| Lingua Franca Nova | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Created by | C. George Boeree | |||
| Setting and usage | International auxiliary language | |||
| Users | > 100 [1] (2012) | |||
| Category (purpose) |
constructed language
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| Category (sources) | based on Romance and Creole languages | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | lfn | |||
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Lingua Franca Nova (abbreviated LFN) is an auxiliary constructed language created by Dr. C. George Boeree of Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania[2]. Its vocabulary is based on the Romance languages French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. The grammar is highly reduced and similar to the Romance creoles. The language has phonemic spelling, using 22 letters of either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets.
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Boeree began working on LFN in 1965, with the goal to create a simple, creole-like international auxiliary language. He was inspired by the Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a pidgin used in the Mediterranean in centuries past, and by creoles such as Papiamento, Haitian Creole, and Bislama. He used French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan as the basis for his new language.
LFN was first presented on the Internet in 1998.[3] A Yahoo! Group was formed in 2002 by Bjorn Madsen and today has more than 250 members. Group members have contributed significantly to the further evolution of the language. Stefan Fisahn created a wiki[4] for the language in 2005. A few issues of a journal called Orizones Nova (New Horizons)[5] were published online by David MacLeod in late 2006 and early 2007. Also in 2007, Igor Vasiljevic began a Facebook page,[6] which now has over 70 members. LFN was given an ISO 639-3 designation (lfn) by SIL in January 2008.[7] The site moved to Wikia in 2009. It has over 1800 articles and 42,000 edits as of January 1, 2011.
Introductions and "LFN for Travellers" are available in 12 languages. The searchable "master" dictionary (LFN - English / English - LFN) was updated by Simon Davies in 2008. As of January 1, 2011, it has over 15,000 entries.[8] There is also a LFN - French dictionary and seven small dictionaries available in other languages as well as a wikibooks tutorial in eight languages.[9] Many texts have been translated and included in the wiki, including Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.[10] Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince,[11] Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol,[12] and Mark Twain's Letters from the Earth.[13] There are also many poems, both translated and original.[14]
LFN can be written with either the Latin or Cyrillic script:
| Latin | a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | l | m | n | o | p | r | s | t | u | v | x | z |
| Cyrillic | а | б | к | д | е | ф | г | х | и | ж | л | м | н | о | п | р | с | т | у | в | ш | з |
| IPA | [a] | [b] | [k] | [d] | [e] | [f] | [ɡ] | [h] | [i/j] | [ʒ] | [l] | [m] | [n/ŋ] | [o] | [p] | [r] | [s] | [t] | [u/w] | [v] | [ʃ] | [z] |
| Names | a | be | ce | de | e | ef | ge | hax | i | je | el | em | en | o | pe | er | es | te | u | ve | ex | ze |
LFN vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) are pronounced as in Spanish (approximately as ah, eh, ee, oh, and oo.) In IPA:
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
Because there are only five vowels, variations in pronunciation rarely cause problems.
Diphthongs are ai [ai], au [au], eu [eu], and oi [oi] (approximately as in my, cow, "eh-w," and boy).
Most of the consonants are pronounced as in English, except that c is always pronounced [k] as in cat (even before e or i), g is always [ɡ] as in go, j is pronounced as in French ([ʒ] like the z in azure), r is pronounced as in Italian, and x is pronounced like sh [ʃ]. In IPA:
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | ɡ | ||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | h | |||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ1 | |||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | w2 | l | j3 | |||||||||||
The letters k, q, w, and y may be used in proper names from other languages and are pronounced [k], [k], [u] or [w], and [i] or [j], respectively. They are placed in their usual positions in the alphabet. The letter h is seldom used and may be left unpronounced if the speaker finds it difficult. It is also used to represent [x] as in "Bach" and similar fricatives in borrowed words.
Although stress is not a critical factor in LFN, there are a few standards.
LFN is an SVO (subject-verb-object) language. Modifiers generally follow what they modify, as do prepositional phrases and subordinate clauses.
Nouns are usually preceded by articles (la or un) or other determiners. Other than the plural in -s or -es, nouns are invariant. A noun's role in a sentence is determined by word order and prepositions.
The personal pronouns are invariant: me, tu, el, nos, vos, los. Possessive determiners are the same except for the third person, which uses se. A variety of other pronouns are identical to or derived from the determiners.
Verbs are invariant. Tense and mood are indicated by preceding particles: ia for the past, va for the future, and ta for the conditional (optional). The active participle ends in -nte and the passive participle in -da. The infinitive is the same as the basic verb.
Adjectives are invariant, and adverbs are not distinguished from adjectives. The comparative is formed with plu or min, the superlative with la plu or la min.
Complete detailed grammars of LFN are available in English, French, Russian, Esperanto, and LFN [15]
LFN has a strict word order. The general word order is:
A noun phrase has this order:
A verb phrase has this order:
A prepositional phrase generally follows what it modifies, and has this order:
The roles of nouns in a sentence are indicated through prepositions and word order. There are no cases.
Plural nouns are formed by appending -s to nouns ending in vowels or -es to nouns ending in consonants. This does not alter the stress:
Gender is typically not indicated. If necessary, nouns may be followed by mas (male) or fema (female):
A small number of traditional roles have a female form in -esa. For example:
A number of terms for family members have males ending in -o and females in -a. For example:
And a few terms use distinct forms. For example:
Apposition - the use of one noun to modify another - is mostly limited to names and titles:
Determiners in LFN precede the noun they modify. There are two articles: la (the) and un (a). As in English, un is not used before plural nouns. One may use de (of) before mass nouns, if desired:
Pronouns serving as possessives are also used as determiners, as are numbers indicating quantity:
Other words function similarly:
| tota - all ambos - both esta - this, these acel - that, those ce - what cual - which cuanto - how many, how much cada - every, each cualce - whatever, whichever alga - some |
no - no, zero multe - many, much poca - few, little plu - more min - less, fewer otra - other mesma - same sola - only tal - such |
Personal pronouns are invariant:
| me - I, me tu - you (singular) el - she, her, he, him, it |
nos - we, us vos - you (plural) los - they, them |
There are no gender distinctions between "he", "she", and "it". If gender is significant, one can use words like la fem, la om, la xica, la xico, la cosa, la idea, esta, acel (the woman, the man, the girl, the boy, the thing, the idea, this, that), etc.
Unlike in the Romance languages, there is no polite/impolite contrast for the second person: tu is always used for the singular, vos always for the plural.
The reflexive pronouns are also me, tu, nos, and vos, which may be followed by mesma. For the third person, singular and plural, lfn uses se:
There is an indefinite pronoun on, which is used like German "man" or French "on":
The possessive adjectives are la me, la tu, la nos, and la vos, placed before the noun possessed. The la may be dropped if no confusion results, for example, before animals or concrete objects or after prepositions. For the third person, singular and plural, there is la se or se:
There are no separate possessive pronouns such as "mine". Instead one uses expressions such as de me and el de me, or repeats the noun:
Many of the determiners can also be used as pronouns:
| esta, estas - this, these acel, aceles - that, those otra, otras - other, others tota - all ambos - both |
cada - each cualce - any alga - some multe - many, much poca - few, little |
Other pronouns and pronomial expressions, derived from determiners, include the following:
| cadun - everyone, everybody algun - someone, somebody cualcun - whomever, anyone, anybody nun - no one, nobody la un la otra - one another, each other |
cada cosa - everything alga cosa - something cualce cosa - whatever, anything no cosa - nothing la un con la otra - together |
There are no conjugations of verbs in LFN. The basic form remains the same regardless of person, number, or tense.
The present tense is represented by the basic verb:
The present tense is also used to indicate habitual actions and states, facts of nature, and as a "historical" tense, such as when relating a story that has been clearly established as occurring in the past:
The past tense is indicated by the particle ia:
The future tense is indicated by the particle va:
There is an optional particle ta, which indicates unreality and can be used where other languages might use a conditional or subjunctive mood:
Certain adverbs and verbal constructions add precision to the tenses:
The adverb ja, meaning "already," may be used to express what in other languages is the perfect:
Negation is indicated by putting no before the tense particle or (in the present tense) the verb. Double negatives should be avoided:
Commands are indicated by dropping the subject pronoun:
Verbs that do not have true subjects, such as weather terms and expressions such as "it's" (es) or "there are" (ave), are also used alone:
Verbs can be made into adjectives: The active participle is formed by adding -nte to the verb. For example, come becomes comente, meaning "eating". This should never be used as a gerund, as it often is in English.
The active participle can follow the verb "to be" and can be used to express what in other languages is the continuous aspect, which emphasizes the idea that the subject is in the midst of an activity or process:
The passive participle is formed by adding -da to the verb. For example, come becomes comeda, meaning "eaten". This should not be confused with the past tense.
The passive participle can also follow the verb "to be" and be used to express the passive voice:
Verbs can be used as nouns without change. For example, dansa, as a verb, means "dance/dances", but un dansa is "a dance" and la dansa is "the dance." Without an article, the word serves as an infinitive or gerund, so "to dance is good" and "dancing is good" are both translated as dansa es bon. This is also the form used when one verb follows another. "I want to dance," for example, is simply me vole dansa.
In LFN, verbs often come in pairs. Some "leading" verbs are like modal verbs in English. However, the idea of leading verbs goes beyond modals to include attitudinal verbs:
| atenta - try debe - should, must espera - hope espeta - expect finje - pretend gusta - like menasa - threaten |
nesesa - need odi - hate osa - dare pare - seem pote - can, may teme - fear vole - want |
There is no equivalent to the word "to," and the following verb is left in its simplest form:
Adjectives follow the noun they modify, with two exceptions: Bon (good) and mal (bad) may come before the noun, due to their frequent use, making it more convenient for placing other modifiers after the noun. Unlike the natural Romance languages, adjectives in LFN do not have gender or plural forms, i.e. they don't "agree" with the nouns they describe.
The comparative is made with plu (more) or min (less). "The most" is la plu and "the least" is la min:
Equivalence is indicated with tan... como:
Like verbs, adjectives can be used as nouns. For example, bela means "beautiful", but un bela means "a beautiful one" or "a beauty." This works with participles, too: la studiante and la studiada mean "the student" and "the studied," respectively, from the verb studia, "study."
An adjective can be made into an abstract noun by adding -ia (-ity, -ness, -ship, -hood). In this way bela becomes belia, meaning beauty. This can also be used with nouns: madre (mother) becomes madria (motherhood).
LFN doesn't have an explicit way of marking adverbs. Instead, any adjective can be used as an adverb by placing it after a verb or at the very beginning of the sentence. Un om felis for example means "a happy man", whereas el dansa felis means "he/she dances happily". Adverbs used to modify adjectives precede the adjective. Here are examples of common adverbs:
| ala - there alora - then ance - also, too ancora - still, yet aora - now asi - here bon - well denova - again doman - tomorrow |
ier - yesterday mal - badly nunca - never oji - today pronto - soon sempre - always sola - only tarda - late temprana - early |
Prepositions are placed before the noun or noun phrase, and the prepositional phrase is placed after the noun being modified, or, if used adverbially, after the verb or at the beginning of the sentence. There are 22 basic prepositions in LFN:
| a - at, to ante - before, in front of asta - near, beside, until ce - than como - like con - with contra - against de - of, from, since en - in, into, during entre - between, among estra - out of, except |
longo - along par - by per - for, in order to pos - after, behind, according to sin - without sirca - around, approximately su - below, under, beneath supra - above, over sur - on, about, concerning tra - through ultra - beyond, past, across |
A few participles can also be used as prepositions. For example:
| consernante - concerning, about esetante - excepting, except |
incluinte - including, with seguente - following, according to |
Some prepositions can be used as adverbs by placing a before them. For example:
| a su - down, below, downstairs a en - in, inside, indoors a pos - afterwards |
a supra - up, above, upstairs a estra - out, outside, outdoors a ante - beforehand |
There are several coordinating conjunctions in LFN:
| e - and o - or ma - but, yet donce - so, therefore |
e... e... - both... and... o... o... - either... or... no... no... - neither... nor... |
For example:
There are a number of interrogative words that are used to introduce questions:
| ce - what ci - who, whom cual - which de ci - whose, of whom cuando - when |
do - where como - how cuanto - how much, how many per ce - why |
(Most of these are also used to introduce subordinate clauses, discussed below.)
For example:
Questions may include one of these words or may be indicated by rising intonation alone. One may also express questions by beginning the sentence with the interrogative particle esce ("is it that... ?") or by adding no (no) or si (yes) to the end of the sentence, after a comma. In writing, questions always end with a question mark (?):
Relative clauses (or adjective clauses) function like adjectives. There are two relative pronouns which typically introduce relative clauses:
Relative clauses follow the noun or noun phrase that they modify:
Relative pronouns may be preceded by prepositions:
Cuando and do can also be used to introduce adjective clauses:
Noun clauses function the same way that nouns and noun phrases do in a sentence. Two subordinating conjunctions commonly introduce noun clauses:
For example:
Relative pronouns and interrogative words can also introduce noun clauses:
Adverbial clauses function like adverbs, modifying the verb or the sentence as a whole. Some are introduced by these subordinating conjunctions:
Adverbial clauses usually follow the main clause:
Some of the interrogative words can also be used to introduce adverbial clauses:
Do and cuando are often preceded by prepositions:
| a do - to where, whither de do - from where, whence ante cuando - before pos cuando - after |
en cuando - while asta cuando - until de cuando - since |
For example:
| 0 - zero 1 - un 2 - du 3 - tre 4 - cuatro 5 - sinco |
6 - ses 7 - sete 8 - oto 9 - nove 10 - des |
Higher numbers are constructed as follows:
| 11 - des-un 20 - dudes 100 - sento 101 - sento-un 321 - tresento-dudes-un |
1000 - mil 45 678 - cuatrodes-sinco mil sessento-setedes-oto 1 000 000 - milion 1 000 000 000 - mil milion |
Numbers that express the order of things are the same, except that they follow the noun, e.g. la om tre, "the third man," instead of la tre omes, "the three men." For "the third", one uses "numero tre".
Fractions are constructed with -i, e.g. dui, tri, cuatri,... desi, senti, mili, etc.
Multiples and groups can be referred to with -uple, as in duple - double, duo, couple, pair.
LFN has a number of regular affixes that help to create new words.
The most common suffixes are -or, -ador, and -eria, which refer to a person, a device, and a place respectively. They can be added to any noun, adjective, or verb. For example:
Another useful suffix is -i which, added to an adjective and some nouns, means "to become" or "to cause to become." It is also used with names for tools, machines, or supplies with the meaning "to use." For example:
Two more common suffixes are -eta, which means a small version of something, and -on, which means a large version of something. (They are not, however, simply synonyms for small and large!) For example:
There are a few suffixes that turn nouns into adjectives: -al means "pertaining to...," -in means "similar to...," -os means "full of..." For example:
Other suffixes include -able (-able), -isme (-ism), and -iste (-ist).
There are also three common prefixes. Non- means not or un-, re- means again or in the opposite direction, and des- means to undo. For example:
Other prefixes include pos- (post-), pre- (pre-), supra- (super-), su- (sub-), media- (mid-), vis- (vice-), and auto- (auto-, self-)
Words may also be created by joining two existing words (compounds). Most compounds in LFN are nouns constructed from a verb and its object:
Similarly, bon (good) and mal (bad) can be joined to other words:
Two nouns are never joined (as they often are in English), but are linked with de or other prepositions instead:
A complete list of LFN affixes can be found at the LFN wiki.[16]
| Lingua Franca Nova | English |
|---|---|
| Serjo: Bon dia, seniora. | Good day, miss. |
| Maria: Alo. | Hello. |
| S: Como es tu? | How are you? |
| M: Bon, e tu? | Good, and you? |
| S: No mal. Ce es tu nom? | Not bad. What is your name? |
| M: Me nom es Maria. | My name is Maria. |
| S: Tu gusta un bir? | Would you like a beer? |
| M: Si, per favore. Grasias! | Yes, please. Thank you! |
| S: No problem! | You're welcome! |
| M: Joia! | Cheers! |
| S: Tu es multe bela. | You are very beautiful. |
| M: Pardona? | Excuse me? |
| S: Me pensa ce me ama tu. | I think I love you. |
| M: Me debe vade aora. | I must go now. |
| S: Asta la ora? | See you later? |
| M: Adio. | Goodbye. |
| S: Bon sera, me cara. | Goodnight, my dear. |
| M: Bon fortuna! | Good luck! |
Car la reconose de la dinia inerente e la diretos egal e nonalienable de tota la membros de la familia umana es la funda de libria, justia, e pas en la mundo;
Car la nonconose e la despeta de la diretos umana ia porta atas de barbaria cual ofende la consiensa de umania, e car la veni de un mundo do la esentes umana va es libre per parla e crea e librida de temia e de miseria, es proclamada como la aspira la plu alta de esentes umana;
Car es esensal ce la diretos umana es protejeda par un sistem de diretos, afin no person es forsada, como un recurso ultima, a la rebelia contra tirania e oprimi;
Car es esensal promove la developa de relates bonvolente entre nasiones;
Car en la Carta, la poplas de la Nasiones Unida proclama se fida en la diretos umana fundal, en la dinia e la valua de la person umana, en la egalia de diretos de omes e de femes, e car los ia decide promove la progresa sosial e leva la cualia de vive con un libria plu completa;
Car la statos cual es membros promete securi, en coopera con la Nasiones Unida, la respeta e la oserva universal de diretos umana e libria fundal;
E car un conseta comun de esta diretos e librias es la plu importante per la completi plen de esta promete -
La Asemblea Jeneral proclama esta Declara Universal de Diretos Umana como un ideal comun per la aspira de tota la poplas e nasiones, afin cada person e cada organo sosial, con esta Declara en mente constante, va promove la respeta de esta diretos e librias par eleva e instrui, e par mesuras progresante, e nasional e internasional, va securi la reconose e aplica universal e produinte, entre la poplas de la statos parteninte e de la teritorios su se autoria legal.
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