All the information you see here pertains to the Liskom dialect, which is used for all media. There are many dialects in Daruny; most people can hear the difference between the dialect of their own town and that of a neighboring town. If you wish to understand a dialect of an outlying area, such as Montepinu or Acua Clara, I suggest you get a native Darunian to help you; the dialects are mostly mutually intelligible to Darunians, but foreigners who learn the Liskom dialect often have trouble understanding others.
The language is incomplete at this point, and it's a bit disorganized. Though it's made to look like it could be related to the Romance languages, I didn't make it a "realistic" Romance language, i.e. one that derives from Vulgar Latin. (In short, here are all the rules I didn't follow.) Sorry.
You may notice that nearly all the names in the example sentences are women's names. I did this because nearly every language text I've seen uses mostly men's names.
Anyway, without further ado, here's the Darunian language.
If you'd like to see the samples, click here.
Pronunciation
Basic Grammar
Word order is verb, subject, object:
| Apere | Yana | pota. |
| verb | subject | object |
| opens | Jane | the door |
The new order may take some getting used to. Think of sentences in old songs in English, like "Drove she ducklings to the water" and "Don we now our gay apparel." The only exception to this order is when the verb is sere ("to be"), but when there's a preposition, even this exception does not hold.
Mikela sum. I am Michaela.
Daruniana es Maria. Mary is a Darunian.
Es princesa nosa in ateru caselu. Our princess is in another castle.
Also, object pronouns come after the verb:
Amo. I love.
Amote. I love you.
There are no articles or plural forms. Plurals are known from the context, as in Japanese. Think of the English words "deer," "sheep," and "fish." Those are both singular and plural.
To ask a question, simply use a rising intonation; for a negation, add "no" after the verb:
Apere no Alisa pota. Alice doesn't open the door.
For relative clauses, use "cui" (which cannot be omitted the way its English equivalents can) for all relative pronouns:
filia cui amabate the girl who loved you
cane cui manjavi Cicago the dog that ate Chicago
dona cui davi ego fele the lady I gave the cat to/the lady to whom I gave the cat
locu in cui vidui Claritia Aurora the place where Clarissa saw Aurora
Put them together:
Vidui filia cui amabate, cane cui manjavi Cicago, in locu in cui vidui Claritia Aurora. The girl who loved you saw the dog who ate Chicago in the place where Clarissa saw Aurora.
If it is not possible to express it any other way, the pronoun is left in:
Es is femina cui amica de ila e Maria es Alisa. (Lit.) This is the woman whom Alice is a friend of her and Mary.
Sometimes the gerund is used to express relative clauses, but tense and aspect are lost, and subject and object are ambiguous:
cane manjandu Cicago the dog that ate Chicago/the dog Chicago ate
Sometimes it can be determined by case or gender:
filia amandate the you-loving girl/the girl loving you (the girl who loves/loved/will love you)
filia amanda tu the girl you love (listener is a woman)
filia amandu tu the girl you love (listener is a man)
The meaning is the same, but it sounds more colloquial. Context tells us which is the subject and which is the object, much like "the man-eating chicken"/"the man eating chicken" in English. Until you get to know the Darunian language, use the "cui" form.
The commas are to separate each part of the sentence; use them in speech as well as in writing. Notice the difference between using one and not using one:
Camina no imbaso de scala, pe periculusu es. Do not walk under ladders (because it is dangerous). [It's dangerous, so don't do it.]
Camina no imbaso de scala pe periculusu es. Do not (walk under ladders because it is dangerous). [Do it for a reason other than the danger.]
It's just like in English: "You're always saying I'm stupid" vs. "You're always saying, 'I'm stupid.'"
Darunian has masculine and feminine genders, but this is mostly used in adjectives (Blondu es Yanu vs. Blonda es Yana for "John/Jane is blond"), pronouns (ilu/ila are used even for inanimate nouns), and gender-specific nouns (atoru = actor, atora = actress). Still, please remember to use these according to the Darunian definition of gender; it's considered offensive to do otherwise, even when you're talking among people whose biological sexes all agree with their social genders.
Case alignment
"Case" means whether a word is the subject, the object, or something else. If you've studied German, Latin, or Japanese, you understand the concept. But you might not understand case alignment (formally called "morphosyntactic alignment") because most languages aren't very different from English in this.
Like English, Darunian treats the subjects of transitive verbs the same as the subjects of intransitive verbs. (Some languages treat the subjects of intransitive verbs the same as the objects of transitive verbs and treat the subjects of transitive verbs differently. Dave's Language Creation Notebook has a very simple explanation of this concept, which is called "ergativity.") However, there are differences in how different kinds of objects are treated.
In English, one can say "give a dog a bone" or "give a bone to a dog." In standard Darunian, you would always say "dare cane osu." (In some dialects, though, you always use the other construction: "dare osu a cane." You can use this construction, but you will sound foreign by doing so.) This extends to possessives. For example, you don't say "lavo manu meu" for "I wash my hands" (though, again, some dialects consider this correct); rather, you say, "lavome manu" (lit.: "I wash myself [the] hands"). The suffix "me" is called the "primary object" and "manu" is called the "secondary object."
Davime ila auru. She gave me money.
Peduime Carola libru. Carol lost my book.
This can lead to some useful distinctions:
Preneme vesimentu meu. Take off my clothes (from me). [Normally, you would leave meu off, because it's clear from the context.]
Prenete vesimentu meu. Take off my clothes (stop wearing them).
Bebuise ila vinu. She drank her (own) wine.
Bebuila ila vinu. She drank her (another's) wine.
Basic word lists
Here are the basic word lists they'd teach you on Platea Sesamu (Sesame Street):
Numbers: unu, do, te, cuatoru, cincue, sis, sete, otu, nove, deci.
Weekdays (Mon.-Sun.): Diluna, Dimata, Dimecuri, Dijove, Divenere, Disabatu, Domenica.
Colors: rosu (red), oranju (orange), amarelu (yellow), vede (green), azuru (blue), violetu (purple), negeru (black), blancu (white), marone (brown), gre (gray).
Animals: cane (dog), catu (cat), ratu (mouse/rat), cavalu (horse), vaca/tauru (cow/bull), pocu (pig), conilu (rabbit), ove (sheep), cabra (goat), galu (chicken).
Months: Yanuariu, Febreru, Mazo, Aprile, Maiu, Yuniu, Yuliu, Agusu, Setembre, Otobre, Novembre, Decembre.
Compounds and Affixes
Darunian doesn't use compounds as much as phrases. For example, in English, space + ship = spaceship, but in Darunian, vesele + spatia = vesele spatia. However, sometimes prepositional phrases merge into words; for example, the family name Decolina comes from "de colina," or "from (the) hill(s)." You would use "abaso" to mean "downward," but you wouldn't use "*aliskom" to mean "in the direction of Liskom." Instead, you would just use "a Liskom" to mean "to Liskom."
Darunian verbs
Darunian verbs are almost as complex as French and Spanish verbs. Here are the Darunian verb conjugation tablea, using amare ("to love"), videre ("to see"), and curire ("to run").
| Present Tense | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amare | videre | curire | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||
| First Person | amo | amamu | video | videmu | curio | curimu | ||
| Second Person | amas | amati | vides | videti | curis | curiti | ||
| Third Person | ama | aman | vide | viden | curi | curiun | ||
Videmu film novu. Let's see the new movie.
Also, note that the pronoun is usually left off, unless it's being emphazised:
Amote. I love you.
Amote ego. I love you.
However, because of the verb-subject-object word order, this can't be done in the third person with a transitive verb:
*Ama Rakela. Rachel loves./[that person] loves Rachel.
You have to use both the subject and the object, even if you just use pronouns:
Ama ila Rakela. She loves Rachel.
Ama Rakela ila. Rachel loves her.
Here's the perfect tense, which is used for a completed action. It's the past tense for a single action (as opposed to habitual actions):
| Perfect Tense | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amare | videre | curire | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||
| First Person | amavi | amavimu | vidui | viduimu | curivi | curivimu | ||
| Second Person | amavisi | amavisis | viduisi | viduisis | curivisi | curivisis | ||
| Third Person | amavi | amaverun | vidui | viduerun | curivi | curiverun | ||
Viduisi Sara? Have you seen Sarah?
Curivi ego velos. I ran quickly.
Note that the pronoun ego ("I") is used here, where pronouns aren't usually used. This is because the first- and third-person forms are the same in Darunian. They were different in Latin, but as Latin evolved into Darunian, sound change merged them into the same form. Usually, the pronouns aren't necessary unless emphasizing the subject of the sentence.
Here's the imperfect tense, which means things like "I was ...ing," "I used to...," "I kept ...ing," etc.:
| Imperfect Tense | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amare | videre | curire | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||
| First Person | amabam | amabamu | videbam | videbamu | curibam | curibamu | ||
| Second Person | amabas | amabati | videbas | videbati | curibas | curibati | ||
| Third Person | amaba | amaban | videba | videban | curiba | curiban | ||
Amabam Mariu. I used to love Mariu.
Videbamu esanu mutu in Liskom. We'd see many foreigners in Liskom.
Cuandu viviba Emilia in Cosalacu, curiba tutu junu. When Emily lived in Cosalacu, she ran every day.
Here's the pluperfect, which is the "had done" construction:
| Pluperfect Tense | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amare | videre | curire | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||
| First Person | amaveram | amaveramu | vidueram | vidueramu | curiveram | curiveramu | ||
| Second Person | amaveras | amaverati | vidueras | viduerati | curiveras | curiverati | ||
| Third Person | amavera | amaveran | viduera | vidueran | curivera | curiveran | ||
Vidueram Ana. I had seen Ann.
Here's the future tense, which is exactly as it is in English:
| Future Tense | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amare | videre | curire | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||
| First Person | amabo | amabimu | videbo | videbimu | curiam | curiemu | ||
| Second Person | amabis | amabiti | videbis | videbiti | curies | curieti | ||
| Third Person | amabi | amabun | videbi | videbun | curie | curien | ||
Some -ire verbs take the i out of the conjugation. Which verbs do this is something you'll just have to memorize.
This is the future perfect tense, which corresponds to "will have done:"
| Future Perfect Tense | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amare | videre | curire | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | |||
| First Person | amavero | amaverimu | viduero | viduerimu | curivero | curiverimu | ||
| Second Person | amaveris | amaveriti | vidueris | vidueriti | curiveris | curiveriti | ||
| Third Person | amaveri | amaverin | vidueri | viduerin | curiveri | curiverin | ||
The gerund is amandu, videndu, and curiendu. The participle, used with sere for the passive form, is amatu, videtu, and curitu; the -u changes to -a when the subject is a feminine noun.
A verb in the infinitive can be used to mean "the fact that," "...ing" (as a noun), "the act of ...ing."
Periculuse es andare solu. Walking alone is dangerous.
In Darunia, nilu sinifica tansesata sere Amanda. In Daruny, (the fact) that Amanda is cross-sexed means nothing.
If a sentence contains multiple verbs (whether conjoined or subordinated), all the verbs will be in the same tense if they refer to the same time:
Manjabimu cuandu arivabiti. We will eat when you arrive. [lit. "will arrive"]
Cuandu arivavi, manjaveramu. When you arrived, we had (already) eaten.
For those of you who have taken Romance languages before, you may be wondering what happened to the subjunctive and the conditional. The subjunctive has disappeared in Darunian; sometime in the Middle Ages, people started confusing it with the indicative mood. The conditional didn't exist in Latin, and it never evolved in Darunian. Instead, the conditional is made clear from the context:
Si vive Caesar aora, morivisi. If Caesar were alive now, you'd be dead. (lit.: If Caesar lives, you have died.)
It sounds strange to English-speakers, but it's clear that Caesar is not alive now, and the person being spoken to is not dead, so it makes perfect sense to a speaker of Darunian.
Darunian uses the indicative even where English would use the subjunctive:
Posibile no es ko Daniela sape no is. It is not possible that Danielle not know this.
Or you could just use the infinitive:
Posibile no es sapere no Daniela is. Danielle not knowing this is not possible.
Also, the majority of irregular verbs have disappeared and been absorbed into the three standard conjugations.
Unlike other Romance languages, Darunian has many verbs that can be transitive or intransitive:
Curivisi a scola. You ran to school.
Curivisi cane a scola. You ran the dog to school.
Curivi Rakela cane a scola. Rachel ran the dog to school.
In a sentence where the subject and object are unclear, such as "Curivi cane a scola," you have to use the context or a pronoun.
If a verb cannot be transitivized easily or is already transitive, use the verb "facere" for the causative:
Posu no facerete amareme. I can't make you love me.
Reflexive verbs work just like in other Romance languages, except the pronouns come at the end; lavarese (to wash oneself) conjugates as follows: lavome, lavaste, lavase, lavamunos, lavativos, lavanse.
Easy errors
English speakers tend to make fairly predicable errors in Darunian: they forget that verbs have to be conjugated; they use the wrong tense; the use English word order; they translate idioms literally.
You can't look up each word in the dictionary and replace it with the first Darunian word you see. Still, the dictionary is the best guide against such errors. Where more than one word is given, choose carefully from among the alternatives; where examples are given, glance through them. It is wise to look up the Darunian word in the Darunian-English dictionary to see if it truly means what you think it does. Even then, look up each of those English words to see if the Darunian word means the English word in the sense you think it does.
If you'd like to see the samples, click here.