounds (archaic word Arjenibrúk'ta, replaced by Arjenibrukem). It is also used for separating special modifiers from a word (the suffix 'da, for instance, acts as the word "the"). Note that for purposes of stress, any prefixes or suffixes set off by apostrophes are not considered to be part of the word; hence the written accent over the u in Arjenibrúk'ta. A few words, such as numbers, can be composed of multiple parts set off by apostrophes. For purposes of stress, treat each section as a separate word; the stress within each section will fall on the penultimate syllable unless otherwise specified. This is the only way in which multiple accent marks can appear in a word.

Vowels

Normally when two vowels appear side-by-side, they are considered to be part of two separate syllables. Thus, senie (store, nominative) is pronounced "sen-EE-ay", with the i and e forming distinct syllables. For a greater range of vowel sounds, though, a diphthong can be formed. A diphthong is composed of two vowels side-by-side, with the second vowel having two dots drawn above it (called an umlaut in German or diéresis (spelling may be wrong) in Spanish).

Example: The word guane, written as shown, would be pronounced "goo-AH-nay". However, if a diphthong is formed by writing guäne, the two vowels merge, and the pronunciation becomes "GWAH-nay".

In the event that a diphthong requires a written accent mark, that accent mark is placed over the first vowel. Thus, a theoretical word nepáï would be pronounced "nep-AYE".

Nouns and adjectives

Gender

Noterelenda nouns are divided into three grammatical genders. The masculine and feminine genders are used only in reference to people or other animals, and their use is based solely on whether the person or animal is male or female. All inanimate objects are considered to be of the neuter gender. The neuter gender is also useful if one is talking about a person or animal but does not know whether it is male or female. The neuter gender can be used to express this uncertainty.

Case

As with other languages such as Classical Greek, Noterelenda nouns and adjectives change based on how they are used in a sentence. There are five cases used:

• Nominative - The subject of a sentence (The man went to the store).
• Accusative - A direct object (I took the apple).
• Genitive - Used to indicate possession (Paul's chair).
• Dative - An indirect object (She gave him the money).
• Vocative - Used to address someone or something (Where are you, Sue?).

The forms

As a result, each noun has a total of fourteen forms, one for each case in each gender (the masculine and feminine have identical vocative cases). The endings are as follows:

* Though if speaking to a person whose gender you do not know, it's probably best to use -i instead, unless you're specifically trying to make him or her feel bad.

Irregular nouns

All nouns native to the language are regular, and will always use the endings described above. There are two main categories of irregular nouns: names of people and names of countries or other geographical locations.

Names of people

If the ending of a person's name does not fit any of the case endings for that person's gender ("Jacob", for instance, does not fit any masculine endings), then the person's name, unaltered, is used as the nominative case ("Jakob" in this instance since the letter "c" doesn't exist in Noterelenda). The name is then altered accordingly to work with the other cases (Jakon, Jakom, Jakol, Jaki).

If the ending of a person's name does fit a case ending for that person's gender ("Megan", for instance, fits the feminine accusative case), then that name, unaltered, is used for that case. The name is then altered accordingly to work with the other cases (Mega, Megam, Megal, Megi).

Names of geographical locations

For geographical locations, the same rules apply as with personal names, but all locations are considered to be in the neuter gender. Thus, Australia, for instance, which does not fit any neuter case endings, would be used as the nominative (with any modifications necessary to preserve pronunciation as much as possible, thus it would become "Astrália"). It would be modified accordingly for the other four cases (Astrálien, Astráliem, Astráliel, Astráliu).

Other irregular nouns

The name of the language itself, Noterelenda, is semi-irregular. The only irregularity is that despite it not being a living creature, it is considered to be feminine instead of neuter.

Pronouns

Subject pronouns are not normally used, since the subject should be clear from the verb conjugation, but they do exist nonetheless. Object pronouns are used the same way as in Spanish, and the usage of possessive pronouns is similar, but not quite the same. With possessive pronouns, pluralization is based on the subject, not the object.

Subject pronouns

Object pronouns

Possessive pronouns

Adjectives

Adjectives usually come immediately after the noun in a sentence, and use the same case endings as the nouns they modify.

Numbers

Unlike other adjectives, numbers appear directly before the noun. Some common numbers are listed below in the neuter form.

Other parts of speech

Transformations

To pluralize a noun, add -s. Exception: When using the 'da suffix, do not modify the base word at all; instead change the 'da to 'das. For instance, senie'da (the store) becomes senie'das (the stores).

To change a noun into an adjective, drop the case/gender ending, add the suffix -ir, and then reattach the relevant case/gender ending. Thus, prente (person, neuter) becomes prentire (personal, neuter).

To change an adjective into an adverb, drop the case/gender ending, add the suffix -ler, and then reattach the relevant case/gender ending (if the adverb is to modify a verb, use neuter nominative). Thus, sosire (social) becomes sosirlere (socially). The -ler suffix is basically equivalent to the English -ly.

By applying these two rules together, you can change a noun into an adverb. Thus, the noun ride (river) becomes the adverb ridirlere (like a river, as applied to a verb).

Given the name of a nation, city, or other place, the genitive case can be used to denote something as being from that place or to make that place an adjective form. Thus, Lontórika (Lontorica) becomes Lontórikem (Lontorican).

The rule for forming the diminutive form of a noun is slightly more complicated. Drop the case/gender ending, add -it, and then replace the removed ending. Thus, kaba (cow, feminine, nominative) becomes kabita, and qidadu (city, vocative) becomes qidaditu.

To form the comparative of an adjective, add ta'- to the front, and to from the superlative, add te'-. Thus, konsike (holy, neuter) becomes ta'konsike (holier) and te'konsike (holiest).

Verbs

All Noterelenda verbs in their infinitive forms end in -ar. Each verb takes a total of 34 forms: six in each of the five simple indicative tenses, a past participle, a present participle, an infinitive, and an imperative form. Verbs are not modified by the gender of the nouns they interact with.

All tables in this section use the following format:

The verb crozar (to walk) is used as an example.

Type A tenses

To conjugate a verb to the present, preterite, or imperfect tense, the ending -ar is dropped and a suffix is added depending on the person:

Present

crozo = I walk

Preterite

croze iëre = I walked yesterday

Imperfect

croziö = I walked, without a specific timeframe

Type B tenses

To conjugate a verb to the future or conditional tense, no letters are dropped and a suffix is added depending on the person:

Future

crozare = I will walk

Conditional

crozariö = I would walk

Type C (progressive) tenses

To form the past, present, or future progressive tense of a verb, conjugate the verb benar to the imperfect, present, or future respectively and follow it with the present participle of the action verb.

To form the present participle, remove the -ar ending and add -abo.

beno crozabo = I am walking

Type D (compound) tenses

There are four compound tenses: the present perfect, past perfect, future perfect, and conditional perfect. To form these, conjugate the verb jevar to the present, imperfect, future or conditional tense respectively and follow it with the past participle of the action verb.

To form the past participle, remove the -ar ending and add -ibo.

jeviö crozibo = I had walked

Type E (imperative) tense

There is only one imperative form for each verb. The imperative is formed by removing the -ar ending and adding -ab.

Crozab! = Walk!

Reflexive verbs

If the subject and object of a verb are the same, or if using verbs meaning "to become something", no object is written and the suffix 'de is appended to the end of the verb. For instance, agar'de means "to become angry", and seplar'de means "to talk to oneself".

Vocabulary

All verbs listed are in the infinitive form. All nouns are in the neuter nominative. No adjectives or adverbs are listed, because they are all formed from nouns. This is by no means a comprehensive list.

Verbs

• buriar - to bore
• gar - to go
• endar - to eat
• agar'de - to become angry
• benar - to be
• oltar - to forget
• jevar - to have (as in, "I have gone")
• jotar - to have, to possess
• mertar - to mark, to tag
• partezar - to participate
• tepokar - to think
• seplar - to speak
• krozar - to walk
• kronar - to sing
• kentar - to want
• restiar - to write

Nouns

Nouns marked with an asterisk (*) can also take masculine and feminine forms.

• adige - age
• apane - apple
• asósie - association
• belare - ball
• banane - banana
• orse* - bear
• barte* - sibling
• kamele* - camel
• ate - car
• sintre - center
• qidade - city
• kenale - claw
• konabe - cloud
• klube - club
• kelene - colony
• kompetere - competition
• konsórdie - consortium
• nepaïe - country, nation
• kabe* - cow
• kate - cup
• de - day
• domine - dominion
• duke* - duke (duchess)
• Adítere - Earth
• aïste - east
• impre - empire
• enkulie - end
• farge - farm
• fifage - fire
• qoqerale - football (known as soccer in some countries)
• líbrie - freedom
• afrage* - friend
• grádie - greatness
• jokame - home
• konsike - holiness
• iminte - imminence
• implosione - implosion
• aïle - island
• kree* - monarch (king/queen)
• laride - land
• lende - language
• makre - largeness
• letere - letter
• denade - money
• meseke - month
• lunare - moon
• montane - mountain
• norte - north
• norole - orange
• pine - pen
• pinate - pencil
• prente* - person
• repide* - raptor
• ride - river
• roze - rose
• salde - side
• soje* - child
• pekre - smallness
• estere - star
• senie - store
• sosie - society
• sute - south
• sultane* - sultan
• sule - sun
• teride - string, thread
• forpike - thread (on an Internet forum)
• tese - time, iteration
• tememe - time (measurement)
• artole - tree
• unide - unity
• agadore - waterfall
• oste - west
• guäne - win, victory
• uäte - wood
• murle - world
• etine - yard (measurement)
• garale - yard, lawn
• iëne - year