Ideas of Panglo
Principles of Panglo
Panglo is fair. Everybody has an equal chance of learning and speaking Panglo well. It is supposed to be the great equalizer — a way of communicating that everybody can use on the same level.
Panglo is evenly global. It borrows words from from all regions and all cultures of the world. It is the world language that stands for the whole world!
Panglo is practical. It re-uses things that have already become international, including the basic Latin alphabet, basic words from English, and international words from Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Chinese and Arabic, among others. That way Panglo can be used in real international communication right from the start.
Panglo is simple. In international situations it is best to use plain words, short sentences and simple language because they are much more effective than specialized words, long sentences and complex language. So, let's keep it simple!
Panglo feels real. It is like a lost relative of English that seems to be of the same kind as English but that is at the same time distinctly its own kind. In this regard it is similar to the real relatives of English (like German, Dutch, Afrikaans and the Scandinavian languages) and the children of English (like Jamaican, Singaporean and Nigerian versions of English).
Evenly global
Is it really global?
Panglo really is global! The first thing that you probably notice about Panglo is that it looks and sounds something like English but in fact the English words are only the tip of the iceberg. A lot more is hidden under the surface! Panglo is much more diverse than what one might see at first sight.
The more you study Panglo, the more cosmopolitan it appears.
Why all languages are not included?
The figure below shows cumulative distribution of the 50 most spoken native languages. The figure tells that:
- 25 percent of the world population speaks the top-3 languages
- 50 percent of the world speaks the top-13 languages
- 75 percent of the world speaks the top-50 languages
The remaining languages – there are over 6000 of them! – are outside the picture. The curve, which is steep at the beginning, turns virtually into a flat line when it approaches the last language, which is spoken only by a handful of people.
The figure indicates that beyond a certain point including one more language to the mix wouldn't make the interlanguage significantly more international. For example, if the top-50 languages were already included, adding the 51st language wouldn't make much of a difference, ecause it would increase the coverage from 75.07% to 75.43%.
One can also question the practical implications of including 51 languages versus 50. The increase in coverage would be marginal, only 0.36%, and it would not help the remaining 24.24% of the world who speak other, smaller languages!
Figure. Percentage of world population by language by number of native speakers.
The vocabulary of Panglo is based on the most spoken languages. They cover all continents and all major modern cultures of the world. They also have a lot of international words in common with less spoken languages. That's why Panglo-like words can be found also in smaller languages.
Useful in real life
Panglo is meant to be a useful language in real life. What does it mean? It means that you can speak it immediately in hotels, shops, taxis, airports, train stations, etc... It means that you can understand road signs and signboards of hotels, bars and restaurants. It means that you can make yourself understood.
Panglo is open. You are allowed to use words from other languages in Panglo. Use whatever is necessary to make yourself understood! You may say, for example, mi wan gow do "fan dien" in China, even though restoran is the normal word for restaurant in Panglo. It's more important to get to the restaurant than to speak perfect Panglo, isn't it?
Panglo is not a secret language for a small club or a cult. It's more important to be able to communicate with everybody in practice than to protect "the purity of our language" in theory.
What Panglo should sound like?
Panglo is spoken in the "continental" manner. It means that the Germanic part of Panglo sounds rather like German, Dutch and the Scandinavian languages, and the Romance part sounds like Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French.
Continental pronunciation is typically the original way of pronouncing words. That's why spelling is much more phonetic in Panglo than in English!
For example, the words nation and native are related. So let's compare how they are spelled and pronounced in different languages.
| Language | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | nation | /neɪʃən/ | native | /neɪtiv/ |
| German | Nation | /natsio:n/ | native | /nativə/ |
| Dutch | natie | /na:tsi/ | – | – |
| Russian | нация | /natsiya/ | – | – |
| French | nation | /nasyõ/ | natif | /natif/ |
| Spanish | nación | /nasyon/ | nativo | /natiβo/ |
| Portuguese | nação | /nasãũ/ | nativo | /natʃivu/ |
| Panglo | nation | /nation/ | native | /nativə/ |
In this case Panglo brings the spelling and pronunciation back to their roots.
Minimalism?
One of the goals of Panglo is to have less words to be memorized than English and other natural languages, but it's not meant to be absolutely minimal. Therefore there can be some near-synonyms, like frende and doste, both of which mean 'friend'.
Easy sentences
In this section we will compare the sentence structures of Panglo with English and Chinese, the two most widely spoken languages of the world.
The normal sentence word order is subject–verb–object – just like in English and Chinese.
English: I love you, and you love me.
Panglo: mi love tu, tu love mi.
Chinese: Wǒ ài nǐ, nǐ ài wǒ. (我爱你，你爱我。)
The auxiliary verb ben is used when the object of the action comes first in the sentence. (This is called the passive clause.)
English: Apples were eaten.
Panglo: aple ben yam.
Chinese: Píngguǒ bèi chī le. (苹果被吃了。)
ben is more or less similar to Standard Chinese bèi and English be, but it is never inflected like the latter one.
English: It can not be eaten.
Panglo: dey no kan ben yam.
Chinese: Tā bù néng bèi chī. (它不能被吃。)
Like Chinese, Panglo doesn't mark verbs with a word like "to".
English: I ask him to drink coffee.
Panglo: mi ples hi yam kafe.
Chinese: Wǒ qǐng tā hē kāfēi. (我请他喝咖啡。)
In Panglo and Chinese, nouns can be singular or plural depending on surrounding words. There's no plural ending like -s in English. Also verbs are not conjugated. In Panglo, one word, es, is used instead of am, is, are, was, were...
English: It is an apple.
Panglo: hi es aple.
Chinese: Tā shì píngguǒ. (他是苹果。)
English: They are apples.
Panglo: dey es aple.
Chinese: Tāmen shì píngguǒ. (他们是苹果。)
The 12 basic rules of Panglo
Panglo is so simple that its basic grammar can be described in only twelve rules, all of which can fit on a sheet of paper. There are no exceptions.
-
World words
Panglo is an evenly global language. International words are borrowed from all parts of the world to Panglo. They are adapted to the pronunciation and orthography of Panglo. One basic word is admitted and additional words are built from it according to rule 12.
-
Spelling and pronunciation
Spelling is simple and regular. Every word is pronounced exactly as it is written. Almost every letter and letter-combination indicates always the same sound.
-
Regular stress accent
Root words are stressed on the syllable that is before the last consonant of the word, f.ex. háo ('nice'), dúnia ('world'), báshe ('language'), amén ('amen'). Derived words and compound words are stressed according to their components so that the main component carries the primary stress and other components may carry secondary stress, f.ex. trabáshe ('translate'), dúnialìsme ('globalism'), bàshe skóle ('language school'). Primary accent is indicated here by an acute accent (á) and secondary accent by a grave accent (à).
-
Word classes
Panglo is an analytical language. It means that its words do not inflect or change their form because of grammar. Therefore the same word can function in different grammatical roles, for example as noun, verb, adjective or adverb, without any change in form. Word forms change only when the word's meaning changes.
This consistent system is a key factor for Panglo's grammatical simplicity as it allows for direct communication without formal grammatical errors.
-
Pronouns
The personal pronouns are:
mi 'I', tu 'you' (singular), hi 'he, she, it', wi 'we', yu 'you' (plural), dey 'they'.The possessive pronouns are:
mi's 'my', tu's 'your', hi's 'his or her', wi's 'our', yu's 'your', dey's 'their'.The interrogative pronouns are: wat 'what', hu 'who', hu's 'whose'.
-
Nouns
Nouns have only one form, always the same. Their form is not affected by number, gender or case. Number is indicated by number and quantity words. Their role is indicated by word order or by a preposition.
-
Numerals
The cardinal numbers are:
0 siro, 1 un, 2 du, 3 tri, 4 for, 5 faif, 6 sixe, 7 seven, 8 eit, 9 nain, 10 ten.
Greater than ten: 11 ten un, 12 ten du, 13 ten tri, etc.
Tens: 20 du ten, 30 tri ten, 40 for ten, etc.
Hundreds: 100 un hunde, 200 du hunde, 300 tri hunde, etc.
Thousands: 1000 un tauzen, 2000 du tauzen, 3000 tri tauzen, etc.When a number is put after the noun, it becomes the corresponding ordinal number:
parte un – part one, the first part
parte du – part two, the second part
parte tri – part three, the third part -
Adjectives
Adjectives modify nouns. The adjective modifier is before the noun that it modifies.
un rapid logu
'a fast speech' -
Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs and complete sentences. They come before the word that they modify or very last in the sentence.
un ver long logu – a very long talk
tu long logu. – You talk long. -
Verbs
Panglo verbs do not change in person, number, tense or any other grammatical category. Therefore a plain verb can be understood in many ways (though usually only one interpretation is fitting in the context of the discussion).
mi stude panglo.
'I study ~ studied ~ will study Panglo.'Auxiliary verbs can be used to indicate the moment, the duration and the lasting impact of an action.
- bi indicates an ongoing event.
- hav indicates a completed event, which has an effect on the present situation.
- did indicates a past event.
- vil indicates a future event.
mi hav stude panglo.
'I have studied Panglo.' -
Word order in clauses
The word order is subject–verb–object. The same order is used in declarations and questions.
A passive sentence is created with the help of the passive auxiliary verb ben. A similar effect can also be reached with the impersonal pronoun won.
Panglo ben logu. – Panglo is spoken.
won logu Panglo. – One speaks Panglo.In the pivot construction, the object of the transitive verb functions as the subject of the following verb.
mi ples tu logu Panglo. – I ask you to speak Panglo.
Pronouns can be left out when they are obvious and redundant. mi ples tu logu Panglo. → ples logu Panglo.
– Please speak Panglo. -
Word building
In Panglo, words change only when their actual meaning changes. Words don't ever change only to serve in a different grammatical role. Compound words are made by combining the elements that form them by putting one element after another so that the main element stands at the end.
poste ('mail') + kase ('box') = postekase ('mailbox')
The linking vowel, -o-, can be inserted between the elements especially in compound words that stem from the Greek language.
dem ('people') + kratia ('government, rule') = demokratia ('democracy, rule by the people')
Spelling and pronunciation
Panglo is phonetic in two directions:
- When you read a word, you can always pronounce it.
- When you hear a word, you can almost always write it. (Foreign names can be an exception.)
Once you have learned the few rules and the way letters are pronounced, you can read Panglo aloud and be understood.
Basic Latin Alphabet
Panglo is written in the basic Latin alphabet – the same as English! It doesn't have any of the accented letters, which are different from language to language. So it can be typed, printed and used with computers and smart devices in most countries without any difficulty.
A B C Ch D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S Sh T U V W X Y Z
A specialty of the Panglo writing system is that every consonant letter by itself includes a short mid central vowel sound unless otherwise specified. (In this regard Panglo's writing system works like those of India.) This short vowel sound is called schwa, and it is the most basic vowel sound that can be created without much effort. It is like the a in English career /kərir/ or sofa /soufə/. A consonant's schwa can also be silent and it can be replaced by any written vowel. Therefore for example did can be pronounced /did/ or /didə/ but didi is always pronounced /didi/.
Note on phonetic notation
In this page, we use the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to show pronunciation in writing. We use square brackets and slashes to show that we're talking about a sound and not a letter.
Physical speech sounds are written between square brackets,
for example [r] and [ɹ] indicate two different r-sounds, the trill and the glide.
However, [r] and [ɹ] are not distinguished in Panglo, but they are perceived as one sound.
These mental sounds or phonemes can cover several physical sounds and are written between slashes.
So, speakers of Panglo perceive mentally always one sound, /r/, regardless of which physical sound, [r] or [ɹ], is actually heard.
It is said that Panglo has the phoneme /r/, which has alternative physical pronunciations [r] and [ɹ].
This can be annotated /r/ = [r] ~ [ɹ].
Sounds
Panglo has its own sound system and its own spelling system that are mostly similar to those of the languages of continental Europe and Latin America.
The complete speech sound inventory of Panglo is presented in the table below.
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops | b p | t d | ch j | k g | |
| Fricatives | f v | s z | sh | h | |
| Nasals | m | n | ng | ||
| Lateral | l | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||
| Semivowels | w | y | |||
| --------------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- | ------- |
| High vowels | u | i | |||
| Mid vowels | o | ə | e | ||
| Low vowels | a | ||||
| Back | Central | Front |
Vowels
Panglo has six oral vowels. They are represented by the five vowel letters A, E, I, O and U in the writing system, where E represents both /e/ and /ə/.
| Panglo | IPA | Pronunciation advise |
|---|---|---|
| A | /a/ | As in father. |
| E | /e/ | As in bet when it is in accented syllable. |
| E | /ə/ | As in happen when it is in unaccented syllables. |
| I | /i/ | As in machine. |
| O | /o/ | As in or. |
| U | /u/ | As in rule. |
There are also several common vowel sequences – au, ou, ai, ei, oi – which are pronounced as the consecutive vowels with or without a hiatus in between.
Consonants
Panglo has 21 consonant sounds. They are represented in the writing system by 19 Latin letters and their combinations.
| Panglo | IPA | Pronunciation advise |
|---|---|---|
| B | /b/ | |
| C | /ts/ | Like ts in bits or alternatively like c in city. |
| Ch | /tʃ/ | Always like ch in chat. |
| D | /d/ | |
| F | /f/ | |
| G | /g/ | Always hard as in get. Never soft as in gel. |
| H | /h/ | |
| J | /dʒ/ | Always like J in judge_ or the soft g in gel. |
| K | /k/ | |
| L | /l/ | |
| M | /m/ | |
| N | /n/ | |
| P | /p/ | |
| R | /r~ɹ/ | Always voiced as in American English. Can be trilled as in Indian English. Never silent! |
| S | /s/ | Always voiceless like s in sister. |
| Sh | /ʃ/ | Like sh in shop. |
| T | /t/ | |
| V | /v/ | Like v in vet or, also commonly, like w in wet. |
| W | /w/ | Like w in wet or, also commonly, like v in vet. |
| X | /ks/ | |
| Y | /j/ | Like y in yes. |
| Z | /z/ |
External letters and sounds
There are also additional letters and letter-combinations, which can be used only in external words, which do not belong to the common Panglo vocabulary, like names of specific places and individual people. They are not used in any common Panglo words.
| Panglo | IPA | Pronunciation advise |
|---|---|---|
| Kh | /x/ | Voiceless velar fricative, like ch in Loch in Scottish. |
| Gh | /ɣ/ | Voiced velar fricative |
| Ph | /ɸ/ | Voiceless bilabial fricative |
| Bh | /β/ | Voiced bilabial fricative |
| Q | /q/ | Voiceless uvular stop |
| Qh | /χ/ | Voiceless uvular fricative |
| Rh | /ʀ~ʁ/ | Voiced uvular trill or fricative like rh in rhume in Parisian French. |
| Th | /θ/ | Like th in thing. |
| Dh | /ð/ | Like th in they. |
| Zh | /ʒ/ | Like z in azure. |
The additional letters and digraphs are used locally. Their purpose is to help to transfer names in local languages to the international language, so that local people can recognize them. It's OK if you don't know how to pronounce any of these sounds. Just pronounce the first letter and ignore the H.
For example, the capital of Greece is called "Αθήνα" /aθina/ in the local language, Greek. The Panglo version of this name is "Athina". It can be pronounced either /aθina/ (as the Greek do) or /atina/ (in the simplified international accent). We want to preserve the sound of this word as much as possible, but we can't use any of the non-Latin letters, so it becomes "Athina" in Panglo.
Examples:
Athina Athens (the capital of Greece)
Khartum Khartoum (the capital of Sudan)
Rhone Rhône (a river in France and Switzerland)
Rhein Rhine (a river that flows through Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Germany, France and the Netherlands)
Word Structure
Panglo words are structurally rather simple. A syllable can include in maximum:
- one initial consonant
- one liquid consonant (L or R)
- one or two vowels, and
- one final consonant from the following: M, N, NG, L, R, F, S, and SH.
Some of the heaviest words in practice are kristal and simple.
In addition, the following middle consonant groups are allowed: -kn-, -ks-, -tn- and -tm-. They are found in a handful of loan words from Greek and Latin, like tekne (technique), axe (axis), etne (ethnicity) and ritme (rhythm).
Adapting Loan Words
As a general rule, loan words are adapted to the phonetic spelling system of Panglo. This rule is applied to both common words and proper names.
Common words
A common word refers to a thing as a member of a group, not as an individual. For example dog is a common word but Mutt is not, it is a proper name.
Common words, which are in general use, must fit into the normal word structure, and they can include only the normal sounds of Panglo.
Panglo doesn't have the TH sounds that exist in English, so they are usually realized as T and D in words that are borrowed from English. For example di ('the'), de ('they'), tri ('three'), and ting ('thing').
Proper names
Infrequently used common nouns and proper nouns can be more complex than ordinary words, and they can include external sounds that don't belong to the normal sound inventory of Panglo.
For example, family name Smith may remain Smith in Panglo, although it is structurally more complex than common Panglo words, and it has the external TH sound.
Large and small letters
Both large and small letters (i.e. upper-case and lower-case letters) are used in writing Panglo.
Large letters are used in two situations: to begin a proper name, and to represent a name or another word with only the initial letter.
The first word of sentences is not capitalized.
Proper names
Personal names and other proper names are capitalized mostly in the same way as in English. For example Thomas Stearns Eliot is written Tomas Sternz Eliot in Panglo, and it can be abbreviated to initial letters variously Tomas S Eliot, TS Eliot and TSE.
In titles of artistic works, like books, songs and films, every word begins with a large letter. For example, Di Senyer Of Di Ring (The Lord of the Rings).
Acronyms
Initialisms, like ASEAN, EU, NAFTA and UN, are always written in large letters. Other acronyms may use a mixture of large and small letters, like for example GULag, which is an acronym of the Russian words "Glavnoye Upravleniye Lagerey".
Capital letters are also used in the standard international acronyms. For example: 10 Mb (ten megabit), 100 GB (hunde gigabait), 2 mm (due milimitre), 1 kJ (un kilojul).
Syllabification
[-] Words may be divided into syllables with a hyphen. The hyphen is placed between spoken syllables. For example: bus, ka-fe, yu-mor, pos-te, a-me-ri-ka-nis-me.
Punctuation
« . » All kinds of sentences may end with a full stop.
« ? » Questions may end alternatively with a question mark.
« ! » Exclamation mark indicates loudness or emphasis.
« ... » Three dots (i.e. ellipsis) indicates incompleteness or uncertainty.
« : » Colon indicates the beginning of an explanation, quotation or list.
« , » Comma indicates a small pause or separation between clauses or listed items.
Because the first word of sentences is not capitalized, a space may be inserted before and after the punctuation mark that ends the sentence. This practice helps to put sentences clearly apart.
(1) halo! yu gud, he? mi wan go to bazar. yu wan kom wit mi, he?
(2) halo ! yu gud, he ? mi wan go to bazar. yu wan kom wit mi, he ?
In informal texts, smileys, emoticons and emojis may be used like punctuation marks to end sentences but in addition they indicate the mood of the speaker. For example :) indicates happiness and :( indicates sadness.
mi love yu :)
– I love you.
yu no love mi :(
– You don't love me.
Word types in Panglo
Introduction
Everybody knows at least two essential units of grammar: words and sentences. In written texts, words are separated by spaces and sentences end with a full stop. However, there are also other grammatical units besides words and sentences.
Grammar involves a hierarchy of grammatical units, which are listed below from the simplest to the most complex.
- Morpheme is the smallest part of language with a meaning or function.
- Words are made up of one or more morphemes.
- Phrases are made up of one or more words.
- Clauses are made up of one or more phrases.
- Sentences are made up of one or more clauses.
Morphemes don't have any syntactic function in Panglo. Their job is only to help to build the vocabulary of Panglo. So the simplest grammatical unit that one usually thinks of in Panglo is the word.
One of the first things that an typical person notices about Panglo is that its words don't ever change. Most words in Panglo have one unchanging form, which does not change according to number, case, gender, tense, mood or any of the other inflectional categories known from other languages. Compare, for example, what happens to the words in the following two sentences in Panglo and English.
- mi love hi. – I love him or her.
- hi love mi. – He or she loves me.
In Panglo, the subject and object simply change places and that's it. All words stay the same, and only their order changes. In contrast, in English, the subject I changes to me when it becomes the object, the object him changes to he when it becomes the subject, and the verb love changes to loves in order to agree with the new subject. Changes like this are called grammatical inflections, and languages that use them are called inflected languages.
Languages with very few grammatical inflections are known as isolating languages. Panglo is one of those languages that is free from all grammatical inflections, but it goes even futher. Panglo words are multipurpose words that can be used as nouns, verbs or adjectives without any changes in the form of words. So you don't have to worry about using incorrect forms. This is one of the reasons why Panglo is easier to learn and more convenient to use than other languages.
What is important is the order of words because grammatical relationships are encoded into the word order, not into words. However, the word order in Panglo is very natural, so it is easy to learn.
Panglo is so simple that we don't need specialized or complicated words to describe how it works. That's why all things in this grammar are explained in plain words and basic terms that you have probably already learned in school. And don't worry if you don't remember some of them, all terms are explained when they are met for the first time.
Analytic and isolating
Panglo is an analytic language. It means that different parts of sentence, like subject, verb and object, are always independent words. Their syntactic relationship is encoded into word order only. Words don't change unlike in synthetic languages, which denote syntactic relationships by inflection or agglutination. Therefore the order of words is very important in Panglo.
Panglo is also an isolating language. Grammatical information, like case, gender, number and tense, is not encoded into words by affixation, inflection or any other means. In fact, words don't ever change in Panglo. So when one wants to express a new meaning or a nuance, one can't do that by modifying the words. The only way to add more details is to add more words. For example, the verb kom ('to come') is changed to the past tense by adding a word that means the past: did kom ('came' or 'did come').
Content words and structure words
A word class is a group of words that have similar forms and similar use in sentences. In Panglo, word classes belong to two superclasses: content words and structure words. Content words are the words for things in the real world. The job of structure words is to bind content words into meaningful phrases. They have little meaning or only an occasional meaning in the world outside the language.
Content words convey most of information and meaning. You can't say anything meaningful without them, but they don't make any sense without structure words, which are the necessary words for grammar. You need structure words to put content words together into more or less complex sentences. Content words are like bricks of information and structural words are like the mortar that holds them together.
In Panglo, it is easy to identify structure words because they always consist of only one syllable. Content words, on the other hand, are typically longer. Structure words are best explained in the grammar, whereas content words are translated in the dictionary.
In Panglo, sentences are held together by a fixed group of structure words. They include pronouns (such as mi 'I' and tu 'you'), determiners (such as un 'a, one' and de 'the') and various grammatical particles (such as the affirmative and negative particles ye and no). Structure words make the syntactical structure easy to see, because they mark out the boundaries between sentence constituents.
Therefore one can know the grammatical structure of a sentence by knowing the structure words only. It doesn't matter if one doesn't know any of the content words. It's because the structure words define the structure and the content words define the meaning. For example, consider the following sentence where only structure words are visible and content words are hidden.
░░░░ ░░░░ ye ░░░░ ░░░░ un ░░░░ ░░░░.
Here the structure words ye and un form a certain construction or mold where content words are inserted. The type and placement of the structure words reveals the structure of the mold. Namely, it is the transitive clause construction. It is identified by its three-part structure. First there is the subject (a noun phrase). It is followed by the predicate (a verb phrase), whose beginning is marked here by the affirmative particle ye. It is in turn followed by the object (another noun phrase), whose beginning is marked by the determiner un 'a, one'.
Figure. The transtive construction in three levels.
┌─────────┐ ┌───────────┐┌────────────┐
│ ░░░ ░░░ │ │ye ░░░ ░░░ ││ un ░░░ ░░░.│ WORD LEVEL
└────┬────┘ └─────┬─────┘└─────┬──────┘
------│------------│------------│----------------------------
┌─────┴─────┐┌─────┴─────┐┌─────┴─────┐
│NOUN PHRASE││VERB PHRASE││NOUN PHRASE│ PHRASE LEVEL
└─────┬─────┘└─────┬─────┘└─────┬─────┘
------│------------│------------│----------------------------
┌────┴────┐ ┌─────┴────┐ ┌────┴────┐ CLAUSE CONSTITUENT
│ SUBJECT │ │PREDICATE │ │ OBJECT │ LEVEL
└─────────┘ └──────────┘ └─────────┘
The transitive construction is one of the most common structures in Panglo.
Essentially it consists of following parts:
(det.) + NP + TAM + VP + det. + NP
where det. = determiner, TAM = tense, aspect or mood particle, NP = noun phrase and VP = verb phrase.
It can be filled with different content words in order to give different specific meanings for the sentence,
as in the table below.
| Subject | TAM | Predicate | Det. | Object |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| hapi bacha | ye | kitab | un | long letre. |
| The happy child | writes | a long letter. | ||
| jun man | ye | vize | un | bele parke. |
| The young man | sees | a beautiful park. | ||
| multi jan | ye | van shope | un | nuve haus.* |
| Many people | want to buy | a new house. |
So the key to decoding Panglo is to know the structure words and the clause constructions. There is a small and fixed number of both of them, about 40 structure words and less than 10 clause constructions. They form the molds where an endless amount of content words can be inserted in order to say anything that we can think of.
Word classes
Structure words can be categorized into word classes as follows:
- Pronouns : words that point to people and things.
- Prepositions : words that relate things and actions into circumstances
- Conjunctions : words that join phrases and clauses together
- Particles : words that indicate temporal, modal and structural relations.
Content words can be classified further into the following word classes:
- Nouns : words for things, ideas, places and people.
- Adjectives : words for qualities of nouns, such as good, bad, and big.
- Adverbs : words that describe degrees of qualities, such as less, more and very.
- Numerals : words for numbers and amounts.
- Verbs : words for actions and occurrences, such as to eat and to look.
However, the class of a content word is seldom permanent. A word like love ('love') can function as verb, noun or adjective depending on its position in the sentence.
mi love tu.
– I love you. (verb)
tu fikre mi's love.
– You think about my love. (noun)
mi kitab un love letre.
– I write a love letter. (adjective)
Nouns
A noun is a word that functions as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.
Nouns are unchanging in Panglo. The same form of the word is used regardless of number and definiteness. Number, definiteness and other categories are expressed by separate words.
Number
In Panglo, nouns are the same in all numbers. Nouns don't change to indicate is there one (i.e. singular) or many (i.e. plural) instances of the thing that the noun refers to. So it's not like English where the singular and the plural of nouns are usually different: one man but many men, one ox but many oxen, one cat but many cats. Rather, all Panglo words are like the word "sheep" is in English, which you count one sheep, two sheep, three sheep, etc.
In Panglo, the number of things is indicated with number words and other quantity words.
un haus
– one house
due haus
– two houses
tri haus
– three houses
for haus
– four houses
All number words can be found in the chapter about numerals.
Common words for indicating plurality include som (some) and meni (many).
som haus
– some houses
meni haus
– many houses
Definite and indefinite articles
Definite articles, like "the" in English, are used when we are referring to a specific thing or something that has been mentioned before. Indefinite articles, like "a" and "an" in English, refer to a non-specific thing or something that has not been mentioned before.
If you know what you want, you just use a definite article, and if you don’t know what you want, you use an indefinite article.
Indefinite articles
There are two indefinite articles in Panglo, un is used when we refer to one non-specific thing, and som is used when we refer to many things.
un apel
– an apple or one apple
som apel
– some apples
un haus
– a house or one house
som haus
– some houses
Definite articles
There are two definite articles in Panglo, da is used when we refer to one specific thing, and di is used when we refer to many things.
da man
– the man
di man
– the men
da haus
– the house
di haus
– the houses
Proper names
Adaptation to Panglo
Proper names are typically adapted to the writing system of Panglo. For example, it is obviously better to use Moskva (Moscow) instead of "Москва", and Beijing (Peking) instead of "北京" in the international language. Likewise it is probably better to use Tuson instead of "Tucson", Marsei instead of "Marseille", and Kishineu instead of "Chișinău" in order to ensure correct pronunciation.
Titles of respect
Names of people can be tagged with titles of respect sa, ma, pa. They are meant to show respect and politeness.
sa is the universal title of respect. It can be used in formal and informal situations and for all age groups, social groups and genders. The closest translation for it in English is Mr or Ms or Mx.
ma can be used when addressing any woman regardless of age, social status, and marital status. It translates to several titles in English including Mrs, Miss, Ms, Madam and Ma'am.
pa can be used when addressing any man regardless of age, social status, and marital status. It translates to several titles in English including Mister and Sir.
There are different customs concerning honorific titles in different cultures. In some cultures it is not polite to use someone's name without using a title of respect before it. Therefore it is advisable to use them always when you meet new people from different cultures.
A title of respect can be used with a given name, a family name, or both.
sa Bili King
– Mx Billy King
sa Bili
– Mx Billy
sa King
– Mx King
It is always polite to use the gender-neutral title. However, some people have are more accustomed to using the male and female titles.
pa Felipe Gonzales
– Mr Felipe Gonzales
pa Felipe
– Mr Felipe
pa Gonzales
– Mr Gonzales
The order of the given name and the family name may be different in different cultures. For example in Chinese it is common to put the family name first.
ma Wang Lili
– Ms Lili Wang
ma Lili
– Ms Lili
ma Wang
– Ms Wang
Modifiers
A modifier is a word that adds a particular quality or description, such as good, bad, big, and fast, to another word. In Panglo, there is only one class of modifiers. The same word can modify nouns and verbs, whereas in English only adjectives can modify nouns and only adverbs can modify verbs. For example, the word bele ('beautiful' or 'beautifully') modifies a noun in sentence A and a verb in sentence B.
A. da der es un bele kitab.
– That is a beautiful writing.
B. tu bele li kitab.
– You write beautifully.
Modifying nouns
In Panglo, "adjectives" are modifiers that are placed before the noun that they modify.
da nuve haus
– the new house
da bele haus
– the beautiful house
da nuve bele haus
– the new beautiful house
Comparison
Equality is expressed with the word az (as, like).
da az nuve haus – the equally new house
Comparatives are made using the words mor (more) and les (less).
un mor nuve haus
– a newer house
un les nuve haus
– a less new house
Superlatives are made using the words maxim (maximally, the most) and minim (minimally, the least).
da maxim nuve haus
– the newest house
da minim bele haus
– the least beautiful house
The point of comparison is introduced with az ('than').
yu's haus is mor nuve az dey's haus.
– Your house is newer than their house.
dey's haus is les nuve az yu's haus.
– Their house is less new than your house.
Equality is introduced with sim ('same, equally').
wi's haus is sim nuve az yu's haus. – Our house is as new as your house.
Numerals
The basic numbers sound almost the same in Panglo as in English. However, greater numbers are arranged more logically in Panglo.
| Ones | Ten and over | 20 and over | 30 and over |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 zero | 10 (un) ten | 20 due ten | 30 tri ten |
| 1 un | 11 ten un | 21 due ten un | 31 tri ten un |
| 2 due | 12 ten due | 22 due ten due | 32 tri ten due |
| 3 tri | 13 ten tri | 23 due ten tri | 33 tri ten tri |
| 4 for | 14 ten for | 24 due ten for | 34 tri ten for |
| 5 faif | 15 ten faif | 25 due ten faif | 35 tri ten faif |
| 6 sixe | 16 ten sixe | 26 due ten sixe | 36 tri ten sixe |
| 7 seven | 17 ten seven | 27 due ten seven | 37 tri ten seven |
| 8 eite | 18 ten eite | 28 due ten eite | 38 tri ten eite |
| 9 nain | 19 ten nain | 29 due ten nain | 39 tri ten nain |
| Ones | Tens | Hundreds | Thousands |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 zero | |||
| 1 un | 10 (un) ten | 100 un hunde | 1000 un tauzen |
| 2 due | 20 due ten | 200 due hunde | 2000 due tauzen |
| 3 tri | 30 tri ten | 300 tri hunde | 3000 tri tauzen |
| 4 for | 40 for ten | 400 for hunde | 4000 for tauzen |
| 5 faif | 50 faif ten | 500 faif hunde | 5000 faif tauzen |
| 6 sixe | 60 sixe ten | 600 sixe hunde | 6000 sixe tauzen |
| 7 seven | 70 seven ten | 700 seven hunde | 7000 seven tauzen |
| 8 eite | 80 eite ten | 800 eite hunde | 8000 eite tauzen |
| 9 nain | 90 nain ten | 900 nain hunde | 9000 nain tauzen |
Greater numbers follow the same logic.
10'000 un ten tauzen
100'000 un hunde tauzen
1'000'000 un milion
10'000'000 un ten milion
100'000'000 un hunde milion
1'000'000'000 un tauzen milion
Note: The words "billion" and "milliard" are not used in Panglo because their meanings are different from country to country. Instead, one should say tauzen milion (thousand millions) or giga.
The prefixes of the International System of Units
(SI) are used in common language in Panglo.
It is normal to say, for example:
eite giga person bi live in Dunia.
– Eight billion (or milliard) people live on Earth.
| Prefix | Symbol | Base 10 | Decimal |
|---|---|---|---|
| deka | da | 10¹ | 10 |
| heto | h | 10² | 100 |
| kilo | k | 10³ | 1'000 |
| mega | M | 10⁶ | 1'000'000 |
| giga | G | 10⁹ | 1'000'000'000 |
| tera | T | 10¹² | 1'000'000'000'000 |
| peta | P | 10¹⁵ | 1'000'000'000'000'000 |
| exa | E | 10¹⁸ | 1'000'000'000'000'000'000 |
| zeta | Z | 10²¹ | 1'000'000'000'000'000'000'000 |
| yota | Y | 10²⁴ | 1'000'000'000'000'000'000'000'000 |
Cardinal number before noun
Quantity can be expressed with numerals and other quantity-words. They are put before the word or phrase that they qualify.
un star
– one star
due star
– two stars
tri star
– three stars
kam star
– few stars
meni star
– many stars
un dai kursi
– one big chair
due dai kursi
– two big chairs
tri dai kursi
– three big chairs
Ordinal numbers
Ordinal numbers are similar to cardinal numbers but they are placed after the noun that they modify.
parte un
– part one (the first part)
parte due
– part two (the second part)
parte tri
– part three (the third part)
Classifiers of measurement
The classifier of measurement or a measure word is a word that occurs between a numeral and a noun. It indicates how the referent of the noun is measured, contained or packaged. Classifiers of measurement is an open class of words, which includes, among many others, litre 'liter', mitre 'meter', botil 'bottle', kupa 'cup, mug', pake 'package', pote 'pot', sake 'bag, sack', tin 'can, tin' tong 'cask, barrel'.
Measure words are used in this simple structure: number + measure word + se + noun.
due litre se jus
– two liters of juice
tri metre se kable
– three meters of wire
un kupa se kafe
– a cup of cofee
due botle se vin
– two bottles of wine
tri sake se patato
– three sacks of potatoes
for tin se limon jus
– four cans of lemonade
Fractions
Fractions are formed with the help of the word parte 'part'.
Fractions can be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, the word parte can be interpreted as a classifier of measurement. Then, for example, due parte tri is interpreted as 'two parts of three (parts)'. Secondly, the last numeral can be understood as an ordinal number that modifies parte. Then, for example, due parte tri is interpreted as 'two thirds'. Both interpretations lead to the same result that due parte tri stands for '2/3' in mathematical symbols.
un parte due
– a half (½)
un parte for
– one fourth, one quarter (¼)
tri parte for
– three fourths, three quarters (¾)
un parte hunde
– one hundredth, one percent (1%)
un parte tauzen
– one thousandth, one permille (1‰)
Fractions are connected to their noun head with se.
un parte due se haur
– a half (of an) hour
faif ten parte hunde se jen
– fifty percent of people
due parte tri se keke
– two thirds of a cake
In addition, there is also a longer pattern for forming fractions. It uses the pattern X of Y parte ('X of Y parts').
un of due parte
– one of two parts, a half (½)
un of for parte
– one of four parts, a quarter (¼)
tri of for parte
– three of four parts, three quarters (¾)
un of hunde parte
– one of hundred parts, a percent (1%)
un of tauzen parte
– one of thousand parts, a permille (1‰)
Months
The names of the months are:
- Januari – January
- Februari – February
- Marte – March
- April – April
- Mai – May
- June – June
- Yuli – July
- Auguste – August
- Setembre – September
- Otobre – October
- Novembre – November
- Desembre – December
In addition there is Ramazan (Ramadan), the holy ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar.
Alternatively there is also a number-based system of naming.
- mes un – January
- mes due – February
- mes tri – March
- mes for – April
- mes faif – May
- mes sixe – June
- mes seven – July
- mes eite – August
- mes nain – September
- mes ten – October
- mes ten un – November
- mes ten due – December
Days of the week
In ancient Greece, the days of the week were named after the Seven Luminaries, which consist of the Sun, Moon and the five planets that are visible to the naked eye. Each of the luminaries was also represented by a deity. This system spread to Rome, India, China and almost all across the world.
In English, the Roman deities were substituted by Germanic deities: Sunday = sun's day, Monday = moon's day, Tuesday = Tiw's day, Wednesday = Woden's day, Thursday = Thor's day, and Saturday = Saturn's day.
In Panglo, the names of the days of the week follow the Roman system, whereas the English system involved Germanic deities.
| Luminary | Day of the week |
|---|---|
| Sole | soledi |
| Sun | Sunday |
| Lune | lunedi |
| moon | Monday (moon's day) |
| Marte | martedi |
| Mars | Tuesday (Tiw's day) |
| Merkur | merkurdi |
| Mercury | Wednesday (Woden's day) |
| Jove | jovedi |
| Jupiter | Thursday (Thor's day) |
| Venera | venerdi |
| Venus | Friday (Frige's day) |
| Saturne | saturdi |
| Saturn | Saturday (Saturn's day) |
Alternatively there is also a number-based system of naming.
- vike dey un – Monday (the 1st day of the week)
- vike dey due – Tuesday (the 2nd day of the week)
- vike dey tri – Wednesday (the 3rd day of the week)
- vike dey for – Thursday (the 4th day of the week)
- vike dey faive – Friday (the 5th day of the week)
- vike dey sixe – Saturday (the 6th day of the week)
- vike dey seven – Sunday (the 7th day of the week)
However, this is an unreliable system because the first day of the week can be different in different countries. In addition it is important to differentiate the days of the week (vike dey) and the days of the month (mes dey).
Time
The normal pattern for telling time is haur H en M, where H stands for hours and M stands for minutes. We always use this direct pattern, and we never use words like past and to in Panglo.
haur tri
– three o'clock
haur tri en siro
– three o'clock sharp
haur tri en faif
– three oh-five – or five past three
haur tri en ten
– three ten – or ten past three
haur tri en ten faif
– three fifteen – or quarter past three
haur tri en tri ten
– three thirty – or half past three
haur tri en for ten faif
– three forty-five – or quarter to four
haur tri en faif ten
– three fifty – or ten to four
haur tri en faif ten faif
– three-fifty-five – or five to four
The 24 hour clock
Normally we use the 24 hour clock to tell the time in Panglo.
01:00 =
haur un
– one o'clock ~ one hundred hours
01:15 =
haur un en ten faif
– one fifteen ~ one hundred fifteen hours
01:30 =
haur un en tri ten
– one thirty ~ one hundred thirty hours
13:00 =
haur ten tri
– thirteen o'clock ~ thirteen hundred hours
13:15 =
haur ten tri en ten faif
– thirteen fifteen ~ thirteen hundred fifteen hours
13:30 =
haur ten tri en tri ten
– thirteen thirty ~ thirteen hundred thirty hours
The 12 hour clock
The 12 hour clock splits the day into two 12 hour sections. One lasts from midnight to noon and the second half lasts from noon to midnight. Hours before noon are called AM (pronounced ah-em), which comes from the phrase ante mide den, which means 'before midday'. Hours after noon are called PM (pronounced peh-em), which comes from the phrase pos mide den, which means 'after midday'.
Before midday we say:
🕐 =
haur un AM
– one AM
🕜 =
haur un en tri ten AM
– one thirty AM
🕔 =
haur faif AM
– five AM
🕙 =
haur ten AM
– ten AM
After midday we say:
🕐 =
haur un PM
– one PM
🕜 =
haur un en tri ten PM
– one thirty PM
🕔 =
haur faif PM
– five PM
🕙 =
haur ten PM
– ten PM
Pronouns
Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns and noun phrases in a sentence.
They keep us from repeating the same words over and over again.
Here's an example of a sentence without pronouns:
My mother is a teacher but my mother is also a singer and my mother sings beautifully.
It sounds clumsy and repetitive.
Here's the same sentence with a personal pronoun:
My mother is a teacher but she is also a singer and she sings beautifully.
The latter sentence sounds fluent and smooth.
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns in Panglo are:
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| mi | wi |
| 'I, me' | 'we' |
| tu | yu |
| 'you' | 'you all' |
| hi | dey |
| 'he or she' | 'they' |
All pronouns can be used for all genders. In Panglo, personal pronouns do not specify whether the person discussed is a woman or a man. For example, in the third person, one word – hi – refers to women, men and people of other genders alike. It is a gender-neutral personal pronoun and it treats everyone equally.
The singular 2nd person pronoun tu can be used in all situations, both formal and informal, regardless of differences in social status and age of the speakers. In this way it is similar to Swedish du. However, some speakers may prefer to use tu only with family and intimate friends. Then its usage is comparable to German du, French tu, Russian ты (ty) and Hindi tū.
It is always acceptable to use the plural pronoun yu instead of the singular pronoun tu.
There are three first-person plural pronouns. yumi is the inclusive we that includes the audience: 'you, I and other people'. demi is the exclusive we that excludes the audience: 'I and other people only'. Finally, wi is the neutral we that can be both inclusive and exclusive. It is also the most common first-person plural pronoun, and the other two are used only occasionally.
Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are made simply by combining a basic pronoun with the possessive marker 's.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| mi's | wi's |
| 'my' | 'our' |
| tu's | yu's |
| 'your' | 'your' |
| hi's | dey's |
| 'his or her' | 'their' |
Reflexive pronoun
The reflexive pronoun is used when the object of a sentence is the same as the subject.
sef – self
Note! The same reflexive pronoun sef is used for all persons, so it corresponds to English myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves and themselves all at once.
mi vize sef.
– I see myself.
hi vize sef.
– She sees herself. / He sees himself. / It sees itself.
wi vize sef.
– We see ourselves.
The expression unaltre is used as the reciprocal pronoun.
unaltre – each other, one another
tu en mi si unaltre.
– You and I see each other.
wi vize unaltre.
– We see each other.
Demonstrative pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns are used with nouns to make them more specific.
Panglo has two main demonstrative pronouns:
de
this, that
di
these, those
As they do not differentiate between near and far, they can be further qualified by adding hir (here) or der (there).
de hir haus
– this house
di hir haus
– these houses
de der haus
– that house
di der haus
– those houses
The proximal demonstrative de hir points to things that are close to the speaker in terms of physical distance or relation. The distal demonstrative de der points to things that are futher away from the speaker in terms of physical distance or relation.
tu van de der buk, he?
– Do you want that book?
no, mi van de hir buk, no de der.
– No, I want this book, not that.
The demonstratives can serve as subjects and objects in the same way as nouns.
de hir es gud.
– This is good.
de der es bad.
– That is bad.
tu van de hir, he?
– Do you want this?
no, mi van de der.
– No, I want that.
When the verb is a content word, there needs to be a modal particle, like ye or no, between the subject and the verb.
mi vize du jen.
– I see two persons.
de hir ye gani en de der no gani.
– This one sings and that one doesn't sing.
The basic proximal and distal pronouns are used for introducing a new object. The topical demonstrative de, on the other hand, does not specify physical distance but it is used when the speaker has already mentioned the object or person in question and it is known by the audience or is topical within the discourse.
de hir es mau. hi van yam de der mushu. – This is a cat. It wants to eat that mouse.
mi have un mau en un vaf. de vaf es dai. hi bi yam muche yam. – I have a cat and a dog. The dog is big. It eats a lot of food.
Abstract use
The demonstrative pronouns can be used also discourse internally. Then they refer to abstract entities of discourse, not concrete objects. de refers to things previously spoken, de hir refers to things currently being spoken, and de der refers to things about to be spoken.
de hir jumla es korte. – This sentence is short.
In the above, de hir jumla (this sentence) refers to the sentence being spoken.
mi seme de der: mi love tu.
– I mean this: I love you. OR I mean that I love you.
mi love tu. mi seme de.
– I love you. That is what I mean.
In the above, the pronoun de der refers to the content of the next statement and de refers to the content of the previous statement.
Interrogative pronouns
There are two interrogative pronouns in Panglo.
wat
– what
hu
– who
The interrogative pronoun takes the place of the questioned thing in the phrase. It is not placed in the beginning of the phrase unlike normally in English.
wat es da?
– What is it?
hu es hi?
– Who is he ~ she?
yu van wat?
– What do you want? (Literally: You want what?)
wat es a meza.
– What is on the table?
hu es in haus.
– Who is in the house?
The possessive interrogative pronoun is built like the other possessive pronouns.
hu's – whose
hu's haus es da? – Whose hose is that?
Adjectives are questioned with hau.
hau nove?
– How new?
hau koste?
– How costy?
hau meni?
– How many?
hau kam?
– How few?
hau dai?
– How big?
hau let?
– How small?
tu have hau dai mau? – How big a cat do you have?
Table of pronominals
A pronominal phrase is an expression that consists of several words and functions syntactically as a pronoun. Panglo's pronominal phrases can be arranged in a regular table of pronominals as below.
| Category | Interrogative | Demonstrative | Indefinite | Universal | Negative | Alternative | Elective |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ting | wat ting | da ting | som ting | evri ting | no ting | alter ting | eni ting |
| Thing | what (thing) | that thing | something | everything | nothing | another | anything |
| won | hu; wat won | da won | som won | evri won | no won | alter won | eni won |
| Individual | who; which one | that one | someone | every one | no-one | another | anyone |
| have | hu's | da won's | som won's | evri won's | no won's | alter won's | eni won's |
| Possession | whose | that one's | someone's | everyone's | no-one's | another's | anyone's |
| wer | wat wer | da wer | som wer | evri wer | no wer | alter wer | eni wer |
| Location | where | there | somewhere | everywhere | nowhere | elsewhere | anywhere |
| tem | wat tem | da tem | som tem | evri tem | no tem | alter tem | eni tem |
| Time | when, what time | that time | sometime | always, all the time | never | another time | any time |
| wey | wat wey | da wey | som wey | evri wey | no wey | alter wey | eni wey |
| Manner | how | in that way | somehow | in every way | in no way | otherwise | anyway |
| kain | wat kain | da kain | som kain | evri kain | no kain | alter kain | eni kain |
| Kind, sort | what kind of | that kind of | some kind of | all kinds of | no kind of | another type of | any kind of |
| monta | wat monta | da monta | som monta | evri monta | no monta | alter monta | eni monta |
| Amount | how much | so much | some | all | none | other amount | any amount |
| rezon | wat rezon | da rezon | som rezon | evri rezon | no rezon | alter rezon | eni rezon |
| Reason | why | for that reason | for some reason | for every reason | for no reason | for other reasons | for any reason |
Verbs
Verbs are unchanging in Panglo. Things like person, number, time and mood are indicated by separate words, not by changing the form of verbs as in English and other languages.
Person and number
Person and number are indicated by the subject. For example, the verb es ('to be') has the same form in all persons.
mi es frende.
– I am a friend.
tu es frende.
– You are a friend.
hi es frende.
– He/she is a friend.
vi es frende.
– We are friends.
yu es frende.
– You are friends.
de es frende.
– They are friends.
Also a noun can serve as subject.
mau es hevan. – The cat is an animal.
Voice, time and mood
Verb tenses, moods and voices are expressed with auxiliary verbs, which come first in the verb phrase. The order of the auxiliaries is tense, mood and aspect. The tense marker is first, the mood marker is next, and the aspect marker is last.
Tense
Tense is a property that expresses time reference. The main tenses are the past, present, and future. The marker did indicates the past tense, nun indicates the present tense, and vil indicates the future tense. More specific time references are expressed with various time expressions, like yesterday, tomorrow or one hour ago.
man did yam ban.
– The man ate (or did eat) bread.
man nun yam ban.
– The man eats bread (now).
man vil yam ban.
– The man will eat bread.
It is also possible to express the future in the past with a combination of two tense markers.
man did vil yam ban. – The man was going to eat bread.
Aspect
Aspect expresses how an action or event extends over time. There are two aspect markers in Panglo, bi and hav.
The marker bi indicates that the action or event is on-going or in progress at the time, which the speaker is talking about. The time can be indicated with a tense marker.
man bi yam ban.
– The man is, was or will be eating bread.
man did bi yam ban.
– The man was eating bread.
man nun bi yam ban.
– The man is eating bread.
man vil bi yam ban.
– The man will be eating bread.
The marker hav indicates that the action or event is completed and its results still has an effect at the time, which the speaker is talking about. The time can be indicated with a tense markers.
man hav yam ban.
– The man had, has or will have eaten bread.
man did hav yam ban.
– The man had eaten bread.
man nun hav yam ban.
– The man has eaten bread.
man vil hav yam ban.
– The man will have eaten bread.
Mood
The conditional mood is used for anything that could take place. It indicates that the realization of an action or event depends on another condition. The conditional mood is expressed with the auxiliary verb wud ('would'). This marker is used in both main and subordinate clauses.
mi wud van yam.
– I would like to eat.
mi wud go to Dubai.
– I would go to Dubai.
mi wud go, if tu wud las mi.
– I would go if you would let me.
tu no wud es suka, if mi wud go.
– You would not be happy, if I would go.
The auxiliary verb shud ('should, ought') indicates some kind of expectation like duty, obligation, requirement, desire, advisability or likelihood.
ma voka wi. wi shud go.
– Mother called us. We should go.
hi shud hav kom pre nun.
– He should have come by now.
evri won shud vote.
– Everyone should vote.
The imperative mood is used to form a command or request. In Panglo, the imperative is created with the auxiliary verb shal. It can be used to give commands to any person, not just "you".
wi shal go!
– Let us go! ~ Let's go!
dey shal kurse!
– Let them run!
shal can be used to give commands also to the second person, but it is common to drop both the personal pronoun and the auxiliary verb in order to give the command more force.
tu shal kom! = kom!
– Come!
yu shal kom! = kom!
– Come (you all)!
Passive clause
The passive clause expresses that the subject undergoes the action or has its state changed. In other words, the subject has a passive role. This contrasts with the active clause where the subject is the agent or the doer of the action. In Panglo, the passive clause is constructed with the help of the auxiliary verb ben.
Active:
dey yam piza.
– They eat pizza.
Passive:
piza ben yam.
– Pizza is eaten.
The agent of the action can be expressed also in passive clauses by using the preposition be.
mi's kar did ben bate be tren. – My car was hit by a train.
Summary of verb forms
Active
| Past | Present | Future | Conditional | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple |
hi did yam 'he ate ~ did eat' |
hi yam 'he eats' |
hi vil yam 'he will eat' |
hi wud yam 'he would eat' |
| Perfect |
hi did hav yam 'he had eaten' |
hi hav yam 'he has eaten' |
hi vil hav yam 'he will have eaten' |
hi wud hav yam 'he would have eaten' |
| Progressive |
hi did bi yam 'he was eating' |
hi bi yam 'he is eating' |
hi vil bi yam 'he will be eating' |
hi wud bi yam 'he would be eating' |
| Perfect progressive |
hi did hav bi yam 'he had been eating' |
hi hav bi yam 'he has been eating' |
hi vil hav bi yam 'he will have been eating' |
hi wud hav bi yam 'he would have been eating' |
| Imperative |
yam! 'Eat!' |
Note! In the above table, hi is translated only 'he' instead of the usual 'he or she' in order to save space.
Passive
| Past | Present | Future | Conditional | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple |
hi did ben yam 'it was eaten' |
hi ben yam 'it is eaten' |
hi vil ben yam 'it will be eaten' |
hi wud ben yam 'it would be eaten' |
| Perfect |
hi did hav ben yam 'it had been eaten' |
hi hav ben yam 'it has been eaten' |
hi vil hav ben yam 'I will have been eaten' |
hi wud hav ben yam 'it would have been eaten' |
| Progressive |
hi did bi ben yam 'it was being eaten' |
hi bi ben yam 'it is being eaten' |
hi vil bi ben yam 'it will be being eaten' |
hi wud bi ben yam 'it would be being eaten' |
| Perfect progressive |
hi did hav bi ben yam 'it had been being eaten' |
hi hav bi ben yam 'it has been being eaten' |
hi vil hav bi ben yam 'it will have be being eaten' |
hi wud hav bi ben yam 'it would have been being eaten' |
| Imperative |
ben yam! 'Be eaten!' |
Transitivity
In general, there are three types of verbs.
- Transitive verbs need a direct object, which is the target of the action.
- Intransitive verbs don't accept an object. Then the action is directed to the subject.
- Ambitransitive verbs can be both transitive and intransitive.
Panglo verbs are typically ambitransitive i.e. they may or may not require an object depending on the sentence structure. When there is an object, the verb is transtive, and when there isn't an object, the verb is intransitive.
mi bule sui.
– I boil water. (transitive sentence)
sui bule.
– Water boils. (intransitive sentence)
baker bake ban.
– The baker bakes bread. (transitive sentence)
ban bake in tanur.
– Bread bakes in the oven. (intransitive sentence)
Serial verb construction
Serial verb construction is a string of verbs that share the same subject, which is before the verbs. In serial verb constructions the verbs are interpreted so that the first verb (an auxiliary verb) is something that the subject possesses and the second verb is something that the subject does (when there is an object in the end) or experiences (when there is no object).
mi kan kitab da javab.
≈ I have the ability to write the answer.
– I can write the answer.
mi halal kitab da javab.
≈ I have the permission to write the answer.
– I may write the answer.
mi mus kitab da javab.
≈ I have the compulsion to write the answer.
– I must write the answer.
Note that the same auxiliary verbs can be used alone as transitive verbs in the pivot construction.
guru halal mi kitab da javab.
– The teacher permits me to write the answer.
guru mus mi kitab da javab.
– The teacher compels me to write the answer.
Prepositions
In Panglo, prepositions are words that can function almost like verbs. They always take an object. The most frequent prepositions in Panglo are en (location), do (destination) and of (origin). They have broader meanings in Panglo than the corresponding prepositions in English.
Location: a
The preposition a expresses general location in time or space, 'at, by, in, on'.
wi marche a dao.
– We walk ON the road.
mau side a meza.
– A cat sits ON the table.
mi mus sta long a labur.
– I must stay long AT work.
Destination: do
The preposition do denotes destination in the broadest sense.
It denotes the destination of movement, 'to'.
dey marche do bazar. – They walk TO the market.
It denotes the destination of giving i.e. the recipient, 'to, for'.
mi don da buk do yu.
– I give this book TO you.
ye buk es do yu.
– This book if FOR you.
It denotes the causal destination, 'for, for the purpose of'.
mi wud morte do mi's nasia. – I would die FOR my nation.
Origin: of
The preposition of denotes separation or origin in the broadest sense.
It denotes the origin of movement, 'from'.
dey kom of Brazil. – They come FROM Brazil.
It denotes also the origin of existence, 'of'.
el lexe kitab es of arabe asle. – The word kitab is OF Arabic origin.
It denotes also the material origin, 'of'.
el kopa es of glass. – The cup is made OF glass.
It denotes also the causal origin, 'because of'.
el mau morte of sen umre.
– The cat died OF old age.
el mau morte of toxe.
– The cat died BECAUSE OF poison.
It denotes also the mental origin, 'of, about'.
wi loge of yu.
– We talk ABOUT you.
mi fikre of hope.
– I think OF hope.
ex ('outside')
The preposition ex denotes location on the outside, 'out, outside'.
deme ye proteste ex el burge. – People protest outside the castle.
en ('inside')
The preposition en denotes location on the inside, 'in, inside'.
presiden sir en el burge. – The president hides in the castle.
kon ('in the company of')
The preposition kon denotes togetherness, 'with, in the company of'.
hi loge kon el shef. – He/she talks with the chief.
pos ('after')
The preposition pos denotes later position in time or space, 'after, later than'.
dey kom pos mi. – They come after me.
pre ('before')
The preposition pre denotes earlier position in time or space, 'before, in front of'.
dey kom pre mi. – They come before me.
pro ('toward')
The preposition pro denotes direction or intention, 'toward, forth, for, for the sake of, pro'.
mi kurse pro salita. – I jog for health.
re ('back')
The preposition re denotes movement back, 'back, in return'.
hi don el buk re mi. – He gave the book back to me.
tra ('through')
The preposition tra denotes piercing through, 'through'.
via ('by way of')
The preposition via denotes road or way, 'via, by way of'.
wi kom do Berlin via Praha. – We come to Berlin via Prague.
vice ('instead of')
The preposition vice denotes substitution, 'instead of, on behalf of'.
hi loge vice mi. – He talks on my behalf.
Sentence structure
Figure. The sentence structure in Panglo.
┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌────────────────┐
│ subject │ │ verb │ │ object │ │ prep.phr.│ │ modal particle │
└─────────┘ └─────────┘ └─────────┘ └──────────┘ └────────────────┘
Prepositions
A prepositions begins a preposition phrase that tells additional information about the event that the sentence is about. There are a handful of real prepositions in Panglo, as listed below, and the others are verbs that can function in the same way as prepositions.
a
– at
in
– in
of
– of, from, since
to
– to, toward, until
on
– on, about
be
– by, with, by means of
mi live in London.
– I live in London.
mi safar of London to Paris be bus.
– I travel from London to Paris by bus.
mi tinke on yu.
– I think about you.
When a verb plays the role of a preposition, it is always followed by an article (or another determiner) and the object.
mi's haus is bake da parke.
– My house is behind the park.
da bazar is inter da hotel en da plasa.
– The market is between the hotel and the square.
Note that if there's no article between the "preposition" and another word, there is a compound word instead.
da rute inter di kontinente
– the route between the continents
da interkontinental rute
– the intercontinental route
Common preposition-like words:
bake
– at the back, behind
excepe
– except
extre
– outside
face
– facing, toward
grace
– thanks to
infra
– under, below
inkluze
– including
inter
– between
kontre
– against, countering
mide
– amid, in the middle
pos
– after, later
pre
– before
pro
– for, pro
ronde
– about, around
tema
– about, on the topic of
via
– via, by way of
Modal particles
Modal particles indicate how the speaker thinks that the content of the sentence relates to the participants' common knowledge or add mood to the meaning of the sentence.
The word wa is used to turn a declarative sentence into a question.
yu wan yam som piza.
– You want to eat some pizza.
yu wan yam som piza, wa?
– Do you want to eat some pizza?
Another way to tag a question is to add the word no at the end of a sentence. The no can represent any English question tag, so depending on context it will translate as: "isn't it?", "aren't they?", "can't she?", "wouldn't they?", etc.
yu wan yam som piza, no? – You want to eat pizza, don't you?
ye indicates that the speaker thinks a certain fact should already be known to the listener.
mi love yu, ye! – I do love you!
The word or indicates uncertainty. It is used when the speaker wants to be reassured.
yu love mi, or... – You love me, or...
Word Derivation
Making new words from existing words is called word derivation. Often a new word is made by adding a prefix or suffix, such as un- and -ness in English. For example, un-happy and happi-ness are derived from the root word happy.
New words can be built freely in Panglo! Panglo has a word derivation system that is regular and productive.
Zero Derivation
Zero derivation means conversion of a word of a certain word class to a different word class without any change in form. This is very common in Panglo, where most words don't belong to any fixed word classes. Instead, the word class is determined by the word's place in the sentence.
For example, the word hali can function equally as an adjective (blank or void), noun (a blank) and verb (to make blank or to get blank).
tu hav hali papir, he?
– Do you have some blank paper?
don mi un hali!
– Give me a blank!
tu mus hali da lexe.
– You must blank out that word.
Likewise, the word kitab can function as a verb (to write), a noun (a writing) and adjective (written or textual).
mi kitab letre.
– I write a letter.
letre es kitab misaje.
– A letter is a written message.
mi love yu's kitab.
– I love your writings.
Compound Words
A compound word is a word that is formed of two or more simpler words in order to yield a new meaning. The last word is the most meaningful part in the compound and the preceding words only modify its meaning. New compound words can be created freely and easily in Panglo. There are two types of compound words in Panglo, open compounds and closed compounds.
An open compound is simply a series of base words put next to each other. They are written separately and there is a space between each pair of words. For example, tomato 'tomato' + sos 'sauce' = tomato sos 'tomato sauce',
Closed compounds are written together and there is no space between the words. For example, poste 'mail' + kan 'place for working' = postekan 'post office'. Typically closed compounds include affixes. Affixes are word-like units that have special properties. Some of them are not stand-alone words, they can only appear as part of another word.
Panglo's system of word derivation is designed to produce compound words that look and/or sound so close to international words that they are easy to recognize. They are not meant to be identical with words in English or in any other language, because international words tend to be written and pronounced in more or less different ways from language to language, anyway. In fact, many compound words are built in a different way in Panglo than in European languages, though the results usually look mostly similar.
Affixes
Affixes, i.e. prefixes and suffixes, are very important and give great flexibility to the language. They are joined together with the base word.
Panglo has adopted international prefixes, including a-, de-, pro-, re- and su- among others, in order to re-create many international words as native Panglo words.
a- 'to, toward'
+ cese 'go, pass'
____________
= acese 'get past to, access'
pro- 'forward, to the front'
+ cese 'go, pass'
____________
= procese 'pass forward, process'
re- 'back to'
+ cese 'go, pass'
____________
= recese 'pass back, recede'
de- 'away, off'
+ cese 'go, pass'
____________
= decese 'pass away, die'
su- 'good, well'
+ cese 'go, pass'
____________
= sucese 'go well, succeed'
Note that these international prefixes are used only in compound words that really mean the sum their parts. Fossilized words whose meanings are no longer the sum of their parts, like evolution (originally 'rolling out'), are not compound words in Panglo.
Many suffixes have two forms, one that begins with a vowel and one that begins with a consonant. The vowel-initial form is used when the base word ends in a consonant or in the vowel -e, which disappears before the suffix. Below we add the vowel-initial suffix -ik to a base word that ends in a consonant.
fiz 'body'
+ -ik 'adjectival suffix'
_____________
= fizik 'bodily, physical'
The consonant-intial form is used when the base word ends in any other vowel except -e. Below we add the consonant-initial suffix -tik to a base word that ends in another vowel.
tema 'theme, topic'
+ -tik 'adjectival suffix'
_____________
= tematik 'thematic, topical'
The vowel-initial suffix -ik and the consonant-initial suffix -tik are alternative forms of one and the same underlying suffix, (t)ik, which has an optional initial sound. The surface form of the suffix depends on the properties of the base word.
Another suffix with two forms is (o)krat. Its vowel-initial form is -okrat and its consonant initial form is -krat. So this time the optional sound is a vowel (and not a consonant as in (t)ik).
Below we add this suffix to a base word that ends in -e.
dem 'people, public'
+ (o)krat 'rule, govern'
+ -ia 'collective noun suffix'
______________
= demokratia 'democracy, rule by the public'
Next we add the suffix to a base word that ends in another vowel.
media 'the media'
+ (o)krat 'rule, govern'
+ -ia 'collective noun suffix'
______________
= mediakratia 'mediacracy, rule by the media'
Prefixes
a- ~ ad-
The prefix a- means that the action brings the agent and the object together.
sepe
'take, catch'
→ asepe
'take to oneself, accept'
liga
'tie'
→ aliga
'tie to oneself, ally'
de- ~ dez-
The prefix de- means that the action is directed away from or off something.
sep
'take, catch'
→ desep
'take away, remove'
dute
'lead, conduct'
→ dedute
'lead away, deduce'
parte
'part, chip'
→ departe
'part away, chip off'
kode
'code'
→ dekode
'decode, remove coding'
tap
'plug, cap, stopper'
→ detap
'unplug, remove the plug, cap or stopper'
information
'information'
→ dezinformation
'disinformation, information that is meant to lead away from the truth'
dis-
The prefix dis- means that the action is directed apart or in many directions.
trat
'draw'
→ distrat
'draw apart, distract'
turbe
'whirl, spin'
→ disturbe
'disturb'
dus-
The prefix dus- adds a quality of badness to the base word.
funte
'function'
→ dusfunte
'malfunction, dysfunction'
rup
'appearance, looks'
→ dusrupik
'bad-looking, ugly'
forma
'form'
→ dusforma
'malform'
en- ~ em-
The prefix en- indicates position in something, when it is prefixed to words with a static meaning. There are two forms of this prefix. The form em- is used when the following word begins with a b, p or m, and the form en- is used in all other cases.
demik
'populational'
→ endemik
'endemic, occuring in a population'
tene
'keep, hold'
→ entene
'keep in, hold in, inhold'
It indicates motion or transformation into something when it is prefixed to words with an active meaning.
jete
'thrust'
→ enjete
'thrust in, inject'
kluze
'close, shut'
→ enkluze
'close in, enclose, include'
kode
'code'
→ enkode
'encode'
amur
'love'
→ enamur
'fall in love, enamor'
porta
'transfer, bring'
→ emporta
'bring in, import'
sirke
'circle'
→ ensirke
'encircle, surround'
ex- ~ exo-
The prefix ex- means that the action is directed outside from something.
sep
'take, catch'
→ exsep
'take out, except'
jet
'thrust'
→ exjet
'thrust out, eject'
in- ~ im-
The prefix in- reverses the meaning of the adjective or noun to which it is prefixed. There are two forms of this prefix. The form im- is used when the following word begins with a b, p or m, and the form in- is used in all other cases.
abilita
'ability'
→ inabilita
'inability'
kredebil
'credible, believable'
→ inkredebil
'incredible, unbelievable'
populik
'popular'
→ impopulik
'unpopular'
perfat
'perfect'
→ imperfat
'imperfect'
deiste
'theist'
→ indeiste
'atheist'
alkolik
'alcoholic'
→ inalkolik
'unalcoholic'
homanik
'humane'
→ inhomanik
'unhumane'
uzebil
'usable'
→ inuzebil
'unusable'
kon- ~ kom- ~ ko-
The prefixes kon- and kom- mean 'together'. There are three forms of this prefix. The form kom- is used when the following word begins with a b, p or m, the form ko- is used when the following word begins with an n, r or l, and the form kon- is used in all other cases.
ten
'hold, keep'
→ konten
'keep together'
stru
'build, structure'
→ konstru
'construct, put together'
patia
'suffering'
→ kompatia
'suffering together, compassion'
per-
The prefix per- means that something is done completely, entirely or all the way through.
fat
'done'
→ perfat
'perfect, completely done'
uza
'use'
→ peruza
'use up'
pos-
The prefix pos- means that something is after in time or order.
pozi
'put, pose'
→ pospozi
'put after, postpone'
prodution
'production'
→ posprodution
'post-production'
pre-
The prefix pre- means that something is before in time or order.
pozi
'put, pose'
→ prepozi
'put before, prepend'
dit
'tell'
→ predit
'foretell, predict'
viz
'see'
→ previz
'foresee, preview'
pro-
The prefix pro- means that something is moved onward or into the open.
pozi
'put, pose'
→ propozi
'put forward, propose'
voka
'call, summon'
→ provoka
'call forth, provoke'
re-
The prefix re- means that something is done back or in the opposite direction than originally.
ate
'to act'
→ reate
'to act back, react'
turne
'to turn'
→ returne
'to turn back'
ri-
The prefix ri- means repetition or doing again.
forma
'form'
→ riforma
'form again, reform'
nat
'be born'
→ rinat
'be born again'
pley
'play'
→ ripley
'play again, replay'
sin- ~ sim-
The prefixes sin- and sim- mean '(for, to or at) the same'. There are two forms of this prefix. The form sim- is used when the following word begins with a b, p or m, and the form sin- is used in all other cases.
kronik
'timely, temporal, chronic'
→ sinkronik
'synchronic, happening at the same time'
metria
'measurement'
→ simmetria
'symmetry, equal measurements'
patia
'suffering'
→ simpatia
'feeling ~ suffering the same, sympathy'
mixe
'mix'
→ simmixe
'mix together, blend'
su-
The prefix su- adds the quality of goodness into the base word.
ses
'pass, go by'
→ suses
'go well, succeed'
rup
'appearance, looks'
→ surupik
'good-looking'
Suffixes
-aje
The suffix -aje means something that is made of or something that consists of the thing indicated by the base word.
bag
'bag'
→ bagaje
'baggage, luggage'
kor
'core'
koraje
'guts, the things in the core'
mis
'send'
→ misaje
'something sent, message'
fas
'face'
→ fasaje
'facade, frontage'
limon
'lemon'
→ limonaje
'lemonade'
-al ~ -ial
The suffix -al means that something belongs to or is related to the thing or person indicated by the base word.
fin
'end'
→ final
'final, belonging to the end'
karne
'flesh'
→ karnal
'fleshly, related to flesh'
When -al is suffixed to a base word that ends in -ia, the endings merge together into -ial.
dunia
'world'
→ dunial
'worldly'
imperia
'empire'
→ imperial
'imperial'
nasia
'nation'
→ nasial
'national'
sosia
'society'
→ sosial
'societal, social'
uneversia
'universe, everything'
→ uneversial
'universal, something that concerns everything and everyone'
-an ~ ian
The suffix -an denotes someone that is a member of a community, such as a country, city or a club. When this suffix is added to a base word that ends in -ia, they merge together into -ian.
Amerika
'America'
→ amerikan
'American'
Italia
'Italy'
→ italian
'Italian'
Rusia
'Russia'
→ rusian
'Russian'
Paris
'the city of Paris'
→ parisan
'Parisian'
kristia
'Christendom'
→ kristian
'Christian'
-bil
The suffix -bil means that something is possible or able to be done.
vize
'see, view'
→ vizebil
'one that can be seen, visible'
uza
'use'
→ uzabil
'one that can be used, usable'
-em ~ -tem
This rarely used suffix means a fundamental unit in the system of things that is indicated by the base word. For example, lexem ('lexeme') is the fundamental unit in the system of lexe 'words'. For example, spoke and spoken are individual words but they represent the same underlying fundamental unit, which is speak in its fundamental form. So the other forms are identified as variations of the fundamental form.
fon
'speech sound'
→ fonem
'phoneme, distinct speech sound'
lexe
'word'
→ lexem
'lexeme, fundamental unit of a family of words'
mit
'myth'
→ mitem
'mytheme, an archetypal story'
-en ~ -n
The active participle suffix -(e)n means 'one who does the action of the base word'.
es
'to be'
→ esen
'a being, one who is'
log
'to talk'
→ logen
'a talking one, one who talks'
This suffix has additional combining forms -ent- and -nt- which are used before other suffixes.
esen + -ia
→ esentia
'being, essence'
esen + -ik
→ esentik
'essential'
-enda
Indicates 'what should be, or needs to be, done'.
age
'to do'
→ agenda
'agenda, list of things that need to be done'
ade
'to add'
→ adenda
'addendum, something to be added'
dele
'to delete'
→ delenda
'delenda, something to be deleted or removed'
krede
'to believe'
→ kredenda
'credendum, something to be believed'
korege
'to correct'
→ koregenda
'corrigendum, something to be corrected'
-er ~ -ter
The suffix -(t)er means 'a person who is occupied with the action of the base word'. It implies often but not always a professional occupation.
bake
'to bake'
→ baker
'baker'
lide
'to lead'
→ lider
'leader, the one who leads'
filsofe
'to think deeply'
→ filsofer
'philosopher'
sapate
'shoe'
→ sapater
'shoemaker'
muskete
'musket'
→ musketer
'musketeer'
kase
'box, cash box'
→ kaser
'cashier'
-eria ~ -teria ~ ria
This suffix is the combination of -(t)er + -ia. It means the place for making, producing or selling the thing that is indicated by the base word.
bak
'to bake'
→ bakeria
'bakery'
perfum
'perfume'
→ perfumeria
'perfumery'
enjener
'engineer'
→ enjeneria
'engineering'
In some rare cases this suffix is trimmed into -ria.
piza 'pizza' → pizaria 'pizzeria, pizza place'
-et ~ -t
The passive participle suffix -(e)t expresses one who undergoes or has undergone the action of the root.
fa
'to make'
→ fat
'(that which is or has been) done'
van
'to want'
→ vanet
'(that which is or has been) wanted'
vize
'to view or see'
→ vizet
'(that which is or has been) viewed or seen'
audi
'to hear'
→ audit
'(that which is or has been) heard'
-fa ~ -ifa
The suffix -(i)fa means to make or turn into the thing that is indicated by the base word.
mei
'beautiful'
→ meifa
'make beautiful, beautify'
komple
'complex'
→ komplifa
'make complex, complexify'
long
'long'
→ longifa
'make long, lengthen'
un
'one'
→ unifa
'unite, unify'
klar
'clear'
→ klarifa
'make clear, clarify'
-filia ~ ofilia
The suffix -(o)filia means 'extraordinary or abnormal liking of something'.
bashe
'language'
→ bashofilia
'glossophilia, linguaphilia, the love of language'
Rus
'Russia'
→ rusofilia
'Russophilia, strong liking of Russia or Russians'
tekne
'technology'
→ teknofilia
'technophilia, the love of technology'
-fobia ~ ofobia
The suffix -(o)fobia means 'extraordinary or abnormal dislike of something'.
arane
'spider'
→ aranofobia
'arachnophobia, the fear of spiders'
pan
'all-embracing'
→ panfobia
'panphobia, the fear of everything'
→ rusofobia
Rus
'Russia'
→ rusofobia
'Russophobia, strong dislike of Russia or Russians'
-ia ~ -ya
The suffix -ia has a variety of meanings, but fundamentally it means a collective of things or a community of people.
nese
'island'
→ nesia
'archipelago'
lexe
'word'
→ lexia
'vocabulary'
homan
'human being'
→ homania
'humanity, mankind, all the human beings as a group'
kriste
'Christ'
→ kristia
'Christianity, all Christians as a group'
This ending is often used in place names, especially in country names. However it is not always used, and there are also many country names that do not end in -ia.
arab
'Arab, Arabic'
→ Arabia
'Arabia'
rus
'Russian, Ruski'
→ Rusia
'Russia'
turke
'Turk, Turkish'
→ Turkia
'Turkey'
ital
'Italic, Italian'
→ Italia
'Italy'
Asia
'Asia'
Indonesia
'Indonesia'
The same suffix is sometimes used also in names of smaller establishments.
sushi 'sushi' → sushiya 'sushi place or restaurant'
The suffix -ia is also used in names of scientific disciplines, where it can be understood as collection of scientific knowledge and practices.
kim
'chemical'
→ kimia
'chemistry'
filsof
'view, outlook, life wisdom'
→ filsofia
'philosophy, the discipline of wisdom'
loj
'to study and reason systematically'
→ lojia
'systematic study, logic'
biolojia
'biology, systematic study of organic life'
geolojia
'geology, systematic study of the ground'
-ik ~ -tik
The suffix -(t)ik means something that is characterized by the thing or quality indicated by the base word.
baze
'base, basis'
→ bazik
'basic'
fize
'body'
→ fizik
'physical'
un
'one'
→ unik
'only, sole, single'
makin
'machine'
→ makinik
'machine-like, mechanical'
tema
'theme'
→ tematik
'thematic'
-im
The suffix -im means something that is in the position or rank that is indicated by the base word.
un
'one'
→ unim
'the first'
pre
'fore, front'
→ prim
'foremost, prime'
extre
'outside, exterior'
→ extrim
'outermost, extreme'
-ion ~ -tion
The suffix
-(t)ion
means 'an action or process'.
dit
'say'
→ dition
'saying, diction'
konsume
'consume'
→ konsumion
'consumption'
rota
'wheel; to turn like a wheel'
→ rotation
'turning, rotation'
-isme
The suffix -isme means an ideology, a way of thinking or a way of life.
alkol
'alcohol'
→ alkolisme
'alcoholism'
agtiv
'active'
→ agtivisme
'activism'
deo
'god'
→ deisme
'theism'
-iste
The suffix -iste means a person who tends to behave or think in a certain way or an adherent of an ideology or a religion.
alkol
'alcohol'
→ alkoliste
'alcoholic, alcoholist'
agtiv
'active',
→ agtiviste
'activist'
deo
'god'
→ deiste
'theist, one who believes in existence of a god or gods'
-it ~ -lit
The suffix -(l)it expresses 'small size'.
pak
'pack'
→ pakit
'packet'
kas
'case'
→ kasit
'cassette'
sigar
'cigar'
→ sigarit
'cigarette'
-ita ~ -ta
The suffix -(i)ta creates abstract nouns that represent a quality or a state.
nuve
'new, novel'
→ nuvita
'newness, novelty'
un
'one'
unita
'oneness, unity'
-ium ~ -um
The suffix -(i)um means 'chemical element'.
kali
'base, alkali'
→ kalium
'kalium'
Kuri
→ kurium
'curium, the chemical element named after Marie Curie'
Einstein
→ einsteinium
'einsteinium, the chemical element named after Albert Einstein'
-ive ~ -tive
The suffix
-(t)iv
means someone who tends to do what the base word says.
age
'act, perform'
→ agtiv
'active, inclined to act'
exploz
'explode'
→ exploziv
'explosive'
dika
'point at, indicate'
→ dikativ
'indicative'
-iza ~ -tiza
The suffix -(t)iza means 'to furnish or equip with something'.
aur
'gold'
→ auriza
'to gild, to coat with gold'
makin
'machine'
→ makiniza
'to mechanize, to equip with machinery'
-krat ~ okrat
The suffix (o)krat means 'to rule, govern'.
demo
'people, public'
→ demokratia
'democracy, rule by the people'
tekne
'technology'
→ teknokratia
'technocracy, rule by the technology'
media
'the (mass) media'
→ mediakratia
'mediacracy, rule by the media'
-los
The suffix -los means 'lacking'.
helpe
'help'
→ helpelos
'helpless'
nao
'brain'
→ naolos
'brainless'
-metre ~ ometre
The suffix (o)metre means 'measurement'.
terme
'temperature'
→ termometrer
'temperature measurer, thermometer'
sim-
'same'
→ simmetria
'equal measurements, symmetry'
-nomia ~ onomia
The suffix (o)nomia means 'arrangement, management'.
astre
'celestial body'
→ astronomia
'astronomy'
agre
'farming'
→ agronomia
agronomy
-on
The suffix -on indicates great size.
bol 'ball' → bolon balloon'
-or ~ -tor
The suffix -(t)or means an apparatus, device or machine for doing the work that is incidated by the base word.
trat
'drag, haul'
→ trator
'tractor'
fotograf
'to photograph'
→ fotografor
'photograph apparatus, camera'
-ul ~ -kul
The suffix -(k)ul indicates intensification or concentration, frequently but not necessarily into a smaller size.
kum
'mound, hill'
→ kumul
'small hill, hillock, heap, pile'
bande
'band, group of things tied together'
→ bandul
'bundle'
mira
'stare in awe'
→ mirakul
'wonder, miracle'
lit
'small'
→ litul
'little'
-ura ~ -tura
The suffix -(t)ur means something that is the result or product of the action that is indicated by the base word.
kulte
'cultivate a way of life'
→ kultura
'culture'
mixe
'mix'
→ mixura
'mixture'
Affixes for chemistry
-al
'aldehyde':
metanal
'formaldehyde, methanal'
-an
'alkane group':
metil
'methyl'
→ metan
'methane'
-ate
'salt or ester':
sulfe
'sulfur'
→ sulfate
'sulfate'
-en
'alkene group':
meten
'methen'
-il
'alkyl group':
bute
'butter'
→ butil
'butyl'
metan
'methane'
→ metil
'methyl'
-in
'alkyne group':
metin
'methyne'
-ite
'salt or ester':
sulfe
'sulfur'
→ sulfite
'sulfite'
-ol
'alcoholic compound':
etan
'ethane'
→ etanol
'ethanol'
-on
'ketone group':
propan
'propane'
→ propanon
'propanone'
-os
'sugar':
frute
'fruit'
→ frutos
'fructose'
malte
'malt'
→ maltos
'maltose'