LARA LANGUAGE
ALPHABET
The Lara
alphabet consists of 27 Latin letters. Transcription and pronunciation are as
follows:
Xsampa Example
a = /a:/ (like
in “car”)
b = /b/ (“ “ “band”)
č (or ch) = /tS/ (“ “ “challenge”)
k = /k/ (“ “ “cold”)
d = /d/ (“ “ “dark”)
e = /e2/ (“ “ “elevation”)
è
= /E/ (“ “ “red”)
f = /f/
(“ “ “figure”)
j = /Z/ french g (“ “ “garage”)
g = /g/
(“ “ “goal”)
h = /h/
aspirate h (“ “ “hockey”)
i = /i:/ (“ “ “people” or “even”)
l = /l/ (“ “ “language”)
m = /m/ (“ “ “mother”)
n = /n/
(“ “ “never”)
o = /o7/
(“ “ “because”, but it’s a short “o”)
ò = /O/
(“ “ “off”)
p = /p/ (“ “ “pen”)
q = /kw/ (“ “ “quality”)
r = /r\/
(it’s pronunciation is in the Latin way)
s = /s/ (“ “ “sand”)
š (or sh) = /S/
(“ “ “shower”)
t = /t/
(“ “ “taste”)
u = /u:/
(“ “ “foot”)
v = /v/ (“ “ “villa”)
x = /ks/ (“
“ “excuse”)
y = /j/ (“
“ “yellow”)
w = /w/
(“ “ “wide”)
z = /z/
(“ “ “zero”)
“Y” + “i” (yi) is pronounced like “yə” when it follows a consonant (the vowel ə is
a “schwa”, and its pronunciation is the same as in president or above; eg.: bilyi
(recent) = pronunc. beelyə; whereas eyi (inattentive) = pronunc. éyee.
The accent is
always on the penultimate syllable, and it can be on “u” or “i” but never on “y” or “w” (short vowels).
Words are always
easy and short; in fact most of them
are composed by only 2 syllables.
Nouns always end
with –a.
Nouns always end
with –u; eg: mega = house,
becomes megu = houses.
The “surrounding”
of nouns is constituted by the other elements of the language: adjectives, adverbs.
Words that are part of the “surrounding” (adjectives, adverbs and every
word that is not a noun neither a verb) have the same root
of the noun, but always end with –i.
The adjective always precedes the noun
(eg.: mami
mega = a big house), and always remains singular
when noun is plural (eg.: mami megu =
big houses).
The article
doesn’t exist in the Lara language.
When
specification of the feminine gender is required, you only need to place
va- before the word; eg: hada = servant
becomes va-hada = (she) servant.
In order to have
the diminutive, you add –la at the end of the noun (eg: kira =
hand becomes kirala = little
hand; pay attention to the accent, you read kiràla).
You have the augmentative
adding –ma to the noun.
In conclusion to the WORDS chapter, you will notice that sometimes you can’t find some adjectives
or verbs in the dictionary. Very often it’s really easy to obtain them
simply adding the correct suffix to the noun root.
Also many constructable words are absent, like “profession”
words and “provenance” or “destination” words. The former are
intended to be the one who (and in
Lara is ka) does or makes the thing/action defined by any root.
An example is: to obtain the word frame-maker
(not present in the dictionary) you only need to add ka (=the one who..) to the correspondent noun
or verb (in this case: liba = frame)
and obtain libaka = frame-maker.
The provenance/destination words instead define
the physical place or the abstract
concept where the action takes place or where people, objects are collected
or live, and are defined by the root. You obtain that kind of word adding -pa
(from upa = place) at the
end of the word in question (eg.: matra
= study, becomes matrapa = university).
When you want to create a new provenance/destination word, you always
have to pay attention that the word isn’t yet in the dictionary or if the new
one could be confused with other words with a different meaning.
***
Directions (so-called separate) correspond basically to
our prepositions (also adverbial ones). They are easy to identify
and memorize since always end with -o or -n or -r
or in any case contain o and/or n and/or r
and are all monosyllable. The principal directions are 16:
accent* = of accent + n = up, on,
over o
or go** = as, like, how rro = because of, owing to
accent + r = to, toward rò = along, during, through (time)
nò
= in front (of) nyo = in the middle/center of,
ro = from (since) r
= for nyò = behind ryo = according to/depending on
n = in yo = between, among rrò
= across, through (space)
no*** = with nnò = down, under, beneath nno =
by means of, through
The position of
the directions generally follows and is bound to the term in
order to obtain a better cadence of the sentence.
Eg.: the boats on the sea translates
as sufu talàn
(talà = sea (with
accent)
+ n = on, above) = boats sea–on, above;
and, an eg. in the plural: the courtyards behind the houses translates as svaru megunyò (megu + nyò).
When the noun is accompanied by an adjective, the direction is
linked only to the noun; eg: sufu gili
(= green) talàn
(the boats on the green sea).
As already described in the paragraph of the “Sorrounding”,
if the noun is in the plural,
the accompanying adjective remains in
the singular, so if a direction is linked to this noun the translation, in some examples,
will be the following: liu sumi felurò (boys
along the joyful streets), hama lui ravù (the discovery of new worlds).
*A simple accent
on the last syllable of the word means “of”, both the singular
and the plural; eg: the phrase the walls of the house simply
becomes tonku megà.
Plural: the walls of the houses
will be translated with tonku megù.
In the case of a monosyllable word: in the
spoken language the accent can be detected only from the context of the
sentence, since it is not "perceptible" when the word is isolated; eg: the
pronunciation of knà (of the
bread) does not differ from the pronunciation of kna
(bread); in the context of a sentence, however, paying attention to use
the correct accent, the difference is evident; eg: sa bra knà
(this is the crumb of the bread) is pronounced "sabraknà", while the phrase sa bra kna
(this is crumb bread .. non-sense phrase!) should be pronounced "sàbrakna". Other examples: the taste of
food is translated with yuma krà (pronounced: “yumakrà”
and not “yùmakra” = yuma
kra, which would translate with the taste is
food). The same example in the plural: the taste of foods
translates as yuma krù.
** the direction go when it means "how" is
not linked to the term; eg .: go yu nyer sni
fela? (how - in what way - will you
find the right path?).
***the opposite,
“without”, becomes mino. In the context of a sentence, however, the
construction follows the rule as above, bounding the direction at the end
of the word, eg.: a
voice without a soul becomes qa mi
hiano (voice ; not ; soul + with).
PERSONS
|
BELONGING |
DONATION |
OBJECT |
|
a (n) I |
mà my |
mar for me |
ma me |
|
ya you |
nà your |
nar for you |
na you |
|
la he |
dà his |
dar for him |
da him |
|
va she |
và her |
var for her |
va her |
|
ga oneself |
gà of o.s. (own) |
gar for o.s. |
ga oneself |
|
u (n) we |
mù our |
mur for us |
mu us |
|
yu you |
nù your |
nur for you |
nu you |
|
lu they |
dù their |
dur for them |
du them |
|
vu they (f.) |
vù their (f.) |
vur “(f.) |
vu them (f.) |
The directions
bind to the personal pronouns in the
same way of nouns, adjectives or verbs, as seen in the previous chapter.
For your convenience we provide a table that lists the "cases" for the individual pronouns bound to the directions:
of belonging (which corresponds to
the genitive case), donation (dative
case) and object (accusative case):
The belonging direction follows the term
to which it refers; eg.: a ne
mega nà (I see your house), pronunciation: “anémeganà”.
Examples of binding with other directions: to,
toward you = nàr (na= you (with accent) + r=
to, toward; other eg.: dunno (by means of them), varo
(from her), muyo (between
us), danò (in
front of him), narro (owing to, because of you), dunyo (in their midst), ecc.
In complex
sentences in which a word is governed by a direction and also tied to a person
declined in the direction of belonging, just remember that the person
declined in the direction of belonging follows the word.
Eg: the son of your neighbor = ipa nenkà nù, the
color of their eyes = rula neù dù; he with the car of his wife = la platano vilvà gà;
the hat on my head = poka
kopàn mà.
Ka means “who, the one who/that..”, as a noun or
conjunction, referring to a person/people.
Eg.: ka le nai… = who
goes far away…; a mi nen ka beten vata = I didn’t see who/the
one who opened the window.
Ki is an adjective and means “which(?), what(?); (eg: ya lipen ki pida? = which/what number did you choose?)
referring to things, animals, places, etc.; the conjunction (our
“that”/which”), referring to things, animals, places, is mostly omitted,
as in english, but if it is necessary to transcribe
it, TA (that) or SA (this) or LA/VA (he/she) must be used
depending on the context. Eg. where the conjunction
is omitted: la klapen koka ya bari
kade = he took the cup (that / the one
that) you always use. Eg. Where the conjunction
is transcribed: a ge friva
ta tonkàn (I want the painting that
is on the wall); if conjunction were omitted, the phrase a ge friva tonkàn
would translate as I want the picture on the wall, an ambiguous phrase
that in Lara can also translate as I want the picture to be on the
wall (see later the chapter on the verb “to BE”).
Kia means “what/the thing (that)”
(subst.).
Eg.:
ya tie
pe kia? = what do you think to do?
As for the persons, ka, ta,
sa, la/va and kia have to be bound to the preposition; eg.: kàr (to/toward the one who.., to whom..),
sano (with this or which…with.), kiàn (on what, what…on).
When ka
and ta, sa, la/va
are conjunctions and are in the same direction of the bound
word then both terms are not expressed, as in english.
On the contrary, when they’re not in the same direction or their
direction is not the object one, then the terms ka,
ta, sa, la/va
are expressed. Eg.: koka
puna sà kuzi (the dog whose nose is cold; literally:
dog nose of-this-one cold), or neu iyù
yu same dur (the eyes of the
children (which) you live for; literally: eyes of-children
you live for-them), etc.
Eg.: A klape glepa si
= I take this (adj.) glass; a klape
sa = I take this (subst.); or: ta
u ne = what/that (thing) (subst.) we see.
When they’re substantive
you bind them to the preposition, as well as for all the nouns; eg.: tano (with
that), sar (for this).
In case they are
in the form of the adjective, the construction will be exactly as seen
above for complex sentences, pointing out that the adjective is always singular
when linked to a plural noun, eg.: goi fiva krà si = good (lit. "well") smell of
this food; sa meki dyu wai svoluno
ti = these are strange people with those long cloaks; literally: this-one strange persons long with-cloaks that.
Comparisons are divided into 2 groups: less/more and least/most.
LESS/MORE
The construction is like in English and many other languages: ui (less)
and mui (more) preceding an adjective.
The term that is compared follows the direction o/go (as,
like); eg.: va
ui lali nivao (she is less beautiful than
her sister) or lu mui huni tovuo gà (they’re taller
than their friends).
LEAST/MOST
They’re divided into absolute and relative.
The “least” absolute corresponds to the absolute superlative in a negative
form, eg.: if you say a very/extremely clever man,
in the negative form it will be an extremely not clever man.
In the Lara language you need to add lo-[1] to the adjective
obtaining: lo + eki (clever)
pea (man) = loeki
pea –again
remembering that usually the adjective precedes the noun, except for the terms si
and ti.-
The “most” absolute corresponds to the absolute
superlative in a positive form. The example you’ve seen above will
be: a very/extremely clever man. Now you add ba-[2], and the translation is: ba + eki
pea = baeki pea.
When they’re
used as adjectives, the “most” absolute for bai (much/many)
and loi (few) is respectively
byai and lyoi;
eg.: a great many(or very few) years
is translated as byai (or
lyoi) milu.
The suffixes lo-
and ba- are also used for
verbs (as you’ll see in the Verbs chapter).
The “least” and the “most” relative
correspond to the relative superlative.
In order to construct them, the term mo or lo is put before the adjective,
respectively to say the most or the least. The term
that is compared follows the direction n (in) when
it’s singular or yo (between, among) when it’s plural; eg: mo huni
pea ravan (the tallest man in
the world) or la mo huni muyo (he is the tallest
of us); whereas, on the contrary, the least brave man in the world becomes lo masdi pea ravan. To
say the most or greatest or maximum as a substantive
you translate with bawi, whereas to say
the least or minimum or slightest as a substantive you translate with bibi.
NUMBERS
Numbers from 0 to 9 are named as follows:
0 - min 5 - li
1 - pi 6 - zi
2 - ji 7 - dji
3 - di 8 - yi
4 - chi 9 - xi
In order to obtain the name of numbers over 9 (except for numbers containing the 0, see below) you only
have to place side by side the names of every single number and add an accent and -n.
Let’s see some examples: ji (2) + chi (4)
+ -n=
jichìn (24) or di
(3) + zi (6) + xi
(9) + -n = dizixìn (369)
or jichichidìn = (2443).
A different rule exists for num. 0. When the 0
is only one time inside the number, it has to be expressed as unique:
eg. di (3) + yi
(8) + mi- (0) + n
= diyimìn (380). Whereas
if there are more than one 0 inside
the number, then you express the number of times it’s
present inside (using the root word of the number) + the suffix -on;
eg.: pi (1) + j(i) (2) = intended as number of times
you find the 0 inside the number)
+ -on = pijon (100
, i.e.: 1 + 2 times zero) or pi (1) +
d(i) (3) + -on = pidon (1000, i.e. 1
+ 3 times zero) and so on. The suffix –in and –on within
the number, and not at the end of it, become respectively –i- and
-o-.
Eg.: pidolìn is 10005 or zimijìn is
602.
When you find a Lara word composed by only 1 number
followed by -on the translation is with that number + 1
zero; eg.: p(i)
(1) + -on = pon
(10, i.e.: 1 + 1 zero) or ch(i)
(4) + -on = chon (40, i.e.: 4
+ 1 zero) and so on.
Recapitulation examples: diliyìn
(358), djon (70), zijon (600), lijopìn (5001) and chimixixidon
(4.099.000)!
For the ordinal numeral adjectives, the suffix to bind to the number is –ni (note it ends in –i like
all the adjectives). So, from 1
to 9 they are:
first – pini sixth - zini
second – jini seventh - djini
third – dini eighth - yini
fourth – chini ninth - xini
fifth – lini
For numbers over 9 you only add -ni to the entire number.
Examples: fifteenth (15th) = pilin-ni (15ni); hundredthirtieth
(130th) = pidiminni (130ni); fortieth(40th)= chonni
(40ni); thousandth (1000th) = pidonni (1000ni).
TIME
The hour is asa in the modern Lara language, but the original
old meaning of this term was about 4 hours of a day. So let’s see some examples
about determination of time:
What time is it? In Lara is: Ki asa?
To say it’s X hour you translate with X
asa (eg.: it’s
three o’clock = di asa), completely
different from X asu = it’s X
hours that… (eg.: it’s two hours
that I’m waiting = ji asu a vipe).
The parts of an hour are expressed as follows:
It’s a quarter past 4= 4 asa mui pi chì (literally:
it’s 4 hour plus 1 of 4); it’s half past 5
= 5 asa mui ryi (liter.: it’s 5 hour plus half).
At X = Ami
X asa (liter.: When X hour). Eg.: At three quarters past 6 = Ami
6 asa mui di chì. And obviusly At
what time? Becomes Ami ki asa?
To insert the minutes here is an example:
At 25 (minutes) past 10 = Ami 10 asa mui jilìn; you
don’t need to express the word nadu (= minutes).
INTERJECTIONS
The most
frequent interjection in Lara is Ah! (remember that h is aspirated) and the most direct translation is Oh!. But this interjection
is also used as an exclamatory or interrogative
adjective that could be what...!
or how...! etc., eg.: ah lali! (how beautiful!) or ah
mami! (how big!) or ah
meki ba! (what
a strange thing!), etc.
VERB
The present
absolute, corresponding to the infinitive, always ends with –e.
As I said before in the Comparisons chapter, also for the verbs
you can use lo- and ba-
and they are always equivalent to “least” and “most” absolute; eg.: va ba + lube (to
love) vyuu = va balube vyuu (she
loves very much flowers) or ya
lo + lute (to know) kea = ya
lolute kea (you know very few
about history).
When bai
and loi are used as adjectives
(see Comparisons) in that
case you translate with byai and lyoi; the same eg.:
va lube byai
vyuu (she loves a great deal of
flowers).
The verb has conjugations and cases,
that in Lara are called directions of person and tense.
The first one is very easy since you only need to place
the person before the verb following the absolute form (present
or in other tenses); eg.: a kae (I bring), or lu
kae (they bring).
TENSE DIRECTIONS
There are three tenses for every single form
of the verb: active, passive and reflexive.
ACTIVE verb
Tenses are the same for the 3 forms of the verb. For the active
form they are constructed as follows:
1) present absolute:
root + -e (as you saw above).
2) past “ : root + -e + -n.
3) future “ : root + -e + -r.
As you saw in the previous eg.,
you only need to place the person before the verb following the absolute
form (present, past, etc.) in order to
obtain the person direction together with the tense direction; eg.: u panen (we
dreamt), or la aler (he will
come), etc.
PASSIVE verb
For the passive
form it is sufficient to put the suffix e- before the
active verb when it begins with a consonant, or en-
when it begins with a vowel; the tenses are then constructed in
the same way as the active form.
As usual you
place the person before the verb and obtain the person direction;
eg.: va
elenen (she was searched); lu ekatome foraro (they are respected by the people); smata ti efaker misai (that
package will be sent elsewhere)
REFLEXIVE verb
In Lara can be constructed
by placing the person ga (=
oneself) after the verb, but this is used only in case
of ambiguous meaning! In fact, the simple active or passive
form is normally used (like in english). Eg.: You undress in front of everyone! = Ya stam’emanò!;
or They woke up after me = Lu haken kai
ma; or he dresses = la store.
Use ga when
you need to specify the reflexive condition; Eg.:
y’adyer ga!
(you will loose yourself!)
CondITIONAL
It has only the present tense and is
constructed by adding -ir to the
root for the active form, similar to the -er of the future tense, as the conditional
essentially expresses a "futurable" action.
Eg.: ya
pir (you would do) or la ekamir ai... (he would be warned if...). For
the past you substantially do the same work as in English by using the past
tense; the previous eg. becomes: la ekamen ai... (he was warned if...). Another more complete eg.: un edoryen ai yu mi zai hegen
(we were killed if you were not immediately arrived).
IMPERATIVE
It is constructed with a simple accent on the last
syllable of the present of the active or passive form.
Eg.: lwalè!
(come back!). When no person precedes the verb, it is intended
that the subject is you,
whereas you have to express the person in all the other cases. Eg.: lapè (hear!),
u lapè (let’s hear!), lu elapè
(they are to be heard!).
the NOUN-VERB
It corresponds to the participle and similarly has
a present tense and a past tense. The present one doesn’t exist in Lara, it
means that you don’t need to make any particular construction. An eg.: the participant is ka sime (the one that participates) and
so the participants= ku
sime.
The past one
is constructed by adding –in (similar to -en of the past tense) to the root*, in cases where the past participle
essentially expresses an adjective referring to the past. Eg.: yoi tuyin pea (a man now defeated); kripin hikka
(ground pepper). Probably
from these examples is already clear that the past participle follows
the construction of the adjectives in the syntax, as is clear in the
following additional examples: u nen tedin pea
ti (we saw that distressed man).
In the more complex construction, when the past
participle has the meaning of a verb and not an adjective, the translation
occurs as for the present participle, using the conjunction ka
or ta/sa/la/va;
on the basis of the example above: u nen pea ti zaven malaro (we saw that man afraid of (by)
the night; literally: ... that man who was afraid of (by) the
night) and not u nen pea ti zavin malaro
because it would read = we saw that man from
the frightened night).
the ACCOMPANYING
verb
It’s similar to the gerund, but involves a wider concept. Its simple gerund meaning is determined by the
construction of active present absolute followed by no
(with); eg.: grumi
la felen bleno
(the (he) old man walked while talking; literally while
talking is with talking). When no
follows a verb in a different tense direction then its meaning
becomes more complex.
The verb + preposition no,
in every tense direction, makes an absolute phrase.
1) Accompanying
verb. pasT (GERUND)
It’s constructed by the verb in past
absolute tense followed by no. Eg.: a lenno (len + no) mega (literally.: I, with went (been gone) home) that you
can translate with: after I went (had
gone) home or since I went home or for the fact I went home or as I went home.
2) Accompanying
verb. FUTURE (GERUND)
When the verb in future absolute
tense is followed by no, you will have: a lerno mega (liter.: I, with will go home) =
since I will go home or for the fact I will go home or as I
will go home.
Now you understand that also with the verb
in present absolute tense (i.e.: present
gerund) followed by no you can have different translations:
a leno mega = me, going home or since I
go home or as I go home or for the fact I go home, etc.
RENEWAL verb
This kind of verb implies a repetition of the
action. In English most of the times it is expressed by the suffix re- or by the adverb again (to do again, to readmit, to reconstruct). Also in Lara the verb has simply a
suffix that is lu-[3]. If you want to construct
a renewal verb that is not present in the Lara dictionary, you need to
pay attention that adding lu- to
the verb, this should have no other meaning. Examples of renewal
verbs: ne (to see) becomes lune (to
see again) or talle (to
build) becomes lutalle
(to rebuild).
POSSIBILITY
DIRECTION
This direction corresponds to an adjective
derived from the verb. In English you have it by adding –able (i.e.: that is possible; eg.: readable = that is possible to read) to the root of the verb. In
Lara you add the suffix -asi to the
root of the verb: eg.: nete
(to understand) becomes net- + asi = netasi
(understandable).
When the verb is a monosyllable you add -asi to the entire verb and not to the
root; eg.: kre
(to eat) becomes kre
+ asi = kreasi
(eatable).
This direction follows the rules as for all adjectives.
Some verbs in this direction have contracted forms
that you can find in the Lara dictionary; eg.: mitosi (unbelievable) derives
from mi (no, not) + to- (root of toe
= to believe) + asi = mitoasi, where oa
is contracted
into o. Thus, when you want to create a possibility
direction of any verb, give a look to the dictionary in order to see if
there’s not already a contracted form for that verb.
Note: Verbs that are intransitive,
often can be used as transitive in Lara, on condition that the meaning
of the sentence doesn’t result misunderstandable. Eg.: a ler tala =
I will go to the sea (without
preposition in Lara).
The verb TO BE
The auxiliary verb me (to be) is
normally omitted in the sentence. You
also find this characteristic in other natural languages, like Russian. The subject
(noun or other) or the person preceding the verb, in
the direction of person, indicates the verb to be.
Eg.: koka tova peà (the dog is
the friend of man) or veu ti dili (that women are
sincere). Notice how the adjective
stays singular when the substantive is plural, or u milmi (we
are tired) where the person indicates the verb to be. By that, you’ll notice that
just changing the position of the adjective you can have
sentences with completely different meanings, eg.: mami frua
(a big garden) and frua mami
(the garden is big).
You can never omit the verb to be when the sentence results unclear
and in case of 3 kind of the following Constructions, the present,
past and future one.
Let’s see them.
Present. The verb me describes a continuative
action when it precedes another verb in the present absolute; eg.:
a me le (I am going) or la me pe
(he is doing); if you change
the tense direction of me, eg.: a
men le (I was going) or vasa ti la mer pe (that
day he will be doing).
Past. When it precedes another verb that is in the past
absolute, then
the verb me describes a concluded action; eg.: ya men
len (you was gone) or u men pen
(we had done). Notice how you always use me also when it’s the verb to have in English. Eg.: lu men enyen (they were be found). Also in this case
the verb me can be in other tense directions depending on
the action occurring in the present, past or future tense.
Future. Finally, the verb me describes a future
potential action when it precedes another verb that is in the future
absolute; eg.: ya me
planer (you are going to sleep) or a me
per (I’m going to do). If you change the tense
direction of me, eg.: ya men paner
(you were going
to dream) and so on.
Accompanying verb with “TO BE”
If you wish to construct the accompanying verb
(gerund) with the verb to be (me),
since the verb to be in Lara is omitted, simply use the direction
no
in an isolated form, not bound to any verb. Eg:
ya no goni matreda (since
you are a good student, for
you are ..., as you are
...); a no mui dri,
ya mi ma'tuye!
(since we are stronger, you can not win!). On the contrary, for the past or the future the verb to be
(me)
has to be transcribed, but only if strictly necessary for the proper meaning of
the phrase. Eg.: un ake šule lu merno
domma (we
have to obey since they will be the masters), however,
another example.: imala si ya no kemba mà ... (since
you will be my guest tonight ...), in this case it is clear that the verb
to be omitted is in the future tense, because it is clear from the
entire sentence.
“sorrounding” and
“noun-verb” with “to be”
Examples of complex constructions with the verb to be and adjectives or past
participles that accompany nouns:
pea
ti kokao egolken entaro (that man is
like a dog beaten by fate; literally: That man is like a dog that has been [was] beaten by fate)
and not pea ti kokao golkin entaro because
you would read = the man is like a dog from/by
the beaten fate (!!!)). From "The Little Prince": a mui jei sufdao
epuren malamanyo gowàn kai šoya =
I was more isolated than a sailor [who
was] abandoned in the middle of the ocean on a raft after a shipwreck.
The use of “PE” (to do)
In Lara there’s a particular construction that
is used when the verb is accompanied by the verb pe
(to do, to make). Let’s have an example: to make change or to make worry. In this case, in Lara, the verb pe
is added, as it would be a suffix, to the accompanied verb;
eg.: trele (to
work) + pe = trele
+ pe = trelepe
(to make work).
In case of monosyllable accompanied verb you add -pye
instead of -pe; eg.: ble (to speak) + pye
= blepye (to make speak).
Eg.: blaka si yelepe ma (this story makes me laugh).
OBJECTIVE CLAUSE
It corresponds to the so called Indirect speech of latin. In Lara you only need to let the indirect clause follow the main
clause. Thus it’s fundamental to never omit the subject of the subordinate clause!
Eg.: ma ge ya le (I want you to go) or lu ken va
lali (they said she was beautiful).
NEGATIVE CLAUSE
In Lara the word mi means no or not.
You can also use it to construct words corresponding to the negative form of other ones, in English
generally beginning with in-, un- or dis- (intolerant, discontinuity,
unusual). Eg., in Lara: mitosi
(incredible) or milumi
(ignorant; by mi + lumi = not
+ learned, wise) or milai (dry;
by mi + lai = not + wet) or miklumi (anemic; by mi
+ kluma = no + blood).
Negative clauses are constructed in an English-like way. Eg.: a de mia
(I have nothing);
l’aler vi (he
will never come) or lu
len mi upa (they
went in no place = literally: they went no place).
PREPOSITION BETWEEN TWO VERBS
In Lara you never need to put a preposition
between two verbs. Eg.: la toe lume (he thinks to know), lu ke le (they say to go), a le pe
(I go to do), alè ble dano (come to
speak with him), etc.
IMPERSONAL FORM
This is the last rule of the Lara language: the impersonal
form of verbs. Clauses like: it
rains, one needs, it is thought, etc. are impersonal and
in Lara constructed with the passive absolute. The former expressions
are translated with: edree, enake, etie!.
TO SUMMARIZE…
…TERMS AND SUFFIX !
A
-a
= singular noun;
-à = singular belonging direction of a noun; -an = in […]; -àn = up, on, upon; -ar = for; -àr = to, toward
E
-e
= present absolute
tense of a verb (infinitive); -er = future
tense of verb; -en = past tense of verb;
-è = imperative of verb; e- + verb = passive
verb
I
-i = adjective or adverb; -ìn = number; -in = past participle, past tens of a noun-verb; -ir = conditional
of verb
O
-o/-go
= as, like, how.; -on = number; -no = with; -nò = in front (of); -nno = by means of, through; -nnò = down, under, beneath; -nyo
= in the middle/center of; -nyò
= behind; -ro
= from (since); -rò
= along, during, through
(time); -rro = because of, owing to; -rrò = across, through (space); -ryo
= according to/depending on
U
-u
= plural noun; -ù =
plural belonging direction of a noun
Y
-yo = between, among
Idioms and particular constructions
As for other languages, also in Lara there
are idioms or idiomatic phrases. It’s not fundamental to know them but their
correct use means to be a real “Larian”!
The main examples are the following:
(made)
of… = …-pin;
eg: brick wall= sduga-pin tonka, or you can also use an
adjective form: sdugi tonka,
if the meaning is not altered.
(…) years, months ago = (…) melin (passed) milu, valu (years,
months); once upon a time= melin pa
(time passed)
A dish of... = taya
“”-no... (a dish with…)
Bad weather = skuma
Between
one thing and another = ba yo ba; and in the same way, in another eg.: between
cat and dog = mina yo koka
Expressions like at a run, etc. = are
translated with … -no (with);; the former eg.
become: peleno
(with running)
From time to time = cha i cha (lett.:
time and time)
Good
weather = goi kuma
in the
evening.., by day.., at night.., or in
the morning.., etc.= imala.., ivasa.. These
are translated without prepositions.
more and more =
mui mui
On behalf of... = agannò
…-à.
(under name of…)
On foot = takunno (= by feet)
On one
hand…on the other hand or In part…in
part…= sta…sta
secretly = omi
similar
to.. = vami go..
or -o
so.. that.. = …eši…. Eg.:
he is so big that he comes not through the door = la mami eši mi ate gema.
The same way= semi
To
draw lots = ène enta (èn’enta) (to
try the luck)
To
fill with... = tue
…-no; and, the same way: it was made of...; to dress with...; etc. = ta epen …-no; store …-no
To keep busy = ve
pe (to give to do)
to make a decision = pe bata
together with… sui… See also the Note at the end of the VERB chapter