User:Sir Beluga/Globasa

Bonata! ("Welcome!") This page presents a brief but comprehensive reference grammar for the international language Globasa.

Note: When a section of text is colored grey, that means that part is optional and is usually left out.

Alphabet
Globasa shares the letters of the English alphabet, with the exception of q.

Stress

 * Placed on the last vowel when a word ends in a consonant:
 * jab a l mountain
 * Placed on the second-to-last vowel when a word ends in a vowel:
 * est u di study
 * kr o a frog
 * As consonants, w and y are never stressed:
 * D u nya Earth
 * Non-grammatical words that consist of a single syllable are always stressed:
 * g a s gas
 * It is up to the speaker whether to stress grammatical words or not.

Pronouns
To emphasize self, seli is placed before the subject pronoun.
 *  seli mi I myself
 *  seli ete they themselves

To emphasize gender, the prefixes fem- and man- may be attached to te or ete.
 *  fem te she/her
 *  man te he/him
 *  fem ete they/them (all female)
 *  man ete they/them (all male)

To express a noun indirectly, a pronoun must be in its place.
 * Dua to sen maxmo bon kom un to . Two are better than one.

Nouns
There is no singular–plural distinction.
 * uma horse, horses

There are no articles.
 * mahi a fish, the fish

Most nouns do not inherently indicate gender.
 * gami wife, husband, spouse
 * kuku hen, rooster, chicken

Apposition is done when the second noun element identifies the first.
 * Bahari Pacifiko  Pacific Ocean
 * Xaher Neoyork  New York City
 * kitabu Kilo Nuecen Ocodes Care  the book Nineteen Eighty-Four
 * misu sodar Alis  my sister Alice

Abstract nouns can be formed from concrete nouns, adjectives and adverbs by using the suffix -ya.
 * atre ya  parenthood (atre parent)
 * hox ya  happiness (hox happy)

Noun–verbs
Many words in Globasa can be both nouns and verbs.
 * Te lala bon lala . S/he sings a good song.
 * Mi yam tiga yam fe moy din. I eat three meals every day.

Verbs
The particle na marks the infinitive.

The main copula is sen (to be).
 * Sola sen brilapul. The Sun is bright.

Globasa's auxiliary verbs function also as adjectives or adverbs, rather than as nouns. There are only three auxiliary verbs: abil (can; which can, able/capable), ingay (should; which should) and musi (have to, must; which must).
 * Mi abil na doxo. I can read.
 * Mi ingay na doxo. I should read.
 * Mi musi na doxo. I have to read. / I must read.

Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives go before nouns.
 *  kijawi gras green grass

Adverbs have more flexibility in terms of position.
 *  Hox, ete swikara teyan. Happily , they accept the offer.
 * Ete hox swikara teyan. They happily accept the offer.
 * Ete swikara teyan hox . They accept the offer happily.

To turn an adjective into an adverb that can modify verbs, no change in form is needed.
 * bon good, well
 * asan easy, easily

To turn a noun into an adjective or adverb, use the suffix -li.
 * syensi li metode scientific method (syensi science)
 * digita li penci digitally edit (digita digit)

To turn an adjective into an adverb that can modify other adjectives and adverbs, attach the suffix -mo.
 * luminkal mo roso dark red

Globasa supports adjective phrases.
 * basa palado fal mega insan  the language spoken by a million people
 * fleytora maxmo velosi kom soti  the airplane faster than sound

Degree can be expressed with daydenmo.
 * Daydenmo yukwe! How pleasant!
 * Daydenmo gao drevo! What a tall tree!

Questions
Word order does not change for questions.

Conjunctions
A range of conjunctions that are derived from the conjunction ki (that):


 * celki so that
 * durki while
 * fe folo ki such that
 * fe hataya ki although
 * fe kompara ki whereas
 * fe kosa ki because
 * fe tayti ki instead of (+sentence)
 * feki that
 * finki until (+sentence)
 * folki the more/less
 * koski because
 * leki before (+sentence)
 * temki about which
 * xaki after/once (+sentence)
 * xorki since (+sentence)

Prepositions
The prefixes nen- (non-) and pos- (opposite) are found appended to certain prepositions:

The preposition cel (to) can be combined with certain other prepositions:

Some derived prepositions incorporate the preposition fe (of/at):

Phrasal prepositions with fe and de can be used for location:

Prepositional phrases
Prepositional phrases can appear anywhere in a sentence. Before the verb, they require commas.

Indirect object
The preposition tas (to/for) marks the indirect object.
 * Yu le gibe yawxe tas mi. You gave the keys to me.
 * Yu le gibe tas mi yawxe. You gave me the keys.
 *  Tas mi yu le gibe yawxe. To me, you gave the keys.

Word order
Noun phrase: determiner→possessive determiner→quantifier (quantity)→adverb→adjective→noun Verb phrase: tense→affirmation/negation→adverb (adj/adv)→adverb (verb)→verb

that their one very fast car will not enough slowly drive That one very fast car of theirs will not drive slowly enough.
 * Den etesu un daymo velosi mobil xa no kufimo hanman xofer.