Triparic Grammar
This is an overview of the grammar of the Triparic language.
Nouns
As in English, but unlike in German and most if not all Romance languages, nouns have no grammatical gender in Triparic.
Nouns form their plurals in -s (or -es if the singular ends in s, j, x, z, ch, or sch): fems "women", tasses "glasses, tumblers", mensches "men".
Possession is expressed in two ways. First, it may be formed with a prepositional phrase, using the preposition o "of": der cän o der mensch "the dog of the man". Or it may be formed by adding -'z to the possessor in apposition to the thing possessed: der mensch'z cän "the man's dog".
However, when a genitive phrase is compounded, the apostrophe is dropped: königzjønt "kingdom".
Adjectives
Unlike in English, adjectives agree with their nouns in number. The plural of adjectives is formed with -(e)s exactly as for nouns: duväd miaŏ "black cat"; duväds miaŏs "black cats".
Adjectives usually precede the nouns they modify: gute morgan "good morning", alta rol "high office". But they may be placed afterwards poetically, so long as ambiguities are not created thereby: tempos conects "contiguous times".
Articles
There are three different types of articles used with Triparic nouns: definite, indefinite, and negative. These are akin to "the", "a(n)", "some", and "no(ne)" in English.
The definite articles are der (singular) and les (plural): der mensch "the man", les däms "the women".
The indefinite article, used with singular nouns only, is simply the word for the number "one", æn: æn mensch "a man".
The negative article is ni, and is used with mass nouns and countable nouns alike to indicate a lack of something: Io habe ni aqua. "I have no water." Er habet ni cäns. "He has no dogs."
Numerals
The numerals in Triparic work very similarly to those in English, German, and other European languages. The cardinal numerals do not inflect for plural agreement with nouns, being (other than "one") inherently plural. Ordinal and other types of numeric adjectives usually do: les dwasts mensches venen, "the second men to come".
Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
| 1. Sing. | 2. Sing. | 3. Sing. | 1. Plur. | 2. Plur. | 3. Plur. | Reflexive/
Emphatic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masc. | Fem. | Epicene | Neuter | |||||||
| Nominative | io | ðö | er | el | ei | id | noy | voy | eng | selb |
| Objective | mi | ði | ir | il | in | id | nis | vis | eng | selb |
| Possessive | miz | ðæ | irz | ilz | inz | idz | ör | vor | engz | selbz |
Classical
Adjectives
Most adjectives form their comparatives and superlatives with the adverbs ply "more" and plä "most": ply alta "higher"; plä lange "longest". However, "good" is irregular:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| gute "good" | besser "better" | lemieu "best" |
Adverbs
There are many different adverbs. Some words are "simple" adverbs, not derived from another word, like nac "not", ply "more", and so forth.
A large class of adverbs is derived from adjectives by adding the suffix -lic (or is it -lik?) (removing a final vowel first, if any): altlic "highly", grosslic "largely".
Two adjectives have irregular adverbial counterparts: ben "well", matching gut "good"; and pesch "badly, poorly", matching arg "bad".
Pronouns
| Person | Nominative | Objective | Possessive |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1sing. | io | mi | miz |
| 2sing. | ðö | ði | ðæ |
| 3sing. M. | er | ir | irz |
| 3sing. F. | el | il | ilz |
| 3sing. Ep. | ei | in | inz |
| 3sing. N. | id | id | idz |
| 1plur. | noy | nis | ör |
| 2plur. | voy | vis | vor |
| 3plur. | eng | eng | engz |
| Indefinite | — | — | — |
| Reflexive/
Emphatic |
selb
(emphatic only) |
selb | selbz |
Epicene and Neuter
English and many other European languages lack a separate epicene pronoun. The epicene pronouns should be used when the gender of a singular person is not known, undefined, irrelevant, or if the person prefers to be referred to by non-gendered pronouns. The gendered pronouns are appropriate for referring to a person (definite or indefinite) of known and preferred gender.
The same principles for epicene vs. gendered pronouns may be applied to animals as preferred by the speaker, although it is acceptable to refer to animals with the neuter pronouns (although the owners of pets may take exception).
The neuter pronouns are acceptable for non-living things or non-animal life, or for parts thereof. A man's or woman's lung is an "it". A man's or woman's body is an "it" (and when speaking of the dead, this particular distinction can get prickly).
Demonstratives (Correlatives)
Like most European languages, Triparic has numerous words for interrogatives, demonstratives, and qualifiers like "this", "how much", "when", "someone", and so forth. These are organized into a table of correlatives, following the Esperanto model, although like natural languages, Triparic's table is not as regular as Esperanto's.
Verbs
Triparic verbs are conjugated to indicate the following categories:
- grammatical mood (indicative, subjunctive, imperative, infinitive, participle)
- tenses, both in time (past, present, future) and aspect (perfective or imperfective)
- voice (active or passive)
- person (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) and number (singular or plural) of the subject
The inflections of person and number are only used in the finite moods (indicative, subjunctive, and imperative). The infinitive and participle moods do not inflect person and number, although they are often used in compound constructions with other verbs which themselves are in the finite moods.
The perfective aspect is formed by compounding the auxiliary verb haben "to have" with the past participle of the main verb. Similarly, the passive voice is formed by compounding the auxiliary verb sän "to be" with the passive participle of the main verb.
Other Parts of Speech
Interjections, prepositions, and conjunctions generally function as they do in English and other European languages. Noteworthy exceptions will be listed or linked here.
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Adjectives
Two adjectives ("big" and "small") have irregular superlative forms, while two others ("good" and "bad") have irregular comparative as well as superlative forms:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| gut "good" | besser "better" | optima "best" |
| arg "bad" | verser "worse" | pessima "worst" |
| gross "big" | ply grosse "bigger" | maxima "biggest" |
| klæn "small" | ply klæne "smaller" | minima "smallest" |
Adverbs
There are many different adverbs. Some words are "simple" adverbs, not derived from another word, like nac "not", ply "more", and so forth.
A large class of adverbs is derived from adjectives by adding the suffix -lic (removing a final vowel first, if any): altlic "highly", grosslic "largely".
Two adjectives have irregular adverbial counterparts: ben "well", matching gut "good"; and pesch "badly, poorly", matching arg "bad".
Numerals
The numerals in Triparic work very similarly to those in English, German, and other European languages. The cardinal numerals do not inflect for plural agreement with nouns, being (other than "one") inherently plural. Ordinal and other types of numeric adjectives usually do: des dwasts virs venen, "the second men to come".
Personal Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives
The personal pronouns and possessive adjectives are (see combined table above).
The possessive adjectives may be used without nouns like English mine, yours, ours, etc.: Id ist mes. "It is mine."
Epicene and Neuter
English and many other European languages lack a separate epicene pronoun. The epicene pronouns should be used when the gender of a singular person is not known, undefined, irrelevant, or if the person prefers to be referred to by non-gendered pronouns. The gendered pronouns are appropriate for referring to a person (definite or indefinite) of known and preferred gender.
The same principles for epicene vs. gendered pronouns may be applied to animals as preferred by the speaker, although it is acceptable to refer to animals with the neuter pronouns (although the owners of pets may take exception).
The neuter pronouns are acceptable for non-living things or non-animal life, or for parts thereof. A man's or woman's lung is an "it". A man's or woman's body is an "it" (and when speaking of the dead, this particular distinction can get prickly).
Indefinite
The indefinite pronoun ænei is used when describing an indefinite, abstract subject, as in English when saying "One should ..." or the like: Ænei nac simplic ambet en zu Mordor. "One does not simply walk into Mordor."
Reflexive and Intensive
As indicated in the table, the pronoun selb(s) has two uses. It is used in the accusative or possessive, in all persons, as the reflexive pronoun, when the object or possessor is the same as the subject of the sentence:
Eng libant selb plä. "They love themselves most."
Er libet selbs cän. "He loves his (own) dog."
as opposed to Er libet ers cän. "He loves his (probably someone else's) dog."
Ia helfte selb. "I helped myself."
It may also be used in the nominative, adjacent to the subject in word order, to intensify the subject.
Der könig selb ist hir! "The king himself is here!"
Ia selb helfire ði. "I myself will help you."
Other Pronouns
Relative
The relative pronoun is velk. It is used as the first word of a relative clause. Der vir, velk el libet, kenne erm. "The man whom she loves knows him." Der vir, velk libet elm, kenne erm. "The man who loves her knows him."
Reciprocal
The reciprocal pronoun "each other, one another" is ænander. Vi ia habe vos gelibet, libe ænander. "As I have loved you, love one another."