Lingua Franca Nova
Flag:
Created by:	C. George Boeree
Setting and usage:	International auxiliary language
Total speakers:	between 30 (estimate based on use of lfn in yahoo group and wiki edits) and 180 (members of lfn yahoo group)
Category (purpose):	constructed language  International auxiliary language   Lingua Franca Nova
Category (sources):	based on Romance and Creole languages
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	art
ISO 639-3:	—
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Lingua Franca Nova is an auxiliary constructed language created by Dr. C. George Boeree of Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania. Its vocabulary is based on French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. The grammar is highly reduced and similar to the Romance creoles. The language is phonetically spelled, using 21 letters of either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets. Lingua Franca Nova is usually abbreviated to LFN. Image File history File links Flag_of_Lingua_Franca_Nova. ... An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... A constructed or artificial language — known colloquially as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been devised by an individual or small group, instead of having naturally evolved as part of a culture. ... An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. ... A creole is a language descended from a pidgin that has become the native language of a group of people. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Unicode is an industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in any of the worlds writing systems. ... An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... A constructed or artificial language — known colloquially as a conlang — is a language whose phonology, grammar, and/or vocabulary have been devised by an individual or small group, instead of having naturally evolved as part of a culture. ... C. George Boeree (born January 15, 1952 in the Netherlands) is a professor of psychology at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. ... The Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania is a university in the college town of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. ... Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 280 miles (455 km)  - Length 160 miles (255 km)  - % water 2. ... Catalan IPA: (català IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia (in the latter with the name of Valencian), and in the city of LAlguer in the Italian island of... A creole is a language descended from a pidgin that has become the native language of a group of people. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

History and community

Dr. C. George Boeree began working on LFN in 1965, with the goal to create a simple, creole-like international auxiliary language. He was inspired to do this by the Mediterranean Lingua Franca, a pidgin used in the Mediterranean in centuries past. He used French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan as the basis for his new language. An international auxiliary language (sometimes abbreviated as IAL or auxlang) is a language used (or to be used in the future) for communication between people from different nations who do not share a common native language. ... The Lingua franca of the Mediterranean or Sabir (know) was a pidgin language used as a Lingua franca in the Mediterranean Basin from the 11th to the 19th century. ... A pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of two or more languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues, and usually a simplified form of one of the languages. ... Catalan IPA: (català IPA: or []) is a Romance language, the national language of Andorra, and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia (in the latter with the name of Valencian), and in the city of LAlguer in the Italian island of...

LFN was first presented on the Internet in 1998. A Yahoo! Group was formed in 2002 by Bjorn Madsen and today has over 180 members. Group members have contributed to the further evolution of the language. Stefan Fisahn created a wiki for the language in 2005 (see below) with over 1000 pages and 10,000 edits as of July 2007. A few issues of a journal called Orizones Nova (New Horizons) were published in late 2006 and early 2007. Yahoo! Groups Yahoo! Groups is a service from Yahoo! that provides electronic mailing lists. ... Look up Wiki in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Introductions and other materials are available in 12 languages. The "master" dictionary (LFN - English) has over 7500 entries. There are smaller dictionaries available in eight languages and a wikibooks tutorial (see below) in five languages.

Pronunciation and orthography

LFN vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) are pronounced as in Spanish (approximately as ah, eh, ee, oh, and oo.) The vowels i and u are also used to represent the sounds of y and w, respectively. Diphthongs are ai, au, eu, and oi (as in my, cow, "eh-w," and boy). Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... In phonetics, a diphthong (in Greek δίφθογγος) is a vowel combination usually involving a quick but smooth movement from one vowel to another, often interpreted by listeners as a single vowel sound or phoneme. ...

Most of the consonants are pronounced as in English, except that c is always pronounced as in cat, g is always as in go, j is pronounced as in French (like the z in azure), the r is pronounced as in Spanish, and x is pronounced like sh. See also consonance in music. ...

The letters h, k, q, w, and y may be used in proper names and words from other languages that have not been completely assimilated into LFN. If preferred, k may be substituted for c.

Stress is on the vowel before the last consonant or, if that is not possible, on the first vowel. For example la casa de me tio ("my uncle's house") is pronounced "la CA-sa de me TI-o."

Below is the LFN alphabet in its Latin form, its Cyrillic form, and with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) values. The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages; (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

Latin

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

i

j

l

m

n

o

p

r

s

t

u

v

x

z

Cyrillic

а

б

к

д

е

ф

г

и

ж

л

м

н

о

п

р

с

т

у

в

ш

з

IPA

[a]

[b]

[k]

[d]

[e]

[f]

[ɡ]

[i]

[ʒ]

[l]

[m]

[n]

[o]

[p]

[r]

[s]

[t]

[u]

[v]

[ʃ]

[z]

Names

a

be

ce

de

e

ef

ge

i

je

el

em

en

o

pe

er

es

te

u

ve

ex

ze

Grammar

Word order

LFN has a strict word order. The general word order is: In linguistic typology, word order is the order in which words appear in sentences. ...

subject noun phrase - verb phrase (- object noun phrase)

Maria come pex - "Maria eats fish"

A noun phrase has this order:

(article -) (quantity -) noun (- adjective)

La tre omes grande... - "The three large men..."

A verb phrase has this order:

(tense -) (auxiliary -) verb (- adverb)

...ia debe come bon - "...must have eaten well"

Nouns

To make a noun plural, add -s if the noun ends in a vowel, or -es if the noun ends in a consonant. It never alters the original stress of the word. A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... Look up Plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. ...

There are no cases, not even for pronouns. Such things are indicated with prepositions and word order. In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ...

There are two articles: la (the) and un (a). An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. ...

Pronouns

• Me - I, me, my
• Tu - you (singular), your
• El - she, her, he, him, his, it, its
• Nos - we, us, our
• Vos - you (plural), your
• Los - they, them, their

The third person reflexive pronoun (himself, herself...) and reflexive possessive (his own...) is se. In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a word that usually takes the place of a noun or noun phrase that was previously mentioned (such as she, it) or that refers to something or someone (I, me, you). Pronouns are often one of the basic parts of speech of the... In some languages, there is a difference between reflexive and non-reflexive pronouns. ...

There are no cases and the pronouns become possessive by putting them in front of the noun possessed. "My cat" can be expressed as me gato or la gato de me. Possessive can refer to: Possessive case Possessive pronoun This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

There are also no gender distinctions between he, she, and it. If necessary, one can use words like la fema, la om, la fia, and la fio (the woman, the man, the girl, the boy). For things, one can also use esa and esas, which mean "this/that" and "these/those." In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ...

Verbs

There are no conjugations of verbs in LFN. The basic form remains the same regardless of person, number, or tense. A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (to decompose (itself), to glitter), or a state of being (exist, live, soak, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ...

The present tense is represented by the basic verb: El come - "He/she eats, he/she is eating." The present tense is the tense (form of a verb) that is often used to express: Action at the present time A state of being A habitual action An occurrence in the near future An action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present There are two...

The past tense is indicated by the particle ia: El ia come - "He/she ate." The past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past. ...

The future tense is indicated by the particle va: El va come - "He/she will eat." It has been suggested that Future perfect tense be merged into this article or section. ...

There is an optional particle ta, which indicates unreality and can be used where other languages might use a conditional or subjunctive mood. The conditional mood (or conditional tense) is the form of the verb used in conditional sentences to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event that is contingent on another set of circumstances. ... The subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a grammatical mood of the verb that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), and statements that are contrary to fact. ...

There are also adverbs and auxiliary verbs to expand verb usage. For example, the adverb ja, meaning "already," can be used to express what in other languages is the perfect: me ia come ja means "I had (already) eaten." An adverb is a part of speech that normally serves to modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, and sentences. ... In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb whose function it is to give further semantic information about the main verb which follows it. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Verbs can be used as nouns without change. For example, dansa, as a verb, means "dance/dances", but it can also mean "a dance" when used as a noun.

A verb can be made into an abstract noun (infinitive) by adding -r. Dansar, for example, means "to dance." An abstract noun is a noun that refers to an idea, emotion, feeling, or quality that cannot be detected by the five senses (touch, taste, hearing, sight, smell), compared with a concrete noun. ... In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. ...

Verbs can also be made into adjectives: The active participle is formed by adding -nte to the verb. For example, come becomes comente, meaning "eating". This should never be used as an abstract noun, as it is in English. In linguistics, a participle is a non-finite verb form that can be used in compound tenses or voices, or it can be used as a modifier. ...

The passive participle is formed by adding -da to the verb. For example, come becomes comeda, meaning "eaten". In linguistics, a participle is a non-finite verb form that can be used in compound tenses or voices, or it can be used as a modifier. ...

Participles, like any adjectives, can follow the verb "to be," and can be used to express the continuous or the passive: Aora, nos es comente selaco - "Now, we are (in the process of) eating shark"; Doman, nos va es comeda par selacos - "Tomorrow, we will be eaten by sharks". In English, and sometimes in other languages, the continuous or progressive aspect is an aspect that denotes an incomplete action in progress at a specific time. ... In grammar, voice is the relationship between the action or state expressed by a verb, and its arguments (subject, object, etc. ...

Verb transitivity is contextual. Me va boli la acua – "I will boil the water" – and La acua boli – "The water boils" – are both correct.

Adjectives

Unlike the natural Romance languages, adjectives in LFN do not have gender or plural forms, i.e. they don't "agree" with the nouns they describe. An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ...

The comparative is made with plu (more) or min (less). "The most" is la plu and "the least" is la min. For example, "John is better than Joe" is Jan es plu bon ce Jo. "Jill is the best" is Jil es la plu bon. In grammar the comparative is the form of an adjective or adverb which denotes the degree or grade by which a person, thing, or other entity has a property or quality greater or less in extent than that of another. ...

Like verbs, adjectives can be used as nouns. For example, bela means "beautiful", but un bela means "a beautiful one" or "a beauty." This works with participles, too: la studiante and la studiada mean "the student" and "the studied," respectively, from the verb studia, "study."

An adjective can be made into an abstract noun by adding -ia. In this way bela becomes belia, meaning beauty. This can also be used with nouns: madre (mother) becomes madria (maternity or motherhood). An abstract noun is a noun that refers to an idea, emotion, feeling, or quality that cannot be detected by the five senses (touch, taste, hearing, sight, smell), compared with a concrete noun. ...

Adverbs

LFN doesn't have explicit adverbs. Instead, any adjective can be used as an adverb by placing it after a verb or at the very beginning of the sentence. Un om felis for example means "a happy man", whereas el dansa felis means "he/she dances happily". An adverb is a part of speech that normally serves to modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, and sentences. ...

Prepositions

Here are the basic prepositions of LFN: In grammar, a preposition is a word that establishes a relationship between an object (usually a noun phrase) and some other part of the sentence, often expressing a location in place or time. ...

• a - at, to
• ante - before
• asta - near, until
• con - with
• contra - against
• de - of, from, since
• en - in, into, during
• entre - between, among
• estra - out of
• longo - along
• par - by
• per - for, in order to
• pos - after, behind, according to
• sin - without, except
• sirca - around, approximately
• su - below, under
• supra - above, over, on
• tra - through
• versa - toward

Prepositional phrases follow the noun phrase or verb phrase they modify.

Conjunctions

• e - and
• o - or
• ma - but
• si - if, whether
• donce - then, consequently, therefore

• per ce - because, in order that, so that
• contra ce - although
• pos ce - after
• ante ce - before
• de ce - since
• a ce - till, until
• en ce - while

Relatives and interrogatives

Relatives and interrogatives are identical in LFN: A relative pronoun is a pronoun that marks a relative clause within a larger sentence. ... In linguistics, an interrogative word is a function word used to introduce an interrogative clause. ...

• ce - what/that
• ci - who
• cual - which (of several)
• de ci - whose
• como - how
• cuanto - how much/how many
• cuando - when
• do - where
• per ce - why

Dependent clauses follow what they modify: La fia ci ia come la pan ia veni asi per ce el ia es fama - "The girl who ate the bread came here because she was hungry." A clause is a group of words consisting of a subject (often just a single noun) and a predicate (sometimes just a single verb). ...

A question may include an interrogative or may be indicated by rising intonation alone. One may also express questions by beginning the sentence with the phrase Es ce...? or by adding no? (no) or si? (yes) to the end of the sentence, after a comma: Es ce tu parla Deutx? Tu parla Italian, si? A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. ...

Numbers

• 1 - un
• 2 - du
• 3 - tre
• 4 - cuatro
• 5 - sinco
• 6 - ses
• 7 - sete
• 8 - oto
• 9 - nove
• 10 - des

Higher numbers are constructed as follows: A numeral is a symbol or group of symbols, or a word in a natural language that represents a number. ...

• 11 - des-un
• 20 - dudes
• 100 - (un) sento
• 101 - sento-un
• 321 - tresento-dudes-un
• 1000 - (un) mil
• 45 678 - cuatrodes-sinco mil sessento-setedes-oto
• 1 000 000 - (un) milion

Numbers that express the order of things are the same, except that they follow the noun, e.g. la om tre, "the third man," instead of la tre omes, "the three men."

Fractions are constructed with -i, e.g. di, tri, cuatri,... desi, senti, mili, etc.

Affixes

LFN has a small number of regular suffixes that help to create new words. The most common are -or, -ador, and -eria, which refer to a person, a device, and a place respectively. They can be added to any noun, adjective, or verb. For example, from the word carne, meaning meat, we can make carnor (butcher) and carneria (butcher's shop). Similarly, from the word lava, meaning wash, we can make laveria (laundry) and lavador (washing machine). An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a base morpheme to form a word. ... Suffix has meanings in linguistics and nomenclature. ...

One useful suffix is -a which can be added to nouns to mean "to use," so telefona means to use the telefon. Another useful suffix is -i which, added to a noun or adjective, means "to become" or "to cause to become." For example, calda is hot, so caldi means to heat. It is also used to make fractions, so cuatri means a fourth or quarter, as well as to divide into fourths.

Other common suffixes include -eta, which means a small version of something (boveta is a calf), and -on, which means a large version of something (bovon means buffalo or bison).

There are also three prefixes. Non- means not or un-, so nonfelis means unhappy. Re- means again or in the opposite direction, so repone means replace. And des- means to undo, so desinfeta means disinfect. In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ...

Words may also be created by joining two existing words (compounds). For example, you can use a verb and its object: portacandela means candlestick, pasatempo means pastime. In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (a word) that consists of more than one other lexeme. ...

Examples

Useful phrases

Other examples

Lingua Franca Nova listen

Lingua Franca Nova es desiniada per es un lingua vera simple, coerente, e fasil aprendeda, per comunica internasional. El ave varios cualia bon:

• LFN ave un numero limitada de fonemes. El sona simila a italian o espaniol.
• LFN es scriveda como el sona. No enfante debe pasa multe anios studia nonregulas!
• LFN ave un gramatica vera simple e regula. El es min complicada en esta caso como engles o indonesian.
• LFN ave un grupo limitada e tota regula de afises produinte per crea parolas nova.
• LFN ave regulas de la ordina de parolas bon definada, como multe linguas major.
• LFN ave un lista de parolas fundada en la linguas roman moderne. Esta linguas es comun e influensente, e ia contribui la parte major de parolas engles.
• LFN es desiniada per es asetante natural de parolas tecnical de latina e elenica, la "norma de mundo" per fato.
• LFN es desiniada per aperi plu parte "natural" per los ci comprende la linguas roman, ma no min fasil per otras.

Nos espera ce tu va trova ce esta lingua es interesante!

O Carita listen

Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam[2] (Arabic: يوسف إسلام) (born Steven Demetre Georgiou on 21 July 1948 in London), who was known as Cat Stevens from 1966 to 1978, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, educator, philanthropist and prominent convert to Islam. ...

 Me no vole perde La decora de mundo; Me vide arde Tota cosas; Me oi la crias De umania; La lus de mundo e stelas Es aora estinguida; La culpas de umania Es aora esposeda; Con larmas e con tristia, La dole es profunda; De tera e de mares, Ruido asustante; Carita! O Carita! Nos ta ave eterna amar; Nos ci va mori Salute moria; Continua sola vita. Esta mundo arde rapida; Esta mundo no va dura; Me no vole perde el Asi en me ora; Dona me eternia Asi en me ora. 

See also

• Lingua franca
• Lingua Franca Nova tutorial in Wikibooks

Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ...

References

Sources

• Lingua Franca Nova homepage
• Complete grammar

External links

Wikibooks has more on the topic of

Lingua Franca Nova

• Lingua Franca Nova Yahoo! Group
• Lingua Franca Nova Wiki
• LFN - English Dictionary
• Orizones Nova
• Omniglot