Lexicon
letters in brackets are optional
adjectives are listed as masc., fem., neut. (if they are inflected at all)
nouns are listed as singular, plural
- Limargia — personal name of rumantsch origin
- nach — 1. after (temporal); 2. towards; 3. behind; past, after; 4. by, according to
- links — left
- und — and
- rechts — right (the direction)
- denn — then
- -(e)r, -s(i), -(a)s — he, she, it
- dia — these, those
- ding, dinger — thing, things
- luaga | gluagt — to see | seen (participle)
- froga | gfrogt — to ask | asked (participle)
- sammla | gsammlet — collect; compile; gather; accumulate; rally;
- huh — (expresses surprise) what?!?
- das — this, these, the one (that)
- ja — 1. yes; 2. (discourse particle, expresses surprise); 3. (discourse particle, expresses common and/or shared knowledge);
- keiba — 1. bloke, fella, lad; 2. very, really, surprisingly much, super
- viel, vieli — 1. many, numerous, plenty
- jetzt(a) — now, at the moment, immediately
- ganzi, ganz, ganzi — 1. whole, all, entire; 2. not broken, intact; 3. quite, very
- Keller, Keller — cellar, basement, (place to store potatoes and such)
- voll(a) — full, filled; 2. crowded
- antworta | gantworted — to answer | answered
- ha'a — no (negating previous statement) [coll.]
- kei(n) — none, no, zero
- Frau, Fraua — woman
- schu — 1. already, yet; 2. (discourse particle, expresses doubt in the statement it occurs in) 3. (interjection, expresses surprise)
- döta — there
- si(i) | gsi — to be | been
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Grammar
There is no standardised orthography (nor dialect). This file reflects my personal idiolect and writing conventions. (which are both somewhat loose anyways, I hope it's consistent enough in here) The file should display nicely if you use a monospace font. Tabs should not cause problems, but replace them with 4 spaces if they do. Capitalisation loosely follows the Standard German convention: Nouns, proper names and beginnings of sentences are capitalised. This may vary for subtle pragmatic reasons of which no one is consciously aware though. Word Order
A simple statement is constructed in the following manner: the subject comes first, then the *conjugated* verb, then the object and any infinitives or participles.
- Ich + den Baum sehen -> Ich sehe den Baum.
- ("I + to see the tree" -> I see the tree.)
- Ein Text + geschrieben werden -> Ein Text wird geschrieben
- ("A text + to be written -> A text is being written.")
- Wir + den Raum verlassen -> Wir verlassen den Raum
- ("we + to leave the room -> We leave the room.")
- Der König + eine Burg bauen lassen -> Der König lässt eine Burg bauen.
- ("the king + to have a castle built -> The king has a castle built.")
Questions are formed by fronting the conjugated verb (note that the participle remains at the end)
- er het gmacht
- he has done
- het er gmacht ? (usually contracted to „hetter gmacht?“)
- has he done ?
Most subordinate clauses also have a different word order, usually with the conjugated verb at the end:
| nochdem | er | z’einta | gmacht | het, | het | er | z’andra | gmacht |
| after | he | the_first_thing | made | has, | has | he | the_other | done |
| und | er | het | gseh, | dass | es | guat | isch |
| and | he | has | seen, | that | it | good | is |
random notes
It is almost exclusively nominative/accusative. ' is used for glottal stop; ’ is used like the english apostrophe Hyperbole is a thing and used for emphasis (like in english), e.g.
- jeda weiss, dass ... — everyone knows that ...
direct Articles have clitic character, hence I usually write them like this
- dFrau — feminine
- drMaa — masculine
- dsKind — neuter
but they can stand alone
- dia blond Frau — the blond woman
- d(e)r grossi Maa — the big man
- ds kliina Kind — the small child
in some cases this is articles and pronouns tend to merge quite often (by dropping the vovel(s)), a few examples:
- shet — as het — there are
- hetr — het är — has he
- machendr (öppis) — machend iar (öppis) — *make you (smth.)? — Are you making (smth.) ?
- sindr schu fertig — are you finished already?
- are.you(pl.) already finished
- sind iar schu fertig — are *you* (i.e. your group) finished already?
- are you(pl.) already finished
tenses
There is and only is a grammaticalised distinction between past; present continuous; present; future
- past (and auxiliary conjugation tables)
- the past tense is formed by combining the auxiliary hā (to have) or sī (to be) with a participlr (quite similar to english in fact) like so:
- macha (infinitive — to have)
- i han gmacht (I have done; i did)
- du hesch gmacht
- er/sie/as het gmacht
- miar hend gmacht
- iar hend gmacht
- si hend gmacht
- sii (infititive — to be)
- i bin gsi (i have been; i was)
- du bisch gsi
- er/sie/as isch gsi
- miar sind gsi
- iar sind gsi
- sie sind gsi
- [the other tenses are not relevant for this text]
cases
There are several cases, nouns, pronouns and adjectives are inflected accordingly Pronouns
listed as:
- Nominative
- Accusative
- Dative
- Genitive
| <i> | han | gmacht |
| I.NOM | have | done |
| I | have | done |
| er | het | <mi> | ghaua |
| he | has | me.AKK | hit.PAST |
| he | has | hit | me |
| er | het-s | <miar> | ghe |
| he | has-it | me.DAT | given.PAST |
| he | has | given | it to me |
| das | isch | <mis> | hus |
| this | is | my.GEN | house |
| this | is | my | house |
- 1st sing.
- 2nd sing.
- 3rd sing. masculine
- er, ihn/na, ihm/em, sin/sis/sin(a)
- 1st plural
- 2nd plural
- 3rd plural
enclitic pronouns
- -(e)r — he (3rd person masculine)
- -'s — it (3rd person neuter)
- -s(i) — she (3rd person feminine)
- -s — they (3rd person plural (gender unmarked) )
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