Salovisian language (Saloviscio iĕzko)

Orthography

The orthography is generally identical to the way it would be read by an English speaker, with the following exceptions (and a few common others, that will be pointed out where they occur):

-          Sc – /ʃ/

-          C - /tʃ/

-          Ĕ - /ɞ/

-          R - /r/

-          Ch - /x/

-          A = /a/

-          E = /e/

-          I = /i/ (/j/ before vowel)

-          O = /o/

-          Eo = /ɛw/

-          U = /u/

Noun cases, types and declension

There are masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, each of which include both animate and inanimate nouns. Feminine nouns end in “-a” or “-ia”, and neuter nouns end in “-o” or “-e”. Unlike most other Slavic languages, the case system is somewhat small, with only nominative, accusative, genitive (possessive, “of”) and dative (“to” or “for”) cases.

The examples given here are:

-          Masculine: Vescir – afternoon

-          Feminine: Svita – light

-          Neuter: Daro - road

	Sing	Plu	Sing	Plu	Sing	Plu
Nom	Vescir	Vesciri	Svita	Sviti	Daro	Dara
Acc	Vescir1	Vesciri	Svitu	Sviti2	Daro	Dara3
Gen	Vescira	Vescire	Svitei	Svit	Dara	Dar
Dat	Vesciru	Vescirom	Svitĕ	Svitom	Daru	Darom

¹For animate masculine nouns, this ending is “-a”

²For anim. nouns, this ending becomes “-e”

³For anim. nouns, this ending becomes “-i”

It should be noted that a few nouns, such as “lĕd”, “person”, take the genitive singular as a “dual” plural, to mean “two of” a quantity.

Adjective declensions

Most adjectives end in “-ei” and follow this declension pattern:

	Masc	Fem	Neut	Plu
Nom	-ei	-ia	-io	-ii
Acc	-ei/-eo1	-iu	-io	-ii/-e2
Gen	-eo	-oi	-eo	-eis
Dat	-om	-oi	-om	-im

¹For animate nouns

²For feminine and neuter animate nouns

A few adjectives, such as “iedn” (“one”, “single”), are different:

	Masc	Fem	Neut	Plu
Nom	-	-a	-o	-i
Acc	-/-ia	-u	-o	-i/-e
Gen	-ia	-oi	-ia	-eis
Dat	-iu	-oi	-iu	-om

The adverbial form of most adjectives simply replaces the ending with “-ĕ”, and the comparative form usually ends in “-iei”.

Several words

-          Good – dobrei

-          To love – liĕb (perfective “oliĕb”)

-          To speak – ovor (perfective “sovor”)

-          All – selej

-          One – iedn (pronounced like “yen”, except with endings)

-          Two – dvĕ

-          Three – dri

-          Four – ceiri

-          Five – piĕt

-          Six – sces

-          Seven – scem

-          Eight – viem

-          Nine – dĕvisc

-          Ten – desc

-          What – cio (genitive “ceo”, dative “com”)

-          Who – cho (accusative/genitive “cheo”, dative “chom”)

-          But, although - non

Articles

While there is no indefinite article, a sort of definite article, with an English meaning somewhere between “the” and “this”, sometimes appears – “z”, a short form of “zei”, which more often means “that”. “Z” is declined almost identically to “iedn”, except that the genitive plural is “zes”. To avoid confusion, most of the endings of “zei” beginning with an “i” begin with an “ei” instead, e.g. “zeiu” rather than “ziu”, which otherwise is a dative form of “z”.

Verbs

Verbs generally do not have a specific ending for an infinitive, and are generally inflected thus:

	Present		Past
1st sing (iĕ)	-u	Masc	-(a)*l
2nd sing (ti)	-isc/-esc	Fem	-la
3rd sing (on, na, no)	-i	Neut	-le
1st plu (mi)	-im/-em	Plu	-li
2nd plu (vi)	-iste/-este
3rd plu (nie)	-ĕt/ut

*For the rare few verbs that already end in “l”, or impossible consonant forms, such as “chot” (“to go”)

It should be mentioned that subject pronouns, when they are used, come after the noun, but in the present form are generally only used to show an interrogative, questioning mood.

As with many Slavic languages, most verbs have a separate form to show a complete, “perfective” actions – these usually begin in “o-” or “s-“, but in some cases can take entirely different forms, such as “id” and “chod”, both meaning “to go”.

The perfective present generally shows a future action, but the perfective past is used to show a recent past action, similar to the perfective in English or French.

Pronouns

	I	You (sing/informal)	He/it	She	We	You	They
Nom	Iĕ	Ti	On/No	Na	Mi	Vi	Nie
Acc	Menĕ	Tebĕ	Ieo	Eiu	Nĕs	Vĕs	Nis
Gen	Menĕ	Tebĕ	Ieo	Eiu	Nĕs	Vĕs	Nis
Dat	Meni	Tebi	Iom	Ei	Nom	Vom	Nim

Prepositions

-          U – “in, at” (+ gen) (“through, in” with periods of time)

-          O (/oʔ/) – “from” (+ gen)

-          Ĕs (in older documents written “s”) – “out of” (+gen)

-          Sem – “with” (+ acc)

-          Besc – “without” (+ gen)

-          Ĕv (in older documents written “v”)– “in”, “in the time of”, “in the area of” (+acc), “into” (+dat)

-          Pre – “through” (+dat), “in the time of” (+gen)

-          Ob – “about” (+gen)

-          Priv – “before” (+acc)

-          Zav – “behind” (+acc)

-          Del – “for” (+ gen)