Faulona

Faulona was created to familiarize myself with Latin and Italian, and yes, it is another Romance conlang, but it contains genders and a bit more of a grammar than my previous conlangs. It's vocabulary is largely from Vulgar Latin, with a bit from Classical Latin, and it underwent many of the same sound changes as Italian, except for the "l>i" shift seen in words like "piacere". from Latin "placere".

Setting
I don't really have a conworld, as I'm not as much into that, but if I were to designate a place to this language, it would definitely be somewhere along the northern coast of the Mediterranean, due to its similarity to Latin and Italian.

Consonants
These mostly are written as they appear in the language. However not that the alveolo-palatal fricative and affricates, are pronounced as such every time an "i" follows a /t/, /d/, or /s/. The palatal nasal is represent by the digraph "gn" and the voiceless velar plosive is represented by "c".

Vowels
Alphabet:

A B C D E F G I K L M N O P R S T U V (Z)

A Be Ce De E Ef Ge I Ka El Em En O Pe Er Es Te U Ve (Ze)

Phonotactics
In the alphabet, the "z" is shown in brackets because there is not actually a letter for it.“Z” is written with one “s” in the middle of a word (whereas “s” is written with two), and it simply isn't put at the beginning of a word. It also doesn't come up in consonant clusters unless the other consonant is a voiced plosive.

Casa=house=/ˈka.zʌ/

Cassa=he breaks/ˈka.sʌ/

Basically, "z" is an allophone of "s" intervocalically.

Most words cannot end in any kind of consonant, but words that end in nasals or "r" are allowed, and the nasals assimilate to the next letter's point of articulation.

"Un" and "On" are never written with "m" at the end, but still assimilate.

Other words ending in nasals are usually prepositions, and end with a voiced bilabial nasal (written "m") before a vowel (as long as the next consonant is not also a voiced bilabial nasal), as well as before bilabial letters. Before alveolar consonants, a voiced alveolar nasal (written "n") is used, and before velar consonants, a voiced velar nasal (written "n") is used. Before labiodental fricatives, a voiced labiodental nasal (written "n") is used.

Cum=with

Sem=like, as (semblative/essive, cognate with "same")

Cun on basio=with a kiss ("n" is actually a voiced bilabial nasal)

Cum on sodalo=with a comrade

Cum pane=with bread

The usage of "r" varies, and is not dependent on spelling. Spelling changes according to the number of syllables, where the letters are in the word, what suffixes and prefixes are added, (such as the transitional and causative verb prefix "a-", which doubles following unvoiced consonants, "r", and nasals) and which letter is in question (generally voiced consonants, except for nasals, don't double). Some words differentiate only by their spellings. I still need to kind of work it out more fully. "R" is generally tapped when alone, trilled when beside other letters, and approximated when another "r" is placed in the same syllable, and is part of the root (since conjugations can dissimilate "r" into "l").

"Gn" is a generally palatalized voiced alveolar nasal, especially at the beginning of a word, but can be pronounced as its separate components as per the whim of the speaker when it is in the middle of the word (despite this sometimes violating phonotactics).

A voiced plosive followed by a voiced fricative is only allowed when they are an affricate, and no nasal or approximant can come before a plosive or fricative at the beginning of a syllable.

In a word where "l" is in a consonant cluster, like in "pulvre", meaning "dust", the "l" can be softened to a vowel--the same kind of sound as the "o" in Serbian "Beograd", which sounds like an "l" but is kind of softer to say. A "dark l" can also be used.

Basic Grammar
Largely SVO, or SOV in which the object is a pronoun, including the reflexive "se" pronoun. Adjectives come before the nouns they modify, and adverbs come after verbs, but before adjectives. Articles come before the nouns they modify, and prepositions are used. Sentence structure can be reverted to VSO for the sake of avoiding two "a"s in hiatus, as they do not have comfortable alternate pronunciations to be in a row, whereas "e e" can revert to "e ɛ", "i i" can revert to "i ɪ", "o o" can have a "w" semivowel placed intervocalically, and "u u" can revert to "u ʌ".

"Dat-il a la filia un flora" means "He gives a flower to the girl", with VSO word order, and the indirect object coming after the direct. The word "da", meaning "he/she/it gives", has an archaic "t" added on (somewhat influenced by French liaison and also by older Latin spellings) to have the sequence "da il" made more comfortable to say. Sometimes, even these modifications aren't enough, so word order changes slightly again, and "a" turns into "ad", exactly like the Latin word of the same meaning, rendering "Il dica a Anna" ("he speaks to Anna") from an awkward triple-a hiatus, into "Ad Anna dicat-il".

Auxiliary verbs come before main verbs, and conditional mood and subjunctive mood are conjugated, whereas negative mood is shown with a separate word, "no", placed before the verb. The subjunctive is also used as an optative, and occasionally as a conditional, as it is really just a general irrealis mood. The desiderative mood is shown with the modal verb "vellere", placed before the main. Interrogative is expressed with present indicative, and there is not really a third-person interrogative, however the third-person singular subjunctive conjugation can be used for this. Directive moods are generally shown with modal verbs, as are most epistemic moods (except the subjunctive). The indicative can also show the progressive, jussive, and gnomic, besides its usual use as an aorist aspect.

Masculine nouns usually end in "-o", changing to "-i" in the plural, whereas feminine nouns end in "-a", changing to "-e" in the plural. Several nouns end in "-e" in the singular and plural, with genders that vary and must be memorized for each noun. Also, there are a handful of neuter nouns; see the "Other" section at the bottom for those. "Mano" is a feminine word, and "atta" is another feminine word, that means "father".

I thought of something while wondering why "qui/chi" doesn't decline in Romanic languages. It does in Latin, so why not in its descendants? So, I made some words, "cui/cue" (once "cua" too) nominatively and "cuom/cuem" (once "cuim" too) accusatively, to show the pronoun "who" and "whom", respectively. The plural/singular distinction isn't expressed in this pronoun, but number would still carry on after. As a subordinating conjunction, however, "ce" is still used. "Cuam" can be used as a formal "than", replacing "ce", but "cuanto" could also be used for this, and would decline.

Illo opea ce sia grandioro=he wishes he were larger

Conjugations
-ERE: MOVERE

Present

Io muevo

Tu mueve

Il mueva

Noi movamo

Voi movete

Ili moventa, movono, movunt

Future

Io movero

Tu moveri

Il movera

Noi moveramo

Voi moverete

Ili moverenta, moverono, moverunt

Past

Io movebbo

Tu movebbe

Il movebba

Noi movebamo

Voi movebete

Ili movebenta, movebono, movebunt

Subjunctive

Io moviero, movio

Tu moviere, movi

Il moviera, movia

Noi moviamo

Voi moviete

Ili movienta, moviono, moviunt

Conditional

Io moverio

Tu movieri

Il moveria

Noi moveriamo

Voi moveriete

Ili moverienta, moveriono, moveriunt

Impersonal participle: Movetto

Root/base: Mov-, muev-

"Io" basis for non-progressive/gnomic conjugations:

Perfect: Avo movetto

Pluperfect: Avebo movetto

Perfect subjunctive: Auro movetto

Pluperfect subjunctive Aurevo movetto

Perfect conditional: Avro movetto

-IRE: FINIRE

Present

Io fino, finio

Tu fine

Il fina

Noi finisso

Voi finite

Ili finenta, finino, finint

Future

Io finiro

Tu finiri

Il finira

Noi finirisso

Voi finirite

Ili finirenta, finirino, finirint

Past

Io finivo

Tu finive

Il finiva

Noi finivisso

Voi finivite

Ili finiventa, finivino, finivint

Subjunctive

Io finisco

Tu finisce, fini

Il finisca, finia

Noi finissamo

Voi finissate

Ili finissenta, finissino, finissint

Conditional

Io finirio

Tu finieri

Il finiria

Noi finiramo

Voi finirate

Ili finirienta, finirieno, finirient

Impersonal participle: Finito

Root/base: Fin-

"Io" basis for non-progressive/gnomic conjugations:

Perfect: Avo finito

Pluperfect: Avebo finito

Perfect subjunctive: Auro finito

Pluperfect subjunctive Aurevo finito

Perfect conditional: Avro finito

-ARE: CANTARE (related to "canare", meaning "to recite" or "to chant")

Present

Io canto

Tu cante

Il canta

Noi cantamo

Voi cantate

Ili cantana, cantano, cantunt

Future

Io cantaro

Tu cantari

Il cantara

Noi cantaramo

Voi cantarate

Ili cantarana, cantarano, cantarunt

Past

Io cantavo

Tu cantave

Il cantava

Noi cantavamo

Voi cantavate

Ili cantavana, cantavano, cantavunt

Subjunctive

Io cantiaro/cantio

Tu cantiare/canti

Il cantiara/cantia

Noi cantiamo

Voi cantiate

Ili cantiana, cantiano, cantiunt

Conditional

Io cantario

Tu cantiari

Il cantaria

Noi cantariamo

Voi cantariate

Ili cantariana, cantariano, cantariunt

Impersonal participle: Cantatto

Root/base: Cant-

"Io" basis for non-progressive/gnomic conjugations:

Perfect: Avo cantatto

Pluperfect: Avebo cantatto

Perfect subjunctive: Auro cantatto

Pluperfect subjunctive Aurevo cantatto

Perfect conditional: Avro cantatto

Notes

For verbs whose roots end in “v”, the past “-ev" infix turns into “-ebb” for the singular conjugations and “-eb” for the plural.

For verbs whose roots end in “r” in which the conjugations contain another “r” as the next consonant (so things like “rier-” or “rer-” aren’t viable), the second “r” changes to “l” through dissimilation. This "l" follows the rules of the "b" in the first rule listed above.

For third person plural conjugations, the first is an old system I used (I keep it written mostly for sentimental value, I guess), the second is revised, and the third is what it changes to during Subject-Verb switching, so "Ili cantarano?" becomes "Cantarunt-ili?" with the syllable break actually between the second "n" and "t" in "Cantarunt", much like the added "t" changing "Il canta?" into "Cantat-il?". The reason it's written down for the plural third person and not the singular is because the plural is more irregular. Also, in both sound shifts, the final "t" is actually pronounced at the beginning of the "Il" syllable, not at the end of the "nt", because the phonotactics allow nasals to end syllables, but not plosives.

Grammar
Participles

Past passive participles were detailed above. Past active participles can be done by passively conjugating the verb before adding the present participle ending; so "having spoken" could be written as "diceventa". "Aventa dicetto" also works. For "-ere" and "ire" verbs, the present participles is "-enta", and for "-are" verbs, it is "-anta". There are not really present passive participles, however a present participle followed by a past conjugated verb can work. Also, "stanta (past passive participle)" could be used.

Future active participles can be formed by adding the future conjugation before adding the active ending, so "(about/yet) to speak" would be "dicerenta". Future passive participles also aren't easy to form, but "Staranta dicetto" works.

Past Passive: Dicetto, aventa stare dicetto, stavanta dicetto

Past Active: Diceventa, aventa dicetto

Present Passive: Stanta dicetto

Present Active: Dicenta

Future Passive: Staranta dicetto, diceretto

Future Active: Dicerenta

Gerund

For "-ere" and "ire" verbs, the gerund is "-endo", and for "-are" verbs, it is "-ando". The infinitive is preferred when possible

Supine

"Por" is used to form the supine. "Il me faula por me faccere nettere" means "He talks to me to make me understand".

Subjunctive

Subjunctive is widely used in Faulona, and is used after "si" (if), "ante ce" (before, in a subordinate clause), "secuenta ce" (after, in a subordinate clause), and "a la ora ce" (if/when). It is also used in hypothetical or could-have-happened situations, so "I hope he comes" is "Spero ce venia", and "I wish he had come" is "Vellerio c'il aura venito", with "wish" being glossed as "would like" (showing that you still wish this, not that it was a previous wish). Another usage is in forming "lazy conditional", so instead of "Avro gaudetto s'il aura venito", to mean "I would have rejoiced if he'd have come", "Auro gaudetto..." would be used, just to mean "I rejoiced (hypothetically) if he'd have come".

Comparative and Superlative

Here are the irregular words from root to conditional to superlative:

Bona>Meliora>Oppima (good, better, best)

Mala>Peiora>Pessima (bad, worse, worst)

Magna/Granda>Maiora>Massima (big/great, bigger/better, biggest/best)

Parva>Minora>Minima (small, smaller, smallest)

Multa>Plura>Plurima (many, more, most)

Alta>Superiora>Suprema (high, higher, highest)

Bassa>Inferiora>Infima (low, lower, lowest)

Otherwise, the suffix for comparative is "-iora", and for superlative, "-issima". Until adverbs are fully worked out, the comparative and superlative forms of adverbs are uncertain, although "-iore"/"-issime" is the best current setup.

Essere and Stare "Essere" is kind of like a gnomic form of "stare", they both are copulas, but "stare" is also existential, and it means "to stand", but it is also more often used for unaccusative auxiliary verb forms, and the passive voice for other verbs. "Essere" relates to the basic condition of something, such as its body parts, its abstract qualities, its generally stable physical qualities, and its location if it is a building, a plant, or some other generally static object. "Stare" is comparative to "am being" as opposed to just "am" in English, showing a current or temporary state, feeling, quality, or location.

Dictionary
I do have a ~150 page grammar guide and dictionary for this language written on my computer, I'm just in the middle of putting it online.

Punctuation
In Faulona, quotation marks only contain punctuation if they actually quote something. If there is a pause, it is marked with a comma, but if someone is continuously speaking but there is non-quoted text in between, the comma will go after the quotation mark to show the reader to pause, while still letting them know that the quoted person didn't pause. I will use examples to clarify.

"Cuei ve?" ella diceva. NOT "Cuei ve," ella diceva?

"Dun c'illo me faulava", dicevat-ella, "illo diceva ce tu lu placa." NOT "Dun c'illo me faulava," dicevat-ella, "illo diceva ce tu lu placa." Unless she actually paused while saying that.

Also, sentences start with one space, not two. Sentences must be capitalized, but the word "io" doesn't have to be. Slashes are used in various ways, and parentheses are always written "", even if there are parentheses within parentheses. The semicolon is not used. "@" can be used, and arguably makes even more sense in Faulona, since the word for "at" is "a".

Apostrophes mark omitted text, and quotations within quotations are simply expressed with more quotation marks. To adapt, either a keyboard with two different quotation marks would have to exist, or dumb quotes would be used.

Text breaks into paragraphs to separate ideas and to make the text more legible.

Etiquette
"Si te placa" means "please", and is cognate with "s'il te plait". It is used as in English or French, as a polite way to mark a request or demand. It is usually used simply with an imperative phrase. It does not have to be used when ordering something at a restaurant, instead, you can say "si lica", which roughly means "if that's OK". Another option, which is rarer, is "Velle (cuiva facere)", which kind of means "May you want (to do something)".

"Te laudo" is used to express thanks after someone does something for you. Usually, it is an active thing, saying that you're praising them and are of a status to be able to praise or accept something. Otherwise, you can say "Avo gratia", which means "I have thankfulness", or "Sto placetto", which means "I am pleased".

"Ste/esse grata/grato // este grate" means "you're welcome".

"Me parce" means "Forgive me" or "I'm sorry", and can be rendered more desperate or strong with "si te placa".

"Te lasso" means "I let you" or "I forgive you", and is used as a response to "me parce". A harsh way to let someone know that you acknowledge their apology but you don't want to forgive them is "te fugo", which roughly means "I dismiss you" or "I exile you". This would never be spoken by family members, and would be warrant for a divorce if one spouse apologizes and the other says "te fugo". It's similar to "fuck off" or "go away". "Se fuge" can also be used, and means "dismiss yourself" or "show yourself out", but this can also be used as a slightly less harsh way (esp. with "si te placa" or "velle") to tell someone to leave your house.

The plural "you" is never used as a respectful singular, it is simply a plural.

Letters can be signed with "cum basi" at the end, which means "with kisses". This is usually used when the letter is addressed to parents and grandparents.

Example text
The Babel Text

Lu torre da Babella

Ie lu mondo totto avebba una lingua e on dico vulgo.

E dunc’ili se erente cietti a l’esta, ili trovebono on plano en Tinara, e evi se certevono.

E ili se dicevono, “Venite, fattamo di brici e li coccamo plene.” Utevono lu brico em pono du sasso, e la picce sen gleitto.

Pui ili se dicevono, “Venisso, strucamo por nostri stessi un ciutta, cum on torre ci ad ceilo se trata, por ce noi cresciamo on nomo por nostri stessi e no poi siamo spargi per totta supra terra.

Mai lu Dio a fondo venniva por videre la ciutta e lu torre ce li omi strucevono.

Lu Dio diceva, “Si, sem on greggo vocento la stessa lingua, ili avono coepetto cuisto fattere, nolla ie c’ili se sidiamo fattere sera no cedila por ili.

Venite, allamo a fondo e malfundamo ilora lingua por c’ili no se intralegiono.”

Poi lu Dio li spargeva du evi per totta sopra terra, e ili arrestavano di struccere la ciutta.

Lu cuisto es porcuei el fu vocatta Babella—parcosce evi lu Dio malfundeva la lingua du mundo totto. E di evi lu Dio li spargheva sopra la pella du mundo totto.

Other
I was wondering if I should make it so that prepositions (contra,sopra, infra, etc.) decline to the noun, except for maybe "a", "en", "por", "per", "par"(rare), "sem", and "cum". "Da" already conjugates.

I was also wondering about adverbs, because I don't understand how it's OK for adjectives to match nouns, but not for adverbs to match adjectives (just obviously not verbs, which don't carry gender in Faulona), which I've heard from various places. Currently I simply have a suffix "-e" off the root for an adverb, maybe I could add an "-i" suffix variant for masculine adverbs? Another thing I have is "-itre", from Latin "iter", but I find it kind of clunky and find it kind of close to the abstract nominalizer, "-ite". One old thing I did was I used "cum _ite", so "he runs beautifully" would be glossed as "he runs with beauty", written "Il curra cum belite". Below, you'll see that I've decided what to do with adverbs, but I'm still not fully sure--should verbs carry on gender, despite not marking it? My first instinct is to say no, since I don't want everything in the sentence ending in the same letter.

Neuter gender is another issue. I currently have it so ambiguous things are masculine in the singular, and feminine in the plural (which I came up with myself before realizing it's also in Romanian), any thoughts on if this sounds good? I don't want this to be a typical "male-priority" Romance language. Also, what about a handful of neuter nouns, that also follow this? The only out-of-the-ordinary one I have so far is "genu", meaning "gender", which would be "gene" in the plural.

What about words like "nolla", meaning "nothing", or "totto", meaning "all", having gender, as they currently do? They don't in French, who's grammar I mostly based my previous conlangs' grammars off of (such as Jamauwyeyh Yatan). Also, I have "no plu" meaning "no longer" or "no more", but I don't really know what kind of word that "more" or "longer" would be in the context, so I want to make some kind of phrase like "per no tempo pluro", meaning "through no more time". I also don't like the French (maybe this is in other Romance languages, too) tendency to add prepositions after a verb, so "j'essaie de me taire" would become "Tento se tacere".

As a related side note, since English just uses the basic "to" infinitive for various things, for a while I didn't understand exactly why French used "pour + infinitive" for the supine until I got more into Latin while making this language and ran into the Latin supine. I'm worried there's some similar reason why the "de" is there in French sentence in the above paragraph, that I'm completely ignorant of, being Anglophone.

There's also a small issue with conjugations for the irregular verbs (essere, avere, allere, venire, tenere), none of which I've posted yet while I finish making sure they're somewhat easy to memorize. For any past subjunctive or conditional, a compound form is needed using an auxiliary verb. I'm fine with compound verbs for perfatto/perfect and pluperfatto/pluperfect, but other Romance languages have a single word, say, for a past subjunctive of a given verb. I'm not sure if I should include this.

I've had the idea of having passive conjugations, like in Latin, in which there would be the root, followed by the root of the passive participle, and then a normal conjugation for the verb type. For example, "it is said" would be written "(il) dicetta", and "you are loved" would be "(tu) amate". Participles would otherwise stay the same as they currently are. Any input on this would be appreciated.

I'm also considering cutting out the stare/essere difference, keeping essere as a copula, but stare as an existential verb that also means "to stand".

Credo ce avo sidetto ce le tangore aliale (adverbs, "affectors of other(s)") siono formatte utente "-mente" si lu verbo prevenento no mutattea per la gendra du facoro. Ditto aliamento, le tangore aliale no mutattano secuente li verbi facenti, aute mutattano secuente li mutori di verbi (adjectives), e secuente le alie tangore aliale cue attangeno li mutori di verbi.

Translation:

I think I've decided that adverbs are made with "-mente" if the previous word doesn't change according to the gender of the subject. In other words, adverbs don't change after verbs, but do change after adjectives, or after other adverbs (as long as those adverbs modify adjectives).

Also, adverbs change to participles.

"Li omi, essenti veramenti grandi, fureno veramente fablati sem essenti aute supri alti por gradere per un ianua."

"The men, being truly large, were actually said to be also too tall to walk through doorways."

This sentence matches the first adverb to the participle, but the second adverb affects the verb (not the participle, even if it appears this way), so the basic "-mente" form is used, as per older Latin customs.

This language was created by []. Do not delete.