Novial/Hound Lesson 1

100px|right|Novial flag Novial home – Pronunciation Guide Contents – Lesson 1 – Lesson 2 – Lesson 3 – Lesson 4 – Lesson 5 – Lesson 6 – Lesson 7 Prefixes – Suffixes – Proforms Li Hunde del Familie Baskerville The first occurrence of each new word is highlighted in blue (in the text title also). Click on the word to jump down to its translation. Then click the back key on your keyboard or the "Back" button on your browser to return to the text. Watson: Bon jorne, doktoro Mortimer. Mortimer: Bon jorne. Ob vu es sinioro Sherlock Holmes? Holmes: No, lo es men amike, doktoro Watson. Mortimer: Plesure ke me renkontra vu, doktoro. Me sava vun nome. Sinioro Holmes, vu tre multim interesa me. Holmes: Me observa fro vun fingre ke vu fuma. Bonvoli sida e fuma. Pro quu vu visita nus disdi? Mortimer: Me have seriosi e exterordinari probleme. Me realisa ke vu es li duesmi autoritate in Europa. Holmes: Ya, sinioro! Que es unesmi? Mortimer: Li laboro de Monsieur Bertillon sembla bon a siential home. Holmes: Dunke, pro quu vu non konsulta lo? Mortimer: Lu sembla bon a siential home, ma me prefera konsulta vu in praktikal koses. Me espera ke me non ofense vu. Holmes: Nur pokim. Rakonta a nus li nature de vun probleme. Alphabetical Vocabulary List Adjectives which often drop the final -i have it in brackets. a – to amike – friend autoritate – authority bon(i) – good bonvoli – (to) be willing, please de – of del – of the disdi – today doktoro – doctor duesmi – second dunke – therefore e – and es – am, are, is, (to) be espera – (to) hope Europa – Europe exterordinari – extraordinary familie – family fingre – finger fro – from fuma – (to) smoke have – (to) have, possess home – person hunde – dog in – in interesa – (to) interest jorne – day ke – that (conjunction) konsulta – (to) consult kose – thing, matter laboro – work li – the lo – he, him lu – it ma – but me – I, me men – my, mine nature – nature no – no nome – name non – not nur – only nus – we, us ob – is it that? observa – (to) observe ofense – (to) offend plesure – pleasure pokim – a little (adverb) praktikal(i) – practical prefera – (to) prefer pro quu? – why? probleme – problem que? – who? rakonta – (to) tell, recount realisa – (to) realize renkontra – (to) meet sava – (to) know sembla – (to) seem seriosi – serious sida – (to) sit siential(i) – scientific sinioro – Mr, sir tre – very tre multim – very much unesmi – first visita – (to) visit vu – you (one person) vun – your, yours (one person) ya – indeed Grammar Notes and Exercises Personal Pronouns – Subject, Object and Possession The subject and object forms (e.g English I and me) of Novial pronouns are the same: me – I, me nus – we, us vu – you (one person) vus – you (more than one person) lo – he, him los – they, them (all male) la – she, her las – they, them (all female) le – he or she, him or her les – they, them lu – it lus – they, them (all sexless objects) Notice that in the third person, male and female have the endings -o and -a respectively. The ending -e indicates either male or female without specifying. The ending -u indicates a sexless thing. Plurals all end in -s. Les is conveniently used to mean they, them as in English, i.e. it is not specified whether they are sexless or not, and they may be any mixture of male, female and sexless things. This system is flexible and allows more speakers to follow their natural language habits. So the French may often choose to use las and los, while most English speakers would choose to use les, ignoring the sex distinction which is here absent in English. A Finnish speaker may prefer to use le (he or she), since the he/she distinction is absent in Finnish. The pronoun le is also very convenient to say he or she using a single word and avoiding sex bias. The standard word order is, as in English, subject-verb-object, so the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject: me observa vu – I observe you vu observa me – you observe me The personal possessive adjectives are formed from the pronouns by adding -n or after a consonant -en. This is in fact the genitive (possessive) of the pronoun so men means both my and mine (of me): lu es men hunde – it is my dog lu es men – it is mine men – my, mine nusen – our, ours vun – your, yours vusen – your, yours (more than one person) lon – his losen – their, theirs (all male) lan – her, hers lasen – their, theirs (all female) len – his or her, his or hers lesen – their, theirs lun – its lusen – their, theirs (all sexless objects) Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (1) Complete the following sentences by translating the English word in brackets. (You) interesa me multim, sinioro Watson. E (you), doktoro Watson e siniore Holmes, interesa me. ( I ) sava vusen seriosi e exterordinari probleme. (We) non fuma ma bonvoli sida e fuma. (She) observa (my) bon amike. Ob (he) renkontra les disdi? Yes, (they) visita (his) bon amike, doktoro Mortimer. Vu interesa me multim, sinioro Watson. E vus, doktoro Watson e siniore Holmes, interesa me. Me sava vusen seriosi e exterordinari probleme. Nus non fuma ma bonvoli sida e fuma. La observa men bon amike. Ob lo renkontra les disdi? Yes, les visita lon bon amike, doktoro Mortimer. Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (2) Complete the following sentences by translating the English word in brackets. Li hunde interesa nus: (it) nur sida e observa. Li familie have problemes: (they, the problems) interesa sinioro Holmes. (Their, male only) laboro sembla bon a me. (They, female only) have autoritate in Europa. (Her) familie prefera non fuma. Holmes e Watson, pro quu (your) problemes interesa me? Ob vus sava ke lus es (my) problemes? Li hunde interesa nus: le nur sida e observa. Li familie have problemes: lus interesa sinioro Holmes. Losen laboro sembla bon a me. Las have autoritate in Europa. Lan familie prefera non fuma. Holmes e Watson, pro quu vusen problemes interesa me? Ob vus sava ke lus es men problemes? Verb – Present Tense, Imperative, Infinitive and Negative As in English the present tense of the verb and the imperative are identical: me dikte – I say or I am saying dikte! – say! Note that the English present continuous, such as you are saying, is translated by the simple present: vu dikte The infinitive is also the same as the present: me prefera dikte – I prefer to say The negative is formed with non (not), which usually precedes the word which it negates. The negative answer to a question is no (no), while the positive answer is yes (yes). nus non sava lu – we don’t know it The verb never varies with the person: me sembla – I seem nus sembla – we seem vu sembla – you seem vus sembla – you seem le sembla – he or she seems les sembla – they seem Articles, Plural Nouns and Nouns with Natural Sex The plural of a noun is formed by adding the ending -s (-es after a consonant) and the definite article li (the) is invariant as in English: li probleme – the problem li problemes – the problems For convenience de li (of the) is usually shortened to del and likewise a li (to the) to al and da li (by the) to dal. There is no indefinite article (a, an) in Novial. This causes no ambiguity as seen in English when the plural indefinite article (some) is dropped: hunde – dog, a dog hundes – dogs, some dogs The indication of sex in the third person pronouns with the endings -e, -o and -a is also used with nouns that have natural gender: doktore – doctor (male or female) doktora – female doctor doktoro – male doctor hunde – dog hunda – bitch, female dog hundo – male dog siniore – sir or madam siniora – madam, Mrs sinioro – sir, Mr siniores – ladies and gentlemen home – person homa – female person (adult or child) homo – male person (adult or child) homes – people Many sexless nouns also end in -e and these of course cannot change the ending to indicate sex differences. Adjectives All adjectives end in an -i, which may be dropped if easy to pronounce. Adjectives usually precede the noun that they qualify. As in English, adjectives do not agree with their noun in number or gender: boni puera or bon puera – a good girl boni pueras or bon pueras – good girls boni puero or bon puero – a good boy boni pueros or bon pueros – good boys boni pueres or bon pueres – good children (boys and/or girls) Questions Question words such as que (who?) or pro quu (why? ) directly indicate a question and the subject-verb-object order need not be changed: pro quu vus visita nus? – why are you visiting us? (Literally: why you visit us? ) que visita nus? – who is visiting us? (Literally: who visits us? ) Otherwise a question is indicated with the general question word ob (is it that?), again with no change in the standard word order of the remainder of the sentence: ob vu es lan amike? – are you her friend? (Literally: is it that you are her friend? ) ob vu sava li familie? – do you know the family? (Literally: is it that you know the family? ) Word Derivation Use endings and affixes to convert the following Novial root words to the English words indicated. dona – donation liberisa – liberating dikte – diction, delivery observa – observation sorga – careful lumosi – to turn bright viro – to become a man du – twice konsulta – consultation disi – this time, on this occasion irati – to get angry voli – willful relate – relation, relevance prenda – grasping, tending to take morda – mordacious ti – that time, on that occasion prega – prayerful solu – solutione omni – every time, on every occasion konklusa – conclusive otiosi – to fall idle kontinua – continuation suporta – suportive irgi – any time, on any occasion atesta – attestation deslumosi – to turn dark proba – to start trying konkluse – conclusion apari – apparition savat – to become known audi – audition blanki – to blanch, turn white examina – examination vibra – vibration donatione liberisiv diktione observatione sorgiv lumoseska vireska dufoy konsultatione disifoy irateska volitiv relatione prendiv mordiv tifoy pregiv solutioine omnifoy konklusiv otioseska kontinuatione suportiv irgifoy atestatione deslumoseska probeska konklusione aparitione savateska auditione blankeska examinatione vibratione ____________________________________________________________________________________ 100px|right|Novial flag Novial home – Pronunciation Guide Contents – Lesson 1 – Lesson 2 – Lesson 3 – Lesson 4 – Lesson 5 – Lesson 6 – Lesson 7 Prefixes – Suffixes – Proforms