GRAMMAR OF THE CEQLI LANGUAGE
1. CONCEPT
Ceqli is an attempt to retain the terseness and adaptablity of
English and Mandarin, while simplifying the phonology and
eliminating some awkwardness. Frankly, The more Mandarin I
learn, the more Mandarinesque Ceqli becomes
2. ROOTS AND WORDS
All Ceqli roots must begin with one or more consonants that are followed
by one or more vowels and/or diphthongs. (Remember that
L, M, N, R & Q are semivowels and may form diphthongs.)
A word may consist of one or more roots.
3. PRONOUNS
go I, me
zi you
da he, she, it, or they
gozi we, including you.
goda we, excluding you.
zida you, including persons not addressed
cozo this thing
cizo that thing near you
cazo that thing remote from both of us
(These last three are compounds, made up of the words
for here, there, and over there, combined with 'zo',
a nominalizing suffix root you will read about later.)
4. SOME SENTENCES
Go cel. I am a person.
Go jocel. I am a man
Zi xicel You are a woman.
Cozo xyen. This is a dog.
Cazo dom. That is a house.
Cizo stol. That is a table.
Note here that, unlike Mandarin and English, there is no need for a copula verb.
‘Cel’ means ‘person’ or ‘is a person’.
However, for clarity, in case of possible confusion, the copula 'bi' may be used:
Da bi kiq. He is a king.
Go ten xyen. I have a dog.
Zi xaw go. You see me.
Da kom pan. He eats bread.
Predicate adjectives behave like verbs. They also need
no copula.
Go gro. I am big.
Xyen pi. The dog is small.
5. ADJECTIVES MODIFYING NOUNS
Adjectives are indicated by the particle 'sa', from Mandarin 'de'.
Grosa dom. Big house.
Pisa xyen. Small dog.
Go ten grosa hon. I have a big book.
If no 'sa' is present, the adjective merges with the noun to form
a compound word, which is then treated as if it were a root itself.
Such compounds have their own meaning, often quite different from
the adjective-noun phrase they're derived from.
Grosa cel. Big person
Grocel. Giant
Grosa dom. Big house
Grodom. Mansion
Pisa cel. Small person.
Picel. Dwarf.
Pisa dom. Small house.
Pidom. Cottage.
As in Mandarin, Ceqli allows whole phrases to act as adjectives,
setting them off with the 'sa.'
Go xaw kom pan sa xyen. I see the dog that eats bread.
I see the bread-eating dog.
Note that, unlike English and like Mandarin, the adjectival
phrase keeps the same word order that it would have if it
were an independent sentence.
6. TENSES AND ASPECT
Ceqli tenses are quite straightforward.
Pa, do, fu. Past, present, future.
Go pa kom. I ate.
Go do kom. I eat.
Go fu kom. I will eat.
Instead of the Mandarin aspect system, the Ceqli system
resembles that of English.
Go do pa kom. I have eaten. (I am presently in a state of
having eaten.)
Go do fu kom. I am going to eat. (I am presently in a state
of going to eat.)
They can, of course, be combined:
Zi do pa xaw. You have seen.
Zi pa pa xaw. You had seen.
Zi fu pa xaw. You will have seen.
One aspect marker that is used is the mark of
continuity, like English -ing, or Spanish -ando:
Da do gi ja. He is going.
Da pa gi ja. He was going.
Da fu gi ja. He will be going.
Xyen do fu bwa. The dog is going to drink.
Xyen pa fu bwa. The dog was going to drink.
Xyen fu fu bwa. The dog will be going to drink.
Tense and aspect markers may be used or dispensed
with if not necessary. As in Mandarin, the
expression of tense and aspect is optional in Ceqli.
Also, 'pi' and 'gro' can modify tense markers:
Zi pa kom. You ate.
Zi pipa kom. You just now ate. (You slightly-past eat)
Zi gropa kom. You ate some time back.
Gozi fu ja. We will go.
Gozi pifu ja. We're just now going. We go right away.
Gozi grofu ja. We'll go later, much later. We'll go
sometime.
7. THE PARTICLE 'Zo'
'Zo' is related to 'sa'. Whereas 'sa' signifies that the foregoing is
a modifier, 'zo' signifies that the foregoing stands alone, thus:
Grosa dom. Big house.
Grozo. The big one.
Kom pan sa cel. The bread-eating person.
Kom pan zo. The bread-eater.
Go sel hon. I sell books.
Sel hon sa cel. A person who sells books.
Sel hon zo. A bookseller.
Such phrases may be written as single words.
Selhonzo. A bookseller.
8. CONJUNCTIONS
By now you’ll have noticed that , like English and Mandarin, a single
word may serve as various parts of speech. Conjunctions also have a
verbal meaning.
Kay and, is with, is accompanied by
Kor or, alternates with
Kanor and/or, alternates with or accompanies
Ju consequently, therefore, causes
Beju because, is caused by
Play if (see below), implies, requires logically
Beplay if (see below), depends on, is require logically
Go kom kay zi dorm.
I eat and you sleep.
(That I eat is accompanied by that you sleep.)
Go kom kay dorm.
I eat and sleep.
(My eating is accompanied by my sleeping)
Da kor xyen kom.
Either he eats or the dog does, but not both.
(He, not accompanied by the dog, eats.)
Xipam kanor Jopam dorm.
Mother or Father sleeps and maybe both.
Xipam beplay Jopam dorm.
Mother sleeps if father does.
Go fo kom, ju go kom.
I'm hungry, so I eat.
Go kom, beju go fo kom.
I eat because I'm hungry.
The tense and aspect markers also serve as conjunctions:
Go gi dorm gi zi pa kom.
I was sleeping while you ate.
Da ja fu zi fu kom.
He will go after you eat.
Da ja fu zi kom.
He will go after you have eaten.
Go pa xaw xyen pa zi xaw.
I saw the dog before you saw (it).
Go pa zi pa kom.
I, before you did, ate.
9. KINSHIP TERMS
Pam parent
Xipam mother
Jopam father
Fil child, offspring
Xifil daughter
Jofil son
Xi = female
Jo = male
Most other kinship terms are compound words based on these
basic ones:
Pamjopam. Grandfather.
Zbanxifra. Sister-in-law. (spouse's sister)
Fraxizban. Sister-in-law. (sibling's wife)
Pamjofra. Uncle.
Xipamxifra. Maternal aunt.
Xipampam. Maternal grandparent.
It is possible to say:
Pampamfilfil. Cousin, or offspring of the offspring of the parent
of one's parent.
But there is also the word Zin, when you want to be vague.
Zin (zinxi, zinjo) Cousin.
Used with kinship terms, compounds with da and pi mean 'elder'
and 'younger' respectively:
Grojofra Big brother.
Pixifra Little sister.
And, for that matter, when translating languages with more complex
kinship terms:
Jopamgrojofraxifil. Father's older brother's daughter.
One more kinship term is paren, meaning 'relative.'
Zisa paren. Your relatives.
Zisa zbanparen. Your in-laws.
There is an alternate set of kinship terms. Each consists of three
morphemes, thus:
Pam - parent
Pami - mother
Pamo - father
Note that these are three separate morphemes. The -i and -o are not
morphemes. They are mnemonic devices to help in vocabulary memorization.
The mnemonics apply to all other kinship terms:
Filo - son
Pamfrai - aunt
Pamopami - paternal grandmother
Pareno - male relative
It also applies to the word ‘cel’.
Cel - person
Celi - woman
Celo - man
The first set of kinship terms can always be used. The alternate set was
included for euphony and terseness.
10. THE ROOT WORD 'JI'
'Ji' means 'to become or start'. It resembles the
Esperanto 'ighi', only it is almost always used as a word,
not an affix.
Go ji dorm.
I begin to sleep, fall asleep.
Go stu. I sit.
Go ji stu I sit down.
Da grin. It is green.
Da ji grin. It turns green.
Related is the word 'ju.' It means to cause. We saw it above,
acting as a conjunction.
Go ju zi smayl. I cause you to smile.
Dom bern. The house burns.
Da pa ju dom bern. He burned the house.
Note that the structure is thus: the phrase 'dom bern' is
the object of the verb 'ju.' The English phraseology, as in:
I want you to go.
Isn't used in Ceqli. The above structure is used:
Go vol zi ja.
I want (that) you go.
Xyen kom. The dog eats.
Da pa ju xyen kom. He fed the dog.
Note that it is also possible to say:
Ta pa komdon xyen. He fed (eat-gave) the dog.
11. THE PARTICLE 'BE'.
'Be' comes from Mandarin and is the sign of the passive, so to
speak. It functions more like the Loglan version, however:
Go kom pan. I eat bread.
Pan be kom go. Bread is eaten by me.
It simply switches the places of the subject and object of the
verb it marks.
Xyen fo karne. Dog(s) need meat.
Karne be fo xyen. Meat is necessary to dogs.
Or just:
Karne be fo. Meat is needed, is necessary, is a
necessity.
Pani dan spun. Water is in the spoon.
Spun be dan pani. The spoon contains water.
Hon sur stol. The book is on the table.
Stol be sur hon. The table supports the book.
Go fir zi. I fear you.
Zi be fir go. You scare me.
It's an interesting coincidence that Mandarin 'bei', which 'be'
is derived from, oddly parallels the archaic English 'be-'
prefix. 'Zi be fir go.' could also be said 'You befear me.'
It can be used with other words:
Go dorm play gosa xyen dorm. If I sleep, my dog sleeps.
Gosa xyen dorm beplay go dorm. My dog sleeps if I sleep.
Go ten be fo sa pani. I have enough water. I have water that
is needed.
12. ADVERBS
Adverbs are words or phrases that modify verbs. In Ceqli, they
generally behave just like adjectives, and precede the verb they
modify and are separated by a sa.
Go ja. I go
Go kway sa ja. I go fast.
Without the 'sa,' the two words form a compound.
Go kwayja. I rush, hurry.
Xyen kway sa kom karne. The dog eats meat fast.
13. VERBS AS PREPOSITIONS
For the most part, adverbial prepostional phrases are just verb
phrases in Ceqli. A subject, then, has more than one verb:
Da sta kama pa gi dorm. He was sleeping in the bed.
Da pa gi dorm sta kama. He was in the bed sleeping.
The last verb, you see, is the main verb, and the preceding
one is secondary.
Go sta dom. I am located at/in the house.
Go pa sta dom dorm. I, in the house, slept.
Go ploy spun. I use a spoon.
Go pa ploy spun kom. I, with a spoon, ate.
But note:
Jocel pa sta kama dorm. The man slept in the bed.
but:
Sta kama sa jocel pa dorm. The man in the bed slept.
In the second case, the prepositional phrase modifies 'jocel,'
and is therefore placed in front of it and separated with 'sa.'
Go pa swim dan pani. I swam in the water.
Go pa swim ji dan pani. I swam into the water.
(I swam, became-in water.)
Go pa swim buji dan pani. I swam out of the water.
(I swam, stopped-being in water.)
Tem = to be about, have as a subject, concern.
Hon tem xyen. The book is about dogs.
jocel pa spi tem xyen. The man talked about dogs.
14. COMPOUND VERBS
Compound verbs are based on the Mandarin usage.
Go syq. I sing.
Ta dorm. He sleeps.
Go syqju ta dorm. I sing him to sleep. I sing-cause he sleeps.
15. IMPERATIVES
The usual Ceqli imperative is just the unadorned verb, as in
English.
Dorm. Sleep!
Ji dorm. Go to sleep!
They can be softened with 'ciq,' from Mandarin, meaning
'invite.'
Ciq ji dorm. Please go to sleep.
Which can be considered an abbreviated form of:
Go ciq zi ji dorm.
I invite that you become asleep.
16. NUMBERS
zoy Zero
so One
du Two
tri Three
car Four
fay Five
xey Six
vyu Seven
cwi Eight
gaw Nine
zar two zeros 00
zum three zeros 000
Numbers are pronounced digit by digit:
10 sozoy
1998 sogaugaucwi
1,000,000 sozumzum
Given the special nature of numbers, they are not regarded as
modifiers in Ceqli, hence, they are not separated by 'sa', but
by 'kaw' (roughly, from English 'COUnt').
sokaw xicel one woman
carkaw xyen four dogs
There are other words that behave like numerals:
pu more than
sli at least
besli at most
swi enough
Go ten pucwikaw hon.
I have more than eight books.
Go ten pusokaw xyen.
I have more than one dog.
The default, when 'pu' is not followed by a numeral, is
'so,' consequently, 'pu' is the plural marker.
Sokaw dom. One house.
Pukaw dom. Houses.
Ordinal numbers are formed by adding 'zem' to the numerals.
sozemsa xicel pa kom sozemsa pom.
The first woman ate the first apple.
When not separated by 'kaw,' numbers can form compounds with
non-numbers.
Bayn leg.
jocel ten sosa bayn.
The man has one leg.
Sobayn. A single leg.
Sobayncel. A one-legged man. Or, more likely,
Sobaynzo. A one-legged one.
Carbaynzo. Quadruped.
'Kaw' also separates any quantifier, not just the numbers and
words mentioned above.
Go ten dolarkaw karne. I have $1 worth of meat.
Zi pa bwa staynkaw biru. You drank a mug of beer.
Go to Chapter Two