Teruene

Classification
Terwene is an IAL (International Auxiliary Language) bases 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 beginning of the sentence.
 * Tu swan womise = You are a woman

Das can also be used at the end with the meaning of ", right?". And the words for yes and no can be added too. 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:
 * Das tu swan womise? = Are you a woman?
 * Tu swan womise, das? = You are a woman, right?
 * Tu no swan mabire, das (ya)? = You're not father, are you?
 * Tu swan mabise, das (ne)? = You are mother, aren't 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.
 * Das tu keras late, sukre or otre in tu te kafe? = 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
 * As a suffix in the same way self- is used in English
 * Sef+ki+bild+ar --> sefkibildar = to self destruct

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
 * Das tu legel esta kitabe? = Have you read this book?
 * Das tu legon soma kitabe? = 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 legar renha bitake = I want to read any book
 * -e
 * Date swan xene? = What is that?
 * Este swan awte = This is a car
 * Egzistan pane in la

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 Tuesday the 20th of April 1998
 * Mi dormel dum lunkwarave = I slept during one week

Common phrases

 * Haje = Hi/Hello
 * Bona deje = Good day (at any time
 * Bona sole = Good day (durling daytime)
 * Bona kitage = Good night
 * Bona morne = Good morning
 * Bona tarde = Good afternoon
 * Til sun = See you soon
 * Kihaje = Bye
 * 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!