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Dicontu Grandiu
Created to be an alternative to Esperanto. Dicontu Grandiu is supposed to be more easily spoken by speakers of gendered languages than Esperanto because of its simple-to-use quad-gender system.
Syntax
SVO is used 75% of the time, but the only real word-order rule is that the subject must come before any object. Adjectives usually follow their head nouns. Indirect objects usually come before direct objects. Prepositional phrases do not usually start sentences.
Nouns
Nouns have four genders: masculine, feminine, common (or epicene), and neuter. Many nouns come in two or more different genders, and the gender changes the meaning. For example, a padro (masculine) is a father, but a padre (common) is a parent. And an enfante (common) is a baby, but an enfantu (neuter) is a child still in the womb. If a word appears in a gender it does not usually appear in, a general meaning is implied. If a living thing is strangely made neuter, it usually means the person or thing is deceased. If an inaminate object is made common, it is either being personified metaphorically or suddenly animate, like in a fairy tale. If a normally masculine or feminine thing is made common, it is being generalized. For example, florninas (feminine) are flower girls, but flornines would be a respectful way to refer to a group of flower girls and boys. They also come in four cases: oblique, for subjects, direct objects, and predicate nominatives; dative, for indirect objects; genitive, for possessors, composition, reference, and more; and ablative for intruments, causes, and comparisons. When speaking about specific places, the ablative changes to a locative case, meaning "at ____".
Masculine | pl | Feminine | pl | Common | pl | Neuter | pl | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oblique | pádro | pádros | mátra | mátras | enfánte | enfántes | céilu | céilus |
Genitive | pádron | pádroi | mátran | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example |
Dative | padró | padrós | matrá | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example |
Ablative | pádrom | padróm | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example | Example |