JOVIAN TEXT
===========

Te huede ei bebé!
[t@ hy@d e ve'be:]
-----------------

"¡Mi o Dé!  ¿Cod hae blude ic?"
[mi A ze:  kA he blu:d iC]

"Heire, ih crioge hae veinde nor ad dowu, jueme o feime, ¡eor 
[hejr  i kri@g he vend nAr ad do:v  jy@m A vejm  Er]

oud se huede ja doema ih bebéi!  Ih hae fide facte yh iornija
[o dz@ hy@d j@ zAjm i be'vej  i he vi:d faxt y hir'ni:]

yh fadun ipfe: Era in blictare se ni candare na caerma, etc.
[y 'fa:d@ nipf  e:r im bliC'ta:r s@ ni g@n'da:r n@ gErm, e'tsed@r]

Sed tun id bebé ipfe hae fide suodade, juoglade ed borade, 
[set tun ib be'be: ipf he vi:d su'da:d  ju'gla:d eb bA'ra:d]

uscad potreme ja reoftada haen fide jacte de ei fenter."
['uSk@p pA'tre:m j@ rEf'ta:d hEm pfi:d jaxt de 'vent@r]

"¿Ac, cod hae blude?  ¿Oud dix, cod hae blude?"
[ax, kA he blu:d  o'diS  kA he blu:d]

"Verei nau xijo.  Ed eor nor liongae taegen eja nun, nan si
['ve:re no 'Si:A  e dEr nAr 'liNge 'tajg@ ne:j nun  nan si]

ga haere fide eite ei poublaere, nau ga haere ostade ei vuogu
[ga hajr fi:d ejt e bu'blajr  no ga hajr AS'ta:d e vu@g]

muo manore noedsadu ad indrohaedsone."
[mu@ m@'no:r na'dza:d a ,dindrAhE'dzo:n]

GRAMMAR NOTES
=============

Noun Phrases:

In Modern Jovian, nouns only inflect for number, not for case.
Only pronouns still have case inflections.  For that reason, it
is important that each noun phrase be marked with at least an 
article or a preposition, lest it be interpreted by default as 
a nominative before the verb or an accusative after the verb.

The 3rd person personal pronoun |is, ja, id| "he, she, it" doubles
as the definite article e.g. |ja feima| "the woman" (literally: 
"she woman").  The indefinite article is |u, a, un|.  Both are
very irregular, thus their inflected forms are given in the 
vocabulary.

A peculiarity of Jovian noun phrases is the fronting of modifiers.
An adjective or adjective-like pronoun can be moved BEFORE the 
noun phrase's first word (an article or preposition), where it
loses all inflection.  Observe:

  |a feima beola| OR |beole a feima| "a pretty woman"

With most pronouns, this construction is actually mandatory:

  |oene ni obe| "by every means"
  |nuole u omme| "not a single man, no man"
  |mi yh mare| "of my mother"

The oblique case combines the roles of the Latin dative and
ablative cases.

Plural endings for the nouns include -s, -ae (feminine),
-a (neuter), -ei (e-thematic).

Verbs:

Jovian verbs always inflect for person and number.

The regular verb endings are the following:

1sg: -o          1pl: -ame, -ime, -in
2sg: -as, -es    2pl: -aese, -ise, -is
3sg: -a, -e      3pl: -an, -en, -un

The i-thematic conjugation also afflicts an i-umlaut to the
stem vowel if it is stressed:

  |ozire| "to hate"   |oezo| "I hate"

Jovian has one inflected verb tense: the imperfect.  It is formed
regularly for most verbs, by appending a regularly inflected
-vare verb ending to the verb root:

  |candare| "to sing"  |candavare| "to have been singing"
  |cando| "I sing"     |candavo| "I was singing" 
  ...                  ...

The verb |ere| has the irregular imperfect form |erare|.

All other verb modulations are built with the help of 
auxiliaries, e.g.:

  |haere| + PP: perfect aspect/tense
     |hae facte| "(he, she) made, has made"
  |gare| + infinitive: conditional mood
     |ga venire| "(he, she) would come"
  |fire| + PP: passive voice
     |fi candade| "(it) is sung"
  |ere| + |in| + infinitive: continuous aspect
     |sou in laubrare| "I am working"

These constructions can be applied on top of each other, and the
imperfect form of the auxiliary can be used:

  |fi candade| "(it) is sung", |fiva candade| "(it) was being 
     sung"

The perfect fulfills the role of the English simple past, while
the imperfect is used less commonly, and can often be translated
into a past continuous in English:

  |hae plude| "it rained, it has rained"
  |pluviva| "it was raining"

Idioms:

The title is a reference to a common warning sign.  

The forms |ih doemu|, |ja doema| are used to refer to the 
listener (2nd person) in a very polite way.  ("Would the
lady fancy a glass of champagne?")  In Modern Jovian, it has
mostly disappeared; only elderly people still use it.

VOCABULARY
==========

Words that have acquired a figurative meaning are marked with
a (!).  Feel free to ask for glosses.

(Man, I have much too few drifted meanings.  I should add many
more...)

|ac| intj. < Ge. ACH
|ad| prep. < AD
|bebé| n.n. < Fr. BÉBÉ
|blictare se| v. < DELECTARI
|borare| v. < DEVORARE
|bouver, blude| v. < DEVOLVERE (!)
|caerme| n.n. < CARMEN
|candare| v. < CANTARE
|cod| int. pron. < QUOD
|crioge| n.m. < Ge. KRIEG (= war)
|Dé| n.m. < DEUS
|doema| n.f. < DOMINA
|dowu| n.f. < DOMUS
|ed| conj. < ET
|ei| pron. 3sg oblique
|eja| adv. < ETIAM
|eor| conj. < ERGO
|ere, erare, side| v. < ESSE
|ezer, eite| v. < EDERE
|faeger, facte| v. < FACERE
|fadun| n.n. < FATUM
|feime| n.f. < FEMINA
|fenter| n.n. < FENESTRA & Ge. FENSTER
|fire| v. < FIERI (passive voice auxiliary)
|gare| v. < AGAM etc (conditional mood auxiliary)
|haever| v. < HABERE
|heire| adv. < HERI
|hueder| v. < Ge. HÜTEN (= "safeguard, beware ACC from OBL")
|ic| adv. < HIC
|id| pron. 3sg neuter nominative and accusative
|ih| pron. 3sg masculine nominative
|ih| pron. 3pl oblique
|indrohaedsone| n.f. < INTERROGATIO
|ipfe| pron. < IPSE
|ja| pron. 3sg feminine nominative
|jaeger, jacte| v. < IACERE
|jueme| adj. < IUVENIS
|juoglare| v. < IUGULARE
|lionga| n.f. < LINGUA
|manore| adv. < MAGNOPERE
|mi| poss. pron. < MEUS
|muo| adv. < MULTUM
|nan| conj. < NAM
|nau| adv. < NON
|ni| pron. indefinite sg. oblique
|noedzare| v. < INODIARE
|nor| poss. pron. < NOSTER
|nun| adv. < NUNC
|o| prep. < O (vocative)
|ostare| v. < OBSTARE (= "stand up to, face, confront")
|oud| part. < O UT (optative)
|oud dix| part. < O UT DICAS
|potreme| adv. < POSTREMO
|poublaere| n.n. < POPULARE (!) supplanting PUBLICUM
|reoftada| n.n.pl. < REFUTATA < REFUTARE
|sed| conj. < SED
|se| pron. reflexive accusative
|si| conj. < SI
|suodare| v. < ASSULTARE
|tagire| v. < TACERE
|tun| adv. < TUM
|uscad| prep. < USQUE AD
|venire, veinde| v. < VENIRE
|verei| adv. < VERUS
|vuogu| n. < VULGUS
|yh| pron. 3sg genitive