Novial/Hound Lesson 1

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Novial homePronunciation Guide

ContentsLesson 1Lesson 2Lesson 3Lesson 4Lesson 5Lesson 6Lesson 7

PrefixesSuffixesProforms

Li Hunde del Familie Baskerville[edit | edit source]

The first occurrence of each new word is highlighted in blue (in the text title also). Click on the word to jump down to its translation. Then click the back key on your keyboard or the "Back" button on your browser to return to the text.

Watson: Bon jorne, doktoro Mortimer.

Mortimer: Bon jorne. Ob vu es sinioro Sherlock Holmes?

Holmes: No, lo es men amike, doktoro Watson.

Mortimer: Plesure ke me renkontra vu, doktoro. Me sava vun nome. Sinioro Holmes, vu tre multim interesa me.

Holmes: Me observa fro vun fingre ke vu fuma. Bonvoli sida e fuma. Pro quu vu visita nus disdi?

Mortimer: Me have seriosi e exterordinari probleme. Me realisa ke vu es li duesmi autoritate in Europa.

Holmes: Ya, sinioro! Que es unesmi?

Mortimer: Li laboro de Monsieur Bertillon sembla bon a siential home.

Holmes: Dunke, pro quu vu non konsulta lo?

Mortimer: Lu sembla bon a siential home, ma me prefera konsulta vu in praktikal koses. Me espera ke me non ofense vu.

Holmes: Nur pokim. Rakonta a nus li nature de vun probleme.

Alphabetical Vocabulary List[edit | edit source]

Adjectives which often drop the final -i have it in brackets.

  • ato
  • amikefriend
  • autoritateauthority
  • bon(i) good
  • bonvoli (to) be willing, please
  • deof
  • delof the
  • disditoday
  • doktorodoctor
  • duesmisecond
  • dunketherefore
  • eand
  • esam, are, is, (to) be
  • espera (to) hope
  • EuropaEurope
  • exterordinariextraordinary
  • familiefamily
  • fingrefinger
  • frofrom
  • fuma (to) smoke
  • have (to) have, possess
  • homeperson
  • hundedog
  • inin
  • interesa (to) interest
  • jorneday
  • kethat (conjunction)
  • konsulta (to) consult
  • kosething, matter
  • laborowork
  • lithe
  • lohe, him
  • luit
  • mabut
  • meI, me
  • menmy, mine
  • naturenature
  • nono
  • nomename
  • nonnot
  • nuronly
  • nuswe, us
  • obis it that?
  • observa(to) observe
  • ofense(to) offend
  • plesurepleasure
  • pokima little (adverb)
  • praktikal(i) practical
  • prefera (to) prefer
  • pro quu?why?
  • problemeproblem
  • que?who?
  • rakonta(to) tell, recount
  • realisa (to) realize
  • renkontra (to) meet
  • sava (to) know
  • sembla (to) seem
  • seriosiserious
  • sida (to) sit
  • siential(i) scientific
  • sinioroMr, sir
  • trevery
  • tre multimvery much
  • unesmifirst
  • visita (to) visit
  • vuyou (one person)
  • vunyour, yours (one person)
  • yaindeed

Grammar Notes and Exercises[edit | edit source]

Personal Pronouns – Subject, Object and Possession[edit | edit source]

The subject and object forms (e.g English I and me) of Novial pronouns are the same:

  • meI, me
  • nuswe, us
  • vuyou (one person)
  • vusyou (more than one person)
  • lohe, him
  • losthey, them (all male)
  • lashe, her
  • lasthey, them (all female)
  • lehe or she, him or her
  • lesthey, them
  • luit
  • lusthey, them (all sexless objects)

Notice that in the third person, male and female have the endings -o and -a respectively. The ending -e indicates either male or female without specifying. The ending -u indicates a sexless thing. Plurals all end in -s. Les is conveniently used to mean they, them as in English, i.e. it is not specified whether they are sexless or not, and they may be any mixture of male, female and sexless things. This system is flexible and allows more speakers to follow their natural language habits. So the French may often choose to use las and los, while most English speakers would choose to use les, ignoring the sex distinction which is here absent in English. A Finnish speaker may prefer to use le (he or she), since the he/she distinction is absent in Finnish. The pronoun le is also very convenient to say he or she using a single word and avoiding sex bias.

The standard word order is, as in English, subject-verb-object, so the object need not be marked to distinguish it from the subject:

  • me observa vuI observe you
  • vu observa meyou observe me

The personal possessive adjectives are formed from the pronouns by adding -n or after a consonant -en. This is in fact the genitive (possessive) of the pronoun so men means both my and mine (of me):

  • lu es men hundeit is my dog
  • lu es menit is mine
  • menmy, mine
  • nusenour, ours
  • vunyour, yours
  • vusenyour, yours (more than one person)
  • lonhis
  • losentheir, theirs (all male)
  • lanher, hers
  • lasentheir, theirs (all female)
  • lenhis or her, his or hers
  • lesentheir, theirs
  • lunits
  • lusentheir, theirs (all sexless objects)
EXERCISE • Hound Lesson 1 • Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (1)

Complete the following sentences by translating the English word in brackets.

  1. (You) interesa me multim, sinioro Watson.
  2. E (you), doktoro Watson e siniore Holmes, interesa me.
  3. ( I ) sava vusen seriosi e exterordinari probleme.
  4. (We) non fuma ma bonvoli sida e fuma.
  5. (She) observa (my) bon amike.
  6. Ob (he) renkontra les disdi?
  7. Yes, (they) visita (his) bon amike, doktoro Mortimer.
SOLUTION • Novial/Hound Lesson 1 • Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (1)
  1. Vu interesa me multim, sinioro Watson.
  2. E vus, doktoro Watson e siniore Holmes, interesa me.
  3. Me sava vusen seriosi e exterordinari probleme.
  4. Nus non fuma ma bonvoli sida e fuma.
  5. La observa men bon amike.
  6. Ob lo renkontra les disdi?
  7. Yes, les visita lon bon amike, doktoro Mortimer.
EXERCISE • Hound Lesson 1 • Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (2)

Complete the following sentences by translating the English word in brackets.

  1. Li hunde interesa nus: (it) nur sida e observa.
  2. Li familie have problemes: (they, the problems) interesa sinioro Holmes.
  3. (Their, male only) laboro sembla bon a me.
  4. (They, female only) have autoritate in Europa.
  5. (Her) familie prefera non fuma.
  6. Holmes e Watson, pro quu (your) problemes interesa me?
  7. Ob vus sava ke lus es (my) problemes?
SOLUTION • Novial/Hound Lesson 1 • Personal pronouns and possessive adjectives (2)
  1. Li hunde interesa nus: le nur sida e observa.
  2. Li familie have problemes: lus interesa sinioro Holmes.
  3. Losen laboro sembla bon a me.
  4. Las have autoritate in Europa.
  5. Lan familie prefera non fuma.
  6. Holmes e Watson, pro quu vusen problemes interesa me?
  7. Ob vus sava ke lus es men problemes?

Verb – Present Tense, Imperative, Infinitive and Negative[edit | edit source]

As in English the present tense of the verb and the imperative are identical:

  • me dikteI say or I am saying
  • dikte! say!

Note that the English present continuous, such as you are saying, is translated by the simple present:

  • vu dikte

The infinitive is also the same as the present:

  • me prefera dikteI prefer to say

The negative is formed with non (not), which usually precedes the word which it negates. The negative answer to a question is no (no), while the positive answer is yes (yes).

  • nus non sava luwe don’t know it

The verb never varies with the person:

  • me semblaI seem
  • nus semblawe seem
  • vu semblayou seem
  • vus semblayou seem
  • le semblahe or she seems
  • les semblathey seem

Articles, Plural Nouns and Nouns with Natural Sex[edit | edit source]

The plural of a noun is formed by adding the ending -s (-es after a consonant) and the definite article li (the) is invariant as in English:

  • li problemethe problem
  • li problemesthe problems

For convenience de li (of the) is usually shortened to del and likewise a li (to the) to al and da li (by the) to dal. There is no indefinite article (a, an) in Novial. This causes no ambiguity as seen in English when the plural indefinite article (some) is dropped:

  • hundedog, a dog
  • hundesdogs, some dogs

The indication of sex in the third person pronouns with the endings -e, -o and -a is also used with nouns that have natural gender:

  • doktoredoctor (male or female)
  • doktorafemale doctor
  • doktoromale doctor
  • hundedog
  • hundabitch, female dog
  • hundomale dog
  • sinioresir or madam
  • sinioramadam, Mrs
  • siniorosir, Mr
  • sinioresladies and gentlemen
  • homeperson
  • homafemale person (adult or child)
  • homomale person (adult or child)
  • homespeople

Many sexless nouns also end in -e and these of course cannot change the ending to indicate sex differences.

Adjectives[edit | edit source]

All adjectives end in an -i, which may be dropped if easy to pronounce. Adjectives usually precede the noun that they qualify. As in English, adjectives do not agree with their noun in number or gender:

  • boni puera or bon pueraa good girl
  • boni pueras or bon puerasgood girls
  • boni puero or bon pueroa good boy
  • boni pueros or bon puerosgood boys
  • boni pueres or bon pueresgood children (boys and/or girls)

Questions[edit | edit source]

Question words such as que (who?) or pro quu (why? ) directly indicate a question and the subject-verb-object order need not be changed:

  • pro quu vus visita nus? why are you visiting us? (Literally: why you visit us? )
  • que visita nus? who is visiting us? (Literally: who visits us? )

Otherwise a question is indicated with the general question word ob (is it that?), again with no change in the standard word order of the remainder of the sentence:

  • ob vu es lan amike? are you her friend? (Literally: is it that you are her friend? )
  • ob vu sava li familie? do you know the family? (Literally: is it that you know the family? )
EXERCISE • Hound Lesson 1 • Word Derivation

Use endings and affixes to convert the following Novial root words to the English words indicated.

  1. donadonation
  2. liberisaliberating
  3. diktediction, delivery
  4. observaobservation
  5. sorgacareful
  6. lumosito turn bright
  7. viroto become a man
  8. dutwice
  9. konsultaconsultation
  10. disithis time, on this occasion
  11. iratito get angry
  12. voliwillful
  13. relaterelation, relevance
  14. prendagrasping, tending to take
  15. mordamordacious
  16. tithat time, on that occasion
  17. pregaprayerful
  18. solusolutione
  19. omnievery time, on every occasion
  20. konklusaconclusive
  21. otiosito fall idle
  22. kontinuacontinuation
  23. suportasuportive
  24. irgiany time, on any occasion
  25. atestaattestation
  26. deslumosito turn dark
  27. probato start trying
  28. konkluseconclusion
  29. apariapparition
  30. savatto become known
  31. audiaudition
  32. blankito blanch, turn white
  33. examinaexamination
  34. vibravibration
SOLUTION • Novial/Hound Lesson 1 • Word Derivation
  1. donatione
  2. liberisiv
  3. diktione
  4. observatione
  5. sorgiv
  6. lumoseska
  7. vireska
  8. dufoy
  9. konsultatione
  10. disifoy
  11. irateska
  12. volitiv
  13. relatione
  14. prendiv
  15. mordiv
  16. tifoy
  17. pregiv
  18. solutioine
  19. omnifoy
  20. konklusiv
  21. otioseska
  22. kontinuatione
  23. suportiv
  24. irgifoy
  25. atestatione
  26. deslumoseska
  27. probeska
  28. konklusione
  29. aparitione
  30. savateska
  31. auditione
  32. blankeska
  33. examinatione
  34. vibratione

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Novial homePronunciation Guide

ContentsLesson 1Lesson 2Lesson 3Lesson 4Lesson 5Lesson 6Lesson 7

PrefixesSuffixesProforms