Novial/Hound Lesson 2

Novial home – Pronunciation Guide

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Prefixes – Suffixes

Li Malediktione del Baskervilles
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“Me have in men poshe manuskrite,” doktoro James Mortimer did dikte.

“Me observad lu kand vu envadad li chambre,” Holmes dikted.

“Lu es oldi manuskrite. ”

“Frui dek-otesmi sekle, exept si lu vud es fraudo.”

“Qualim vu sava tu, sinioro?”

”Vu ha prisenta pluri sentimetre de lu omnitem durant ke vu ha parla. Me vud es mal experte si me non vud pove data lu ye akurateso de sirk yardeko. Me data lu kom de mil-setsent-trianti.”

”Li exakti date es mil-setsent-quaranti-du.” Doktoro Mortimer did tira lu ek sen bruste-poshe. ”Sinioro Charles Baskerville donad disi familial papere a me. Lo mori ante tri mensus in Devonshire. Lo esed inteligenti e praktikal homo. Tamen lo did trakta dis dokumente kom seriosi.”

”Lu sembla es konstatatione.”

”Yes, lu es konstatatione de serteni legende del familie Baskerville. ”

Vocabulary

 * akurateso  –  accuracy
 * ante –  before (in time)
 * bruste – chest, breast
 * bruste-poshe – breast-pocket
 * chambre – room
 * data –  (to) date
 * date – date
 * dek-otesmi – eighteenth
 * did – (past auxiliary verb – see section)
 * dikte – (to) say
 * dis(i)  – this
 * dokumente – document
 * dona –  (to) give
 * durant ke – while
 * durant – during
 * ek – out of, from
 * envada –  (to) enter
 * exakti – exact
 * exept si – unless
 * exept – except
 * experte –  (an) expert
 * familial(i) – familial, family
 * fraudo – forgery
 * fru(i)  – early
 * ha – have, has (perfect auxiliary verb – see section)
 *  have – (to) have, possess
 * homo – man, male person
 * inteligenti – intelligent
 * kand – when
 * kom – as, as being
 * konstatatione – statement
 * legende – legend
 * mal(i)  – bad
 * malediktione – curse
 * manuskrite – manuscript
 * mensu – month
 * mil-setsent-quaranti-du – 1742
 * mil-setsent-trianti – 1730
 * mori –  (to) die
 * observa – (to) observe, (to) watch
 * oldi – old
 * omnitem – always, all the time
 * papere – paper
 * parla –  (to) speak
 * pluri – several
 * poshe – pocket
 * pove –  (to) be able, can
 * prisenta –  (to) present, set before one
 * qualim – how
 * sava – (to) know
 * se – oneself, himself etc. (the reflexive pronoun – see section)
 * sekle (= yarsento)  – century
 * sen – one’s own, his own etc. (the reflexive pronoun – see section)
 * sentimetre – centimetre
 * seriosi – serious
 * serteni –  (a) certain, particular
 * si – if
 * sirk – about, around, round
 * tamen – however, nevertheless
 * tira –  (to) draw, pull
 * trakta –  (to) treat, handle
 * tri – three
 * tu – that (one) 
 * vud – would (conditional auxiliary verb – see section)
 * yardeko – decade
 * ye – (indefinite preposition – see section )

Verbs – Past and Conditional Tenses
The past preterite (simple past) is formed with the auxiliary verb did before the present or equivalently by adding -d (-ed after a consonant) to the present:
 * me did parla (= me parlad)  – I spoke
 * vus non did dona (= vus non donad)  – you didn’t give (Literally: you not gave)
 * les esed (= les did es) bon – they were good

Note that the English auxiliaries do and did used in questions and negative statements are not translated:
 * ob vu veni – do you come'?  (Literally: is it that you come? )
 * lo non dikte – he does not say (Literally: he not says)
 * ob vu parlad? (= ob vu did parla?)  – did you speak?  (Literally: is it that you spoke? )
 * les non envadad (= les non did envada) – they did not enter (Literally: they not entered)

The perfect tense is formed with the auxiliary verb ha before the present form: The conditional of a verb is formed with the auxiliary verb vud before the present:
 * me ha parla – I have spoken
 * vus non ha dona – you have not given
 * les ha es bon – they have been good
 * ob les ha es bon? – have they been good?
 * lo vud dikte – he would say
 * les vud parla – they would speak

Numbers – Cardinal and Ordinal
The cardinal numbers are:
 * sero – zero
 * un – one
 * du – two
 * tri – three
 * quar – four
 * sink – five
 * six – six
 * set – seven
 * ot – eight
 * nin – nine
 * dek – ten
 * dek-un – eleven
 * dek-du – twelve
 * dek-tri – thirteen
 * dek-quar – fourteen
 * dek-sink – fifteen
 * dek-six – sixteen
 * dek-set – seventeen
 * dek-ot – eighteen
 * dek-nin – nineteen
 * duanti – twenty
 * duanti-un – twenty-one
 * duanti-du – twenty-two …etc.
 * trianti – thirty
 * trianti-du – thirty-two
 * quaranti – forty
 * quaranti-tri – forty-three
 * sinkanti – fifty
 * sinkanti-quar – fifty-four
 * sixanti – sixty
 * sixanti-sink – sixty-five
 * setanti – seventy
 * setanti-six – seventy-six
 * otanti – eighty
 * otanti-set – eighty-seven
 * ninanti – ninety
 * ninanti-ot – ninety-eight
 * sent – a hundred
 * sent-duanti – 120
 * sinksent-trianti-set – 537…etc.
 * mil – a thousand
 * mil-un – 1001
 * mil-sent – 1100
 * mil-dusent-tri – 1203
 * mil setsent-quaranti-du – 1742
 * milione – a million
 * miliarde – a thousand million (American billion)
 * bilione – million million, billion (American trillion)

Units, tens and hundreds are separated by hyphens for ease of reading. The tens are formed from the units with the ending -anti (notice the adjective ending as all numbers before a million are adjectives). Hundreds have their number in front of sent: otsent – eight hundred. Thousands, millions and higher are separated from their multiplier by spaces: ot mil – eight thousand. Milione, miliarde and bilione are nouns so multiples take the plural ending -s: tri miliardes setsent-sixanti-six miliones sent-quaranti-nin mil dusent-sixanti-set – (American:) three billion seven hundred and sixty-six million one hundred and forty-nine thousand two hundred and sixty-seven (3 766 149 267)

Ordinal numbers are formed from the cardinals with the ending -esmi which is added only to the last component of the number:
 * unesmi – first
 * duesmi – second
 * trisent-quaranti-sinkesmi – three hundred and forty-fifth (345th)

Ordinals may be abbreviated as: 1smi (1smi), 2smi (2smi), 345smi (345smi)  etc.

The Indefinite Preposition
The preposition ye has no definite meaning, and is used when it is not obvious which preposition is exactly appropriate in a literal sense:
 * ye akurateso de – with/at an accuracy of
 * ye dis die – on this day

The Reflexive Pronoun
The reflexive pronoun is se, himself, herself, itself, themselves (third person only). Note that se is used only when the object of the verb refers back to the subject of the verb.
 * la observa se – she observes herself
 * la observa la – she observes her
 * lo parla a se – he speaks to himself
 * lo parla a lo – he speaks to him
 * les parla a sen hundes – they speak to their (own) dogs
 * les parla a lesen hundes – they speak to their dogs (somebody else’s dogs)

This pronoun avoids awkward ambiguity which sometimes occurs in English.

The first and second persons use no special pronoun:
 * me observa me – I observe myself (Literally: I observe me)
 * vu parla a vu – you speak to yourself (Literally: you speak to you)

Adjectival Suffix -AL
Novial uses prefixes and suffixes added to root words to make related words.

The suffix -al(i)  is added to a root word X to make an adjective meaning “of X or X related”. Any final -e, -o, -a or -i of a noun is removed to provide the root then -al(i)  is added to the root.


 * nature – natural (nature – natural)
 * universe – universal (universe – universal)
 * natione – national (nation – national)
 * doktore – doktoral (doctor – doctoral, of a doctor)
 * familie – familial (family – family related, of a family)
 * sientie –siential (science – scientific, science related)
 * laboro – laboral (work – work related, of work)
 * alkali – alkalal (alkali – of alkali)
 * mensu – mensual (month – monthly, of a month)

Notice that a final -u is part of the root and not dropped before adding -al. Novial is here much more regular than English. Many derived adjectives are similar to the English but it is not possible for all to be so, because the English derivation system is very mixed and irregular.

Substantival Suffix -ESO
The suffix -eso is added to the root of an adjective (i.e. without the final -i) to form the corresponding abstract noun:


 * bon – boneso (good – goodness)
 * akurati – akurateso (accurate – accuracy)
 * inteligenti – inteligenteso (intelligent – intelligence)

If the sense permits, more than one suffix may be added to the root:


 * amike – amikal – amikaleso (friend – friendly – friendliness)

Notice again how irregular the English system is.

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Prefixes – Suffixes