Text
Non uevo muo nih reohuls. Con ſoemo, poeßo aher undſoete ed mire nus actes. Crezo, ud ſi poeßo impfinger id, poeßo aepixer id.
Hau conade iommire, ue deivo vare, ſed cunte jae angurs m’yh tauvul terra eran ficte.
Eor, hau compficte an couleictſone on reohuls mic ipfe ad naehare en indſaena yh ueda. So triovo m’ih ſoema me montrare mi’d diſtinun.
Pronunciation:
[nɑn ‘yəvɑ muə ni reəls kɑn ‘sɑjmɑ ‘passɑ a:r un’dzɑjt e ‘mi:r nəs aχts ‘kre:zɑ u dzi ‘passɑ im’pfiŋgər i ‘passɑ ɛ’piʃʃər i]
[ho gɑ’na:d im’mi:r yə ‘dejvɑ ‘va:r sek ‘kunt je ‘aŋgərs my ,tawl ‘tɛrr ,e:rə ‘fiçt]
[ɛr ho gɑm’pfiçt əŋ ,kuleç’tso:n ɑn ‘dreəls miç ‘ipf a nɛ’ha:r en in’dzajn y ‘hyəd so: ‘triəvɑ mi ‘sɑjm mə mɑn’tra:r mi diʃ’ti:nə]
English Translation
I don’t live by many rules. When I dream, I can do strange amazing feats. I believe that if I can imagine it, then I can do it.
I tried to figure out where I needed to go, but all landmarks of my map were fake.
Consequently, I created a collection of rules for myself in order to navigate the insanity of life. This way, I allow dreams to show me my destiny.
Note: Very straightforward over all. The only place I had to improvise was the translation of Dothraki’s osqoyi, but I feel rather confident about “destiny”.
Grammar and Vocabulary
In its conworld, Jovian evolved from the Latin as spoken by the apex social stratum of the area around real-world Alsace, with many Classical-Latin features and words deliberately kept alive or reintroduced as a matter of court fashion. As a result, Jovian markedly differs from most other Romlangs, real-world or otherwise, in many aspects. There’s also a German and, to a lesser degree, French adstratum.
Nevertheless, it should be easy for someone familiar with Latin and/or romlangs to make intuitive sense of most of the grammar and vocabulary. I will therefore only provide rudimentary comments on either, with only Latin etymons rather than translations where possible.
In terms of typography, Jovian still uses the long s (ſ) and the ſs ligature (ß). Subordinate clauses tend to be separated from other clauses with commas, much like in German. To English speakers, some of those might appear superfluous.
Noun Phrases:
In Modern Jovian, nouns only inflect for number, not for case. Only pronouns and articles still have case inflections. For that reason, it is important that each noun phrase be marked with at least an article or a preposition.
The 3rd person personal pronoun |is, ja, id| “he, she, it” doubles as the definite article e.g. |ja feima| “the woman” (literally: “she woman”). The indefinite article is |u, a, un|. Both are very irregular, thus their inflected forms are given in the vocabulary.
A peculiarity of Jovian noun phrases is the fronting of modifiers. An adjective or adjective-like pronoun can be moved BEFORE the noun phrase’s first word (an article or preposition), where it loses all inflection. Observe:
|a feima beola| OR |beole a feima| “a pretty woman”
With most pronouns, this construction is actually mandatory:
|oene ni obe| “by every means”
|nuole u omme| “not a single man, no man”
|mi yh mare| “of my mother”
A possessive pronoun and a following article are often contracted:
|mi’h pare| = |mi ih pare| “my father (NOM)”
|m’yh pare| = |mi yh pare| “of my father (GEN)”
Plural endings for the nouns include -s, -i (male), -ae (feminine), -a (neuter), -éi (e-thematic).
The oblique case combines the function of Latin dative and ablative. It is sometimes used instead of a locative or instrumental preposition:
|ei Dowingu| “on Sunday”
|eßer ei conga| “to eat with the spoon”
Verbs:
Jovian verbs always inflect for person and number. The regular verb endings are the following:
1sg: -o 1pl: -ame, -ime, -in
2sg: -as, -es 2pl: -aese, -ise, -is
3sg: -a, -e 3pl: -an, -en, -un
The past participle ends in |-adu, -idu| for the regular verbs. Irregular and athematic verbs have less recognizable PPs; they are given in the lexical notation. For most verbs, the imperfect tense is made by adding |-vare| or |-ivare| to the verb stem and conjugating it like a regular |-are| verb. The perfect tense, on the other hand, is built from the auxiliary |haere| “to have” and the past perfect participle in its uninflected form:
|aware| “to love”
|awo| “I love”
|awavo| “I loved/I was loving” (imperfect)
|hau awade| “I loved/I have loved” (perfect)
VOCABULARY
ad prep. < AD (also used to mean “in order to”)
an pron. < UNAM (indefinite article, feminine accusative sg)
acte n.m. < ACTUS
aepixer, ziftu v. < ADIPISCI
aher, actu < AGERE
angur n.f. < ANCORA
bire, deivo, deiftu v. < DEBERE
con conj. < QUANDO
conare v. < CONARI
compfiher, -pfictu v. < CONFICERE
couleictſone, n.f. < COLLECTIO
crezer v. < CREDERE
cuntu adj. < CUNCTI
deivo, irregular 1st person sg form of bire
diſtinun n.n. < DESTINUM
ed conj. < ET
eor conj. < ERGO
en pron. < EUM, EAM (3rd person sg masc/fem accusative,
used as definite article)
eran, irregular 3rd person pl imperfect form of ere
ere, ſou, erare, ſidu v. < ESSE
finger, fictu < FINGERE
haere, haedu v. < HABERE (also used as auxiliary)
hau, irregular 1st person sg form of haere
id pron. < ID (3rd person sg neuter nominative & accusative,
used as definite article)
ih pron. < IIS (3rd person pl oblique,
used as definite article)
impfinger v. < IN + FINGERE
indſaena n.f. < INSANIA
iommire, iommindu v. < INVENIRE
ipfe pron. < IPSE
jae pron. < EAE (3rd person pl feminine nominative,
used as definite article)
me pron. < ME (also used as a short hand for mic!)
mi pron. < MEUS (always used with fronting)
mic pron. < MIHI
miru adj. < MIRUS
montrare v. < MONSTRARE
muo, shortened form of muodu used for fronting
muodu adj. < MULTUS
naehare v. < NAVIGARE
nih pron. < UNIS (indefinite article, oblique plural)
non adv. < NON
nus pron. < UNOS (indefinite article, masc. accusative plural)
on pron. < UNORUM (indefinite article, genitive plural)
poeßer, poeſtu v. < POTESSE
reohul n.f. < REGULA
ſed conj. < SED
ſi conj. < SI
ſo adv. < German »so« (“so, thus”)
ſoemare v. < SOMNIARE
ſoemun n.n. < SOMNIUM
tauvul terra n.f. < TABULA, TERRA (fixed expression)
triover, trioftu v. < TRIBUERE (here used with the meaning
“grant, allow”)
ud conj. < UT
ue conj. < UBI
ueda n.f. < VITA
uever, uectu v. < VIVERE
undſoetu adj. < INSOLITUS
vare, vadu v. < VADERE
yh pron. < EIUS (3rd person sg genitive, used as definite
article)