"Roumant", or whatever it may be called. Part VI

Well, here are some news of "Roumant" (which still needs a better name). First,
I'll give you a few irregular verbs paradigms, then some hints about negation in
"Roumant", and I'll finish with the system of day-names and month-names.

VERB PARADIGMS:

This time, I won't give too much information, so I'll give the verbal paradigms
for the two auxiliaries avôre: to have, and stêre: to be, as well as for the
very irregular verb îre: to go. I think they will be of some interest for you
:).

Verbs of the 5th group: auxiliaries: avôre /a'vor/: to have
indicative:
present:                            imperfect:
(iou) hè /E/                        avèv /a'vE/
(tu) has /a/                        avèvs /a'vE/
(ile) ha /a/                        avèvt /a'vE/
(nos) avoms /a'vO~/                 avêvams /a'vEva~/
(vos) avés /a've/                   avêvés /a'vEve/
(iles) hom /O~/                     avêvam /a'vEva~/

simple past:                        future:
(iou) hue /y/                       avrè /av'rE/
(tu) huss /ys/                      avràs /av'ra/
(ile) hu /y/                        avrà /av'ra/
(nos) hûme /ym/                     avroms /av'rO~/
(vos) hûte /yt/                     avrés /av're/
(iles) hûre /yr/                    avrom /av'rO~/

subjunctive:
present:                            imperfect:
(iou) heie /E/                      husse /ys/
(tu) heies /E/                      husses /ys/
(ile) heiet /E/                     husset /ys/
(nos) heiyoms /E'jO~/               hûssioms /'ysjO~/
(vos) heiyés /E'je/                 hûssiés /'ysje/
(iles) heiyom /'EjO~/               hussiom /'ysjO~/

future:
(iou) avre /avr/
(tu) avres /avr/
(ile) avret /avr/
(nos) avrioms /av'rjO~/
(vos) avriés /av'rje/
(iles) avriom /'avrjO~/

conditional:                        imperative:
present:                            present:
(iou) avrèv /av'rE/                  heie /E/
(tu) avrèvs /av'rE/                  ei /E/
(ile) avrèvt /av'rE/                 heiet /E/
(nos) avrêvams /av'rEva~/            heiyoms /E'jO~/
(vos) avrêvés /av'rEve/              eite /Et/
(iles) avrêvam /av'rEva~/            heiyom /'EjO~/

infinitive: avôre /a'vor/
present participle: eiyent /E'ja~/
past participle: hut /y/
gerund: eiyemmente /Eja~'ma~t/

Verbs of the 5th group: auxiliaries: stêre /stEr/: to be
indicative:
present:                            imperfect:
(iou) som /sO~/                     erràv /E'ra/
(tu) ês /E/                         erràvs /E'ra/
(ile) êt /E/                        erràvt /E'ra/
(nos) stems /sta~/                  errâvams /E'rava~/
(vos) stés /ste/                    errâvés /E'rave/
(iles) som /sO~/                    errâvam /E'rava~/

simple past:                        future:
(iou) fue /fy/                      starè /sta'rE/
(tu) fuss /fys/                     staràs /sta'ra/
(ile) fu /fy/                       starà /sta'ra/
(nos) fûme /fym/                    staroms /sta'rO~/
(vos) fûte /fyt/                    starés /sta're/
(iles) fûre /fyr/                   starom /sta'rO~/

subjunctive:
present:                            imperfect:
(iou) sae /se/                      fusse /fys/
(tu) saes /se/                      fusses /fys/
(ile) saet /se/                     fusset /fys/
(nos) sayoms /sa'jO~/               fûssioms /'fysjO~/
(vos) sayés /sa'je/                 fûssiés /'fysje/
(iles) sayom /'sajO~/               fussiom /'fysjO~/

future:
(iou) stare /star/
(tu) stares /star/
(ile) staret /star/
(nos) starioms /sta'rjO~/
(vos) stariés /sta'rje/
(iles) stariom /'starjO~/

conditional:                        imperative:
present:                            present:
(iou) starèv /sta'rE/               sae /se/
(tu) starèvs /sta'rE/               stè /stE/
(ile) starèvt /sta'rE/              saet /se/
(nos) starêvams /sta'rEva~/         sayoms /sa'jO~/
(vos) starêvés /sta'rEve/           stête /stEt/
(iles) starêvam /sta'rEva~/         sayom /'sajO~/

infinitive: stêre /stEr/
present participle: stent /sta~/
past participle: stèt /stE/
gerund: stemmente /sta~'ma~t/

Note the concurrence between forms derived from ESSE and forms derived from
STARE. Some are even so mixed that it's difficult to now from which verb they
come from.

Isolated irregular verbs of the 5th group: example: îre /ir/: to go
indicative:
present:                            imperfect:
(iou) iouc /ju/                     pontàv /pO~'ta/
(tu) vas /va/                       pontàvs /pO~'ta/
(ile) vat /va/                      pontàvt /pO~'ta/
(nos) vadems /va'da~/               pontâvams /pO~'tava~/
(vos) vadés /va'de/                 pontâvés /pO~'tave/
(iles) iom /jO~/                    pontâvam /pO~'tava~/

simple past:                        future:
(iou) fue /fy/                      irè /i'rE/
(tu) fuss /fys/                     iràs /i'ra/
(ile) fu /fy/                       irà /i'ra/
(nos) fûme /fym/                    iroms /i'rO~/
(vos) fûte /fyt/                    irés /i're/
(iles) fûre /fyr/                   irom /i'rO~/

subjunctive:
present:                            imperfect:
(iou) vade /vad/                    fusse /fys/
(tu) vades /vad/                    fusses /fys/
(ile) vadet /vad/                   fusset /fys/
(nos) vadioms /va'djO~/             fûssioms /'fysjO~/
(vos) vadiés /va'dje/               fûssiés /'fysje/
(iles) vadiom /'vadjO~/             fussiom /'fysjO~/

future:
(iou) ire /ir/
(tu) ires /ir/
(ile) iret /ir/
(nos) irioms /i'rjO~/
(vos) iriés /i'rje/
(iles) iriom /'irjO~/

conditional:                        imperative:
present:                            present:
(iou) irèv /i'rE/                   vade /vad/
(tu) irèvs /i'rE/                   va /va/
(ile) irèvt /i'rE/                  vadet /vad/
(nos) irêvams /i'rEva~/             vadioms /va'djO~/
(vos) irêvés /i'rEve/               îte /it/
(iles) irêvam /i'rEva~/             vadiom /'vadjO~/

infinitive: îre /ir/
present participle: vadent /va'da~/
past participle: pontàt /pO~'ta/
gerund: stemmente /vada~'ma~t/

The paradigm of îre is made of the conflation of three verbs: IRE, VADERE and
PONTARE (frequentative of PONERE: to bring, or maybe deverbal made out of
PONTUS -I don't know exactly :)- which, from the meaning: to bring from one
place to another, acquired by transfer the meaning: to go from one place to
another, and gave the imperfect and the past participle to îre). Note also the
identity of forms of the simple pasts and subjunctive imperfects of stêre and
îre (like in Spanish. It seems that both convergent evolution and analogy of
meaning - like the one that gives "j'ai été" as past form of "aller" in French -
played here).

Well, so much for verb paradigms. If you have any comments or questions, feel
free to ask. Now I'll carry on with the negation in "Roumant".

THE NEGATION:

As in French, verbal negation is discontinuous, i.e. it is composed of two
parts. The first part is the small adverb ne /n@/ (n' /n/ in front of a vowel or
h + vowel) which goes in front of the verb (before the complement pronouns but
after the subject if there is one). But alone, it's not enough to make the
clause negative. In fact, in familiar speech, ne is sometimes omitted (but less
than in French). A second element is thus mandatory to make the clause negative.
It can be a negative adjective or pronoun (like âoucueum: nobody), but for a
simple negation it is a little particle (considered as an adverb) which is put
after the verb. The most often used particle for this purpose is reim /rE~/,
which is equivalent to "pas" in French but etymologically derives from RES:
thing. In Old "Roumant", it was used for insistance on the negation ("not a
thing"), but now it's just a negative particle. Reim can be used with any verb,
but some categories of verbs allow the use of other particles for simple
negation. For instance, verbs of movement or transformation often use pas /pa/:
"not a step", etymologically identical to French "pas" and to "Roumant" pas:
step, while verbs of speech use mostly the particle palavre /pa'lavr/: "not a
word". However, this last particle, from its length, keeps some of its
insistance value. So, the phrase: "ne dic palavre" means more "I don't say a
word" than "I don't say". Marked negation can be for instance: ne... mais:
not... anymore, ne... jaims: not... ever or ne... tampoev /ta~'p2/: not...
either (tampoev being the opposite of tammãg: also). Ne also has a so-called
emphatic form nõ /nO~/ which, used instead of ne, but still needing a second
part (when nõ is used instead of ne, reim is often omitted however), means:
not at all, absolutely not, not even. Nõ also means "no" and is opposed then to
ouc /u/: yes. This use of unstressed ne or stressed nõ looks a lot like the use
of "ne" and "non" in Old French. Yet I didn't know Old French could use "non"
instead of "ne" with verbs when I devised this feature :) .

Well, now let's finish with days and month-names.

DAY-NAMES AND MONTH-NAMES IN "ROUMANT":

"Roumant" has two sets of day-names and month-names. One is the so-called
popular set, derived from the old Latin forms, and used in everyday life, while
the second one, called the official set, is of Christian origin and used mostly
in written language, in contracts and official papers. Note that in "Roumant"
"day" is die /di/ (feminine noun) and "month" is meis /mE/ (masculine noun).

The popular set:
The popular set keeps the pagan deity names for all days (so it derives the
names for Saturday and Sunday from Saturni dies and Solis dies). The different
day-names of the popular set are thus:

lunde /l9~d/
marde /mard/
mercorde /mEr'kOrd/
joude /Zud/
venerde /v@'nErd/
sadorde /sa'dOrd/
soude /sud/

Those nouns are masculine. Note the anomalous stress position of venerde (from
Uenéris dies instead of correct Uéneris dies) due to analogy with the other
day-names. Also note the existence of concurrent Christian forms of sadorde and
soude, which are respectively sambte /sa~t/ and domenge /do'mE~Z/ (from SAMBATA
and DOMINICA). Nevertheless, those Christian forms are used less often than the
pagan forms, mostly among the Church itself.

Month-names of the popular set are:

jannér /Za~'ne/
fevrér /fEv're/
marce /mars/
avrêou /av'rEu/
mai /mE/
junhe /Zyn_j/
julhe /Zyl_j/
aost /a'Os/
settemvre /sE'ta~vr/
ottouvre /O'tuvr/
nouvemvre /nu'va~vr/
dicemvre /di'sa~vr/

Those nouns are masculine. Note that in the popular set, day-names and
month-names are never capitalized.

The official set:
The official set has been consciously built by the Christian Church and is thus
quite different from the popular set, derived from a natural evolution from
Latin forms. Its principal characteristic is to use noun phrases centered around
die and meis, and to use capitalization.

In the official set, the days are numbered, except for Saturday and Sunday which
use special forms:

die Segonde /dis@'gO~d/
die Tierce /di'tjErs/
die Carte /di'kart/
die Quinte /di'kE~t/
die Sexte /di'sESt/
die de Sambte /did@'sa~t/
die de Dom /did@'dO~/

The last two forms mean respectively "day of the Sabbath" and "day of the Lord".
As die is a feminine noun, those day-names are feminine, unlike the popular set.

As for the month-names, they use abbreviated forms of the Latin month names,
used with meis (except with the last four where they use directly the cardinal
numbers corresponding to the Latin month-names):

meis Jans /mE'Za~/
meis Fevs /mE'fE/
meis Mars /mE'mar/
meis Avres /mE'zavr/
meis Mais /mE'mE/
meis Juns /mE'Z9~/
meis Juls /mE'Zyl/
meis Aos /mE'zaO/
meis Sette /mE'sEt/
meis Utte /mE'zyt/
meis Nouve /mE'nuv/
meis Deice /mE'dEs/

Sometimes, the preposition de is inserted between meis and the name of the month
(giving meis de Jans, meis de Fevs, meis d'Avres, etc...). There seems to be
free variation between the two forms, but the preferred one is without the
preposition (as they are mostly written forms, it may be for a need for short
formulae).

Well, that will be all for now. Now I'm waiting for your comments and questions
about the contents of this whole post. Feel free to reply :) .

Christophe.