Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Ajective, Separating particle, Compounds,"The", Tense, Location
go - I [Latin ego]
zi - you [German Sie]
da - he, she, it, or they [Loglan da]
(da is actually seldom used in this way. The third person is commonly represented by letter-names)
gozi - We (including you) This is the first
compound word you encounter. It is
pronounced GO-zi.
goda - We (excluding you)
zida - You (including others not addressed)
(In these last two, be sure to pronounce both syllables distinctly, so the
final -a does NOT become schwa.
Parts of speech are quite different in Ceqli. They resemble Loglan usage more than anything else. We have the pronouns, some of which are given above, and then we have root-words (korenvor) which are analagous to English nouns, verbs, ajectives, adverbs, and prepositions. How can this be?
Here are some examples:
ga - big, is big, a big thing [Spanish GrAnde]
jin is a person, is a human being [Japanese jin]
ja go, is a goer [Hindi JA]
cnel fast, is fast, is a fast thing [German SCHNEL]
sur is on top of, is an on-top sort of thing [French SUR]
go ga. I am big.
go jin. I am a person.
go ja. I go.
go cnel. I am fast, am a fast thing.
go sur. I am on top. I am an on-top thing.
Ceqli ajectives, adverbs, prepositions, and nouns carry the notion of "to be" within them, and are really indistinguishable from verbs.
Some more vocabulary to illustrate:
pi - small [Italian PIccolo]
grin - green [English green (henceforward, when a word is obviously from English, I won't bother pointing out its origin)]
kiqo - king
gayr - dog [Irish]
dom - house [Russian dom, latin DOMus]
to - the [Greek to]
di - animal [English DEEr, which originally meant "animal"]
to gayr di. The dog is an animal.
to gayr to di. The dog is the animal.
to gayr pi. The dog is small.
to dom ga. The house is big.
to gayrdom pi. The doghouse is small. (another compound word)
But, as in Chinese and English, ajectives also modify nouns by preceding them, but there is a special rule for that. First we`ll add some vocabulary:
kwa - what, which, as a demonstrative pronoun [French quoi]
kwasa what, which, as a demonstrative ajective
dan - in, inside [French dans]
ti - (works like "to", but identifies what follows as a proper name) [a priori]
jay - place, location [Hindi Jay]
kwajay - where
sta - to be located [Spanish eSTA]
jozo sta kwajay? Where is Joe? (lit. Joe is located what-place?)
jozo dan to dom. Joe is in the house.
kwa dom? Which house?
to gayr sa dom. The dog house.
SA - Separator particle
The sa prevents gayr and dom from combining into a compound word. What would the difference be? Well, in the dialog above, the reference is to a dog house, not a doghouse. "Doghouse" has a specific meaning, a small house for a dog to live in. But "dog house" can mean many things. In the dialog, it could mean "the house that has a dog in the front yard" or the veterinary`s house (who specializes in dogs), or even "the house that looks like a dog."
This may seem trivial, but it is not. Ceqli, like English, Chinese, and German, is a language in which compound words are very important. Both Esperanto and Loglan took the path of minimizing vocabulary by the use of extensive compounding, and Ceqli does the same. More vocabulary:
blu blue
fawl bird [English fowl]
gun gun (English, but pronounced "goon.")
byel white [Russian byeli]
So here are some contrasts between ajective-noun phrases and true compounds:
fawlgayr - Bird dog (a dog used to hunt birds)
fawl sa gayr - Bird dog (a dog somehow birdlike, or related to birds)
In the second example, the phrase could mean the dog that has bird wings, the dog who right now has a bird in his mouth (though he may be a poodle), or, conceivably, the dog who belongs to a bird, or to which a bird belongs.
blufawl - Bluebird
blu sa fawl - Blue bird (simply, a bird that is blue, even if it`s an ostrich)
gunjin - Gunman
gun sa jin - Gun man (the man who sells guns, repairs guns, has a picture of a gun on his shirt, whatever)
byeldom - White House
byel sa dom - a house that is white
to ga sa jin - The big person
to gajin - The giant
to pi sa jin - The small person
to pijin - The midget
Note that sa may be omitted when it is not necessary for clarity:
zi ten hawsa gayr. and
zi ten haw gayr.
Mean the same thing, but if it's feared that the latter will be heard as hawgayr insert the sa."
Finally, sa may be written as a separate word or affixed like a suffix to the word before it, when it is setting off a single word:
to ga sa gayr = to gasa gayr
However, when sa is showing that the preceding phrase modifies what follows, it must be written as a separate word: to go padey xaw sa gayr - the dog I saw yesterday
More vocabulary:
kom - to eat, be an eater [Spanish COMer]
dorma - to sleep, be a sleeper (all verbs behave this way) [French dormir]
kan - to read [Mandarin kan]
gra - to write [Greek graf]
pan - bread [Spanish pan]
do - now, present particle [English do]
fu - after, future particle [English FUture]
pa - before, past particle [English PAst]
gi - -ing, progressive particle [roughly, from English ending "InG"
ten - to have [Spanish TENer]
pyar to love [Hindi pyari]
pipyar - to like (another compound)
Ceqli follows Chinese more closely than English in its use of sa.
to kom sa jin -The "eat" person. Can mean the person who is eating, or being eaten, or the person who cooks a lot. But it can be made more specific:
to kom pan sa jin The person who eats, ate, will eat bread. The "eat bread" person
In such cases as these, where a phrase, rather than a single work, is modifying a noun, sa is probably always necessary, and not omittable.
"THE" WORDS -ARTICLES
Generally, words of the shape tV and tVV (that is, the letter 't' followed by one or two vowels) are reserved for articles in Ceqli.
to - This is much like English "the," meaning "the one already mentioned or generally known about."
go xaw to dom. I see the house. [xaw from German schau]. That is, a house that had already been mentioned or discussed. You do not need to in sentences like:
go xaw dom hu go pa dwel.
ta - This is an article based on the Loglan "lo," and means "the mass of all." It's used in instances where English does several things:
ta gayr kom karne Dogs eat meat, or the dog (as a species) eats meat, or a dog (meaning a typical dog) eats meat. It is used to refer to set of things in general.
ta jin ten ga sa breyn.
te - simply means that a noun phrase follows. It can be used as an "indefinite" article.
go xaw te dom. I see a house.
But what it actually does is separate a verb from what follows (like sa separates a modifier from the modified), keeping the phrase from being heard or read as go xawdom - I am a see-house, whatever that might mean.
tay - This is the foreign word marker:
Go xaw tay Mississippi. - I see the Mississippi.
Go pa kom tay sushi - I ate sushi.
betay - This is a "close parenthesis" for foreign words, in case of a high probability of ambiguity. Think of it as tay means "a foreign word begins," and betay means "a foreign word ends."
tay-betay constructions are useful for defining:
tay manger betay smin toy kom betoy hu ceqlizo. "Manger" means "eat" in Ceqli.
Also, in such constructions, the source language name can be inserted after the tay:
taygermanzobol Hund betay smin toy gayr betoy hu ceqlizo. German "Hund" means "dog" in Ceqli.
toy, betoy These are spoken quotation marks. As in Loglan and frequently in English, the punctuation is audible:
da pa bol go "ven ci." Would be spoken:
da pa bol go toy ven ci betoy. [bol from Hindi bolna]
And, as usual, if context and tone of voice and pauses make everything clear, the spoken punctuation can be dispensed with. For that matter:
pu is the pronunciation of ".", period. It would seldom be needed, but it`s there for clarity. Of course, it`s used a lot in mathematical expressions:
Likewise, "beto" and "beta" are available to "close parentheses" on "to" and "ta" when necessary.
TENSE IN TCEQLI
As in Mandarin, tense can be left out entirely:
go ja dom. I go (to the) house. [ja from Hindi JAna]
can be past, present, or future.
And tense can certainly be left out if it's made clear by other words:
go ja padey. I went yesterday. [dey from English day]
Or, the tense markers can be used to tense verbs in the obvious manner:
go do kan to hon. I (now) read the book. [hon from Japanese hon]
And they can combine to make more complex tenses
zi pa gi xaw to teli. You were watching television. [teli from British slang 'telly']
The latter will probably seldom be used. It emphasizes the current state of having been, rather than the past state. To say "I have been reading the book," for example, you think first about what the English means. If you mean you started reading the book in the
past and have read it up to the present, use the form:
go til do kan to hon. I till now read the book.
If you just mean that you have read it sometime in the past, you can use either
go pa kan to hon. or: Go do pa kan to hon.
Following the lead of Esperanto, you also have available these forms:
go pa fu pley pawboli. I was going to (was about to) play football.
And to make other "tenses", other words:
stey to stay, remain, still
go stey dwel Hamerizohaym. I still live in America.
These markers become conjunctions with the addition of ke (that):
go pa kom pake zi ven. I ate before you came.
Actually, such words are thought of as prepositions rather than conjunctions in Ceqli. There is a set of prepositions that do NOT belong with the korenvor. Its very small, and they have very basic meanings.
WORD ORDER
Ceqli word order is basically SVO, that is, subject-verb-object.
jozo jafa to tomo. Joe drives the car.
But to emphasize the object, or make it the topic of the sentence, it can be OSV:
to tomo, jozo jafa. Joe drives the car. (or) The car, Joe drives.
This might be used to answer a question like: "Joe drives what?"
Likewise, to emphasize or topicalize the verb, the order can be VOS:
jafa to tomo, jozo. Joe drives the car.
This might be used to answer a question like: "Joe does what with the car?"
Note the use of the comma to indicate a pause. This signals the reader or listener that the word order is modified from standard SVO.
THE IMPERATIVE
The Ceqli imperative is not grammatical, as it is in Esperanto. There are several ways to make an imperative:
ven ci. Come here.
This is as in English, and is simply the unadorned verb. Probably not often used.
ciq bwa bir. Please have a beer.
ciq means "invite," from the Mandarin, and can be considered a shortening of:
go ciq ke zi bwa bir. I invite that you drink beer.
Likewise, verbs of various meaning can be used in shortened ways:
pri pomo go. Beg, help me.
deman stu ci. Request, sit here.
fo stey ca. Need, stay there.
dwa ven heym. Must, come home.
sala taylho solgu. Recommend, join army.
TWO KINDS OF MODIFICATION
There are two methods of modification. The Mandarin style:
to blusa dom sta cu. The blue house is there.
The sa says that what goes before it modifies what comes next. (note that it can, as above, be added without a space with no change in meaning.)
do gi kom pan sa jino bi gosa zbanpamo.
The man eating bread now is my father-in-law.
This is the Mandarin way of modification with either a single word or a phrase. Literally:
The now-eating-bread man is my father-in-law.
The modifying phrase can also have the modified as an object as well as a subject.
go xaw sa dom grin. The house I saw is green. (or, go xaw sa dom, da grin. See below.)
Literally, "The I-see house is green."
The other method is with hu, which suggests English "who," and means that what follows modifies what came before:
go pa xaw to dom hu zi dwel. I saw the house you live in.
Literally: "I saw the house which you live."
go pa dui to gayr hu pa tsanku to felin.
I found the dog that bit the cat.
In this case, the grammar is exactly like English.
Why two ways? For flexibility and clarity. When a noun is the subject of a sentence it will often be clearer to use the Mandarin form.
to go pa baw sa dom sta cu.
The house I built is there.
On the other hand, if it's the object, the English way seems less confusing:
go pa baw to dom hu gosa pampami dwel.
I built the house your grandmother lives in.
kyu zi jan gosa fren hu bekyam "janzo"?
Do you know my friend whose name is John?
kyu simply turns a statement into a question. It is used in Ceqli instead of a change in word order, as in many languages. Its pronounced like the name of the English letter "Q," suggesting a question.
KE
The Ceqli word ke is used exactly like the Esperanto word.
go jan zi sta ca. I know you are there.
go jan ke zi sta ca. I know that you are there.
Again, it is optional, to be used when ambiguity might otherwise result. It can be "closed" like quotation marks or parentheses, with beke.
Ke zi filo janzo beke fey hay.
da
The word da can clarify a sentence:
to gasa daryasol hu zi pa gi tembol sta ci.
Now, it is likely one could get lost in that sentence,
so da can be used, in the French mode:
to gasa daryasol hu zi pa gi bol, da sta ci.
The big sailor you were talking about, he is here.
In fact, da can always be used in this way, to
separate the subject from the verb:
to gayr, da kom to karne.
On the off chance that the listener might hear
to gayr kom to karne.
As
to gayrkom to karne.
Which is meaningless, but could be confusing.
Of course, it is equally effective to close the to.
to gayr beto kom to karne.
But the "da" usage would seem to be much more natural.
Think of Hercule Poirot saying:
"The thief, he is in this room"
HERE, THERE, AND OVER THERE
Ceqli follows the Spanish and Japanese patterns by having three position adverbs:
ci - here (near the speaker)
ca - there (near the person addressed)
cu - over there, yonder (remote from both the speaker and the person addressed)
Derived from them with the addition of ba are the demonstrative pronouns:
ciba - this one (near the speaker)
caba - that one (near the person addressed)
cuba - that one over there, yonder (remote from both the speaker and the person addressed)
They stand alone as pronouns.
With the addition of sa, the position words become demonstrative ajectives.
cisa - this (near the speaker)
casa - that (near the person addressed)
cusa - that over there, yonder (remote from both the speaker and the person addressed)
zi ten kwa? You have what? (What do you have?)
go sta ci I am here. (I am-at this thing)
janzo sta ca. John is there (by you). (John is-at there.)
cisa gayr ga. This dog is big.
casa felin pi. That cat is small.
cusa karne hoq. That meat (over there) is red.
Or the sa can be left out if no confusion will result.
ci gayr ga. This dog is big.
ca felin pi. That cat is small.
cu karne hoq. That meat (over there) is red.
ciba haw. This (one) is good.
caba tro ga. That (one) is too big.
cuba beten go. That (one) (over there) belongs to me.
The ba form is the most general. Obviously, other words can be used:
cijin - this (person)
cadiq - that (thing) etc.
And, of course, the ba may be left out if the meaning is clear
ci haw. This (one) is good.
ca tro ga. That (one) is too big.
cu beten go. That (one) (over there) belongs to me.
These can also mean "Here is good," "There is too big", and "Over there belongs to me," but context would usually make the other meaning obvious.
So, in general, it's best to use the full forms at first, and gradually get used to when and where the abbreviated forms might suffice.
cisa hon sta ci, as opposed to the short form:
ci hon sta ci
to do kom pan sa jin The person who eats bread now.
to do gi kom pan sa jin The person who is eating bread now.
to pa gi kom pan sa jin The person who was eating bread.
to pan sa jin The bread man
to gun sa jin The gun person.
to ten gun sa jin The person who has, had, or will have a gun
to pipyar gun sa jin The person who likes guns.
I see the house I lived in.
Because it has not been previously mentioned or discussed. In any case, to can be dispensed with and little loss of clarity will result.
means
Man has a big brain, or human beings have a big brain. It's a statement about jin in general.
3.1416 is pronounced "tri pu han kwar han xey".
taw, betaw Simply stand for "(" and ")", that is, the left parenthesis and the right parenthesis. If the pauses in speech don`t clarify that there is a parenthetical expression, the words can be used.
go ja fudey. I`ll go tomorrow.
zi pa kom to karne. You ate the meat. [karne from Romance languages in general]
da fu ja to dom. He will go to the house.
go gi pron to cwaq. I (am, was, will be) lying on the bed. [cwaq from Mandarin chuang]
go do gi dorma. I am sleeping.
da fu gi pawja. He will be walking.
go pa pa kom to pan. I had eaten the bread.
zi fu pa ven heym. You will have come home.
go do pa sta franzohaym. I have been in France.
(Note that heym means home, and haym means country.)
The latter form emphasizes the current condition, that is, of having read the book. The former emphasizes the past event. Similar to English "I read the book" vs. "I have read the book."
go fu fu tom to kreyon. I will be going to take the pencil.
go bu stey kam sta to birdom. I no longer work at the bar.
go stey bu dui gosa pulo. I still haven't (haven't yet) found my hat.
to gayr pa dorma gike go pawja. The dog slept while I walked.
go sa zbani pa kom fuke gosa fil. My wife ate after my child(ren) (ate).
That you are John's son may be true.
The big sailor you were talking about is here.
The dog, it eats the meat.
"To curjin, da dan ci sa cam."
zi ten kwasa hon? You have what book? (Which or what book do you have?)
zi ten ciba You have this.
zi ten cisa hon You have this book.
zi ten caba You have that.
zi ten casa hon You have that book.
zi ten cuba You have that one over there.
zi ten cusa hon You have that book over there.