Jilnovian is the official language of the Republic of Jilnovia.
Grammar[]
Article[]
Indefinite
The indefinite article is the singular is en but is commonly left out. There is no indefinite article for the plural. Eg.
(en) člvik a man
Definite
The definite article, added to the noun as a suffix, follows number, -ot for the singular, -te for the plural. Eg.
(en) člvik (a) man
člvikot the man
člviči men
člvičite the men
Nouns[]
Nouns have only one gender.
Plural is formed by adding -i or -a to the singular. Nouns ending in the singular in g, d, k, s or t normally get this letter tranformed into ž, z, č, š and c, respectively, before the plural ending -i. Eg.
drug - druži friend
god - gozi year
djavik - djaviči girl
jas - jaši forest
djat - djaci child
Nouns that in the singular already end in ž, z, č, š or c get the plural ending -а. Eg.
muž - muža man
roz - roza rose
doč - doča daughter
lic - lca* street
However, nouns ending in a cluster of consonants do not usually get their last consonant transformed, but still get the plural ending -i. Eg.
mjast - mjasti place
The same phenomenon arises in the common way of deriving adjectivs from nouns. Eg.
zlt gold - zlcni golden
but smrt death - smrtni deathly
* Many nouns (and certain other words) have fleeting vowels that are dropped in certain positions, most frequently when plurals are formed of nouns that contains a vocalised consonant (l or r). Eg.
lic street - lca streets
strom tree - strmi trees
vram time - vrmi times
klkol bell - klkli bells
This phenomenon is thought to originate from the tendency earlier in the history of the language to emphasise the plural ending of a noun.
Adjectives[]
All adjectives in their singular form end in -i., and in their plural form in -e. Eg.
bjali dom white house
bjale domi white houses
When applying the definite article to a noun phrase containing one or more adjective, the article is placed separately after the first adjective, following the number of the noun, to for singular, te for plural. Eg.
(en) bjali dom - (a) white house
bjali to dom - the white house
bjale domi - white houses
bjale te domi - the white houses
(en) novi bjali dom - (a) new white house
novi to bjali dom - the new white house
nove bjale domi - new white houses
nove te bjale domi - the new white houses
Adverbs[]
Adverbs derived from adjectives just changed the -i ending to -o. Eg.
srcni hearty
srcno heartily
Comparison[]
Usually an adjective is compared by replacing the -i with -ši to form the comparative, and by further adding the prefix naj- to the comparative to form the superlative. Eg.
novi new
novši newer
najnovši newest
If the adjective already ends in -ši, a common way to form the comparative is to insert -je- before:
groši good
grješi* better
najgrješi* best
blši big
blješi bigger
najblješi biggest
*See above under Nouns on fleeting vowels.
Numerals[]
1 din - prvi
2 dva - dvori
3 tri - trti
4 štir - štrti
5 pjat - pjati
6 šes - šesti
7 sem - sedmi
8 osm - osmi
9 djavit - djavti
10 djast - djasti
11 dinacet - dinaceti
12 dvanacet - dvanaceti
13 trnacet - trinaceti
14 štrnacet - štirnaceti
15 pjatnacet - pjatnaceti
16 šesnacet - šesnaceti
17 smnacet - semnaceti
18 osmnacet - osmnaceti
19 djavitnacet - djavitnaceti
20 dvacet - dvaceti
<Tech>[]
Jilnovian is in essence a Slavonic language. The vocabulary leans towards Russian, the orthography is influenced by Czech and Croatian (using l,r, and m as semivowels), and the grammar (featuring the loss of cases and the addition of a definite article) is Macedonian/Bulgarian taken one step further (also eliminating gender).