The rules at a glance

Senatola has few rules, and each one always applies. This page sums them up; the complete rules with their reasons are in the rulebook.

Parts of speech and endings

Every content word consists of a root and an ending. The root carries the meaning (nam = eat), the ending shows the part of speech. Each ending has exactly one job, whatever the root.

Every root has a basic type: action (nam), quality (bir), thing (dov) or quantity (kir). The ending -u exists only on quantity roots.

There is no separate word for “to be”: the ending -e turns a quality into “to be …” (tole = to be clear) and a thing into “to be a …” (dove = to be a house).

Word building

New words are made from known parts. Prefixes are consonant + vowel, suffixes vowel + consonant, so the syllable pattern is always kept.

-en- is not the same as -ot-: lumota is the lamp (the object that makes light), lumene means to make bright.

Compounds: the head word comes first, the specifying word follows. Between the parts there is always -a-; only the last ending shows the part of speech:

• nama (food) + lim (green) → namalima = cucumber
• “want” + “eat” → duranama = hunger
• “see” + “write” → vesagefe = to read, vesagefa = reading

Written separately it is a description: nama limi = green food. Written together it is a fixed term, like “glove” or “blackbird”.

Word length: a word has at most 5 syllables, frequent words ideally only 4. Ideas that appear in many words therefore have a short root of their own: tree is gera (not “plant + big”), so forest becomes nisagera (place + tree).

There is no participle form (“bought”); you say it with a relative clause: dova je mi nide po = the house that I bought.

Sentence structure

Subject – verb – object – rest. The first noun is always the one acting or the one the sentence is about. Verbs never change: no personal endings, no tenses.

• Places and other prepositional phrases go in the rest and always belong to the whole sentence.
• An adverb (-o) comes directly after the verb.
• Every clause has exactly one verb, never two in a row. “I learn to speak Senatola” = mi rave sena Senatola (literally: I learn the speaking of Senatola).
• Time phrases always come with a preposition: di nupa hi = today (on the day here).
• If an action is the object, the subject does it; a noun after it is affected: mi dure duba tu = I want to help you.

Prepositions

A preposition stands before its noun, and the whole group belongs to the sentence. It applies to all nouns after it joined with su, jo or ho: ko vupila su duranama = from poverty and hunger.

• ga only means “together with”; a tool or means takes ru (through).
• ru and ko show duration and “since” only with a time noun; otherwise ru means way or means and ko origin. A reason always takes ko vera.
• Position takes di nisa + adjective (di nisa vuluri = behind), “next to” is di goba, “between” di rafa.
• The time of day names the number on the clock as a thing: di seta kira = at three o'clock; minutes follow with su.

Nouns, quantities and qualities

Quantity – noun – quality. Numbers and other quantities come before the noun, adjectives after it.

• Plural only when needed: ma before the noun. After numbers it is dropped.
• No gender, no articles, no cases.
• Comparison with ro (more): ro biri = bigger.
• Before an adjective or a verb a quantity word measures the quality or the action: pulu biri = very big, lo pulu vupile = it is very poor.

Noun + noun: when two nouns stand side by side, the second specifies the first. This is also how possession works:

Time, negation and particles

Time and negation are short words after the verb, time first. Without a time word, the context decides.

• ne always negates the word directly before it: rava Senatola gome ne. = Learning Senatola is not difficult.
• Negation says “not so”, the opposite is formed with vu-: gome ne = is not difficult, vugome = is easy.
• Particles (mo also, so only, ha again) come directly after the word they refer to: mi mo name nama. = I too eat food.

Questions and pointing

A yes-no question starts with ka: ka tu name nama? = Do you eat food? In all other questions ka stands where the answer would be; the word order never changes: tu name nama ka? = Which food do you eat?

Questions and pointing words are a building kit of a category word and a short word:

To every question ja answers “the statement holds” and ne “it does not hold”, however the question was asked.

Requests

A request starts with vo; the subject stays. This lets vo do more than the English imperative:

Subordinate and relative clauses

Subordinate clauses always come after the main clause and start with their conjunction (ke because, fi if or when, de that). Several main clauses are always joined with a conjunction (su and, jo or, ho but).

A subordinate clause runs to the end of the sentence: whatever follows with su, jo or ho still belongs to it. Whatever belongs to the main clause goes before it or into a new sentence. A ke or fi clause applies to all main clauses before it: mi name, su tu lape, fi ma mi bure duranama. = I eat and you drink if we are hungry.

A relative clause comes directly after its noun and starts with je. If je is followed directly by the verb, je is the subject; otherwise it is the object.

Direct speech

re introduces direct speech and is spoken aloud, because quotation marks cannot be heard. In writing, the quoted sentence also stands in quotation marks.

Comparisons and “self”

• ro (more) and hu (less) come before what they measure; te = than, si = like, as.
• sena hi ro tole te sena da. = This language is clearer than that one.
• lo sene si mi. = He speaks like me. si always compares with the subject: mi nile tu si pina mi. = I love you as my child loves you.
• lo vese lo luti. = He sees himself. lo vese lo vuluti. = He sees him (someone else).

The short words

The most frequent words have one syllable. They never take an ending.

Pairs of opposites always differ in their consonant (hi/da, po/vi, ja/ne), so that a mishearing never turns into the opposite unnoticed. Plural: ma mi = we, ma tu = you (plural), ma lo = they.