Word-building
Common
Indo-European Roots
They make up
Uropi’s basic vocabulary:
f.ex:
Pëtêr* (father), mâtêr* (mother),
bhrâtêr* (brother),
swésôr* (sister),
sûnús* (son),
dhugëtêr* (daughter),
sâwel* (sun), mori* (dead),
snighws* (snow),
sed-* (to sit),
stâyô* (to stand),
mer-* (to die),
gwîwô* (to live),
leghmi* (to lie),
dyêus* (day),
mêns* (month),
édmi* (to eat),
pibô* (to drink),
gwous* (ox), kwôn* (dog)…
= Uropi
Pater,
mata, frat, sesta, son, dota, sol, mar, snev, sedo, sto, moro, 3ivo, le3o,
dia, mon, jedo, pivo, gov, kun…
Borrowings (loan words)
Those are essentially
the terms which have already become international, such as hotèl,
taksì, menù, radiò, telefòn, televìz…, etc…
They are much
more numerous as is usually believed, for, since the moment they were born,
European languages have constantly been exchanging
words and expressions of all sorts with each other.
f.ex:
reparo,
rezervo, ilusiòn, situasiòn, konsèrt, kongrès,
harmonij, simfonij, kakofonij, sektor, seleksiòn, simbòl, sinagòg,
vaksin, vals, vampir, vaslin (vaseline), vaz,
vena (vein), veranda,
vanìl, verbena, veterinor…
Calques (loan translations)
This process
exists not only in Uropi, but has been frequently used in many European languages.
f.ex: In German,
Gewissen (< wissen = to know)
and in Russian soznanie (< so = with + znat’ = to know)
are calques of latin conscientia (< cum = with + scire = to know)
and of Greek suneidhsiV (sun = with, eidw = to see, to
know).
The Dutch aardappel is a calque of French pomme de terre as is German
Erd-apfel; in addition,
the German Grundbeere (Grundbirne) “ground-pear
” gave birth to Serbo-Croatian krompir.
Here are a
few examples of Uropi calques:
kovarko = collaborate
(with + work) (Lat. col-laborare, Gr. sun-ergazomai, G. mit-arbeiten, Rus. [so-trud-nitchat’]…)
tranoco = to spend
the night (“through + night”) (G. über-nachten, Sp. tras-nochar, Rus. [pere-notchevat’]…)
usklaro = explain (ex
+ clear) (Cz. vy-svêtlit, Pol. wy-jasniac’, Rus. [ob-yasnyat’],
G. er-klären, Du. ver-klaren, Latvian
iz-skaidrot)
forvizo = foresee
(before-see) (It. pre-vedere, Sp. pre-ver, Eng. fore-see, Swe. förut-se, Rus. [pred-videt’],
SrCr. pred-videti, Gr. pro-blepw)
apflujo = flow out
(Lat. ef-fluere, de-fluere, It. di-fluire, G. ab-fließen, Cz. od-tékati, Gr. apo-rrew)
inmico = meddle with
(Fr. im-miscer, It. im-mischiare, G. ein-mischen, Rus. [v-mechivat’],
SrCr. u-mes’ati)
usvòk = pronunciation
(out + speak) (G. Aus-sprache, Du. uit-spraak, SrCr.
iz-govor, Pol. wy-mowa, Swe.
ut-tal, latvian iz-runa)…
Compounds
Compounding
is a widespread process used in most European languages (above all in Greek
and in Germanic and Slavic langues) to build new words.
F.ex:
M.Gr. ponokefalo (pain + head)
= head-ache, agriogourouni
(wild pig)
= wild boar, G. Wasserfall, Rus. vodopad = Eng. waterfall; G. Flugzeug (flight +
instrument, object), Swe. flygmaskin (fly + machine), Rus [samoliot] (pref. self- + to
fly), pol. samolot (self- + flight)
= plane. Gr. antistash, G. Widerstand (resistance)
and Rus. [protivostoïat’]
= to resist, are made up of the same prefix (anti, wider & protiv = against)
and of the same root (stash, stand & stoïat’ = standing
< i-e sta-*)
Compounds are
transparent terms, that
is you can distinguish (recognize and separate) immediately the elements
which make up the compound, and thus derive its meaning from the meaning
of its elements.
Here are a
few examples of Uropi compounds :
Lucitòr (light + tower)
= lighthouse
Voditòr
(water + tower) = water tower
vodifàl
(water + fall) =
waterfall
kebidòl (head + pain) = head-ache
varkidià (work + day) = working day
stradilàmp (street + lamp)
= streetlamp
vimusporte
(winter + sports) = winter sports [1]
soliflòr
(sun + flower) = sunflower
sopisàk
(sleep + sack) = sleeping bag
sopivoko (sleep + talk) = to talk in one’s sleep