The Stoffonian Language by J. Robertson Introduction Stoffonian is the most widely spoken language of Robertson's planet. Having been the official language of the Stoffonian Empire (1347-1908), which dominated most of the planet, it is today the official language of more than two-thirds of the world's countries. It is nearly the only language spoken over a large part of the Stoff-Elosian continent, in Almusp, Kulst, Stoffonia, Ijermeshiel, and Hemal. Millions of ethnic Stoffonians live throughout the former empire, and speak the language in countless local variations. Standard Stoffonian, defined as the speech of educated persons in the area of Stoffstance, is used for diplomacy and other international purposes. In addition, Stoffonian is one of the essentials of education nearly everywhere on the planet, so that it is likely that a person who only speaks Stoffonian will be understood by at least some of the people wherever he/she may go. This lesson is concerned only with Standard Stoffonian in regards of grammar and vocabulary, but there will be some mention of the variance in pronunciation in different parts of the world. Stoffonian is the most successful of the Upper Elosian Languages, a group that also includes Neavian, Farvian, Custal, and Tigil, and several closely related but now extinct languages such as Elostoff, Kulst, and Hemal. The Upper Elosian group is included with the Lower Elosian ( Elosian and Knarrian languages ) and the Manulto/Meelian/Binullulian group to make up the Elosio-Meelian family. As with all languages spoken by other species of intelligent beings, it should be realized that the Homo sapiens sapiensis voice can never exactly mimic the actual speech of the Stoffonian people, by reason of physical differences in the organism. The Stoffonians are, however, more earthlike in their speech than any other inhabitants of Robertson's planet except the Elosians/Knarrians, and also the the Stoffonian language is the most widely spoken language on the planet, so it has been chosen as an introduction to the language of Robertson's planet. ============================================================================ part I : Sounds and Pronounciation This lesson uses ASCII IPA (a Usenet convention) to transliterate Stofonian words and phrases. You will probably encounter other methods of transliteration, with varying degrees of accuracy, in other texts. Certain proper nouns are conventionally transliterated (not using IPA) so that they can be capitalized, but for the examples of actual Stof. words and sentences in this text, only IPA will be used. Nearly all dialects of Stofonian have the same consonants, but vowels are often exchanged and substituted for one another in different areas. Vowel substitution in various sample areas : Stoffstance | Elos | Mastoff | Gullen | Dostoff | Juturia | ------------------------------------------------------------- & | | e | | | a | aw | | | | A | A | e | i | | | | ai | E | | | & | | | i | | e | | | | I | E | e | & | | Oi | ai | | a | | i | | a | | O | | & | | o | u | | a | | A | u | | | | | | AU | | | a | | | A | | | | u | | Oi | | | | | | V | u | | a | | | u | | | | I | | =========================================================================== part II: Rules of Grammar - forms of words A. Nouns Stofonian nouns consist of roots to which suffixes are suffixes are added to indicate number, gender, and case. The order in which these suffixes are added depends on on these rules: 1. in the nominative case, which has no suffix for case, the order is gender-number. 2. in the accusative, number-gender-case. 3. in the genitive and adjective, number-case-gender. 4. there are irregular nouns which break these rules! 5. these are the rules for STANDARD Stofonian only. Summary of Declension (Regular Nouns Only!!!) --------------------------------------------- Nouns with masc. non. sing. NOT ending with f,s,S,v,z,Z: masc. fem. sing. pl. sing. pl. -------------------------------------- nom. | -st -E -Et acc. | -Ip -stIp -Ep -stEp gen. | -In -stIn -Ini -stIni adj. | -Il -stIl -Ili -stIli Nouns with masc. nom. sing. ending with f,s,S,v,z,Z: masc. fem. sing. pl. sing. pl. -------------------------------------- nom. | -t -i -it acc. | -Ip -tIp -ip -tip gen. | -In -tIn -Ini -tIni adj. | -Il -tIl -Ili -tIli 1. Gender As in most Elosial languages, almost any Stofonian word can be declined as either masculine or feminine. Which gender to use in a particular situation is a skill that can only be learned with practice. Masculine is generally used for any person or thing that is not explicitly feminine, although this varies with dialect. Use it for everything except for female beings, and you may sound strange to the locals but at least you will not offend anyone, as this is the 'standard' method. It is usually indicated by ending in a consonant sound. Exceptions are often made in the case of personal names, ie., men's names are not neccessarily "masculine" in this sense. Feminine is used to refer to female people and animals. Anything 'connected' to a woman is supposed to be feminine, but the degree of 'connectedness' required varies with dialect. Standard Stofonian makes all parts of a woman's body (face, hands, etc.) feminine, and also her clothing. Some dialects go so far as to make women's washrooms and and such feminine. Feminine gender is indicated by ending with a vowel, most commonly E or i, but sometimes @. (This does not hold in the little-used accusative case.) The feminine forms of most Stofonian nouns can be made by the addition of E or i to the end of the masculine form, but there are some words in which the two genders are less obviously related. The recommended method for feminizing an unkown word is to add i if the word ends in f,s,S,v,z,Z and E otherwise. (This rule is not neccessarily followed in proper names) examples : als ( man's hand ) alsi ( woman's hand ) wad ( male dog ) wadE ( female dog ) (irregular nouns:) &lnist ( man's name ) st&n ( man ) kIme ( woman's name ) sti ( woman ) 2. Number : regular nouns: masc. regular Stoff. nouns can be made plural by the addition of "st" at the end, or simply "t" if already ending in "s","S","z", "f", or "Z". regular fem. nouns are pluraled by simply adding t, the result be that the t follows the vowel. examples: sing: plural: st&n ( man ) st&nst ( men ) mES ( shield ) mEsht ( shields ) &lsI ( femal hand) &lsIt ( female hands ) irregular nouns: some nouns have the same form for the singular and plural. examples - stof, l&n 3. Case : Stoffonian nouns have these cases : nominative - the subject if a sentence accusative - the direct or indirect object genitive - shows ownership adjective - adjective derived from noun (as 'rainy' = 'rain' in eng.) A lack of inflection indicates that a noun is in nominative case, or that it is in accusative with the case indicated by context rather than by inflection. Nouns are inflected for these cases : a. Accusative Nouns that are the objects of verbs only need to be inflected when this is neccessary to differentiate them from the subject. In many instances, they are not needed because word order and common sense make this clear witbout inflection of the object. This inflection is mostly used in imperitive sentences where the subject (always implied "you") is ommited. The accusative form of a noun in made adding -p if it ends in a vowel, or -Ip if ending in a consonant. examples : EstEp (EstE) estIp (est) b. Genitive Possesive forms of nouns are made by adding -In (m.) or -Ini (f.) examples: jOToRin st&nstIn ( men's ) EstEIni jetIn ( my, mine ) The suffix should be pronounced as a separate syllable from the root word. The addition of this suffix to a word that already has more than one syllable causes more stress than usual to be placed on the final syllable of the original word. c. Adjective An adjective can be formed from most nouns by adding the suffix -Il (m.) of -Ili (f.) to the noun. The noun then describes the next non-adjective as being associated with it. examples: l&nIl stan (man of the mountains) bIstEnIli sti (woman of knowledge) [the root of 'bIstEnIli' is the verb 'bis'] examples of regular nouns ------------------------- wad - "dog" masc. fem. sing. pl. sing. pl. -------------------------------------- nom. | wad wadst wadE wadEt acc. | wadIp wadstIp wadEp wadstEp gen. | wadIn wadstIn wadIni wadstIni adj. | wadIl wadstIl wadIli wadstIli k&n - "head" masc. fem. sing. pl. sing. pl. -------------------------------------- nom. | k&n k&nst k&nE k&nEt acc. | k&nIp k&nstIp k&nEp k&nstEp gen. | k&nIn k&nstIn k&nIni k&nstIni adj. | k&nIl k&nstIl k&nIli k&nstIli als - "hand" masc. fem. sing. pl. sing. pl. -------------------------------------- nom. | &ls &lst &lsi &lsit acc. | &lsIp &lstIp &lsip &lstip gen. | &lsIn &lstIn &lsIni &lstIni adj. | &lsIl &lstIl &lsIli &lstIli tif - "foot" masc. fem. sing. pl. sing. pl. -------------------------------------- nom. | tIf tIft tIfi tIfit acc. | tIfIp tIftIp tIfip tIftip gen. | tIfIn tIftIn tIfIni tIftIni adj. | tIfIl tIftIl tIfIli tIftIli some irregular nouns -------------------- st&n - "man, human being" masc. fem. sing. pl. sing. pl. --------------------------------------------- nom. | st&n st&nst sti stit acc. | st&nIp st&nstIp stip stip gen. | st&nIn st&nstIn stIni stIni adj. | st&nIl st&nstIl stIli stIli B. Verbs most stoffonian vebs end in "-s", and are conjugated by the adding of various suffixes, as in the following chart: active | passive || basic | progress. | perfect. | progress. | perfect ======================================================= past || -k | -kE | -k& | -ka | -kV -------------------------------------------------------------- present || | -kEl | -k&l | -kal | -kVl -------------------------------------------------------------- future || -kIt | -kEt | -k&t | -kat | -kVt -------------------------------------------------------------- Each of these tenses may have the past, present, or future as the point of reference: 1. active basic - simply states that the subject performs the action at the specified time. 2. active progressive - the action is or was ongoing and unfinished at the time. 3. active perfect - emphasizes the completeness of the action at the specified time. 4. passive progressive - indicates that the action is/was being performed on the subject in an an ongoing fashion, at the time specified. Does not convey any information about who or what is performing the action. 5. passive perfect - same, except that the action is or was complete at the time. (Note that there is no "passive basic". No one seems to miss it). A few verbs ending in -f, -v, -z, -S, and -Z can be conjugated accordingly. Verbs whose stems end in a vowel are rare, but can be conjugated by adding an -s- in all forms other than present basic. In addition, some verbs can be transformed into nouns by the use of the suffix -tEn. This only makes sense with relatively few verbs. example : bIstEn = knowledge (from bis = to know) C. Pronouns Pronouns used to refer to people : || Male || Female || sing. | plural. || sing. | plural =========================================================== first person || jet | jest || jE | jEst ----------------------------------------------------------- 2nd person || jem | jemst || jemE | jemEst ----------------------------------------------------------- 3rd person || jen | jenst || jenE | jenEst ----------------------------------------------------------- examples: 1. I (if spoken by male ): jet (if spoken by female): jE 2. we (spoken by male ): jest (spoken by female): jEst 3. you (spoken to male ): jem (spoken to female): jemE 4. plural you (spoken to group of males ): jemst (spoken to group of females): jemEst 5. he : jen 6. she : jenE 7. they (speaking of males ): jenst (speaking of females): jenEst Prounouns used to refer to animals, plants, objects, and places: || sing. | plural =========================== male || &t | &tst --------------------------- female || &t@ | &tst@ --------------------------- Pronouns are inflected for case by the same rules as nouns, except that pronouns are always inflected for case rather than only in special situations. Unlike with nouns, the endings -Ip, -Il, or -In are simply tacked on to the forms listed above, with the exception being that if the pronoun ends in a vowel the 'I' is not included. examples: jetil jetstil jEmEp jEl D. Articles || Male || Female || sing. | plural || sing. | plural =================================================== definate || m&t | m&tst || mi | m&tst --------------------------------------------------- indef. || m&m | m&mst || mi | m&mst --------------------------------------------------- examples: 1. the, that (m.) : m&t (f.) : mi 2. plural the : m&tst 3. a, an (m.) : m&m (f.) : mi 4. plural a, an : m&mst ============================================================================ part III : Rules of Grammar - sentence structure A. Declarative Sentences The basic order of a declaritive sentence is subject/predicate. The predicate contains the prepositional phrase and the verb phrase, in that order. Within each phrase, modifiers precede the main word. Adverbs that modify adjectives and adverbs come first. Example: Long ago (far before), our people lived in another land. Stoffonian || rIsk st&nst | no m&m kVl stOf | klai main m&sk. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Eng. trans. || Our people | in another land | far before lived. ===================================================================== grammatical || adj. noun | prep. adj. noun | adv. adv. verb structure || subject | prep. phrase | verb phrase B. Interrogative Sentences 1. Closed questions The basic order is as with a declarative sentence, but followed by a question mark (pronounced as a more sudden stop than a period), requesting a true or false response. example: (Did) you go to Stoffstance ? Stoff. || jem | na StOfst&ns | d&sk ? ------------------------------------------------ Eng. || You | to Stoffstance | go ? ================================================ Grammar || noun | prep. noun | verb || subject | | 2. Open questions Differs from the closed question in that it uses an open noun for the object : what : Il where : Ils who : IlIt why : Ilt example: Where did you go ? Stoff. || jem | na Ils | d&sk ? -------------------------------------------------- Eng. || You | to where | went ? -------------------------------------------------- Grammar || noun | prep. noun | verb || subject | | C. Imperative sentences Basically the same as declarative, but the subject is always "you", and the verb is always in present basic tense. example: Give me my sword. Stoff. || jem | na jet jetIn IdZR | n&t&s ------------------------------------------------------- Eng. || You | to me my sword | give ------------------------------------------------------- Grammar || noun | prep noun adj. noun | verb || | | =================================================================== part IV : Vocabulary A. often used personal names : masculine: est bEst&n dInomoR Est&n fVlToR g&mIln hIst Ist&n dZaToR k&rIl l&ln mEToR Nomno Othor pElst Ronthor Stend t&lT&d Ulnst Verstan w&tInst jaToR z&mIln feminine: &dri@ bETriE d&ni& Este Feafay gEmE hEli Il&@ dZEmE kImE l&dri@ miolni nEnlE othE p&mE rEnE sEfE tIfI unl& vIli wonE jul& z&mE B. Stoffonian-English dictionary Following each word in I.R.T.S transliteration is its R.E.E.S. spelling (if different from the I.R.T.S.), in parenthesis is part of speach (adjective, adverb, conjunction, interjection, noun, prepositin, pronoun, verb), followed by the meaning of the word. &ks (adj.) 3, 3rd &ls (n.) hand (f. &lsi) &mnIs (v.) to fly &n (prep.) from ek (adj.) 4, 4th bEl (adj.) 2, 2nd bIs (v.) to know bIstEn (n.) knowledge beyIl (adj.) large d&s (v.) to go dEs (v.) to go by, pass, etc.. (referring to time, see "lEsh") dIn (n.) any article of clothing dos (v.) to stand Els (n.) water ElIk&ln (n.) empire Ek (adv.) if Eks (v.) to shout, say forcefully ERk (n.) 1. a cliff 2. any structure that resembles a cliff faR (adj.) dark frIs (v.) to move frIstEn (n.) movement g&ntIs (v.) to flow gEm (n.) beauty (f. gEmE) gjutIs (v.) to stimulate (usually playfully and often sexually) haR (int.) 1. hello (greeting) 2. yes! (strong approval or agreement) harEs (v.) to burst, to explode hEml (n.) lake hIn (v.) 1. to get, aquire, etc. 2. to highly impress, awe, etc. IbIs (v.) to freeze IbIstEnIl (adj.) frozen, cold Ips (n.) sea IdZR (n.) sword IlIs (v.) to fight, to battle (compare "jothis", to make war) dZEfas (v.) to laugh dZOTIs (v.) to make war kaR (n.) an type of animal, resembling a bear kEs (v.) to love romantically or spiritually (contrast with "tIkEs") kEstEn (n.) the quality of romantic love klai (adv.) much, very, to a great degree (ex. klii miin = "much before" ,ie. "long ago") kVl (adj.) other, different kVs (v.) to end, stop l& (adj., adv., or int.) yes, affirmitive l&n (n.) mountain lEstEn (n.) 1. time 2. any span of time las (v.) to appear, seem m&s (v.) to live, to reside (see also "oR&s") mioln (adj.) bright (f. miolni) mEsh (n.) shield main 1. 0 (zero) 2. (adj. or adv.) before 3. (n.) nothing, none mOik (n.) 1. a child (f. mOi) 2. any person (used as a term of address among friends) (ex. : mOik no &t d&s = "go for it, dude") na (prep.) to niR (adj.) hard nEfIl (adj.) below, under niRveR (n.) granite no (prep.) for nAl (n.) song n&m (adj.) evil n&t&s (v.) to give o (conj.) and (used to connect sentence fragments. see below: "ta") oR&s (v.) to live, to be alive (see also "m&s") oR&stEn (n.) life paR (adj.) 1, 1st p&lrIs (v.) to want, desire, etc. pR (n.) at, on r& 1. (adj., adv., or int.) no 2. (adj.) without, lacking r&dIn (n.) nakedness, lack of clothing r&lEstEnIl (adj.) ret (n.) no one (f. ri ) res (v.) to be rIk (n.) body, usually living human body (f. rIkE) risk (adj.) our ( alternative to "jestIn". ) rok (conj.) or (used to connect clauses in a sentence. see also "te") sEf (n.) eyes (f. sEfE) st&n (n.) man (f. sti) stOf (n.) 1. (n.) land, ground, etc., (adj.) related to the land or ground 2. (n.) place, location, country 3. (n.) man ( term of respect, derived from the practice of calling lords after their estates ) 4. (adj.) stoffonian sR (n.) river t&ns (n.) sky ta (conj.) and (used to connect nouns) (ex. jet ta jem = "me and you") tE (conj.) or (used to connect nouns or verbs) tIs (v.) to think tIf (n.) foot (f. tIfI) tIkEs (v.) to love physically (contrast with "kEs") tIkEstEn (n.) the quality of physical love VltEs (v.) to feel vR (n.) stone, rock (f. vee) vrEl (n.) above, over wad (n.) a type of animal resembling a dog wos (v.) to lose wEltIs (v.) to swear, affirm jElIs (v.) to work yu (adj.) great, important, powerful z&m (adj.) 1. small zEfIl (adj.) ready, prepared ZIs (v.) to say