Latonic/Présens
Personal Pronouns
[edit | edit source]In Latonic, personal pronouns are very important, unlike in Latin where they may be dropped.
Latin: vado (vadere is used here instead of ire to show likeness with Latonic)
Latonic: me va
English: I go
When an action is executed by a person who is defined with a noun or a name, the pronoun is still mentioned.
Latin: Marcus vadet
Latonic: Marco il va
English: Marc (he) goes
When the person executing the action (the subject) is a pronoun, and it is important to know it is this person and noone else, then even Latin uses a pronoun. Latonic in that case uses two pronouns!
Latin: ego vado
Latonic: mego me va
English: Í go
As you can see, there is a difference between the emphasised form (mego) and the short form (me). Therefore I has two possible translations, and this is true for all personal pronouns.
| English | Latonic (emphasis) | Latonic (short) |
|---|---|---|
| I | mego, iégo | me |
| you (singular) | tú, tuvi, tuli | te |
| we | noste, nobi | no |
| you (plural) | veste, vobi | vo |
Note: the form ié, iégo is considered quiet formal.
Forms adressing one person are called singular, forms adressing multiple people are called plural. Adressing someone in the plural forms is considered polite, just like in French, though it isn't done as often as in French.
The pronouns I and we talk about the speaker himself, this is called the first person. The pronoun you discusses the person(s) who are being adressed, this known as the second person.
Anyone outside this is the third person. In English there are four personal pronouns of the third person: he, she, it and the plural they.
In Latonic, there are only four personal pronouns of the third person, which can only be used for people, never for things
| English | Latonic (emphasis) | Latonic (short) |
|---|---|---|
| he | elui (pronounce "elwi") | il |
| she | ellea or elléa | la |
| they (male) | éi | i |
| they (female) | éie | lé |
Non-persons (objects, abstract things, usually animals too) can occur in any of three genders (male, female and neuter), unlike in English where they are all neuter. They are translated like this:
| English | Latonic (emphasis) | Latonic (short) |
|---|---|---|
| it (m) | illo | il / le |
| it (f) | illa | la |
| it (n) | illu | le |
| they (m) | illi | li |
| they (f) | ille | lé |
| they (n) | illa | li |
When the word that follows the personal pronoun begins with a vowel, it may undergo a slight change to help pronunciation. This may involve a letter being added, or one dissapearing. This rule only applies to the short forms of the personal pronoun, emphasised forms just stay the same.
| Normal | Before a vowel |
|---|---|
| me | mé / m' |
| ié | ié / í' |
| te | tu / t' |
| il | il / l' |
| la | la / l' |
| le | l' |
| no | nos |
| vo | vos |
| i | í |
| lé | lé |
| li | li |
The Présens
[edit | edit source]The Indicativu Présenti or Present Tense is the most basic tense: it describes thing happening now (We are working), things that are always happening (I like music) and things about to happen (We're going to the seaside tomorrow).
Conjugation of the verb
[edit | edit source]Group 1: Verbs on -are
[edit | edit source]Verbs on -are can be divided into two subgroups:
- the verbs dare and stare which have only one syllable, and the verb ire in the present tense is conjugated similarly
- all other verbs or -are
Simple verbs on -are
[edit | edit source]The first subcategory is very easy. First of all, every verb has an infinitive (main form, i.e. carmínare, to sing), a root (inf. without -re, i.e. carmína, sing-)) and a long root (the root undergoe an accent shift because a syllable dissapears, the long root doesn't).
Note that the stress in the infinitive and long root is always on the binding vowel (vowel before -re, in this case a), in the root it follows the regular pronunciation rules for the root.
| Form | Rule | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | long root + -are | carmínare | to sing |
| 1st sing. | root + -o | me/ié carmíno | I sing |
| 2nd sing. | root + -a | te carmína | you sing |
| 3rd sing. | root + -a | il/la/le carmína | he/she/it sings |
| 1st pl. | long root + -amo | no carmínamo | we sing |
| 2nd pl. | long root + -ái | vo carmínái | you sing |
| 3rd pl. | root + -o' (*) | i/lé/li carmino | they sing |
(*) The apostrophe symolifies the vanished exit -nt. Before a vowel it is replaced by -n: I carmínon un carme.
One-syllable verbs on -are
[edit | edit source]Latonic knows only two one-syllable vers on -are: dare (to give) and stare (to stand). Additionally, the verb ire (to go) is conjugated similarly from the root va-, though it is not a verb from group one and isn't conjugated as one in other tenses.
There is little difference between the two conjugations, except that the binding vowel a- never changes to -o, like it does in two forms of the regular verbs. Note that these verbs don't make a difference between the root and the long root.
| Form | Rule | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | root + -are | dare | to give |
| 1st sing. | root + -a | me da | I give |
| 2nd sing. | root + -a | te da | you give |
| 3rd sing. | root + -a | il da | he/she/it gives |
| 1st pl. | root + -amo | no damo | we give |
| 2nd pl. | root + -ái | vo dái | you give |
| 3rd pl. | root + -a' | i da | they give |
Group 2: Verbs on -íre
[edit | edit source]Verbs on -íre are divided into two groups:
- The short conjugation: these are only a few verbs, but some very popular verbs. These are comparable to the French group of sentir - je sens.
- The long conjugation: the are most verbs. They are comparable to the French group of finir - je finis.
Short Conjugation
[edit | edit source]| Form | Rule | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | root + -íre | dormíre | to rest |
| 1st sing. | root + -o | me dormo | I rest |
| 2nd sing. | root + -i | te dormi | you rest |
| 3rd sing. | root + -i | il dormi | he/she/it rests |
| 1st pl. | root + -ímo | no dormímo | we rest |
| 2nd pl. | root + -í | vo dormí | you rest |
| 3rd pl. | root + -o | i dormo | they rest |
Long Conjugation
[edit | edit source]| Form | Rule | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | root + -íre | habíre | to get |
| 1st sing. | root + -io | me habio | I get |
| 2nd sing. | root + -i | te habi | you get |
| 3rd sing. | root + -i | il habi | he/she/it gets |
| 1st pl. | root + -ímo | no habímo | we get |
| 2nd pl. | root + -íi | vo habíi | you get |
| 3rd pl. | root + -io | i habio | they get |
l- and n- irregularities
[edit | edit source]In the first singular and third plural forms, an irregularity occurs whenever a verb root ends on an -n or a -l. The l- is replaced by the cluster ll-, and similarly -n is replaced by gn-.
i.e. veníre => me vegno, i vegno'
i.e.2 salíre => me sallo, i sallo'
These verbs always belong to the short conjugation.
Group 3: Verbs on -ére
[edit | edit source]Verbs on -ére are hard to conjugate in some tenses, but their Présens is easy. It's exits are identical to those of the group on -are, the only difference being the binding vowel -e-. Keep in mind though that due to the grammatical nature of the vowel e an accent is needed in the infinitive and the first person plural.
| Form | Rule | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | long root + -ére | temére | to fear |
| 1st sing. | root + -o | me temo | I fear |
| 2nd sing. | root + -e | te teme | you fear |
| 3rd sing. | root + -e | il teme | he/she/it fear |
| 1st pl. | long root + -émo | no temémo | we fear |
| 2nd pl. | long root + -éi | vo teméi | you fear |
| 3rd pl. | root + -o' | i temo | they fear |
Verbs on -ére have the same irregularities as the ones on -íre: tenére: me tegno - valére - me vallo
Group 4: Verbs on -ere
[edit | edit source]Verbs on -ere have the unique property that their infinitive is drawn from the root, not the long root, thus causing the accent to fall the syllable before -ere.
Verbs on -ere are quite similar to their lookalikes on -ére, but the -e in the third and second person singular dissapears. The central vowel is marked with a central accent, or if it is short, with a short one. The verb prennere is irregular: it uses a central accent.
| Form | Rule | Example | Translation |
|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | root + -ere | prennere | to take |
| 1st sing. | root + -o | me prenno | I take |
| 2nd sing. | root alone | te prèn | you take |
| 3rd sing. | root alone | il prèn | he/she/it take |
| 1st pl. | long root + -émo | no prennémo | we take |
| 2nd pl. | long root + -éi | vo prennéi | you take |
| 3rd pl. | root + -o' | i prenno | they take |
Irregular Verbs
[edit | edit source]Latonic has five stricly irregular verbs: esse, posse, ire, velle, nolle. They respectively mean to be, can, go, velle, nolle.
Esse means to be, but is used only for permanent matters such as identity, property and location of immobile things. State, mood, location of mobile things and other non-permanent things are described with stare (see Group 1).
Posse means can, but is used only for permission and will, and sometimes for opportunity. Ability, knowledge and possibilty are described with sapíre, me sapio (see Group 2). The verb posse is formed by merging esse with "pos", which in archaic Latin meant "able"
| Form | ||
|---|---|---|
| infinitive | esse | posse |
| 1st sing. | me so | me posso |
| 2nd sing. | tu es | te posses (pos) |
| 3rd sing. | il es | il posses (pos) |
| 1st pl. | no sômo | no possômo |
| 2nd pl. | vos este | vo posseste (poste) |
| 3rd pl. | i so' | i posso' |
Velle means to want or shall.
Nolle means not want or shall not
| Form | ||
|---|---|---|
| infinitive | velle | nolle |
| 1st sing. | me vollo | me nollo |
| 2nd sing. | te vel (vele) | te nole |
| 3rd sing. | il vel (vele) | il nole |
| 1st pl. | no volômo | no nolômo |
| 2nd pl. | vo voléi | vo noléi |
| 3rd pl. | i vollo' | i nollo' |
Ire means to go or will. It is formed similarly to the verbs dare and stare, but from the root v-.
| Form | |
|---|---|
| infinitive | ire |
| 1st sing. | me va |
| 2nd sing. | te va |
| 3rd sing. | il va |
| 1st pl. | no vamo |
| 2nd pl. | vo vái |
| 3rd pl. | i va' |
Fêre means to be there, to exist, to be made, to become, to be created, .... It usually only appears in the third person. Fêre is also used to express possession: (Le) mibi fí un domu. I have a house. (La) luí fí una bella piélla. He has got a beautiful daughter. but: Il habi un' arresta cardiacali. He has a heart attack.
| Form | |
|---|---|
| infinitive | fêre |
| 1st sing. | (me fío) |
| 2nd sing. | (te fí/fíe) |
| 3rd sing. | il fí/fíe |
| 1st pl. | (no fiémo) |
| 2nd pl. | (vo fiéi) |
| 3rd pl. | i fío |