Croanian

=Setting= Croanian is a Conlang (obviously) still in construction. It's a Romance language, closely resembling Latin and Italian. Some constructions are clearly derived from either these two, French or Spanish - this because it would have been spoken in the area of North-Spain/South-France/West-Italy.

=Basic Grammar=

The alphabet and pronunciation
The Croanian alphabet consists out of 27 characters:

Aa Bb Cc Cs Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qu Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Xx Yy Zz Zh Ææ

Note: The characters cs, qu, zh and æ make a different sound than the single letters C, Z, A and E. The Q never occurs on its own, and the æ can also be written as ae.

 

Gender, number and case
Croanian nouns can have one (sometimes multiple) of the following three genders: Masculine / Feminine / Neuter. Furthermore, a noun is inflected by number (Singular / Plural) and case: Nominative / Genitive / Dative / Accusative. Note that all these genders, numbers and cases are reflected in the Suffix which is added to the noun stem. If we'd take a look at one stem which occurs in all three genders, Bambin-, the possibilities add up to a overwhelming 3 × 2 × 4 = 24 forms for just one single word!

Just to show you what all the different forms look like, here's a table: Singular


 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

! !Nominative !Genitive !Dative !Accusative !Masculine !Feminine !Neuter
 * Bambino
 * Bambinois
 * Bambinom
 * Bambinos
 * Bambina
 * Bambinais
 * Bambinam
 * Bambinas
 * Bambinu
 * Bambinüis
 * Bambinum
 * Bambinus
 * }

Plural


 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

! !Nominative !Genitive !Dative !Accusative !Masculine !Feminine !Neuter
 * Bambini
 * Bambiníis
 * Bambinim
 * Bambinis
 * Bambinæ
 * Bambinæis
 * Bambinæm
 * Bambinæs
 * Bambina
 * Bambinais
 * Bambinam
 * Bambinas
 * }

Hopefully you see a clear pattern in these declensions for each form: |Stem| + |Gender/Number-related vowel| + |Gender suffix|.

The gender/number-related vowels are the following:


 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

!Masc. Sing. !Fem. Sing. !Neut. Sing. !Masc. Plural !Fem. Plural !Neut. Plural
 * o
 * a
 * u
 * i
 * æ
 * a
 * }
 * }

And the case suffixes look like this:


 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

!Nominative !Genitive !Dative !Accusative
 * -is
 * -m
 * -s
 * }
 * -s
 * }

The cases work exactly the same as in German: Nominative  = subject; Genitive = possession or relation; Dative  = indirect object; Accusative = direct object

The tranlations of the forms of bambin- strongly depends on the case and gender. Generally, bambino would translate to little boy, bambina to little girl and bambinu to little child.

Other Noun Forms
Some nouns can have a different suffix in the nom.sing., such as Pony, Museus and Templon [Pony, museum and temple, resp.] The declension for these 'other' nouns looks like this:

Singular
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

! !! Nominative !! Genitive !! Dative !! Accusative ! -y ! -us ! -um ! -consonant ! -on
 * Pony
 * Ponyis
 * Ponym
 * Ponys
 * Museus
 * Museüis
 * Museum
 * Museus
 * Parfum
 * Parfüis
 * Parfum
 * Parfum
 * Hotel
 * Hoteleis
 * Hotelem
 * Hoteles
 * Templon
 * Templonis
 * Templom
 * Templos
 * }

Plural
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

! !! Nominative !! Genitive !! Dative !! Accusative ! -y ! -us ! -um ! -consonant ! -on
 * Ponyi
 * Ponyíis
 * Ponyim
 * Ponyis
 * Musei
 * Museíis
 * Museim
 * Museis
 * Parfa
 * Parfais
 * Parfam
 * Parfas
 * Hoteli
 * Hotelíis
 * Hotelim
 * Hotelis
 * Templi
 * Templíis
 * Templim
 * Templis
 * }

General Form
Verbs in Croanian have a very strict pattern in showing what/who is the object and in which tense the verb is. This is done by means of suffixes, small parts (1 or two characters) which are added to the stem of a verb. The general form for every verb is as follows:

Verb Stem + Tense suffix(es) + Personal Suffix

With the tense suffixes always being put in the following order:

Past - Future - Perfect (To indicate a present simple, no tense suffix is used)

Personal Pronouns
The personal pronouns are rarely used in Croanian as an object, but they do exist: 
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

!scope="row"|I !scope="row"|You (sing.) !scope="row"|He !scope="row"|She !scope="row"|It !scope="row"|We !scope="row"|You (pl.) !scope="row"|They (masc.) !scope="row"|They (fem.) !scope="row"|They (neut.)  ''Note that the 'it' and 'they (neut.)' forms are alike in Croanian, but the difference is clearly visible in the conjugated verb. Also note that the form 'Ellu' is almost never used, to translate sentences as "It is beautiful", 'it' is almost always omitted.''
 * English
 * Croanian
 * Io
 * Tu
 * Ello
 * Ella
 * Ellu
 * Noi
 * Voi
 * Elli
 * Ellæ
 * Ella
 * }

Personal Suffixes
Sounding rather fancy, the 'personal suffixes' are actually quite dull. Where English uses personal pronouns to indicate the object of a sentence (" They throw the ball."), Croanian does this by adding one or two characters to the verb. In the first, most simple tense - the present simple - they're simply added to the verb stem. Here's a table of all suffixes: 
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

!Io !Tu !Ello !Ella !Ellu !Noi !Voi !Elli !Ellæ !Ella 
 * -o
 * -os
 * -it
 * -at
 * -ut
 * -i
 * -em
 * -is
 * -as
 * -us
 * }
 * }

So, let's just take a random verb, and we'll see what we'll get!

 Mars ere  [To walk]
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

!Io !Tu !Ello !Ella !Ellu !Noi !Voi !Elli !Ellæ !Ella 
 * Marso
 * Marsos
 * Marsit
 * Marsat
 * Marsut
 * Marsi
 * Marsem
 * Marsis
 * Marsas
 * Marsus
 * }
 * }

The Infinitive
As you prbably noticed, the stem of Marsere is formed by removing the suffix -ere from the stem. But, the infinitive can also take a different form, as with the verb Vivire [To live]. This verb has the suffix -ire, which doesn't matter much at this moment. (The difference between -ere/-ire matters only in the past perfect and the conjunctive mood) The infinitive is furthermore used in the same way as English, so in Croanian it is possible to say "I want to walk " - "Vuolo marsere ".

Irregular Verbs (Present Tense)
Of course, some verbs are irregular in Croanian. There are 7 really irregular verbs, and a handful of others which don't exactly follow the normal pattern, but aren't really irregular either. These seven verbs are: Essere [To be] / Allere [To go]

Dovire [To have to] / Podire [To be able to] / Volire [To want]

Fassere [To do] / Savvere [To know]

And they are conjugated as follows:


 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

! !! Essere !! Allere !! Dovire !! Podire !! Volire !! Fassere !! Savvere !Io !Tu !Ello/-a/-u !Noi !Voi !Elli/-æ/-a 
 * Sum
 * Alleo
 * Duovo
 * Puodo
 * Vuolo
 * Faco
 * Sé
 * Estos
 * Alleos
 * Duovos
 * Puodos
 * Vuolos
 * Facos
 * Sabos
 * Est
 * Va
 * Dueve
 * Puede
 * Vuele
 * Fasse
 * Savve
 * Esti
 * Alli
 * Dovi
 * Podi
 * Voli
 * Fassi
 * Savvi
 * Estem
 * Allem
 * Dovem
 * Podem
 * Volem
 * Fassem
 * Savvem
 * Sunt
 * Vas
 * Dueves
 * Puedes
 * Vueles
 * Faces
 * Sabes
 * }
 * }

=Dictionary=

Human-describing words

 * 1) bambino = little boy
 * 2) bambina = little girl
 * 3) bambinu = little child
 * 4) garcsono = boy
 * 5) filiia = girl (Note the pronunciation of Filiia: /fi-lley-jah/)
 * 6) homo = man
 * 7) fema = woman
 * 8) senioro = mister
 * 9) seniora = miss
 * 10) viexo = old man
 * 11) viexa = old woman
 * 12) persono = someone
 * 13) qualquuno = anyone ( Pronounced: /kwahl-kwoonoh/)

Random Verbs

 * 1) Essere = To be
 * 2) Allere = To go
 * 3) Dovire = To have got to (As in: I've got to go now)
 * 4) Podire = To be able to (As in: I'm able to do this / I can do this)
 * 5) Volire = To want
 * 6) Fassere = To do (Used for many expressions, e.g. to express time and weather)
 * 7) Savvere = To know
 * 8) Marsere = To walk
 * 9) Nagere = To swim
 * 10) Naistrere = To be born
 * 11) Mangere = To eat
 * 12) Vivire = To live
 * 13) Venire = To come
 * 14) Vicire = To win / conquer
 * 15) Audire = To hear

Numbers
Please note that, in Croanian, numbers have to change their common suffix (-e) to the appropriate gender and number of the noun they belong to! 
 * {|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;float:middle;"

!scope="row"| !scope="row"|1 !scope="row"|2 !scope="row"|3 !scope="row"|4 !scope="row"|5 !scope="row"|6 !scope="row"|7 !scope="row"|8 !scope="row"|9 !scope="row"|10 
 * Cardinal
 * Ordinal
 * Une
 * Primere
 * Düe
 * Seconde
 * Tríe
 * Tercsere
 * Quattre
 * Quattere
 * Csinque
 * Pentere
 * Sesse
 * Sessere
 * Sette
 * Settere
 * Occe
 * Octere
 * Nove
 * Novere
 * Diezhe
 * Hexere
 * }

=Example text= ...