Orrovian Grammar

Orrovian Grammar is the set of rules describing the structure and properties of the Orrovian Language.

Important Notes
Some Orrovian words trigger doubling of the following initial consonant, e.g. et~e, "e' ppani", these are marked with a *, et~e*

Some forms of a word trigger ablaut. These are marked with an ª, e.g. -iª

Nouns
Nouns in Orrovian belong to one of a few classes, depending on the thematic vowel.

Nouns Ending in -A
Nouns ending in -a are (nearly) always feminine. They plularize in -es, (or -e). The -a nouns descend primarily from the Latin first declension.

Nouns Ending in -U
Nouns ending in -u are (nearly) always masculine, and pluralize in -i, but there is another class that is masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural, which pluralize in -a. The -u nouns descend primarily from the Latin second and fourth declensions. The inflection of -a in the plural is from the Latin neuter, however which Orrovian nouns which take -a in the plural often have has little to do with whether they were neuter in Latin. Orrovian is unusual in that the "neuter" nouns are quite extensive. Some nouns can even have three forms, with the -a plural having a special meaning. In the nouns that take 3 forms, the -a form is often collective in meaning - e.g. "cèsu" - (a) cheese, "cèsi" - cheeses, as in 'a selection of cheeses', "cèsa" - cheese, as a general thing as in 'my favorite food is cheese'. The collective plurals in -a are reinterpreted in certain Orrovian-speaking areas (especially Dulmastecanu and Dollezianu) as being feminine singulars, while nouns such as ossu~ossa become ossu-ossi per the regular masculine inflection. Some western inland varieties such as Savurrese have had the extreme opposite shift of making the standard masculine plural marker -a.

Nouns Ending in -E
Nouns ending in -e can be either masculine or feminine, and all pluralize in -is, (or -i).The -e nouns descend primarily from the Latin third and fifth declensions. Whether a given noun is masculine or feminine depends lexically on the noun, and can be inferred from the forms its articles or adjectives take.

Irregulars
There is a small set of irregular nouns. This can be divided into "true" irregulars, whose plurals must be memorized, and ones which follow predictable (albeit rare) patterns. They tend to come from various third declension nouns. Any noun ending in -o is a pretty much sure sign of an irregular plural. Nouns ending in stressed vowels are generally predictable: ò > ois, á > ais, ó > ús. Whether those ending in -ú have a plural in -uis or -ua is dialect-dependent, with northern/western dialects (including Orvenazzu) favoring -ua. Either are considered acceptable in the written language. Another group of irregulars is monosyllabic nouns. These take a suffix -is somtimes adding or subtracting another letter to the root.
 * True irregulars: òmo, òminis;
 * Predictable: virtú, virtuis~virtua; abilitá, abilitais; bò, bois, linzó, linzús.
 * gru > gruis, re > reis, ren > reis, sol > solis, ma > maris

Adjectives
Adjectives are regularly inflected, and agree with their noun in gender and number. There are only 2 classes of adjectives:

Possessive Pronouns & Clitics
Possession in Orrovian is shown through syntax, possessive clitics, and the preposition de. For more on how possession is shown through syntax, see the section below.

Clitics are the most common way of showing simple possession - "patrenzi" = "our fathers", etc. They agree with the possessed thing in gender and number. When stressed, the possessive pronouns take their full form, e.g. "les èrbes ecco vòstres" - "the books are yours". They agree, like adjectives, with the number and gender of the possessed thing.

Personal Endings
Most of the forms descend fairly straightforwardly from the Latin endings. Notably, -as rose to -es, and -es to -is, and final consonants -t, -mus, -tis, -nt were lost fairly early, by the Old Orrovian period.

The third person plural
The strangest feature of the Orrovian verbal person inflection is the 3rd person plural suffix. In Trabadian Sea Vulgar Latin, -t and -nt were lost very early, originally in the same environments that modern Orrovian -s is elided, before disappearing entirely. (Modern Orrovian final -n comes from the loss of final vowels, or because it existed in stressed monosyllables like con < cum). Consequently, by the Old Orrovian period, both -t and -nt were lost as suffixes, and the 3rd person plural was identical with the singular in the 1st and 2nd conjugations, and with the singular 1st person in the 3rd and 4th: Multiple methods of fixing the risen ambiguity, four of which still exist today in modern Orrovian dialects, and two of which are co-standard in the modern written language. For the purpose of simplicity, the Orvenazzi ending is used from here on, with significantly different regional forms mentioned in notes.
 * (Trabadian Sea Vulgar Latin): portat ad domum, portant ad domum; but: porta'  libri, portã'  libri.
 * (Old Orrovian): ille porta, ille tène, illi porta, illi tène; eo vendo, illi vendo, eo parto, illi parto
 * 1) In Literary Old Orrovian, the ambiguity was fixed by simply adding the pronoun: canta, canta > illa canta, illes canta. This later spread to other verbs, especially in dialects where the thematic endings were lost. The obligatory pronoun to solve the ambiguity is rare in most varieties of Orrovian anymore, but is common in Santu Trebbiu some far southern cities. Outside of these marginal areas, the obligatory pronoun is found in a fair number of historical writings, and is commonly used to depict "old fashioned" speech (similar to "thee, thou, ye olde" in English).
 * 2) Another ambiguity that was common in Old Orrovian was a confusion between Latin sum and sunt, in Trabadian Sea Vulgar Latin, son, sont. Western dialects such as Savurrese or Dulmastecanu ended up with sont for both forms: Old West Orrovian: eo sont, illi sont. -o, or -i was added analogically to the first person form from other first-person singulars in -o: eo sonto, illi sont. However, the confusion between sum and sunt persisted, and the third person plural likewise became illi sonto. The suffixes -nto was then analogically extended to the entire third person plural, sometimes later replacing the -o with third person -a or -e: Savurrese: illi cantanta; Dollezianu: illi cantanto, Vetréanu (and general inland Orrovian): illi cantante. This suffix is still very strongly used in the west of Orrovia and in Dolmastica-Dolletian, perhaps due to the lower political influence from Orrovia, greater influence from the Trabadian language, or the fact that it superficially resembles Latin -nt and is therefore seen as prestigious.
 * 3) One place the loss of -nt did not create an ambiguity was in the perfect: audivit, audiverunt > Old. Or. òdí (-t), òdiro (-nt). In eastern dialects of Old Orrovian, the perfect came to be the only tense where the 3rd person plural was still distinct, due to -ro at the end. The suffix -ro was then taken as a plural third person suffix in general, spreading to other tenses, with stress and vowel quality distinguishing it in certain cases: Solacciu: illu canta, illi cantaro (present); illu cantò, illi cantáro (preterite). Common in formal speech and writing, it has been losing ground in the popular speech of the Orrovian east to (4.) in recent years, except in Porta Sol which still strongly keeps this suffix. In Orvenazzu it is seen as a 'poetic' suffix.
 * 4) In the north in Orvenazzu and surrounding cities, the ambiguity was originally solved through pronouns (thus the exportation of this form to Santu Trebbiu and the far south, which were being colonized by the northern city-states). However, this fell out of favor to another plural derived through analogy. Common verbs such as facere, connoscere developed alternations between the 1st singular and 3rd plural despite the loss of -t and -nt. Early medieval northern dialects: eo faccio, fao, fo, vs. illi faco, facco, facont; eo connoscio vs. illi connosco, connoscont. This first spread analogically to other common irregular verbs: vo, vacco~vanco; do, dacco~danco; so, sacco~sapoco. Then, it spread to all third person plural verbs: Modern Orvenazzi: illu canta, illi cantaco. The third-person plural in -co is the standard for literary Orvenazzu Orrovian, and therefore enjoys the most prestige in political and mercantile circles, and is overall the most common plural suffix by number of speakers.

Orrovian Possessive
Orrovian has a unique form of indicating possession, which can take the form of a "bare genitive" or can take a possessive clitic to avoid ambiguity. It's found in cases where other romance languages would commonly have ''de + noun. de'' in the sense of "of" or "'s" is not used in Orrovian. If the possessor is not expressed in the sentence, the clitic is obligatory.

Typical Romance Construction:

 * (Italian) il libro della donna ; i libri delle donne
 * (Spanish) el libro de la mujer ; los libros de las mujeres

Orrovian Construction:

 * (Bare) lu libru la donna ; li libri le'ddonne
 * (With Clitic) lu librusu la donna ; li librisi le'ddonne(s)
 * (Dropped subject) lu librusu ; li librisi, lu librutu, li libriti

Uses of the Infinitive
The Orrovian infinitive has a reduced use compared to most other romance languages.

NOT used as the object of a verb.

 * (Spanish) ¿Quieres bailar conmigo?
 * (Orrovian) Volis (que) balles mecu?
 * Do you want to dance with me? (Literally: do you want (that) you dance with me?)

NOT used to indicate purpose:

 * T'adulo (que) ballies mecu.
 * I flatter you (so that) you might dance with me.

IS used as a verbal noun.

 * Benevolo ballare tecu.
 * I love dancing with you / I love to dance with you.

Gender and Number
Nouns, Adjectives, and Determiners in Orrovian can have one of two genders, Masculine and Feminine, and two numbers; Singular and Plural.

Feminine
Feminine nouns and adjectives can end in a or e

Masculine
Masculine nouns and adjectives can end in u, e, or a consonant.

Irregularities
Some nouns of either gender have irregular plurals:

Indefinite
Equivalent to English 'a' in the singular, and "some" in the plural.

Definite
Equivalent to English 'the', but used more often: e.g. Orrovians would say "lu miu libru" -- 'the my book', not just "miu libru"

Possesives
Possessives inflect to both the possessed object and the possessor. The gender derives from the possessed object: e.g. lu tuu libru, la tua casa

Demonstratives
Inflect to the gender and number of the object. 'quessu' roughly means "that thing nearby" while 'quellu' roughly means "that thing over there".

Present
essa amo -- 'I love her'

essa ami -- 'I might love her'

Imperfect
essa amavo -- 'I was loving her / I loved her' essa amari -- 'I might have been loving her'

Future
essa amaró -- 'I will love her'

Conditional
essa amario -- 'I would love her / I could love her'

Aorist
essa amai -- 'I loved her' essa amassi -- 'I might have loved her'

Perfect
essa amazo -- 'I have loved her' essa amazi -- 'I might have loved her'

Pluperfect
essa amazero -- 'I had loved her' essa amaveri -- 'I might have loved her (by then)'

Future Perfect
essa amazeró -- 'I will have loved her'

Perfect Conditional
essa amarevo -- 'I would have loved her / I could have loved her'