One general rule in Zoinx is that words do not stand for each other, so
a possessive will not imply a definite article and you'd say the
equivalent of "the my house", and a cause marker won't imply a
full conjunction so you'd say the equivalent of "because
that I like it".
Articles
There is no indefinite article (as in the English a, an)
in Zoinx. A bare noun is used for that case, for example, neba go
i`efe means I see a house. This is also the case after a
possessive adjective (the English my) or place specifier (like
the English this or that). For example, neba go sgo
i`efe means I see a house of mine, not I see my house,
and neba go eran i`efe means something close to I see a house
here or I see one of these houses, rather than I see this
house.
Zoinx has one definite article, for both singular and plural: ro. For example, neba go ro i`efe means I see the house; neba go ro sgo i`efe means I see my house; neba go ro i`efer means I see the houses, neba go ro sgo i`efer means I see my houses, neba go ro eran i`efe means I see this house, and neba go ro eran i`efer means I see these houses.
[Hear them: neba go eran i`efe, neba go ro sgo i`efe]
Nouns
Nouns in Zoinx have no gender, with the exception of the word for
man, pez and woman, do`iz; these are
used less commonly than braz, which just means person.
For all other nouns, gender can be specified with the adjectives
pe`i for masculine and do`i for femenine; these adjectives
are used quite commonly in combinations like pe`i nale
(father) and do`i nale (mother). Indeed these two
are so common that they are oftend shortened to the forms pi`ale
and di`ale. Even with that, it is not unusual to talk of ro
sgo nale, meaning one of my parents.
Zoinx nouns form their plural by adding the suffix -r; for those few nouns that end in a consonant, an extra e is added, which is pronounced as a schwa. For example, i`efer means houses, naler means parents (and ro sga naler means your parents), and ro do`izer means the women.
There are no declensions or inflections for nouns; other than the plural form, they are invariable. The genitive is formed with preposition se, as in ro i`efe se ro sgo evi, which means my friend's house.
Mass nouns like vezi (which means water), i`era (which means rain), and nogatitsa (which means mist) always take the plural, except when one is talking about "one particular kind of that thing". For example, da`ike ga vezir? means do you have {any} water?; nebali ga he`i ro seran nogatitsar, means look at that mist there, while using the singular in nebali ga he`i ro seran nogatitsa would mean look at the kind of mist there.
Unlike English and other Germanic languages, in Zoinx nouns can't be freely combined (like the infamous homepage neologism, or combinations like home dog or my friend Tilar). Instead, Zoinx uses adjectives or constructions with prepositions. For the first there is no straight translation, one would say ro sgo male se web, which literally means my page of web; for the second one would say i`efen pilo, where i`efen is an adjective meaning which stays or likes to stay at home. For the third would be translated as ro sgo evi i Tilar#gu, where i is a preposition that would roughly be translated as which is.
For technical words and neologisms for new concepts, Zoinx often borrows freely from the language in which the word was invented, most often English, keeping the spelling but not the pronounciation. For proper names, the original name can be kept, with the same spelling (and Zoinx pronounciation). Alternatively, you can create an entirely different name for yourself in Zoinx, such as Tilar which is my Zoinx name. It is not appropriate to create a Zoinx name for someone else.
[Hear them: pez, do`iz,
ro i`efe se ro sgo evi,
ro sgo male se web]
Verbs
Zoinx verbs are relatively simple, as they are not inflected for person
or number, only for tense. The stems of most Zoinx verbs end in a vowel
(one notable exception is li`am-, which means to believe),
often in -a or -i. The infinitive is formed by adding
-s to the bare stem. Tenses are formed by adding suffixes, as is
negation. There are no composite tenses. Verbs are referred to by the
infinitive. There is no equivalent to the English to which would
get used systematically before infinitives, but mse`i is used in
constructions like clen mse`i andiras, which means easy to
understand. There are no particular passive or reflexive forms.
The finite verb forms in Zoinx are:
Verbs ending in f, x or z are irregular in that their infinitive is the same as their stem. Ex: bliz means to pat, and blizli ga go means pat me.
Negation is formed by adding the suffix -ne to the end the verb; it goes after all other suffixes. So you could say i`a set clen mse`i andirasne, which would translate to It is easy to misunderstand [it]. Often -nes is heard instead of -sne for the negated infinitive; that is considered gramatically incorrect, but is generally accepted. Unlike the suffixes for tenses, the -ne often gets a secondary stress.
The interrogative forms are formed by adding the sufix -ka to the end of the inflected verb, which changes to -ke if the previous syllable contains an a. This suffix cannot be added to infinitives, and goes after the -ne for the negative interrogative form. In formal speech, or to stress a question, it is possible to use i`ake mse`i, meaning Is it [true] that....
A subject is always required after the finite verb.
There is no specific future tense; this is generally done with the indefinite tense and an adverb meaning soon or later or some other time in the future.
[Hear them: xervata go set, en andira go set,
ro core`isu i`efe, i`a set
clen mse`i andiranes]
The verb to be
The Zoinx language distinguishes three forms of the verb to be:
The pronoun set is special in that it can take a definite article; in that case ro set is the equivalent of the English the one, as in the one you saw, which becomes ro set mse`i nebavi ga ge`i. The pronoun set can be reduced to 'st and combined with the previous word, especially when the previous word ends with a vowel.
In addition to this, there is a special pronoun, ge`i, which does not specify person or number, and which is used to refer to the antecedent of a relative clause. For example, ro pez mse`i nebavi ge`i gu would be the man who saw him/her, while ro pez mse`i nebavi gu ge`i would be the man whom he saw. In colloquial speech, the ge`i is often replaced with the corresponding normal pronoun, so the man I saw would be translated informally as ro pez mse`i nebavi go gu instead of ro pez mse`i nebavi go ge`i; when this can create an ambiguity, the ge`i form is preferred.
The general rule to decide whether to use gu or set is to ask whether the animal or object is being "personalized". If it does something of its own, it's gu. If it's just being referred to as an object, it's set.
The pronoun ur is used to talk about people in an indefinite way, similarily to the French on or the English one or you. Example: silane ur set ves Engelz, which means You don't say that in English. This is also often used where other languages would use the passive, as in core`ivi ur ro frea, which means the book was (or got) burned.
The possessive forms of pronouns are actually contractions with the preposition se (which means of), with the position of the possessive curiously changed compared to the full version. For example, one could say, in very formal or legal speech, ro i`efe se go, meaning my house, but the usual way to say that is ro sgo i`efe.
The list of these possessives is:
The possessive for ur is si`ur.
An example of the use of sge`i, which is a bit tricky, would be ro pez mse`i neba go ro sge`i i`efe, which means the man whose house I see (literally, the man that I see relative-his house). In informal speech, the form sgu would be used instead, as in ro pez mse`i neba go ro sgu i`efe.
Finally, the reflexive pronoun is goi`e, meaning myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves or themselves. The corresponding possessive adjective is sgoi`e. The reflexive forms are always used to refer to the subject of the innermost clause, as in xenavi ro pez goi`e, which means the man hit himself, and ro do`iz mse`i renavi ge`i ro sgu frea fen gu which means the woman who gave his/her book to her/him, while ro do`iz mse`i renavi ge`i ro sgoi`e frea fen gu means the woman who gave him/her her [own] book.
[Hear them: ro i`efe se ro sgo evi,
ro do`iz mse`i renavi ge`i ro sgoi`e frea fen gu]
Adjectives
Adjectives in Zoinx aren't inflected, as in English. They come either
before the noun they qualify, or after it; in the latter case, they are
introduced by the particle i.
There is a slight difference of meaning between the two constructions. Putting the adjective after the noun gives it a connotation of somewhat specifying the noun, while putting it after the noun with an i is more like describing. The two are about as common. For example, ro mla i`efe and ro i`efe i mla both mean the small house; in the first case it is more like the house, which happens to be small, and the second the one house that is small. The difference is more blurred than that, though, and in the case of simple adjectives the two can be used interchangeably most of the time. One major exception to this is with numbers, where the i form turns the number into an ordinal. Ex: ro be pezer means the two men, while ro pez i be means the second man.
Adjectives can be turned into verbs by appending the suffix -i`a, meaning to be or to become that way. For example, cleni`a ro frea would mean the book is easy (and i`a ro frea clen would mean the same too, and would be more formal). These verbs can also be used transitively; in that case they mean to make that way, as in cleni`a go ro frea, which means I make the book easy.
The present participle form of the verb form of an adjective is often used as a weaker and less precise form of the adjective, similarily to the English -ish suffix, as in ro i`efe i mlai`asu, meaning the smallish house.
Nouns can often be turned into adjectives by adding an -n. However, this is not a fixed rule, and the exact derivation of the meaning isn't fixed either, so it can't be applied to arbitrary words like another construction rule.
Comparatives are formed with the words dis, corresponding to more or most, and kxu, meaning less or least. The same word is used for both, but the superlative form (in English, the most or least) uses the definite article and generally goes after the noun, introduced with i, while the comparative form, when qualifying a noun, tends to come before it. The word for than is ruk.
Examples: da`i go ro i`efe i dis mla means I have the smallest house, while da`i go dis mla i`efe would mean I have a smaller house, and i`a ro sgo i`efe dis mla ruk ro eran'st means my house is smaller than this one.
Adjectives can be qualified by adverbs of quantity, like latse,
which means very, and bet which means a little or
a bit or somewhat.
[Hear them: ro i`efe i mla,
da`i go i`efe i dis mla]
Adverbs
Zoinx adverbs are invariable. When they qualify an adjective or another
adverb, they appear before it. When they qualify a verb, they can
appear in different positions; adverbs expressing time or frequency are
often found before or just after the verb. Otherwise, they are
generally and at (or near) the end of the sentence.
Adjectives can be used as adverbs to qualify verbs (unlike English, where the adverb is formed with -ly). For example, you can say andiravi gu set clen, which means He understood it easily. It is rare to use adverbs made from adjectives to qualify another adjective. In that case, if that adjective qualifies a noun, it would be put after the noun, with i.
Two special adverbs are sen and na, which mean yes
and no respectively.
Prepositions
Where era tera sera selno xirda lio sebi`a tres galdera (english) here [there] where somewhere everywhere nowhere How osti kora ves xir rilse ves ga`i rilse (english) so, this/that way how somehow in no way What ro (s,t)eran set anem xiruli seba gadal (english) this, that what something everything nothing Who gu ke`im xirdam sebi`a braz ga`i braz (english) he/she/him/her who someone everyone no-one When puli`as hunder ervi xirsen paret na`ios mitsi (english) now then when sometimes always never often Which ro (s,t)eran set ane`i xir sebi`a galde`i / ga`i (english) this, that which some all none / no Why farii`o forea farii`o xiruli farii`o gadal (english) because of why for some reason for no reason How much latse bet kami xir seba galde`i (english) much little how much some all none How many emal bedes kemal xirla`i sebi`a galde`i (english) many few how many some all none
There are no forms corresponding to the English any,
anything, any time, and so on... instead the forms for
some are used in affirmative sentences, and the forms for
none in negative ones. This also means that there is no rule
against double negations; these are in fact the rule.
Coordination
The two main coordination conjunctions in Zoinx are san, which
means and, and to`i which means or. They can be
used in between words, phrases or clauses of the same type.
Examples: jermisvi Tali`ar#gu san Forse`i#gu so`i gu means Tali`ar and Forse`i spoke with him/her, and huravi gi`o san briskavi gu means we went and s/he stayed, while granili ga gu to`i go means ask him or me.
In both cases, and just like in English, you can make lists separated with commas, and with the conjunction between the last two elements, as in frea, fals to`i jebi`e which means a book, a table or a computer.
To remove ambiguities, or for a slight emphasis, you can use the word
tami (wich means both or all of, here) before the
the first and-ed element, as in jermisvi tami Tali`ar#gu san
Forse`i#gu so`i gu which means both Tali`ar and Forse`i spoke
with him/her. The corresponding word for combinations with
to`i is tras, which can be translated as either.
Subordination
Subordinate clauses are done with conjunctions like mse`i (which
means that) and en (which means if). Prepositions
like farii`o (which means because) can be turned into
conjunctions by following them with mse`i. Indeed, farii`o
mse`i is the usual translation for because when used as a
conjunction.
Examples: silaline ga mse`i ketane ga femlas!, which means don't tell me [that] you can't read!. virluvi gu farii`o mse`i silavi gi`o set, which means he came because we told him [to]. virluta gu en esa gu set si, which means s/he would come if s/he knew.
In conditional clauses, the tenses are used to indicate the time frame,
and as such they don't vary like in English where a form of the past is
used to specify that the event is unlikely. In the sentences she
will come if she knows and she would come if she knew, the
time frame is the same, except that the first implies that she does not
actually know. In Zoinx, the same tenses are used, and the particle
si is added in the second case at the end of the sentence. So
the sentences would become virluta gu en esa gu set and virluta
gu en esa gu set si.
Relative clauses
Relative clauses are introduced with mse`i, which is never a
pronoun. In the relative clause, the antecedent is not omitted as it is
in English. Instead, it is replaced with a special pronoun form,
ge`i (or the corresponding possessive, sge`i. An example
of this would be ro pez mse`i nebavi ge`i ga, which means the
man who saw you, while ro pez mse`i nebavi ga ge`i means
the man whom you saw.
In colloquial speech, the ge`i is often replaced with the corresponding normal pronoun, so the man I saw would be translated informally as ro pez mse`i nebavi go gu instead of ro pez mse`i nebavi go ge`i; when this can create an ambiguity, the ge`i form is preferred.
An example of the use of sge`i, which is a bit tricky, would be
ro pez mse`i neba go ro sge`i i`efe, which means the man whose
house I see (literally, the man that I see relative-his
house). In informal speech, the form sgu would be used
instead, as in ro pez mse`i neba go ro sgu i`efe.
Modality
In Zoinx, modal constructions and infinitive clauses are both done with
the infinitive, and without a conjunction.
Some verbs that are often used this way are ketas (which means to be able to), site`is (which means to want), indas (which means to expect) and pelis (which means to intend).
The subject of the infinitive clause isn't explicit, since infinitives don't take a subject; if it's not the same as the main verb, it's specified before the infinitive, with the preposition se.
Examples:
Examples: femlake ga frea? means are you reading a book? and i`ake mse`i i`a ro net bufan means is it true that the sky is blue?.
Most generic "fill-the-gap" questions are done by putting the verb in the interrogative form and inserting the interrogative word at the place the answer would go, so the basic word order isn't changed at all. For example, virluvika ke`im? means who came?, and silavika gu anem? means what did s/he say?, while renavika gu set fen ke`im means who did s/he give it to?.
When the question is about the verb itself, as in what did he do?, Zoinx also uses the verb ari which means to do. The previous question would be translated as arivika gu anem?.
There are some types of questions (like the why-type ones) where the general rule can't apply, because a typical answer (farii`o mse`i ...) acts like an adverbial clause and the question word (forea) wouldn't fit well in the same position. So, for adverbial questions, the question word is generally put at the beginning of the sentence, before the verb (although it's also correct to put it at the end).
Example: esane go forea virluvi gu, which means I don't know
why he came, and forea arivi ga set? which means why did
you do it?.
Modifier particles
The Zoinx language also has some words which are hard to classify,
acting like modifiers for clauses or phrases. They generally appear
after the words they apply to, adding some connotation to it.
Some of these words are: