Teruene

Classification
Terwene is an IAL (International Auxiliary Language) based in part on Esperanto grammar (with Chinese influence), but with words which originate mainly from the world's five most spoken languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic.

It is an a posteriori agglutinative SVO language, although a bit more inclined to isolating languages than Esperanto.

Phonology
Terwene uses all the letters of the basic Latin alphabet.

The stress is always on the syllable before the last one.

Phonotactics
Words can end in vowels, semivowels, or the following consonants: d, f, h, l, m, n, r, s, x, z, j. Roots should not end in more than one consonant. Also difficult consonant clusters should be avoided (such as three consonants together or two semivowels in the same syllable), as well as voiced and unvoiced consonants too close in the same word.

Pronouns
In the third person there is no distinction of gender, but there is distinction of animate or inanimate things. This can be interpreted in many ways. Usually, one would use "hi" por humans and "so" for any other thing. But more generally "hi" can be used for anything that is capable of communicating, however it can be used for animals, plants or inanimate things for stylistic reasons, such as speaking to or about pets.

Plural pronouns are created adding the -men suffix. "Mi" comes from all the European languages where is appears, such as Spanish, English, Italian, etc.

"Tu" comes from Spanish, and it also appears in other European languages such as "du" in german.

"Hi" comes from the English word "he" and from the Arabic word "hi" which means "she".

Nouns
Normal nouns end in -e in singular form. The plural is formed adding -s. Apart from that, nouns don't change, but they can be combined to form new words.

Verbs
Verbs end in -ar in infinitive, which is replaced by other endings according to tense or mood. Verbs have five suffixes which are used to create a lot of different verbs from just a few original verbs
 * -awr gives the verb more duration, if the verb means an instant action, then adding this suffix usually makes it mean the result of that action. Examples:
 * kahar = to say --> kahawrar = to talk/speak
 * habar = to have --> habawrar = to own
 * visar = to see --> visawrar = to watch/look at


 * -ek gives the verb a more instantaneous meaning or the beginning of the action
 * corar = to run --> corekar = to start running
 * xidar = to know --> xidekar = to learn (to start to know)
 * karar = to do --> karekar = to do suddenly
 * habar = to have --> habekar = to get/obtain
 * dormar = to sleep --> dormekar = to fall asleep/to start sleeping


 * -end gives it the meaning of the culmination of the action
 * canar = to go --> canendar = to arrive
 * dormar = to sleep --> dormendar = to wake up


 * -oyd makes the verb transitive if it wasn't, else it makes it "to cause someone do X-action"
 * dormekar = to fall sleep --> dormekoydar = to make someone sleep
 * dormendar = to wake up --> dormendoydar = to wake someone up
 * ekar = to begin --> ekoydar --> to (make something) start
 * folar = to fall --> foloydar --> to drop


 * -es is only used on transitive verbs to make them intransitive or reflexive.
 * teycar = to hold --> teycesar = to hold on to something
 * teycekar = to grab --> teycekesar = to grab on to something (to start to be holding on to something)

Participles
The active participle is the verb root plus the -ant- suffix and an ending according to its function, and the passive participle is created adding -it- instead:

Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives end in -a. They can agree in number with nouns adding -s, but it is not mandatory and is only recommended when it can prevent serious misunderstanding, for example when the noun does not appear in the sentence.

Adverbs end in -u.

Possession
Possession is shown using the "te" particle, which comes from the Chinese particle "de" and works just like it (similar to 's in the English language, but also used with pronouns. For example:
 * Mi te awte = My car
 * Hi swan Luke te penge = She/He is Luke's friend
 * La manse swan tumen te = The house is yours
 * La womire, xenule te manse swan biga, swan mi te penge = The man, whose house is big, is my friend.

Questions
Yes/No questions (or questions that give you a definite amount of answers) are created adding the particle das at the end of the sentence.
 * Tu swan womise = You are a woman

Ma can also be used in negative sentences. Questions that give you the possible answer usually use the "xor" connector which is basically an "exclusive or" from binary logic. Examples: In that sentence is explicitly stated that you can choose either coffee or tea, but not both. Possible answers: Instead, if the speaker wants to give the option of choosing more than one thing, the speaker shall use "or" which is an "inclusive or". For instance: Other questions are made with xen- correlatives, unlike many languages but like Chinese, the order of the sentence does not change (although it is allowed) when asking questions, the xen- word​ is in the place where the answer will be. For example:
 * Tu swan womise ma? = Are you a woman?
 * Tu no swan mabire ma? = You're not father, are you?
 * Das tu keras kafe xor cate? = Do you want coffee or tea?
 * (Ya,) kafe. = (Yes,) coffee.
 * (Ya,) cate. = (Yes,) tea.
 * Naha, xyexe. = None, thanks.
 * Tu keras late, sukre or otre in tu te kafe me? = Do you want milk, sugar or something else in your coffee?
 * Ya, late. = Yes. milk.
 * No, nahe. = No, nothing.
 * Ya, bows. = Yes, both.
 * Tu manqan xene? = What are you eating? (You eat what?)
 * Tu swan xenule te mabise? = Whose mother are you? (You are whose mother?)

Basic word order
Terwene follows the order SVO, but it is also allowed to use OSV (Yoda's order) and VSO. These three orders are allowed because out of the six possible orders one can only choose three and still be able to differentiate subject from object. The one-phrase rule is "the nearer to the left of the verb, is the subject", in SVO and OSV the subject is already to the left of the verb, and in VSO the subject is closer to the left of the verb than the object.

SVO was chosen because it's the most widespread order in the world, which includes English, Spanish and Chinese, the three most spoken languages.

Apart from order, there is nothing differentiating subject from object, so even pronouns stay the same when they are the object of the sentence:
 * Mi aman tu = I love you
 * Hi aman hi = She/He loves him/her
 * Mimen visel himen = We saw them

Adjectives and other modifiers
Adjectives are usually placed before the noun they modify, but if it doesn't create misunderstanding, it is allowed to put them after the noun. When there are two adjectives for one noun, they can be placed together before or after the noun, they can be separated by the noun, by the word for and "he" or by nothing at all.
 * La bela kwika womise / La womise bela kwika / La bela womise kwika / La bela he kwika womise / La womise bela he kwika = The beautiful, fast woman

In general modifiers are written before what they modify.

Articles
There is no specific indefinite article (a, an) but the number "wan" (one) can be used if necessary, for example there are words which can be either countable or uncountable, adding "wan" states that it is being used as countable: Instead there are words that can't be be either countable or uncountable, in those cases "wan" should be avoided: The definite article is "la" in every situation, it doesn't change. Its usage may vary depending on the speaker's mother tongue, it may not be used at all, but one of the most important usages it for the superlative, because both "more" and "most" are the same word in Terwene: mas. But there is other way to say it:
 * Mi manqan mafe = I eat apple (maybe one, maybe a slice, maybe many)
 * Mi manqan wan mafe = I eat an apple
 * Mi manqan mafes = I eat apples
 * Mi swan humane = I am a human
 * Mi swan mas bona ke tu = I'm better than you
 * Mi swan mas tala ke tu = I'm taller than you
 * Hi swan mas bela ke tu = She's more beautiful than you
 * Hi swan la mas bela = He is the most beautiful
 * Hi swan mas bela ke olules = Hi is more beautiful than everyone

Numbers
Numbers are combines just like in Chinese: After 999 999 there are words created in a similar way to "million", "billion", "trillion" but more regularly: number + ilye. Terwene follows the same scale English does, each new word adds 3 zeros. Unlike English, the word "wan" can be omitted just like it is done for "deg", "pay" and "mil". Ordinal numbers are created adding -a. Other endings give other useful meanings:
 * 10: deg
 * 20: dosdeg
 * 30: sandeg
 * 400: kwarpay
 * 800: copay
 * 9 000: naw mil
 * 323 456: sanpay dosdeg san mil kwarpay kwindeg seys
 * pay = one hundred
 * mil = one thousand
 * wanilye = one million
 * dos wanilyes = two million
 * sif dosilyes = seven billion
 * wana = first
 * pay dosdeg coa = one hundred twenty eighth
 * wanau = firstly / in the first place
 * dosu = in pair/s
 * degu = in groups of ten

The reflexive pronoun
Terwene has the reflexive pronoun "sef" which is used for all the other pronouns. These are its uses:
 * To make the sentence reflexive for any pronoun:
 * Mi lavan sef = I wash/bath myself
 * Tu manqoydan sef = You feed yourself
 * To specify or emphasize who is the owner of something
 * Hi visel hi te sef manse = He saw his own house
 * Mi aman mi te sef fratise = I love my own sister

Correlatives
Correlatives are special words which consist of certain beginnings and endings and are ordered in a table.

Examples

 * -a
 * Tu legan xena kitabe? = Which book are you reading?
 * Data manse swan mi te = That house is mine
 * Tu legel esta kitabe ma? = Have you read this book?
 * Tu legon soma kitabe ma? = Will you read some book?
 * Naha dyere karox date = No animal would do that
 * Mi legox ola kitabe = I would read every book
 * Baha dyeres manqan rowe = Many animals eat meat
 * Mi keran otra kitabe = I want another book
 * Mi keran legar renha bitake = I want to read any book
 * -e
 * Date swan xene? = What is that?
 * Este swan awte = This is a car
 * Esistan some sor tawile ma? = Is there bread on the table?
 * Mi karel nahe! = I did nothing!
 * Ole swan kibona ester = Everything is bad here
 * Mi keran bahe = I want many things
 * Tu keran otre ma? = Do you want another thing?
 * Renhe swox bona estim = Anything would be good now
 * -er
 * Mi te awte swan xener? = Where is my car?
 * Mi naskesel dater = I was born there
 * Ester esistan pane = There is bread here
 * Mi sercendos mi te kitabe somer = I'll find my book somewhere
 * Oni no ...

Days, months and years
The name of the days is created in a similar way to Chinese and Portuguese, with numbers. Months too. Monday is considered the first day of the week. The system is really simple: number + a (for ordinal number) + rote. There are two words for "day" in Terwene, one with the meaning of "rotation" for the 24 h day (rote), and one which represents the hours of light of one day (sole), which also means "Sun". Months are created the same way but with the word "lune" which means both "moon" and "month". And weeks are lun+kwar+av+e, meaning "a quarter moon". The word for year is "yare". The order of dates is dd/mm/yyyy, let's see some examples:
 * Mi naskesel ces (tresa hore he dosave) Dosarote la degwana (rote) de Kwaralune wan naw naw co
 * I was born at 3:30 Tuesday the 20th of April 1998
 * Mi dormel dum lunkwarave = I slept during one week

Common phrases

 * Haje = Hi/Hello
 * Bona rote = Good day (at any time
 * Bona sole = Good day (during daytime)
 * Bona kisole = Good night
 * Bona morne = Good morning
 * Bona kimorne = Good afternoon
 * Til sun = See you soon
 * Kihaje = Bye
 * Xyexe = Thank you
 * Kixyexe = You're welcome
 * Preye = Please
 * Boncanende = Welcome
 * Tu swan xenu? = How are you? (sing.)
 * Tumen swan xenu? = How are you? (pl.)
 * Bonu, he tu(men)? = Good, and you?
 * Bona manxare! = Bon appetit!
 * Sane! = Health!

Prepositions
To “to” direction Ces “at” relatively in the same position but not exactly Fro “from”, position or time Te “ 's ” possession De “of” shows some relation or expreses quantity Dum “durante” “mientras” (under construction from here)
 * Hi canon to la urbe = she will go to the city
 * Hi kahawran to himen = he speakes to them
 * Mi te penge swan ces la porte = my friend is at the door
 * Mi te frate swan ces la tawile = mi brother is at the table
 * Hi swan ces la angle = she is at the corner
 * Mi canel fro la angle to mia manse = I went from the corner to my house
 * Himen swan krownules fro wan naw naw co = They are kings from 1998
 * Hi swan fro Argentine = She is from Argentina
 * So swan fro arbaxe = It is made of wood
 * Luke te kitabe = Luke's book
 * Esta awte swas la bigxwexere te = This is the university's car
 * La kitabere de la urbe (La urbe te kitabere) = the city's library (not necessarily owned by the city)
 * Peye de kafe = a cup of coffee (a cup full of coffee)

Dum mi manxel, hi trinkel.

Mi no amxan dum le mornes.

*

In “en” necesariamente dentro, puede ser figurativamente

Mi habtan in data manse.

Mi estudan in bigxidere.

Das tu swan inu?

Til “hasta” de tiempo y lugar

Mi manxel til la nusa hore.

Yurkey til la manse!

Ko “con”

Mi manxan mafes ko xuge.

Mi ko do manxan mafes ko xuge.

Hi habtan ko hia mejmes.

Sen “sin”

Mi trinkan kafe sen lakte.

Par “para”

Mi karel este par tu.

Hi karan kejkes par kigowmar.

Bejsde par vine.

Kos “a causa de”

Kos date mi no gowman mafes.

Hi no canom kos hia kihelte.

Mi no manxan kos mi ne xihwan.

Suf “debajo de”

La pojkite swan suf la table.

Me canel to suf la table.

Hi swan suf.

Sor “sobre”

Swan mafes sor la table.

La retrokance swom sor data hajte.

Insted “en vez de”

Mi trinkan insted tu.

Mi trinkan insted manxar.

Instedu tu manxan