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Grammar
The following pages contain details on the pronunciation of Xara along with a description of the grammar.
Examples are used throughout to illustrate the points made.
Contents:
ALPHABET AND SOUNDS
Xara uses the following letters of the Roman alphabet:
a b d e f g h i j k l m n o p r s t u v x y z
The vowels a e i o u are pronounced 'pure' as in Esperanto or Spanish, rather than diphthongised as in English.
The semivowel y is pronounced like the English y in yet or boy.
The consonants b d f h k l m n p t v and z are pronounced as in English.
The remaining consonants are pronounced as follows:
g as in get
j as in azure, or the French jamais
r is lightly trilled, as in the Spanish rosa
s as in sing
x as in show
Stress is generally on the first syllable of a word, although often on the second syllable of two syllable words.
e.g. reye ilijer asan a talonas (Nobody remembers his name).
Punctuation is generally as in English, although capital letters are rarely used, except for proper names.
When proper names are used they are generally transliterated into the nearest equivalent sounds of Xara.
e.g. Jorj (George), Deyvid (David), Jaki (Jacky), Timoti (Timothy), Magi (Maggie).
(See also the section on country names and languages below.)
Although at the present time the Roman alphabet is used, plans are afoot to create a distinct alphabet, along with a computer font for writing the Xara language.
NOUNS
There is no grammatical gender in Xara, nouns simply being masculine, feminine or neuter by context. Nor are there definite or indefinite articles:
e.g. bor can mean 'arrow', 'an arrow' or 'the arrow'
The plural is indicated by the suffix -me
e.g. vulfor (a star) vulforme (stars)
Cases are indicated by the following suffixes:
(no suffix) nominative: e.g. karimol a oras fuman (The river is cold)
-er accusative: e.g. xarenor zimeyader ji ha doger (The dragon destroyed the village)
-ar genitive: e.g. gefejme gamarinar a orasme dukan (The bird's feathers are black)
-ir dative: e.g. vemorir ha xalevas (He sang to the forest)
-ur ablative: e.g. adajmeyur ki a gofomas (She is liked by the whales)
Since the plural suffix comes before the case suffixes, the eliding vowel y is often inserted in between, as in the above word adajmeyur.
WORD ORDER
The usual word order in the Xara sentence is subject object verb. However, since the precise function of a word is often clear through its inflected ending, the word order can be fairly flexible to create nuances of meaning.
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives generally end in -an and follow the nouns or verbs they qualify. They are invariable and do not change case or number.
e.g. sumij folonan (The long road )
e.g. teyoniv a oras zaran (The dog is loyal)
e.g. finak karader ha jias nahulan (The storm made the sea rough)
The comparative and superlative forms are made by replacing -an with -fean and fejan respectively.
e.g. tor isan a oras foran (My house is big), tor isan a oras forfean (My house is bigger), tor isan a oras forfejan (My house is the biggest)
ADVERBS
Adverbs are formed with the suffix -ol, and follow the verbs they qualify:
e.g. ha xalevasme xemejol (They sang beautifully)
PRONOUNS
The personal pronouns are as follows:
is (1st person)
es (2nd person)
as (3rd person)
os (indefinite)
omos (reflexive)
These can be modified with the plural suffix -me, the adjectival suffix -an to make possessive pronouns, and the case endings -er, -ar, -ir and -ur, as in the following examples:
a oros is (It's me/ it is I)
sin eser a gofomas (The fox likes you)
tujod asan a oras foran (Her knowledge is great)
lan seyan a oras fajidum isar (That child is a pupil of mine)
mexader ismeyir ha koxas (He gave a letter to us)
xafom asmeyur ki ha temijas (The gold was found by them)
kaxavelme omosmeyer ha tanevidasme (The mermaids admired themselves)
CORRELATIVES
Correlatives in Xara are formed with the following prefixes:
xe- (relative)
ve- (interrogative)
se- (demonstrative)
re- (negative)
ge- (universal)
and the following suffixes:
-ye (pronoun)
-an (adjective)
-un (location)
-on (time)
-in (manner)
-en (reason)
-eyan (amount)
e.g. veye (who?), geon (always), reun (nowhere), veyen (why?), seyen (for that reason), xeyer (whom), veon (when?). veyan (how much?) reon (never)
PREPOSITIONS
Most prepositions end in -o. They come before the noun they qualify and always take the nominative case.
The following are some commonly used prepositions:
do (in), fo (on), ro (to), no (from), xo (with), yo (without), mo (in accordance with)
CONJUNCTIONS
Many, though not all conjunctions end in -u. Their usage is similar to that of English.
The following are some commonly used conjunctions:
xu (and), nu (but), ju (although), ru (because), su (as), du (therefore)
NUMERALS
The basic numerals in Xara are:
nor (0), tan (1), ver (2), gil (3), dor (4), zal (5), fon (6), xar (7), jun (8), sel (9), min (10), tar (100), felar (1000), goron (1000,000)
These numerals can be combined to make multiples:
e.g. dormin (40), vertar (200), zalfelar juntar gilmin fon ( 5836)
When qualifying nouns they are placed after the noun:
e.g. tegarolme gil (3 monkeys), sorme zal (5 balls)
The ordinal form is made by adding the suffix -an, i.e. making them into adjectives:
e.g. vulfor tanan (the first star), imonex minan (the 10th barrel)
VERBS
Verbs in Xara generally consist of a verb stem (which may be used on its own as an infinitive), a personal pronoun suffix, a tense indicator (which precedes the verb), and often a mood indicator (which precedes the tense indicator).
The personal pronoun suffixes are as follows:
-is (1st person singular, 'I')
-es (2nd person singular, 'you')
-as (3rd person singular, 'she/ he/ it')
-isme (1st person plural, 'we')
-esme (2nd person plural, 'you')
-asme (3rd person plural, 'they')
The tense indicators areas follows:
a (present)
ha (past)
na (future)
da (conditional)
ja (imperative)
The most common mood indicators are as follows:
ri (negative)
xi (affirmative)
ki (passive)
vi (interrogative)
ji (causative)
li (become)
si (continuous particle)
The following examples illustrate how the above suffixes and indicators are used:
zajef a oras rumiran (The lion is angry)
tuman aser ha remulas (The apple poisoned her)
esir na teroxis nafol (I will write to you tomorrow)
da jeloranos (It could be possible)
melijer ja galemes (Read the poem)
pelever ri a gofomis (I don't like pizza)
xiye xi na sumis (Yes, of course I will come)
fajom ki ha remolas (The coal was burnt)
vi na jelares xalev galijol sean (Will you be able to sing this afternoon?)
jamaveder omosan ji ha folonas (She lengthened her composition)
li ha gumulas (It got complicated)
ha zimaxas xarenormeyer gean si ha meleyodas (He flew, commanding all the dragons)
The continous pariticle indicator si also has two more important uses:
with the verbs in relative clauses
e.g. toriler ha terminojisme xeye si ha oras xu xemejan xu govidan. (We discovered a country which was both beautiful and dangerous.)
using a verb to create a relative clause where English would use a gerund
e.g. xo si ha roxumis tugeyulir seon li ha veteris. (On my return to the ship I feel asleep.)
There are actually two forms of the imperative in Xara:
The Polite Form, which is formed as indicated above, with the 'ja' and the third person suffix:
e.g. xomexader isir ja pefides. (Do send me an e-mail.)
The Blunt Form, or a straight forward command, using just the bare verb:
e.g. zumer! a oros zajef jafero es! (Run! There's a lion behind you!)
COMPOUND WORDS
The basic vocabulary of Xara is continually growing and uses many new compound words, which can be constructed using the following prefixes and suffixes:
fe- 'wanting or aspiring to be' eg. fekemilan (would be famous)
fu- 'to repeatedly do something' eg. fuminol (to pace)
hu- 'to take something out of something else' eg. husifeyelin (to export)
ji- 'to cause something to be' eg. jixemej (to beautify)
ke- 'suggesting creation or change' eg. kerator (mill)
ri- 'to make the word mean the opposite' eg. rixemeran (unhappy)
su- 'to put something in something else' eg. susifeyelin (to import)
vi- 'having the quality of something' eg. vixelixan (Spring like)
xo- 'continuous action' eg. xoxomelidev (chatter)
-eyad 'makes a concrete noun or a word with derived meaning' eg. teroxeyad (writing)
-(ey)ed 'makes an abstract noun after a vowel' eg. hojeyed (mood)
-(y)a 'the language of a country' eg. nederlanda (Dutch)
-eyil 'makes an abstract noun after a consonant' eg. xemereyil (happiness)
-for 'augmentative ending' eg. anfor (giant)
-jel 'possibility, -able, -ible' eg. pimivjelan (edible)
-pur 'collection or a group' eg. xalevumpur (choir)
-um 'indicates a doer of something' eg. fajidum (pupil)
-us 'diminutive ending' eg. zimeyadus (hamlet)
TELLING THE TIME
When telling the time the 24 hour clock is used plus the number of minutes past the hour. The word dejol ('hour-wise'), plus the words for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on up to 24th, plus the number of minutes zejme past the hour:
e.g. veyin dejol a oros? (What time is it?)
a oros... (It's...)
dejol gilan (3 a.m.)
dejol vermin tanan (9 p.m.)
dejol junan xu zejme min zal (8.15 a.m.)
dejol vermin gilan xu zejme dormin zal (11.45p.m.)
dejol fonan xu verev (half past six in the morning)
tulijol (midday)
kelijol (midnight)
PLACE NAMES, COUNTRIES AND LANGUAGES
The general rule for place and country names in Xara is to use the name in the language of the locality normalised in xara spelling:
Xkiperiya - Albania, Amerika - America, Ostreliya - Australia, Osteraig - Austria, Bahrein - Bahrain, Beljik - Belgium, Myanmar - Burma, Kanada - Canada, Jonguo - China, Kibris - Cyprus, Danmark - Denmark, Masar - Egypt, Ingland - England, Iteyopiya - Ethiopia, Suomi - Finland, Frons - France, Doixland - Germany, Elas - Greece, Tunu - Greenland, Nederland - Holland, Madyar - Hungary, Barat - India, Erin - Ireland, Italiya - Italy, Nihon - Japan, Xoson - Korea, Magrib - Morocco, Aotearoa - New Zealand, Norye - Norway, Niugini - New Guinea, Pilipinas - Philippines, Polska - Poland, Gatar - Qatar, Rosiya - Russia, Suhudiya - Saudi Arabia, Alba - Scotland, Sautefrika - South Afrika, Espanya - Spain, Sverye - Sweden, Halvetiya - Switzerland, Pratetay - Thailand, Bod - Tibet, Turkiye - Turkey, Kimri - Wales
The adjective form used to describe something from a country is made by adding the suffix -an (or -yan if the country name ends in an a or i).
e.g. pilijim inglandan (an English breakfast), gosim amerikayan (American politics), jerex doixlandan (German music)
The name of a person from a country is expressed by the word an, followed by the country adjective.
e.g. an nihonan (a Japanese person), an kimriyan (a Welshman/Welshwoman)
As most language names end in a and are derived from the name of the country in which they originate, with the addition of the letter -a (or ya if the word already ends in an a.
Exceptions to this are the names of certain languages which have a name that differs from that of the countries in which they are spoken, in which case the native word for the language is used, with xara spelling and ending in a.
e.g. inglanda (English), fronsa (French), jonguoa (Chinese), suomiya (Finnish), hindiya (Hindi), vlamsa (Flemish), ivrita (Hebrew)
