Logglo



Introduction
Logglo is a Neo-Latin constructed language developed from 2016 to 2021 by Xavi Abadia (alias Xabadiar), who studied psychology at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Logglo is mainly influenced by Peano’s Interlingua (1903) and Michaux's Interlingua (AKA Romanal (1912)), and specially by Hogden’s Interglossa (1943), as well as Rosenberger’s Idiom Neutral (1902), Jespersen’s Novial (1928), and Brown's Loglan (1960).

The vocabulary is basically taken from Latin, not only Classical Latin, but also Vulgar Latin, Late Latin, Medieval Latin, Modern Latin, and Contemporary or ‘Wikipedia Latin’. While Interglossa’s lexicon was approximately half Greek and half Latin, the amount of Greek lexicon in Logglo is lower. To name a few examples: glossi ‘language’, bibli ‘book’, dáktili ‘finger’, psiki ‘mind’, zoi ‘animal’, kardi ‘heart’, dermi ‘skin’, hépati ‘liver’. In a few days I will add a provisional lexicon of about 3800 words.

After having tried several present morphological arrangements, perhaps the present one is the optimal. If additional modifications have to be done, I hope they will have to do with minor details. I dared to call this conlang Logglo (from lógiko glossi ‘logical language’) because this arrangement intends to be logical and simple:

* The stress is on the underlined vowels.

Stress
Most words are stressed on the vowel (or diphthong) just before the last consonant: ama ‘love’, fini ‘end’, lento ‘slow’.
 * When there is no last consonant, the stress is simply on the first vowel: di ‘day’ (24 hours), rei ‘thing’.
 * Since many Latin words are proparoxytone (arboris, facilis, camera, corporis, femina, hominis, liberus, nominis, numerus, oculus, temporis, etc.), we may indicate the irregular stress with a written accent: árbori ‘tree’, fácilo ‘easy’, cámeri ‘room’, kórpori ‘body’, fémini ‘woman’, hómini ‘person’, líbero ‘free’, nómini ‘name’, númeri ‘number’, ókuli ‘eye’, témpori ‘time’, etc.
 * Only the last element of compound words keeps the stress: lekti-c á meri ‘bedroom’, fini-y o ‘final’.
 * Unstressed grammatical particles end in u: ilu (definite article), du ‘of’, etc.

Writing system and phonology
Logglo uses the standard Roman alphabet of 26 letters. They sound like the corresponding symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet except the letters c /tʃ/, j /ʒ/, q /kw/, x /ʃ/, y /j/:

Click here to see IPA's consonants chart.

Grammar

 * Nouns are generally taken from the Latin root as seen in the genitive: anni ‘year’, aqi ‘water’, auri ‘gold’, braci ‘arm’, di ‘day’, domi ‘house’, faci ‘face’, famili ‘family’, fili ‘son or daughter’, fini ‘end’, fluvi ‘river’, frukti ‘fruit’, hori ‘hour’, igni ‘fire’, eqi/kaballi ‘horse’, kapilli ‘hair’, katti ‘cat’, klavi ‘key’, lakti ‘milk’, legi ‘law’, leoni ‘lion’, lupi ‘wolf’, mani ‘hand’, matri ‘mother’, muri ‘wall’, nasi ‘nose’, ori ‘mouth’, ovi ‘egg’, paci ‘peace’, pani ‘bread’, parti ‘part’, patri ‘father’, pekuni ‘money’, pluvi ‘rain’, sexi ‘sex’, stelli ‘star’, urbi ‘city’, vi ‘way’, wiri ‘man’; kasei ‘cheese’, koffei ‘coffee’, nuklei ‘nucleous’, olei ‘oil’; aurikli ‘ear’, lingui ‘tongue’, mensi ‘month’, ovikli ‘sheep’; etc.
 * A few nouns may keep the nominative form to get different from another one: musi ‘mouse’.
 * Rare cases: dei ‘god’, rei ‘thing’, etc.


 * The plural is indicated either with plu (from L plures ‘several’) like in Interglossa, or by some number or quantifier: cinqo kani ‘five dogs’, omno kani ‘all dogs’, plu kani ‘dogs’.


 * Pronouns end in i: mi ‘I, me’, ti ‘you’ (sg.), li ‘he/she’, mao-li ‘he,’ (from L masculus), feo-li ‘she,’ (from L feminea); reo-li ‘it,’ (from L res), lai ‘it’ (a fact), nosi ‘we, us’, vosi ‘you’ (pl.), lori ‘they’ (& mao-lori, feo-lori, reo-lori), homi ‘one’ (F. on, Ca. hom); relative pronouns (unstressed): keu; interrogative pronouns: qo homi (‘who?’), qo rei (‘what?’); qo lai (‘what (fact)?’); zero homi (‘noone, nobody’), zero rei (‘nothing’); omno homi (‘everyone, everybody’), omno rei (‘everything, all’).


 * The definite article is unstressed: ilu domi ‘the house’ /ilu'domi/, ilu plu domi ‘the houses’ /ilu plu'domi/.


 * Verbs end in a, in the form of the 1st person of the present: vola ‘fly’, videa ‘see’, vada ‘go’, kapia ‘take’, dormia ‘sleep’, volea ‘want’ (from Vulgar Latin), possa ‘can, may’ (from L possum), sa ‘be’ (from L sum).


 * Primary adjectives end in o: bono ‘good’, malo ‘bad’.
 * Secondary adjectives end in -yo ori-yo /ori'jo/ ‘oral’, anni-yo /anni'jo/ ‘yearly’.
 * Possessive adjectives end in u so there’s no need to add the article: miu ‘my’, tiu ‘your’ (sg.), liu ‘his/her/its’, nosu ‘our’, vosu ‘your’ (pl.), loru ‘their’ (simplified from: nosiu, vosiu, loriu); miu bibli ‘my book’.


 * Primary adverbs end in e: hike ‘here’, ibe ‘there’, intre ‘inside’, extre ‘outside’, supre ‘above’, infre ‘below’, nunce ‘now’, tunce ‘then’, sempre ‘always’, ite ‘so, like this’, ubiqe ‘everywhere’.


 * Adverbs from adjectives end in -ye: lento-ye ‘slowly’, fini-ye (instead of fini-yo-ye) ‘finally’.


 * Prepositions end in u: adu ‘to, towards’, antu ‘before’, du ‘of’, dumu ‘during’, exu ‘from’, interu ‘among, between’, inu ‘in, on, at’, juxtu ‘next to, beside’, kontru ‘against’, konu ‘with’, peru ‘by’, peu ‘by’ (passive agent), poru ‘for’ and pu ‘to’ (dative), postu ‘after’, sinu ‘without’, subtu ‘under’, supru ‘over’, transu ‘through’.
 * Conjunctions end in u as well: autu ‘or, either’, etu ‘and’, qandu ‘when’, qaru ‘because’, sedu ‘but’, siu ‘if’, ubu ‘where’, etc.


 * The numbers from 0 to 9: 0 zero, 1 mono, 2 duo, 3 trio, 4 qatro, 5 cinqo, 6 sexo, 7 septo, 8 okto, 9 novo.
 * Numbers will be written as digits inside formulae (H2O, CO2), inside proper nouns (R2P2, C3P2). Numbers in general may be written as digits.
 * From 10, numbers will be written as the international digits, and formed quite easily like in Interglossa; just remember that deko is a final zero, cento is a final double zero, and kilo is a final triple zero. (Yet you might express it with [-zero], [-zero-zero], and [-zero-zero-zero] as well.)
 * 10 [mono-deko (or: mono-zero)], 11 [mono-mono], 12 [mono-duo], 13 [mono-trio], 14 [mono-qatro], 15 [mono-cinqo], 16 [mono-sexo], 17 [mono-septo], 18 [mono-okto], 19 [mono-novo], 20 [duo-deko (or: duo-zero)], 21 [duo-mono], 22 [duo-duo], 23 [duo-trio], 24 [duo-qatro], 25 [duo-cinqo], 26 [duo-sexo], 27 [duo-septo], 28 [duo-okto], 29 [duo-novo], 30 [trio-deko (or: trio-zero)], 31 [trio-mono], 32 [trio-duo], 33 [trio-trio], 34 [trio-qatro], 35 [trio-cinqo], 36 [trio-sexo], 37 [trio-septo], 38 [trio-okto], 39 [trio-novo], 40 [qatro-deko (or: qatro-zero)], 41 [qatro-mono], 42 [qatro-duo], 43 [qatro-trio], 44 [qatro-qatro], 45 [qatro-cinqo], 46 [qatro-sexo], 47 [qatro-septo], 48 [qatro-okto], 49 [qatro-novo], 50 [cinqo-deko (or: cinqo-zero)], 51 [cinqo-mono], 52 [cinqo-duo], 53 [cinqo-trio], 54 [cinqo-qatro], 55 [cinqo-cinqo], 56 [cinqo-sexo], 57 [cinqo-septo], 58 [cinqo-okto], 59 [cinqo-novo], 60 [sexo-deko (or: sexo-zero)], 61 [sexo-mono], 62 [sexo-duo], 63 [sexo-trio], 64 [sexo-qatro], 65 [sexo-cinqo], 66 [sexo-sexo], 67 [sexo-septo], 68 [sexo-okto], 69 [sexo-novo], 70 [septo-deko (or: septo-zero)], 71 [septo-mono], 72 [septo-duo], 73 [septo-trio], 74 [septo-qatro], 75 [septo-cinqo], 76 [septo-sexo], 77 [septo-septo], 78 [septo-okto], 79 [septo-novo], 80 [okto-deko (or: okto-zero)], 81 [okto-mono], 82 [okto-duo], 83 [okto-trio], 84 [okto-qatro], 85 [okto-cinqo], 86 [okto-sexo], 87 [okto-septo], 88 [okto-okto], 89 [okto-novo], 90 [novo-deko (or: novo-zero)], 91 [novo-mono], 92 [novo-duo], 93 [novo-trio], 94 [novo-qatro], 95 [novo-cinqo], 96 [novo-sexo], 97 [novo-septo], 98 [novo-okto], 99 [novo-novo], 100 [mono-cento (or: mono-zero-zero)], 101 [mono-zero-mono], 102 [mono-zero-duo], 103 [mono-zero-trio], 104 [mono-zero-qatro], 105 [mono-zero-cinqo], 106 [mono-zero-sexo], 107 [mono-zero-septo], 108 [mono-zero-okto], 109 [mono-zero-novo], 110 [mono-mono-deko (or: mono-mono-zero)], 11a [mono-mono-mono], … 200 [duo-cento] (or: duo-zero-zero), … 300 [trio-cento (or: trio-zero-zero)], … 400 [qatro-cento (or: qatro-zero-zero)], … 500 [cinqo-cento (or: cinqo-zero-zero)], … 600 [sexo-cento (or: sexo-zero-zero)], … 700 [septo-cento (or: septo-zero-zero)], … 800 [okto-cento (or: okto-zero-zero)], … 900 [novo-cento (or: novo-zero-zero)], … 1000 [mono-kilo (or: mono-zero-zero-zero)], 1001 [mono-zero-zero-mono], 1002 [mono-zero-zero-duo], … 2000 [duo-kilo (or: duo-zero-zero-zero)], 2001 [duo-zero-zero-mono], 2002 [duo-zero-zero-duo], …
 * You may express a number with etu ‘and’ inside: trio-cento etu sexo-cinqo (literally ‘300 and 65’) = trio-sexo-cinqo (365); mono-kilo etu duo-cinqo-deko (literally ‘1000 and 250’) = mono-duo-cinqo-deko (1250); anni mono-novo-okto-qatro ‘year 1984’; anni duo-kilo etu duo-deko ‘year 2020’.
 * Decimals are expressed with etu and deci-: 3.15159 [trio etu deci-mono-cinqo-mono-cinqo-novo]. Examples: di habea 24 [duo-qatro] hori ‘Day has twenty four hours’; anni sólito habea 365 [trio-sexo-cinqo] di ‘Usual year has 365 days’.
 * The ordinal ends in -yo: decembri sa mensi mono-duo-yo du anni ‘December is the twelfth month of year’.
 * The clock time may be expressed with the special preposition kronu (from Gr kronos): kronu septo (= kronu hori septo-yo) ‘at seven’, kronu septo trio-deko ‘at seven thirty’.
 * The days of the month may be expressed with diu (from L dies): diu septo (= inu di septo-yo).
 * The days of the week: luni-di, marti-di, merkuri-di, jovi-di, veneri-di, saturni-di, soli-di. Saturday and Sunday preserve the classic Latin astrological terms (as preserved today in English.)


 * Quantifiers end in o: pauko ‘few’, multo ‘many’, omno ‘all, every’, pluso ‘more’, mino ‘fewer’, etc.


 * Capital letters will appear basically in acronyms: DNA (= desoxiribo-nuklei-yo ácidi), pronounced /dənə'a/, perhaps with an hiatus. Unlike in English, the initial of proper nouns and the first letter of sentences are lowercase. Here is a spelling key:


 * Like in Loglan/Lojban, proper nouns will be written in lowercase, and will be preceded by the special article lu (equivalent to Loglan/Lojban’s la). Proper nouns may end in any vowel or consonant, but they usually end in i: lu soli ‘the Sun’, lu luni ‘the Moon’, lu terri ‘the Earth’, lu mundi ‘the World’, lu marti ‘Mars’ (or: planeti lu marti), lu universi ‘the Universe’, lu lakti-vi ‘the Milky Way’, (urbi) lu berlin ‘(city of) Berlin’, lu italio-landi ‘Italy’, lu franco-landi ‘France’, lu ispano-landi ‘Spain’; lu zamenhof, lu elon-musk; lu esperanto, lu interglossa, lu franco-glossi ‘French (language)’; lu plu beatles ‘the Beatles’.
 * As we’ll see below in our translation of ‘Le petit prince’, the narration refers not to ilu mikro príncipi ‘the little prince’ and ilu vulpi ‘the fox’, but already to lu mikro-príncipi and lu vulpi, with the special article.


 * The negative is expressed with none, from Latin non: mi none eda karni. ‘I don’t eat meat.’


 * In Logglo the syntactical structure by default is SV (Subject + Verb), or SVO (Subject + Verb + Object): mi biba vini ‘I drink wine’. The structure OVS may be expressed as a passive expression (explained later).


 * This conlang will avoid polysemy: every word will have one meaning: lingui ‘tongue’ (anatomy), glossi ‘language’; psiki ‘mind’, mentoni ‘chin’; muri ‘wall’, musi ‘mouse’; janui ‘door’, porti ‘port’.


 * Compound words: We have already seen lakti-vi (= vi lakti-yo); lekti-cámeri /lekti'tʃameri/ ‘bedroom’, koqa-cámeri /kokwa'tʃameri/ ‘kitchen’, lit. ‘cook room’, pomi-árbori /pomi'arbori/ ‘apple-tree’, eleva-macini (= macini keu eleva) ‘elevator’. As mentioned, only the last element of compound words keeps the stress. The written hyphen inside compound words make the language more clear.


 * Primary adjectives take the form of the Latin root as seen in the genitive, and add a final o: bono ‘good’, malo ‘bad’, grando ‘big’, pejoro ‘worse’, minoro ‘minor’;
 * Secondary adjectives end in -yo: mani-yo ‘manual’, matri-yo ‘maternal’, fini-yo ‘final’.


 * Abstract qualities end in -yi: libero-yi, eqo-yi, fraterno-yi ‘‘liberté, egalité, fraternité’.


 * The comparative is formed with mage ‘more’ and mine ‘less’, as well as tame ‘as’ (from L tam), followed by qamu ‘than, as’.
 * The superlative is formed with máxime ‘most’, and mímine ‘least’.


 * Verbs end in a: vola ‘fly’, videa ‘see’, vada ‘go’, kapia ‘take’, dormia ‘sleep’, volea ‘want’, fia ‘become’.


 * Latin deponent verbs are taken as active verbs, according to Vulgar Latin: naska ‘be born’.


 * The infinitive ends in -ya: sa-ya autu none sa-ya ‘to be or not to be’.


 * The dative is expressed with the particle pu (‘for’, from L pro, VL por, F pour): pu mi, pu ti, pu li, pu nosi, pu vosi, pu lori.


 * Both the past and the perfect tense are expressed with the special particle pre (from L prae) before the verb, just like Interglossa’s pre: mi pre dormia ‘I slept, I have slept’. Hobgen agreed with Peano that there is no need to complicate things with two different kinds of past (recent and remote). An eventual adverb may indicate how recent or remote the past is: hodie mi pre biba multo cervisi, ‘today I've drunk a lot of beer.’
 * The pluperfect is expressed with pre pre, like in Interglossa: mi pre pre dormia pauko hori ‘I had slept few hours’.


 * The future tense is expressed with the auxiliary ve like Novial’s ve, from L vado -ere (> French va ‘goes, gonna’). li ve venia ‘he/she will come’.
 * The future perfect is expressed with the double auxiliary ve pre: mi ve pre venia ‘I will have come’.


 * Continuous tenses are expressed with the auxiliary verb sta (from L sto -are) plus the gerund, as seen among Romance languages: li sta lekta-ye ‘he/she is reading.’


 * The nouns of verbal actions end in -yi: nuntia-yi ‘announcement’, advenia-yi ‘arrival’, usa-yi ‘usage’.


 * Abstract qualities end in -yi: libero-yi, eqo-yi, fraterno-yi ‘liberté, egalité, fraternité’.


 * The passive participle ends in -zo: ama-zo ‘loved’, fakia-zo ‘done’, videa-zo ‘seen’.


 * The passive verb is expressed with za (a variation of sa) plus the passive participle: ilu bibli za skriba-zo peu mi ‘the book is written by me’.


 * The gerund ends in -ye: biba-ye ‘drinking’, kurra-ye ‘running’.


 * The conditional is expressed with posse: mi posse venia ‘I would come’. In contrast, ‘can, may’ is possa, and ‘maybe’ is forse.


 * Questions are expressed with qo ‘what, which’ and qe (for yes/no questions), from Latin quis quae quid: qe ti fuma? ‘Do you smoke?’; se ‘yes’ (si is usual among Romance languages, from L sic ‘thus’); none ‘no’; ti pre fakia qo rei? ‘what have you done?’ Remember to keep the SVO structure, as usual in French: ‘tu as fait quoi?’; qande ti ve venia? ‘when will you come?’; ube ti labora? (from L ubi) ‘where do you work?’


 * The imperative is expressed with te, in contrast with ti ‘you’ (sing.), both from Latin tu/te: te kavea kani ‘Cave canem’.
 * The vocative is expressed with te as well, as it is like a special imperative indeed (‘hear!’): te mediko-pei, te kura ti ipso ‘Medice, cura te ipsum’.
 * The subjunctive is not so important in this conlang, but if necessary for literal translations, it may be expressed with the particle ju before the pronoun, from L subjunctivus, I congiuntivo: ju li venia Veniat, ‘he/she come’. 

Lexicon
I am currently developing a vocabulary, based on the vocabulary of Peano’s Interlingua (1915) and a few other sources:
 * The Wikipedia (especially the Latin Vicipaedia)
 * Etymonline
 * Google Translate
 * Bodmer's word-list
 * The Oxford English Mini Dictionary
 * The Dictionary of Romaniczo (a former version which included translations to English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Ido, and Gode’s Interlingua).
 * The Diczionàrio Neolatino by Bruno Zani (Neolatino, Italian, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Romanian, Occitan, English)
 * The Diccionari Català-Valencià-Balear

English
By Xavi Abadia. 13 October 2021.