Lexionum 3: Substantives e agetives

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V. Substantives e agetives

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The Sebastianish system for nouns and adjectives is pretty much like the French one: it depends on gender, and got three forms. Nouns and adjectives do always have the suffix -um for masculine singular, -a for feminine singular and -es for plural.

The system for nouns and adjectives are strictly divided by gender. If you talk about a woman or a girl, you shall always use the feminine form of the adjective. If there's a boy or a man, you shall always use the masculine form. Also non-gender nouns are set together with adjectives in genders; like the word "child" - if there's a boy, you shall use "infantum". If there's a girl, you shall use the word "infanta". But mostly, the nouns usually have a definite form - like "casa" is always feminine, and "librum" always masculine. You see by the ending what gender the noun has. Most adjectives exist in both genders, except from the ones that are tied to only one gender (like mascolinum is always mascolinum, because it describes something that only have something to do with men - you can't say mascolina. If you for some reason want to describe a woman as masculine, you use the masculine form of the word; "una femina mascolinum").

                                              Substantives e agetives
Masculine singular Feminine singular Plural
Small (adjective) Piccolum Piccola Piccoles
Child (noun) Infantum (boy) Infanta (girl) Infantes

VI. Artíccolum determinevo

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Like the English "the", we also have definite articles in Sebastianish. But we have a few more. The system is like in other Romance(-inspired) languages. We have these articles:
O for masculine singular
La for feminine singular
Les for plural
L' before vowel, no matter of gender.

These are always used that way. Examples of use will follow below.
O is used for masculine singular, and only that:
"O bierrum froidum" - The cold beer
La is used for feminine singular, and only that:
"La casa piccola" - The little house
Les is used for plural, and in plural, gender does not matter:
"Les infantes piccoles" - The small children (both girls and/or boys)
L' is used for both genders in singular to avoid vowel crash:
"L'amica bona" - The good (girl-)friend
"L'hominum bonum" - The good man

VII. Artíccolum indeterminevo

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The indefinite article is neither complicated. We have four forms:
Unum masculine singular
Una feminine singular
Des plural
Un' before vowel, no matter of gender.

                                              Artíccolum indeterminevo in sebastianum
Masculine singular Feminine singular Plural
Unum (a book = unum librum)
Un' (before vowel)
Example
(a friend = un' amicum)
(a student = unum studentum)
Una (a woman = una femina)
Un' (before vowel)
Example
(a girlfriend = un' amica)
(a student, woman = una studenta)
Des (books = des libres)

Example
(friends = des amices)
(students = des studentes)

Exercise 3:

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A) Set the following nouns in definite and indefinite article:

  • La casa (house)
  • L'hominum/La homina (human)
  • La botiqua (store)
  • O filium (son)
  • L'infantum/L'infanta (child)
  • La roba (dress)
  • O mapum (map)
  • O professorum/La professora (teacher, professor)
  • La cesa (chair)
  • O librum (book)

B) Set the following adjectives in masculine, feminine and plural:

  • Bellum (pretty, beautiful)
  • Piccolum (small, little)
  • Grandum (big, grand, great)
  • Horriblum (horrible, terrible)
  • Leidum (ugly)
  • Rossum (red)
  • Gentilum (kind, nice)
  • Mignum (sweet, cute)
  • Viéggium (old)
  • Politum (polite)

Please send your answers to lingua-sebastiana@live.se, and I will take a look at your work and give you a response.


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