EN Sambahsa-mundialect

Sambahsa-mundialect is an international auxiliary language created by Olivier Simon. It was first released on the Net in July 2007. Sambahsa-mundialect (Sambahsa from sam (same) and bahsa (language); mundialect is a fusion between mundial and dialect) is a mixture of reconstructed language and auxlang, drawing vocabulary and grammar from Indo-European as modified based on common modern usage. It also has words from outside Indo-European. site principal

Design principles

The first source of inspiration for the vocabulary has been reconstructed Indo-European, but words from dialectal areas covering languages from different linguistic families (ex: sprachbünde) play a proeminent role too. The technical and scientifical vocabulary comes from the Greco-latin roots common to most european languages. Generally, sambahsa-mundialect tries to include words common to at least two different languages. The chosen languages are in general european ones (and above all English and French) but the spectrum spans between Iceland and Japan, therefore including words from Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Swahili, Sanskrit, Indonesian and Chinese. Though basically Indo-European, the grammar has been heavily simplified towards regularity and precision. Complicated features of Indo-European were discarded if they did not match a reasonable level of predictability of if they were not present in a significant number of living Indo-European languages. The orthography is regular but nevertheless allows to integrate as well words directly from old Indo-European (ex: Pater = "father"; pronounced [pAtër] as from modern languages like English or French (ex: Change; pronounced [tcAndjë]).

Pronounciation

Sambahsa uses the 26 letters of the Roman Alphabet and combines them to produce a variety of sounds. The corresponding form of the phonetic alphabet of Sambahsa are indicated in brackets []. A phonetic letter is written in capital or in bold if it is stressed, and in italic if its pronounciation is facultative. A [ :] indicates that the former vowel is lengthened. “a” is like the “a” in “car”. “ae” and “ay” are pronounced like the English pronoun “I”. “au” is like in German or Spanish, or “ow” in “now”. But “eau” is a long “o”. “ai” is pronounced as in French, or as the German “ä”[ä]; like e in “bed”, but slightly longer. “e” is pronounced as in Spanish or Italian when it is stressed, at the beginning of a word, or followed by the two same consonants. Otherwise, it is a mute “@”[ë], pronounced like the “e” in “open”. At the end of a word, it is unpronounced, except if it eases the pronounciation with the following word. As the last vowel of a word and followed by a final “s” or “t”, it is likewise unpronounced, except if it would then be impossible to distinguish the “s” or “t” from the consonant before the “e” (the same rules apply in English with the plural ending “-es” or the preterit ending “-ed”). Nevertheless, it is always pronounced in the endings “-ques” [kës] and “-quet-“ [kët]. “ee” is thus like “e + @” [eë]. “ei” and “ey” are like the “ay” in “pray”. “eu” is like “u” in “burn”, but longer [ö]. “i” is pronounced as “i” in “bit”. “ie” is pronounced “i + @” at the end of a word, but “yé” in other positions. “oe” is pronounced like “oy” in “oyster”. “ou” is a long “oo”, like in “boon”. “u” is pronounced as in “full”. But, if one of the two following letters is a “e”, then this “u” is pronounced as in French, or like a German “ü” [ü]. “ui” is pronounced like the English pronoun “we”. “y” is pronounced like a French “u” or a German “ü”; but as in English when it stands before or after a vowel, or at the end of a word under the forms –y or –ys. “c” is pronounced like “k”, except before “e”, “i” or “y” where it turns to “ts”. “ch” is pronounced as in the English word “choose”. Before if “ch” is followed by a consonant, it is then pronounced like “k”. “ck” counts as a double “k”, or “k + k”. “g” is pronounced as in “go”, except before “e”, “i” or “y”, where it is like in “general”. “gh” is always like “g” in “go”. “gn” before a vowel is pronounced as in French or Italian, or like “kn” in the English word “knew” [ny]. “h” is aspired at the beginning of a word. Otherwise, after a vowel, it serves to lengthen this one, and, after a consonant, it keeps this one from being phonetically altered (see the paragraphs below). “j” is always pronounced as in French or Romanian, or like “si” in the English word “vision”. “kh” is a guttural sound pronounced like “j” in Spanish [q]. “ph” is pronounced like “f”. “qu” is pronounced like “k”, except before “a” or “o”, where it turns to “kw”. “r” has a pronounciation which can vary from country to country. Nevertheless, “rh” and “rr” must always be rolled. “s” turns to “z” between two vowels (w and y do not count as vowels if they’re used as semi-vowels), except if it is a double “ss”. “sch” is always pronounced like “sh” in English [c], while “sh” in Sambahsa corresponds to the “ich-laut” of German [x]. “sc” is always pronounced like “ss” before “e”, “i” or “y”. “th” is pronounced like the “th” of “thin” [§], except if it is incompatible with the consonant after or before it. Then, it is pronounced like “t”. “w” is pronounced as in English. Yet, in Sambahsa, it can work as an unstressed vowel when it is between two consonants. It is then pronounced like a short “u” sound. “z” is pronounced like “dz”. In difficult consonantic clusters, it is common that a “t” or a “d” be left unpronounced. Likewise, an unstressed “e” [ë] is often unpronounced when it stands besides another vowel.

Accentuation

In Sambahsa, to guess where the stress falls, you must start from the last syllable of the word and go backwards to the beginning. Prefixes are never stressed and send back the accentuation on the stem of the word. Likewise, a vocalic “w” can never be stressed. Otherwise, when the stress cannot fall on the last syllable, consider that it is on the penultimate one. A single vowel being the last letter of a word is never stressed (except in a loanword like “café”). “a” or “o” in the last syllable of a word are stressed if it is followed by a consonant (except “s”) or another vowel. “e” is only stressed in the last syllable of a word if it is followed by another vowel, “h”, or twice the same consonant (remember that “ck” counts as “k + k”) “i” is only stressed in the last sylable of a word if it is followed by “e”, twice the same consonant, “h”, “i” or “n” (but not “ng”). It is always stressed if it appears in the combination “ui”. “u” is stressed in the last syllable of a word if it is followed by any consonant (except “s”) or by “e” or “w” or “y”. “y” is only stressed in the last syllable of a word it is followed by twice the same consonant. Exceptions to these rules are the –(i)um endings of things and –ule, which are never stressed. On the contrary, -el as an ending is always stressed if one of the two letters before is a “o”. Ex: - territorium = [territOryum] - specule (mirror) = [spEkül] - hotel = [hotEl] Compounds are stressed following the rules above; but if the stress falls on a syllable that would not have been stressed in the isolated word, then the stress falls on the first accentuable syllable before. Remember that the suffix “-ment” is treated as a part of a compound.

Nota: The pronounciation and accentuation rules do not necessarily apply to proper names.

Plural

The simple form is the singular number. The plural number ends in -s. If the latter is phonetically incompatible, then -i (for animated beings) or -a will be used. If all those forms do not match with the stress rules, no endings shall be used. -um of names of things turns to -a in the plural. The unstressed endings -es or -os turn to -si or -sa. According to an optional rule, names of grupps of animated beings ending with a letter which is phonetically incompatible with a final s (ex: s, ch, j, th) ought to have no ending for the plural number. Examples: div (god) = divs urx (bear) = urxi territorium (territory) = territoria daumos (wonder) = daumsa deutsch (German) = deutsch(i) (as it is a collection of persons). prince (prince, son of a sovereign) = princes

Declension

In sambahsa-mundialect, the use of the four-case declension is only compulsory for pronouns and articles. The four cases are nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. Prepositions always trigger the accusative case. One of sambahsa-mundialect's major peculiarity is that it uses the same word for articles ("the") and personal pronouns. It is as if, in English, we would not say The woman kills the man but rather She woman kills him man. (In sambahsa-mundialect: Ia gwena neict iom wir). Thus, she kills him is Ia neict iom. The only exception is for the genitive article which is logically different from the possessive pronoun. Sambahsa-mundialect has four genders (masculine, feminine, neutral, undetemined) which are attributed, as in English, according to the true nature of the substantive, and not arbitrarily as in many other languages. The demonstrative, relative and interrogative pronouns are constructed following the same patterns. All those pronouns can be listed within a single table, following this order: article & personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun and relative & interrogative pronouns. Singular Case/Gender Masculine Feminine Neutral Undetermined nominative is/so/qui (relative), quis (interrogative) ia/sa/qua id/tod/quod el/tel/quel accusative iom/tom/quom iam/tam/quam id/tod/quod el/tel/quel dative ei/tei/quei ay/tay/quay ei/tei/quei al/tal/qual genitive (possessive pronoun not included) ios/tos/quos ias/tas/quas ios/tos/quos al/tal/qual

Plural

Case/gender Masculine Feminine Neutral Undetermined nominative ies/toy/quoy ias/tas/quas ia/ta/qua i/ti/qui accusative iens/tens/quens ians/tans/quans ia/ta/qua i/ti/qui dative ibs/tibs/quibs iabs/tabs/quabs ibs/tibs/quibs im/tim/quim genitive iom/tom/quom iam/tam/quam iom/tom/quom im/tim/quim A demonstrative pronoun for distant objects consists of c-+is, ia, id... etc. The indefinite pronoun is un, which can bear the “euphonic vocalisation” endings (See below). In Sambahsa-mundialect, endings with declensions can be added to substantives and adjectives for purposes of euphonics or litterary purposes (ex: poetry). This system, whose native name is euphonic vocalisation, can only be used if it is compatible with the accentuation patterns. In everyday use, those endings appear only in the words vasyo (all of the, every) and alyo (another). Singular Case/gender Masculine Feminine Neutral Undetermined nominative -o(s) -a -o/-um -is* accusative -o/-um -u -o/-um -em* dative -i -i -i -i genitive -(io)s -(ia)s -(io)s -(e)s • = for animated beings only! Plural Case/gender Masculine Feminine Neutral nominative -i -as -a accusative -ens -ens -a dative -ims -ims -ims genitive -(e)n -(e)n -(e)n The "undetermined" endings are like those of the masculine if they refer to animated beings. The preposition of appurtenance ("of") is peculiar in Sambahsa-mundialect for it agrees in number and gender with the possessor. Like every other preposition, it triggers the accusative. Number/gender masculine feminine neutral undetermined singular os as os es plural om am om em

The personal pronouns of the first and second persons are as follows :

Case 1° singular 2° singular 1° plural Undetermined nominative Ego (io, when unstressed) tu wey yu accusative me te nos vos dative mi tib nos vos

On the contrary to English, the use of the nominative personal pronouns is not cumpulsory in Sambahsa-Mundialect if the person can be guessed by the ending borne by the conjugated verb.

The possessive pronouns at all persons are as follows:

Person/Number singular plural First mien Nies (noster) Second tien Vies (voster) Third masculine eys ir Third feminine ays ir Third neutral ids ir Third undetermined els ir

The reflexive pronoun is se at the accusative, and sib at the dative. The corresponding possessive pronoun is sien. “Self”, in Sambahsa is swo, and it can be suffixed at the pronoun. “Each other” is mutu.

Conjugation

In Sambahsa-Mundialect, verbs bear conjugational endings. Nevertheless, those endings can be omitted at the past tense (or “preterit”) if the preterit verbal stem is different from the one used at the present tense. Before –s or –t, the final consonant of a verbal stem undergones some changes. –b, -k & -g turn respectively to –p- and –c-. If the verbal stem is in –eh-, -ei- or –eu-, the final –v turns likewise to –f-. Examples: kwehk (to seem) gives kwehcs, kwehct (you [sing] seem, he/she/it seems); scrib (to write) gives scrips, script; leiv (to lift) gives leifs, leift; but lav (to wash) gives lavs, lavt.

Person / Tense present preterit 1° singular -o, -m if the verb ends with a stressed vowel sound, and nothing in the remaining cases -im 2° singular -s -(i)st(a) 3° singular -t -it 1° plural -m(o)s -am 2° plural -t(e) -at 3° plural -e(nt). If the verb ends with a stressed vowel sound, or if « -e » would alter the accentuation of the verbal stem, then “-nt” must be used. -eer. If the verb ends with a stressed vowel sound, then « -r » is enough.

The present endings are simply added to the verbal stem, which is the form always given in the dictionaries. Some verbs include a “nasal infix”; such verbal stems are those with an unstressed “e” as last vowel, between two other consonants, with one of them being m or n. Thus, in the present tense, this unstressed “e” disappears during the conjugation if it is phonetically possible, as well as s or ss if those ones preceed this unstressed “e”. Examples: suppressem [supresëm] (to suppress) = suppremo (I suppress)

                 Confuned [konfünëd] (to confuse) = confundo [konfundo] (I confuse).

The preterit verbal stem is predicted this way:

1°) If the verbal stem ends with an unstressed –e: Nothing changes

2°) If the verbal stem contains a “nasal infix”, the latter disappears with the unstressed “e”, and the stem can furthermore be subjected to the “Von Wahl rules” (see below).

3°) The verbal stem has the following inner (stressed) vowels: eh, eu, ei(h), a, ay, au: They respectively turn to oh, u, i(h), a, iey, ieu. This phenomenon is called ablaut. 

4°) Other verbs can undergo a version of the Von Wahl rules if they end with certain consonants: d turns to s;  dd/ tt to ss;  rt, rr & rg to rs; lg to ls and ct to x. 

5°) Other verbs ending with a stressed vowel sound must put a “s” (this tense is sometimes referred to as the “sigmatic aorist”) between their stem and preterit endings beginning with a vowel. Other verbs can add this “s” too if it does not alter their accentuation. 

6°) Verbs whose stem does not undergo any mutation for the preterit must always add the conjugational endings. 

For the imperative: -The second person singular has nothing or –e as ending. - Smad corresponds to English “let’s” and preceeds the infinitive. - The ending of the second person plural is the same as for the indicative: -t(e)

The conditional (English “would”) is made by adding ie + the present conjugational endings to the verbal stem. If the stem already ends in –ie, then it turns to –icie.

The future is made in Sambahsa thanks to the use of the auxiliary siem, sies, siet, siem(o)s, siete, sient (“will”). Like in English, it can be put before the infinitive: siem bahe = “I will speak”. Otherwise, it has to be suffixed to the verbal stem (by taking the conjugated verb at the 2° person singular and by adding –ie- and the present conjugational endings). Ex: bahs = “thou speakest”; bahsies = “thou wilt speak”. As in English, there is a negative auxiliary verb for the future: niem, nies, niet, niem(o)s, niete, nient. Unlike siem, it can be only used before an infinitive, but not as a suffix. The near future (“going to, gonna”) is made with the conjugated auxiliary vah- followed by the infinitive.

The active present participle is made by adding –(e)nd to the verbal stem. The active past participle (“having done”) is made by adding –us or –vs, and can be used as an active past infinitive.

The passive participle is made by adding –t or –(e)n to the verbal stem with the use of ablaut except for stems in a, au or ay. For other stems which add –t, the Von Wahl rules are used instead of this –t. Stems with nasal infix lose this infix for the passive participle. Ex: confuned (to confuse) = confus or confuden (confused) The –t past participle forms of verbs without ablaut and ending with –uv or –ov are respectively –ut and –ot. Otherwise, this –v turns to –w. Ex: resolv = resolwt; emov = emot

Likewise, the formation of the infinitive depends on the verbal stem. Verbal stems ending with an unstressed e do not change. Stems with nasal infix add –es and lose their unstressed e. Verbs in ei or eu undergo ablaut and add a final –es. Other verbs add a final e, or nothing if it is incompatible with their accentuation. Infinitives can be used like a noun after any preposition (except that they are not preceded by a determinant).

Remember that most verbs trigger first the accusative and secondly the dative, the exceptions being the verbs which need “positional anchors” (ex: arrive ad = “to arrive at”) and verbs that can introduce an indirect speech. Then, the person object of the narration is at the dative. Ex: Is mi antwehrdt (od is wois neid de to) = “He answers to me (that he knew nothing about this).

As in English, many periphrastic tenses can be obtained by combining the participles with the auxiliary verbs ses (to be) and habe (to have). These verbs have irregular conjugations.

Ses (verbal stem: es-) Present: som, es, est, smos, ste, sont This verb makes a distinction between the « imperfect », which is a lasting situation in the past, and the “simple past”, which refers to a single event. Imperfect: eem, ees, eet, eem(o)s, eete, eent Simple past: buim, buist(a), buit, buam, buat, buir Future: sessiem, sessies, sessiet, sessiem(o)s, sessiete, sessient Imperative : sdi, smad ses, este

Habe (verbal stem : hab- ) Present : ho, has, hat, habmos/hams, habte, ha(be)nt Past: hieb(im), hieb(st[a]), hieb(it), hieb(am), hieb(at), hieb(eer) Future: habsiem, habsies, habsiet, habsiem(o)s, habsiete, habsient Past participles: habt & haben

The verb woid (Infinitive: woide) which means “to know a certain thing, a certain fact” (cf. Fr. “savoir”, Sp. “saber”) is specific because it behaves like a preterit verb at the present tense, which implied that woid can be used without any ending or with the endings of the preterit. Its preterit derived stem wois behaves normally.

Sambahsa uses many optional verbal prefixes (though they did not exist in IE) in order to avoid heavy sequences of infinitives. Bi- : to begin to (“inchoative”) Na- = to keep on to (“continuative”) Re- = re- (the same as in English) Vi = corresponds to the English adverb “finally” Za- = to stop doing

The following prefixes are special because they change the tense of the verb: ee- : before a verb at the present, corresponds to English “used to”. This prefix, which already existed in IE, is called “augment”. Sa(l)- : to be about to + verb Sa(l) is always written with the hyphen, and it is often the case with ee-

Here are two widespread verbal suffixes, which already existed in Indo-European: -skw : “desiderative”, has a general meaning of “to intend to do”, “to like to”; Can be suffixed to verbs with which it is compatible in terms of accentuation, as well as with verbs ending with an unstressed “e”. -eih: “factitive”. Ex: Is kaupt tod wogh = He buys this car. Kaupeihm iom tod wogh = I make him buy this car. Note that it triggers a double accusative. Not all the verbs ending in –eih are factitive (ex: credeih = to believe; vergeih = to avoid). Otherwise, one can use the English system with “to make” (kwehre) or “to have” (habe). –eih can be suffixed to adjectives; ex: rudh = “red”, rudheih = “ to make red”

Examples of conjugated verbs

Verbal stem / infinitive Present tense Preterit tense (recommended long forms) Past active infinitive & participle / past passive participles Sehkw (to follow) / sehkwe Sehkwo, sehkws, sehkwt, sehkwm(o)s, yu sehkwte, sehkwnt Sohkwim, sohkwst(a), sohkwit, sohkwam, sohkwat, sohkweer Sehkwus / sohkwt & sohkwn Safer (to travel) / safer Io safer, safers, safert, saferms, yu safert, safernt Siefrim, sieferst, siefrit, siefram, siefrat, siefreer Safervs / safert & safern Passe (to pass) / passe Io passe, passes, passet, passems, yu passet, passe(nt) Passim, passist, passit, passam, passat, passeer Passevs / passet & passen Gnah (to be born) / gnahe Gnahm, gnahs, gnaht, gnahm(o)s, yu gnahte, gnahnt Gnahsim, gnahst(a), gfnahsit, gnahsam, gnahsat, gnahr Gnahvs / gnaht & gnahn Feug (to flee) / fuges Fugo, fucs, fuct, fugmos, yu fucte, fuge(nt) Fugim, fucst(a)/fugist, fugit, fugam, fugat, fugeer Feugus / fuct & fugen Yeis (to send) / yises Yeiso, tu yeis, yeist, yeismos, yu yeiste, yeise(nt) Yisim, yissta/yisist, yisit, yisam, yisat, yiseer Yeisus / yist & yisen Posen (to set) / pones Pono, pons, pont, ponmos, ponte, pone(nt) Posim, possta/posist, posit, posam, posat, poseer Ponus / post & posen Pineg (to paint) / pinges Pingo, pincs, pinct, pingmos, pincte, pinge(nt) Pigim, picst(a), pigit, pigam, pigat, pigeer Pingus / pict & pigen

Adjectives

Adjectives do roughly behave the same as in English. They are not obligatorily declined, come before the substantive as an epithet, but after if they introduce a preposition. Ex: Uno sneigvcovohrn calive = “a snow-covered cabin”; but: Un calive covohrno med un tenu sneigvlyegher = “A cabin covered with a thin snow-layer”.

The comparative is made by suffixing –er to the adjective (-ter if the adjective ends with a vowel sound or “r”) if it is compatible with the accentuation. If it’s impossible, then meis = “more” must be used. “Than” is quem. Examples: Age est meis difficil quem kwehre neid = « To act is more difficult than to do nothing ». Dreu est legver quem stal = « Wood is lighter than steel » Equality is indicated with tem.... quem. Maria est tem bell quem tu = “Maria is as beautiful as thou”. Inferiority is indicated thanks to min(s) or minter: Id weter est minter srigo quem ghes = « The weather is less cold than yesterday ». The superlative uses, according to the possibilities, -st or meist. Ne trohveer id minst trace iom slougs: “They did not find the slightest trace of the servants” Tod rock est id meist dreupic bayna quanta habmos endersoken = “This rock is the most crumbly one among all that we have examined” Som yunst in mien swoin = “I am the youngest one in my team”

Adverbs

The particle –ye (always with the hyphen!) serves to form adverbs, with adjectives as well as with substantives. Ex: end-ye = “finally, in the end”. If the meaning is obvious, adjectives can be used alone. Ex: deub in id forest = “deep in the forest”. Some adverbs do not need the adding of –ye. Ex: tik (only), ops (often), just, katha (thus), bfuyi (continually), sigwra (assuredly), oku (quick), ja (already), semper (always), tun (then), (ya)schi (too).... Another kind of adverbs can be made by prefixing a- to substantives. Ex: apart, atop...

Numbers

From 1 to 10: oin, dwo, tri, quar, penk(we), six, sept(a), oct(o), nev, dec. The suffix dem corresponds to English “teen”: oindem, dwodem, tridem... and so on. Likewise, gim corresponds to “ty”: dwogim, trigim... 100 is cent(om), and 1000 is mil

Ordinal numbers are made thanks to –t or –im if the former is incompatible. So: “third” = trit, “fourth” = quart, but “seventh” is septim. The first of two (Old English “former”) is preter, and the second is alter (cf. Old English “other”) or dwoter. Otherwise, “first” is prest and “second” is second. “last” is senst, and “latter” is senter.

A multiplicative adjective can be made with the suffix –(en)s: “once” = oins, “twice” = dwis (irregular), “thrice” = tris. Otherwise, one can normally use the word “ker”. Ex: dwo kers = “two times”.

There is a distributive adjective in Sambahsa, made by suffixing –(e)n. Irregular forms are ein (1), dwin (pair for quantities) (2), douzen (12) and tusent (1000). It is used to count substantives too, which do not have a singular form. Ex: Mi ho kaupen trin bruks = “I’ve bought for myself three pairs of pants”.

If the distributive is used as a quantity, then the following substantives and adjectives are at the genitive plural. Ex: Un centen wolfen gwiviet in France = “A hundred of wolves would live in France”

Million and milliard (= US billion) only exists as distributives. When the distributive is followed by an other number, then the substantive has no more to be at the genitive.

Ex: Oino million octcent nevgim oino mil quarcent mensci (and not menscen) habiteer in Vancouver in mil nevcent nevgim six = “1891400 people (“humans”) lived in Vancouver in 1996”.

Syntax

The Sambahsa order generally follow the English syntax, i.e. Subject – Verb – Object. A different order can be followed if the declensional or conjugational endings allow this. In compounds, the qualifyer precedes the qualified item. Ex: weirnav = “warship”, as weir = war and nav = ship. For quantities, the thing measured can be put after the unit of measure. Ex: Dwo botels vin = “Two bottles of wine” As in English, “that” (when it introduces indirect speech) and the relative pronoun at the accusative can be omitted if the meaning is not altered. Ia mi sieyg (od) ia eet sieug = She told me (that) she was sick Ia dugter (quam) ays mater lieubht sessiet un gohd mater = The daughter (whom) her mother loves will be a good (« successful ») mother. Most sambahsa prepositions can be used as conjunctions. Eemos noroct pre is gwohm = We were happy before he came Pre fortrehce, mae myehrste clude id dwer = Before departing, don’t forget to close the door. I way fortrohc pre cludus id dwer = They unfortunately departed before having closed the door.

In Sambahsa, the difficulty is not to forget that the same words both serve as a determinant and as a personal pronoun of the 3° person. Thus, such a personal pronoun ought not to be placed just before an adjective or a substantive. Io iens iey prients im animals = (lit.) I them considered friends of the animals.