LNat'ie'

=Setting= =Basic Grammar = Lnatie is OVS, so Object – Verb – Subject, with all modifiers following the word they modify

Pronouns
*inclusive plural includes speaker and listener

Personal pronouns include, when needed, the verb to be : I am = O

Verbs
Verbal conjugations are done with infixes, added after the first consonant in the verb. The verb, gan, to see, will be used as an example. Perfect tenses, with conjugated versions of to have, are marked with an apostrophe, which represents a short stop in pronunciation.

*Long u sound with short stop

I see – gan o

I have seen – gu’an o

I saw – guan o

I had seen – guu’an o

I will see – gutan o

I will have seen – gutu’an o

Progressive verbs, uncompleted actions such as seeing, was seeing, etc, are denoted by the pronoun suffix of –tet which shows that the agent doing the action is still doing it.

I am seeing – gan otet

I have been seeing – gu’an otet

I was seeing – guan otet

I had been seeing – guu’an otet

I will be seeing – gutan otet

I will have been seeing – gutu’an otet

To make a verb negative, add the right word for no ('ani or 'ni) as a suffix to the end of the verb. If the verb ends in a consonant, use –'ani, if it ends in a verb, use –'ni. The ani or ni will always take the stress. The verb to search, tori, will be used as an example.

I don’t see – gan'ani o

He isn’t searching – tori'ni ietet

Direct Objects
Direct Objects of transitive verbs are in the accusative and are created by putting the acc. prefix ep- in front of the noun. Take the word book, get, for example. To say ‘I see the book’ you create the accusative book, epget (ep- + get) and then conjugate to see in the present, which is easy since it’s the base form of the verb, gan, then just add the agent of the verb, in this case the singular 1st person pronoun, o.

I see the/a book – epget gan o

I see you – epi gan o

He sees it – e gan ie *


 * if the direct object is the first word in the sentence, the ep- prefix is optional.

Indirect Objects
Indirect Objects are in the dative and are created by putting the dative prefix it- in front of the noun. As with direct objects, if it comes at the beginning of the sentence, actually using the prefix is optional. The indirect object will fall before the direct object.

Modifiers
Time Markers

Time markers that show when a sentence’s action takes places are placed at the very beginning of the sentence. Duration markers are put in the modifier spot, following the verb they modify.

Year – iwen

Next – sha

Previous – isa

Self (myself, yourself) – sek

2 – sewe

5 – sam

30 – ordi

To make – ser

Hour – tike

I looked for him for 5 hours – ie tuori tike sam o

Next year, I will be 5 years (old) – Iwen sha, iwen sam o

next year I will have making (this) movie for 30 years – Iwen sha, epoanter sutu'er iwen ordi otet

we haven't seen each other in 5 years! – oiensek gu'an'ani iwen sam oien

I will see you in 2 years – iwen sha sewe epi gutan o

I saw him last year – iwen isa epie guan o

To just say no, as in an interjection to state disbelief, or to negatively answer a question, say ania*

1: oiensek gu'an'ani iwen sam oien

2: Ania! iwen isa epi guan o!

Numbers
When counting nouns, the number is an adjective modifying the nouns so it follows the noun.

5 books – get sam

47 people – enti pridisdiet

=Dictionary= ...

=Example text=

Babel Text
1A. Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

Piset, oila toet solaler siota awe yu e.

That time, in all the world one way of speaking existed

2A. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

Tola donag kuen ren pon oila Shinar epploat suintori ie'en he shiset suiken ie'en.

To the East men moved same time in Shinar a plain they found and there they stayed.

3A. They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

ie'ensek lep “epsarok ser oiental he ep'e'en serjak oiental dola” shuiot ie'en. pronani arok epsarok muelat ie'en he mela tirn himo yu e

each other “let's make brick and dry them well” they said. Instead of stone brick they used and through tar mortar existed

4A. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

sha lep “itoiensek epti'ando he epkanes jist tola anent ser oiental ada itoiensek epent user oien he oala toet solaler ujihan'ani oien” shuiot ie'en.

Next “for ourselves a city and a tower to heaven tall let's make so for ourselves a name we might make and on the whole world be not scattered” they said.