Latin sin Flexion(Lø) is an auxiliary language created by Giuseppe Peano.
The idea is to strip Classical Latin down to its simplest possible grammar while keeping its vocabulary recognizable, making a language learnable in hours rather than years. This page documents a specific variance of Lø that goes a step further and removes repeated consonants and trailing vowels in words longer than one syllable.
Hoc mund mirand que nos habitat es plus mirabil quam practic, magis pulcr quam util, es pro admir et gaud ne us.
Pronunciation
Lø favors the old Latin pronunciation, vowels are pronounced as indicated below:
- a, as in father.
- e, as in they.
- i, as in machine.
- o, as in tone.
- u, as in rule.
- y, as French u.
- j, as y in yes.
- ae, as i in aisle.
- oe, as oi in boil.
Consonants are sounded as in English with the exceptions:
- c, like k always, as in can and cat.
- h, silent in th, ph, ch, rh, otherwise like English h.
Syntax
The order of words is so nearly similar to the English order of words that one may safely follow that usage without fear of being misunderstood or being too greatly incorrect. Most grammatical elements are not necessary, declension and conjugation are eliminated.
Leon dormant in umbr.
The lion is sleeping in the shade.
The subject tends to come first, the predicate last. The word most expressive of the thought uppermost in mind will likely come first and the others follow in their natural sequence.
Nouns
Any Latin dictionary gives two forms for each noun, the first form is called nominative, the second genitive. Lø nouns are typically taken from the Latin genitive form, and keeping only the root word:
| Latin | Lø | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | Genitive | -- | -- |
| rosa | rosае | ros | rose |
| casus | casus | cas | case |
| pax | pacis | pac | peace |
| laurus | lauri | laur | laurel |
There is no grammatical or artificial gender. Natural gender is indicated by different names if these are in international use, like patr(father) or matr(mother). If different names do not exist, gender is indicated like can mas(male dog), can femin(female dog).
Nos hab un ling et du aur.
We have one tongue and two ears.
There are no cases. The English genitive is made with de, as in ped de homin(the man's foot). Plural can be marked, but it is omitted when not necessary: fils(sons), tres fil(three sons) or plur fil(multiple sons).
Articles
There is no definite or indefinite article. It is translated with a pronoun, like il, un, etc., when it has the value of a pronoun and its use is necessary:
da ad me librs = give me books. da ad me libr = give me a book. da ad me hoc libr = give me the book. da ad me il libr = give me that book. da ad me ils libr = give me these books.
Pronouns
Possessive pronouns are simply: de me(my, mine), de nos(our, ours), etc.. Reflexive pronouns are made of se(himself, herself, it, itself) and se ips(one's self, themselves).
| me | I, me |
|---|---|
| te | thou, thee |
| il | he, she, him, her |
| nos | we, us |
| vos | you |
| ils | they, them |
| id | it |
Adjectives
Adjectives may be formed by means of de, like de fratr(fraternal). Adverbs from adjectives are obtained by means of in mod(in a way of), like in mod diligent(diligently), in mod fratern(fraternally).
For the comparison of adjectives, superlatives are used like: plus(plus), magis(more), mult(much), maxim(most)..
brev = short. magis brev = shorter than. minus brev quam = less short than. maxim brev = shortest. minim brev = least short. tam brev quam = as short as.
The prefixing of the negative ne or non may ordinarily be used to denote the contrary. The preposition sin may be used to denote lacking, like the suffix "-less" in English.
Verbs
The Latin vocabulary gives the present indicative and the present infinitive. By dropping the ending of the infinitive -re, the Lø form is obtained. One could argue that this counts as flexion. To the present form of the verb add:
- -r for the infinitive
- -t for the past participle
- -nt for the present participle
| am | love | hab | have | scrib | write | aud | hear |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| amar | to love | haber | to have | scriber | to write | audir | to hear |
| amat | loved | habet | had | scribet | wrote | audit | heard |
| amant | loving | habent | having | scribent | writing | audint | hearing |
The form of the imperative is the same as the one for the present. Sometimes the idea of the past is indicated by a word of the sentence and in such case there is no need to inflect the verb.
me am = I love. nos am = we love. ils am = they love. ..
Her me scrib, Lunad nos vol leg.
Yesterday I wrote, Monday we will read.
When it is necessary to indicate the past, this can be done by an adverb, as jam(already) or tum which is particularly used for this purpose, or by e preceding the verb.
me jam am = I loved te tum am = you loved nos e am = we loved ..
When it is necessary to indicate the future, it can be done by the expression in futur, or by the verbs vol(will) and deb(must) like in English, or by i preceding verb.
me vol am = I will love te deb am = you must love nos i am = we shall love ..
The subjunctive has no special ending, its idea is expressed by the use of conjunctions like si, que, ut, quod.
Fil es amat ab matr.
The son is loved by the mother.
The passive form is rendered by the past participle and the verb "es", to be: es amat(is loved). It may also be rendered by "quem" and a relative clause: fil es quem matr am(it is the son whom the mother loves).
Expressions
In answering "yes" and "no" the speaker repeats the verb or uses one of the following expressions:
- hello, heus.
- io!, yeah!!
- cert , certainly.
- etiam , even so.
- it , true, so, yes.
- non , not so.
- nul mod, no way!
Questions
- Qui es me? who am I?
- Que hab te? what do you have?
- Quar non? why not?
- Qual ocasion? which occasion?
- Quem vos e inven? whom did you find?
- Quand vad te? when are you going?
Examples
Nos vid per oculs, audi per aurs, senti odor per nas, gust per ling, loq per or, tang per man, ambul per pede. Me hab un capit, du man, du ped. Man hab quinq digit. Du man hab decem digit.
Alphabet latin hab duo decem et quinque liter. Prim liter es A, secund B, C es ant D, F es post E. H es inter G et I, Z es ultim. Y es ant ultim. O es in loc 15. T hab numer 20 ab principi, et numer 6 ab fin.
Aq es in fluv et in mar. Aer es super ter, aer in mot es vent. Cael es super ter, ter es sub cael. Sol da luc et calor ad ter. Sol ori in orient, et fi die. Sol cad in ocident et fi noct. Lun et stelas splend in noct. In noct nos dorm.
Fulgid astr, que cum suo viv luc alb atrah atention d'omn homin, es Jov(Jupiter), gigant de munds. Hoc mund colosal gravit lent circ Sol et percur suo orbit quas rotund in 11 an et 314 die. Galileo in 7 januar 1610 deteg quatuor satelit ad Jov. Quatuor al satelit es detect post 1892, invisibil cum instruments comun.
Vocabulary
For more examples, have a look at the English-Lø Dictionary
Adverbs
- alib, elsewhere
- ant, before
- ben, well
- bis, again
- cert, certainly
- cras, tomorrow
- dexter, at the right
- erg, therefore
- her, yesterday
- hic, here
- hod, today
- ib, there
- in fin, at last
- interim, meanwhile
- it, thus
- iterum, again
- jam, already
- mal, badly
- mult, much
- nam, because, for
- nimis, too much
- non, no, not
- nunc, now
- nuper, lately, recently
- post, after
- prim, at first
- quam, as, than
- quas, almost, nearly
- quia, because
- saep, often
- satis, enough
- semper, always
- sic, so, thus
- sinistr, at the left
- subit, at once, immediately
- tal, like, such
- tot, entirely, wholly
- tunc, then
- tut, safely
- ub, where
- ut, in order that, as
- usqu, till, up to
- vald, greatly, very, very much
Prepositions
- ab, by, from
- ad, at, to
- advers, against
- apud, near
- circ, about
- circum, around
- cum, with, when, whereas, since
- de, concerning, from of
- ex, from, out of
- extr, outside, without
- in, in, into
- infr, below, under
- inter, among, between
- intr, within
- juxt, near, next to
- ob, on account of
- per, by means of, through
- prae, before, in front of
- pro, for, on behalf of
- sin, without
- sub, below, under
- super, above, on, upon
- trans, across, beyond
- ultr, beyond
Conjunctions
aut ... aut = either ... or(exclusive). et ... et = both ... and . neq ... nec = neither ... nor. minus ... quam = less ... than. plus ... quam = more ... than. tant ... quant = as much ... as. ut ... it = as ... so. vel ... vel = either ... or(indifferent).
- aut, or
- dum, during, until, when, while
- et, and
- etiam, also, even
- ets, although, even if
- ne, no, not
- nec, nor
- nis, unless
- sed, but
- si non, if not
- tamen, however, nevertheless, notwithstanding, yet
- ubi, where
Numbers
- un, prim, 1
- du, secund, 2
- tres, terti, 3
- quatuor, quart, 4
- quinq, quint, 5
- sex, sext, 6
- septem, septim, 7
- oct, octav, 8
- novem, non, 9
- decem, decim, 10
- decemun, decimprim, 11
- decemdu, decimsecund, 12
- decemtres, decimterti, 12
- vigint, vigesim, 20
- trigint, trigesim, 30
- quadragint, quadragesim, 40
- quinquagint, quinquagesim, 50
- sexagint, sexagesim, 60
- septuagint, septuagesim, 70
- ocogint, octogesim, 80
- nonagint, nonagesim, 90
- centum, centesimo, 100
- mil, milesim, 1 000
- milion, milionesim, 1 000 000
The days of the week:
- Lunad, Monday
- Marted, Tuesday
- Mercuriod, Wednesday
- Joved, Thursday
- Venered, Friday
- Saturnod, Saturday
- Sold, Sunday
Suffixes & Prefixes
The word ben may be used to render the prefix "well", like benconsiliat(well-advised), malfamat(ill-famed) or malconception(misconception).
English Lø English Lø -ary -ar aviary aviar -aster -astr poetaster poetastr -ble -bil stable stabil -or,-our -or colo(u)r color -tive -tiv punitive punitiv -ous -os famous famos -ate -at sublimate sublimat -er -tor maker factor -ty -tat quality qualitat -cy -t tendency tendent -ce -t elegance elegant -fy -fic justify justific -esque -esc statuesque statuesc
The ending -ed as in "faced"(having faces) may be rendered with cum vult or cum superfic, or cum angul(cornered, having corners) .
English Lø English Lø self- auto- self-induction auto-induction well bene- wellsaid benedict mis- male- misform maleform pan- pan- pan-asiatic panasiatic by- para- by-product para-product
Special Pronouns
Demonstrative il = that(it, he, she, him, her). ce, hoc, ist = this, these. ils = those. ips = self. idem = same. tal = such. qual = such as. Indefinite aliq = some, some one. omn = all, every. un = one. ul = some, any. nul = not any. nemin = nobody, no one. al = other, else. sol = alone, single, one. tot = whole, all, entire. neutr = neither. alter = either, one but not the other of two. utroq = either, both of two.