| abstract
| - ISOLEFEN isolefen is new IAL , derived from elefen and glosa. Doctor Alinima made in 1012 an attempt to make lfn an isolating, simpler language, with few changes to vocabulary.Vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) are pronounced as in Spanish (approximately as ah, eh, ee, oh, and oo.) In IPA:Front BackThe letters k, q, w, and y may be used in proper names from other languages and are pronounced [k], [k], [u] or [w], and [i] or [j], respectively. They are placed in their usual positions in the alphabet. The letter h is seldom used and may be left unpronounced if the speaker finds it difficult. It is also used to represent [x] as in "Bach" and similar fricatives in borrowed words. In words that end in double vowels (other than ia, ie, io, ua, ue, or uo), the stress is on the first of the two vowels: cacau [ka 'kau] - cocoaprodui [pro 'du i] - produce Between two other vowels and in cu or gu before another vowel, i and u are actually consonants, and the accent is placed accordingly: maio ['ma jo] - Maysangui ['sa? gwi] - bleed GrammarOverview isolefen is an SVO (subject-verb-object) language. Modifiers generally follow what they modify, as do prepositional phrases and subordinate clauses. Nouns are usually preceded by articles (la ) or other determiners. Other than the plural in -s or -es, nouns are invariant. A noun's role in a sentence is determined by determiners and prepositions. Word order is not rigid, e.g Veni Ali or Ali veni, la peti gato me ami = the little cat I like(trying to avoid confusion). The personal pronouns are invariant: me, tu, el,il(he), lo, on, nos, vos, los. Verbs are invariant. Tense and mood are indicated by preceding particles: ia for the past, va for the future, and ta for the conditional (optional). The active participle is followed by -na and the passive participle in -da. The infinitive is the same as the basic verb. Adjectives are invariant, and adverbs are followed by te, optional. The comparative is formed with pli or les, the superlative with la plu or la min. It has a loose word order. The general word order is: subject noun phrase - verb phrase (- object noun phrase) Joan cori, Cori Joan - "John runs"Maria oia Joan - "Maria hears John" A noun phrase has this order: (determiners -) noun (- adjectives), adjectives can precede nouns. La tre omes grande... - "The three large men..."La multe femes o peti femes... - "The many small women..." A verb phrase has this order: (tense -) (leading verb -) verb (- adverb) ...ia nesesa comi rapida (te) - "...needed to eat quickly..."...va debi comi lenta (te) - "...will have to eat slowly..." A prepositional phrase generally follows what it modifies, and has this order: preposition - noun phrase ...en la cosina - "...in the kitchen"...pos medianote - "...after midnight" Plural nouns Plural nouns are formed by appending -s to nouns ending in vowels or -es to nouns ending in consonants. This does not alter the stress: casa > casas - house > housesfem > femes - woman > women Gender: name is followed by fe (female), default is male:cavalo - a male horse, a stallioncavalo fe- a female horse, a mare prinse / prince - prinse fe / princess; rejo. rejo fe= king, queenconte /conte fe - count / countess A number of terms for family members have males ending in -o and females in -a. For example: fio / fia - son / daughtersposo / sposa - husband / wifexico / xica - boy / girl And a few terms use distinct forms. For example: madre / padre - mother / fathersore / frate - sister / brotherfem / om - woman / man Apposition - the use of one noun to modify another - is mostly limited to names and titles: san Josef - Saint Josephmea sore Maria - my sister MaryLos ia nomi el Joan - "They named him John." Determiners Determiners precede the noun they modify. There is la (the) . One may use de (of) before mass nouns, if desired: la om, fem, e enfantes - the man, a woman, and childrenMe comi de pan e ceso - "I eat bread and cheese." Other words function similarly: tota - allambos - bothesta - this, theseacel - that, thosece - whatcual - whichcuanto - how many, how muchcada - every, eachcualce - whatever, whicheveralga - some no - no, zeromulte - many, muchpoca - few, littlepli - moreles- less, fewerotra - othermesma - samesola - onlytal - such Pronouns serving as possessives are also used as determiners, as are numbers indicating quantity.Pronouns Personal pronouns are invariant: me - I, metu - you (singular)el - she, her,il - he , himlo - it nos - we, usvos - you (plural)los - they, them possesives:mea - mytua - your (singular)ela - her,ila - hisloa - itssea - his, her, its ownnosa - ourvosa - your (plural)losa - their El is used for people and higher animals. Its use can be extended metaphorically to lower animals, robots, the moon, hurricanes, etc. Lo is used for things, simple animals, plants, ideas, etc. Unlike in the Romance languages, there is no polite/impolite contrast for the second person: tu is always used for the singular, vos always for the plural. There is an indefinite pronoun on, which is used like German "man" or French "on": On debi segui la regulas - "One must follow the rules." The reflexive pronouns are 'se' for all which may be followed by mesma. Me ia lavi se - "I washed myself."El ami se - "He loves himself." The possessive determiners are the same as the reflexive pronouns, preceded by la. The la is commonly dropped before persons, animals, and physical objects: Tua gato es ala - "Your cat is over there."Mea desira es fol - "My desire is foolish." There are no separate possessive pronouns such as "mine". Esta es mea - "This is mine."Mea es pli grande ca tua - "Mine is bigger than yours." Many of the determiners can also be used as pronouns: esta, estas - this, theseacel, aceles - that, thoseotra, otras - other, otherstota - allambos - bothcada - eachcualce - anyalga - somemulte - many, muchpoca - few, little Other pronouns and pronomial expressions, derived from determiners, include the following: cadun - everyone, everybodyalgun - someone, somebodycualcun - whomever, anyone, anybodynun - no one, nobodyla un la otra - one another, each other cada cosa - everythingalga cosa - somethingcualce cosa - whatever, anythingno cosa - nothingla un con la otra - togethernul nothingVerbs There are no conjugations of verbs . The basic form remains the same regardless of person, number, or tense. They end in "i", except es= to be, though other words can end in -i : peti= small etc The present tense is represented by the basic verb: La om comi - "The man eats", "The man is eating." The present tense is also used to indicate habitual actions and states, facts of nature, and as a "historical" tense, such as when relating a story that has been clearly established as occurring in the past: La sol levi en la este - "The sun rises in the east."Me labori a la universia - "I work at the university." The past tense is indicated by the particle ia: Maria ia comi - "Maria ate." The future tense is indicated by the particle va: Joan va comi pronto - "John will eat soon." The particle ta indicates unreality and can be used where other languages might use a conditional or subjunctive mood. Its use is optional: Me ia duti ce el ta vadi - "I doubted he would go."Me ta es felis si la sol ta brili – "I would be happy if the sun were shining." Certain adverbs and verbal constructions add precision to the tenses: Me comi aora - "I am eating now."Me ia comi ja - "I ate already", "I have eaten", "I had eaten."Me va comi pronto - "I will eat soon," "I am going to eat."Me ia comi a ante - "I ate before."Me va comi a pos - "I will eat afterwards."Me ia fini leji la libro - "I finished reading the book."Me ia comensi leji la libro - "I began to read the book." Negation is indicated by putting no before the tense particle or (in the present tense) the verb. Double negatives should be avoided: El no ia pensi ce algun es asi – "He didn't think anyone was here."Me no parti - "I'm not leaving." Commands are indicated by dropping the subject pronoun: Vadi! - "Go!"Boli la acua! - "Boil the water!" Verbs that do not have true subjects, such as weather terms and expressions such as "it's" (es) or "there are" (ave), are also used alone: Va pluvi - "It's going to rain."Es tro calda en esta sala - "It is too hot in this room."Pari ce tu es coreta - "It seems that you are correct."No avi pexes en esta lago - "There aren't fish in this lake." A verb that is fundamentally intransitive may be used as a transitive causal verb by moving the original subject to the object position, and adding a new subject: La acua ia boli - "The water boiled" > Me ia boli la acua - "I boiled the water."La temperatur va levi - "The temperature will rise" > Me va levi la temperatur - "I will raise the temperature." - zi to make: la madre comi zi la bebe: makes him eat - fi become: la sielo blua fi. Verbs can be made into adjectives: The active participle is formed by adding na to the verb. For example, comi becomes comi na, meaning "eating". Nos ia es comi na cuando la tempesta ia comensi - "We were eating when the storm began." The passive participle is formed by adding -da to the verb. For example, comi becomes comi da, meaning "eaten". The passive participle can be used to express the passive voice. Or one can use a generic subject pronoun instead: Si tu no ascondi la torta, lo va es comi da - "If you don't hide the cake, it will be eaten."Si tu no ascondi la torta, algun va comi lo - "If you don't hide the cake, someone will eat it." Verbs can be used as nouns without change. For example, dansi, as a verb, means "dance/dances", but un dansi is "a dance" and la dansi is "the dance." Without an article, the word serves as an infinitive or gerund, so "to dance is good" and "dancing is good" are both translated as dansiverbs often come in pairs. Some "leading" verbs are like modal verbs in English. However, the idea of leading verbs goes beyond modals to include "attitudinal" verbs: atenti - trydebi - should, mustesperi - hopeespeti - expectfinji - pretendgusti - likemenasi - threaten nesesa - needodi - hateosi - darepari - seempoti - can, maytemi - fearvoli - want Adjectives Adjectives follow or precede the noun they modify . The comparative is made with pli (more) or les (less). "The most" is la plu and "the least" is la min: Jan es pli bon aca Jo. - "Jan is better than Jo."Ma Jil es la plu bon. - "But Jill is the best." Equivalence is indicated with tan... como: Marco es tan grande como Mona. - "Mark is as big as Mona." Like verbs, adjectives can be used as nouns. For example, bela means "beautiful", but un bela means "a beautiful one" or "a beauty." This works with participles, too: la studi na and la studi da mean "the student" and "the studied," respectively, from the verb studi, "study." An adjective can be made into an abstract noun by adding -io (-ity, -ness, -ship, -hood). In this way bela becomes belia, meaning beauty. This can also be used with nouns: madre (mother) becomes madre io (motherhood).Adverbs WE don't have an explicit way of marking adverbs. Instead, any adjective can be used as an adverb by placing it after a verb or at the very beginning of the sentence. Un om felis for example means "a happy man", whereas el dansi felis means " she dances happily". Here are examples of common adverbs: ala - therealora - thenance - also, tooancora - still, yetaora - nowasi - herebon - welldenova - againdoman - tomorrow ier - yesterdaymal - badlynunca - neveroji - todaypronto - soonsempre - alwayssola - onlytarda - latetemprana - early Prepositions Prepositions are placed before the noun or noun phrase, and the prepositional phrase is placed after the noun being modified, or, if used adverbially, after the verb or at the beginning of the sentence. There are 22 basic prepositions in isolefen: a - at, toante - before, in front ofasta - near, beside, untilca - thancomo - likecon - withcontra - againstde - of, from, sinceen - in, into,ene - duringentre - between, amongestra - out of, except longo - alongpar - byper - for, in order topos - after, behind, according tosin - withoutsirca - around, approximatelysu - below, under, beneathsupra - above, oversur - on, about, concerningtra - throughultra - beyond, past, across A few participles can also be used as prepositions. For example: conserne - concerning, aboutesete - excepting, except incluinte - including, withsegue - following, according to Some prepositions can be used as adverbs by placing a before them. For example: a su - down, below, downstairsa en - in, inside, indoorsa pos - afterwards a supra - up, above, upstairsa estra - out, outside, outdoorsa ante - beforehand Coordinating conjunctions There are several coordinating conjunctions in isolefen: e - ando - orma - but, yetdonce - so, therefore e... e... - both... and...o... o... - either... or...no... e no... - neither... nor... For example: Luis e me voli vadi, ma Maria resti en casa. - "Louis and I want to go, but Mary stays indoors."No Luis e no Maria voli vadi, donce me no voli vadi ance. - "Neither Louis nor Mary want to go, so I don't want to go either." Questions There are a number of interrogative words that are used to introduce questions: ce - whatci - who, whomcual - whichde ci - whose, of whomcuando - when do - wherecomo - howcuanto - how much, how manyper ce - why (Most of these are also used to introduce subordinate clauses, discussed below.) For example: Cuanto on pai per lete asi? - "How much does one pay for milk here?"Cual auto tu gusti la plu? - "Which car do you like the best?"Perce tu no gusti esta? - "Why don't you like this one?"Cuando tu espeti ce el arivi? - "When do you expect him to arrive?" Questions may include one of these words or may be indicated by rising intonation alone. One may also express questions by beginning the sentence with the interrogative particle esce ("is it that... ?") or by adding no (no) or si (yes) to the end of the sentence, after a comma. In writing, questions always end with a question mark (?): Como on construi casa per avias? - "How do you make a bird house?"Tu voli dansi? - "Do you want to dance?"Esce tu parli Deutx? - "Do you speak German?"Tu parli Italian, no? - "You speak Italian, don't you?" Clauses Relative clauses (or adjective clauses) function like adjectives. There are two relative pronouns which typically introduce relative clauses: cual - which, thatci - who, whom Relative clauses follow the noun or noun phrase that they modify: La fem ci me ami veni de Frans. – "The woman (whom) I love comes from France."La robot cual me ia construi no operi. – "The robot (that) I built doesn't work." Relative pronouns may be preceded by prepositions: La cosa per cual me esperi la plu es nova bisicle . - "The thing I wish for the most is a new bicycle."La fem de ci nos parli labori a mea ofisio. – "The woman of whom we speak works at my office." Cuando and do can also be used to introduce adjective clauses: Esta es la site do me voli abiti. - "This is the city where I want to live."Me ia vadi ala en la anio cuando me ia fini mea studis. - "I went there in the year when I finished my studies." Noun clauses function the same way that nouns and noun phrases do in a sentence. Two subordinating conjunctions commonly introduce noun clauses: ce - thatesce - whether For example: Me pensi ce el es bela. - "I think that she is beautiful."La gato entri la sala sin ce algun vidi el. - "The cat entered the room without anyone seeing it."Me demandi a me esce el ami me. - "I wonder whether she loves me." One may drop the ce if no confusion results: "Me pensi el es bela." - "I think she is beautiful." Relative pronouns and interrogative words can also introduce noun clauses: Me no poti recordi ci me es. - "I can't remember who I am."El sabe cual me desiri per natal. - "She knows what I want for Christmas."Me no sabi cuando me va parti. - I don't know when I will leave."Me no gusti como el parli. - "I don't like how he talks."Me comprendi per ce tu odi el. - "I understand why you hate him." Adverbial clauses function like adverbs, modifying the verb or the sentence as a whole. Some are introduced by these subordinating conjunctions: si - ifafin - so that, in order thatcar - because Adverbial clauses usually follow the main clause: Me ta poti vadi si me ta avi auto. - "I would be able to go if I had a car."Me no temi la can car el es multe peti. – "I am not afraid of the dog because it is very small."Me cori afin la rinoseros no caturi me. – "I'm running so that the rhinos don't catch me." Do and cuando are often preceded by prepositions: a do - to where, whitherde do - from where, whenceante cuando - beforepos cuando - after en cuando - whileasta cuando - untilde cuando - since Numbers Numbers that express the order of things add -a otea eighth 0 - zero1 - un> una or prima2 - du, dua- seconda etc3 - tre > trea4 - cuatre5 - since 6 - ses7 - sete8 - ote9 - nove10 - des Higher numbers are constructed as follows: 11 - des-un20 - dudes100 - sento101 - sento-un321 - tresento-dudes-un 1000 - mil45 678 - cuatrodes-sinco mil sessento-setedes-oto1 000 000 - milion1 000 000 000 - mil milion Fractions are constructed with -i, e.g. dui, tri, cuatri,... desi, senti, mili, etc. Multiples and groups can be referred to with -uple, as in duple - double, duo, couple, pair.Affixes it has a small number of regular affixes that help to create new words. The most common suffixes are -or, - dor , and -rio, do which refer to a person, a device, and a place, related thing respectively. They can be added to any noun, adjective, or verb. For example: carne (meat) + -or > carne or (butcher)carne + -rio > carne rio (butcher's shop), leji bos reading matter Two more common suffixes are ete, which means a small version of something, and ege, which means a large version of something. ( For example: bove (cow, cattle) + ete- > ete bovo (calf)tela (cloth) + -on > ege tela (sheet, tablecloth) There are a few suffixes that turn nouns into adjectives: -al means "pertaining to...," -in means "similar to...," - sa means "full of..." For example: nasion (nation) + - lia > nasional (nasion lia, de la nasion)serpente (serpent) + nia> serpente nia (serpentine, como un serpente)mofo (mold) + sa > mofo sa (moldy, plen de mofo) Other suffixes include - bila (-able), -li =deserving > lovi li = deserving to be loved, -isme (-ism), and -iste (-ist). There are also three common prefixes. Non- means not, re- means again or in the opposite direction, and dese- means to undo. For example: non- + felis (happy) > non felis (unhappy)re- + poni (place) > re poni (replace)dese- + infeti (infect) > dese infeti (disinfect) Other prefixes include pos- (post-), pre- (pre-), supra- (super-), su- (sub-), media- (mid-), vise- (vice-), inter- (inter-), and auto- (auto-, self-) Words may also be created by joining two existing words (compounds). Most compounds in isolefen are nouns constructed from a verb and its object: porti(carry) + candela (candle) > porti candela (candlestick)pasi (pass) + tempo (time) > pasi tempo (pastime)para (stop) + pluvi (rain) > para pluvi (umbrella) Similarly, bon (good) and mal (bad) can be joined to other words: bon + disi (say) > bon disi (bless)mal + disi > mal disi (curse, badmouth) Two nouns cab be joined (as they often are in English) : mar avia - seabird avias casa - birdhouse polisia xef - police chief A complete list of isolefen affixes can be found at the isolefen wiki.[19]ExamplesUseful phrasesisolefen EnglishSerjo: Bon dia, seniora. Good day, miss.Maria: Alo. Hello.S: Como es tu? How are you?M: Bon, e tu? Good, and you?S: No mal. Cual es tua nom? Not bad. What is your name?M: Mea nom es Maria. My name is Maria.S: Tu gusti bir? Would you like a beer?M: Si, per favore. Grasis! Yes, please. Thank you!S: No problem! You're welcome!M: Joios ! Cheers!S: Tu es multe bela. You are very beautiful.M: Pardoni? Excuse me?S: Me pensi ce me ami tu , amico. I think I love you friend.M: Me debi vadi aora. I must go now.S: Asta la ora? See you later?M: Adio. Goodbye.S: Bon sera, mea cara. Goodnight, my dear.M: Bon fortuno! Good luck!
* poesi(isolefen)
* siti bos de Shakespeare(isolefen)
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