Grammar8 topics

The grammar, topic by topic.

Each topic is written once, marked settled or open, and applies without exception. What is not on these pages has not been decided yet.

At a glance12 rules

Every rule holds. That is the whole design.

One letter, one sound
No silent letters, none that change value by position, none that can be read two ways. A word is pronounced exactly as written.
dunia du-ni-a — world
Syllables stay simple
Never more than two consonants in a row. If you can say "banana" and "taksi", you can say anything in Amadunia.
taksi tak-si — taxi
The verb never changes
Time is one particle placed before the verb: suda for the past, saufa for the future. Nothing to conjugate, no agreement with the subject.
Mi suda kula pan. I ate bread.
The present is unmarked
The most common tense is the shortest form. Once a time has been set, the particle need not be repeated until the time changes.
Mi kula pan. I eat bread.
To make a plural, say the noun twice
Joined by a hyphen. Nothing is added and nothing inside the word changes, so there is nothing that could become irregular.
anak-anak children
After a number, the noun stays single
The number has already done the work. The unmarked noun is neutral, not singular; doubling is used only when "more than one" actually matters.
tri anak three children
The owner comes right after the thing owned
Nothing is added: no possessive pronouns, no suffix, no "of". The ordinary pronoun or noun takes the slot after the noun, before any adjective, and chains to any depth.
ruma rafiki mi my friend's house
A question is the answer with one word swapped
Yes/no questions are a statement said with a rising tone and written with a question mark. For what, who, where, when, why, how and how many, the question word sits exactly where the answer would. Word order never changes.
Yu kan ke? What do you see? — Yu kan anak. You see a child.
Pronouns never change
Not for case, not for gender, not for politeness: mi, yu, ta whether acting or acted on, for anyone. Plural by doubling, like every noun. Two ways to say we — kita with you, mi-mi without you.
Mi kan ta. Ta kan mi. I see her. She sees me.
Before a noun, es. Before anything else, nothing
Two nouns side by side already mean possession, so "X is a Y" needs the verb es. An adjective or a place word cannot own anything, so it stands alone as the sentence and takes the tense particle directly.
Mi es doktor. Ruma kabir. I am a doctor. The house is big.
Numbers are built, never irregular
Ten digits, des for ten, sen for a hundred. Larger numbers join smaller ones, largest unit first.
du-des-uan 21
No conjugation, no gender, no articles
One pronoun for he and she. No word for "a" or "the". Grammar you can learn in a day.
Ta go ruma. She goes home. He goes home.

Still open15 questions

Not decided yet.

Phonology, alphabet, numbers, tense, plurals, possession, questions, pronouns, the copula and the first words are settled. Where time and place words go, and how to say not, are still being decided. Fifteen smaller questions are listed at the foot of the topics above. Decisions are made in the open, in thelanguage repository.