Ubell

Ubell is a constructed language, classified by it's creator as a Romano-Slavic. It draws influence from Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Galician, Italian, French), Slavic languages (Croatian, Russian, Polish, Czech), K'iche' (a Mayan language), and Finnish.


 * NB This website is written about the Standard Dialect (colloquially known as Góvórski)

=Writing System=

Ubell uses a total of three different alphabets.

Latin Script (modified) Cyrillic Script (modified) Ubell Script

The latin script is used for the purposes of this website

=Orthography=

Basics
Vowels

Consonants

Orthographic Spelling Changes
t + s => c    t + x => q     n + g => ñ d + ž => đ a + a => ä e + e => ë i + i => ï o + o => ö u + u => ü s + s ~> ß s + s ~> š t + d => ŧ

=Grammar= Ubell grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of the Ubell language, a constructed Indo-European language. It is in the composite sub-family of Romano-slavic.

Number
All Ubell nouns are inflected to show 1 of 2 numbers, singular or plural. There are 3 suffixes to show the nouns number:

-s, used with most nouns. Ex.: qko - qkos,

-es

-úx, used where -, cannot be used. Ex: Ovisarj - Ovisarjúx (Though some dialects may use Ovisarjes.)

NB - When a noun ending in /m/ is pluralized, /m/ => /n/

-rj Nouns

 * NB - this rule applies to all nouns ending with a consonant followed by j

-rj nouns are pluralized by adding -úx to the end of the noun. However, Ruxqèvíqski (a sub-dialect of Jevóxlovski) maintains the -es plural marker from Middle Ubell. The reason the 'new' plural marker -úx came to be is the ambiguity of the spoken language.

In Old and Middle Ubell, the word-final 's' was pronounced as the 'x' is (a feature of which majority of the Ariqkian branch of dialects has maintained). With using this feature, speaking of certain nouns would bring about much ambiguity, for example:

Ovisarjes (while pronouncing the 's' as a 'x') would be misconstrued as "ovisar jex"

Where Ovisarjes is the plural for sheep, Ovisar jex meaning "the sound you make, caused by the act of herding"

Body Parts and a Few Random Nouns
This group of nouns have special forms when possessed and pluralized.

Body Parts
These nouns do not decline like other nouns. Instead of the -irú ending, they utilize a prefix system, which denotes who the possessor is. Most body part words end in -äj, this suffix is dropped when possessed. And some gain a suffix (-ël, -ïl) when possessed.

There are two groups to this system: consonantal prefixes and vocalic prefixes

example:

Plurals
Plurals are formed by placing the noun in question between two particles: áŧ (insert noun) taŧ

example:

My hand hurts. lit. 'It hurts me my hand.' Mja danje nuŧab

My Hands hurt. lit. 'They hurt me my hands.' Mja danjut áŧ nuŧab taŧ.

Gender
Ubell nouns are not generally marked for gender. Gender is divided into 2 categories: Animate and Inanimate.

The Animate contains: masculine (m), feminine (f), and animate neuter (am). The Inanimate contains: inanimate neuter (in).

Nouns are generally IN, unless they are living. If the noun is male then it's M, the same goes for female.

AN is used normally for plants and animals, unless the sex of the plant or animal is known. It is also used in cases where sex of the noun is irrelevant or unknown.

ex: Jane's having a baby. - Jana darexje luciensoge ki qku.

We know Jane's is having a baby, but the sex of the baby is unknown, thus ki = to a(AN) is used.

Declension
(*) - indicates that the case has historically retained it's gender markers throughout the case's declension

- Also, nouns can be inflected for more than one case.

Articles
Ubell does not utilize definite and indefinite articles.

There are four historical definite articles that represent article and gender, that are now used only for contractions with prepositions when needed.

o - masculine a - feminine i - animate neuter e - inanimate neuter

Personal
Singular Personal Pronoun Declension

Plural Personal Pronoun Declension

Possessive
See Đenackim above.

Indefinite
A large group that entails all of the pronouns that do not fall into any of the categories above. Notice that there are no negative pronouns, such as "nobody", but the positive pronoun has to be negated in the same manner as verbs, suffixed "-ma." It may also be preceded by "nó."

Numerals
This chart is just an example of Ubell numbers (0-10). For further details, please see Ubell Numbers

Indefinite
Some indefinite adjectives are often perceived as indefinite pronouns. These include:

True
True adjectives are what Ubell considers to be natural adjectives. They (generally) do not evolve from other types of words.

ex. - fast, slow, weird, black, blue, purple

Verbal
Ubell, like many other languages, have special verb forms that act as adjectives. Though in structure, these are special verb forms, they ARE NOT considered as such. They are adjectives. There are two types of the adjective class: Infinitive, and Participle.

Infinitive
Infinitive phrases (as in English "pizza to die for"), are viewed in an adjectival light. To die for is formed by taking the infinitive of the verb and stripping it of its verb marker (leave the root vowel of the marker) (morirti => mori. Then add -smogij.

Morirti => Mori => Morismogij

Now that pesky preposition in our adj. to die for, add the appropriate prepositional prefix.

Picza bjetú premorismogij - The pizza is to die for

Participle
Many languages have special verbal forms called participles that can act as noun modifiers. In some languages, including English, there is a strong tendency for participles to evolve into adjectives. English examples of this include relieved (the past participle of the verb relieve, used as an adjective in sentences (such as "I am so relieved to see you"), spoken (as in "the spoken word"), and going (the present participle of the verb go, used as an adjective in sentences such as "Ten dollars per hour is the going rate").

To form this construction, take the consonant stem of the verb, and add -ivjaxij

Vadivjaxi palä - The spoken word

Comparative formation
When forming comparatives, add -alni

Blue => Bluer

Albastro => Albastralni

Superlative formation
When forming superaltives, add - ilàn

Blue => Bluer => Bluest

Albastro => Albastralni => Albastrilàn

Verbs
Ubell has 5 verb classes.

(i) verbs end in -arti, Vadarti to speak (ii) verbs end in -erti, Komerti to eat (iii) verbs end in -irti, Vivirti to live, exist (iv) verbs end in -[consonant]ti, Pixti, to write (v) verbs are irregular verbs, Jesti to be (v.#) verbs that irregular, in the fact that they appear to be (iv), but conjugate in which ever class as determined by it's radical stem change, Müßenti(v.iii), to have to do (something)

Infinitive
The infinitive of a verb is its basic form. They are not inflected to agree with any subject, and their subject.

Personal
The personal infinitive, a non-finite form which does not show tense, but is inflected for person and number. Used with the subjunctive mood (see below) when the subject of the dependent is the same as the independent clause. This form is also used when auxiliary verbs are used.

Tense
Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs.

Tense is one of at least five qualities, along with mood, voice, aspect, and person, which verb forms may express.

Tenses cannot always be translated from one language to another. While verbs in all languages have typical forms by which they are identified and indexed in dictionaries, usually the most common present tense or an infinitive, their meanings vary among languages.

There are languages (such as isolating languages, like Chinese) in which tense is not used, but implied in temporal adverbs when needed, and some (such as Japanese) in which temporal information appears in the inflection of adjectives, lending them a verb-like quality. In some languages (such as Russian) a simple verb may indicate aspect and tense.

The number of tenses in a language may be controversial, since its verbs may indicate qualities of uncertainty, frequency, completion, duration, possibility, and even whether information derives from experience or hearsay.

Ubell has 5 tenses:


 * Present
 * Preterite (Simple Past)
 * Imperfect (Complex Past)
 * Future
 * Conditional

Present
The present tense is the tense (that is, the form of the verb) that may be used to express:

* action at the present * a state of being; * a habitual action; * an occurrence in the (very) near future; or   * an action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present.

Preterite
The preterite (also praeterite, in American English also preterit, simple past, or past historic) is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place in the past. It is similar to the aorist in languages such as Greek.

The preterite is a verb tense that indicates that an action taken once in the past was completed at a specific point in time in the past. Usually, a definite start time or end time for the action is stated. This is opposed to the imperfect tense, which refers to any repeated, continuous, or habitual past action. Thus, "I ran five miles yesterday" would use the first-person preterite form of ran, corrí, whereas "I ran five miles every morning" would use the first-person imperfect tense form, corría. This distinction is actually one of perfective vs. imperfective aspect.

Imperfect
The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a past tense with an imperfective aspect. In English, it is referred to as the past continuous tense.

The term originated with the Latin language because "imperfect" refers to an uncompleted or abandoned action.

the imperfect is generally a past tense. Its uses include representing:

* An action that was happening, used to happen, or happened regularly in the past and ongoing * People, things, or conditions of the past * A time in the past * A situation that was in progress in the past when another isolated and important event occurred (the former using the imperfect, while the latter uses the preterite). * A physical or mental state or condition in progress in the past. Often used with verbs of being, emotion, capability, or conscience.

Future
In grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future (in an absolute tense system), or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future (in a relative tense system).

Conditional
The conditional tense is the form of the verb used in conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set of circumstances. This tense is thus similar to the subjunctive mood, although languages that have distinct verb forms for the two use them in distinct ways.

Conditional verb forms can also have temporal uses, often for expressing "future in the past" tense.

Mood
Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive verb forms that are used to signal modality.[1] It is distinct from grammatical tense or grammatical aspect, although these concepts are conflated to some degree in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European languages, insofar as the same word patterns are used to express more than one of these concepts at the same time.

Ubell has 3 moods:

*Indicative *Subjunctive *Imperative

Indicative
The indicative mood or evidential mood is used for factual statements and positive beliefs. All intentions that a particular language does not categorize as another mood are classified as indicative. In English, questions are considered indicative. It is the most commonly used mood and is found in all languages. Example: "Paul is eating an apple" or "John eats apples".

The indicative mood is for statements of actuality or strong probability: The spine-tailed swift flies faster than any other bird in the world.

The following Ubell verb tenses occur in the indicative mood:

*Present *Preterite *Imperfect *Future *Conditional

Subjunctive
n grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood, as it often follows a conjunction) is a verb mood that exists in many languages. It is typically used in dependent clauses to express wishes, commands, emotion, possibility, judgment, necessity, or statements that are contrary to fact at present. The details of subjunctive use vary from language to language.

The following Ubell verb tenses occur in the subjunctive mood:

*Present *Imperfect *Future

Imperative
The imperative mood is a grammatical mood that expresses direct commands or requests. It is also used to signal a prohibition, permission or any other kind of exhortation.

The following Ubell verb tenses occur in the imperative mood:

*Present *Future

The imperative mood in Ubell is also used as a vocative or exclamatory verb form, In this instance, the following verb tenses occur:

*Present *Preterite *Imperfect *Future *Conditional

Voice
In grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or actor of the verb, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.

Active vs Passive
In grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or actor of the verb, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.

For example, in the sentence:

The cat ate the mouse.

the verb "ate" is in the active voice, but in the sentence:

The mouse was eaten by the cat.

the verbal phrase "was eaten" is passive.

Aspect: Verbal Pairs
Ubell utilizes what appears to be two grammatical aspects: Normalevsk and Kausolevsk.

Every Ubell verb comes paired with another verb, essencially meanign the exact same thing. The first verb being classified as Normalevsk, and the other as Kausolevsk. They are used in different situations, and are not necessarily in the same verb class.

Normalevsk
All of the verbs in the Conjugation section are Normalevsk verbs.

Kausolevsk
Kausolevsk verbs have a specific meaning and use. The Kausolevsk verbs essencially mean To cause to do....

ex: Vadarti is a normalevsk verb that means to speak. It is paired with the kausolevsk verb, Hicti which means to cause to speak

Top 20 Most Common Verb Pairs
English - Normalevsk - Kausolevsk

to walk - Caminarti - Ibilirti to learn - Aprenderti - Ikasirti to drink - Beberti - Edanti to look for - Buxkarti - Bilatuarti to sing - Kantarti - Ktarikti to run - Koherti - Lasterkarti to believe - Crërti - Sinecirti to listen - Eskuqarti - Entzunti to talk - Góvórti - Parlerti to make - Aserti - Fairti to put - Ponerti - Errunti to want - Kërti - Nahirti to know - Znarti - Gauzeirti to be - Birti / Jesti - Izanti / Bajanti to have - Terti - Edukirti to bring - Traerti - Ekarrirti to come - Venirti - Vendrerti to sell - Venderti - Salduarti to dress - Vestirti - Janzkerarti to live - Vivirti - Bizirti

Conjugation
See Ubell Verb Conjugation

Adverbs
Adverbs typically answer questions such as how?, when?, where?, why? and to what extent?. They often end in -ly.

fast/rapid + ly = rapidly

afet + mens = afetmens

or

afet + marú = afetmarú

Syntax
Ubell syntax is very similar to that of the languages in both families of which it is comprised. It's word order is SVO/SOV. Generally speaking it is SVO (Subject Verb Object); with the exception of when object pronouns are being used in place of the noun, then it shifts to SOV. The indirect object pronoun always precedes the direct object pronoun. Adjectives can either go before or after the noun they modify.

Góvórski
Góvórski is deemed the standard. This website is written in Góvórskim Ubell.

Ariqki
Ariqki has a series of “inconsistencies” between spelling and pronunciation, thus causing the break down into multiple sub-dialects.


 * A key clue to recognize Ariqki speakers is that they tend to drop the word final /ú/

Verbal Differentiation
Unlike Góvóorski, Ariqki does not use the copula 'be,' thus the present tense of 'jesti' is not used.

I'm happy. Ja srtan. I'm from Ipps. Ja z Ippsjevò.

Ariqki also does not make use of the verb 'birti.'It uses a special construction of 'jesti,' based upon the Vacroqki (a Middle Ubell language) verb 'asti'-'to be' in order to convey the same meaning as 'birti.'

Vest Gallözki
The major sub-dialectal branch is 'Vest Gallözki'. Vest Gallözki is broken into 2 parts:

Vrazírßki

 * Final /o/ > [u]
 * Final /e/ > [i]
 * Final /l/ > [u]
 * Unstressed /e/ > [i]
 * Unstressed /e/ in /de/ > [dʒi]
 * Unstressed /e/ in /te/ > [t͡ɕi]
 * Word final /s/ > [ʂ]

Karibßki

 * Final /s/ > ø; (final /s/, meaning syllable final and word final)
 * /b/ > [v] or [w]
 * /v/ > [b]
 * /f/ > [p]
 * /p/ > [f]
 * /ado/, /d/ > ø; /ado/ >[ao]
 * /gua/,/gue/, /gwa/, /gwe/ => /g/ > ø; /gua/ > [ua]

Jevóxlovski
Jevóxlovski uses a modified Cyrillic script

Jevóxlovski also does not make use of the verb 'birti.'It uses a special construction of 'jesti,' based upon the Vacroqki (a Middle Ubell language) verb 'asti'-'to be' in order to convey the same meaning as 'birti.'

Jevóxlovski does not use some diacritics. The circumflex, acute, and grave accents above vowels are the only vowel accents permitted

Verbs do not us the infixes to represent progressive, perfect, nor perfect progressive. The progressive particle hwa is used

Góvórski group of verbs known as 'Kausolevsk', are not used in that manner in Jevóxlovski. In Jevóxlovski, there are known as 'Perfektlevsk' verbs (or perfect verbs). These verbs have the meaning "To have ..."

ex: Góvórti means 'to talk'. It is paired with the verb Parlerti. Parlerti's 'Kausolevsk' translation is 'To be caused to talk', whereas its 'Perfektlevsk' translation is 'To have talked'.

Ruxqèvíqski

 * The pronunciation of some word final consonants change. The only way to stop this is gemination
 * Final /l/ > [u], /ll/ > [l]
 * Final /b/ > [p], /bb/ > [b]
 * Final /d/ > [t], /dd/ > [d]
 * Final /g/ > [k], /gg/ > [g]
 * Final /v/ > [f], /vv/ > [v]
 * Final /z/ > [s], /zz/ > [z]
 * Unlike Góvórski, Ruxqèvíqski does not use the copula 'be,' thus the present tense of 'jesti' is not used.

I'm happy. Йа сртан. I'm from Ipps. Йа з Иппсйевъо.

Hrvbjelacki
I'm happy. Йем сртан. I'm from Ipps. Сам з Иппсйевъо.
 * The pronunciation of some word final consonants change. The only way to stop this is gemination
 * Final /l/ > [u], /ll/ > [l]
 * Final /b/ > [p], /bb/ > [b]
 * Final /d/ > [t], /dd/ > [d]
 * Final /g/ > [k], /gg/ > [g]
 * Final /v/ > [f], /vv/ > [v]
 * Final /z/ > [s], /zz/ > [z]
 * Unlike Ruxqèvíqski, Hrvbjelacki does use the copula 'be'.

Talamàsčaski

 * A key clue to recognize Talamàsčaski speakers is that they tend to drop the word final /ú/
 * Final /o/ > [u]
 * Final /s/ > ø; (final /s/, meaning syllable final and word final)
 * /b/ > [v] or [w]
 * /v/ > [b]
 * Word final /s/ > [ʂ]
 * /f/ > [p]
 * /p/ > [f]
 * /ado/, /d/ > ø; /ado/ >[ao]
 * /gua/,/gue/, /gwa/, /gwe/ => /g/ > ø; /gua/ > [ua]
 * The pronunciation of some word final consonants change. The only way to stop this is gemination
 * Final /l/ > [u], /ll/ > [l]
 * Final /b/ > [p], /bb/ > [b]
 * Final /d/ > [t], /dd/ > [d]
 * Final /g/ > [k], /gg/ > [g]
 * Final /v/ > [f], /vv/ > [v]
 * Final /z/ > [s], /zz/ > [z]
 * Final /ž/ > [ʂ], /žž/ > [ʒ]
 * Unlike Góvórski, Talamàsčaski does not use the copula 'be,' thus the present tense of 'jesti' is not used.

I'm happy. Ja srtan. I'm from Ipps. Ja z Ippsjevò.

Talamàsčaski also does not make use of the verb 'birti.'It uses a special construction of 'jesti,' based upon the Vacroqki (a Middle Ubell language) verb 'asti'-'to be' in order to convey the same meaning as 'birti.'

Verbs do not us the infixes to represent progressive, perfect, nor perfect progressive. The progressive particle hwa is used

Góvórski group of verbs known as 'Kausolevsk', are not used in that manner in Talamàsčaski. In Talamàsčaski, there are known as 'Perfektlevsk' verbs (or perfect verbs). These verbs have the meaning "To have ..."

ex: Góvórti means 'to talk'. It is paired with the verb Parlerti. Parlerti's 'Kausolevsk' translation is 'To be caused to talk', whereas its 'Perfektlevsk' translation is 'To have talked'.

=Sample Vocabulary=

(sing., pl - english) - (any text in red denotes spelling changes of all types)


 * 1) ovisarj, ovisarjúx - sheep
 * qko, qkos - boy
 * 1) qka - girl
 * 2) qki - child
 * gru, grus - group
 * 1) animal, animals - animal
 * 2) gru z animalogis - flock (lit. group of animals)
 * 3) vilja, viljas - village
 * 4) viljajer, viljajers - villager
 * 5) bromo, bromos - joke
 * 6) bromarti - to joke
 * 7) igu eqarti bromoges (z) [k] - to make fun (of) [at]...
 * 8) prto - black
 * 9) alb - white
 * 10) garje - gray
 * 11) rùbica - red
 * 12) albastro - blue
 * 13) galben - yellow
 * 14) virens - green
 * 15) portokalj - orange
 * 16) mov - purple
 * 17) maro - brown

=Example text=

Excerpt Song Lyrics: Soular Flares, by The Ready Set

This is to show how Perfect verbs (and Perfect constructions) occur in the different dialects, as well as the Causatives.