"Roumant", or whatever it will be called. PART II

Now that you've digested the first part of the grammar of "Roumant", here's the
second part. It deals now with adjectives and adverbs.

THE ADJECTIVES:
They are quite unoriginal compared to other Romance languages. They agree in
gender and number with the noun they complete, the base form is the masculine
singular, and forming plural and feminine follows basically the same rules as
for nouns. A particularity is that adjectives often have the same form in
masculine and feminine.
As for their place, they are generally put after the noun they complete, but
when the show an intrisic or remarquable quality, they are put in front of the
noun they complete.

The degrees of comparison:
Of course, you can compare in "Roumant" as well as with other languages.

The comparative:
The comparative of superiority is regularly formed with the adverb mais /mE/:
more + adjective. The comparative of equality is formed with the adverb tant
/ta~/: as + adjective, and the comparative of inferiority is formed with mins
/mE~/: less + adjective.
The complement of the comparative is introduced with the conjunction come /kom/.

The superlative:
The absolute superlative ("very") is formed with the adverb mãg /ma~/: very,
much + adjective, or more rarely with the suffix -îssime /'isim/.
The relative superlatives are formed this way:
- superiority: e/a/ès/as/o mais + adjective: the most + adjective
- inferiority: e/a/ès/as/o mins + adjective: the least + adjective
The preposition de /d@/ is used to introduce the complement of the superlative.
If the superlative is placed after the noun it completes, the article is not
repeated in front of the superlative (unlike French but like Spanish).

Some irregular comparatives and superlatives:
The following adjectives have irregular comparatives and superlatives of
superiority:
bouem /bwE~/: good, meirr /mEr/: better, e meirr /@ mEr/: the best
mâou /'mau/: bad, peirr /pEr/: worse, e peirr /@ pEr/: the worst
grand /gra~/: big, mairr /mEr/: bigger, e mairr /@ mEr/: the biggest
pêque /pEk/: small, minrr /mE~r/: smaller, e minrr /@ mE~r/: the smallest

THE ADVERBS:
There are two ways of deriving an adverb from an adjective. The first, most
frequent, and identical to many other Romance languages is to use the suffixe
-mente /'ma~t/ added to the feminine form of the adverb. Adjectives ending in
-ant, -ent or -int make their corresponding adverbs respectively in -ammente,
-emmente /a~'ma~t/ and -immente /E~'ma~t/. The second way, rarer, consists in
adding the suffix -é /'e/ to the root of the adjective. This form is often used
with already long adjectives, and with the ordinal numbers.
Of course, some derived adverbs have irregular formations:
bouem -> biem /bjE~/: well
mâou -> mau /mo/: badly
Also, sometimes the adjective is used adverbially without change.

Some other adverbs:
Some adverbs of time:
quend /ka~/: when?
autoucâre /otu'kar/: now
atone /a'ton/: then
alhou /a'ju/: today
alhêre /a'jEr/: yesterday
maimme /mE~m/ tomorrow
têne /tEn/: early
tard /tar/: late
tantêne /ta~'tEn/: immediately
momenté /moma~'te/: soon
primé /pri'me/: first
dià /dja/: already
diou /dju/: (for) a long time
toudies /tu'di/: always
jaims /ZE~/: never
alant /a'la~/: before
apouès /a'pwE/: after

Some adverbs of place:
encì /a~'si/: here (without movement)
enlì /a~'li/: there (without movement)
enlà /a~'la/: yonder (without movement)
ennóv /a~'no/: where? (without movement)
cì /si/: here (with movement, to be used with â: to or de: from)
lì /li/: there (with movement, to be used with â: to or de: from)
là /la/: yonder (with movement, to be used with â: to or de: from)
óv /o/: where? (with movement, to be used with â: to or de: from)
prox /prO/: near
larg /lar/: far
ennant /a~'na~/: in front
empouès /a~'pwE/: behind
ennim /a~'nE~/: inside
emvouér /a~'vwe/: outside
ennâout /a~'nau/: up
embàz /a~'ba/: down
ensùs /a~'sy/: above
ensòv /a~'sO/: under

Some adverbs of quantity and intensity:
quemmãg /ka~'ma~/: how much?, how many?
bastammente /basta~'ma~t/: enough
qué /ke/: how!, what!
tant /ta~/: as much, as many, so much, so many
mãg /ma~/: a lot, much, many, very
mais /mE/: more
poev /p2/: little, few
mins /mE~/: less
de mais /d@ mE/ (put after what it completes): too much, too many
um poev /9~ p2/: a little, a few
Except 'de mais', all those adverbs can have a nominal complement preceeded with
de: of (but de can be omitted, even if it's not frequent).

Some adverbs of manner:
casi /'kazi/: nearly
asì /a'zi/: this way
couc /ku/: therefore
quêlemente /kEl'ma~t/: how?

The degrees of comparison:
They are formed like the degrees of comparison of the adjectives, using the same
adverbs (but there is no form in -îssime). The relative superlatives must be
preceeded with the neuter article o.

Some irregular comparatives and superlatives:
Just like the adjectives, there are irregular comparatives and superlatives of
adverbs:
biem /bjE~/: well, mis /mi/: better, o mis /o mi/: best
mau /mo/: badly, pis /pi/: more badly, o pis /o pi/: worst
grandemente /gra~d'ma~t/: highly, maiss /mEs/: more highly, o maiss /o mEs/:
most highly
pêquemente /pEk'ma~t/: "low-ly", minss /mE~s/: "more low-ly", o minss /o mE~s/:
"most low-ly"
mãg /ma~/: much, mais /mE/: more, o mais /o mE/: most
poev /p2/: little, mins /mE~/: less, o mins /o mE~/: least

Wow! I was thinking of putting also the pronouns with that, but that's a little
too much I think. So I'll put the pronouns in another post. This is also a big
part of the grammar, which is also a bit different from other Romance languages.

Christophe.