Bumiswen

English•

* this page is currently undergoing some changes*

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 much more inclined to isolating languages than most agglutinative languages, including Esperanto.

Phonology
Terwene uses letters of the basic Latin alphabet.

The stress is always on the vowel before the last consonant or semivowel.

Phonotactics
Kwo is mostly a CV language, but there are some consonant clusters allowed.

Diphthongs:

Words can end in vowels, semivowels, or the following consonants: m, n, r, w, y''. ''Roots should not end in more than one consonant. Words must not contain consonant clusters of more than two consonants (not counting semi-vowels). Each vowel can be assigned one semi-vowel when pronouncing a word, not two, for example "yawa" should be pronounced "ya-wa" not "yaw-a".

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" for 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 -ru. "Mi" comes from all the European languages where it 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 -ri in infinitive, which is replaced by other endings according to tense or mood.

Verb chains
Just like in most languages, verbs can go chained to create different meanings. In Kwo, the verbs in the chain can have different tense/mood markings to create even more meanings. The verb siri is especially useful for expressing things like progressive and perfect aspects. For example: Verbs have five suffixes which are used to create a lot of different verbs from just a few original verbs
 * Mi sina cina = I am eating
 * Mi sido cina = I was eating
 * Mi sime cina = I will be eating
 * Mi sina cido = I have eaten
 * Mi sido cido = I had eaten
 * Mi sime cido = I will have eaten
 * Mi sizu cido = I would have eaten
 * Mi sina sido cina = I have been eating
 * Mi sido sido cina = I had been eating
 * Mi sime sido cina = I will have been eating
 * Mi sizu sido cina = I would have been eating
 * Mi sina cime = I am about to eat
 * Mi sido cime = I was about to eat
 * Mi sizu cime = I would be about to eat
 * -ad 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 --> kahadar = to talk/speak
 * har = to have --> hadar = to own
 * bisar = to see --> bisadar = to watch/look at


 * -ek gives the verb a more instantaneous meaning or the beginning of the action
 * ranar = to run --> ranekar = to start running
 * siar = to know --> siekar = to learn (to start to know)
 * karar = to do --> karekar = to do suddenly
 * har = to have --> hekar = 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


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


 * -os 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)

The conditional mood
This mood has two endings: -em for the past and -ax for the rest (usually present). In English the conditional mood is expressed with "would" and with the past tense, while the "past" of the conditional mood is expressed with "would + present perfect" and with past perfect.

Present/Neutral: Past: However, most of the time this "past conditional mood" in other languages is used to express something that could or should have been done, bat wasn't. In this cases, Terwene usually uses indicative past tense instead if context allows.
 * Si mi siod xeno, mi laborod = If I knew how, I would work
 * Si mi siem xeno, mi laborem = If I had known how, I would have worked
 * Mi pixwel no mancar so, tan mi karel = I shouldn't have eaten it, but I did
 * Mi ablel ranar, tan mi no karel = I could have run, but I didn't