Tolko

--Tolko is a constructed language designed for fun. It is a full member of the Indo-European language family, designed to be close to Italic, Germanic and Celtic branches. It is derived from Proto-Indo-European using formal sound laws either unique to its branch, or shared with its closest sibling languages.

=Basic Grammar=

Tolko is a typical member of the indo-European family, with a grammar very similar to Late Latin or present day German (member of the North-West European Sprachbund). Typologically, it a semi-synthetic language (with emerging analytic features), with a SVO word order and an accusative alignment.

Phonology
Tolko uses Latin alphabet as its primary script. Here is the consonant inventory in the native orthography. The "/" denotes phonemic voicing contrast (voiceless/voiced). Phonetic values are given in ASCII IPA.

There are 6 vowels and 3 closing diphtongs : ai, ei, oi. Neither vowel length nor word stress are phonemic.

Nouns and adjectives
The nouns are inflected in gender, number and case.

There are :


 * 3 genders : masculine, feminine and neuter
 * 2 numbers : singular and plural
 * 3 cases : nominative, accusative and oblique

Nouns are declined according to their final letter in nominative singular (a, o, e, or any consonant). Neuter nouns share the same declension as the masculine or feminine nouns, except that they always share the same form for nominative and accusative cases, and for their -a suffix in the nominative/accusative plural form.

Adjectives are declined in the same way as the noun they refer to, and follow the same declination pattern.

Nouns ending in -o

The accusative has two forms :
 * whether the determiner exhibits a form constrasting with the nominative : in such a case, the bracketed (n) are dropped.
 * whether there is no determiner or its form is identical in the nominative : the (n) is then retained.

Nouns ending in -a

The accusative has two forms :
 * whether the determiner exhibits a form constrasting with the nominative : in such a case, the bracketed (n) are dropped.
 * whether there is no determiner or its form is identical in the nominative : the (n) is then retained.

Nouns ending in -e

The accusative has two forms :
 * whether the determiner exhibits a form constrasting with the nominative : in such a case, the bracketed (n) are dropped.
 * whether there is no determiner or its form is identical in the nominative : the (n) is then retained.

Nouns ending in -u

The accusative has two forms :
 * whether the determiner exhibits a form constrasting with the nominative : in such a case, the bracketed (n) are dropped.
 * whether there is no determiner or its form is identical in the nominative : the (n) is then retained.

Personal pronouns
The third person form is the only one marked for gender (masc/fem/neuter).

Verbs
Verbs are conjugated in tense, mode, and as for finite modes in number and person. The auxiliaries verbs are cafon (to have) and ezon (to be). Only ezon has a fully irregular conjugation. The other verbs all fall into several classes, whose conjugation is given below.
 * There are three grammatical persons, with no inclusive/exclusive distinction
 * There are two tenses : present and past
 * There are five modes : indicative, subjunctive, optative/imperative (finite) ; infinitive, participle (non-finite)

Subjects pronouns can be indicated to alleviate ambiguities, especially in oral speech, but they can normally be safely dropped.

Ezon, buvon, buno

Class I (most common class) : menon, manon, manto (to think)

Note : the alternative form of the 2nd person of the Optative is used as an imperative in main clauses.

=Dictionary=

Swadesh list
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=Example text= ...