The CBB

History ======= Täqicj (/tεxitʃ/; HHD: Taqic, JAP: 敵地　Tekichi), officially the Hajás People's Republic of Täqicj (Hajás Sjendeqr Lug Täqicj) is a sovereign state and parliamentary republic located in the middle of the Donu continent. The State has been founded by displacing the first Earthling civi...

Today, November 4, 2017, is a great day! At 22:39 CET I added the 1000th word to my big Hecathver dictionary! The word is stÿće /'stytsε/ and means "thin, skinny". I wanted it to follow the "rule" that says that Hecathver words must have a funny (or pathetic...) etymology, so I d...

:ita: Italian Quando avevo appena nove anni, caddi in un tombino puzzolente. /'kwando a'veːvo ap'peːna 'nɔːve 'anni 'kaddi in un tom'biːno puttso'lεnte/ quando av-ev-o appena nove ann-i cad-di in un tombino puzzolente when have-IMPF-1SG just nine year-PL fall-REMOTE.PAST in INDEF.M manhole stinky Yo...

:ita: Italiano Per tutti questi anni, ti ho dato da mangiare, ti ho vestito, ti ho dato tutto ciò di cui avevi bisogno, e mi ricompensi così? /per 'tutti 'kwesti 'anni ti ɔ 'daːto da man'dʒaːre ti ɔ ves'tiːto ti ɔ 'daːto 'tutto 'tʃɔ di kui̯ a'veːvi bi'zoɲɲo e mi rikom'pεnsi ko'zi/ per tutt-i quest-i...

:ita: :fin: In the local language spoken around the area of Pesaro, in central Italy, "I don't want" is translated as "en voi". In Finnish, "en voi" means "I can not, I am not able to". I've always found it funny, because you know, "I can't/don't know how...

:ita: Italian Mi hai aiutato a portare a spasso il (mio) cane. /mj‿ai̯ aju'taːto a por'taːre a 'spasso il mio̯ kaːne/ mi hai aiut-ato a portare a spasso il mi-o cane 1SG.DAT have.2SG help-PART.PASS to take to walk DEF.MS my-MS dog I glossed "portare a spasso" quite literally, but "spa...

I would like to know if you have any default sentence you always use to "test" your conlangs. For me, it's the following: Hello, my name is Alessio, I live in Italy and I am <current age> years old. If you have such a sentence, I'd like to see its translation in your main conlangs, as well...

Italian singer Max Pezzali wrote a song based on this tale. The tale itself is told in the song, so here it is, copy-pasted from the lyrics. The only change in this is that the fox (which would be called volpe ) is replaced by a frog ( rana ). :ita: Italiano Lo scorpione doveva attraversare il fiume...

Well guess what, who cares. Just forget my German example, if it sounds so stupid to you. This topic was about explainin what cases are and we all did, so the language to start from is not the most important thing. I just don't see how there should be this sort of competition in giving the right ans...

As a native speaker of Italian, a language without cases, I feel you. It took me a good couple of years to fully understand cases, but once you have, you just can't do without them in your conlangs. They're too handy. Unless you go in for polypersonal marking on the verb. My definition of a "c...

I'm a native speaker of Italian, and throughout the past few years I've realized that my language has a strong distinction between formal and informal speech. Formal speech is used by the media, on most newspapers and in all public signs and laws, whereas informal speech is used for everyday communi...

I'll have to work on this one for my conlangs, but I can provide a translation in my mother tongue, Italian:

Italiano
Farò di te un uomo.
/fa'rɔ di te un‿'wɔːmo/
far-ò di te un uomo
make-1SG.FUT of 2SG.OBJ INDEF.M man

As a native speaker of Italian, a language without cases, I feel you. It took me a good couple of years to fully understand cases, but once you have, you just can't do without them in your conlangs. They're too handy. My definition of a "case" would be "the modification of a noun (adj...

:ita: Italiano La tigre è arancione a strisce nere. /la 'tiːgre ε aran'tʃoːne a 'striʃʃe 'neːre/ la tigre è arancione a strisc-e ner-e DET.FS tiger be.3SG orange (*) stripe-PL black-FP I really have no idea how to gloss <a>, which in this case is used to introduce a pattern. :ita: Emilian - Dialàt V...

:ita: Emilian (Dialàt Vgnulěṡ) A soun a drě ch'a m'insógn. /ɐ s̠ɒ̃ʊ̃n‿ɐ dreː kɐ mɪn'sŏɲ/ a soun a_drě_ca a m insógn 1SG be.1SG PROGR 1SG REFL.1SG dream.1SG Emilian conveys the meaning of dreaming through a reflexive verb ( insugnêres ), quite curiously. Italian does not (it just uses "Sto sogna...

:ita: Italiano Nessuno nasce ladro. /nes'suːno 'naʃʃe 'laːdro/ nessuno nasc-e ladro nobody be_born-3SG thief :ita: Dialàt Vgnulěṡ Nisun al nâs lêder. /nɪ'sũːn‿ɐl 'naːs̠ 'lεːder/ nobody 3SG be_born.3SG thief :con: Häħadhvar/Hecathver Veuia byrqieët shaltuun. /veu̯'i.a byr'xjeø̯t ʃal'twun/ veu-ia byrq...

I'd follow gach's idea although to me switching the order of the elements seems more natural e.g. absublative, persuperlative, persublative on the basis that (in absublative for instance), the motion is from underneath so it is ab-(sub-) rather than motion being under from which doesn't seem to mak...

Maybe it's not a beginner's question, but I thought this was the best place to ask questions in the first place. I'm working on a conlang relying extensively on locative cases. Here is a table: OPEN CLOSED ON UNDER STATE Locative Inessive Adessive Subessive TO Lative Illative Allative Sublative FROM...

Italiano
Per me è arabo.
/per me ε 'arabo/
for 1SG.OBJ be.3SG Arabic
That's Arabic to me.

Ooh, I love short sentences! I can translate them in many more languages with much less effort. :ita: Italian my first mother tongue Un altro mondo è possibile. /un 'altro 'mondo ε pos'sibile/ un altr-o mondo è possibile INDEF.M other-MS world be.3SG possible :ita: Dialàt Vgnulěṡ specific dialect of...