Grammar of uREd

Morphology

Part of speech

Roots are groups of one or two unchangeable syllables that convey a general meaning or a concept. They are suffixed and prefixed in order to obtain meaningful words and compounds.

• Ex. Viv~ [Aspect of life]

Four parts of the speech can be obtained by suffixing the root: nouns (-o), adjectives (-a), infinitives (-i) and adverbs (-e).

• Ex. Vivo [Life], Viva [Alive], Vivi [Live], Vive [Lively]

The plural suffix -y and the accusative suffix -n can be attached to certain stems to mark it with case and number.

• Mi ne kunnovas t’amon [I don’t know love]
• Mi balas la pilon [I throw the ball]
• T’amoy kalas [Love is beautiful lit. Loves are beautiful]

Articles

There are two definite articles, “la” and “ta”, that respectively refer to a specific element of a class, and to the class itself.

• La fono [The sound], Ta fono [Sounds]

Articles are marked for neither case nor number, and therefore are considered to make up a separate word class. Articles are way less used than they are in English. They are not required either if their reference noun has been previously mentioned in the dialogue or if the context implies the elements the speaker is pointing at.

• A: la fono altas? B: fono altas [A: Is the sound high? B: Yeah, it’s high]

Regardless of the context, proper nouns of living beings, institutions or comparable entities don’t need an article.

• Italuyo [Italy]

There aren’t indefinite articles. English article a/an can be either left out or translated with the numeral adjective “una”, to underline its uniqueness.

• Un’homo [A human]

Partitive articles do not exist. However, the adjective “kelka” can be used in place of it to point at a small group of elements. Alternatively the correlative “yom” can be used in a similar fashion for uncountable nouns.

• Yom amo [Some love]

NOTE: Even if adjectives are used in place of articles, they still act like adjectives. Unlike articles, adjectives are marked for case and number.

• Un’homo [A human] Unay homoy [Humans]

Pronouns

Personal pronouns “mi” [I] and “ti” [You] respectively refer to the speaker and the listeners, even if they are more than one. Pronouns “ni” [We] and “vi” [You all] refer to the speaker / listener along with others.

• Ti kalas [You (all) are beautiful], Vi kalas [You all and they are beautiful]

Pronouns “shi”, “li” and “gi” all indicate a third person subject, and respectively suggest a feminine, masculine and neuter / mixed entity.

• Gi kalas [It’s beautiful]

There is a reflexive pronoun “si”, which is used to retrieve the subject avoiding ugly repetitions.

• Marko balas sian pilon [Mark throws Mark’s ball]

Possessive pronouns and adjectives are obtained by adding the suffix -a to the respective personal pronoun.

• Mi [Io] -> Mia [My]

Personal pronouns doesn’t take the -n ending. Accusatives have their own separate form ending in -a: ma, ta, ga, sha, la, na, sa. Possessives, on the other hand, act like adjectives and regularly take the -n suffix.

• M’amas ta [I love you]

Nouns

As we stated in the section about parts of the speech, nouns are derived from roots by adding the thematic suffix -o.

• L’homo [The human], Ta vivo [Life]

We can clearly state that they are marked for case and number, just like adjectives.

• Homo [Human], Homoy [Humans]
• Homon [Uomo ogg.] Homoyn [Uomini ogg.]

None of the words are explicitly marked for gender. However, proper names are not forced to take the -o ending to preserve their original form, and therefore the gender distinction coming from other languages is kept.

• Anzhela [Angela], Anzhelo [Angelo]
• Thamir [Samir], Elen [Ellen]

Adjectives

Verbal attributes

Just like nouns, adjectives show a declension for case and number. They are distinguished by the -a ending that follows the root.

• Ven~ [Aspect of victory], Ven-a/ay/an/ayn [Victorious/a]

Adjectives come before the noun they attach to, and always agree with it in case and number.

• Bon’homo [Good man], Bonay homoy [Good men]

It must be mentioned that adjectives alone are just adnominal forms of the correspondent verb. To derive a more abstract concept or property from the root the suffix -al- is used (cfr. 2.7.3,3).

• Viva [Who lives], Vivala [Concerning life]

Numerals

There are nine base numeral roots: un-, du-, thi-, ku-, pin-, es-, et-, ok- and non-, which of course stands for the nine digits. These can be suffixes as normal roots.

• Uno [One], una milo [One apple], une [Only]

Furthermore, there are roots for ten, one hundred, ten thousands and a hundred of millions, which are “dek-“, “then-“, “kil-” and “mun-“. Orthographically, a space is usually placed after a multiple.

• Thidek uno = 30 + 1 = 31
• Dudek then dek kuo = 30 * 100 + 10 + 2 = 2014

When people count things aloud, usually the suffixation is left out and bare roots are used, instead.

• Un, du, thi! [One, two, three!]

The ending -a is used to count things, exactly like they are used in English. Numerals are not verbal attributes and therefore they don’t agree with their head noun in case and number.

• Thia miloy [Three apples]

The suffix -az is used for ordinal numbers. They explain the numerical order or hierarchy of a definite list of elements.

• Nonaz [Ninth]; Pinaz [Fifth]

The ending -e is used in a similar fashion to the English adjectives “single”, “double”, “triple” and so on. They as well are not verbal attributes.

• Thiehomaro [Triumvirate]

The ending -il is used to obtain multipliers, similarly to the English adverbs “once” and “twice”, but they are extended to every number.

• Kuil [Four times]

The suffix -er is used to derive distributes. These rather denote that the number belongs to each of several persons or things.

• Kuer [Four at four, four per unit]

Dates are listed from general to specific like most East-Asian languages. The formal standard date includes year, month and day. The word for “Month” is “dalo”, the word for year is “yono”, but their endings are left out in the date format. Names of months are capitalized.

• Dudek then dek kuyon, Kudal, dudek pin [April, 25th 2014]
• 2014, Kudal 25 [April, 25th 2014]

Verbs

The verb is the part of the speech used to describe an action performed by a subject or a property held by it. It is conjugated for tense (present, past or future), diathesis and mood. Finite verbs show the ending -s. There are three time seeds, which are used to specify the tense: -a- for present, -i- for past, -o- for future and -u- for hypothetical. Present indicative is made up with the root followed by the present time seed and the finite ending.

• Mi kalas [I am beautiful]

As previously mentioned, past and future tenses are obtained by using the correspondent time seeds.

• Mi dokos al ti [I will teach you]

The present tense can be used to give information about universal truth or gnomic statements. Some universal truths concerning the initial default state of a being require the past tense.

• Ta leo yalas [Lions are yellow] (All the lions are yellow)
• M’italis [I am Italian, lit. I have been Italian] (I am born Italian)

The time seed -u- is used to state hypothetical truths and improbable situations happening in the near future.

• Si m’italis m’albus [If I were Italian I’d be white]

The finite ending -u is used for the volitive mood. These are not truths but rather expression of wishes, speculative situations or direct orders.

• T’iru! [Vai!]

The diathesis suffix -nt- is used to create an active participle stem, that can be furthermore conjugated as a finite verb or suffixed as a noun, adverb or adjective.

• Edanta homo [Man who eats lit. eating man].
• Edinta homo [Man who has eaten].
• M’edantas [I am eating].
• Edanto [The one who eats].

English past perfect is translated as a past active participle afterwards conjugated in the past tense.

• M’edintis [I had eaten lit. I was one who has eaten]

The diathesis suffix -t- is used to create passive participles. These can be conjugated or suffixes as well just like their active counterparts. Passives are used way more frequently than they are in English.

• Gi dokatas [It is taught]
• Gi dokitas [It was taught]
• Dokata matharo [The taught discipline]

Eventually, the mood ending -i is used to obtain infinitives. Unlike most languages (but similarly to English), infinitives can be suffixed for diathesis and tense.

• Doki [Teach]; Dokari (nor. dokati) [To be taught]; Dokanti [To be teaching]