Listenbourgese

Listenbourgese
Listenborseiçe
Pronunciation	[[w:Help:IPA|l̺i̽.t͡s̪͡θe̽.βɔ̠ɾ̠'s̪e̽j̯̊.s̺e̽]]
Created by	–
Setting	Listenbourg
Native to	Listenbourg and its ex-colonies; Gabon, Sàunt Paulo, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Liberia, Serra Leöna, Guinea, Barbados, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Borneo and the Réunion Islands. Also spoken in the ultramarine territories.
Native speakers	144,800,000 (2024)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Italo-Western Listen-Gallo-Iberian Listenic Listenbourgese

Listenbourgese is a Romance language spoken by about 53.7 million people in Listenbourg and another 91.1 million people worldwide, totaling 144.8 million speakers. From this number, about 101 million people have Listenbourgese as their native language.

Listenbourgese is available worldwide by being able to learn it through language learning platforms such as Duolingo, Drops and Babbel. Listenbourgese is also available on audioguides across the word, specially on touristic buses and places, with maps too. They can be found at famous places such as the Disney parks and an audioguide at the Louvre and at the majority of bus routes operated by the BigBus company.

It preserved some Latin features and unique vocabulary that other Romance languages did not preserve, such as lots of affixes and the synthetic pluperfect and the number declensions(cardinal, adverbial, …). Other important characteristics are that, together with Portuguese and Galician, it also has the Future Subjunctive and the Personal Infinitive.

On spoken language, it is important to notice that people use the Pluperfect and the 2nd person pronouns and conjugations everyday. It also uses the *mesoclisis a lot, and on very informal speech, people prefer to use **enclisis rather than ***proclisis.

• Mesoclisis is grammatically correct, but only if it is made within the future tenses. On other tenses, it is made just to shorten the sentence. Because there is a set of mesoclitic pronouns, people tend to use them everywhere.

• • Enclisis is used when the Mesoclisis can’t be used, usually when there is a one-syllable verb conjugation.

• • • Proclisis is used only with Personal Pronouns such as ‘I’, ‘you’ and whatever. Proclisis is used sometimes with other pronouns too.

Phonology

Listenbourgese’s phonology is similar to other Iberian and Gallo-Romance languages, such as French and Spanish. Some people describe Listenbourgese’s phonology as a mix of French and Portuguese.

Listenbourgese has true nasal vowels, this means that to form those sounds, vowels don’t need a nasal consonant, because they are already nasalized. This shows a connection with French or Portuguese, sharing a similar vowel inventory.

The orthography is shown just after and in the same order as the phonemes. Starting by the vowels:

/a e i o u y œ/ = a/à e i/ì/y o u/ù ó eu

/ɛ ɔ ɪ ɑ ɞ ʊ/ = e/è o/ò ui â û î

• /ã ẽ ĩ õ ũ ỹ œ̃/ = an/ã/am en/ẽ/em in/im on/õ/om un/um ón/óm eun/eum

/ɛ̃ ɔ̃ ɪ̃ ɑ̃ ɞ̃ ʊ̃/  = èn/èm òn/òm uin/uim ân/âm ûn/ûm în/îm

• They can also be written with the diacritics.

Listenbourgese also has nasal diphthongs. They are mainly result of the 'n' between vowels during the evolution from Vulgar Latin to Listenbourgese. The second part of the diphthongs are almost always /j/ and /w/, represented by 'i/y' and 'u' respectively. However, in nasal diphthongs, /j/ and /w/ become /j̃/ and /w̃/. The most common ones are /ãw̃/(*ão/*aõ/aun), /ãj̃/(ãi/ãe/ain), /ẽj̃/(ẽi/ẽe/ein) and /õw̃/(õu/oum).

• (History) When Nouns and Adjectives had at the end the sound /ãw̃/ and the orthography for it was only “ão”, people were confused, because these words could end in “-ães”, “-ãos” and “-ões”. So, a phenomenon called “Õalisaçõe” [w̃ã.lĩ.za'soj] happened when the nasal vowel changed from the /ã/ to /õ/ in the plural. Later, this phenomenon went extinct with the abolition of this In the Orthographic Reform of 1889, all words that ended in  “-ão” that had their plurals with “-ões”, changed their endings to “-aõ”, preserving the sound. Portuguese almost adopted the same spelling change later, around the 1930s, however, it did not work.

The orthography has the “tilde” put in vowels where the Latin ‘n’ or 'm' vanished, such as /la'go.a/, not /la'gõa/: “lagõa” < laguna.

When really speaking, without transcribing with the normal phonemes, it is used the narrow transcription, which shows every vowel and consonant more accurately. With the syllable structure (C)(C)(C)(V)V(C), we can see where the vowel is. When vowels appear between consonants, they are usually mid-centralized or retracted.

When vowels appear at the end of a syllable, they are usually mid-centralized, however, if they are a semivowel /j w/, they are voiceless. If vowels are at the end of the word, they are usually centralized, however, in extra-narrow transcriptions, it can be seen that these vowels are part of a diphthong, in which the second part is the same vowel, but voiceless. When vowels are before semivowels they are mid-centralized and when they are alone in the beginning of a word, they are retracted. All the same things happen to diphthongs and triphthongs.

The 'ü' is used after 'q' and 'g' to show that the next vowel(e/è or i/ì)isn’t just /V/, it is /wV/. The diaresis is used on other vowels to show hiatus. They are also shown by an 'h' between vowels, as an inheritance from Latin’s orthography.

The consonant orthography is a little bit irregular, because it uses a mix of an etymological orthography with an adapted orthography to its phonology.

The orthography shown just below will be approximated, since there are many forms to show a single phoneme:

/m n ɴ ^ɲ/ = m n nh gnh/ñ

/p b t d k g/ = p b t d c/qu g/gu

/f v *s **z ʃ ***ʒ ****ɣ/ = f v s/ß/ç z/s ch j/g r/rr

/ʧ ʤ ts dz/ = çh jh tc dc

/ɬ ʎ l ʁ ɾ/ = lh glh *****l r r

^People can choose what orthography to use, however, 'gnh' is more common in some places, such as Lurenberg, where the language standards were based on.

• /s/ can be represented by 's' and 'ç'. 'S' is used word-initially and at the end, as well if it is before a consonant(if it is a plosive or nasal, it has the sound of /z/) 'S' has the sound of /z/ between vowels. It is also used after a consonant and before a vowel.  'Ç' is used between vowels and very rarely word-finally(usually after 'r') and sometimes initially, where in Latin, the word started with 'c' + 'e/è' or 'i/ì/î'. Similarly to 'ñ', 'ß' is used when there happens to appear a 'ss', but not every time. The two ways are officially correct.

• • /z/ is sometimes represented by 's' between vowels and before plosive and nasals, otherwise, it is written as 'z'.

• • • /ʒ/ is represented by 'j' before '/a ɑ* o õ u ũ w w̃ ɔ ɔ̃ ʊ*/', and by 'g' before '/e ɪ* ɞ* i j j̃ ɛ ɛ̃/'. There are some exceptions, such as in 'jenral' (general[military]) and 'jigant'(giant).

• • • • /ɣ/ is represented by 'r' at the start of a word or after 'n' or 'l' with the sound of /ʊ/. It is represented by 'rr' elsewhere.

• • • • • When 'L' appears as a coda, its sound changes from /l/ to /ʊ/.

Consonants at the end of the word aren’t usually pronounced unless the next word starts with a vowel. When plosives are at the end of a phrase or read out alone, they usually have a mid central vowel release.

Stress and Rhythm

Stress in Listenbourgese is not predictable for speakers of other language families, however, people close to Romance languages know much of the words, knowing where the stress fall, that is usually the same place in every other Latin-descended language. Although this is true, there are also lots of other words that didn’t derive from Latin or changed stress, this makes it harder to find the stressed syllable.

Seeing texts, it is easy to know(some words) if they have diacritics such as the grave accent and the diaeresis, because the hiatus is usually where the stress is located. The grave accent also indicates where it can be found, however, it is not present in all words and by reading texts published before the 1903 Orthographic Reform, it is even harder to find it, since the only places where the grave accent would be found were on top of 'e' and 'o' to show the sounds similar to the 'a' in 'fat' and 'o' in mock, respectively. These sound appearing in the middle of the word or being the only character with an accent, doesn’t always mean that it is the stressed syllable.

Words are usually oxytones or paroxytones, however, words that are a merge of other ones can change their stress syllables to the size of the word, where words with more than five syllables are usually paroxytones.

Listenbourgese is a syllable-timed language with an underteminded rhythm type, not like trochaic or iambic. However, some dialects have a distinct rhythm, for example, Gabon’s Listenbourgese dialect has a dual rhythm type, rare around the world. In the other hand, Cameroon’s dialect is iambic, whereas Réunion’s dialect is trochaic and Serra Leöna’s one has no rhythm, the same way as Listenbourg’s.

Grammar

In Listenbourgese grammar, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles are moderately inflected: there are two genders (masculine and feminine) and two numbers (singular and plural). The case system of the ancestor language, Latin , has been lost, but personal pronouns are still declined with three main types of forms: subject, object of verb, and object of preposition. Most nouns and many adjectives can take diminutive or augmentative derivational suffixes. Lots of adjectives also have irregular superlatives, and, as opposed to Iberian languages, Listenic languages usually have a syntactic comparative. Adjectives usually follow their respective nouns.

Listenbourgese is generally an SVO language, although SOV syntax may occur with a few object pronouns, and word order is generally not as rigid as in English. It is a null-subject language, with a tendency to drop object pronouns as well, in colloquial varieties. Like Spanish, it has two main copular verbs:  ser/verser and tuir/manre/latre. Verser, Manre and  Latre are used as Ser and Tuir only in expressions and some structures, otherwise they aren’t in the correct position. Verser means 'to be involved', Manre means 'to remain' and Latre means 'to hold'.

Sentence Structure

Let’s analyze a sentence in Listenbourgese: “Hos de tu ayudre por ra tèrra res”. It means: What about helping earth!?. Literally, it means: What of you to help about the earth?. More about of each word will be explained. In this sentence, “tu” is the subject, “ayudre” is the verb and “tèrra” is the object. This forms an SVO structure, present in the majority of sentences in Listenbourgese. Now, analyzing the other elements:

“Hos”, from Latin hōs, masculine accusative plural of hīc, is an adverb that shows a solution. It can also make an order, usually accompanied by the imperative when having this meaning. It always appear before the verb(not right before). It can also mean ‘indeed’.

“De”(of) is showing that the other person also has something to do with the consequences, that’s why “Hos de”. In this sentence, it has the same value as “about” in the phrase “What about you?”, that in Listenbourgese would be: “E de tu?”, literally: “And of you?”.

“Ayudre” means “to help”. It is in the infinitive, because it is showing what the person should do. The same way and reasons as in English. That’s why in the translation, the verb is still in the infinitive.

“Por” means “for”. It is necessary because the phrase, now almost complete requires to show the complement of the indirect transitive verb, ayudre(to help).

“Ra tèrra” means “the earth(feminine)”.

“Res” is an adverb that emphasizes the sentence. It is like the expression “Isn’t it?” After a sentence. For example: Tu ton-te-as Eric, res?” : “Aren’t you Eric!?”. Literally: You call-you-call Eric, right?. It is also an interrogative particle. There is no direct translation to English, so all of this is approximated. When placed before a noun, it has the same usage as “any-“, so: zufe (res + ufe > resufe> s = /z/ > rezufe > zufe) > anywhere < ufe (where).

Nouns

Articles

Definite articles usually elide before vowel-starting words. There are 4 definite articles, starting with Masculine Singular and Ending with Feminine Plural, respectively; Ro, Ra, Ros, Ras. Before vowels, they are all elided to «r’». Contracted forms with prepositions occurs almost aways. The most common prepositions that are contracted with are 'de'(of), 'en'(in) and 'ai'(to). Contracting with the Definite Articles, they are respectively; dro, dra, dros, dras, oin, ain, oins, ains, ayo,  aya, ayos, ayas.

Undefinite articles don’t elide before vowel-starting words. There are 4 definite articles, starting with Masculine Singular and ending with Feminine Plural, respectively; un, una, uns and unas. They also contract with the same prepositions, de, en, and ai. Respectively, they are: dun, duna, duns, dunas, nun, nuna, nuns, nunas, ain, aina, ains, ainas.

Pluralization

In Listenbourgese, to pluralize nouns and adjectives, usually it is added a “-s” to the end. This is usually put in words that end in a vowel or a nasal or a nasal + consonant.

In words that end in two consonants, that the penultimate isn’t a nasal, such as in “colost(huge)” or “medeld(medal)”, have their plurals marked with an -es at the end.

In words that end in a vowel and then in t, d, p, b, c or g, it is added an -s. For any other sound, it is added an -es.

Words that end in -m have their plurals endings with -ns, and words that end in -l have their plurals endings plurals in -is.

Diminutives and Augmentatives

Diminutives in Listenbourgese are highly irregular, except for those who have a suffix. There are lots of common sufixes, such as -olo and -ola: mesa (table) > mesola (little table), narì (nose) > narìolo (little nose).

Other common suffixes are: -clo/a: libre > librecla (child), inha > inhacla (fire), mas > masclo (male), guiàdo > guiàdoclo (sword > needle), -olo/a:  unga > ungola (fingernail), ciba > cibola (onion > scallion), condëa > condeöla (food), coxa > coxola (thigh), -eto/a: oufeudo > oufeudeto (fortress), vey > veyeto (force), pecunha > pecunheta (bill > coin), main > maignheta (morning), -oilo/a: siûida > siûidoila (town), horta > hortoila (garden), angto > angtoilo (alley), nherra > nherroila (war), -arëo/a: cheiç > cheiçarëo (cheese), billa > billarëo (village), fueru > fuerarëo (market), coturnui > coturnarëo (quail), -oto/a: ruiec > ruiecoto (country), gafanho > gafanhoto (bouncy), rigo > rigoto (river), -oco/a: jhunho > jhunhoco (day), puille > puilloca (girl), saxo > saxoca (rock), -ello/a: jana > janella (window),  geio > geiello (balcony), cap > capello (hair), tulb > tulbella (mob), pap > papello (paper > chart), fune > funella (rope), -etto/a: fora > foretta (door), cava > cavetta (cave > drawer), lambra > lambretta (sound), sacho > sachetta (sand), -iller*: delir > deliller (to destroy), cavaçar > cavaçiller (to turn out), -tiar**: invenir > inventiar (to create), encontre > encotretiar (to come across), -itto/a: hosde > hosditto (enemy), lubda > lubditta (fight), tunga > tunggita (shirt), -lou/-loa: vesbru > vesbruloa (evening), gal > galoa (helmet > cap), cue > culou (skin), -usei/-ùsia: pingue > pingusei (fat), yuv > yuvùsia (help), lança > lançùsia (spear),  -eilo/a: chuma > chumeila (feather), auvù > auveila (horse[from caballus]), pavlara > pavlareila (word > letter), vera > vereila (spring), -ûnse/-ûnsa: afo > afûnse (field), casa > casûnsa (house), lape > lapûnse (pebble), -ûçei/-ûçua: uçha > uçhûçua (city), cementero > cementerûçei (stonemason), heëmi > heëmûçei (winter > breeze), laia > layûçua (lady).

• Forms diminutives, more smooth version of verbs; Canre (to sing) > Canriller (to hum), Rezcar (to write) > Resquiller (to scratch), Haurir (to suck) > Hauriller (to drain), Gradir/Vetre (to go) > Gradiller/Vetriller (to walk), Sistre (to stop) > Sistiller (to pause), Er (< Edēre) (to eat) > Eriller(to chew), Cabdar(to track) > Cabdiller (to track down), Chètre (to know) > Saber(to acknowledge), Chavoir (to understand) > Chavoiller (to be sorry), Cherre (to cry) > Cherriller (to sob), Paruir (to obey) > Paruiller (to serve), Jazer (to throw) > Jaziller (to toss).

• • Forms frquentative verbs; Emer (to buy) > Entiar (to keep buying), Pendre (to pay) > Pendretiar (to keep paying), Lhuchir (to play) > Lhustiar (to play along), Anhuscir (to remember) > Anhustiar (to keep remembering), Vuter (to come) > Vutiar (to keep coming), Outentre (to show) > Outentiar (to keep showing), Lequir (to talk) > Lequitiar (to keep talking), Duire (to teach) > Duitiar (to keep teaching), Cojar (to think) > Cojatiar (to keep thinking), Tangar (to touch) > Tangatiar (to slap), Dripayar (to work) > Dripaytiar (to build), Griar (to shout) > Gritiar (to scream).

The common diminutive is -egnhe(a). And even smaller, is -eito(a). This is shown with these examplex: rrhagia(loss) > rrhagegnha (little loss) > rrhageita (very little loss), cars(bark) > carsegnhe (little bark) > carseito (very little bark, splinter), filinpa (crop) > filinpegnha (little crop) > filinpeita (very little crop), aqüeyo (bird) > aqüegnha (little bird) > aqüeita (very little bird), direbdu (right n.) > direbdegnha (little right) > direbdeita (very little right).

This also affects some adjectives: vet (old) > vetegnhe > veteito, sèleru (fast) > sèleregnhe > sèlereito, rosso (red) > rossegnhe > rosseito, dexdru (right = opp. left) > dexdregnhe > dexdreito, yû (right = correct) > yegnhe (somewhat right) > yeito (barely right), baru (short) > baregnhe > bareito, erche (sick) > erchegnhe > ercheito, groçèu (yellow) > groçèuegnhe > groçèueito.

There are several augmentative suffixes and lots of irregular forms, mostly suppletions for the original noun. This also happens with verbs, depending on the intensity and way something is done. For example: Orro (eye) > Ophthalmo (big eye), Oscoul (kiss) > Tutar (big kiss), Entrefiçer (to kill) > Necar (to end), Rocher (to want) > Queirer (to beg), Mabdar (to close) > Clûtre (to shut), Culina (kitchen) > *Vir (restaurant), Cher (< Plēre) (to fill) > Espler (to make out), Narì (nose) > Rhiz (big nose, a person with a big nose), Airiga (ear) > Aure (big ear), Gruge (< crūs) (leg) > Jhambeu (big/long leg), Oz (mouth) > Bocca (big mouth), Er (to eat) > Fruycher (to eat a lot) > Conspre (to eat very fast) > Vorar (to eat even without being hungry), Raäutce (lad) > mansipu (big lad, adult), Peur (boy) > Muste (masculine), **Chartua (letter) > Caudc (book), Enre (to buy) > Acabdar (to steal), feis (<fēlēs) (cat) > glhaun (lion),  (smart) > intellero (genius), char (<flāre)(to blow) > conrir (<conārī)(to explode), cayara (pan) > leis (<lebēs)(cauldron)

• It comes from vīr, “man”, because in the Roman times, restaurants were where men hung out.

• • ch has /k/ sound.

Adjectives

Adjectives normally follow the nouns that they modify (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_modifier). Thus "white house" is seid çerëa, and "green fields" is arves prasnos; the reverse order (çereä seid, prasnos arves) is generally limited to poetic language. However, some adjectives—such as ecrejhe("good"), vensto("nice"), and injant("great", "big")—often precede the noun. Indeed, some of these have rather different meanings depending on position: compare un injant senetc "a great man", vs. un senetc injant "a big man".

Adjectives are always inflected and agree for gender and number with the noun. For example: Fruf (dark). So: Fruf (M Sg), Frufes (M Pl), Frufa (F Sg), Frufas (F Pl).

When there is more than one noun, it agrees with the last one: Jho çhastèros i uno curro vensto. (Two beautiful cars and one (beautiful) train). Literally: Two cars and one train beautiful, meaning that both 2 cars and the train are beautiful.

Adjectives are organized in the following categories: Positive, Comparative, Superlative and the Absolute Superlative, also known as the Elative.

Comparison of adjectives is regularly expressed in analytic form using the adverb cho: cho chilsû qüe = "higher than", ro cho chilsû "the highest". Most adjectives have—in addition to their positive, comparative , and superlative forms—a so-called "absolute superlative" form (sometimes called "elative"), which enhances the meaning of the adjective without explicitly comparing it (vensto, "beautiful"; sate vensto or venstìçimo, "very beautiful"), it can appear in both analytic or synthetic form. When adjectives end in a vowel, to make the synthetic absolute superlative, the last vowel is excluded; vensto > venstìçimo, chilsû > chilsìçimo. If it is feminine; vensta > venstìçima and so on.

For adjectives that end in -ro or -ra, the suffix is -èrmo(a); festero(that likes parties) > festerèrmo (the one that likes parties very much). For adjectives that end in -lo or -la, the suffix is -îm; sermuclo (talkative) > sermuclîm (very talkative).

To create adjectives from verbs, lots of times the present participle is used, actually, it happens on all verbs, but sometimes the participle isn’t used, instead, there’s another adjective for it.

Some adjectives have irregular comparative/superlative/elative/adverbial forms, however, here it is only the ones who have every single form irregular. There are lots of adjectives that have or the comparative or the superlative or the elative or the adverbial or 2 of these or whatever. Here are only the ones who are totally irregular:

• These irregular superlative forms below don’t need articles. Some other irregular superlatives need them, though.

Ecrejhe (good)

Beïngnho (better)

Optim (very good)

Pregò (the best)

Echerentiu (goodly, thankfully, fortunately)

Brabo (bad)

Maïngnho (worse)

Rûin (very bad)

Peyrèu (the worst)

Pèçim (badly)

Pecuinh (small)

Menò (smaller)

Minîm (very small)

Anhusto (the smallest)

Pusillo (smally, unnecessarily)

Glhenachal (evil, wicked)

Vilineu (eviller)

Glhenste (very evil)

Malfe (the evillest)

Medro (evilly)

Infero (low)

Inferior (lower)

Imo (very evil)

Infimo (the lowest)

Infrai (lowly)

Sulhe (high, upper)

Superior (higher)

Supirro (very high)

Supremo (the highest)

Suprai (highly)

Setèro (loose)

Supest (looser)

Reliche (very loose)

Chalheug (the loosest)

Rechetèt (loosely, freely, currently)

Avaz (bold)

Auso (bolder)

Osey (very bold)

Andez (the boldest)

Oso (boldly, confidently, seriously)

Voluptache (pleasant)

Farau (more pleasantly)

Volàbama (very pleasant)

Exçinge (the most pleasant)

Aprechena (pleasantly, softly, fairly)

Occupu (busy)

Becheriyago (busier)

Ileda (very busy)

Garchanche (the busiest)

Enpeti (busily, hardly, violently)

Etrexe (out)

Etrexure (outer)

Barbarego (very out)

Extreim/Exim (the outest)

Precherrein(< Peregrīnus) (outly, distantly)

Injant (big)

Manho (bigger)

Maxim (very big)

Marour (the biggest)

Ancho (bigly, greatly, wide, strongly)

Postro/Cidu (next)

Postrero/Cidro (more close)

Potcumo/Cidcumo (very close)

Postremo/Cidmo (the closest)

Ostremo/Cidremo (closely)

  Nirre (near)

  Nèârre (nearer)

  Prosim (very near)

  Adcogot (the nearest)

  Necarrira (nearly, almost)

Antero (previous)

Anterior (more previous)

Anteroi (very previous)

Anteu (the most previous)

Anterrife (previously, before)

Ulru (beyond)

Ulrior (more beyond)

Ulriroi (very beyond)

Udmu (the most beyond)

Ulrou (favorable, advanced)

Adverb

Portuguese adverbs work much like their English counterparts, e.g. sate("very"), poco ("not much"), longe ("far"), vald ("much, a lot"), prop ("almost"), etc. To form adverbs from adjectives, the adverbial suffix -ment is generally added to the feminine singular of the adjective, whether or not it differs from the masculine singular. Thus:

candid ("clear", m. sg.) → candida (f. sg.) → candidament ("clearly")

natural ("natural", m. & f. sg.) → naturalment ("naturally")

As with adjectives, the comparative of adverbs is almost always formed by placing cho ("more") or meino ("less") before the adverb. Thus cho mojhe("earlier"), cho rapidament ("faster, more quickly"), etc.

The adjectives ecrejhe ("good") and brabo("bad") have irregular adverbial forms: eçige("well") and mau("badly"), respectively. And, like their corresponding adjectival forms,  eçige and brabo have irregular comparative forms: beïngnho("better") and maïngnho ("worse"), respectively. There are lots of other irregular adverbial forms too, such as: moçoila (young) > meslu (youngly), alàrre (happy) > feïlh (happily).

Adverbs of place show a three-way distinction between close to the speaker, close to the listener, and far from both: èce/ucui = "here" lleg*, eube* = "there" (near you) locui**, îjhim** = "over there" (far from both of us)

• Lleg is used to say that something can move towards the speaker, but it is closer to who you are talking at the moment, such as a fly or a car; Eche çhastèro lleg : “This car there”. Eube is used on every other instance.

• • Locui is used to tell that something is above the person, such as “upwards” or “upstairs” or “up there”. It is used for things below too; downwards, downstairs and down there. For example: Ro teglhadu locui : “The roof there”.

Îjhim is used to say that something is in the same place as the person who you are talking with, or around them. For example, in a video call, you would say: Esquista pinchurra îjhim. “That painting there(in the background)”.

There are also contractions from prepositions with these adverbs. The most common prepositions that are contracted with are 'de'(of), 'ez'(from), 'ai'(to). The contractions with 'ucui' are: ducui, ecui, aucui/ dèce, èice, aice. Lleg contracted forms are: dleg, elgue, algue. “Eube” contracted forms are: deube, eibe, aube. “Locui” contracted forms are: dlocui, elci, ocai. “Îjhim” contracted forms are: dîjhim, ejhim, âjhim.

Listenbourgese has a four-way answer system for yes-no questions. This means: there is a pair of answers for a positive and another for a negative question. To show more clearly: He isn’t here anymore? “-No”. You mean that he is no longer here or that the question was wrong and, yes, he is still here? See? That’s why Listenbourgese developed this system.

For positive questions such as: Is he here?, the answers are: Si (affirmative) - No (negative). For negative questions such as: Is he not here?, the answers are: Da (affirmative)   - Hadze (negative).

Prepositions

Simple prepositions consist of a single word, while compound prepositions are formed by a phrase. The most common Simple prepositions are: De (of), En (in), Ai (to), Por (for), Ez (from), Eix (on), Enkaß (at), Trous (by), Osque (until), Sizo (about), O (with), Au (between), sèn(mas.)/sẽça(fem.) (without), Suvru (over, above), Sot (under, below, beneath), Dòz (through), Aglònguœ (along).

Several prepositions form contractions with the definite article. The contractions of “de, en, ai, por, o, ez” with “ro, ra, ros, ras”, respectively, are: dro, dra, dros, dras, oin, ain, oins, ains, ayo,  aya, ayos, ayas, pro, pra, pros, pras, rou, roa, rous, roas, rez, raz, reß, raß. With the indefinite articles, they are: dun, duna, duns, dunas, nun, nuna, nuns, nunas, ain, aina, ains, ainas, prun, pruna, pruns, prunas, no, na, nos, nas, zun, zuna, zuns, zunas.

Pronouns

Listenbourgese has 3 types of pronouns: Proclitics / “Normal” Pronouns, Enclitics and Mesoclitics. Each of them have different forms of the pronouns. They were all inherited from Latin and some of them were originated of some declensions of other cases.

Each of the three types have three main forms: for the subject , for the object of a verb, and for the object of a preposition. In the third person , a distinction is also made between simple direct objects, simple indirect objects, and reflexive objects.

Possessive pronouns are identical to possessive adjectives. They are inflected to agree with the gender of the possessed being or object.

It has Personal Pronouns, Reflexive Pronouns, Possessive Pronouns, Demonstrative Pronouns, Relative Pronouns, Indefinite Pronouns and Interrogative Pronouns. Pronouns also can contract, but just between direct and indirect objects.

Demonstratives

Demonstratives have the same three-way distinction as place adverbs: escoçe chugro – "this pencil" (near me) esqueçe chugro – "that pencil" (near you) esquiste chugro – "that pencil" (over there, away from both of us)

The demonstratives, like the articles, form contractions with certain preceding prepositions: de + escoçe = descoçe ("of this"), de + esqueçe = desqueçe ("of that"), en + esquiste = nesquiste ("in that thing"), ai + esquista = yesquista ("to that").

Escoçe is neutral, while Escoço and Escoça are masculine and feminine respectively. This occurs with the other ones too.

Demonstrative adjectives are identical to demonstrative pronouns: e.g. esquisto çhastèro "that car", and esquisto "that one."

Indefinite Pronouns

The indefinite pronouns tò, tæ, tòß, tæß are followed by the definite article when they mean "the whole". Otherwise, articles and indefinite pronouns are mutually exclusive within a noun phrase.

In the demonstratives and in some indefinite pronouns, there is a trace of the neuter gender of Latin. For example, tò and escoço are used with masculine referents, tæ and escoça with feminine ones, and tou and escoçe when there is no definite referent. Thus tæ caudc "every book" and tæ ra caudc "the whole book"; tæ salad "every salad" and tæ ra salad "the whole salad"; and tou "everything"; etc.

Other indefinite pronouns are: (some) = kanke, kanka, kankes, kankas, kanku(something), kankus, kanki (someone, somebody), kankis.

(any) = res.

(none, no) = nyt, nyta, nyts, nytas, nytu (nothing), nytman (no one, nobody).

(another, other) = al

Personal Pronouns

Subject, Object, and Complement

Basic Forms

The personal pronouns of Listenbourgese have three basic forms: subject, object (object of a verb), and prepositional (object of a preposition).

In the table below, the pronouns with 1 asterisk are direct objects, the ones with two, are indirect and with three, that are reflexive or reciprocal, direct or indirect object.

number	person	subject	object of verb	object of preposition
singular	1st	ju	ve	me
	2nd	tu	te	ti
	3rd	elle, ella, voçu	o*, a*; glhi**; se***	elle, ella; si***
plural	1st	nos	noi	nòs
	2nd	vos	voi	vòs
	3rd	elles, ellas, voçus	*os, *as; glhis** ; je***	elles, ellas; ji***

Forms of address

Like most European languages, Listenbourgese has different words for "you", according to the degree of formality that the speaker wishes to show towards the addressee (T-V distinction). In very broad terms, tu, voçu (both meaning singular "you") and voçus (plural "you") are used in informal situations, while in formal contexts ‘’ro seyõr, ra seyõra, ros seyõrs and ras seyõras(masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine plural "you", respectively) are preferred. However, there is considerable regional variation in the use of these terms, and more specific forms of address are sometimes employed.

Generally speaking, tu is the familiar form of address used with family, friends, and minors. Voçu indicates distance without deference, and tends to be used between people who are, roughly, social equals. Ro sẽyor / ra sẽyora(literally "the sir / the madam") are the most ceremonious forms of address. English speakers may find the latter construction akin to the parliamentary convention of referring to fellow legislators in the third person (as "my colleague", "the gentleman", "the member", etc.), although the level of formality conveyed by ro seyõr is not as great. In fact, variants of ro seyõr and ra seyõra with more nuanced meanings such as titles as ro professoro ("the professor"), ro maïstro("the doctor"), ro suice("the colleague") and ro domõ ("the father") are also employed as personal pronouns. In the plural, there are two main levels of politeness, the informal voçus or vos and the formal ros seõr / ras seõra.

Historically, voçu derives from vostra meçu("your mercy" or "your grace") via the intermediate forms vostreçu and vosmeçu.