Lingwa de planeta

This is a free wikibook on the Lingwa de planeta (Lidepla or LdP for short) constructed language or conlang.

This wikibook is an ongoing translation of the corresponding Russian book. The authors will be glad to receive some contribution, like your opinion in the talk page, or some improvements of English in the text, or ideas for exercises.

The book consists of ten lessons, each containing some grammar explanations, translation exercises, a short text with comments and some useful conversational phrases. You will find some information about one of the languages on which the Lidepla conlang is based and read a fragment of Antoine de St. Exupéry’s The Litte Prince in that language (with transcription). There will also be a wordlist taken from that language.

Lingwa de planeta | Neutral language for international communication

What should an international communication language look like?

Perhaps it should be neutral. That is, it should not belong to any special nation (like English does, for example). Perhaps it should be easy from the point of view of grammar. That is, it shouldn't contain many different forms to be learned (like Russian does, for example). Perhaps it should be easy from the point of view of pronunciation. That is, its sound should be easy for native speakers of different languages to pronounce. It should be, perhaps, euphonious. That is, the speech in it should sound beautiful, and the language itself should be pleasant to speak because of that. Perhaps it should contain international and other widely spread words - as they are international indeed. Also it should perhaps be quite natural, without excessive schematization. And finally, it should perhaps resemble native languages for the speaker of any native language... just to be an ideal international language indeed.

Lingwa de planeta, or Lidepla for short, is such a language. It meets all the above-mentioned claims. It was created as a harmonious whole on the basis of the most widespread modern languages (English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese, as well as Chinese, Russian, Hindi and Arabic).

Certainly, today it is rather difficult to find a Lidepla-speaking person in a foreign country. But the language, and the learning of it, can still be rather useful. Really, you are going to learn how to express yourself clearly in a non-native language, and this is one of the principal tasks that a person learning their first foreign language has to solve. (It is well known that every new language is easier to learn than the previous one.) Also, you are going to learn about 500 words that are very similar (both in phonetics and in meaning) to really frequent words of the most widely spoken modern languages.

So one can even claim that Lingwa de planeta is not a conlang, but rather a whole planet Creole language.

We wish you success and pleasure in acquiring the language Lingwa de planeta!

Alphabet and pronunciation

The alphabet of Lidepla is based on the Latin script. It contains 25 letters (q isn't used, c occurs only in ch):

Aa (a), Bb (be), Ch ch (che), Dd (de), Ee (e), Ff (ef), Gg (ge), Hh (ha), Ii (i), Jj (ja), Kk (ka), Ll (el), Mm (em), Nn (en), Oo (o), Pp (pe), Rr (er), Ss (es), Tt (te), Uu (u), Vv (ve), Ww (wa), Xx (iks), Yy (ye), Zz (ze).

Watch and to listen

Lidepla letters are read the same way in all positions. In Lidepla there are 17 basic consonants and 5 vowels.

Vowels

The letters i and y mean the same sounds, but y is never stressed: pyu (more). Also y on the end of the word shows that the word is not a verb: krai (to cry) vs skay (sky).

Consonants

All the consonants are pronounced in the same way in any position.

Basic consonants:

Additional consonants:

Letter x means the k + s combination, but can be a little voiced when between vowels: examen (exam), before a consonant may be pronounced as s: expliki (to explain).

Stress

The general rule is as follows: the vowel before the last consonant or y is stressed.

Examples:

• mata (mother)
• dumi (to think)
• materia (material)
• avan (forward)
• krokodil (crocodile)
• baya (berry)
• jaopay (signboard)
• suola sole (of shoe)

In combinations ao; au, eu; ai, oi, ei the first vowel is stressed.

Examples:

• hao (good)
• audi (to hear)
• maus (mouse)
• euro (euro)
• klaida (clothes)
• fail (file)
• brein (brain)
• meil (mail)
• asteroida (asteroid)

There are some exceptions though, as Lidepla tries to keep the pronunciation close to widespread patterns. You don't need to memorize the rule, just read the examples attentively. You can also watch the short special video.

1. 4 endings are never stressed:

   • -en (inen inside, iven even)
   • -us (virus virus)
   • -um (forum forum, sirkum around)
   • -er (inter between, kompyuter computer)

2. Endings -ik- and -ul- in (simple) nouns and adjectives are never stressed:

   • gramatika, pedagogika, publika, Afrika, Amerika, politike, logike, unike, psikologike, stimula, angula.

3. Ending -im is not stressed in minim (least), minimum, maximum.

4. In some special cases the non-standard stress is indicated by doubled vowel:

   • kwantitaa (quantity)
   • kwalitaa (quality) (and all the abstract nouns with suffix -itaa)
   • namastee (how do you do, hello)
   • adyoo (bye),
   • bifoo (before),
   • malgree (in spite of)

The stress doesn't change when forming the following:

1. the plural form of nouns (-(e)s):

   • kitaba|kitabas
   • book|books
   • man|manes
   • man|men

2. adverbs formed from adjectives:

   • jamile|jamilem
   • beautiful|beautifully

3. nouns formed from verbs:

   • lopi|loping
   • run|running

Compound words retain the stress of the components. Suffixes beginning with a consonant may have additional stress:

• ginalik (womanlike) (from gina woman),
• kusishil (tending to bite) (from kusi to bite),
• ofnitul (bottle-opener)
• vidibile (visible)

Exercise Answers | Next Lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Simple Sentence

In this lesson you will learn:

• 7 pronouns: (me, nu, yu, ta, lu, ela, li)
• 11 verbs: (dumi, jan, samaji, kredi, nadi, lubi, gun, jivi, vidi, audi, shwo)
• 4 adverbs of time: (yeri, manya, nau, sedey)
• 5 conjunctions: (e, o, bat, bikos, dabe)
• 7 grammatical particles: (bu, ob, ya, non, doh, -te, ve)

In total, that's 34 vocabulary units.

The Basic Verb Form and Personal Pronouns

The basis of any phrase in any language is the verb. It is the verb that establishes the general situation, the action. All other components of the phrase are built around it.

Examples of verbs:

• jivi - to live
• lubi - to love
• nadi - to hope
• jan - to know
• samaji - to understand
• shwo - to speak

Reminder: the letter j is pronounced like a soft, vibrant "y" in "yes"

In Lidepla, the form of the verb never changes. To specify who performs the action, personal pronouns are used; to specify the action (for example, the time), special particles are used.

Personal pronouns:

• me - I
• nu - we
• yu - you (singular/plural)
• ta - he/she, generic
• lu - he
• ela - she
• li - they

Reminder: the letter y denotes an unstressed i

• ta – a general pronoun that denotes any living being (man, woman, child, animal). If it is necessary to specify the gender, the pronouns lu (he) and ela (she) can be used.

• yu – a general pronoun that denotes the person or people being addressed. If it is necessary to specify, the combinations yu oli (all of you), yu ambi (both of you), yu un (you – to single out one from a group) can be used.

In Lidepla there is no special word for a particularly polite or formal address (like "usted" in Spanish).

The one who acts (i.e., the subject) is generally placed before the verb.

The basic form of the verb by itself does not indicate the time of the action. The time of the action is determined by the context (for example, the word yeri (yesterday) unequivocally indicates the past, the word manya (tomorrow) the future, and nau (now) and, as a general rule, sedey (today) the present). If there is no context, the present tense is assumed.

Translation Exercise

• We live.
• They live.
• He hopes.
• She hopes.
• They know.
• I know.
• You speak.
• You (plural) speak.
• I speak.

Negation, Questions and Answers, Emphatic Particle ya

For negation, the particle bu is placed before the verb.

To ask a question, it is necessary to place the particle ob before the entire phrase.

Translation Exercise

• Do you love?
• I don't love.
• Doesn't she love?
• She doesn't know.
• Doesn't he hope?
• He lives.
• Don't you (plural) understand?
• We hope.
• Do they speak?
• They don't know.

You can answer a general question with the words:

• ya - "yes"
• non - "no"
• doh - "no, not at all!" / "quite the opposite!"

The word (particle) ya can also be placed before or after the verb to emphasize its meaning:

3. Past and Future Tense Particles, Conjunctions

To specify the time of the action (if necessary) the following particles are used:

• ve (before the verb) - future tense
• -te (after the verb, with a hyphen) - past tense

Translation Exercise

• Did you love?
• I will love.
• Will he understand?
• She hopes.
• She hoped.
• She will not hope.
• We will live.

To join words and phrases, the following conjunctions will be useful:

• e - and
• o - or
• bat - but
• dabe - so that
• bikos - because

New Verbs

The verbs are given with examples of use, to facilitate memorization and review of grammatical particles.

Translation Exercise

• I didn't know. But you said. Now I know. (Me ... . Bat yu ... . Nau me ...)
• She believes and hopes. (Ela ... e ...)
• They don't see and don't hear, but they work. (Li ... e ..., bat ...)
• He doesn't understand, but he works. (Ta ..., bat ...)
• I speak so that you understand. (Me ... dabe yu ...)
• She hopes, because she loves. (Ela ... bikos ela ...)
• You don't know or you don't understand. (Yu ... o ...)
• She didn't think, she already knew. (Ela ..., ela ya ...)
• You don't believe? - No, I do believe. (Ob yu ...? - Doh, me ... ya!)

Text

Read the text. Clarify the meaning of the words you don't understand. Try to retell this text or create your own.

Ob yu lubi?
Ya, me lubi. Ob yu jan?
Ya, me jan. Ela shwo-te e lu bu audi-te.
Me kredi. Bat yu bu samaji.
Me nadi. Bat yu bu vidi.
Me samaji. Me dumi. Me ve gun.
Nu ve jivi.

Etiquette: Introductions

In Lidepla there is a universal word that can be said as a greeting, farewell or simply as a wish for all the best. This word is: Swasti! Literally it means "May there be happiness! May there be peace!"

In addition, to say hello you can say Salam! (Hello!) or Namastee! (Hello/Good morning/Good afternoon!), and to say goodbye Chao! (Bye!) or Adyoo! (Goodbye!)

Reminder: doubling a vowel indicates that this vowel is stressed

To introduce yourself, you need the verb nami (to call, to be called):

After the other person says their name, you can express joy at the meeting using the verb joi (to be glad):

Language in Focus: English

It is no secret to anyone that English currently has the status of an international language. Therefore, we will begin our review with it. Every language, in one way or another, carries with it the entire history of its people. The 5th century AD can be considered the time of origin of the English language: at this time, Germanic tribes of Angles and Saxons penetrated the territory of the British Isles, populated by Celts. They were much more numerous than the Celts, and the Anglo-Saxon dialect gradually completely displaced Celtic from use. In the 6th and 7th centuries AD, the Roman Church carried out a general Christianization of Great Britain, and during this period, a large number of words of Latin origin appeared in the English language, such as: school, priest. In the 9th century, the Danish conquests of Great Britain began. As a result, words borrowed from the Scandinavian languages appeared in the English language: anger, sky. In the 11th century, Great Britain was conquered by the inhabitants of northern France. From this moment begins the era of three languages: the language of the aristocracy, French; the language of science, Latin; and the language of the common people, the Anglo-Saxon. Since then, the English language has had series of words close in meaning, but of different origin, and therefore, quite different from each other: head (from Anglo-Saxon) - chapter (from Latin) - chief (from French). From the 15th century, Great Britain carried out an active colonial policy, which has resulted in a significant number of variants of English today, such as American English, Australian English, Canadian English, not to mention the large number of very different dialects that exist in the British Isles themselves. Thus, English remains to this day a mixed and very heterogeneous language.

From the point of view of grammar, the language has also undergone significant changes. In particular, it has currently almost not preserved the endings for nouns and verbs. Possibly, the language would have lost them completely if it had not been for the development of the written literary language and the conviction of the first grammarians that a "correct" grammar should resemble Latin grammar.

Undoubtedly, you have an idea of what spoken English sounds like. But still, to compare with the languages we will talk about in the next lessons, here is a small excerpt from the famous book by A. Exupéry "The Little Prince", written orthographically and then phonetically, that is, approximately how it sounds.

The transcription should be read according to the rules of Lidepla pronunciation; sounds that do not exist in Lidepla are written with two closer sounds, separated by a slash; the stress mark is placed before the stressed syllable.

Oh, little prince!
oo litl prins

Bit by bit I came to understand the secrets of your sad little life.
bit bay bit ay keym tu ande'stend t/se 'siikri/ets e/ov yoo se/ad litl layf

For a long time you had found your only entertainment in the quiet pleasure of looking at the sunset.
for e long taym yu hed faund yoo ounli ente'teynment in t/se kwayt 'plezhe e/ov 'luking et t/se 'sanset

I learned that new detail on the morning of the fourth day, when you said to me:
ay lee/oond t/set nyu 'diiteyl on t/se 'mooning e/ov t/se foof/s dey, wen yu sed tu mi

I am very fond of sunsets.
ay em 'veri fond e/ov 'sansets.

It can be noted that English is characterized by rather short words and a large number of diphthongs (double vowels: ai, ou, etc.). In addition, it is clearly visible that the spelling differs significantly from the pronunciation of the word. When borrowing words from English into Lidepla, it is generally their pronunciation that is preserved first, not the spelling (of course, slightly modified in accordance with the phonetic system of Lidepla). In some cases, the word is slightly adapted to the Lidepla grammatical system (a verb, for example, receives the ending "-i", and an adjective, "-e"). From English came to Lidepla many functional words: conjunctions (o (or), bat (but), bikos (because)), prepositions (fo (for), bay (by/with), bifoo (before), afte (after)), adverbs (nau (now), iven (even)), question words (hu (who), wen (when)). Examples of the most used significant words borrowed from English:

Nouns:

• dey - day
• wik - week
• taim - time
• boy - boy
• mani - money
• shop - shop
• riva - river
• skay - sky
• leta - letter

Verbs:

• bi - to be
• bikam - to become
• hev - to have
• weiti - to wait
• miti - to meet
• smaili - to smile
• bildi - to build
• krai - to cry/shout
• tachi - to touch
• helpi - to help

Adjectives:

• blu - blue
• grin - green
• klin - clean
• longe - long

Exercise Answers | Next Lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Complex Sentence

In this lesson you will learn:

• 4 pronouns (swa, mutu, it, oni)
• 12 verbs (pregi, kwesti, jawabi, dai, pren, helpi, go, lai, safari, gani, dansi, rasmi)
• 10 special verbs (mog, janmog, darfi, treba, mus, gai, majbur, nidi, yao, pri)
• 8 prepositions (a, om, fo, por, kun, sin, in, fon)
• 6 question words (hu, kwo, wo, wen, way, komo)
• 6 demonstrative words (hir, dar, ahir, adar, dan, tak)
• 6 useful words (yoshi, toshi, poy, snova, turan, tuy)
• 3 conjunctions (sikom, obwol, yedoh)
• 2 grammatical words (ke, unkwe, hi, ku)

Total: 59 vocabulary units (+34 from lesson 1 = a total of 93 units)

Pronouns as objects

Pronouns in Lidepla do not change. If a pronoun is placed after the verb, it will function as an object (i.e., it will answer the question "who? what?"):

To say "oneself", the word swa is used (for all pronouns). To convey the meaning of "each other" or "one another", there is the word mutu.

An inanimate object can be replaced by the pronoun it.

Translation Exercise

• I see you.
• You understand me.
• She did not understand you.
• We love him.
• They will not hear it.
• She does not know herself.
• You will not hear each other.
• You do not hear yourself.
• We understood each other.

Main Prepositions

To answer the question "to whom?", the preposition a is used.

To answer the question "about what? about whom?", the preposition om is needed.

Other important prepositions: fo (for), por (because of), kun (with), sin (without)

Translation Exercise

• for me
• about you
• because of us
• for you (plural)
• with you
• without her
• because of you

A preposition can also be followed by a verb:

Question and Demonstrative Words

Question words:

• hu - who
• kwo - what
• wo - where
• a wo - where to
• fon wo - where from
• wen - when
• way - why
• komo - how

Question words are placed, as a rule, at the beginning of the sentence; the word order in the sentence does not change.

Translation Exercise

• Who understands?
• Who knew?
• What did you know?
• What will he understand?
• Where did you work?
• Where will we work?
• Where are you going to and from?
• When did he arrive?
• Why don't you understand?
• How do you speak?

You can answer questions with question words using demonstrative words:

• se - this
• to - that
• hir - here
• dar - there
• ahir - to here
• adar - to there
• dan - then
• tak - so, thus

Complex Sentence

Question words can also begin a subordinate clause:

Also to create complex sentences the word (conjunction) ke (that) is used:

It is important not to confuse the words kwo and ke:

Note that in Lidepla there is no sequence of tenses: in the subordinate clause, the particles indicate the time of the action in relation to the action in the main clause.

Translation Exercise

• You know where I lived.
• He sees how I wait.
• I don't understand what you want (yao).
• We said that they would travel (safari).
• She doesn't believe that you will come (lai).
• They don't know where I will go (go).
• I don't understand what you sing about (gani).
• You don't know who she dances with (dansi).
• I don't understand how you speak without thinking.

Another way to build a complex sentence: preposition + particle ke:

Generalizing Meaning

In English there is the construction "whoever", "whatever", etc., which can appear after any question word at the beginning of a subordinate clause: whoever, whatever, however. In Lidepla, this construction is expressed with a single word: unkwe, which can be placed in the same way after any question word (the verb is used in its basic form):

Sometimes it doesn't matter who does something. For this case there is the pronoun oni, which can be translated as "one", "someone", "they".

Translation Exercise

• Wherever you live
• Whatever he thinks
• Whoever comes
• However they ask me

Special Verbs

Special verbs that express an attitude towards the action are usually called "modal". With their help you can form verbal sequences:

• mog – can (broad sense)
• janmog – to know how (to have the skill)
• darfi – to have permission
• treba – to need (broad sense)
• mus – must (obligation)
• gai – should, it is recommended according to the rules
• majbur – to be forced/obliged
• nidi – to need
• yao – to want
• pri – to like, to feel pleasure

Special verbs themselves can take particles that specify the time. The main verbs after the special ones remain in their basic form.

The subject before a special verb can be omitted. In this case, the phrase acquires an impersonal meaning:

Translation Exercise

• She will want to ask you.
• We like to work.
• I had to ask (pregi).
• You should hope.
• Here one cannot (is not allowed to) dance (dansi).
• One must answer when asked.
• He did not come (lai), because he did not want to see him/her.

Emphatic Particles hi and ku

To highlight, to emphasize the meaning of the whole sentence (that is, mainly its predicate) we use, as we already know, the particle ya. But in Lidepla there is also a more targeted action particle: it emphasizes precisely the word before which it is located. This is the particle hi:

To emphasize a word in a question, there is the particle ku. With it you can easily ask a (general) question to a specific word in the sentence (the particle is placed after the word):

The particle ku is useful when you need to ask a general question to a short phrase:

Translation Exercise

• I am talking precisely about you.
• Is it she who loves you?
• I (precisely) know, (and) do not believe.

Useful Words for Narrations

In a story, for example, about oneself or about one's abilities, the word yoshi ("and also") can be useful:

In a dialogue, however, the word toshi ("also") can be useful:

Useful conjunctions:

• sikom - since, as
• obwol - although
• yedoh - however

Translation Exercise

• I believe them too.
• I don't work. And I don't love you either.
• I need to understand right now.
• I can't understand, although I have to work.
• He may come suddenly. She doesn't want to wait, however, he loves her.
• We don't want to see him again.
• I believe, since I don't want to live without you.
• Then I will answer you (jawabi).

New Verbs

Reminder: the letter j is read as a soft, vibrant "y"; in the combination ai, the "a" is stressed.

The preposition "a" can be omitted, since the verb "helpi" has no other direct object.

Translation Exercise

• I didn't know. But you said. Now I know. (Me... . Bat yu... . Nau me...)
• She believes and hopes. (Ela... e...)
• They don't see and don't hear, but they speak. (Li... e..., bat...)
• He doesn't understand, but he works. (Ta..., bat...)
• I speak so that you understand. (Me... dabe yu...)
• She hopes because she loves. (Ela... bikos ela...)
• You don't know or you don't understand. (Yu... o...)
• She didn't think, she (yes) knew. (Ela..., ela ya...)
• You don't believe? No, not at all, I really do believe! (Ob yu...? - Doh, me... ya!)

Text

Read the text. Clarify the meaning of the words you don't understand. Try to retell this text or create your own.

• Me kwesti ta: "Hu komandi hir?"
• Ta bu jawabi. Me snova kwesti: "Way yu bu jawabi? Ob yu bu mog shwo?"
• Ta shwo: "Me mog. Bat me bu jan kwo shwo. Bikos me bu jan hu komandi. Nu oli lubi mutu." (From Gianni Rodari)

• komandi (to command)

Etiquette: Where are you from? Where do you live?

Before asking a question, it may be appropriate to apologize: Skusi.

When meeting someone, you can ask: Wo yu jivi? (Where do you live?). In the answer you will need the preposition in (in):

• Me jivi in Sankt-Peterburg. (I live in St. Petersburg.)

You can also ask Fon wo yu lai? (Where do you come from?). In the answer you will need the preposition fon (from). The names of the countries in Lidepla sound as close as possible to how they are pronounced in the language of those countries:

• Rusia - Russia
• Ingland - England
• Frans - France
• Doichland - Germany
• Espania - Spain
• Nipon - Japan
• Jungwo - China

Language in Focus: Chinese

Despite all its popularity, English ranks only third in terms of number of speakers (around 300 million people). Speakers of Chinese are more than double that (more than 800 million)! The Chinese language is very ancient: scientists have found inscriptions on the bones of sacrificed animals dating back to at least the 11th century BC. The peculiarity of the unified Chinese writing system is that the symbols do not convey sounds, but meanings of words. On the basis of this system several dialects were formed, which developed independently within different states. Over time, the dialects formed in the north became more widespread. It was they that served as the basis for the formation of the official language of the Chinese empire, in which all important documents were written, as well as the language of the common people, which was only used in oral communication. The lexical composition of the language underwent significant transformations twice: in the 1st century AD with the arrival of Buddhism, the language was enriched with a whole layer of concepts, and since the beginning of the 20th century, the language has adopted concepts adapted from Western civilization.

Excerpt from "The Little Prince" in Chinese (the transcription has been written using the sounds of Lidepla very approximately, without indicating the tones):

啊！我的小王子 ......
A! wo de syao wan zi

就这样，一点一滴地，我逐渐懂得了你那忧郁的小生命。
ziou je yan, idyen-idi-de, wo ju zien dun de le ni na you yu de syao shen min

长久以来，你惟一的乐趣只是欣赏落日。
ch'han ziou I lai, ni wei i de le tsiu ji shi sin shan luo r/shi

这是我在第四天早晨知道的，当你说出：
je shi wo zai di si tien zao chen ji dao de dang ni shuo ch'hu

“我喜欢看夕阳。”
wo si huan kan si yan

Reminder: the letter z is pronounced as a soft, vibrant "dz"; the letter j is pronounced as a soft, vibrant "y".

Chinese words are composed of syllables, each of which has its own meaning. The sound of the language is very peculiar, different from the usual European languages. The fact is that in Chinese not only the sounds themselves have meaning, but also the tones, that is, how exactly the syllable is pronounced: whether the voice rises when pronouncing the syllable, or falls, or remains at the same height.

Among the most frequent words in Lidepla, there are quite a few words borrowed from Chinese.

Functional words and adverbs:

• bu - no
• ba - imperative
• gwo - past indefinite
• zai - continuous action
• zuy - the most
• fen - forms fractions
• shi - ten
• idyen - a little
• haishi - still, yet
• shao - little
• turan - suddenly

Nouns:

• jen - person
• bao - bag
• mao - wool, hair
• dao - way, path
• yuan - employee, official
• guan - public institution
• bey - back
• duza - belly, abdomen
• tuza - rabbit
• chiza - spoon
• feng - wind

Verbs:

• zwo - to do
• shwo - to speak, to say
• lwo - to fall
• yao - to want, to wish
• kan - to look, to see
• gun - to work
• chi - to eat
• zin - to enter
• chu - to exit
• zun - to be engaged in something
• mangi - to be busy with something
• tungi - to hurt, to cause pain
• kaulu - to consider, to take into account

Adjectives:

• hao - good
• lao - old
• gao - high
• syao - small
• byen - convenient, comfortable
• hwan - yellow
• suan - sour
• guy - expensive
• kway - fast
• lenge - cold
• lan - lazy

Exercise Answers | Next Lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Nouns and Adjectives

In this lesson you will learn:

• 11 verbs (muvi, flai, lopi, sidi, stan, somni, plei, lekti, skribi, remembi, fogeti)
• 11 nouns (jen, kinda, amiga, dom, flor, kitaba, taim; sabah, dey, aksham, nocha)
• 5 adjectives (hao, buhao, syao, gran, jamile)
• 6 intensifiers for adjectives (muy, idyen, aika, basta, tro, ga)
• 7 special verbs (bi | es / bin, ye, yok, hev, sta)
• 7 possessive pronouns (may, nuy, yur, suy, luy, elay, ley)
• 5 demonstrative words (se, to, sey, toy, tal)
• 1 preposition (de)
• 1 question word (kwel)
• 8 suffixes (-ina, -o, a/sa, -ing, shil, bile, kin, gron)
• 8 particles (-ge, gin-, man-, da, den, -ney, gro-, -ki)

Total: 70 vocabulary units (+97 from lessons 1 and 2 = a total of 167 units)

Nouns

Nouns are words that answer the question "what?" or "who?".

Nouns can be simple and derived. Examples of simple nouns:

• jen - person
• kinda - child
• flor - flower
• kitaba - book
• dom - house
• amiga - friend
• taim - time

It is important to note that the noun itself does not carry the meaning of quantity. Thus, the word flor, for example, depending on the context, can mean both "flower" (singular) and "flowers" (plural).

To specify singularity, the word un (one) can be placed before the word:

Another way to specify singularity (one piece, one bit): the particle (countable word) -ge (placed after the word):

To specify plurality, words denoting quantity are used (for example, mucho - "many"), or the plural form (see lesson 5 for more details).

The idea of gender (more precisely, sex) by default is implied only in a series of nouns denoting people:

If it is necessary to specify gender in other cases, use:

• the prefixes gin- | man-

• the suffix -o

• the replacement of the ending a with -ina

The noun in Lidepla has no case forms. However, 2 different case meanings of the noun are distinguished from the point of view of its function in the sentence (the same 2 case meanings are also relevant for personal pronouns):

• nominative case meaning (position before the verb)

• oblique case meaning (position after the verb or after a preposition)

If necessary, to indicate the case meaning of the word when changing the word order (for example, in order to especially highlight the meaning of the word), special particles da can be used for the nominative case meaning and den for the oblique case meaning:

Such particles allow a practically free word order in the sentence. However, it should be noted that these particles should not be overused.

Verbal Nouns

Nouns can be formed from verbs.

A general noun, related to the action, denoting a process / result, is formed by:

• replacing the final "i" with "a" (if the verb ends in consonant + i):

  • lubi - to love
  • luba - love

• adding "a" (if the verb ends in consonant + i, but is monosyllabic):

  • pri - to like
  • pria - affection, liking

• adding "sa" (if the verb does not end in i):

  • gun - to work
  • gunsa - work

Translation Exercise

• hope
• knowledge
• help
• request
• joy
• question
• answer
• arrival
• song
• journey

It is important to note that in all the above cases the noun is related to the verb, but carries some additional meaning. However, a pure verbal noun, which denotes precisely the action as such, can also be formed with the help of the suffix -ing:

• swimi (to swim) swiming (swimming)
• janmi (to be born, to give birth) janming (process of birth, childbirth) (janma - birth)

Adjectives

Adjectives answer the question "which?"

Examples of adjectives:

• hao - good
• buhao - not good, bad
• gran - big
• syao - small
• jamile - beautiful

Reminder: in the combination ao, the a is stressed; the letter j is read as a soft, vibrant "y".

Together with adjectives, to clarify the meaning, the following words are used:

• muy - very
• idyen - a little
• aika - quite, very
• basta - enough
• tro - too much
• ga - completely
• ga syao - completely small
• basta gran - sufficiently large
• muy jamile - very beautiful
• aika hao - quite good

Adjectives can be formed from verbs. An adjective with the meaning of "prone to doing something" is formed from a verb by adding the suffix -shil (the position of the stress does not change):

• samajishil - understanding
• dumishil - thoughtful
• gunshil - hardworking

Adjectives with the meaning of "that can be..." are formed with the suffix -bile (the word receives an additional stress on the suffix):

• vidibile - visible
• audibile - audible
• samajibile - understandable

Translation Exercise

• loving
• traveling
• often asking
• trustworthy
• hopeful
• prone to hoping

Verb bi / es / bin

In Lidepla, verbs do not change their form, except for the only verb "to be": the exceptional verb bi has the form es in the present tense and bin in the past tense. Before the copulative verb bi/es/bin there is usually a noun, and after it, an adjective.

The verb bi/es/bin is never omitted.

In special questions with the verb bi (es, bin) it is possible and, as a rule, inversion occurs, that is, the verb is placed immediately after the question word:

In a complex sentence with a question word, as a rule, there is no inversion:

Translation Exercise

• The book is quite big.
• The child is too small.
• Where is the flower?
• The flower was very beautiful.
• How will the house be?
• The house will be very good.

If the subject is expressed by the word se ("this") or the pronouns ta or it, it can be omitted, both in the question and in the answer (if the meaning is understood from the context):

Adjective as an attribute

Of course, nouns, like personal pronouns, can play the role of subject or object of a verb.

In such a function, nouns can be accompanied by adjectives.

The attribute, as a rule, is located before the word it modifies.

Demonstrative words:

• sey - this
• toy - that
• tal - such

Translation Exercise

• This child is small, but quite understanding.
• That person was very good.
• I don't like this house: it's too small.
• You shouldn't talk to that person: he won't be a good friend for you.
• That house is big enough for us to live in.
• This child is too fond of asking questions.

Verbs of existence ye, yok, hev

Sometimes it is necessary to say "there is" not in the sense of quality, but in the sense of presence or absence of something. In this case, instead of the verb bi, the words ye (there is, exists) and yok (there is not, is absent) are used:

To report something belonging to someone, the verb hev - to have - is used.

Translation Exercise

• There is a small house there.
• There are no flowers here.
• We will have a child.
• He had such a book.

Adjectives and possessive pronouns

To ask the question "whose?" and answer it, the determining particle ney is used:

Compound adjectives are possible:

The same meaning can be expressed with the preposition de:

With the same particle -ney, possessive pronouns can also be formed, in principle: me-ney, yu-ney, ta-ney, etc. But possessive pronouns are very often used in speech, so there are also short forms for them: may (my), yur (your, yours), nuy (our), ley (their), suy (his/her), luy (his), elay (her).

From the reflexive pronoun swa, the possessive pronoun swa-ney (own) can be formed.

Translation Exercise

• my child
• my child's book
• your book
• my own house
• our child's friend
• their time
• his flower

Particles gro- and -ki

In the Lidepla language, the following are widely used:

• the augmentative prefix particle gro-
• the diminutive-affective suffix particle -ki

To form the diminutive-affective of a noun or a name, the final vowel can be replaced by "i"; a long name can be shortened to one syllable (this method is not always applicable):

• doga (dog) - dogi (little dog (affective form))
• Dimitri - Dimi
• Konstantin - Konsti

Also in the language there are the word-forming suffixes -kin and -gron, which serve to form nouns with a new quality:

• kitaba (book) - kitabagron (huge volume, folio)
• dom (house) - domkin (e.g., greenhouse)

Translation Exercise

• enormous
• beautiful
• urgently need
• ardently desire
• little man
• little flower

New verbs

Translation Exercise

• I have a friend.
• He is a wonderful person.
• He is very hardworking and understanding.
• He has a small child.
• My friend wants to be with the child, wants to see how his child lives.
• But he can't, because he has to work.
• He doesn't have time to play with his son.
• When he comes, the child sleeps.
• My friend hopes that when the child is grown, he can read books to him and talk to him about them.
• My friend's son cannot understand why his father cannot play with him.
• The child cannot sit without playing. He wants to run, sing, dance.
• Also, my friend has a father.
• He is very old (lao).
• He doesn't remember his name.
• He doesn't see and therefore (because of this) he cannot read or write.
• He needs to sleep.

Text

Read the text. Clarify the meaning of the words you don't understand. Try to retell this text and/or create your own.

• Me bu jan-te fon wo ta lai.

• Wen ta vidi may avion, ta kwesti:

  • Kwo es sey kosa?
  • Bu es kosa. Es avion. It flai.

• Also yu toshi lai fon skay? Es drole! Fon kwel planeta?

• Also ta lai fon skay.

• Me kwesti:

  • Fon wo yu lai? Wo es yur dom? A wo yu yao pren may yan? (from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

• avion (airplane)

• kosa (thing, something)

• skay (sky)

• drole (funny)

• planeta (planet)

• yan (lamb)

Etiquette: greetings, "how are you?"

When greeting at different times of the day, the following expressions can be used:

The words sabah, dey, aksham, nocha themselves mean morning, day, evening and night respectively.

To ask "How are you?" the verb sta ("to be in a certain state") will be needed:

Spanish and Portuguese languages

By number of speakers, Spanish ranks second after Chinese (around 400 million people). Spanish belongs to the group of Romance languages, which means that it originated from Vulgar Latin, that is, the language spoken among common Romans, and that it began to spread throughout the territory of present-day Spain at the end of the 3rd century BC, after Spain became part of the Roman domains. At that time, in the Iberian (Pyrenean) peninsula lived a large number of different tribes, the most numerous being the Iberians and the Celts. In the Mediterranean lands there were Greek colonies. And, in addition, already in the 5th century settlements of Germanic tribes appeared on the peninsula. As a consequence, a huge number of words in modern Spanish have a direct connection with Celtic, Greek, Phoenician and Visigothic analogies. From the 8th century to the 15th century, Arab rule took place in the Iberian Peninsula. The interaction between Arab and Christian culture was not simple or unambiguous. But, be that as it may, the influence of Arabic on Spanish was enormous and undeniable. In medieval times, Spain was in a fragmented state, and different dialects were spoken in different lands. But among all the lands, Castile gradually became the most powerful and influential, and it was Castilian that became the basis of modern Spanish. However, the differences in pronunciation and lexicon in the different provinces of Spain are clearly noticeable to this day.

Excerpt from "The Little Prince" (the accent mark is placed before the stressed syllable, the combinations ue, ua are pronounced as one, the accent on the second sound:)

¡Ah, principito!
aa prinsi'pito

Así, poco a poco, comprendí tu pequeña vida melancólica.
a'si 'poko a 'poko kompren'di tu pe'kenya 'vida melan'kolika

Durante mucho tiempo tu única distracción fue la suavidad de las puestas de sol.
du'rante mucho 'tyempo tu 'unika dis'trakf/sion fue la suavi'dad de las pu'estas de sol

Me enteré de este nuevo detalle, en la mañana del cuarto día, cuando me dijiste:
me ente're de 'este 'nuevo de'taye en la ma'nyana del ku'arto 'dia 'kuando me di'histe

Me encantan las puestas de sol.
me en'kantan las 'puestas de sol

Portuguese is a language closely related to Spanish, and also one of the most spoken languages on earth.

Excerpt from "The Little Prince" in Portuguese:

Ah, Principezinho!
aa prinsipezinyu

Assim, aos poucos, fui ficando a conhecer a tua melancólica vidinha!
assim aus poukus fui fikandu a konyeser a tua melankolika vijinya

Durante muito tempo, a tua única distracção foi a beleza dos crepúsculos.
duranchi muintu tempu, a tua unika jistrasaun foi a beleza dus krepuskulus

Fiquei a sabê-lo na manhã do quarto dia, quando me disseste:
fikei a sabelu na manyan du kwartu dia, kwandu mi jiseschi

Gosto muito dos pores do Sol.
gostu muintu dous poris ji sou.

Spanish and Portuguese, as Romance languages, contain an enormous amount of words of Latin origin, many of which have become international. Precisely these words constitute the majority of the vocabulary of Lidepla.

Most frequent words taken from Spanish:

Functional words:

• a - to
• kada - each
• kwanto - how much
• es - to be
• ela - she
• mil - thousand
• mucho - much, many
• komo - as, like
• sol - only
• sin - without
• i..i - and .. and
• muy - very
• basta - enough
• ambi - both
• segun - according to

Nouns:

• kosa - thing, something
• flor - flower
• tasa - cup
• kamina - path, road
• tren - train
• avion - airplane
• amiga - friend
• vos - voice
• munda - world (all around)
• oton - autumn
• mes - month
• isla - island
• mar - sea

Verbs:

• skribi - to write
• fumi - to smoke
• inviti - to invite
• visiti - to visit
• resolvi - to solve (a problem)
• regi - to reign
• gobernar)
• kresi - to grow
• konsenti - to consent
• doni - to give

Adjectives:

• gran - big
• blan - white
• lente - slow
• otre - other
• alegre - cheerful
• agude - sharp
• vere - true
• tarde - late
• kare - expensive
• libre - free
• sane - healthy

Exercise Answers | Next Lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Verbal Particles

In this lesson you will learn:

• 14 verbs (kan, slu, telefoni, weiti, miti, klosi, ofni, begin, fini, stopi, chi, pi, bikam, repeti, maini)
• 8 nouns (dwar, leta, versa, kafee, aiskrem, chay, vino, dela)
• 10 particles (ba, bye, hay, magari, nomagari, wud, he, sal, zai, gwo)
• 6 affixes (en-, ek-, fa-, mah-, -(i)fi, -(i)si)
• 1 conjunction (si)
• 4 useful words (shayad, mogbi, yo, haishi)
• 3 courtesy words (plis, danke, skusi)

In total 47 vocabulary units (+167 from lessons 1-3 = a total of 214 units)

Expressing commands, requests, wishes

The basic form, used without a subject, expresses the imperative:

• Jawabi! (Answer!)

To express a request, plis (please) or bi karim (be so kind) is usually added.

if the verb obviously has only an indirect object, the preposition can be omitted: helpi a me = helpi me

To explicitly express the imperative, the particle ba can be added:

To express the imperative in negative form, the particle bye is also used (in this case the particle ba is not necessary):

The meaning "let's (do something)" can also be expressed with the particle ba:

A wish can also be expressed with the following particles (they are placed at the beginning of the sentence):

• Hay - Volitive, I wish
• Magari - hopefully
• Nomagari - hopefully not

After these particles, not only the basic form of the verb can be used.

wish that the action has already occurred

Translation Exercise

• Please don't run: I can't understand what you're telling me.
• Please give me my flower. It's there.
• Please read this book to me: I want to hear you read.
• I wish he/she understood me!
• I wish I hadn't believed them!
• Wait for me here, please.
• Let him/her talk to me about it.

Condition and conditionality

When responding to a request, sometimes the word "would" is needed: wud.

And the word "would" is closely related to the word

• si - if...
• dan - then

The word (conjunction) "if" can, of course, be used without "would":

Translation Exercise

• If you don't believe me, I won't come.
• If you want to play and not work, don't come.
• Could you sleep if we sang and danced here?
• I would answer you, but I don't understand what you're asking about.

Clarification of the time of the action

When responding to a request, explaining something in the answer, sometimes it is necessary to specifically indicate that an action is happening at this moment, soon, or, on the contrary, that it has just finished.

For this, in Lidepla there are special clarifying particles:

• zai - "right now"
• sal - "very soon", "I'm going to"
• he - "already finished"
• yus he - "just finished"

The particles wud and he can go together before the verb if it is about a supposition about the past:

Pay attention that some verbs can participate in the construction of verbal sequences:

Translation Exercise

• I came, I'm eating and I'm going to sleep.
• He just finished dancing.
• He's about to start playing now.
• I would have told you, but you didn't come.

It can also happen that you need to say that the action, in principle, took place, at some point, no matter when.

Or that it never happened. For this there is the particle gwo:

Translation Exercise

• He says he just arrived and therefore cannot read the letter (leta) right now.
• He didn't understand that she had (never) seen him, and wouldn't come if I didn't talk to her.
• I had to work today, so I just got home, I'm eating and talking to the kids about why there are no crocodiles (krokodil) in America ("ik" unstressed, the accent falls on the e).
• I will not open the door (dwar) of my house, whoever comes and whatever they say. I will not go because she does not want to open the door for me.

Aspect prefixes

Often, especially when telling a story, when it matters how actions relate to each other, it is important to show that the action began, or that it was abrupt, brief, unique.

For this there are the following verbal prefixes:

• en- - beginning of the action
• ek- - sudden, one-time

With the help of these prefixes, verbs corresponding to Russian perfective verbs can also be formed:

• jan - to know
• en-jan - to find out
• krai - to shout
• ek-krai - to shout suddenly

Translation Exercise

• to want
• to get up
• to remember
• to move
• to fall asleep

Transitivity / intransitivity particles

Many verbs in Lidepla can be used with or without an object:

However, in some cases it is necessary to specifically emphasize the absence of an object (intransitivity of the verb).

This can be done with the particle fa-:

With the particle mah- you can emphasize transitivity or form a transitive verb:

• astoni - to surprise (oneself)
• mah-astoni - to surprise
• remembi - to remember
• mah-remembi - to remember, to bring to mind
• chi - to eat
• mah-chi - to feed

Translation Exercise

• to give to drink
• to plant
• to be visible

The same particles are also used with adjectives to indicate a change in quality:

• mah- (to make or turn something)
• fa- (to become or turn into something)

they are written before the adjective with a hyphen

• syao - small
• mah-syao - to decrease
• gran - big
• fa-gran - to increase, to grow

It should be noted that these verbs mainly denote a change in quality. To indicate the establishment of a new quality, there is also the verb bikam (to become):

To form verbs (from adjectives or other verbs) suffixes can also be used:

• -(i)fi - synonym of fa
• -(i)si - synonym of mah

• klare - clear
• klarifi - to become clear
• klarisi - to clarify

The particle fa- can also be used with nouns that designate, for example, the time of day:

• dey - day
• fa-dey - to dawn, to become day

Expression of supposition

A supposition can be expressed with the words:

• shayad - probably
• mogbi - perhaps
• musbi - must be

after these words, the basic form of the verb is usually used if the supposition refers to the future:

In such sentences, the words yo (already) and haishi (still, yet) can be useful:

New verbs

Text

In animal-shop.

- Ob ye papagay?

- Non, bat yu mog kupi pelatuk (woodpecker).

- Ob ta toshi janmog shwo?

- Non, bat ta janmog yusi Morse-alfabet.

• animal-shop (pet shop)
• papagay (parrot)
• kupi (to buy)
• yusi (to use)
• Morse-alfabet (Morse alphabet)

Etiquette: Thank you! Excuse me, what did you say?

To express gratitude, the word Danke! (thank you) or the expression Danke gro! (thank you very much) is used.

You can respond to gratitude with the expression Bi hao! (You're welcome! With pleasure! No problem!) or Es syao dela. (It's nothing. Don't mention it).

If you didn't hear what your interlocutor said, you can ask again:

• Skusi? (Excuse me?)

If you heard, but don't quite understand what it's about, you can ask like this:

Language in focus: The Arabic language

The number of native Arabic speakers is estimated at around 250 million people. However, classical Arabic, as the language of the Quran, is used in a limited way by followers of Islam worldwide, which already totals more than one and a half billion people.

The appearance of the Quran, written in Arabic, in the 7th century, became a decisive moment in the history of the Arabic language. From that moment, Arabic script was fully formalized, and the standardization of the language (which existed mainly as a set of related dialects) and the development of its literary form began.

Linguists point out that the first monuments of the Arabic language testify to a significant amount of borrowings from neighboring Semitic and Aramaic languages, from Persian, Greek, Latin, and later also from Turkish.

The next crucial period in the development of the Arabic language was the turn of the 18th-19th centuries, when economic contacts between the Arab East and the West intensified. Today, international scientific and technical terms and expressions characteristic of the media actively penetrate the Arabic language, despite the activity of the academies of the Arabic language, which do everything possible to preserve it in its most unaltered form.

Excerpt from The Little Prince in Arabic (the transcription only approximately reflects the pronunciation; in Arabic it is written from right to left):

ah, ayyuhaa alamiir assaghiir, maa alwakt kadartu alaa an afham hayaataka alkaiiba, waktan tawiilan mad/saa wa lam tamlik — lita'aasii nafsik — illaa jamaal mash'hid g/huruubi ashams.

amaltu bihaad/saa fii ssabaahi alyawm arraabi.

amaltu bihaad/saa fii alyawmi arraabi indamaa kult :

"anaa uhibbu mashaahid ghuruubi ashams kat/siran, ta'aala, dina nuraakib hidaahaa.

Words from Lidepla with Arabic origin:

Nouns:

• salam - peace, hello!
• talim - education, enlightenment
• kitaba - book
• dafta - notebook
• kalam - pencil, pen
• taraf - side
• arda - earth
• sabah - morning
• bulbul - nightingale
• ramla - sand
• sahil - shore
• saif - summer
• fauha - smell
• hamsa - whisper

Verbs:

• shakwi - to complain
• jawabi - to answer
• ahfi - to hide
• balbati - to murmur, to bubble
• raki - to ride something, to go on something
• safari - to travel

Adjectives:

• karim - kind
• rahim - merciful
• salim - whole, unharmed
• muhim - important
• jamile - beautiful
• garibe - strange, foreign
• swate - black
• jatile - cunning, ingenious, complicated

Exercise Answers | Next Lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Expression of Quantity

In this lesson you will learn:

• 14 verbs (zwo, lusi, shuki, findi, selekti, konsili, kosti, pagi, kupi, vendi, danki, probi, trai, pasi)
• 18 nouns (ves, yash, pan, milka, nayu, masu, akwa, kapra, boxa, riva, boy, gela, son, skola, klas, grupa, kitaba, kalam)
• 5 adjectives (longe, gao, grave, guy, chipe)
• 17 simple numerals (nol, un, dwa, tri, char, pet, sit, sem, ot, nin, shi, sto, mil, milion, haf, charfen)
• 8 words related to quantity (mucho, pluri, kelke, idyen, shao, kwanto, tanto, sirke)
• 9 words related to time (sekunda, minuta, ora, wik, mes, yar, sekla, klok, datum)
• 7 names of days of the week (undi, dwadi, tridi, chardi, petdi, sitdi, semdi)
• 4 seasons of the year (saif, oton, hima, vesna)
• 10 nouns for different measures (metra, litra, kilo(gram), pes, botela, pak, lof, rubla, euro, dolar)
• 7 words to talk about time (laste, bifoo-ney, lai-she, tardem, ranem, bifooen, aften, pa same taim, pa, kada, bak, afte, fo, duran, fon, til, depos)
• 3 prepositions (per, po, pur)
• 3 useful words (sol, vaika, also)
• 1 form of plural formation (s / es)

A total of 126 vocabulary units (+ 214 from lessons 1-4 = a total of 340 units)

Exact Quantity (counting)

To count, numerals are needed:

• nol - zero
• un - one
• dwa - two
• tri - three
• char - four
• pet - five
• sit - six
• sem - seven
• ot - eight
• nin - nine
• shi - ten

To form tens, the word denoting the number of tens is placed before the word shi (written together):

• dwashi - twenty
• trishi - thirty
• ninshi - ninety

To count from 11 to 19, the word denoting the units is placed before the word shi (written with a hyphen):

• shi-un - eleven
• shi-dwa - twelve
• shi-tri - thirteen
• shi-nin - nineteen)

Analogously:

• dwashi-un - twenty-one
• dwashi-dwa - twenty-two
• dwashi-nin - twenty-nine

Hundreds:

• One hundred: sto

• dwasto - two hundred
• tristo - three hundred
• ninsto - nine hundred
• dwasto-trishi-nin - two hundred thirty-nine

For large numbers, the words mil (thousand) and milion (million) are used (written separately):

• pet milion sitsto-otshi-char mil dwa (5,684,002)

Translation Exercise (Lidepla)

• 75
• 81
• 395
• 403
• 612
• 5,736
• 88,902
• 3,630,785

If a noun follows a numeral, its form does not change:

Inexact Quantity

The form of the noun also does not change after words denoting quantity:

• mucho - much, many
• shao - little, few
• pluri - several
• kelke - some
• idyen - a little

nor after the interrogative word kwanto (how much/many), nor after the demonstrative word tanto (so much/many):

However, there is also a special plural form of the noun. To form it, s is added to the noun (if the word ends in a vowel) or es (if the word ends in a consonant):

• kinda - child
• kindas - children
• flor - flower
• flores - flowers

Note: when forming the plural, the stress placement does not change.

The plural form is used when, for some reason, it is necessary to indicate plurality in the absence of words indicating quantity:

Translation Exercise

• In my class (klas) there are many children.
• We have two groups (grupa). In my group there are 15 people. We have many books and pencils (kalam).
• We also have flowers. In my class there are many girls (gela), but few boys (boy). Several girls can sing.
• Some children can dance. How many girls are in your class? Yesterday I lost (lusi) my pencil.
• I looked for it (shuki), but couldn't find it (findi). I had to ask a girl to help me. She advised me (konsili) to look (that I look) at home.
• She said I could choose (selekti) and take one of her pencils. I took a pencil and thanked her (danki).

Time on the clock

Numerals are important when talking about time. To indicate the exact time, the word klok is used:

To ask "What time is it?", the interrogative word kwel (which, what) is used:

The approximation is expressed with the preposition-adverb word bli (around):

To indicate that something happens at a specific time, the general meaning preposition pa is used:

here the future tense particle can be omitted.

To the indication of hours, the combinations pa aksham (in the evening) and pa sabah (in the morning) can be added:

Translation Exercise

• What time is it? - It's almost half past four.
• I wanted to meet her at six in the evening. No matter what she thinks, I will go at six.
• At half past six we will go to the store (shop), she will choose a hat (shapa) for herself, and I will buy it.
• What time are you coming? - Where to? - Home. - At ten.

Days of the week, months, dates, seasons

The days of the week (wik – week) are formed from numerals by adding the particle di (written together). Alternative names are based on the names of the planets (the stress always falls on the first syllable):

• undi = lunadi (Monday)
• dwadi = marsadi (Tuesday)
• tridi = merkudi (Wednesday)
• chardi = jipidi (Thursday)
• petdi = venudi (Friday)
• sitdi = satudi (Saturday)
• semdi = suryadi (Sunday)

Similarly, using the word mes (month), the names of the months are formed (written with a hyphen). Alternative names are based on common European names:

• januar = mes-un (January)
• februar = mes-dwa (February)
• marto = mes-tri (March)
• april = mes-char (April)
• mey = mes-pet (May)
• yuni = mes-sit (June)
• yuli = mes-sem (July)
• augusto = mes-ot (August)
• septemba = mes-nin (September)
• oktoba = mes-shi (October)
• novemba = mes-shi-un (November)
• desemba = mes-shi-dwa (December)

Seasons of the year (seson):

• saif - summer
• oton - autumn
• hima - winter
• vesna - spring)

With all words denoting days of the week, months, seasons of the year, and times of day, the general meaning preposition pa is usually used:

Translation Exercise

• On Monday I draw, on Tuesday I sing, on Wednesday I dance. On Thursday I buy (kupi), on Friday I sell (vendi). On Saturday I eat and drink, on Sunday I travel (safari).
• In the morning I will go to your house, and in the evening I will go to my house. In summer I travel a lot, in autumn I work a lot, in winter I sleep a lot, in spring I start to believe, hope, love, live and rejoice.
• In May I will go to America to meet my good friend (amiga).

To indicate that something happens regularly, the word kada (each) is used:

Talking about time intervals

To indicate how long ago something happened, the word bak (ago) is used:

To say after how long something will happen, the word after (after) is used:

To talk about a period of time, the words fo (for) and duran (during/throughout) are used:

To communicate the start and end time of a period, the words fon (from) and til (until) are used:

The beginning of a period that has not yet ended is indicated by the word depos (since then):

the verb is used in its basic form.

Demonstrative word: dan - then.

Combination with it: depos dan - since then

Useful words:

• sol - only
• vaika - at least, only
• also - so, therefore, which means

Verb pasi (to pass):

Translation Exercise

• Every morning my son (son) goes to school (skola). There he can play with the children. They play every day.
• From 9 to 10 they read, then from 10 to 11 they write. Then they eat and drink, for half an hour. At home my son also reads.
• For this, he takes books (kitaba) at school. At school you can only take books for 3 days, so children have to read a lot.
• We came here 5 years ago, when my son was still small. Since then we live here. In 2 years my son will be grown up and will finish school.

In a story, the words can also be useful:

• laste - last
• bifoo-ney - previous
• sekwe - next
• lai-she - next, future
• ves - time (as in occurrence)

Other useful words:

• bifooen - before
• aften - later, after
• pa same taim - at the same time, at once
• ranem - early
• tardem - late

Translation Exercise

• Had we met before? He can sing and dance at the same time.
• Please don't be late. If you arrive early, we can do whatever you want. Last time you didn't understand me.
• I hope next time you can understand.

Measurements

When talking about the value of a measurement, the corresponding adjective is added:

Units of Measurement:

• metra - meter
• litra - liter
• kilogram - kilo (kilogram)

When the information about the quantity is in the sentence before the name of the substance, no preposition is used:

With words like pes (piece), pak (package) and botela (bottle), the use of the preposition de is also not mandatory:

Talking about Prices:

Monetary Units:

• rubla - ruble
• euro - euro
• dolar - dollar

Useful Prepositions for Talking about Prices

In a conversation about costs, the following prepositions will be useful:

• pur - for, in exchange for
• per - per, for each
• po - at, each at

Translation Exercise

• What would you like to buy?
• I need some bread (pan) and two bottles of milk (milka). How much does it cost?
• The bread costs twenty-five rubles per loaf (lof).
• But that's very expensive (guy)!
• I think it's very cheap (chipe).
• I also need to buy some of this beautiful fabric (kapra).
• The fabric costs five hundred rubles per meter. But there's only one piece.
• How long is it? (How long?)
• Three and a half meters.
• I'll buy it.

Text

Me dumi ke planeta de syao prinsa es asteroida "B-sitsto-shi-dwa". Un jen findi-te it in skay pa yar mil ninsto-nin. Sey planeta es tanto syao ke it bu hev vere nam, sol numer. Me shwo om se bikos adulte jen pri sifra. Li bu wud mog samaji si me wud shwo "Unves ye syao prinsa. Ta jivi pa un muy syao planeta, e ta nidi amiga..." Li bu wud mog kredi.

• prinsa - prince
• asteroida - asteroid
• vere - true
• nam - name
• numer - number
• adulte - adult
• sifra - digit
• unves - once
• amiga - friend

New verbs

Etiquette: asking about age

The question about age (yash) can be asked in different ways:

The question can also be answered in different ways:

Language in focus: Hindi

Hindi ranks fifth in terms of the number of native speakers; however, in terms of the total number of speakers, it is only surpassed by Chinese.

The word "Hindi" itself can be understood in different ways: in a strict sense, it designates the standard literary language; in a broad sense, it refers to a whole group of closely related dialects.

The history of Hindi dates back centuries, to Central Asia, where a language was spoken that became the progenitor of many Indo-European languages. The greatest influences on Hindi come from Sanskrit (an ancient literary language of India, which served as a language of intercultural communication) and English (in the mid-19th century, India became a British colony).

Excerpt from The Little Prince in Hindi (the transcription represents the pronunciation very approximately; the duplication of a vowel indicates its length):

Oh! Nanhen raajkumaar!

Mainne teraa jeevan, uskee udaasee dheere-dheere samajh lee thee!

Bahut dinon tak mere paas man bahlaane kaa ek maatr saadhan thaa suuryaast kaa saundarya.

Iskaa pataa mujhe tujhse mulaakaat ke chauthe din chalaa jab tuune mujhse kahaa:

"Mujhe suuryaast bahut ach'haa lagtaa hai, aao chalen dekhen!"

Here is the translation of the text into Spanish:

Words from Lidepla taken from Hindi:

Non-lexical words:

• namastee - hello
• swaagat - welcome
• shayad - probably
• nich - down
• uupar - up
• koy - some, any

Nouns:

• jiva - life
• atma - soul
• mata - mother
• nam - name
• agni - fire
• surya - sun
• badal - cloud
• abyas - custom, habit
• afsos - regret, pity
• bashan - speech, report
• dwar - door
• gadar - betrayal
• gari - car, carriage
• kapra - fabric
• jadu - witchcraft, magic
• kwan - well
• muh - mouth
• nuksan - damage
• madu - honey
• pyasa - thirst

Verbs:

• jan - to know
• janmi - to be born, to give birth
• jal - to burn
• pi - to drink
• pri - to like
• samaji - to understand
• bigari - to spoil
• chori - to steal
• tori - to break, to tear

Adjectives:

• chauke - cautious
• bure - brown
• durte - cunning
• gamande - arrogant
• garme - hot
• garwe - proud
• mahane - majestic
• dule - soft, tender
• mushkile - difficult, complicated
• namre - modest
• kurupe - ugly
• rishte - related, relative
• santush - satisfied
• tange - narrow
• tayar - ready

Exercise Answers | Next Lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Adverbs and Comparisons

In this lesson you will learn:

• 15 verbs (studi, talimi, lerni, raki, pedi, sendi, sembli, dukti, sekwi, kuydi, yusi, lasi, pluvi, snegi, fengi)
• 28 nouns (urba, vilaja, mar, universitet, profesor, studenta, matematika, skola, leson, bus, tren, auto, kaval, leker, taimer, suter, kuker, shofer, programer / programista, kosa, sporta, yuan, guan, meteo, skay, surya, badal)
• 16 adjectives (lente, kway, interes-ney, fasile, muhim, vere, reale, adulte, konstante, intele, karim, lenge, warme, garme, klare, tume)
• 11 adverbs (sempre, oftem, rarem, pinchanem, neva, serem, semblem, gro, wek, sun, ausen)
• 18 grammatical words (pyu, meno, zuy, minim, kem, maiste, sam, kom, tem, la, las, wan, lo, tu, bay, ver, ti .. na, kel)
• 9 suffixes (m, nem, er, tul, ka, wat, tura, taa, nesa)

A total of 97 vocabulary units (+ 330 from lessons 1-5 = a total of 427 units)

Adverbs

Adverbs are words that characterize the action. In a sentence, adverbs refer to verbs (while adjectives describe nouns). Adverbs are often formed from adjectives (which end in e) by adding m:

• lente - slow
• lentem - slowly
• jamile - beautiful
• jamilem - beautifully

When forming an adverb from an adjective, the stress position does not change.

Adjectives ending in o and y have the same form as adverbs:

• hao - good, well
• kway - fast, quickly

From a noun, you can form both adjectives with the particle -ney, and adverbs with the particle -nem:

• amiga - friend
• amiga-ney - belonging to a friend, friendly
• amiga-nem - in a friendly way

In the same way, from (cardinal) numerals, you can form ordinal numerals and the corresponding adverbs:

• un-ney - first
• un-nem - firstly
• dwa-ney - second
• dwa-nem - secondly

Interrogative word: komo (how), demonstrative: tak (so).

The preposition bay introduces the means, the instrument:

Translation exercise

• This car is slow (lente). It moves slowly. This train (tren) is fast.
• We are going on it (now) very fast.
• He is a kind (karim) person. He looks at me kindly, friendly.
• Don't look at me like that. - How?

With the copulative verbs bi / es / bin, sta, bikam, adjectives are generally used:

Adverbs of frequency:

• sempre - always
• oftem - often
• rarem - rarely
• pinchanem - usually
• neva - never

double negation does not change the meaning of the sentence

Miscellaneous adverbs:

• sertem - certainly
• semblem - apparently, it seems
• gro - very, strongly
• for - further
• wek - away
• sun - soon

Comparisons

For comparisons with adjectives and adverbs, the following words are used:

• pyu - more
• meno - less
• zuy - the most
• minim - the least
• kem - than

In the word minim the stress is on the first syllable, it is an exception

The words pyu, meno, zuy and minim can be used alone with the meanings, respectively, "more", "less", "the most", "the least":

• zuy mucho = maiste - most

To indicate comparability, equality, the words sam (as) and kom (as) are used:

The construction "the... the..." - kem .. tem:

Translation exercise

• My sister (sista) is taller than my brother (brata).
• This house is the smallest in our city (urba).
• My father (patra) is the best.
• Most people here want to help this child.
• The taller the house, the more people live in it.

Adjectives and verbs as nouns

When comparing, it is sometimes necessary to repeat the same noun. To avoid this, noun substitutes are used: the particles la and las:

Sometimes forms like otres ("others") are used as nouns (this is a form derived from an adjective according to the law of plural formation of nouns). But such forms are rather abbreviations of the grammatically correct otre-las.

If it is a person, the word wan can be used:

Also sometimes it is necessary to talk about a concept, about something abstract. In this situation the particle lo is used:

Instead of a noun in such a sentence, a verb can be used. To show that the verb is used practically with the meaning of a noun, the particle tu is placed before it:

A verb with the particle tu can also be used as a subject with the verb bi / es / bin:

Translation exercise

• I would like to live in the city (urba) and study (studi) there at the university (universitet).
• I think that at the university they teach (talimi) better than at school (skola), and that in the city it is more interesting (interes-ney) to study.
• I live in the village (vilaja). To go to the city you have to travel (go bay) for a long time, first by bus (bus) and then by train (tren).
• I don't like to travel (raki), I like to walk (pedi) more, although traveling is faster.
• Walking is the slowest and the most interesting.
• The main thing is not to forget to try to see the beautiful.

Agent and object nouns of action

Nouns that denote the agent or the instrument that performs a certain action are formed with the suffix er (the specific meaning is determined by the context):

The suffix er is always unstressed

• talimi - to teach, to give classes
• talimer - teacher
• ofni - to open
• ofner - opener

To specify the meaning of the instrument, the suffix tul can be used:

• vinti - to screw
• vintitul - screwdriver

Many names of professions are formed with the suffix er (although not always from verbs):

• leker - from leki (doctor)
• talimer - from talimi (teacher)
• suter - from suti (tailor)
• kuker - from kuki (cook)
• shofer - driver

However, it must be recognized that the names of some very widespread professions are formed with the suffix -ista, as are the names of the adherents of one or another doctrine (-ismo) (in both cases, these words are formed from nouns):

• jurnalista - journalist
• ateista - atheist

In some (rare) cases a double formation is possible, for example the profession of programmer:

• programer (from the verb programi)
• programista (from the noun programa)

We have talked about who performs the action. Now let's talk about what the action is performed on.

The most general way to form a noun that designates the object of an action, or something related to the action, is with the suffix -ka (it can be considered an abbreviation of the word kosa - thing; with this suffix nouns can be formed not only from verbs).

• plei - to play
• pleika - toy
• trani - to drag
• tranika - tail, trace, what is dragged
• jivi - to live
• jivika - living being, creature

To specify the direct object of the action, the suffix -wat can be used:

• pi - to drink
• piwat - drink
• sendi - to send
• sendiwat - package, shipment

To denote the concrete result of an action, there is the suffix -tura:

• skribi - to write
• skribitura - writing, inscription
• shwo - to speak
• shwotura - saying, maxim

Translation exercise

• seller
• dish / food / delicacy
• reading device / reader
• mixture (mixi)

Nouns related to quality

To form a noun from an adjective, the suffix -taa is mainly used (the final 'e' of the adjective is replaced by 'i' before adding the suffix).

• hao - good
• haotaa - goodness
• vere - true, real
• veritaa - truth, reality

Nouns with this suffix acquire a certain own and additional meaning.

A noun that denotes a pure quality can be formed using the suffix -nesa (in adjectives ending in -ney, -ney is replaced by -nesa).

• reale - real
• realitaa - reality as a new concept, an entity in itself
• realenesa - reality as a quality or property
• gao - high
• gaotaa - height, the specific measurement of something
• gaonesa - greatness, nobility, the quality of being elevated or sublime

In some cases, by replacing the final 'e' with an 'a', a noun can be obtained with the meaning of "someone or something characterized by said quality":

• adulte - adult
• adulta - adult person
• konstante - constant
• konstanta - constant

The already known suffix -ka forms a noun with the meaning of "something/an object related to a quality/possessing a quality":

• mole - soft
• molika - pulp
• syao - small
• syaoka - trifle

Translation exercise

• beauty
• length
• weight
• beauty (person)

Methods of expressing definition

Most of the time, the definition of a noun is expressed with an adjective. But this is not the only possibility. To make a definition from a noun, the particle -ney is usually added to it, but in this way definitions are mostly obtained that answer the question "whose?" or "related to":

To establish a more general relationship, nouns can simply be placed one after the other (and, if necessary, for clarity, joined with a hyphen):

If the result of the combination of two concepts is something new, a new concept for which a new word is needed, the components are written together:

There are a number of words that regularly participate in the formation of these new words, for example:

• jen - person
• yuan - employee, worker
• guan - institution

In addition, the definition can be expressed by a subordinate clause. If the subordinate clause is before the defined word, it (the clause) is highlighted with the special construction ti .. na:

If the subordinate clause is after the defined word (as in Russian), it is introduced with the word ke – provided that the defined word is not part of that subordinate clause. If after the construction the sentence continues, it is better to separate the construction with the particle na, or to formulate the word with the definition as the subject of the sentence:

The construction to ke:

If the defined word is the subject of the subordinate clause, the word kel is used:

Also kel is used with prepositions:

Translation exercise

• I would like to be a professor (profesor) at the university.
• I would teach mathematics (matematika) to the students (studenta).
• I would make sure that the students I teach understand well what I say.
• They would remember well what they hear during my classes (leson).
• I would like to talk to the students who study well.
• After my classes they would become more thoughtful.

New verbs

Text

Pet-ney planeta es muy kuriose. Es zuy syao. Dar ye plasa sol fo un fanus e un
fanusyuan. Syao prinsa bu mog samaji way oni nidi fanus e un fanusyuan on tanto
syao planeta wo jen ga yok. Yedoh lu dumi: "Mogbi sey jen es absurde. Bat ta es
meno absurde kem rega e kem bisnesjen. To ke ta zwo hev sensu. Wen ta lumisi
suy fanus, es kwasi yoshi un stara o yoshi un flor janmi. Es verem utile por ke
es jamile."

• kuriose - curious, funny
• plasa - place
• fanus - lantern
• absurde - absurd/ridiculous
• rego - king
• bisnes - business
• sensu - sense
• luma - light
• kwasi - as if / almost
• stara - star
• janmi - to be born
• utile - useful

Etiquette: talking about the weather

As is known, the most suitable topic for a trivial conversation is the weather (meteo).

The expression "outside / on the street" (if the conversation takes place indoors) is conveyed by the adverb ausen (outside).

About the temperature you can say with the adjectives:

• lenge - cold
• warme - warm
• garme - hot

In an informal conversation, a direct question with "ob" is not very appropriate. You can ask in another way, using the word ver (from vere / true) and get an answer:

If you need to report some change, you can use the expression with fa-:

For precipitation there are special verbs: pluvi (for rain) and snegi (for snow), as well as fengi (for wind):

The same can be said using the nouns pluva, snega, feng and the verbs ye (there is) and yok (there is not):

Words needed to describe the state of the sky:

• skay - sky
• klare - clear
• tume - dark
• surya - sun
• badal - cloud

On some excursion, the expressions fa-dey, fa-nocha will also not be superfluous:

Finally, you can simply comment:

And hear in response:

Language in focus: Russian

Russian is the native language of about 150 million people. However, in terms of its prevalence on the Internet, Russian is second only to English.

Specialists divide the history of the Russian language into several periods. Proto-Slavic separated from Proto-Indo-European approximately in the 1st century AD. By the 5th century, Proto-Slavic had split into several branches, in particular Old Russian and Old Church Slavonic. People spoke Old Russian, but at the same time, in the church, in books and documents, Old Church Slavonic was used, and therefore the influence of the latter on Russian was quite large. Thus, in modern Russian you can find pairs of words like "голова" (golova - head, from Old Russian) and "глава" (glava - chapter, leader, from Old Church Slavonic), where one word describes a common phenomenon, while the other belongs to the realm of educated language.

The Tatar-Mongol invasion and the influence of the Tatar khanates led to the borrowing of a certain number of Turkic words. By the 18th-19th centuries, Old Church Slavonic was displaced from official use; however, at the same time, borrowings and calques (that is, words constructed in the manner of foreign ones) from Western European languages began to penetrate abundantly into Russian speech, for example, from French, in which young nobles communicated with each other, and from German, which at that time was the language of science.

The Russian literary language was definitively formed at the beginning of the 19th century.

In the 20th century, the arrival of the Bolsheviks significantly influenced the language (many new words appeared, a spelling reform was carried out). Nor can one fail to mention the modern influence on Russian of the English-speaking culture.

Fragment from "The Little Prince" (the transcription is presented here for uniformity):

О Маленький принц!
oo 'malinki prints.

Понемногу я понял также, как печальна и однообразна была твоя жизнь.
panim'nogu ya 'ponil takz/she kak pi'chalna i adnaa'braz/sna be'la tva'ya z/shiz/sn.

Долгое время у тебя было лишь одно развлечение: ты любовался закатом.
'dolgae 'vremi/a u ti'bi/a 'byila lish ad'no raz/svli'chenie: tyi li/uba'valsi/a z/sa'katam.

Я узнал об этом наутро четвертого дня, когда ты сказал:
ya uz/s'nal ab 'etam na'utra chit'vi/ortava dni/a kag'da tyi ska'z/sal:

Я очень люблю закат.
ya 'ochin li/ub'li/u z/sa'kat

Words taken from Russian (Russian words have many forms, so it is often a matter of borrowing the root):

Non-lexical words:

• koy - some, any
• sey - this
• dabe - so that, in order that
• dwa - two
• sem - seven
• sto - hundred
• krome - except, besides
• po - by (example: by threes)
• tem - as (in comparisons: as... as...)
• snova - again
• toshi - also
• yoshi - and also

Verbs:

• ye - there is, there are
• treba - it is required, it is necessary
• dai - to give
• dumi - to think
• lubi - to love, to like
• nadi - to hope
• gloti - to swallow
• goni - to hunt, to chase
• kupi - to buy
• sidi - to sit
• krushi - to crush, to destroy
• tuki - to hit
• leki - to cure (from the lexicon of "healer")
• chihi - to sneeze
• kuti - to wrap, to bundle up
• lisi - to lick
• plaki - to cry
• shuki - to search, to rummage (Ukrainian, Belarusian)

Nouns:

• boh - god
• brata - brother
• gorba - hump
• lada - harmony, order, peace
• juk - beetle
• kasha - porridge
• kota - cat
• masu - meat
• nocha - night
• docha - daughter
• oko - eye
• poklon - bow, greeting
• shapa - hat
• snega - snow
• slama - straw
• vesna - spring
• yama - pit, hole
• shum - noise

Adjectives:

• dale - far
• blise - near
• glube - deep
• mokre - wet
• suhe - dry
• osobe - special, particular
• pyan - drunk
• rane - early
• yarke - bright

Answers to the exercises | Next lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Pronoun and Adverb System

Compound Pronoun and Adverb System

In the Lidepla language, there is a system of compound pronouns (i.e., words that can be used in place of other parts of speech).

Left part of the pronoun:

• koy - some, any
• kada - each
• eni - any
• otre - other
• nul - no, none
• ol - all

All these words by themselves can be used as adjectives.

Right part of the pronoun:

• wan - for people
• sa - abbreviation for kosa - thing
• lok - from loko - place
• taim - time
• ves - time (as in occurrence)
• grad - from grada - degree
• komo - how

For people:

• koywan - someone
• kadawan - everyone
• eniwan - anyone
• nulwan - no one, nobody
• oli - everyone, all

For objects:

• koysa - something
• enisa - anything
• nixa - nothing
• olo - everything

(kada kosa - "each thing", is not abbreviated)

Sometimes it is necessary to talk about some characteristic or distinctive feature of a person or thing. For this, the preposition do is used:

For space:

• koylok - somewhere
• kadalok - everywhere
• enilok - anywhere
• nullok - nowhere

For time:

• koytaim - sometime
• enitaim - anytime
• oltaim - all the time
• koyves - sometimes
• kadaves - every time
• sempre - always
• neva - never

For degree:

• koygrad - to some extent
• enigrad - to any degree, as much as you want
• nulgrad - not at all

For manner:

• koykomo - somehow
• enikomo - in any way
• nulkomo - in no way

Yu mog kwesti eniwan, enilok. You can ask anyone, anywhere.

In a sentence, any negative word gives a negative nuance to the entire sentence. If there are several negative words, the negative value is only reinforced.

Also in Lidepla there are a number of compound adverbs:

• enikas - in any case
• otrekas - otherwise
• olosam - anyway, be that as it may
• unves - once, one occasion

Note: to talk about the reason, compound words are not used:

Translation Exercise

• Once I found a letter.
• In it, someone wrote that once somewhere they met a beautiful girl (gela).
• He noticed her when she was buying something at the store (shop).
• For some reason, he was afraid to talk to her then.
• Later, he sometimes noticed her in the city (urba) park (parka).
• And then she disappeared.
• He tried to find her, he looked for her everywhere.
• He asked everyone, each one, if they had seen a beautiful girl with kind eyes (okos).
• But nobody could help him.
• He is still looking. He believes he will find her somewhere.
• Maybe she will even read this letter.

Prepositions of Place

To report the position of something or the direction of movement of something, a series of prepositions are used, many of which can also be used independently, as adverbs.

Simple prepositions of place:

• in - in — broad meaning
• on - on the surface
• bli - near
• inter - between
• miden - in the middle of
• sobre - over, above
• sub - under, below
• bifoo - in front of

Adverb-prepositions of place (can be used both with nouns as prepositions, and independently as adverbs):

• inen - inside
• ausen - outside
• traen - on the other side
• uuparen - above
• nichen - below
• avanen - in front
• baken - behind
• leften - to the left
• desnen - to the right
• flanken - to the side

Translation Exercise

• I live in a house in the village (vilaja). Next to my house there is a garden.
• Between the house and the garden there is a small pond (chitan).
• It is very pleasant (priate) to sit (and) read among the trees (baum) in the garden.
• Especially (osobem) in summer, when it's hot.
• When it rains outside, I prefer to be inside the house and watch it rain through the window (winda).
• In the house upstairs (at the top of the house) there is an attic (rufshamba – ruf - roof, shamba - room).
• When I was little, I loved to go there and play as if it were my own (prope) secret (sekret-ney) house.
• There I had a small table (tabla) in the center, and many books on the table, and maps (mapa) on the walls (mur).
• On the table there was a lamp (lampa), and under the table a cat (kota) used to sit.

Prepositions of Movement

Simple prepositions of movement:

• a - to, towards
• an - indicates the object of the action
• fon - from
• kontra - against (e.g., a blow), against
• along - along

Adverb-prepositions of movement:

• inu - in, inwards
• aus - from, outwards
• tra - through
• uupar - up
• nich - down
• avan - forward
• bak - back
• a lefta - to the left
• a desna - to the right
• a flanka - to the side

Translation Exercise

• I'm driving from the city to the village.
• I will go into the house and not leave for the whole (tote) day.
• Because I like to be at home with my mother (mata) and my father (patra).
• The village is not near the city.
• I have to go through the forest (shulin), then the road (kamina) goes down, then up.
• First I turn left, then right.
• I move forward quickly.
• I am happy (felise): I will return to the city only in a week.

The preposition, as a rule, is placed before the word to which it refers:

However, the word order can be changed if the particle den is placed before the word to which the preposition refers:

With the same particle you can indicate a change in the position of the direct object of the verb:

New Verbs

Text

Sub may kama ye un landa. Gro-gran landa! It fa-extendi ya fon avangamba a
bakgamba de may kama. In sey landa ye kolina e plana, shulin e agra, kamina,
riva, domes e jenta. Bat lo zuy muhim es ferdao. Treba ya shwo ke kolina e
plana, domes e jenta existi dar sol fo ferdao, bu kontra-nem. Ob se bu es
interes-ney? Yoshi pyu interes-ney es to ke in sey landa ye oli char seson pa
same taim. Bli lao melidom syao vesna-ney flor flori, in agra sereal fa-mature,
in garden ye mucho yabla e yel-ney shulin sobre tunel es ga kuti-ney bay snega.
(afte Yan Ulichanski)

• kama - bed
• landa - country
• extendi - to extend
• gamba - leg
• kolina - hill
• plana - plain
• agra - field
• riva - river
• jenta - people
• muhim - important
• ferdao - railway
• existi - to exist
• melidom - mill
• flori - to bloom
• sereal - cereal
• mature - ripe
• yabla - apple
• yel - fir tree
• tunel - tunnel
• kuti-ney - covered, wrapped

Madu es zuy hao dona, ya, zuy. Iven un asla samaji se tuy. Iven muy shao de
madu es hao, iven un chiza o dwa oda ot... Wel, tem pyu hao si ye fule pot! Bat
madu es kosa kel kausi shok: enisa ya oda ye oda yok, bat madu... koyves
desapari koylok... Si madu ye, dan ya madu tuy yok!

• madu - honey
• dona - gift
• iven - even
• asla - donkey
• chiza - spoon
• wel - well
• fule - full
• pot - pot
• kausi - to cause
• shok - shock, astonishment
• desapari - to disappear

Etiquette: how do you get to...?

If you find yourself in an unfamiliar place, you will probably need to ask (for example, a friend who speaks Lidepla) how to get somewhere.

The answer you will probably get will be something like this:

Language in focus: Japanese

Japanese is the native language of 125 million people. Scientists debate the origin of the Japanese language. It is known for certain that approximately in the 6th century BC, Japan established diplomatic relations with China and Korea, thanks to which elements of the culture of these countries penetrated the life of the Japanese. At this same time, the first written works appeared in Japan, composed for the most part of Chinese characters. In the 16th century, the Portuguese introduced into Japan the achievements of technological progress and the European religion, and, as a consequence, the Japanese language was significantly enriched with loanwords from Portuguese. At the beginning of the 17th century, the Japanese ruler imposed a ban on Christianity and declared Japan a closed country. Since then, there have been no significant external interventions in the development of the Japanese language.

Excerpt from "The Little Prince":

王子さま、あなたは、はればれしない日々を送ってこられたようだが、ぼくには、そのわけが、だんだんとわかってきました。
oji-sama, anata wa, harebare shinai hibi o okutte korareta yoo da ga, boku ni wa, sono wake ga, dandan to wakatte kimashita.

ながいこと、あなたの気が晴れるのは、しずかな入り日のころだけだったのですね。
Nagai koto, anata no ki ga hareru no wa, shizuka na iribi no koro dake datta no desu ne.

ぼくは四日めの朝、あなたが、ぼくにこういったとき、この、いままで知らずにいたことを知ったのです。
Boku wa yokkame no asa, anata ga, boku ni koo itta toki, kono, ima made shirazu ni ita koto o shitta no desu.

「ぼくね、日の暮れるころがだいすきなんだよ。」
"Boku ne, hi no kureru koro ga daisuki nan'da yo."

There are few words taken from Japanese in Lidepla (however, the grammar of this language was taken into account in the process of development of the grammar of Lidepla):

• arigatoo - thank you (as an option)
• fuki - to blow
• kiba - fang
• tana - shelf
• tawa - tower
• yuma - humor

Exercise Answers | Next Lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Verbal structures

If you have reached this lesson, it means that you have already mastered most of the language's grammar and can start reading texts (with a dictionary or by consulting the corresponding Spanish text), for example, fairy tales, in particular "Telephone Tales" by Gianni Rodari. Here, for example, you have the story "Alice in Wonderland" with parallel text in Russian and Italian. A short and funny text read and understood brings joy and inspires. However, it should be noted that, in order to get used to the language and master the vocabulary, specialists advise reading long works. If you decide to follow this advice, we recommend the translation of N. Chukovsky's fascinating book "Sailor Rutherford in the Captivity of the New Zealanders". If you prefer fairy tales, the famous "Little Prince" and the no less famous "Alice in Wonderland" await you (although with Alice it is more difficult, since the fragments with wordplay, obviously, are not literally translated). And finally, you can always start communicating directly in Lidepla in the Facebook group or on the forum of the "Lideplandia" website. We wish you success and hope to see you!

Special verbs

The verbs pai (to get), dai (to give) and lwo in (to fall into) in combination with other verbs acquire a new nuance of meaning:

In Lidepla there is a special verb that has no meaning of its own: fai. It can be used with a noun, and then it acquires the meaning of "to perform the usual action with this object":

In general, the verb fai can be used instead of practically any verb (predominantly in colloquial language, of course).

The verb geti means "to end up", "to get into some situation":

Sometimes the verb is repeated (with a hyphen). Such repetition gives a meaning of short-duration and intense action, possibly repetitive:

The repetition of the verb through the negative particle bu- is a (colloquial) way to ask a question:

Passive voice

To report that an action is performed on something/someone, the particle gei is used:

To add who performs the action, the preposition bay is used:

Sometimes it is important to say that someone performs an action independently, without anyone's help. Or that the action is performed exactly by the person being spoken of, by herself/himself. For this there is the word selfa (self):

If the action has already occurred and we are talking about the result, we can use the known particle -ney and the verb bi/es/bin:

Often it is necessary to report the material something is made of. To convey this meaning, the already known preposition aus is used:

Translation Exercise

• In childhood (kinda-yash) I never managed to build (bildi) a sand (ramla) castle (kastela), because usually my brother (brata) would come and break it (rupti).
• In reality (pa fakta) he didn't want to break it, he simply (simplem = sim) was small and didn't understand what I was doing.
• And the castle was built many times by my hands (handas) and broken by my brother's little foot (peda-ki).
• When the little brother saw that the castle was broken, he often began to cry a lot, since he just (simply) wanted to play with me.

Combination of actions

To report that two actions occurred simultaneously, the preposition al can be used, which introduces circumstances:

The same effect can be achieved by forming a gerund from one of the verbs with the particle -yen:

If an action becomes a certain background, approaching a quality, a participle can be formed with the particle -she:

Or an adverb, with the particle -shem:

It is also possible to form a noun with the particle -sha:

If an action occurred after another, the preposition afte (after) is used:

Or an adverb, formed with the particle -nem:

Translation Exercise

• Look, this girl is a truly loving mother (mata).
• She smiles (smaili) so sweetly (dulem) when she sees the child smile at her.
• She is always talking, telling something, walking (promeni) with him.
• And he doesn't cry when (after) he falls.
• He simply goes with his mom, who knows how to comfort (konsoli) so (well) that everything bad is immediately forgotten.

Prepositions of relation and correlation

Correspondence: segun

Means: via

Direction: versu

Relation: relatem

Support: pro

Anti-support: kontra

Correlations:

Substitution: inplas

Exception: exepte

Addition: krome

Concession: malgree

New verbs

Text

Walaa Winni-Puh. Ta desendi sulam afte suy amiga Kristofer Robin. Ta desendi it
al kapa nichen, fai bum-bum-bum bay suy nuka. Ta haishi bu jan nul otre dao fo
desendi sulam. Koyves sembli a ta ke ye koy otre dao. Bat ta bu hev taim fo
dumi-dumi hao om to. Ta fai ya suy bum-bum-bum.

Also ta es pa fin nichen e tayar fo en-koni yu.

— Winni-Puh. Me joi gro.

Shayad yu fa-surprisi por sey nopinchan nam. Kristofer Robin he dai it a ta.
Koytaim lu gwo koni un swan kel jivi pa parka-lak. Lu gwo nami ta Puh. Poy swan
he geti a koy-otrelok e suy nam resti sin gunsa. Also Kristofer Robin desidi
doni it a suy berna-ki.

• walaa - here is
• desendi - to descend, to go down
• sulam - ladder
• kapa - head
• nuka - nape
• dao - way, path
• pa fin - finally
• tayar - ready
• koni - to know
• en-koni - to meet for the first time
• surprisi - to surprise
• nopinchan - unusual
• swan - swan
• lak - lake
• gunsa - work, use
• berna - bear

Language in focus: German

German is the native language of about 90 million people. The language belongs to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family. German as the language of a unified Germanic people began to form at the beginning of the 11th century, along with the unification of the multi-ethnic Germanic community, although it must be recognized that many dialects are still spoken in Germany today, and speakers of some of them sometimes barely understand each other. Later, at the same time that the economy developed, there was a penetration into German speech of foreign words, in particular French and Slavic. In the 20th century, a considerable amount of borrowings from English also appeared.

Excerpt from "The Little Prince" in German:

Ach, kleiner Prinz, so nach und nach habe ich dein kleines schwermütiges Leben verstanden.
ah 'klyainea prints s/zo nah unt nah 'habe ih dain 'klyaines shwea'mi/utiges leebn feash'tandn
Lange Zeit hast du, um dich zu zerstreuen, nichts anderes gehabt als die Lieblichkeit der Sonnenuntergänge.
lange tsait hast du um dih tsu tseasht'roien nihts 'anderes ge'hapt als dii 'liiblihkait dea 's/zonen'unteageenge
Das erfuhr ich am Morgen des vierten Tages, als du mir sagtest:
das ea'fuua ih am moagn des 'fiiatn 'taages als du mia s/zaktest
Ich liebe die Sonnenuntergänge sehr.
ih 'liibedii 's/zonen'unteageenge s/zeea

Words from Lidepla taken from German:

Non-lexical words:

• also - so, then
• aus - out of, from
• ausen - outside
• inen - inside
• hir - here
• fon - from
• ob - if, whether
• obwol - although
• wek - away, off
• wo - where
• ya - yes
• yedoh - however
• ga - completely

Nouns:

• baum - tree
• man - man
• fet - fat
• kinda - child
• glok - bell
• kol - cabbage

Verbs:

• darfi - to be allowed to
• mus - must, to have to
• mah - to make (in some way)
• glimi - to blink, to gleam
• haili - to heal

Adjectives:

• abrupte - abrupt, unexpected
• bunte - colorful
• glate - smooth

Exercise Answers | Next Lesson

Lingwa de Planeta | Word formation, derivation

The possibilities of word formation in Lidepla are affixes (various prefixes and suffixes that are written together), particles (written with a hyphen) and word compounding.

As a general rule, words and suffixes are combined directly in their basic form, but in some cases the regular final vowel (i.e., 'a' in nouns, 'e' in adjectives and 'i' in verbs) can be omitted.

Affixes

Affixes, in addition to being divided into prefixes and suffixes (prefixes are added at the beginning of the word, suffixes at the end), may or may not change the class of the original word.

This chapter presents the complete system of Lidepla affixes. The most commonly used ones have already been encountered in previous chapters.

Change the word class

• Noun => adjective: -ful ("full of"), -lik ("like").

• Noun => verb: -vati (general meaning), -isi ("lead to", "place in")

• Adjective => adverb: -m (general meaning)

• Adjective => noun: -itaa, nesa (abstract nouns), -nik ("bearer of a characteristic property"), -ka ("something that possesses a quality")

• Adjective => verb: -ifi ("to become in a certain way"), -isi ("to make in a certain way"), -fai ("to show a quality")

• Verb => noun: -(s)a, -ing (general meaning); -er (agent suffix), -nik ("lover"); -ka (something related to the action), -wat (object of the action), -tura (final result of the action).

• Verb => adjective: -ke (related to the action), -bile (on the which the action can be performed), -val (worthy of the action), -tive (that can perform the action and/or performs it) (-titive = -tive), -shil (prone to performing the action)

• Numeral => noun: -ka: dwaka - pair, shika - ten

• Numeral => adjective: -ple (multiple): dwaple - double

Do not change the word class

Nouns:

• Prefixes: pre- (precedence), pra- (ancestor), yun- (offspring); dus- (bad, perverse)

• Suffixes: -o (masculine), -ina (feminine); -kin (diminution with change of quality), -gron (augmentation with change of quality); -inka (part), -tot (whole); -dan (storage container); -ista, -er (profession or doctrine), -nik (fan, characterized);

Adjective:

• Prefixes: bu- (negation), no- (opposite)

• Suffix: -ish ("to some extent"): blanish: whitish

Verb:

• Prefixes: be- (changes regency or object of action); de(s)- (opposite action), dus- (perform action badly), mis- (incorrectness), pre- (precedence), ras- (dispersion, division), ri- (do again)

Numeral:

• Suffix -fen (fraction): trifen: one third

Particles

Particles are written with words with a hyphen. General particles, which can be used with words of different classes, and special particles, which are used only with words of a certain class, are distinguished.

General

• Augmentative prefix particle gro- and diminutive-affective postfix particle -ki (used with all parts of speech)

Note that in Lidepla there is also the adverb gro, so you can say, for example, Zai gro-pluvi. or Zai pluvi gro.

With proper nouns, it denotes a term of endearment: Ana-ki: Annie

• To express similarity ("like, kind of, a sort of") the postfix particle -si is used:

• To express partiality, the word haf (half) can be used, which can function as a particle:

Note that with nouns the word haf specifically means "half": haf-dey: midday.

The particles gro-, -ki, -si, haf- do not change the class (function) of the word.

• The particle fa- denotes an involuntary transition (i.e., occurring independently of the will of the object) to a new state. The state word thus formed can take some verbal particles:

• The particle mah- means a voluntary transition (i.e., requiring conscious effort) of something (the object of the action) to a certain state. The verb thus formed can take verbal particles:

• Note that mah can function independently as a causative verb.

• The determinative particle -ney is widely used to form adjectives. The particle can be used with individual words as well as with phrases:

• To express a negative attitude, the general prefix particles fuy- (expresses contempt, aversion) and shma- (expresses contempt) are used. These particles are most often used with nouns, but it is also possible to use them with other parts of speech:

Special

Noun particles

• The gender of a person or other living being can be specified with the prefix particles man- and gin-:

The same meaning (for nouns ending in -a) can be expressed with the suffixes -o and -ina: dogo, dogina.

• The absence of blood relationship is expressed with the prefix particle stif-:

• The absence of direct kinship is expressed with the postfix particle -inloo:

Note that forms with -inloo are rather colloquial, as they have a very general meaning. For greater precision, it is recommended to use compound words such as bratadocha (= niece).

Verbal particles

• The prefix particle ko- denotes community, conjunction:

• The prefix particles en- and ek- denote, respectively, the beginning and the uniqueness (and/or suddenness) of the action:

• The determinative particle -ke forms adjectives from phrases with verbs (with individual verbs it functions as a suffix and is written together):

• The particles -ney and -she form participles:

The particle -yen forms gerunds:

Abbreviated forms of words with particles -ney and -she and their derivatives

From adjectives ending in -ney, adverbs (-nem) and abstract nouns (-nesa, written together) can be formed:

Also -ney in adjectives formed from nouns can change to -nish (-nish = -ney + -ish):

From adjectives (participles) ending in -she, adverbs (-shem) and nouns with the meaning of agent (-sha) can be formed:

For adjectives ending in -ney, formed from nouns ending in Ca (where C is a consonant), the abbreviation type Ca-ney => Ce is allowed: farka-ney => farke

Resulting adjectives can participate in word formation:

• parta-ney => parte => partitaa (partiality)

Note that if -ney expresses genitive, the abbreviation is not made:

• mata-ney kitaba (not *mate kitaba)

For adjectives (participles) ending in -ney, formed from monosyllabic i-verbs, the abbreviation Ci-ney => Cen is allowed:

• ofensi-ney => ofensen

For adverbs derived from the type Ca-nem and Ci-nem, the abbreviation type Cem is allowed:

• farka-nem => farkem
• kontra-nem => kontrem
• ofensi-nem => ofensem

In the absence of ambiguities, abbreviations of the type Ci-shem => Cem are also allowed:

• ahfi-shem => ahfem

In the composition of a word there can be more than one affix and/or particle:

• kalme => nokalme => nokalmitaa (worry)
• piti => nopiti => nopitishil => nopitishiltaa (cruelty)
• vidi => vidibile => vidibilitaa (visibility)
• derma => dermisi => dedermisi => dedermising (skinning)
• krai => kraisaktaisaful (full of cries)
• freshe => freshisi => rifreshisi (to refresh)
• samaji => samajibile => gro-samajibile (easily understandable)
• syao => fa-syao => en-fa-syao (to begin to decrease)

Word compounding

Compound words in Lidepla can be formed by combining simple words. The meaning of the resulting compound word depends primarily on the classes of the simple words that compose it. Note that compound words are generally written together, although, to improve readability, particularly long words can be written with a hyphen.

Compounding of full-meaning words

Any compound word consists of two parts: the main word and the determiner, the main word always being the end of the compound word. Most often, the meaning of a compound word can be explained with a phrase. For example,

• suryflor (sunflower) = flor do surya
• skribitabla (desk) = tabla fo skribi.

However, it is important to understand that the meaning of a compound word often differs slightly from the meaning of the phrase: a phrase characterizes something concrete, for example, a specific object, while a compound word defines a class of objects. That is, tabla fo skribi is a message that this specific table is used for writing ("table on which one writes"), while skribitabla designates a whole special class of tables used for writing ("desk").

Noun + noun

Meaning "special type":

• spikabush (hawthorn) (= bush do spika)
• gubrajuk (dung beetle) (= juk do gubra)
• botelabrash (bottle brush) (= brash fo botelas)
• kindashamba (children's room) (= shamba de kinda)
• sabahfan (breakfast) (= fan do sabah)
• chaychiza (teaspoon) (= chiza do chay)
• kavaldom (stable) (= dom do kaval)
• legumgarden (vegetable garden) (= garden do legum)
• batalakraisa (war cry) (= kraisa do batala = krai duran batala + sa)
• mauskapter (mousetrap) (= kapter do maus = kapti maus + er)

In some cases, the meaning of the main word in the combination differs slightly from its basic meaning:

• kindagarden (kindergarten) (= garden-si do kinda)

Meaning "part":

• harriza (hair roots) (= riza de har)
• kaudanok (tail tip) (= nok de kauda)
• daokrosa (crossroads) (= krosa de dao)

Combinations with other meanings, corresponding to phrases with the preposition de, are generally considered precisely as combinations, not as compound words, and are written with a hyphen:

• surya-luma (sunlight) (= luma de surya)
• monta-kadena (mountain range) (= kadena de monta)

Several words are used so frequently in combinations of the type considered that their meaning approaches that of suffixes, so that the combination denotes rather not a type of main word, but a word derived from the determining word.

• jen, man, gina (person):
  • jadujen (wizard/witch)
  • jaduman (wizard)
  • jadugina (witch)
  • jadu (witchcraft)
  • arkuman (archer, shooter (zodiac sign)) (= man do arku)
  • arku: (bow (weapon))
  • fishgina (mermaid) (= gina to fish)
  • fish (fish)

• lok (from loko) (place)
  • malinalok: raspberry bush (malina - raspberry) (= loko do (mucho) malina)
  • kabralok (cemetery)
  • kabra (grave)
  • montalok (mountains, mountainous area)

• menga (crowd, agglomeration):
  • jenmenga (crowd) (= menga de jen)
  • moskamenga (swarm of flies)
  • moska (fly)

• guan ("public establishment, institution")
  • fanguan (dining hall)
  • kitabaguan (library)

• yuan ("employee, worker, staff member, member of some organization"; "worker of..., worker in...")
  • shopyuan (shop assistant)
  • polisyuan (policeman)
  • dwaryuan (doorman, concierge)
  • agniyuan (firefighter) (= agnibrigadayuan)
  • maryuan (sailor)
  • trenyuan (conductor (on a train))

marjen: person of the sea (life related to the sea), maryuan: sailor (work related to the sea), marnik (sea lover / marine life).

Verb + noun

Most often, combinations of the type "verb + noun" define the type of concept/object expressed by the main word, and its meaning can be represented as a phrase with the preposition fo:

• saltikorda (jump rope) (= korda fo salti)
• lernikitaba (textbook) (= kitaba fo lerni)
• skribitabla (desk) (= tabla fo skribi)
• chifantabla (dining table) (= tabla fo chifan)
• guntaim (working hours) (= taim fo gun)
• frisiguan (hairdresser) (= guan fo frisi)
• habitilok (place of residence, dwelling) (= lok(o) fo habiti)
• banishamba (bathroom) (= shamba fo bani)
• banipen (bathtub) (= pen fo bani)

The meaning may not be literal:

• fukiflor (dandelion)

Some combinations of the type verb + noun can be considered as combinations of participle + noun:

• flaifish (flying fish) (= flai-she fish)
• sendijen (envoy) (= sendi-ney jen)

Adjective + noun

Combinations of the type "adjective + noun" name the type of concept denoted by the main word:

• laojen (old man)
• lao jen (old person (concrete))
• chyenlok (shoal)
• chyen lok(o) (shallow place (any))

Adjectives ending in -e can omit the final vowel:

• platbota (barge (type of boat))
• plate bota (flat boat)
• garibjen (stranger, foreigner)
• garibe jen (strange person)

Noun + verb

The combination of a verb with its complement can be represented in the form of a noun + verb combination, if it is necessary to emphasize the process as a whole. Combinations of this type are quite rare, they are written with a hyphen, for example:

• ala-trepi (to flap wings)

The word fin ("end") is used as a prefix with the meaning of completed action:

• lekti (finlekti (to finish reading, to read to the end))

Verb + verb

Refers to an action that consists of actions performed simultaneously, or that has properties of both actions. As in all words, the main word of the combination is the last word. The verbs that make up the combination are written with a hyphen.

• embrasi-karesi (to embrace; to caress, embracing)
• lai-dansi (to approach, dancing (the character of the movement is important — dance-like))
• dansi-lai (to approach, dancing (the approach is important))
• sheiki-swingi (to shake and swing)

Combinations with adverbs and simple pronouns

Adverbs and simple (monosyllabic) pronouns can participate in the formation of combinations. Combinations of this type are written with a hyphen.

• for-gun (to continue working) (= gun for)
• for-gunsa (continuation of work, additional work)
• pro-guverna-ney (pro-government circles)
• pro-westa-ney (pro-Western)
• swa-luba (selfishness)
• swa-kontrola (self-control)

Combinations with prepositions

Prepositions can function as prefixes (derived words of this type are written together):

• aus (from, out of)
• ausen (outside)
• auslanda (foreign country)
• kontra (against, in opposition, in contrast)
• kontrakosa (opposition)
• kontratoxin (antidote)
• kontrapon (to oppose)
• tra (through, from beginning to end)
• tralekti (to read through, to read from beginning to end)
• tranochi (to spend the night)

Combination of all word formation methods

• landa => auslanda => auslandajen (foreigner)
• taim => same taim => samtaimjen (contemporary)
• chi => chi gro => chigronik (glutton)
• dom => sin dom => sindomnik (homeless)
• sensu => sin sensu => sinsensu-ney (senseless)
• gloria => sin gloria => singloria-ney (inglorious)

New verbs

Language in focus: French

French belongs to the group of Romance languages, but precisely French has moved furthest from Vulgar Latin. Before the Roman conquest, the territory of present-day France was inhabited by the Gauls, tribes of the Celtic group. Gaul was one of the Roman provinces for five centuries, from the 2nd-1st century BC, and during this time the local population gradually assimilated with the Romans and adopted their language, retaining, however, in speech the so-called "Celtic substratum", i.e., traces of the ancient disappeared local language. After the fall of Rome in the 5th century AD, Gaul was conquered by Germanic tribes, the Franks being the strongest. Of course, the language of the conquerors influenced the language of the local population in some way, but in the end Vulgar Latin prevailed, as a more developed dialect. And by the 9th century, a new common language, French, was formed in northern France, which by the 16th century became the main means of communication in the state.

Excerpt from The Little Prince in the original language: (in French, the stress always falls on the last syllable)

Ah! Petit prince, j’ai compris, peu à peu, ainsi ta petite vie mélancolique.
aa pti prens je konpri pyo a pyo ensi ta ptit vi melankolik

Tu n’avais eu longtemps pour distraction que la douceur des couchers de soleil.
tyu nave e/o lontan pur distraksion kyo lya dusyor de kushe dyo soley

J’ai appris ce détail nouveau, le quatrième jour au matin, quand tu m’as dit:
je apri syo detay nuvo lyo katryem jur o maten kan tyu ma di

J’aime bien les couchers de soleil.
jem byen le kushe dyo soley

Frequent words from Lidepla taken from French:

non-significant:

• avan (forward)
• kelke (some)
• walaa (here it is)
• kel (which)
• kom (as)
• malgree (despite)
• non (no)
• nu (we)
• nul (none)
• tal (such)
• swa (self)
• apropoo (by the way)

nouns:

• gayar (boy)
• garson (waiter)
• charma (charm)

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