• Adjectives
• Demonstrative Adjectives
• Plural and Gendered Adjectives
• Possessive Adjectives
• Alphabet
• Articles
• Negative Particle
• Partitive Article
• Nouns
• Plural Nouns
• Prefixes, Suffixes, and Morphological Conversion
• Noun to adjective: -soma/-om/-phó/-aphós
• Pronouns
• Indefinite Demonstrative Pronouns
• Proper Nouns
• Country and Place Names
• Questions
• Verbs
• Verb Tenses
• Verbs to Adjectives
• Word Classifications
• Word Order

Adjectives

Demonstrative Adjectives

Cénúglot has equivalents to this/these and that/those when used to describe specific nouns, for example, rô chéna (this dog), thá úlid (that apple), rés césutén (these houses), thés bhegálós (those words).

This should not be confused with the Indefinite Demonstrative Pronouns for this and that.

Equivalent of “this/these”

Masculine Noun	Feminine Noun	Plural Noun
rô	rá	rés

Equivalent of “that/those”

Masculine Noun	Feminine Noun	Plural Noun
thô	thá	thés

Example Sentences

Using césut (masculine)

• This house is important — ésá rô césut grâhas
• That house is important — ésá thô césut grâhas
• These houses are important — ésá rés césutén grâhas
• Those houses are important — ésá thés césutén grâhas

Using ídés (feminine)

• This idea is important — ésá rá ídés shagrâhas
• That idea is important — ésá thá ídés shagrâhas
• These ideas are important — ésá rés ídésós élgrâhas
• Those ideas are important — ésá thés ídésós élgrâhas

Plural and Gendered Adjectives

Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives can be created by taking the lemma form and adding suffixes if it is necessary to do so (e.g. if the lemma form is feminine, and a masculine equivalent is needed). Singular adjectives always agree with the gender of the noun.

Singular

	Short Words	Tall Words
To make the feminine form of a masculine lemma	lemma + et	lemma + sha
To make the masculine form of a feminine lemma	lemma + ás	lemma + rô

Plural

Plural forms are always created depending on the grammatical gender of the lemma, however, there is only one plural form of an adjective – the defined plural form is used for both masculine and feminine nouns.

	Short Words	Tall Words
Masculine Lemma	lemma + mhéa	lemma + él
Feminine Lemma	lemma + jhél	lemma + éa

In short, all adjectives have three forms: masculine form, feminine form, and plural form.

Possessive Adjectives

Possessive adjectives follow the subject’s pronoun, and the gender of the noun that follows.

English	Masculine Noun	Feminine Noun	Plural Noun
my	mô	má	més
your (sing.)	tô	tá	tés
his	sô	sá	sés
hers	dô	dá	dés
one’s	lô	lá	lés
our	fô	fá	fés
your (plural)	bhô	bhá	bhés
their	phô	phá	phés

When using proper nouns, the Proper Noun precedes the first use of the possessive adjective, and then is followed by the possessive adjective as appropriate according to their usual pronouns.

For example,
Paul’s dog — Pâl sô chéna (lit. Paul his dog)
Hannah’s video — Hana dá bhidéo (lit. Hannah her video)
Jay’s cats — Jay lés gétén (lit. Jay their cats)

For countries, places, institutions, organisations, this follows whether or not the proper noun is masculine or feminine.

Sweden’s people — Sbhêjhe sés dmhélén (lit. Sweden her people)
Germany’s people — Dîchland dés dmhélén (lit. Germany his people)

When using indefinite or definite articles in the singular, the choice of his vs her relies on the gender of the subject noun:

The dog’s house — gô chéna sô césut (lit. the dog his house)
A dog’s house — bô chéna sô césut (lit. a dog his house)
The sister’s house — gá shâsce dô césut (lit. the sister her house)
A sister’s house — bá shâsce dô césut (lit. a sister her house)

The dog’s life — gô chéna sá sábhél (lit. the dog his life)
A dog’s life — bô chéna sá sábhél (lit. a dog his life)
The sister’s life — gá shâsce dá sábhél (lit. the sister her life)
A sister’s life — bá shâsce dá sábhél (lit. a sister her life

Alphabet

Letter	IPA	English Pronunciation Approx.	Masculine or Gender Letter
a	æ	a in cat	masculine
e	ɛ	e in bet	feminine
i	ɪ	i in bin	masculine
o	ɒ	o in bot	feminine
u	ʊ	u in put (Northern English)	masculine
á	eɪ	a in pay	masculine
é	iː	ee in been	feminine
í	aɪ	i in sigh	masculine
ó	əʊ	oe in toe	feminine
ú	uː	oo in moon	masculine
â	ɔː	aw in saw	masculine
ê	ɜː	er in fern	feminine
î	ɔɪ	oy in soy	masculine
ô	aʊ	ow in cow	feminine
b	b	b in bin	feminine
bh	v	v in vacuum	feminine
c	k	c in cow	masculine
ch	tʃ	ch in church	masculine
d	d	d in dead	masculine
f	f	f in fine	feminine
fh	z	z in zone	feminine
g	ɡ	g in gone	masculine
gh	ʒ	g in genre	masculine
h	h	h in happy	feminine
j	dʒ	j in jump	feminine
jh	j	y in yellow	feminine
l	l	l in lamp	feminine
m	m	m in man	masculine
mh	w	w in wild	masculine
n	n	n in not	masculine
p	p	p in pack	feminine
ph	kw	q in queen	feminine
r	r	r in rat	masculine
s	s	s in sun	feminine
sh	ʃ	sh in shoot	feminine
t	t	t in toe	feminine
th	θ	th in this	feminine

• The digraphs bh, ch, fh, gh, jh, mh, ph, sh, th are all considered separate letters and are treated as such.
• Each letter has a gender: masculine or feminine, which determines the gender of nouns, and language conjugations.

Articles

Definite Articles

(The equivalent of English the, it follows whether the noun is masculine, feminine, or plural)

Masculine Noun	Feminine Noun	Plural Noun
gô	gá	gés

Indefinite Articles

(The equivalent of English a/an, it follows whether the noun is masculine or feminine)

Masculine Noun	Feminine Noun
bô	bá

Negative Particle

In Cénúglot, the negative particle is used to make the equivalent of “not” with verbs (e.g. He is not eating), but also to create antonyms of verbs and adjectives alike.

Verbs

With verbs, it can be used as a simple particle to signify not, or it can be attached as a prefix to the beginning of the verb to create the antonym (typical in English of verbs that start with de or un).

As the verbs are not gendered, the negative particle and prefix only change according to whether the verb is a light or heavy word.

The usage of the negative particle as opposed to the negative prefix can either be negligible, or have very specific meanings depending on context.

	Light Verbs	Heavy Verbs
as a particle	nás [verb]	ná [verb]
as an antonym	nís+verb	ní+verb

Examples:

• I like meat — mahasá mó jhés flacânós
• I do not like meat — ná mahasá mó jhés flacânós
• I dislike meat — nímahasá mó jhés flacânós

• I eat meat — íthá mó jhés flacânós
• I do not eat meat — nás íthá mó jhés flacânós
• I am (fasting from, abstaining from) meat — nísíthá mó jhés flacânós (lit. I am uneating meat)

The difference can be quite meaningful too, in cases such as:

• I am building the house — téconstásom mó gô césut
• I am not building the house — ná téconstásom mó gô césut
• I am demolishing the house — nítéconstásom mó gô césut (lit. I am unbuilding the house)
• I am not demolishing the house — ná nítéconstásom mó gô césut (lit. I am not unbuilding the house)

• you fall — téladá tó
• you do not fall — ná téladá tó
• you get-up — nítéladá tó

• to increase — mâdrénéa
• to not increase — ná mâdrénéa
• to decrease — nísmâdrénéa

Adjectives

In order for the adjective to retain its original designation as masculine or feminine, as well as being light or heavy, the prefix for the adjective is dependant on gender and word-weight (light or heavy)

	Masculine	Feminine
Light Adjectives	ân+adjective	ên+adjective
Heavy Adjectives	nâ+adjective	snán+adjective

For example:

• He is happy — ésá só rôsoga
• He is not happy — nás ésá só rôsoga
• He is unhappy — ésá só ânrôsoga
• He is not unhappy — nás ésá só ânrôsoga

Partitive Article

The partitive article refers to unspecified quantities of food, liquid, or uncountable nouns. It can be best translated to some or any in English. It is also used when talking about things generally, where you wouldn’t be able to use the definite or indefinite article.

For example:

• íthá mó jhés úlidós — I eat apples [in general]
• íthá mó gés úlidós — I eat the apples
• íthá mó cés úlidós — I eat these apples
• mahasá mó jhés úlidós — I like apples [in general]
• mahasá mó gés úlidós — I like the apples [that you are referring to]
• mahasá mó cés úlidós — I like these apples

Masculine Noun	Feminine Noun	Plural Noun
jhô	jhá	jhés

Lemma Index

Nouns

• Every noun has a grammatical gender, which is determined by the first letter of the noun’s lemma. For example, fh is a feminine letter, so all nouns beginning with fh are feminine. M is a masculine letter, so all nouns beginning with a m are masculine.
• Grammatical gender is not influenced by the gender or biological sex of what the noun relates to.

Plural Nouns

Plural nouns are formed by taking into account whether the lemma form of the noun is masculine or feminine, and whether the last letter of the singular noun is a consonant or vowel, and then applying a suffix:

	Short Words (bénagál)	Tall Words (sàshgál)
Masculine	+ dô	+ én
Feminine	+ té	+ ós

Prefixes, Suffixes, and Morphological Conversion

Noun to adjective: -soma/-om/-phó/-aphós

This is most closely related to the English suffix -like, or sometimes, -ly or -y, which creates an adjective from a noun that describes something having the characteristics of the noun, or being like the noun (e.g. childlike, cloudy).

This is typically used to describe neutral and positive characteristics, and not negative ones, which is typically described in English using the -ish pronoun (e.g. childish).

	Short Noun	Tall Noun
Masculine Noun	noun + soma	noun + om
Feminine Noun	noun + phó	noun + aphós

Pronouns

Subject Pronouns

Pronoun	Translation	Gender agreement
I	mó	masculine or feminine, depending on speaker’s gender
you (singular)	tó	masculine or feminine, depending on target’s gender
he	só	masculine
she	dó	feminine
one	ló	plural
we	fó	plural
you (plural)	bhó	plural
they	phó	plural

Notes:

• the “one” form (ló) is used in gender-neutral contexts (e.g. if the gender of the person is not known), equivalent to the English singular their, although it always uses the plural form for adjectives (rather than the singular for he/her).
• the “one” form (ló) is also used for giving instructions – e.g. “one must stop here”, and in instruction manuals, “one inserts the nail here”.

Indefinite Demonstrative Pronouns

Indefinite demonstrative pronouns are used to replace subject pronouns when talking about something in general, or when demonstrative adjectives are not used. It is the equivalent of “this”, “that”, and “it”, and used when talking about something abstract, such as a situation or concept, or in reference to something unnamed or unspecific.

it	ca
this	cé
that	có
these	cés
those	cós

Proper Nouns

Country and Place Names

The names of countries and places are formed by making phonetic translations of the country or place name in its native language (the endonym), and using the closest IPA sounds in the Cénúglot alphabet.

However, the use of endonym only applies to place names — for official titles, and for descriptions (e.g. United States of, Kingdom of, Northern, and, of, etc.), the use of Célúglot words is used around the place names.

For example:

• Bosnia and Herzegovina — Bosna ast Hetsegobhéna
• Northern Ireland — Áre Tmhâd
  

Questions

In typical sentence structure, the word order is Verb/Subject/Object. However, when asking a question, the verb and subject are switched, much like in English:

• This is my house — ésá cé mô césut
• Is this my house? — cé ésá mô césut?
• I am seeing the dog — bhásom mó gô chéna
• Am I seeing the dog? — mó bhásom gô chéna?
• I will go home — licó mó ó gá bhâlé
• Will I go home? — mó licó ó gá bhâle?

Verbs

Verb Tenses

Roughly, Cénúglot has the same verb tenses as English, comprising of present, past, and future tenses, all of which contain further tenses that are simple, continuous, perfect, or perfect continuous.

The verb lemma is always used as the infinite verb (to eat, to be, to leave, etc.)

Forming Particles

Each verb has three tense particles for present, past, and future. These are formed according to whether the verb lemmas are short or tall.

	Short Lemma	Tall Lemma
Present Particle	last letter* of the lemma is changed to á	lemma + á
Past Particle	last letter* of the lemma is changed to é	lemma + é
Future Particle	last letter* of the lemma is changed to ó	lemma + ó

• If the lemma ends in two vowels, e.g. éa, then both letters are changed – so, for example, éa would be changed to á for the present particle.

Present Tenses

Simple Present	present participle
Perfect Present	present participle + déas
Continuous Present	present participle + som
Perfect Continuous Present	present participle + pét

Past Tenses

Simple Past	past participle
Perfect Past	past participle + déas
Continuous Past	past participle + som
Perfect Continuous Past	past participle + pét

Future Tenses

Simple Future	future participle
Perfect Future	future participle + déas
Continuous Future	future participle + som
Perfect Continuous Future	future participle + pét

Verbs to Adjectives

The past participle equivalent (-ed)

In English, the past participle is used to create an adjective to describe a noun: for example, the broken nose, the smashed vase.

In Cénúglot, the verb lemma is taken and a new adjective lemma is created accordingly:

Short Verb Lemma	Long Verb Lemma
Verb Lemma + téaca	Verb Lemma + éac

Word Classifications

All words can roughly be grouped into three classifications:

Masculine & Feminine

Nouns are classed by whether they are masculine or feminine, and it is the initial letter that determines this.

Masculine nouns begin with:
a, i, u, á, í, ú, â, î, ô, c, ch, d, g, gh, m, mh, n, r

Feminine nouns begin with:
e, o, é, ó, ê, ô, b, bh, f, fh, h, j, jh, l, p, ph, s, sh, t, th

Light (alemgál) & Heavy (tuntgál)

All words are classed as either being “light” or “heavy”, depending on the first letter of the word:

Light words begin with vowels: a, e, i, o, u, á, é, í, ó, ú, â, ê, î, ô

Heavy words begin with consonants: b, bh, c, ch, d, f, fh, g, gh, h, j, jh, l, m, mh, n, p, ph, r, s, sh, t, th

Short (bénagál) & Tall (sàshgál)

All words are classed as either being “tall” or “short”, depending on the last letter of the word:

Short words end with vowels: a, e, i, o, u, á, é, í, ó, ú, â, ê, î, ô

Tall words end with consonants: b, bh, c, ch, d, f, fh, g, gh, h, j, jh, l, m, mh, n, p, ph, r, s, sh, t, th

	Light / Short	Heavy / Tall
Masculine	a, i, u, á, í, ú, â, î	c, ch, d, g, gh, m, mh, n, r
Feminine	e, o, é, ó, ê, ô	b, bh, f, fh, h, j, jh, l, p, ph, s, sh, t, th

Word Order

Cénúglot follows the Verb/Subject/Object word order, with adjectives coming after the noun they are being used to describe. Articles precede the nouns they relate to, as do demonstrative adjectives (e.g. rô césut — this house, thés úlidós — those apples) and possessive adjectives (e.g. més chénadô – my dogs).