A Guide to Neo Patwa

Introduction

Neo Patwa is not a difficult language to learn. Compared with other languages you have probably studied in the past, it has a simple vocabulary, a simple grammar, and a simple phonetic system.

This guide is divided into three major parts. The first is "rules", meaning things that are an essential part of the language. Thankfully, this is not very long! The second part is examples of usage. This gives you ideas on how to use the language in practice. And the third is a reference section, reminding you of the important words in Neo Patwa.

One thing to keep in mind as you learn Neo Patwa is that it is not intended to be a strict, rule-oriented language where there is a "right way" and a "wrong way" to say things. The important thing is to make yourself understood. Consequently, much of the language involves the lexical items (words that have meaning, like "book" or "eat"), and very little involves purely grammatical ideas (like singular vs. plural and tenses).

First, on to the rules of the language.

Pronunciation

Neo Patwa is designed to be easy to pronounce. The sounds that are used are common across languages, so it should be easy to communicate with others. There are five vowels, and 16 consonants.

Vowels

A (father); E (pet); I (sheet); O (coat); U (shoot)

Consonants

P (pen); B (bet); K (kangaroo); G (go); T (ten); D (den); C (cheat); S (sit); X (shell), F (find); H (loch); M (mine); N (not)

Semivowels

Y (yard); W (water); L (long)

These are for the most part pronounced as in English. The major exceptions are H, which should preferably be pronounced with a guttural sound, like the "CH" in "loch", and R, which should preferably be pronounced with a trill or a tap (as in Spanish). This is to make the sounds more recognizable. The spelling is usually similar to English, except that C is pronounced "ch" and X is pronounced "sh".

When two vowels follow one another, you should pronounce the two more or less separately, as in "chaos," "Israel," or "viola," for example, but it's generally acceptable to flow them together, so that "pei," for example, could be pronounced as "pay" in English.

In addition, there are consonants that can be used in Neo Patwa, but are not used in the core vocabulary. These sounds can be used in specific cultural terms and in proper nouns, for example. THey are R (red); Z (zebra); V (vote); and J (jack).

Greetings

Greetings in Neo Patwa can be left to individual preferences to some extent. But in the interest of creating a world culture, here are some suggestions.

Hello: Xanti. (peace)
Good Bye: Xanti / Cao
Thank you: Asante (thanks)
You're welcome: No mesti asante (no need thanks)
I'm sorry: Soli
Don't worry: Oke / No susi (no worry)

Simple Sentences

Sentences in Neo Patwa are basically built like English sentences. In other words, there is a subject, a verb, and an object.

Just to get you started, here are a couple of words.

Balu: bear
Makan: eat
Pwasan: fish

Balu makan pwasan. (The bear ate the fish) or (Bears eat fish).

Note: There are three interesting things to note here for an English speaker. First, there are no articles, like "the" and "a" in English. The second is that there is no distinction between singular and plural nouns. Balu can be either "bear" or "bears". And third, there is no conjugation of verbs. Makan can mean "will eat", "eats" and "ate".

Modifying Nouns

Often, you will want to modify nouns in a sentence, using adjectives and the like. The following is a complicated phrase, which would be unlikely to be used in real life, but it illustrates how a noun can be modified by various words.

Napela lyupela mi di nila di cidya. (These six blue birds of mine)

Na: that
-pela: Counter word (see below)
Lyu: 6
Mi: I, me
Di: Modifier particle (see below)
Nila: Blue
Cidya: Bird

There are two important words here that require some further explanation.

The very important one is the particle di. It follows a noun to indicate possession, and follows an adjective before a noun.

Another word is -pela, which is placed after a numeral to mean it's being used to count something, or after a word like "what" or "that" to mean it is referring to a specific object (like "which" instead of "what" in English).

Prepositions and Sentence Structure

In principle, all parts of sentences outside of the subject, verb and direct object should be marked with a preposition. There is a basic preposition fo that can be used as a default. When more precision is needed, you can use a number of verbs to indicate the role of the phrase in the sentence.

Yu: You
Kata: Cut
Mjaso: Meat
Caku: Knife
Pakai: Use

Using a verb as a preposition, you could write:

Yu pakai caku kata mjaso. (You cut meat using a knife)

But you can also say:

Yu kata mjaso fo caku. (You cut meat with a knife)

Other verbs that can function as prepositions include the following:

Cule: From (depart)
Fika: To (arrive)
Tomo: With (accompany)
Sta: At (located)

Repeating the Subject

In sentences where the subject is more than just one word, and particularly when the subject is complex, it is better to put a pronoun before the verb. So for example:

Balu makan pwasan. (Bear eats fish)

Is fine the way it is. But if you wanted to say that two blue bears (for grammar's sake!) ate fish, it would be better to say:

Dopela nila di balu, tapela makan pwasan. (Two blue bears, they ate fish)

Modifying Verbs

Verbs can be modified by placing verbs, particles and modifiers in front of them. This can be illustrated with the following sentence.

Ta: He/she/it
No: Negative particle
Sa: Irrealis particle (see below)
Kwai: Quickly, fast
Ale: Go

Ta no sa kwai ale. (He won't go quickly)

The first particle, no, is simply for negation (you would normally use "not" in English).

The second, sa, is a tense marker, equivalent perhaps to "will" in English. The tense markers in Neo Patwa are ya, which indicates that an action has already been completed, sta, meaning it is still ongoing, and sa, meaning that it is hypothetical or future.

The word sta actually has a wide range of uses. It can be used to mean that an action is ongoing, but is also used to show equivalence, i.e. "he IS a student".

Note: In general, you don't have to use these markers unless you want to indicate the time. There is no need to keep using a "past tense" like in English to discuss things that happened in the past. Technically speaking, the Neo Patwa particles do not mark tense but rather "aspect" and "mood". Ya is not a marker of the past, but rather marks the "anterior aspect". In English, you might say "Once I have finished my homework, I'll watch TV." The "have finished" is not really the past tense, since you are actually discussing a future action! And similarly, sta means that an action or state is still ongoing (technically, the "non-punctual aspect") and sa means an action is planned or hypothetical, like in the sentence, "If it rains, I will use an umbrella" (technically, this is the "irrealis mood").

The third word, kwai, means "fast". Modifiers can be placed before the verb without any particle in between.

Examples of Use

That is pretty much the end of the "grammatical rules." The following sections illustrate how to use the language in practice. They are not really rules, but rather suggestions on how to use the language in a way that is easy to understand.

Helping Verbs and Serial Verbs

One interesting aspect of Neo Patwa is that verbs can go together without anything in between. In English, we would "I like to go", but in Neo Patwa you can simply say "I like go". In addition, you can put verbs together to create a sentence, so you might say "I shoot bear make die," which means "I shot the bear dead" or something like that.

First, here are some helping (auxiliary) verbs.

Sabe: Can

This is used to show something is possible. For example:

Mi sabe nata (I can swim)

Mesti: Must

This shows necessity, obviously. For example:

Ta mesti makan. (He must eat)

Paswa: Should

This shows advisability. So for example:

Mi paswa makan. (I should eat)

Sase: Cause

This is placed before another verb (with the object in between) to make it causative. For example:

Mi sase balu mati. (I killed the bear)

Lese: Allow

This is placed before another verb to indicate that something has been allowed to happen. For example, "He dropped the money" is Ta lese (fall) pesa.

Ta lese pesa oci. (He dropped the money)

Passive Voice

A similar structure can be used to make passive sentences (like "I was hit by the car" in English). There is not real passive form in Neo Patwa, but you can use the helping verb subi to make a similar form.

Subi: Undergo

This is used to make a passive sentence. It is placed before another verb or verb phrase to make it passive. For example:

Pwasan subi balu makan ta. (the fish was eaten by the bear)

Not that this really means, "The fish underwent, the bear ate it."

There are actually two other ways to make a form like a passive. One is to use the subject tapela (meaning "they"), when the subject is actually not known. So:

Tapela makan mi di pwasan. (They ate my fish)

This actually means, "my fish was eaten (by something)".

And finally, you can place the word you want to emphasize at the beginning of the sentence, using the the word nipa, which means something like "regarding". So:

Nipa pwasan, balu makan ta. (About the fish, the bear ate it)

Asking Questions

Mai: Question particle
Ke: What
Yan: Person

To ask a yes or no question in Neo Patwa, just add the word mai at the end of the sentence. So for example:

Balu makan mjaso. (The bear eats meat)
Balu makan mjaso mai? (Does the bear eat meat)

To ask a content question, like "who are you?" simply insert a question word in the proper place of the original sentence. So for example:

Nayan sta John. (That person is John)
Nayan sta keyan? (What person is who?/Who is that?)

A Short Reference to Helping Verbs and Grammar

A lot in Neo Patwa is done with helping verbs. Remembering a few common words and particles, along with just a few helping verbs, can be very helpful. I recommend that you print this section out; it essentially gives you what you need to remember.

Personal Pronouns

The personal pronouns in Neo Patwa are:
Mi (first person singular)
Yu (second person singular)
Ta (third person singular)

To make plurals, add pela to the end. So mipela is "we".

Particles

Si means "yes".
No means "no". It is used before a verb to form the negative.
Di means basically "modifies" or "have", and comes after an adjective and before the noun it modifies, or after a possessor and before the possessee. "A blue person" is nila di yan.
Fo is in a sense the opposite, meaning "belongs to" or "is modified by". It can also be used as a general-purpose preposition.

Ce is "this".
Na is "that".
Ke is "what".

Tenses

Ya indicates that an action is finished.
Sta indicates that an action is ongoing.
Sa indicates that an action is not realized, or hypothetical.

Helping Verbs

Sabe (can) is used to indicate possibility. "I can swim" is mi bole nata.
Mesti (must) is used to indicate necessity. "He must eat" is Ta mesti makan.
Hase (do) can be placed before a noun to indicate doing some action. For example, to play tennis is hase tennis.
Sase (cause) is placed before another verb to make it causative. For example, "kill" is sase mati, meaning "cause to die."
Lese (allow) is placed before another verb to indicate that something has been allowed to happen. For example, "He dropped the money" is Ta lese (fall) pesa.
Subi (undergo) is placed before another verb or verb phrase to make it passive. For example, "the fish was eaten by the bear" is Pwasan subi balu makan.

Ending Particles

Ma is used to ask a question, and also to mean "or".
Si is used to ask for confirmation or for suggestions.
La is for an assertion.

That's all you really need to know. Plus the vocabulary, of course!

Numbers

The numbers in Neo Patwa are:
1 wan, 2 do, 3 san, 4 cal, 5 nam, 6 lyu, 7 sem, 8 pal, 9 nin.
10 deka, 100 heka, 1000 kilo.

Rule for New Words