www.nabel.org.uk

NABEL

La Neo Langa
The New Language

Learning Material For Nabel
and
Grammar of Nabel

Note: This language and this website were developed for the Key Skills modules for an NVQ I am completing (2004 AD).

Pronunciation

There are no silent letters.

I before a vowel is pronounced like Y and counted as one syllable.

U always follows Q to make a KW sound.

A Alpha

B Bravo

C Kilo

D Delta

E Echo

F Foxtrot

G Golf

H Hotel

I cosy

J Juliet

K Kilo

L Lima

M Mike

N November

O Go

P Papa

Q Quote

R Romeo

S Sierra

T Tango

U Moon

V Victory

W Water

X Axe

Y Yankee

Z Zulu

CH, SCH, CC Charlie

Grammar

Articles

The indefinite article is una and the definite article is la. When the definite article is in the plural, it becomes li.

Nouns

Nouns do not take gender. Nouns can end with a consonant or a vowel. If they end with a vowel, end with the following vowels: a, e, o or u. For a noun to act adjectivally, it is simply placed before a noun. Pluralare formed by placing i on the end of the noun. Therefore no nouns end in i. There are no cases. The subject always precedes the predicate.

Adjectives

Adjectives always precede the nouns. In the plural the adjective also takes -i. This may at first seem a little complex but it reflects natural languages and agreement of adjectives and nouns, without making it so difficult. For an adjective to become an adjectival noun, it operates as an adjective, and simply does not precede a noun. Comparatives are formed by placing mas before the adjective, and superlatives by placing plusa before the adjective. "Than" is translated by ce.

Adverbs

Adverbs are formed by placing -mente onto the root. Comparatives and superlatives as per adjectives.

Numbers

The cardinal numbers are:

0 zero
1 una
2 dosa
3 tria
4 quarta
5 ccinca
6 sexa
7 septa
8 occa
9 nona
10 deca

100 ccenta
1000 mila

Numbers are built by simply junction, e.g.: 1984 = mila nonaccenta occadeca quarta.

Ordinals are formed by placing -iema in place of the final -a of the numeral. Thus: uniema first, etc. They then behave adjectivally.

Multiples are formed by placing -opla, as above. These also behave adjectivally.

Collective numerals are formed by making a noun by placing -etto on the end, instead of the final -a of the numeral, thus: quartetto is a quartet.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns are as follows (not altering according to case):

Singular:
Me (I), tu (you), le (he), ele (she), cce (it), one (one)

Plural:
Nos (we), vos (you), les (they)

Reflexive:
Se

Posession is shown by placing de before the pronoun.

Verbs

Verbs do not vary or change for person or number. There are no irregular verbs.

Let us take the word ir, go, and es, be, as our examples. Take the basic word as the root, and add as follows:

ir to go; infinitive

Me ir I go; present tense

Me irra I will go; future tense

Me irret I went; past tense

Irrez! Go!; imperative

Me irria I would go; conditional

Es to be; infinitive

Me es I am; present tense

Me esera I will be ; future tense

Me eseret I was; past tense

Eserez! Be!; imperative

Me eseria I would be; conditional

The suffixes are:

Infinitive (no suffix)

Present tense (no suffix)

Future tense –(e)ra

Past tense –(e)ret

Imperative –(e)rez

Conditional –(e)ria

The additional e is added only for euphony.

Participle formation:

Don give

Doned giving; present active

Gedoned being given; present passive

Doneted having given; past active

Gedoneted given; past passive

Donoted will give; future active

Gedonoted will be given; future passive

It is to be assumed that in cases where a verb may be transitive or intransitive, such as ambiguity of the English word hang (it is hanging – intransitive; I hang it on the wall – transitive), it is to be automatically assumed that the verb is intransitive only in cases of ambiguity. To make it transitive, one prefixes the verb far (make) onto the verb.

To form a yes-no question, word order remains unchanged, but the grammatical particle que is placed at the beginning of the questioning clause, thus indicating a question.It also means the word whether. For other forms of questions, a relevant question word (e.g. how, when, etc.) is used.

Pronunciation (for more on this, see top of page)

Every word is pronounced as it is spelt.

Stress

Stress is put upon the penultimate syllable, except where euphony dictates, e.g. família, family. On that occasion, when the stress is put upon another syllable, an acute accent is in theory placed above the stressed symbol. In regular writing however an acute accent may not be used to make the language appeal visually pleasing and uncluttered, but for dictionaries and text books when one learns Nabel, an acute accent is represented above the irregularly stressed syllable. Accents appear in dictionaries and textbooks only, not in regular usage of the language.

Compound words

Compound words are formed by simple junction of words with the chief word at the end.

Multiple negation

Multiple negation (i.e. double negatives) do not serve to cancel each other out; rather they serve to emphasise negativity of the sentence or clause.

Prepositions

Prepositions are fixed. When sense does not indicate which one should be used, recourse to the preposition sa, a general purpose preposition with no defined meaning of its own, may be used.

Correlatives

Question words and relevant correlating responses are contained in the following correlatives table. These are also used for the demonstrative in subordinate clauses (e.g. “the man who went”; la homina qui irret). This is represented by placing cci before the relevant correlative. The word that, (as in “I heard that you are a doctor”) is represented by qua.

	what	that	some	no	every
why	quo	ccelquo	quelquo	nesquo	tutto
when	quand	ccelquand	quelquand	nesquand	tuttand
where	quonde	ccelquonde	quelquonde	nesquonde	tuttonde
how	quomo	ccelquomo	quelquomo	nesquomo	tuomo
whose	de qui	de ccelqui	de quelqui	de nesqui	de tutti
what	quod	ccelquod	quelquod	nesquod	tuttod
how much	quod quanto	ccelquod quanto	quelquod quanto	nesquod quanto	tuttod quanto
who	qui	ccelqui	quelqui	nesqui	tutti
which	que	ccelque	quelque	nesque	tutte