Lingwa de Planeta: Lesson 1, Part 1

Summary / Résumé / Summario / Resuma

Summary in English: This is the first in a comprehensive series of Lingwa de Planeta (LdP) lessons. I am translating the official introductory course, with permission, into English, and adding extensive notes. I hope this is useful to students wishing to learn the language.

Please note: this lesson supersedes the earlier version of the same lesson which was not multilingual. I have decided from now on to always translate the examples into not only English but also French and Interlingua. Also, I hope that this new layout is more suitable for printing, as all text now appears on a white background. When I have finished translating the entire course I will make it freely available as a PDF document for download (additional translations are welcome).

Résumé en français : Ceci est la première d'une série complète de leçons de lingwa de planeta (LdP). Je traduis le cours officiel d'initiation, avec la permission, en anglais et j'ajoute de nombreuses notes. J'espère que cela est utile aux étudiants qui souhaitent apprendre la langue.

Summario in Interlingua: Iste posta es le lection prime in un serie de lections comprehensive in lingwa de planeta (LdP). Io traduce le curso official, con permission, a in anglese, e io da notas extensive. Io spera que isto es utile per studentes que vole aprender le lingua.

Resuma in Lingwa de Planeta: Sey posta es un-ney leson in seria de leson pa Lingwa de Planeta (LdP). Me nadi ke it es utile fo studentas kel yao lerni LdP.

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 Lingwa de Planeta    English    Français    Interlingua 

Lingwa de Planeta

Lernikursa

Leson 1, Parta 1

Lingwa de Planeta

Introductory Course

Lesson 1, Part 1

Lingwa de Planeta

Cours d’initiation

Leçon 1, partie 1

Lingwa de Planeta

Curso Introductori

Lection 1, Parte 1

Lingwa de Planeta is the name of the language. It means Language of the Planet. It is formed from the words lingwa (noun: language), de (preposition: of) and planeta (noun: planet). The correct abbreviation for the name of the language, in both Lingwa de Planeta and English, is LdP (with a lowercase “d”). LdP does not have a definite article (“the”) or an indefinite article (“a”). Although this might seem strange to English speakers, it is perfectly normal in other languages such as Russian. Not having articles makes it much easier to use an international language without being misunderstood. This is because the use of articles in different natural languages is highly idiomatic. When translating from LdP into English, an article is inserted according to the context. Don't worry, it is possible to write LdP with great precision; the lack of articles does not lead to ambiguity because there are other words one can use, instead of articles, when necessary to clarify a sentence.

Lernikursa is a compound noun, formed by putting lerni (verb: to learn) and kursa (noun: course of study) together. Literally, it means Learning-Course; correctly translated, Course of Learning. However, when translating between languages one must take context into account; in this context the most informative translation is probably Introductory Course.

WORDA

WORDS

LES MOTS

PAROLAS

Worda is a noun. It means either word or words, depending on context. The basic form of a noun, as listed in the dictionary, does not indicate anything about whether it is singular or plural. Again, this might seem strange to English speakers but it is perfectly normal in languages such as Mandarin. When it is important to be absolutely precise about the fact that a noun is plural, you can do so simply by adding -s to nouns which end in a vowel or -es to nouns which end in a consonant. Thus, wordas means words (it never means word). But worda can mean either word or words, depending on context.

This demonstrates one of the central principles of LdP: facultative precision. That is, when you need to be extremely precise you can be. But this is a choice on your part; the language does not force you at all times to be extremely precise, since this is usually not necessary in general conversation. The context nearly always indicates whether a noun should be interpreted as singular or plural.

kwo-worda

nouns

les noms

substantivos

Literally, what-words; correctly translated, nouns. Compound nouns are usually hyphenated in LdP as this makes them easier to read and therefore easier to correctly understand and pronounce. However, commonly-used compound nouns are often written without hyphens, such as Lernikursa.

English	kwo = what worda = word kwo-worda = noun
Français	kwo = que worda = mot kwo-worda = nom
Interlingua	kwo = que worda = parola kwo-worda = substantivo

Incidentally, note that compound nouns can be formed either by adding a noun to another noun (usually separated by a hyphen) or by adding a verb to a noun (always separated by a hyphen). Importantly, unlike some other constructed languages, LdP is not a language in which agglutination (putting words or parts of words together to form new words) should frequently be used at will to arbitrarily create new words; except where no word is available in the LdP dictionary to express a particular concept, you should primarily stick to using only those compound nouns which already have official definitions listed in the LdP dictionary. Otherwise the meaning may be very ambiguous.

Kwo es?

What is it?

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Que es illo?

English	kwo = interrogative pronoun: what es = verb: is (i.e. the verb “to be”)
Français	kwo = pronom interrogatif: que es = verbe: est (c-à-d le verbe “etre”)
Interlingua	kwo = pronomine interrogative : que es = verbo: es (i.e. le verbo “esser”)

The verb “to be” is the only irregular verb in the entire language. For now, the details don't matter. What is important is that es means is; es is the present tense of the verb “to be”. Also, note that a pronoun is not used when asking the question “What is it?” Literally, you simply ask “What is?” Correctly translated, according to context, this means “What is it?”, “What is this?”, or “What is that?” In other words, you would point at an object or objects and say “Kwo es?”

In the examples below, note that the English translations have added the indefinite article, “a”. This is inferred from the context of the sentence in LdP. Remember, LdP has no articles.

English	tabla = noun: table kitaba = noun: book kalam = noun: pencil
Français	tabla = nom: table kitaba = nom: livre kalam = nom: crayon
Interlingua	tabla = substantivo: tabula kitaba = substantivo: libro kalam = substantivo: stilo

Note that many LdP nouns end with -a and most LdP verbs end with -i or a consonant. This is a good rule-of-thumb which usually holds true. However, this is not an absolute rule. The vocabulary of LdP is imported from the 10 or 12 most popular languages on the planet; it generally imports words without mutilation. For example, the noun meaning taxi is taxi, not a mutilated form such as taxia. The good thing about this is that when you learn words in LdP you will generally be able to recognise those words when they are spoken aloud in the natural languages from which they originate. LdP words generally sound very similar to the way they sound in their languages of origin. In this way, LdP is an educational language which teaches you many words from the great languages of the world, including not only European languages but also Arabic, Hindi, and Mandarin.

Es tabla.

It is a table.

C'est une table.

Illo es un tabula.

Es kitaba.

It is a book.

C'est un livre.

Illo es un libro.

Es kalam.

It is a pencil.

C'est un crayon.

Illo es un stilo.

There is a word list available at the Lingwa de Planeta website for the Lernikursa. It lists the words used in this lesson, with translations in English, Spanish, and Russian. There is also a good dictionary available, with examples.

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