The Grammar of Sambahsa-Mundialect in English: by Olivier SIMON Edited by Stephen L. RICE

THE GRAMMAR OF SAMBAHSA-MUNDIALECT
IN ENGLISH
by Olivier SIMON
Edited by Stephen L. RICE
7th edition : May 2012
© Dr. Olivier Simon

CONTENTS
Foreword
1 – Sambahsa Pronunciation
1-1 Preliminary definitions
1-2 Other conventions
1. Most complicated cases
2. Vowels
3. Semi-vowels
4. Consonants
1-3 Final remarks
1-4 Accentuation in Sambahsa
2 – Declension in Sambahsa
2-1 Plural
2-2 Declension cases
3 – Sambahsa conjugation
3–1 Present tense and derived tenses
3-1-1 Infinitive
3-1-2 Present active participle
3-1-3 Past active participle and infinitive
3-1-4 Imperative
3-1-5 Future
3-1-6 Conditional
3-1-7 Near future
3-2 Past tense and derived tenses
3-2-1 Passive participle
3-2-2 Use of the passive participle
3-3 Verbal affixes
3-4 Some literary verbal forms
3-5 Sambahsa conjugated verbs
4 – Sambahsa Words
4-1 Adjectives
4-2 Adverbs
4-3 Correlatives
4-4 Some common invariable words in Sambahsa
4-5 Most common prepositions in Sambahsa
4-6 Numbers
4-7 Expressing the time in Sambahsa
4-8 Some useful verbs in Sambahsa
4-9 Syntax
5 – Word formation in Sambahsa

5-1 Prefixes
5-2 Suffixes
5-3 Formation of compounds
5-4 Choice of new words

Foreword
By Dave MacLeod
Sambahsa is without a doubt the most interesting auxiliary language to have

emerged over the past decade. To sum it up in a few short sentences one would
have to describe it as a type of regularized Indo-European with borrowings from other
language families, but this alone doesn’t quite do it justice. To explain what makes
Sambahsa unique, one needs to take a quick look at other international auxiliary
language projects that have been popular over the past century and a bit.
Since they first became popular in the late 19 th century, auxiliary languages have
placed simplicity above all else. Volapük was based on a simple grammar, Esperanto
was based on a simple regular grammar with 16 primary rules that could be learned
in a short time, and just about every project after this has been ridiculously easy to
learn, at least compared to so-called “natural” languages with their vast exceptions
and intricacies. Esperanto has been fairly popular but still likely only has adherents
numbering in the hundreds of thousands, and no other can claim more than a few
thousand. Auxiliary languages clearly have not yet aroused the interest of the
population as a whole.
At the same time, since the 19th century a language has gone from a speaking
population of zero to some seven million: Hebrew, once a liturgical language, since
reconstructed and modernized and now a living language. The new state of Israel at
its inception could easily have gone with one of many international auxiliary
languages and yet went with a language that was not created to be easy, a language
appealed to people for its spirit and heritage, and not its simplicity or international
character. Along with the revival and strengthening of such languages as Cornish,
Welsh, Basque and others, and the sudden flood of adherents to the Na’vi language
(a language without even a published grammar and dictionary) after the release of
the movie Avatar, it would seem that people are willing to take the time to learn a
language in spite of any outward difficulty if they find something fulfilling in it,
something viscerally pleasing.
This perhaps may be what sets Sambahsa apart from other auxiliary languages
proposed over the past decades. Yes, its Indo-European character and international
vocabulary is one selling point, but what sets it apart in particular is that it simply
doesn’t feel like a constructed language. It is terse, it has an orthography that (while
actually perfectly regular) is quite complex, and is very precise. Personally I have
always imagined Sambahsa to be an example of a language that could have existed
somewhere around present-day Armenia, where a kingdom using a descendant of
Proto-Indo-European using it has been influenced over the centuries by its Persian,
Turkish and Arab neighbors, as well as various countries from the east. At times it
feels a bit like Bulgarian, at other times like Persian, and sometimes similar to
German as well. What other auxiliary language would dare to include the ablaut in its
verbs? In contrast to auxiliary languages that find similarity to living languages in
vocabulary alone, the structure itself of Sambahsa feels like a living language.
At the same time, however, Sambahsa is not all that difficult to learn. The
orthography is regular, every verb except for three are also regular, pronouns are
simple and easy to understand, grammatical cases exist but are not haphazard as

with living languages; in short, any student now struggling to learn a language in
school would simply love to have a language as easy as Sambahsa in its place.
What has made Sambahsa so intimidating until now has simply been the
documentation. Up until about a year ago the documentation for the language was
largely in French and entirely contained on a single blog, after which it was moved to
a much more friendly wiki-type format yet still quite chaotic in its organization, and
only now is a complete grammar and lexicon available in English for anyone to view
and study from.
Will the language now succeed in acquiring adherents? We shall soon find out.
Sambahsa admittedly requires more study than the average international auxiliary
language in the beginning, yet soon smooths itself out and becomes immensely
enjoyable; other auxiliary languages tend to be enjoyable in the beginning, but then
have a tendency to become somewhat bland, or have unpleasant surprises in store
for the learner.
As Steve Rice and Robert Winter have written on the language:
http://joyoflanguages.blogspot.com/2010/05/sambahsa-guide-to-pronouns-and-articles.html
“All languages (less frills) and especially all auxlangs are about equal in difficulty;
they just load the difficulty differently. Sambahsa drops a piano on you when you ring
the doorbell, but after that it’s probably a gracious host. Interlingua is more polite, but
whenever you relax, it bludgeons you from behind. Perhaps it’s better to get the
shock over with.”
“Sambahsa pushes the envelope. Right up-front it challenges the student and makes
it clear: this is not going to be easy. I think Sambahsa is right on the limit of the
degree of difficulty that is practical for an international auxiliary language.”
One last note that sets Sambahsa apart from many other auxiliary languages: its
creator, Olivier Simon, has been a veritable translating machine. While
documentation until now has been spotty, one cannot say the same about examples
of the language:
(explication of the vocabulary of the main texts) :

http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/%22Vocabulary-keys%22-to-some-Sambahsa-texts
(Dictionaries) : http://sambahsa.wikinet.org/wiki/Main_Page
(some bilingual texts): http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/exempels-tarjten-textes-fr
& : http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/tarjems-texten-ex-id-net-fr
full Sambahsa-English dictionary: http://www.scribd.com/doc/39063111/Sambahsa-
English-Dictionary
(various downloadable texts on Scribd): http://www.scribd.com/search?

cat=redesign&language=0&q=sambahsa
With but a single fluent user until recently, there are nevertheless already a few
hundred pages of material that can be read in the language. A good sign, considering
that the creator of the most popular auxiliary language even today (Esperanto) spent

most of his time after creating the language translating and creating content, while
many other projects languished due to excessive tinkering and far too little promotion
and content creation. In short, now that the grammar in English has been published
Sambahsa has become that much easier to learn, and there are already hundreds of
pages of material to read. So why not give it a try?

1 - Sambahsa Pronunciation
1-1 Preliminary definitions:
Sambahsa uses the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet.
Id alphabet [alfAbd]
a, b [be], c [tse], d [de], e, f, g [dje], h [hatc], i, j [jye], k [ka], l, m, n, o, p [pe], q [ku], r, s, t [te],
u, v [v], w [we], x, y [ü], z [dzed]
Sambahsa’s orthographical and accentual system is quite elaborate; this is because

it tries to respect the forms that loanwords have in the source languages, especially
West-European languages where orthography plays a key role.
Nevertheless, those rules are entirely regular, and can be mastered through
repetition. To ease the learning of those rules, a simpler phonetic transcription
system, the Sambahsa Phonetic Transcription (SPT), is used. Words written in SPT
are always between brackets [ ]. Be sure to fully understand the SPT before going
further.
[a] = like “a” in “car”

[ä] = like “e” in “bed”, but often a bit longer
[b] = as in English
[c] = as “sh” in “shoe”
[d] = as in English
[e] = as in Italian or Spanish. Listen to it: http://tts.imtranslator.net/4Fxa
[ë] = as “e” in “the”
[f] = as in English
[g] = as “g” in “give”
[h] = as “h” in “hope”
[i] = as “i” in “bit”
[j] = as “si” in “vision”
[k] = as in English
[l] = as in English
[m] = as in English
[n] = as in English
[o] = as in English

[ö] = as “u” in “burn”, but slightly longer
[p] = as in English
[q] = the “ach-laut” of German or the “jota” of Spanish. It is written “kh” in the
Sambahsa orthography. Listen to “khako” (“I’m not able to”: [qAko]:
http://tts.imtranslator.net/4Fxf
[r] = its pronunciation varies from region to region. Nevertheless, “rr” and “rh” have to
be pronounced rolled, as in Spanish.
[s] = as “s” in “say”
[t] = as in English
[u] = as “oo” in “book”
[ü] = the “u” of French or the “ü” of German. According to various rules, it can be
written with “u” or “y”. Listen to “styr” (steering wheel): http://tts.imtranslator.net/4Fxk
[v] = as in English
[w] = as in English
[x] = it is the “ich-laut” of German. Is written “sh” in the Sambahsa orthography. Listen
to “ghianshiek” (rock, stone): http://tts.imtranslator.net/4Fxt
[y] = as “y” in “you”
[z] = as “z” in “zero”
[§] = as “th” in “thin”
Stressed vowels are written in capital letters in polysyllabic words, and a [:] following
a vowel indicates that this one has to be lengthened. Letters in italics can be left
unpronounced.
1-2 Other conventions:
“Vowels” (V) are the letters a, e, i, o, u.

“Semi-vowels” are the letters w & y.
The other letters are “consonants” (C). In explanations, the letter (C) refers to semi-
vowels too.
A “diphthong” is a group of two letters which produces a particular sound when they
stand together, different from the conjunction of the sounds they would have
produced individually.
Likewise, a “triphtong” is a group of three letters which produce a new sound when
they stand together.
For the purposes of Sambahsa orthography, “ck” is equivalent to “k + k”.
If not otherwise indicated below, the Sambahsa orthographic letters are pronounced
like their SPT equivalents.

1. Most complicated cases.
“e”: - [e] when it is stressed or as the first letter of a word.
Examples:
“temos” = [tEmos]; “darkness”
“emerg” = [emErg]; “emerge”
- is unpronounced alone at the end of a word or followed by only “s” or “t” (but can
have effects on the preceding letters).
Examples:
“emerge” = [emErdj]; “to emerge”
“crimes” = [krims]
“survivet” = [survIvd]; “ (he/it/she) survives”
Nevertheless, before “t” or “s”, “e” is pronounced [ë] if this “t” or “s” could not be
distinguished from the preceding group of consonants, or simply if the loss of the “e”
would result in something unpronounceable.
Examples:
“storgnet” = [stOrnyët]; “stunned”
“changes” = [tcAndjës]; “(thou) changest”
The endings “-quet” and “-ques” always correspond respectively to [kët] and [kës].
Examples:
“blanquet” = [blAnkët]; “blanket”
“techniques” = [tëknIkës]
In all other cases, « e » is [ë].
Example:
“kohlen” = [kO:lën]; “hidden”
“h”: - is [h] at the beginning of a word and between vowels.
Examples:
“habe” = [hab]; “to have”
“rahat” = [rahAt]; “rest”
- at the end of a word or before a consonant, it is unpronounced but lengthens the

preceding vowel.
Examples:

“bahsa” = [bA:sa]; “language”
« bah » = [ba:]; « speak »
« gh », « bh » and « dh » correspond respectively to [g], [b] and [d]. The “h” is only
there to indicate that the preceding consonant cannot be subjected to phonetic or
grammatical modification of any kind.
2. Vowels.
“eau” = [o:]; example: “bureau” = [bürO:]
« aa » = [aa]; example: « saat » = |saAt]; « o’ clock, hour »
“ae”, “ay” = [ay]; example: “mae” = [may]; “don’t!”
“ai” = [ä]; example: “caise” = [käz]; “cheese”
“au” = [Ao] (the “o” is shorter than the “a” before). Example: “Australia” = [aostrAlya]
“ee” = [Eë]; example: “eet” = [Eët]; “(he/she/it) was”
“eu” = [ö]; example: “Europe” = [örOp]
« ie » = [i:] when it is alone at the end of a word; but [ye] in other cases.
Examples:
“publie” = [publI:]; “publish”
“publiet” = [publyEt]; “published”
“oe”, “oi” & “oy” = [oy]; example: “choengju” = [tcOyngju]; “rice alcohol”
“oo” = [oo]; example: “boot” = [boOt]; “boat”
“ou” = [u:]; example: “courage” = [ku:rAdj]
« ue » = [ü:]; example: « continue » = [kontinÜ:]
« ui » = [wi]; example: « tuich » = [twitc]; “empty”
“uy” = [uy]; example: “lastruym” = [lastrUym]; “ship hold”
“u” = [u]; except if there is “e” among the two following letters.
Examples:
“bur” = [bur]; “ashes”
“bureau” = [bürO:]

3. Semi-vowels
“w” & “y” are respectively [w] and [y] if they are followed or preceded by a vowel.
Example: “wey” = [wey]; ‘we”
Otherwise, “w” is a very short [u] and “y” is [ü].
Examples:
“sehkwnt” = [sEkunt]; “they follow”
“type” = [tüp]; “guy”
Nevertheless, alone or followed by “s” at the end of a word, “y” and “ys” are
respectively [i] and [is]
Examples:
“baby” = [bAbi]
“babys” = [bAbis]
4. Consonants
“sch” = [c]; example: “muraischmusch” = [muräcmUc]; “swamp-fly”
“ch” = [tc], but [k] before a consonant.
Examples:
“cheus” = [tcös]; “choose”
“Christ” = [krist]
“gn” = [ny]; example: “gnoh” = [nyo:]; “know”
“kh” = [q]; example: “khiter” = [qItër]; “evil”
“ph” = [f]; example: “philosophia” = [filozOfya]
“qu”; “q” never appears alone but followed by “u”. “qu” is [kw] before “a”, “o” and “u”,
and [k] before “e”, “i” and “y”.
Examples:
“quod” = [kwod]; “what?”
“quis” = [kis]; “who?
“sc” = [sk], but [s] before “e”, “i” and “y”.
Examples:
“scutt” = [skut]; “shake”

“science” = [syents]
“sh” = [x]; example: “shienciu” = [xyEntsyu]; “overgrown”
“ss” = [s]; example: “permission” = [përmisyOn]; “permission”
“th” = [§] but turns to [t] before or after [s], [c], [j].
Examples:
“thamf” = [§amf]; “stench”
“esthetic” = [estEtik]
“c” = [k], but turns to [ts] before “e”, “i” and “y”.
Examples:
“condition” = [kondityOn]
“petrificit” = [pëtrifItsit]; “(he/she/it) petrified”
“g” = [g], but turns to [dj] before “e”, “i” and “y”. “gh” is always [g]
Examples:
“gulf” = [gulf]
“large” = [lardj]
“j” is always [j]
“r” [r] has various pronunciations according to the native background of speakers.
The recommended (but not compulsory) form is the “r” as found in the German
dialects spoken in Saarland or Luxembourg.
However, “rr” and “rh” have to be rolled, like in Spanish or Italian, while “rl” should be
pronounced like a “Japanese” “r”, i.e. where the “r” and the “l” nearly coalesce into
each other.
“s” = [s] but turns to [z] between two vowels.
Examples:
“son” = [son]
“decision” = [dëtsizyOn]
« x » = [ks] but can turn to [gz] if ite ases the pronounciation.
« z » = [dz]; example: « zangir » = [dzAndjir]; « chain »
1 - 3 Final remarks:
Some letters, especially the endings, can be slightly modified by a neighbouring

sound.

Example: “hands” = [handz]
Some consonants, as well as the vowel [ë], can even be omitted.
Example: “franceois” (“French”) is officially [frantsëOys] but in truth [fransOys]

because [t] lies within a consonantal cluster, and because unstressed [ë] lies near
stressed [o].
If a verbal form begins with [sC-], “oi” can be added before it, for reasons of
euphonics.
Example : “skap” (to escape) > “oiskap”.
1 – 4 Accentuation in Sambahsa:
Begin with the final syllable of the word and work backward until you reach a syllable that
can or must be accented.
Always stressed:
-Vowel before -h or a double consonant (including ck);
-the syllable before final -e.
Examples:
- “prodah” = [prodA:]; “to hand over”

- “recess” = [rëtsEs]
- “frontdeck” = [frondEk]; “foredeck”
- “taslime” = [taslIm]; “to surrender”
- The first of two vowels together (other than i and u acting as semivowels)
Examples:
- armee = [armEë]; “army”
- Australia = [aostrAlya]
-The final syllable of words ending in
-in (but not -ing),

-ey
-ie
-ui (when pronounced "wi"),
-oCel (where C is a single consonant).
Examples:

- “hotel” = [hotEl]
- “suadin” = [swadIn]; “fair weather”
- “reling” = [rEling]; “railing (of a vessel)”
- “kierey” = [kyerEy]; “ram”
a, o, u before a consonant or semivowel (except a single “s”).
Examples:
- “cadaloc” = [kadalOk]; “anywhere”
- “naval” = [navAl]
- “dayluk” = [daylUk]; “mainland”
Never stressed:
-Prefixes
Examples:
- fortrehc = [fortrE:k]; “for-” = “away”; “to depart for a trip”

- recess = [rëtsEs]; “re-“ = “back”
- bevid = [bëvId]; “be-” = factitive meaning; “to show, to prove”.
-The letter "w" used as a vowel
Example: - sehkwnt = [sE:kunt]; “they follow”.
-A final syllable ending in

-(i)um,
-ule,
or single –s
Examples:
- “schives” = [civz]; “to shift” (infinitive)
- “territorium” = [territOryum]
- “insule” = [Insül]; “island”
- A vowel/semivowel alone at the end of a word.
Examples:
- “okwi” = [Okwi]; “eyes”
- “baby” = [bAbi]
- E, i, and y as the last vowel of the word followed by a single semivowel (exception: final
-ey) or one or several consonants (but not double ones) :
Examples:
- “seghel” = [sEgël]; “sail”

- “tolkit” = [tOlkit]; “he/she/it talked”
- “khitert” = [qItërt] = “evil” (substantive).
In compound words, the stress is the same as if the elements were separate words; the
suffixes –ment and -went are considered part of a compound.
Examples:
- gouverne = [gu:vErn]; “to govern”
- gouvernement = [gu:vErnëmënt]
- nest = [nest]
- corcuksnest = [korkUksnëst]; “crow’s-nest”
These rules do not necessarily apply to proper names.
The use of a hyphen preserves the accentuation on both sides.
Some particles in Sambahsa are called “clitics”; they have no accentuation of their own.
“Proclitics” thus form an accentuational unit with the following word.
Articles and the negation ne, when it is unstressed, are proclitics.
“Enclitics” form an accentuational unit with the word before. The particles ghi, ge are
enclitics.
Clitics like the personal pronouns, when they are unstressed, can thus form an
accentuational unit with the word before or after them (in general, a verb).
Two clitics (or a proclitic and an enclitic) can come together and form a new
accentuational unit.

2 – Declension (declination) in Sambahsa
2 -1 Plural
The simple form is the singular number. The plural number ends in -s. If the latter is
phonetically incompatible, then -i (for animate beings) or -a will be used. If all those forms do
not match with the stress rules, no endings shall be used. -um of names of things turns to -a
in the plural. The unstressed endings -es or -os turn to -si or -sa. According to an optional
rule, names of groups of animate beings ending with a letter which is phonetically
incompatible with a final s (ex: s, ch, j) ought to have no ending for the plural number.
Examples:
div (god) = divs
urx (bear) = urx(i) (as it is a collection of animate beings)
territorium (territory) = territoria
daumos (wonder) = daumsa
deutsch (German) = deutsch(i) (as it is a collection of persons).
prince (prince, son of a sovereign) = princes
The sole irregular plural in Sambahsa is for ok (eye), plural: oks or okwi (eyes)
2-2 Declension Cases
In Sambahsa-mundialect, the use of the four-case declension system is only compulsory for
pronouns and articles. The four cases are nominative, accusative, dative and genitive. The
nominative is the case of the subject and of the attribute of the subject.
Example: Paul est mien prient = « Paul is my friend »; Both « Paul » and « my friend » are in
the nominative.
The accusative is the case of the object of a verb.
Example: Vido iom = “I see him”; “him” is in the accusative

Moreover, in Sambahsa, all prepositions are normally followed by the accusative.
In Proto-Indo-European, the accusative was the case used to form adverbs. Thus, the
accusative is the case of complements of nouns or adjectives, when no preposition is used.
Ex: un tri meters longo mur = « a three meters long wall »
Is regnit tri yars = “he reigned three years”
In the examples above, “three meters / three years” are considered to be in the accusative
case.
That’s why the accusative is also the case for absolute constructions :
Iam mater revidus iom pater, ir purts eent noroct = “The mother having seen back the father,
their children were happy”.
The dative is the case of the person or object that benefits from the action.
Example: Dahm un apel ei wir = « I give an apple to the man »; ei wir is in the dative.
The genitive is the case of the possessor of something.
Example: id apel ios dru: « The apple of the tree »; ios dru is in the genitive.
Most Sambahsa verbs trigger first the accusative and then the dative, the exceptions being
the verbs which need “positional anchors” (ex: arrive ad = “to arrive at”) and verbs that can
introduce an indirect speech. Then, the person object of the narration is in the dative.
Ex: Is mi antwehrdt (od is wois neid de to) = “He answers to me (that he knew nothing about
this)”.
One of Sambahsa-mundialect's major peculiarities is that it uses the same word for articles
("the") and personal pronouns. It is as if, in English, we did not say The woman kills the man
but rather She woman kills him man. (In sambahsa-mundialect: Ia gwena neict iom wir).
Thus, she kills him is Ia neict iom. The only exception is for the genitive article which is
logically different from the possessive pronoun. Sambahsa-mundialect has four genders
(masculine, feminine, neutral, undetemined) which are based, as in English, on the true

nature of the substantive1, and not arbitrarily as in many other languages. The
demonstrative, relative2 and interrogative pronouns are constructed following the same
patterns. All those pronouns can be listed within a single table, following this order: article &
personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun and relative & interrogative pronouns.
Indeed, those four categories of pronouns nearly always share the same endings. A good
method for remembering them can be found here:
http://joyoflanguages.blogspot.com/2010/05/sambahsa-guide-to-pronouns-and-articles.html
Singular
Case/Gender Masculine Feminine Neutral Undetermined

nominative is/so/qui ia/sa/qua id/tod/quod el/tel/quel
(relative), quis
(interrogative)
accusative iom/tom/quom iam/tam/quam id/tod/quod el/tel/quel
dative ei/tei/quei ay/tay/quay ei/tei/quei al/tal/qual
genitive (possessive pronoun not ios/tos/quos ias/tas/quas ios/tos/quos al/tal/qual
included)
Plural
Case/gender Masculine Feminine Neutral Undetermined

nominative ies/toy/quoy ias/tas/quas ia/ta/qua i/ti/qui
accusative iens/tens/quens ians/tans/quans ia/ta/qua i/ti/qui
dative ibs/tibs/quibs iabs/tabs/quabs ibs/tibs/quibs im/tim/quim
genitive iom/tom/quom iam/tam/quam iom/tom/quom im/tim/quim
Example: Is heroy kamyieb trehve tom tajir quei hieb est propost kaupe amuletts.
(Lit.): "he hero succeeded find that (masculine) merchant to-whom had been proposed buy
amulets.
1
In poetry, some exceptions are permitted. For example, big rivers can be masculine, while trees are feminine,
but bear the masculine endings of the euphonic vocalisation.
2
Beside “qui/qua/quod”, there is a literary relative pronoun “yo(s), ya, yod”. It follows the model of
“qui/qua/quod” except for the nominative masculine singular “yo(s)”. However, this relative can be used only for
non-restrictive subordinates, i.e. subordinates whose deletion does not make the sentence meaningless.

"The hero succeeded in finding that merchant for whom someone had proposed to buy
amulets."
A demonstrative pronoun for distant objects consists of c-+is, ia, id... etc. As the c must
always be pronounced [ts], an additional i can be added after c if necessary. Thus, we
get cial, ciay.
A negative pronoun consists of ne (“not”) + is, ia, id. The “e” of ne disappears when its
presence would create a bisyllabic word. Hence: neis, niom, nei, nios, etc... Its nominative
plural masculine is noy.
Neid can accordingly mean “nothing” when it is alone, or “no” when it stands before a
substantive.
The indefinite pronoun is un, which can bear the “euphonic vocalisation” endings (see
below).
There is a general demonstrative pronoun to which refers to a full statement or a full situation

which has just been described; its corresponding relative pronoun is quo.
Example: Is capitan liv sien glas ed sorpsit id rum unte oin schtoss, quo ei provoquit un
gvaltic kwasadfall. - "To suastahalt alyo glas ?" addihsit is.
(Eng.): The captain lifted his glass and swallowed the rum at one go, which (quo = the fact he
has swallowed his rum at one go) provoked him to a violent coughing fit.
-"Does that (to = "all that I've just revealed to you) deserves well another glass ?" added he.
The preposition of possession ("of") is peculiar in Sambahsa-mundialect for it agrees in

number and gender with the possessor. Like every other preposition, it triggers the
accusative.
Number/gender masculine feminine neutral undetermined

singular os as os es
plural om am om em

Example: Id mohrt os Louis = "the death of Louis".
The endings of the “vocalic euphonisation” can be used to express the genitive. A very
common formation is uns = “of a” from un + -s.
A pratical solution when several elements are considered owners of a thing is to use sbei
after that group of “owners” and before the thing owned.
Example: Paul ed Peter sbei dom: “The house of Paul and Peter”.

The personal pronouns of the first and second persons are as follows:
Case 1° singular 2° 1° 2°
singular plural plural
nominative Ego (io, tu wey yu
when
unstressed)
accusative me te nos vos
dative mi tib nos vos
Unlike English, the use of the nominative personal pronouns is not compulsory in Sambahsa-
Mundialect if the person can be guessed by the ending of the conjugated verb. The pronouns
nevertheless appear for inversion in interrogative sentences:
Example: Ghehdo io stambhes to? = Can I prevent this?
Though one can create an interrogative sentence just by putting “kwe” at the beginning:
Kwe ghehdo stambhes to? = Can I prevent this?
Inversion ought to take place after the conjugated element.
Example: Siem io ghehde stambhes to? = Will I be able to prevent this?

The possessive pronouns for all persons are as follows:
Person/Number singular plural

First mien Nies
(noster)
Second tien Vies
(voster)
Third masculine eys ir
Third feminine ays ir
Third neutral ids ir
Third undetermined els ir
The reflexive pronoun is se in the accusative, and sib in the dative. The corresponding
possessive pronoun is sien. Theoretically, the reflexive can be used in all persons, as, for
example, in Russian.
Example: Se vidmos in id specule = “We see ourselves in the mirror”.
But, in practice, it is only used for the 3rd person.
The possessive reflexive pronoun “sien” therefore always refers to the subject of the
sentence, and never appears in the nominal group of the subject.
Example :
Ia mater lieubht sien purts = “The mother loves her children”.

Martin ed eyso prient (not *sien prient !) tolke con mutu in Sambahsa = “Martin and his friend
talk to each other in Sambahsa”.
“Self” in Sambahsa is swo, and it can be suffixed to the pronoun.
Example: Gnohdi teswo! = Know !thyself!
“Each other” is mutu.

In Sambahsa-mundialect, endings with declensions can be added to substantives and

adjectives for purposes of euphony or literary purposes (ex: poetry). This system, whose
native name is euphonic vocalisation, can only be used if it is compatible with the
accentuation patterns. For example: uno smiegdo geront "a frail old man" instead of un
smiegd geront. In everyday use, those endings appear only in the words vasyo (all of the,
every) and alyo (another).
Singular
Case/gender Masculine Feminine Neutral Undetermined
nominative -o(s) -a -o/-um -is*
accusative -o/-um -u -o/-um -em*
dative -i -i -i -i
genitive -(io)s -(ia)s -(io)s -(e)s
 = for animate beings only!
Plural
Case/gender Masculine Feminine Neutral
nominative -i -as -a
accusative -ens -ens -a

dative -ims -ims -ims
genitive -(e)n -(e)n -(e)n
The "undetermined" endings are like those of the masculine if they refer to animate beings.
The masculine singular can have a vocative ending –e (i.e. for the person being called).
3 -Sambahsa conjugation
Sambahsa, like many other languages, has two basic tenses: present and past (or
« preterit »). All other tenses are derived from these two.
Its conjugation includes two numbers (singular and plural) and three persons in each,
like English.
Unlike many other languages where each verb is called by its infinitive (ex: English to
love, French aimer, Russian ljubitj), Sambahsa verbs are indicated by their stem. In
this case: lieubh, while the “true” infinitive is liubhes.
From the verbal stem, you can deduce the whole conjugation, except for the three
irregular verbs ses, habe & woide.
In Sambahsa, the conjugation is marked by the use of endings (i.e. suffixes added to
the verbal stem) and/or modification of the verbal stem itself.
In English, the subject of a verb is always indicated.

Examples:
I love you
Paul likes cats.
If we wrote just *love you, this sentence would have a different meaning. *Likes cats
would not be correct, though we may conjecture that “like” is in the 3 rd person
singular of the present, since “s” is the ending of this person. Sambahsa functions as
in this latter case; i.e. the personal pronoun is used only if necessary to avoid
confusion or in order to stress the action. As the second person plural of the present
tense sounds like the third person singular of the same tense, the corresponding
pronoun “yu” = “you” is nearly always employed.
Example:
Lieubho te = I love you

Ego lieubho te = I do love you
Personal pronouns will be explained in the section on declension. As a reminder,

their nominative (i.e. subject) forms are indicated in the table below
1st person singular Io (Stressed form: Ego)

2nd person singular tu
rd
3 person singular Is (male); ia (female), id (thing), el
(undetermined)
1st person plural wey
2nd person plural yu
3rd person plural Ies (male); ias (female), ia (thing), i
(undetermined)
Conjugated forms will be always indicated in this order.

“Yu” can apply to a group of persons or to a single person as a sign of formal
respect. “Tu” (cf. archaic English “thou”) is used only to address close relatives or
friends and children, as, for example, in French, Russian or Farsi.
Before endings that begin in “s” or “t”, the final b, k, or g of verbal stems turns
respectively to p, c, c. In the same conditions verbal stems ending in ehv, euv, eiv,
turn to ehf, euf, eif.
Examples:
Scrib = scrips, script (think of the English words “descriBe”, “descriPtion”

Dreiv = dreifs, dreift (think of the English words “driVe”, “driFt”)
Endings in “s” or “t” may disappear if the verbal stem already ends with the same
letter.
Examples:
Tu deurs (deurs + s) = you dare, thou darest

Is skehpt (skehpt + t) = he waits
3 – 1 Present tense and derived tenses
All regular Sambahsa verbs bear endings in the present tense. The rule is that the
stress must always fall on the same place in all persons of the present tense
(otherwise, this can’t be a verbal stem). There are small variations within the endings
below, so that they can apply to a lot of stress patterns.
The endings of the present tense can be summarized this way:
1st person singular -m after a vowel sound alone or followed

by [y] / -o / nothing if the former cases
can’t apply
2nd person singular -s

3rd person singular -t
1st person plural -m(o)s
2nd person plural -t(e)
3rd person plural -(e)nt, -e
Those endings are suffixed to the verbal stem to get the present tense conjugation (if
necessary with the tiny modifications listed above, ex: g + t = ct, etc.).
However, there is a notable category of verbal stems in Sambahsa which require

some alteration before being added the present endings. These are stems with a
“nasal infix”. Such forms have an unstressed “e” as their last vowel, between
consonants, and at least one of those consonants must be “n” or “m”. This “n” or “m”
is called the “nasal infix”.
Examples:
Linekw [lInëkw] = “to leave”
Pressem [prEsëm] = “to press”
Scinesd [sInësd] = “to split”
Annem [Anëm] = “to breathe”
Pregen [prEdjën] = “to imprint”
In the present tense (and in all derived tenses), those verbs lose their unstressed “e”
wherever possible. If “s” or “ss”, after the deletion of “e”, finds itself after or before a
consonant, it gets deleted too.
Therefore, we get:
Linkwo, linkws, linkwt, linkwm(o)s,yu linkwte, linkwnt [lInkunt]

Premo, prems, premt, premmos, yu premte, preme(nt)
Scindo, scinds, scindt, scindmos, yu scindte, scinde(nt)
Annmo, annems, annemt, annmmos, yu annemt, annment
(Here, *annmt and *annms would be unpronounceable).
Pregno [prEnyo], pregens [prEdjëns], pregent, pregnems [prEnyëms], yu pregent,
pregne(nt)
(See the detailed explanation by R. Winter here:
http://sambahsa.pbworks.com/w/page/91471392/Nasal%20infixes%20%28by
%20Robert%20Winter%29)
With all verbs in the present tense (whether with nasal infix or not), an “e” can be put
between the stem and the ending if there is no other way to make it pronounceable.
Such a case often occurs after “-gn” [ny]. See the case of pregnems above, or the
present conjugation of the verb storgn [storny] “to stun”.
Storgno, storgnes, storgnet, storgnems, yu storgnet, storgne(nt).
Other verbs do not present particular difficulties.
Verbs ending with a stressed vowel sound alone or followed just by “y” conjugate this
way:

“Dah–” (to give): dahm, dahs, daht, dahm(o)s, yu dahte, dahnt
“Bay–” (to fear): baym, bays, bayt, baym(o)s, yu bayte, baynt
Verbs ending with an unstressed “e” often correspond to English verbs ending in “-
ate”; ex: “celebre” [cëlEbrë] = “to celebrate”
They conjugate this way:
“Entre–” (to enter): io entre3, entres, entret, entrems, yu entret, entre(nt)
Verbs whose last vowel is an unstressed « e » before a consonant (and with no nasal
infix) tend to follow a similar pattern:
“Hinder” (to hinder): io hinder 2, hinders, hindert, hinderms, yu hindert, hindernt
*hindere would be impossible because the stress would be altered: *[hindEr]
Verbs ending in a consonant after a stressed vowel represent the largest category.
“behr” (to carry, to bear): behro, behrs, behrt, behrm(o)s, yu behrte, behrnt
“kwehk” (to seem): kwehko, kwehcs, kwehct, kwehkmos, yu kwehcte, kwehke(nt)
The verbs “ses” and “habe” have irregular present conjugations:
“ses” (to be): som, es, est, smos, ste, sont

“habe” (to have): ho, has, hat, hams/habmos, habte, ha(be)nt
3-1-1 Infinitive:
Verbs ending in unstressed “e” do not change: “entre” = “to enter”.
Verbs with a nasal infix lose their unstressed “e” and add “-es”.
Likewise, verbal stems in “ei” or “eu” turn respectively to “i” and “u” and add “-es”.
Examples:
Linekw = linkwes [lInkwës] (to leave)
Reik = rikes [riks] (to return to)
Pleuk = plukes [plüks] (to fly)
Other verbs add a final “-e” if it does not alter the accentuation; otherwise, nothing is
added.
Examples:
3
« entrem » and « hinderm » could be possible too, but a risk of confusion with « entrems » and « hinderms »
could arise. That’s why we prefer “io entre” and “io hinder”.

Sprehg [spre:g] = sprehge [spre:dj] (to ask to)
Hinder = hinder (to hinder)
The infinitive, in Sambahsa phrases, is used with the same prepositions as with
substantives. The only difference is that infinitives have no articles (the, a) and
cannot take endings.
Compare: Tehrbo tod auto = “I need this car”

And: Tehrbo kaupe tod auto = “I need to buy this car”
3-1-2 Present active participle:
The ending is –(e)nd. –(e)nt is possible too, but seldom used, in order to avoid
confusions with the ending of the third person plural of the present tense.
Thus: gwehm- = “come”; gwehmend = “coming”.
The gerund is made by adding the adverb ending “-ye” (with hyphen!).
Gwehmend-ye = “while coming”
As in English, a periphrastic tense can be gotten by using the conjugated verb “ses”
+ the present active participle.
Som gwehmend = “I am coming”
3-1-3 Past active participle and infinitive:
This construction corresponds to the English use of “having” + past participle.
To get it, one has simply to add “-us” or “-vs” (following the phonetic possibilities) to
the verbal stem.
Examples:
“peit’ = “try”; “peitus” = “having tried”
“crehsce” [kre:s] = “grow”; “crehscus” [krE:skus] = “having grown”
“ghyah” = “to become open”; “ghyahvs” [gya:vz] = “having become open”
3-1-4 Imperative:
The imperative of the 2nd person singular corresponds to the bare verbal stem, with or
without a final “e”.
Example: Linekw! [lInëkw] or Linkwe! [linkw] = “leave!”

“Be!” is irregular: sdi!

For the 2nd person plural, this is the same form as the present tense (without the
personal pronoun you).
Linkwte! [lInkut] = “leave ye!”
For the 1st person plural, the Sambahsa equivalent of English “let’s” is “smad”, before
the infinitive.
Smad linkwes! = “let’s leave!”
3-1-5 Future:
There are two possible future forms in Sambahsa.
For the first one, you take the verb in the 2nd person singular of the present tense,
and add to it “-ie” + the conjugational endings.
Example:
Permitt = “permit, allow”
Permitts = “you permit”
Then, its future conjugation is permittsiem, permittsies, permittsiet, permittsiem(o)s,

yu permittsiete, permittsient
“Ses” has sessiem, sessies, sessiet, sessiem(o)s, yu sessiete, sessient

« Have » has habsiem, habsies, habsiet, habsiem(o)s, yu habsiete, habsient
The other form is analytic; the auxiliary “sie–” (“will”) is used with the infinitive.
It is conjugated like above: siem, sies, siet, siem(o)s, siete, sient
Examples:
Sient antwehrde = “They will answer”
Siem vide = “I will see”
Sambahsa even has a negative future auxiliary “nie–” much like English “won’t”.
Examples:
Yu niete antwehrde = “You won’t answer”
Niem ghehde = “I won’t be able”
3-1-6 Conditional:
This tense corresponds to the use of “would” in English, and sometimes of the past
tense, when expressing a possibility, a condition.
Beware that, in a sentence with sei = “if”, if the main clause uses the conditional, the
subordinate will do the same (and not use the past tense as in English)
Example : Sei esiem riche, kaupiem quodlibt : “If I was rich, I would buy anything I
want”.

In Sambahsa, it is made by suffixing “ie” to the verbal stem + the present endings.
Example: “kwehk” = “seem”; then “would seem” = kwehkiem, kwehkies, kwehkiet,

kwehkiem(o)s, yu kwehkiete, kwehkient
Verbal stems which already end in “-ie” replace it with “icie”.
Example: “publie” = “publish”; “would publish” = publiciem, publicies, publiciet,

publiciem(o)s, yu publiciete, publicient [publitsyEnt]
“Ses” has esiem, esies, esiet, esiem(o)s, yu esiete, esient.
3-1-7 The near future:
This corresponds to English “to be about to” + verb. In Sambahsa, we use the
auxiliary “vah–” + present endings before the infinitive.
Example: “to be about to open” is conjugated this way:
Vahm ghyane, vahs ghyane, vaht ghyane, vahm(o)s ghyane, yu vahte ghyane, vahnt
ghyane.
3-2 Past tense and derived tenses
There are special endings for the past tense. Moreover, the verb stem often
undergoes some alteration. If the stem undergoes such a modification, then the use
of the endings is optional.
1st person singular -im

2nd person singular -(i)st(a)
rd
3 person singular -it
1st person plural -am
2nd person plural -at
3rd person plural -eer (-r if the verb ends in a stressed
vowel sound).
Between the verbal stem and those endings, an “s”, called the “sigmatic aorist”, may
be used. Its use is not compulsory; nevertheless, it is recommended if the stem ends
in a vowel sound and the ending begins likewise with a vowel.
Example: “ghyah” (to become open) + it = (preferably) “ghyahsit” [gyA:sit]
Otherwise, its use may follow Indo-European examples. For example, these two
verbs behave like their Latin equivalents:
“scrib” (to write): scripsim, scripst(a), scripsit, scripsam, scripsat, scripseer (but
“scribim”, etc., are possible).

“duc” (to lead): duxim, ducst(a), duxit, duxam, duxat, duxeer [düksEër] (but “ducim”,
etc., are possible too).
To predict the possible alteration of the stem, proceed in this order:
1°) Verbs ending with unstressed “e”.

The “e” disappears, and the use of the endings is compulsory
Example: “entre” (to enter): entrim, entrist, entrit, entram, entrat, entreer
Verbs ending in « ie » turn it to « ic ».
Exemple: “publie” (to publish): publicim, publicist, publicit, publi(c)am, publi(c)at,

publi(ce)er
2°) Verbs with « nasal infix ».
The stem loses both the unstressed « e » and the nasal infix.
Examples:
“linekw” (leave) = “likw” (left)
“pressem” (press) = “press” (pressed)
“annem” (breathe) = “ann” (breathed)
Moreover, the “Von Wahl rules” (see below) apply when it is possible:
“scinesd” (split; present tense: scindo) = sciss (split)
This appears indeed in the Romance languages, where the verbal stem is “scind-”,
but the stem for derived words is “sciss–” (ex: “scission”)
The use of the past tense endings is here optional.
3°) Verbs whose stressed vowel is “ehC”, “ei” or “eu” undergo an “ablaut”, i.e., those
vowels turn respectively to “ohC”, “i” and “u”.
Examples:
Ghehd (to be able) = ghohd
Peit (to try) = pit
Pleuk (to fly) = pluk
4°) Verbs whose stressed vowel is “aC”, “au” or “ay”, can undergo an ablaut and turn
respectively to “ieC”, “ieu” and “iey”. Nevertheless, this ablaut is optional.
Examples:
“ghyan” (to open) = “ghyien” [gyen]
“sayg” (to say) = “sieyg”
“aur” (to hear) = “ieur” [yör]

5°) Other verbs can be follow the “Von Wahl rules”, which can change their final
consonants.
Verbal stem final consonants Past tense final consonants

-d -s
-dd/-tt -ss
-rt/-rr/-rg -rs
-lg -ls
-ct -x
Examples:
“decid” (decide) = “decis”

“permitt” (permit) = “permiss”
“curr” (run) = “curs”
“ volg” (turn round) = “vols”
“connect” = “connex”
Indeed, this phenomenon appears (irregularly) in English: “decide” but “decision”,

“permit” but “permission”...
6°) The remaining verbs have the same stem in the present and the past tenses and
must therefore bear the past endings.
An important category among them is the verbs ending with a stressed vowel sound.
Ex: “gwah–” (to go to) [notice the use of the sigmatic aorist in certain persons]:
Gwahsim, gwahst(a), gwahsit, gwahsam, gwahsat, gwahr
Irregular verbs:
“Habe” has “hieb” as a past form, either with or without endings.
There is a third irregular verb in Sambahsa: “woide” (to know a certain fact, a certain
thing; cf. French “savoir”, Spanish “saber”, German “wissen”).
It has the particularity of being conjugated in the present tense as in the past tense.
Thus, I know, you know, etc., is woidim, woidst(a), woidit, woidam, woidat, woideer.
Or, with the personal pronouns and without the endings, io woid, tu woid, etc.
The future is woidsiem, woidsies, etc., the conditional, woidiem, woidies, etc.
The past tense form is wois (by application of the Von Wahl rules), with or without the
endings.
The verb “ses” has two different past tenses. The first one, the “imperfect”, refers to a
lasting situation (cf “was being”, “used to be”):
Eem, ees, eet, eem(o)s, yu eete, eent [Eëm, Eës, Eët...]
The other one, the “simple past”, refers to a single event:

Buim, buist(a), buit, buam, buat, buir.
Example: Eem in in id garden quando buim hihn ab id keraun = “I was (being) in the
garden when I was hit by the thunderbolt”.
3-2-1 The passive participle:
Modern Sambahsa uses only the (former past) passive participle. A “present” passive
participle can still be found in compounds. It consists of “-men” suffixed to the
(present) verbal stem, if it is compatible with the accentuation.
Examples: “almen” = “pupil” (cf. “alumnus” = “who is bred up”; “al-“ = “to put upright,
to breed up”
“deimen” = “(milk) nurse” (cf. Latin “femina” = “woman”; from “deih” = “to suck at”)
Nowadays, the (former past) passive participle is used everywhere. It consists of

either “-t” or “-(e)n” suffixed to the verbal stem, sometimes with modifications. “-t” and
“-en” have no difference in meaning.
The modifications are
a) For verbs in “ehV”, “ei” and “eu” which undergo ablaut (as the irregular verbs
in English)
Thus:
“peit” (to try) = pit/piten (tried)
“kwehr” (to do) = kwohrt/kwohrn (done)
“neud” (to use) = nudt/nuden (used)
On the contrary, verbs in “a”, “ay”, “au” have no ablaut:
“nak” (to reach) = nact/naken (reached)

“aur” (to heard) = aurt/aur(e)n (heard)
“sayg” (to say) = sayct/saygen (said)
b) The “-t” forms of the verbs subjected to the “Von Wahl rules” are the same as
their past forms.
Examples:
“decid” (to decide) = decis/deciden
“permitt” (to permit) = permiss/permitten
“connect” (to connect) = connex/connecten
c) When there is no ablaut, verbal stems ending in “v” undergo modifications for
their “-t” forms.
Verbs in “-uv” and “-ov” lose their final “v” and put “t” instead.

Example: “mov” (to move) = mot/moven
For other verbs, the “v” turns to “w”.
Example: “resolv” (to resolve) = resolwt [rëzOlut]/resolven
These forms may seem difficult to remember; in fact, just think of the English forms
“move” and “motion”, “resolve” and “resolution”.
d) Verbs with a nasal infix lose this infix and the unstressed “e”, and can be
subjected to the “Von Wahl rules” above.
Examples:
“posen” (to lay down) = post/posen

“suppressem” (to suppress) = suppresst/suppressen
“pineg” (to paint) = pict/pigen
“confuned” (to confuse) = confus/confuden
“scinesd” (to split) = sciss/scisden
“annem” (to breathe) = annt/annen
“pregen” (to imprint) = prect/pregen
Irregular verbs:
“ses” = est/esen
“habe” = habt/haben
« woide » = wois/woiden
3-2-2 Use of the passive participle:
As in English, a “composed past” can be made with the verb “habe” + the past
participle.
There is a difference with the English “present perfect”.
The Sambahsa “composed past” refers only to actions that took place in the past
(even if their effects still last in the present time), and not to actions that have
continued until presently. Otherwise the present tense is used.
Compare:
Ho myohrst mien cleicha in mien auto = “I have forgotten my keys in my car”

(action took place in the past, but its consequences are still going on)
Smos prients pon nies miegve = « We have been friends since our childhood »
(*hams est prients pon nies miegve may imply that we are not friends anymore).

The other function of the passive participle is, as its name implies, the construction of
passive sentences.
The more frequent way of forming the passive uses the verb “ses”, but, if the action is
still going on, the verb “bih” (to become) is preferable. Sambahsa “ab” = “by”
Compare:
Id dwer est ghyant, ia fensters sont brohct: « The door is open(ed), the windows are
broken »
And:
El mus biht praess ab el cat: “The mouse is being eaten by the cat”.
Another possibility is to the active form with the reflexive pronoun “se”.
Tod buk se suapehrnt / Tod buk suapehrnt-se = “This book sells good”
3-3 Verbal affixes:
Sambahsa uses many optional verbal prefixes (though they did not exist in IE) in
order to avoid heavy sequences of infinitives. Hyphens can be used to avoid the
formation of new diphtongs or triphtongs.
Bi-: to begin to (“inchoative”)
Example: Id luce biattract insects: “The light begins to attract insects”
Na- = to keep on -ing(“continuative”)
Example: Is nieudh urgent-ye namove: “He needed urgently to keep moving”.
Re- = re- (the same as in English)
Vi = corresponds to the English adverb “finally”
Example: Is viemers ex id wed: “He finally emerged out of the water”
Za- = to stop doing
Example: Ibs sclavs buit permitten za-ermes: “The slaves were allowed to stop
rowing”.

The following prefixes are special because they change the tense of the verb:
ee-: before a verb in the present, corresponds to English “used to”. This prefix, which
already existed in IE, is called “augment”.
Example: Hermann ee(-)gwaht id scol siens urb: “Hermann used to go to the school
of his town”.
Sa(l)-: to be about to + verb

Sa(l) is always written with the hyphen, as is often the case with ee-
Example: Is wir sa-khierk = “The man was about to drown”
Here are two widespread verbal suffixes, which already existed in Indo-European:
-skw: “desiderative”, has a general meaning of “to intend to do”, “to like to”; this is a
shortened form of eiskw.
It can be suffixed to verbs if it does not alter the place of the stressed syllable.
Example: Ies nauts gwahskweer id maykhana = “The sailors wanted to go to the inn”.
-eih: “factitive”.
Examples: Is kaupt tod wogh = He buys this car. Kaupeihm iom tod wogh = I make
him buy this car.
Note that it triggers a double accusative. Verbs ending in –ie turn to –iceih. Stems in
ei turn it to i for euphonics.
Not all the verbs ending in –eih are factitive (ex: credeih = to believe; vergeih = to
avoid). Otherwise, one can use the English system with “to make” (kwehre) or “to
have” (habe).
–eih can be suffixed to adjectives; ex: rudh = “red”, rudheih = “ to make red”
3-4 Some literary verbal forms:
Due to its Indo-European heritage, Sambahsa has some verbal forms only
encountered in literary usage.
The optional endings of the present indicative:
If these are compatible with the accentuation, verbs can bear these endings in the
present indicative:
1° person singular: -mi

2° person singular: -si
3° person singular: -ti
3° person plural: -nti.
The corresponding forms for « ses » are: esmi, essi, esti, sonti.
The other conditions for the use of these forms are that the verb stands in absolute
initial position in the clause, and that this clause contains no adverb. Finally, this
optional ending only serves to describe events actually taking place, not to general
statements. Those conditions are seldom fulfilled.
Old forms of imperative:
In the 2° person singular of the imperative, an option can be to suffix “-di” to the
verbal stem in the “zero-grade”, i.e. verbs in “eu” and “ei” turn them to “u” or “i”, and
verbs with nasal infix lose their unstressed “e”.
Examples:
“kludi!” = “listen!” instead “kleu(e)!”
“ihdi!” = “go!” instead “eih(e)!”
An imperative of the 3° persons is possible by suffixing “-u” to the conjugated verb, if

this does not alter the accentuation.
Examples:
Is maurdher nehct: “The murderer perishes” / Is maurdher nehctu!: “Let the murderer
perish!”
I slougs behrnt gwaur bermens: “The servants carry heavy burdens” / I slougs
behrntu gwaur bermens!: “Let the servants carry heavy burdens!”
Otherwise, it’s possible to use the verbal stem conjugated with “-e” as sole ending,
and with a subject in the sentence.
Gwive is roy!: Long live the king!
Subjunctive mood:
In clauses expressing a wish, a hope, the subjunctive mood can be used. However, it
only exists in the singular.
1° & 3° person singular: -a
2° person singular: -as
This ending can be used as a “negative imperative” with the prohibitive adverb mae.
Example: Mae klehptas! [may klE:ptas] = “Don’t steal!” or “Thou shalt not steal!”
Only “ses” has a full subjunctive conjugation: sia, sias, sia, siam(o)s, siate, siant.

The future participle :
Future participles can be gotten by using the synthetic form of the future tense and
the corresponding ending.
Ex: gwehmsie + nd = gwehmsiend = “who/what will be coming”.
The near future active participle:
It is marked by the ending “tur”. To form it,
- Add “-ur” to the passive participle in “t” of verbs which use the “Von Wahl
rules”, or which end with “v”
Example: cedd = cessur “going to yield”

Emov = emotur “going to emote”
- Add “-ur” to the 3rd person singular of the present.
Example: baht = bahtur “going to speak”
The future active participle of “ses” is butur.
The old infinitive formations:
Two old infinitive formations are possible, on the same base as the future active
participle below (i.e. use of the passive participle in “t” or of the 3 rd person singular of
the present) if this does not alter the accentuation.
The first formation ends in –(t)um and expresses an idea of purpose (in order to).
Examples:
Abgwahsit pinctum in id widu: “He goes off to paint in the timberland”
Gwehmo essum con vos: “I come to eat with you”
Or, it can correspond to the English formations in –ing, used as a gerund:
Example: Deictum exact reuls sienims almens: “Showing exact rules to one’s pupils”
The other formation ends in –tu and can be translated as “to be -ed”. It often comes
after adjectives of quality.
Example: Un garden amat spehctu: « A garden (that is) pleasant to be looked at »
Sometimes, it appears as an adjective of obligation.
Example: Ia kwehrtu opsa: “The tasks to be done”

The durative:
There is a durative suffix –neu that corresponds in general to the use of the English
present perfect progressive with “since” or “for”.
Example: Stahneum her pon trigim minutes: “I’ve been standing here for thirty
minutes”
Its past is made with the augment ee(-)
Example: Eeghangneut apter iom pon Orléans: “He had been walking behind him
since Orleans”.
The eventive :
It means “not to stop doing”. It consists in repeating the first consonant (or sC, Cw,
Cy or Cv) before the stem with the addition of i- or ei- . It has an imperfect in ee-
Example : didehm from dehm.
The intensive :
“to do little by little”. It consists in the reduplication of the stem (with the deletion of
the occlusives in the middle). It has an imperfect in ee-
The iterative :
“To start to keep on doing” : there is an ablaut in “o”; i.e. “eh” = “oh”, “ei” = “oi”, “eu” =
“ou” + suffixing of “ye”. It has an imperfect in ee-.
The perfect:
A perfect tense (which often corresponds to the English present perfect) can be
obtained by prefixing the first letter of the verbal stem followed by “e” to the verb
conjugated in the past tense. Likewise, the past perfect uses the augment ee-.
Example: Lelikwst id vetus wastu = “Thou hast left the olde city” (from the verb
linekw).
3 – 5. Sambahsa conjugated verbs.

Sambahsa verbs are conjugated in different tenses, the most important ones are present and
past (or “preterit”). There are, as in English, two numbers and three persons.
Sambahsa takes its conjugational system from Proto-Indo-European (PIE), a reconstructed
language spoken more than 2000 years ago, at the very root of the majority of the languages
spoken today in Europe, as well as of Iranian and North-Indic (Hindi, Bengali, etc.)
languages. Though we don’t possess any document written in PIE, its probable grammar can
be deduced with a reasonable degree of certainty through the comparison of its daughter
languages. Among these are Sanskrit and Old Greek, whose grammar is known with utmost
precision and which share undoubted similarities. Many of these common features can be
found, among others, in Latin and Anglo-Saxon, the language from which English is
ultimately derived.
Modern English has almost no conjugational endings, and the most known auxlangs (artificial
languages meant for international communication) tend to use no conjugational endings, or
conjugational endings that only indicate the tense, but not the person nor the number.
However, most modern Indo-European languages (except English, the most spoken ones
are Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Parsi, Hindi, Bengali, and the amount of
their speakers exceed the number of Anglophones) still have conjugational endings that
indicate three persons and two numbers, at least for the present indicative and often for a
past tense. Sambahsa, as a modern language based on Indo-European, ought to follow this
pattern, and not the model reconstructed for “classical” PIE, that included one additional
number (dual), one or two sets of endings beyond the active conjugation (medio-passive
and/or passive) and several tenses that used endings grouped in one of those three
categories: indicative, perfect and aorist.
However, it is not a mere sentiment of naturality that has led to the preservation of
conjugational endings in Sambahsa; other considerations, based on motives of precision and
brevity, have been decisive too. As an example, many auxlangs will use a verbal system that
can be described as follows:
Personal pronoun + Verbal stem + Tense ending
While Sambahsa tends to have :
Verbal stem + Personal & Tense ending
This means that Sambahsa is one syllable shorter than many other auxlangs.
Other auxlangs, in the present tense, can go on without conjugational ending.
Personal pronoun + Verbal stem
This system is indeed the easiest one, but it is not devoid of defects. Especially in the 3 rd
person, when the personal pronoun is replaced by a substantive, a reader may have
difficulties identifying the verb at first sight (a little like in the English sentence: Doctors help
rape victims) and this can provoke uncertainties as to the real meaning of the sentence. On
the contrary, many Sambahsa present tense endings are consonantal, which means that
they don’t lengthen the number of syllables but still help to identify the conjugated form as a
verb.
Here are the conjugational endings of Sambahsa for the present tense:
Sambahsa Indo-European
st
1 person singular -o / -m / nothing *-o / *-m
2nd person singular -s *-s
3rd person singular -t *-t

1st person plural -m(o)s *-mos
2nd person plural -t(e) *-te
3rd person plural -(e)nt / -e *-nt
Many of these IE endings are still to be found among modern languages.

When the ending is clearly distinct from the stem, Sambahsa needs not use personal
pronouns. The major exception is for the 2 nd person plural, which sounds virtually like the 3 rd
person singular. Since this person is mostly used for courtesy, the usage of the pronoun “yu”
is particularly recommended.
The choice of the different options is conditioned by the necessity of preserving the initial
stress of Sambahsa verbal stems.
The past endings are less well attested:
Sambahsa Indo-European (perfect

endings)
1st person singular -im *-a
2nd person singular -(i)st(a) *-tha
3rd person singular -it *-e
1st person plural -am *-mé
2nd person plural -at *-té
3rd person plural -(ee)r *-ér
Here, unlike the present tense, there are more divergences, because Indo-European had in
fact several sets of endings for different tenses whose number was reduced in its daughter
languages. Hence, the Sambahsa endings may be indeed closer than PIE to the ones found
in other IE languages.
Example of Latin (simple past tense) : -i, -isti, -it, imus, istis, erunt
And of Icelandic : (nothing), -st, (nothing), -um, -udh, -u
Furthermore, the main feature of Indo-European verbs in the past tenses is that they
commonly underwent certain modifications of their stems. Sambahsa still displays many of
those phenomena, and the rule is that a verb that undergoes a modification of its stem in the
past tense can drop the conjugational endings in this tense but must therefore use the
personal pronouns.
Example : ghehd = to be able, can. Thus ghehdo = I can (the use of the personal pronoun is
not required)
In the past tense, ghehd turns regularly to ghohd. For “I could”, we get either ghohdim (with
ending) or io ghohd (without ending but with personal pronoun, as in English).
The main verb families will be analysed gradually, as one has to proceed when he/she meets
a Sambahsa verbal stem he/she wants to conjugate. Only the tenses that present difficulties
(mostly present and past) will be shown.
Before going further, it shall be remembered that conjugational endings beginning with –s or
–t can change the final letter of the verbal stem:
-b + s / t = -ps / -pt ; -k / -g + s/ t = -cs / -ct. And, with verbs whose stem is in ehv, eiv or euv,
v + s / t = -fs / -ft.
These changes may look arbitrary at first sight, but it helps to remember the English pairs :

Describe / description
Drive / drift
Normally, the present endings are added directly to the bare stem. However, when this
system leads to something completely unpronounceable, an “e” can be inserted. This occurs
for stems in “-gn” [ny] used with endings in consonants.
Example : sehgn + t = sehgnet [sE:nyët]
On the contrary, remember that, in Sambahsa, “w” can work as both a vowel and a
consonant. Thus:
Sehkw + t = sehkwt [sE:kut]
Last but not least, for reasons of euphony or etymology, an s can be inserted between the
past tense ending and the verbal stem, which can undergo the alterations mentioned above
for consonants plus s. This “s” is called “the sigmatic aorist”.
Ex: absorb + (s) + it = absorpsit
C = consonant V = vowel
1st category of verbs : nasal infix
The nasal infix is the letter “n” or “m” found in the verbal stem, and which disappears in the
past tense.
See the excellent analysis by Robert Winter:
http://joyoflanguages.blogspot.com/2010/06/sambahsa-in-six-minutes-1-nasal-infixes.html
Such verbal stems end this way: -Cen –Cem -neC -meC
The “e” is always unstressed.
In the present tense, this unstressed “e” disappears everywhere possible.

Moreover, if “s” or “ss” comes in contact with the final “n” or “m” after the deletion of this “e”,
the “s” or “ss” disappears too.
Examples : posen = *posn = pon- pressem = *pressm = prem
(compare the English words “postpone” and “position”).
The infinitive is obtained by suffixing “-es” to this stem without “e”.
Examples: posen = pones [pons] brinegh = bringhes [bringz]
The past tense is obtained simply by removing the “e” and the nasal infix.
Examples: posen = pos brinegh = brigh

The conditional tense is obtained by suffixing “ie” to this verbal stem without “e”.
However, one should not forget that “the Von Wahl rules” (see below) apply to the stems with
nasal infixes.

Example :
scinesd = *scisd = (after applying the Von Wahl rule according to which d becomes s) sciss
The past passive participle is made by suffixing –t (which can trigger the Von Wahl rules) or
–en to the the verbal stem without unstressed “e” or infix.
Examples:
Scinesd = sciss / scisden

Posen = post / posen
The nasal infix system may seem complicated, but still survives in English among irregular
verbs.
Examples: bring = brought think = thought
But Sambahsa : brinegh = brigh tanek (to concentrate) = tak
This irregularity occurs among words of Romance origin like “picture” vs “paint”.
- Linekw = to leave
Present tense: linkwo, linkws, linkwt, linkwm(o)s, linkwte [lInkut], linkwnt
In Sambahsa, “w” is never stressed.
Infinitive: linkwes
Past tense: either io likw, tu likw...

Or : likwim, likwsta/likwist/likwst, likwit, likwam, likwat, likweer.
The latter form is recommended since a final “w” is difficult to pronounce as a semi-vowel
standing alone.
Past participle: likwt / likw(e)n
- surprined = to surprise
Present tense: surprindo, surprinds, surprindt, surprindmos, surprindte, surprinde(nt)

Infintive : surprindes [surprIndz]
Past tense: either : io surpris, tu surpris
Or: surprisim, surprisist/surprissta, surprisit, surprisam, surprisat, surprisseer
Past participle: surpris / surpriden
- interrumep = to interrupt
Present tense : interrumpo, interrumps, interrumpt, interrumpmos, interrupte, interrumpe(nt)

Infinitive : interrumpes

Past tense : io interrup, tu interrup…
Or : interrupim, interrupist/interrupst(a), interrupit, interrupam, interrupat, interrupeer
[interüpEer]
Past participle : interrupt / interrupen
- sisen = to let (+ infinitive)
Present tense : sino, sins, sint, sinmos, sinte, sine(nt)

Infinitive : sines [sins]
Conditional : siniem, sinies, siniet, siniem(o)s, yu siniete, sinient
Past tense : io sis, tu sis…
Or : sisim, sisist, sisit, sisam, sisat, siseer
Past participle: sist / sisen
- annem = to breathe
Present tense : annmo, annems, annemt, annmmos, annemt, annment

*annmt and *annms would be unpronounceable; thus, the unstressed “e” is kept.
Infinitive : annmes [Anmës]
Past tense: io ann, tu ann...
Or : annim, annst(a)/annist, annit, annam, annat, anneer
Past participle: annt / annen
- clihen = to tilt
Present tense: clihno, clihns, clihnt, clihnmos, clihnte, clihne(nt)

Infinitive: clihnes [klIns]
Past tense : io clih, tu clih
Or : clihsim, clihst(a), clihsit, clihsam, clihsat, clihr
Notice the use of the sigmatic aorist to avoid a sequence of two vowels.
Past participle: cliht / clihn
- pregen = to impregnate
Present tense: pregno, pregens, pregent, pregnems, pregent, pregnent

Surely the most complicated sambahsa verb. In SPT:
[ prEnyo, prEdjëns, prEdjënt, prEdjëms, prEdjënt, prEnyënt ]
Infinitive : pregnes [prEnyës]
Past tense: io preg, tu preg..
Or : pregim, precst(a)/pregist, pregit, pregam, pregat, pregeer
Past participle: prect / pregen
2nd category of verbs : unstressed “e”
This category often includes verbs of Romance origin that ended in –are in Latin. They
correspond to English nouns ending in “-ation”; it is frequently enough to subtract this suffix
and to add “e” instead, to get the Sambahsa verb. However, endings in “-ication” form a
special sub-category (see below) while other nouns in “-cation” replace this ending with “-
que” in Sambahsa.

Example: “provocation” = provoque (to provoke).
This unstressed ending “e” means that there is no ending for the 1° person singular of the
present tense. Instead, one has to use the unstressed personal pronoun “io”.
The 1st person plural ending is thus “-ms”, because *-mos would change the accented
syllable.
As the 2° person plural is similar to the 3° person singular, one has likewise to use the
personal pronoun “yu” before it.
The ending of the 3° person plural “nt” can be dropped if the meaning is evident (ex: when
the subject is mentioned in the sentence).
The infinitive is very simple since it corresponds to the verbal stem itself. Likewise, to get the
past participle, one has just to suffix “-t” or “-n”.
For the conditional, the “e” is dropped before suffixing “ie”.
All verbs of this category must bear the endings of the past tense. The final “e” must be
dropped, except if its absence would result in a phonetic change of the last consonant of the
verbal stem (ex: endings in “ge” and “ce”).
- exclame : to exclaim
Present : io exclame, exclames, exclamet, exclamems, yu exclamet, exclame(nt)

Infinitive : exclame
Conditional : exclamiem, exclamies, exclamiet, exclamiem(o)s, yu exclamiete, exclamient
Past tense : exclamim, exclamist, exclamit, exclamam, exclamat, exclameer
Past participle : exclamet / exclamen
- lance : to launch
Present : io lance, lances, lancet, lancems, yu lancet, lance(nt)

Infinitive : lance
Past tense : lancim, lancist, lancit, lanceam [lantsëAm], lanceat [lantsëAt], lanceer
Past participle : lancet / lancen
- change : to change
Present : io change, changes, changet, changems, yu changet, change(nt)

Infinitive : change
Past tense : changim, changist, changit, changeam [tcandjëAm], changeat [tcandjëAt],
changeer
Past participle : changet / changen
- murmure : to murmur
Present : io murmure [murmÜr], murmures, murmuret, murmurems, murmuret, murmure(nt)

Infinitive : murmure
Past tense : murmurim [murmUrim] , murmurist, murmurit, murmuram, murmurat, murmureer
[murmürEër]
Past participle : murmuret / murmuren
There is a sub-category of verbs endings with « ie ». Those verbs often correspond to
English nouns ending in “-ication”. Example: “publication” = publie “to publish”.

Since “ie” is a stressed diphthong, they share some features with the verbs whose stress
falls on the last syllable. Furthermore, this “ie” may turn to “ic-” for euphonic reasons, and,
notably, in the conditional tense.
All verbs of this category follow the same pattern :
- publie : to publish
Present : publiem, publies, publiet, publiem(o)s, yu publiete, publient

Conditional: publiciem, publicies, publiciet, publiciem(o)s, yu publiciete, publicient
Infinitive : publie
Past tense: publicim, pubilicist/publiest(a), publicit, publiam, publiat, publieer
Past participle: publiet / publien
3rd category of verbs : ehC
These are verbs whose inner vowel is “eh”, followed by one or several consonants (verbs
ending with only “eh”, like deh, belong to the category of verbs ending with a stressed vowel
sound). According to the few statistical data that exist for Sambahsa, they may represent the
most widespread category. Their functioning consists in the ablaut of the inner consonant,
much like English “swear, swore, sworn”. However, while “ablaut” is considered irregular in
English, it is a fully normal system in Sambahsa. The “eh” of the verbal stem turns to “oh” in
the past tense and in the past participle.
Thus : ghehd = ghohd = ghohdt / ghohden
This ablaut means that the use of the past tense endings is optional.
The infinitive is “e” suffixed to the verbal stem. However, the use of both the past tense
endings and the infinitive ending is disallowed if they change the accentuation or/and
pronunciation of a consonant within this verbal stem.
- ghehd : to be able to
Present : ghehdo, ghehds, ghehdt, ghehdmos, yu ghehdte, ghehde(nt)

Infinitive : ghehde
Past tense: io ghohd, tu ghohd...
Or : ghohdim, ghohdist/ghohdst(a), ghohdit, ghohdam, ghohdat, ghohdeer
Past participle : ghohdt / ghohden
- spehc : to look at
Present : spehco [spE :ko], spehcs, spehct, spehcmos, yu spehcte, spehce(nt) [spE:ts(ënt)]

Infinitive : spehce
Past tense : io spohc, tu spohc
Or : spohcim, spohcist/spohcst(a), spohcit, spohcam, spohcat, spohceer
Past participle: spohct / spohcen
- kwehk : to seem
Present : kwehko, kwehcs, kwehct, kwehkmos, yu kwehcte, kwehke(nt)

Infinitive : kwehke
Past tense : io kwohk, tu kwohk, ...
Or: kwohkim, kwohcst(a)/kwohkist, kwohkit, kwohkam, kwohkat, kwohkeer
Past participle : kwohct / kwohken
- sprehg : to talk to, ask to
Present : sprehgo, sprehcs, sprehct, sprehgmos, yu sprehcte, sprehge(nt)

Infinitive : sprehge
Past tense : io sprohg, tu sprohg,...
Or: sprohgim, sprohcst(a) / sprohgist, sprohgit, sprohgam, sprohgat, sprohgeer
Past participle : sprohct / sprohgen
- kwehr : to do, make
Present: kwehro, kwehrs, kwehrt, kwehrmos, yu kwehrte, kwehrnt

The form with “nt” is preferred because it is monosyllabic.
Infinitive : kwehre
Past tense : io kwohr, tu kwohr...
Or : kwohrim, kwohrst(a) / kwohrist, kwohrit, kwohram, kwohrat, kwohreer
Past participle: kwohrt / kwohrn
- tehrb : to have to
Present : tehrbo, tehrps, tehrpt, tehrbmos, yu tehrpte, tehrbe(nt)

Infinitive : tehrbe
Past tense : io tohrb, tu tohrb...
Or : tohrbim, tohrpst(a) / tohrbist, tohrbit, tohrbam, tohrbat, tohrbeer
Past participle: tohrpt / tohrben
- trehv : to find, meet
Present: trehvo, trehfs, trehft, trehvmos, yu trehfte, trehve(nt)

Infinitive: trehve
Past tense: io trohv, tu trohv
Or : trohvim, trohfst(a) / trohvist, trohvit, trohvam, trohvat, trohveer
Past participle : trohft, trohven
- sehkw : to follow
Present : sehkwo, sehkws, sehkwt, sehkwm(o)s [sE :kum(o)s], yu sehkwte [sE :kut], sehkwnt

Infinitive : sehkwe
Past tense : io sohkw, tu sohkw…
However, because of the difficult pronunciation of the final « -kw », forms with conjugational
endings are preferred :
Sohkwim, sohkwst(a) / sohkwist, sohkwit, sohkwam, sohkwat, sohkweer
Past participle: sohkwt / sohkwn
- skehpt : to wait for

Present : skehpto, skehpts, skehpt, skehptmos, yu skehpte, skehpte(nt)
The “t” of the ending is merged within the “t” of the verbal stem.
Infinitive : skehpte
Past tense: io skohpt, tu skohpt
Or: skohptim, skohptst(a) / skohptist, skohptit, skohptam, skohptat, skohpteer
Past participle: skohpt / skohpten
- sehgn : to muse, dream
Present : sehgno, sehgnes, sehgnet, sehgnems, yu sehgnet, sehgne(nt)

An “e” has been added before the ending in order to facilitate pronunciation.
Infinitive : sehgne
Past tense: io sohgn, tu sohgn...
However, since the final “gn” is difficult to pronounce, forms with conjugational endings are
preferred:
Sohgnim, sohgnist, sohgnit, sohgnam, sohgnat, sohgneer
4th category of verbs: eu & ei
The inner vowel of the verbs is “ei” or “eu”, but their ablaut is respectively “i” or “u”. (This
disappearance of the letter “e” is called the “zero-grade”.) Their infinitive is made by suffixing
“-es” to this “zero-grade” form, unless it changes the pronunciation of a consonant within the
stem.
- kheiss : to feel
Present: kheisso, tu kheiss, kheisst, kheissmos, yu kheisste, kheisse(nt)

“tu” is compulsory before “kheiss” since the ending can’t be heard.
Infinitive: khisses [qIsës]
Past tense: io khiss, tu khiss...
Or: khissim, khisst(a) / khissist, khissit, khissam, khissat, khisseer
Past participle: khisst / khissen
- deik : to show, indicate
Present: deiko, deics, deict, deikmos, yu deicte, deike(nt)

Infinitive: dikes [diks]
Past tense : io dik, tu dik…
Or : dikim, dicst(a)/dikist, dikit, dikam, dikat, dikeer
Past participle: dict / diken
- eiskw : to intend, want, seek
Present: eiskwo, eiskws, eiskwt, eiskwm(o)s, yu eiskwte [Eyskut], eiskwnt

Infinitive: iskwes [Iskwës]
Past tense: io iskw, tu iskw
De facto, because of its difficult pronunciation, this form is always replaced by the next one:
Iskwim, iskwst(a) / iskwist, iskwit, iskwam, iskwat, iskweer
Past participle: iskwt / iskwn

- sneigv : to snow
Present : sneigvt : Since “v” is not directly after “ei”, it does not turn to “f”
Infintive: snigves
Past tense: snigv(it)
Past participle: snigvt / snigven
- neic : to kill, slay
Present : neico, neics, neict, neicmos, yu neicte, neice(nt)

Infintive: nices [nItsës]
Past tense: io nic, tu nic
Or: nicim, nicst(a) / nicist, nicit, nicam, nicat, niceer
Past participle: nict / nicen
Verbs in “eu” do not show major differences. Do not forget that “u” is pronounced [ü] if one of
the next two letters is “e”.
- beud : to appeal to, seek, beg
Present : beudo, beuds, beudt, beudmos, yu beudte, beude(nt)

Infinitive: budes [büdz]
Past tense: io bud, tu bud..
Or: budim, budst(a) / budist, budit, budam, budat, budeer
Past participle: budt / buden
Eu can appear at the end of a verbal stem. In the past tense, the “sigmatic aorist” is often
used.
- kleu : to listen to
Present: kleum, kleus, kleut, kleum(o)s, yu kleute, kleunt

In the first person singular, “m” is used instead “o” because the verb ends with a stressed
vowel sound.
Infinitive: klues [klü:s]
Past tense: io klu, tu klu(st)...
Or: klu(s)im, klusist/klust(a)/kluist(a), klu(s)it, klu(s)am, klu(s)at, klur
“eer” is shortened to “r” after stressed vowels.
Pasr participle: klut / klun
“ei” is quite rare alone at the end of a verbal stem and, for reasons of accentuation, appears
instead as “eih”.
- credeih : to believe
Present: credeihm, credeihs, credeiht, credeihm(o)s, yu credeihte, credeihnt

Infinitive: credihes [krëdI:s]
Past tense: io credih, tu credih...
Or: credihsim, credihst(a), credihsit, credihsam, credihsat, credihr
Past participle: crediht / credihn

5th category of verbs : a
Their inner vowel is “a”, or the diphthongs “au” or “ay”. Their ablaut is particular in that the “a”
turns to “ie” only in the past tense, but not for the past participle, which keeps “a”.
Furthermore, this ablaut, though recommended, is optional, and these “a” verbs can undergo
the application of the “Von Wahl rules” (optionally for the past tense, but obligatorily for the
past participle in “t”). These “a” verbs can be considered a transition between the ablaut
verbs and the verbs that are subjected to the Von Wahl rules.
For the infinitive, the same rules apply as for the verbs in “ehC”.
The best illustration is given by the following verb:
- salg : to go out of
Present: salgo, salcs, salct, salgmos, yu salcte, salge(nt)

Infinitive: salge
Past tense:
We can either use the ablaut: io sielg, tu sielg...
Or, with endings: sielgim, sielcst(a)/sielgist, sielgit, sielgam, sielgat, sielgeer
Or, we can use the Von Wahl rule according to which, lg = ls in the past tense.
Thus: io sals, tu sals...
Or, salsim, salsst(a)/salsist, salsit, salsam, salsat, salseer
(the form with ablaut is more common)
Past participle: sals (von Wahl rule) / salgen
- nak : to reach
Present : nako, nacs, nact, nakmos, yu nacte, nake(nt)

Infinitive: nake
Past tense: io niek, tu niek...
Or: niekim, niecst(a)/niekist, niekit, niekam, niekat, niekeer
Nakim, nacsta... are possible but in fact never used.
Past participle: nact / naken
- jawab : to reply
Present: jawabo, jawaps, jawapt, jawabmos, yu jawapte, jawabe(nt)

Infinitive: jawabe
Past tense: io jawieb, tu jawiepst...
Or: jawiebim, jawiepst(a)/jawiebist, jawiebit, jawiebam, jawiebat, jawiebeer
Jawabim, etc appears seldom.
Past participle: jawapt / jawaben
- ghyan : to open
Present: ghyano, ghyans, ghyant, ghyanmos, yu ghyante, ghyane(nt)

Infinitive : ghyane
Past tense : io ghyien [gyen], tu ghyien…
Or : ghyienim, ghyienst(a)/ghyienist, ghyienit, ghyienam, ghyienat, ghyieneer
Theoretically: ghyanim, etc.

Past participle: ghyant / ghyanen
- ghang : to walk
Present: ghango, ghancs, ghanct, ghangmos, yu ghancte, ghange(nt)

Infinitive: ghange
Past tense: io ghieng, tu ghiencst...
Or: ghiengim, ghiencst(a)/ghiengist, ghiengit, ghiengam, ghiengat, ghiengeer
Rare: ghangim, etc.
Past participle: ghanct / ghangen
- salv : to save
Present: salvo, salvs, salvt, salvmos, yu salvte, salve(nt)

Infinitive: salve
Past tense: either with sielv, with or without endings, or with salv + endings.
Past participle: salwt [sAlut], by application of the rule for “v” of past participles (see below);
salven.
- trag : to drag, pull, draw
Present: trago, tracs, tract, tragmos, yu tracte, trage(nt)

Infinitive: trage
Past tense: io trieg, etc, with or without endings.
However, because of the proximity with Latin, a widespread form is to use trag + sigmatic
aorist + endings. Thus, we get:
Traxim, tracst(a)/traxist, traxim, traxam, traxat, traxeer
Past participle: tract / tragen
The next verb will illustrate, even for other verb categories, the issue of stems ending with
unstressed –er or –el.
- safer : to travel
Present: io safer, safers, safert, saferms, yu safert, safernt

In the 1st person singular, there is no ending, and the personal pronoun is used, because
*saferm could create a confusion with saferms.
Infinitive: safer
No “e”, because this would shift the stress.
Past tense: io siefer, tu sieferst...
Here, all past endings can be used on either saf(e)r or sief(e)r because the pronunciation of
the “f” (consonant within the verbal stem) remains unchanged when it stands close to “r”.
Past participle: safert / safern
Verbs in ay have an ablaut in ieu.
- sayg : to say
Present: saygo, saycs, sayct, saygmos, yu saycte, sayge(nt)

Infinitive: sayge

Past tense: io sieyg, tu sieycst
Or, with endings : sieygim, sieycst(a)/sieygist, sieygit, sieygam, sieygat, sieygeer
Saygim is nearly never used.
Past participle: sayct / saygen
“ay” can appear at the end of a stem:
- bay : to fear
Present: baym, bays, bayt, baym(o)s, yu bayte, baynt

Infinitive: baye
Past tense: io biey, tu bieyst...
Or : bieyim, bieyst(a)/bieyist, bieyit, bieyam, bieyat, bieyr
Bayim or baysim are possible in theory, but never used.
Past participle: bayt / bayn
Verbs in “au” behave much like verbs in “ay”.
- aur : to hear
Present: auro, aurs, aurt, aurm(o)s, yu aurte, aurnt

Infinitive : aure
Past tense : io ieur, tu ieurst…
Or : ieurim, ieurst(a)/ieurist, ieurit, ieuram, ieurat, ieureer
Past participle : aurt / aur(e)n
- kau : to notice
Present : kaum, kaus, kaut, kaum(o)s, yu kaute, kaunt

Infinitive: kaue
Past tense: io kieu, tu kieust...
Or, with endings and, when needed, the sigmatic aorist : kieusim, kieust(a)/kieusist, kieusit,
kieusam, kieusat, kieur/kieuseer
Kau is seldom used without ablaut.
Past participle: kaut / kaun
6th category of verbs : Von Wahl rules
The final consonants of these verbs undergo modifications for the past tense and the past
participle in “t”. These are as follows:
Verbal stem final consonants final consonants after modification

-d -s
-dd/-tt -ss
-rt/-rr/-rg -rs
-lg -ls
-ct -x

Moreover, verbs ending with “v” undergo the following modifications for their past participle in
“t”.
If “v” comes after “a” or a consonant, “v” turns to “w”.

Examples: solv = solwt; lav = lawt
Otherwise, “v” disappears. Example: mov = mot
Those rules may look difficult at first sight, but they only encompass within a regular
framework irregularities often seen in English.
Decide : decision; permit : permission; convert : conversion; solve : solution; move : motion
- clud : to close
Present : cludo, cluds, cludt, cludmos, yu cludte, clude(nt)

Infinitive : clude
Past tense: io clus, tu clusst...
Or: clusim, clusst(a)/clusist, clusit, clusam, clusat, cluseer
Past participle: clus / cluden
- sedd : to sit
Present: seddo, sedds, seddt, seddmos, yu seddte, sedde(nt)

Infinitive: sedde
Past tense: io sess, tu sesst,...
Or : sessim, sesst(a)/sessist, sessit, sessam, sessat, sesseer
Past participle: sess / sedden
- permitt : to permit, allow
Present: permitto, permitts, permitt, permittmos, yu permitte, permitte(nt)

Infinitive: permitte
Past tense: io permiss, tu permisst...
Or : permissim, permisst(a)/permissist, permissit, permissam, permissat, permisseer
Past participle : permiss / permitten
- volg : to turn oneself
Present : volgo, volcs, volct, volgmos, yu volcte, volge(nt)

Infinitive : volge
Past tense : io vols, tu volsst…
Or : volsim, volsst(a)/volsist, volsit, volsam, volsat, volseer
Past participle: vols / volgen
- curr : to run
Present: curro, currs, currt, currm(o)s, yu currte, curre(nt)

Infinitive : curre
Past tense: io curs, tu curst..
Or : cursim, curst(a)/cursist, cursit, cursam, cursat, curseer

Past participle : curs / curren
7th category of verbs : final stressed vowel sound
Those verbs all end with a final stressed vocalic sound, i.e., a vowel, or “h” just after a
vowel. Those ending with ending with “h” are numerous. We can mention: deh = “to put”;
stah = “to stand”; gnoh = “to know”; dah = “to give”; bah = “to speak”; bih = “to become”;
ghyah = “to be open”. Verbs of the same category without “h” are less common: syou = “to
sew”; brai = “to bray”.
All those verbs follow the same pattern:
- gwah : to go to
Present: gwahm, gwahs, gwaht, gwahm(o)s, yu gwahte, gwahnt

Infinitive: gwahe
Past tense: gwahsim, gwahst(a)/gwahsist, gwahsit, gwahsam, gwahsat, gwahr
Past participle: gwaht / gwahn
8th category: other verbs
They follow the general rules and must bear conjugational endings in the past tense, since
their stem undergoes no change.
- styr : to steer
Present: styro, styrs, styrt, styrm(o)s, yu styrte, styr(e)nt

Infinitive: styre
Past tense: styrim, styrst(a)/styrist, styrit, styram, styrat, styreer
Past participle: styrt / styrn
For pure reasons of etymology, some verbs may use the “sigmatic aorist” in the past tense.
Such are em (to take [figurative sense]) = emsim, emsist... or duc :
- duc = to lead
Present: duco, ducs, duct, ducmos, yu ducte, ducent

Infinitive : duce [düts]
Past tense : duxim, ducst(a)/duxist, duxit, duxam, duxat, duxeer
Past participle : duct / ducen
We hope that this sketch of Sambahsa conjugated verbs will help you to cope with 90 % of
situations. Otherwise, just recall that a Sambahsa verbal stem must fulfil two requirements:
- the stress must fall on the same place for all persons in the present tense.
- In all tenses, and except for nasal infix verbal stems, the unstressed “e” of final CeC
can be dropped unless this changes the pronunciation of the preceding consonant.

4 - Sambahsa words
4-1 Adjectives:
Adjectives behave roughly the same as in English. They are not obligatorily declined, come
before the substantive as an epithet, but after it if they introduce a preposition.
Ex: Uno sneigvcovohrn calive = “a snow-covered cabin”; but: Un calive covohrno med un
tenu sneigvlyegher = “A cabin covered with a thin snow-layer”.
The comparative is made by suffixing –er to the adjective (-ter if the adjective ends with a
vowel sound) if it is compatible with the accentuation. Otherwise meis = “more” must be
used. “Than” is quem.
Examples: Age est meis difficil quem kwehre neid = « To act is more difficult than to do
nothing ».
Dreu est legver quem stal = « Wood is lighter than steel »
Equality is indicated with tem.... quem.
Maria est tem bell quem tu = “Maria is as beautiful as thou”.
Inferiority is indicated thanks to min(s) or minter:
Id weter est minter srigo quem ghes = « The weather is less cold than yesterday ».
The superlative uses, according to the possibilities, -st or meist.
Ne trohveer id minst trace iom slougs: “They did not find the slightest trace of the servants”
Tod rock est id meist dreupic bayna quanta habmos endersoken = “This rock is the most
crumbly one among all that we have examined”
Som yunst in mien swoin = “I am the youngest one in my team”
Only lytil (little) and megil (great) display some irregularities. They drop their final “-il” to form
an adverb (lyt = “a little”, meg = “a lot, very”) and their comparatives and superlatives:
lyter/lytst, meger/megst.

4-2 Adverbs:
The particle –ye (always with the hyphen!) serves to form adverbs, with adjectives as well as
with substantives. Ex: end-ye = “finally, in the end”. If the meaning is obvious, adjectives can
be used alone. Ex: deub in id forest = “deep in the forest”. Some adverbs do not need the
adding of –ye. Ex: tik (only), ops (often), just, it(han) (thus), bfuyi (continually), sigwra
(assuredly), oku (quick), ja (already), semper (always), tun (then), (ya)schi (too)....
Another kind of adverbs can be made by prefixing a- to substantives. Ex: apart, atop...
Adverbs of quality (ex: “many/much” = baygh; “too” = pior) shall behave like adjectives when
they refer to a noun (and thus can bear the optional declensional endings), but like an
adverb (with the possible adjunction of –ye) when they refer to an attributive adjective.
Examples : Piora kowpic chifans sont vierdnic pro sieune = « Too many copious meals are
harmful for health »
Pior-ye kowpic chifans sont vierdnic pro sieune = “Too much copious meals are harmful for
health”
4-3 Correlatives:
Many useful words can be obtained by affixing certain particles to the interrogative pronouns
or words like anghen “a person”, ject “a thing”, loc “a place”.
Examples:
"Someone" is "semanghen" (some + person) or “semquel” (rare) from “some” = “sem”.
"semanghen hat klohpten ia clenods" = "Someone has stolen the jewels".
Halfway between “some” and "any", there is "gvonc" suffixed to the interrogative pronoun.
"Ne has clus id dwer. Quelgvonc ghehdiet entre id dom" = "You haven't closed the door.
Any-/Someone could enter the house!"
"cada" is "each" as undetermined. In the example below, it is merged with "anghen":

"Cadanghen poitt iskwes asyle in alya lands" = "Any-/Everyone is entitled to seek asylum in
other countries".
"-quid" (cf. Sanskrit "cid") suffixed to the interrogative pronoun expresses "any" with an idea

of total uncertainty.
Ex: "BP lehct quodquid" = "BP's telling anything at all”; cf. French: "BP raconte n'importe
quoi". (pejorative meaning).
“-kwe” suffixed to the interrogative pronoun corresponds to English “-ever”.

“quodkwe” = “whatever”.
"libt" suffixed to the interrogative pronoun is "any" with an idea of "whichever you want" (cf.
"libet" in Latin, "-libo" in Russian):
"Cheus quodlibt fustan" = "Choose any skirt (the one you prefer)"
Most common forms:
Cause: why? = “ma?”. That’s why = “itak”

Manner: kam? = how? (and “like”), it(han), katha = thus; ka = as a
Means: The adverbs consist of med (“with, through” + instrument) suffixed to the pronoun in
the genitive. Thus: quosmed = “with what? by which means?”; tosmed = with that, through
that means.
Number: quayt? = how much/many?; tant = so much/many
Person: quis, qua, quel = who? (declined); semanghen, semquis, semqua = “someone”; so-
and-so, quidam = fulan; “everyone” = vasyanghen; no-one = nimen, neanghen.
Place: The ending to indicate a place is “-er”, a direction towards “-tro” and a direction from
“-tos” or “-ois” (the latter is an old ablative plural ending)
Thus, we get:
Quer, quetro, quetos/quois = where, whither, whence
Her, hetro, hetos/hois = here, hither, hence
Ter, tetro, tetos/tois = there, thither, thence
Cer, cetro, cetos/ciois = yonder, to yonder, from yonder
(below are given the forms that can be encountered in texts)
Somewhere = semloc/semquer, semtro, semtos
Everywhere = quantloc/quanter, quanttro, quanttos/quantois
Nowhere = neidloc/nequer, netro, netos
Elsewhere = alyer, altro, altos/alyois
Left/Right are lev(ter)/dex(ter) and can give rise to forms such as levtro/dextro,
levtos/dextos.

Somehow irregular are exo (outside) = extro/extos and eni (inside, within) = entro/entos or
intro/intos.
An adverb of direction (cf. English “-wards”) can be made by suffixing –worts.
Example: Vasya fluvs sreunt marworts = “All rivers flow to the sea/seawards”.
The corresponding adjective is in –wort.
An adverb of location can rarely be made by suffixing –i.

Examples:
Ghomi = on the ground
Urbi = downtown
Domi = in the house
Hemi = at home
“up” is ub and “down” is ghom, from (di)ghom = “the earth, the ground”. Ghom has an
irregular comparative: niter.
Unte both means “through where?” and “through, during”.
Quality: qualg? = which?; solg, talg = such

Thing: quod = “what?” (declined). “Something” = semject, semquod; “everything” =
quant(o/um); “nothing” = neid (declined). “nothing at all” = khich
Time: quan(do)? = when?; kun = when, as; yando = sometimes; ops = often; yant = as soon
as; tun = then; semper = always; naiw(o) = never
Totality: “All, every” can be translated by quant. If it bears the optional declensional endings,
it can serve as a relative pronoun too.
Example: Danko mien oncle ob quanta radhs mi hat daht = “I thank my uncle for all advice
he has given to me”.
“All the” is vasyo (declined according to the euphonic vocalisation) while “whole” is hol.
“Completely, totally” is alnos. “All the others” is ceters.
Examples:
Vasyas gwens kament magvens = “All (the) women like children”.
Id hol urb buit alnos destruct. Circa mil survivers ghohd ses bohrgen, bet ceters dohlg mane
ep id stet = « The whole city was completely destroyed. About one thousand survivors could
be put in safety, but all the others had to stay on the spot”.
“Each” is ielg, but when one refers to a group of two, one can use ieter. “Any, every” is cada.

4-4 Some common invariable words in Sambahsa:
Au: or
Bad: finally, at last; ne… bad = not yet
Bet: but
Circa: about, approximately
Dind: afterwards, then
Dar: still
Ed: and
Eti: furthermore
Fauran: immediately
Ghi: has no definite meaning. It often appears in second position in a clause and serves to
emphasize the preceding word. It is sometimes suffixed to the preceding adverb or pronoun.
It can be translated as “then” or “because”, f.e.: “Is ne kieup id wogh, isghi ne hieb denars”:
“He didn’t buy the car because he had no money”.
Hatta: even (as an adverb)
Ja: already
Ka: as a, like
Kafi: enough (synonym: « sat »)
Kam: “like” and “how”
kay: in order to. Often use as “to” before a verb.
Ke(m) : (clitic) : expresses a wish.
lakin: however, nevertheless
lyt: a little; from the adjective “lytil” = “little”
meg: a lot, much, very; from the adjective “megil” = “great, big”.
Menxu: while
Ne: not (appears generally before the verb; sambahsa sentences have only one negation or
negative pronoun).
Neti: no more, not... anymore.
No: no!
Nun: now
Od: that (as in “I know that...”). As in English, it can be often omitted.
Oku: quick, rapidly
Okwivid-ye: obviously
Perodh: forward
Pior: too much/many
Quayque: although
Quasi: nearly
Sei: if (introducing a condition). For example: “If it rains, I will stay home” = “Sei seuyt,
mansiem domi”. “If, whether” is “an, kweter”.
Stayg: suddenly
Taiper: “at present”
Tem... quem: as.... as. “Tem” alone is “so (much)”, while “quem” corresponds to “than”.
Tik: only
Tsay: back, again
We : “or”; this disjunctive particle separates two clauses. To separate nouns, use “au”.
Ya: yes!
(ya)schi: too, also. (« schi » can be suffixed to the first word of the clause, if it is a pronoun or
an invariable word, and if it is phonetically compatible)
Yed: yet

4-5 Most common prepositions in Sambahsa:
Unless otherwise indicated, all prepositions trigger the accusative in Sambahsa.
Ab: by (after a passive verbal construction). It turns (seldom indeed) to “af” before “h”.
Sometimes, it can mean “starting from” too.
Ad: at
Ant: in front of
Apo: off (can be shortened to « ap » before vowels)
Apter: behind
Aun: without
Bayna: among
Bi: at (a seller, an artisan), in (an author’s work), next to. Often coalesces with the pronoun in
the dative or accusative forms. Hence we get the following forms: bi + ei = bei, bi + ay = bay;
bi + el = bil; bi + im = bim
Cis: this side of
Con: with (accompanied by)
Contra: against
De: about
Do: (in)to
Due: due to
Ender: beneath
Engwn: along
Ep: on (before “h”, it can turn to “ef”)
Ex: out of (“outside” is exo)
In: in (“within” is eni)
Inter: between
Kye: in the direction of, towards. It merges with the following determinant or pronoun of the
third person. Thus, we often find “kyid” = towards the, towards it.
Med: with (an instrument)
Nieb: beside
Ob: because (of)
Per: through
(Per)ambh: around
Po: for (in exchange for, in order to get)
Pon: since, for
Pos: after
Pre: before (in time)
Pro: for
Prokwe(m): near
Prosch: close to, near (with an idea of movement)
Protie(v): against
Samt: with (to denote circumstance, description; ex: “a blue-eyed man” = “un wir samt blou
okwi”)
Sub: under
Tiel: till (but, before a verb, we use “hin(a)”)
Trans: beyond
Ud: from
Uper: over
Unte: within a certain time/space. For example: “unte id wer” = “during spring”; “unte id dwer”
= “through the door”. Can be used as an interrogative and relative pronoun too.
Ye: has no definite meaning, it expresses a circumstance, a condition. Examples: “ye mien
surprise” = “to my surprise”; “ye mieno mayn” = in my opinion”.
As an hyphenated suffix to adjectives and even substantives, it serves to make adverbs.

4-6 Numbers:

From 1 to 10: oin, dwo, tri, quar, penk(we), six, sept(a), oct(o), nev, dec.
The suffix -dem corresponds to English “teen”: oindem, dwodem, tridem... and so on.
Likewise, -gim corresponds to “ty”: dwogim, trigim... 100 is cent(om), and 1000 is mil

Ordinal numbers are made thanks to –t or –im if the former is incompatible. So: “third” = trit,
“fourth” = quart, but “seventh” is septim. The first of two (Old English “former”) is preter, and
the second is alter (cf. Old English “other”) or dwoter. Otherwise, “first” is prest and “second”
is second or dwot. “last” is senst, and “latter” is senter.
Only the last component needs to bear the ordinal ending. Ex: id dwogim prest = the 21st
one.
A multiplicative adjective can be made with the suffix –(en)s: “once” = oins, “twice” = dwis
(irregular), “thrice” = tris. Otherwise, one can normally use the word “ker”. Ex: dwo kers =
“two times”.

There is a distributive adjective in Sambahsa, made by suffixing –(e)n. Irregular forms are
ein (1), dwin (pair for quantities) (2), douzen (12) and tusent (1000).
Numbers ending with –dem or –gim use –tia instead. For example : dwogimtia = “a score”.
It is used to count substantives too, which do not have a singular form. Ex: Mi ho kaupen trin
bruks = “I’ve bought myself three pairs of pants”.

If the distributive is used as a quantity, then the following substantives and adjectives are in
the genitive plural. Ex: Un centen wolfen gwiviet in France = “A hundred of wolves would live
in France”

Million and milliard (= US billion) only exist as distributives. When the distributive is followed
by an other number, then the substantive no longer has to be in the genitive.

Ex: Oino million octcent nevgim oino mil quarcent mensci (and not menscen) habiteer in
Vancouver in mil nevcent nevgim six = “1891400 people (“humans”) lived in Vancouver in
1996”.
A part can be indicated by suffixing –del. Ex: tridel = “the third (of something)”. “Half” (as a
substantive) is dwidel.
“half” (as an adjective), can be rendered with pwol, often used as a prefix. Pwolter = 1,5.
Other ,5’s are gotten by using the ordinal form of the next number after pwol.
Ex: pwolpenkt = 4,5.
Other words relating to quantities:
Alter: “the other”; ex: alter buk: “the other book” and alyo (which is declined according to the
euphonic declension) is “another”. Ex: alyo buk = “another book”. Both words don’t need any
article.

Maung: “much/many”. Pelu is literary while much is colloquial. Baygh (much/many/a lot) can
be used both as an adverb or as an adjective. However, it shouldn’t be used before an
adjective followed by a substantive. (Would baygh smulk magvi mean “many small children”
or “very small children”?)
Oik: a few, some
Pau: “little” as an adverb; while pauk means “(a) few” as an adjective.
Pwol: “half, semi-“ (in compounds). Pwolter = “one and a half”
Sem: some
Words referring to the members of a pair:
In Sambahsa, “both” is bo, and its emphatic form (“the two”) is amb(o).
The Sambahsa suffix –ter expresses the choice between the members of a pair; it
corresponds to English –ther.
Auter... au: either.... or
Ieter: either, each (of two)
Kweter: whether
Neter... ni...: neither.... nor.
Neuter : neither, none of both
Oiter: one of two
Quoter: which of both? Can theoretically work as a relative pronoun too.
Uter: a(n) (when refering to the member of a pair).

4-7 Expressing the time in Sambahsa:
To indicate a date within the month, one ought to put dien before the cardinal number of the
date.
Ex: Dien oindem september dwomil oin, ein plav criesch in ieter tor ios World Trade Center:
“On September eleven 2001, a plane crashed in each of the two towers of the WTC”.
The names of the days of the week (hevd) in Sambahsa are:
Mingo: Sunday
Mundie: Monday
Ardie: Thursday
Credie: Wednesday
Khamsi: Tuesday
Juma: Friday
Sabd: Saturday
The names of the months (munt) are januar, februar, mart, aprile, mai, jun, jul, august,
september, october, november, december.
To indicate the hour, the best way to be understood worldwide is to put the number of the
hour before saat, followed by the number of minutes.
Ex: penkdem saat trigim dwo = 15:32.
An adverb indicating a period of time can be formed by suffixing –s.

Ex: El fur gwohm nocts = “The thief came by night”.
The present period of time can be indicated by suffixing ho-.

Ex: honoct = “tonight”, hovesper = “this evening”, but “today” = hoyd and “this morning” is
todeghern.
A verb indicating the period of time spent can be made by prefixing (u)per-.
Ex: Ne wehnmos upernocte in tod hotel = “We don’t feel like overnighting in this hotel”.
4-8 Some useful verbs in Sambahsa:
Antwehrd: to answer

Au: to lack, to be without
Ay: “to consider as” with a double accusative: “Ia iey John un allieit” = “She considered John
as an ally”.
With no accusative, it means “say” in dialogues.
“Quer est John?” iey ia = “Where is John?” she said. (cf. Latin “ait”)
Bah: to speak, to say
Beud: to appeal to (someone), to beg
Dak: to get, to receive
Daum: to wonder
Dehbh: to suit, to be advisable to
Dehlg: must
Deulg: to owe
Eih: to go
Eiskw: to seek to, to want, to intend
Em: to take (figuratively)
Entre: to enter
Fortrehc: to leave (for a travel)
Ghehd: to be able to
Ghend: to take
Gwah: to go to. Ex: Peter gwaht Paris = “Peter goes to Paris”
Gwehm: to come
Khak: cannot
Kwehk: to seem
Kwehr: to do
Lass: to let
Leips: to miss (a deadline)
Leit: to go, to run (figurative meaning)
Linekw: to leave
Magh: may, can
Mank: to be lacking
Mehld: to point out (something to someone), to pray
Miss: to miss (someone)
Mutt: to take place, to have grounds to
Naudh: to need, to require
Permitt: to permit, to allow
Poitt: to have the right to, to be entitled to
Prehg: to pray, to ask
Preim: to take (in), to receive
Reik: to return to
Sagv: to know how to

Salg: to go out of
Sayg: to say, to tell
Sisen: to let + infinitive
Skap: to escape from, to depart from
Skeul: to have an obligation, to be obliged
Solle: must (probability)
(oi)sprehg: to talk to, to ask
Tehrb: to need, to have to
Tolk: to talk, to explain
Trehc: to move, to displace oneself
Vid: to see
Vol: to want
Wan: to need, to lack
Wehkw: to talk to, to express oneself
Wehl: to want someone to
Wehn: to feel like doing, to desire
4-9 Syntax:
Sambahsa word order generally follows the English syntax, i.e. Subject – Verb – Object. A
different order can be followed if the declensional or conjugational endings allow this. In
compounds, the qualifier precedes the qualified item. Ex: weirnav = “warship”, as weir = war
and nav = ship. For quantities, the thing measured can be put after the unit of measure.
Ex: Dwo botels vin = “Two bottles of wine”
As in English, od = “that” (when it introduces indirect speech) and the relative pronoun in the
accusative can be omitted if the meaning is not altered. When the relative clause rather
expresses a wish, the clitic ke(m) can be used instead of od.
Ia mi sieyg (od) ia eet sieug = She told me (that) she was sick.
Sambahsa uses approximately the same rules as English for the sequence of tenses.
Ia dugter (quam) ays mater lieubht sessiet un gohd mater = The daughter (whom) her mother
loves will be a good (« successful ») mother.
Most Sambahsa prepositions can be used as conjunctions.

Eemos noroct pre is gwohm = We were happy before he came
Pre fortrehce, mae myehrste clude id dwer = Before departing, don’t forget to close the door.
I way fortrohc pre cludus id dwer = They unfortunately departed before having closed the
door.
In Sambahsa, the difficulty is not to forget that the same words both serve as a determinant
and as a personal pronoun of the 3° person. Thus, such a personal pronoun ought not to be
placed just before an adjective or a substantive.
Io iens iey prients im animals = (lit.) I them considered friends of the animals.

Interrogative sentences are either made by putting the subject (including an optional
personal pronoun) after the verb, or by beginning the sentence with kwe.
Apposition is indicated differently :

- if the noun refers to the whole name, then they both follow the same case.
- If it doesn’t refer to the whole of it, the genitive, or a preposition replacing it, must be
used.
Example : id citad Montréal = “the city of Montreal” but id tribunal os Montréal = “the court of
Montreal”.
5 - Word formation in Sambahsa:
Unlike other artificial languages (ex: Esperanto), Sambahsa relies more on loanwords (i.e.
words taken from other languages) than on compounds. Sambahsa has so many source
languages that it is impossible to have a fully regular derivation system. Nevertheless, some
useful affixes can be listed.
5-1 Prefixes
In general, most prepositions can be used as prefixes, and Sambahsa tends to follow the
usage of major European languages. Prefixes are never accentuated. Here are some
prefixes which are not prepositions or whose meaning is different.
Ab: before a verb, means “away”; ex: abcurr = “to run away”
Apo: indicates the 4th generation. Ex: apopater = “great-grandfather”.
Be: makes transitive verbs (as in English)
Begh(i)s: means “deprived of”
Bfu: negative prefix before words of Sinitic origin.
Cum: corresponds to the English prefix “god-“ in names of relatives. Ex: cummater =
“godmother”
Dus: means “ill-“, “bad”. Ex: dusmenos = “ill-disposed” from menos = “mind disposition”.
En-: means “to put into”. Ex: enquestion = “to put into question, to question”
Ender: diminutive of action. Ex: endervid = “to catch a glimpse of”; enderghyan = “to half-
open”
Eti: indicates the 5th generation.
For: corresponds to the English adverb “astray”
Ga: - before a verbal stem with ablaut: indicates the result of an action
- before a verbal stem with ablaut: indicates the object of an action. With the suffix –
os, this meaning is pejorative.
Before a noun: indicates a sum. Ex: behrg = cliff; gabehrg = mountain range

Ken: means “empty of”
Mu: prefix of Arabic origin; can be used to indicate the doer of an action when prefixed to a
word of “Muslim” origin. Ex: mussafer = “traveller” from safer = (to) travel
Muta: means “to change”; ex: mutamayn = “to change opinion”
Ni: means “down” but generally in a figurative sense. Ex: niklad = “to download” from klad =
“to load”.
(oi)s-: The first meaning of this prefix is “to put out/off” and is the contrary of en-. Ex: oischalt
= to switch off; (en)schalt = to switch on.
The reduced form s- got confused with a peculiarity of Indo-European, the “s mobile”, whose
exact meaning is still debated among linguists. This formation is still living in Sambahsa-
Mundialect. Examples:
Brehg (to break) / sprehng (to burst) spraneg (transitive form)
Tanek (to concentrate) / stanek (to stanch)
Prehg (to pray) / sprehg (to ask someone)
Daum (to wonder) / staun (to be astonished)
Or: means orginal, primeval, primitive.

Par: idea of completion, of fullfilled action. Ex: parkwehr = “to achieve” from kwehr = “to do”.
Peri: means “thorough”. Ex: perigumt = “thoroughfare” from gumt = “coming”
Pro-: indicates the 3° generation. Ex: pronepot = “grandnephew”. Before a verb, it means “in
front of, preceding” and triggers the dative. Ex: Is mi prighieng = “He was walking in front of
me”.
Rhayr: negative prefix (but often used as an independent adverb) before adjectives of Arabic
origin. Ex: rhayr yakin = “unsure” from yakin = “sure, certain”.
Step :"step-" (family after a second marriage). Ex : steppater = "stepfather".
Sua -: means “well”. Ex: suakwohrt = “well done” from kwohrt = “done”.
Ud: as “out” in English, indicates the capacity of doing better than someone else.
Example: Ho udsnaht iom = “I’ve outswum him”
With the reflexive pronoun (sib), indicates the way of getting something.
Ex: Id mafia sib udtehrct id silence schahiden = “The Mafia gets the silence of witnesses by
threatening them”.
5-2 Suffixes:
Because Sambahsa’s wordstock is a mixture of so many sources, it is impossible a have a
fully regular system. This is due to the fact that most Romance words (words from Latin and
its daughter-languages) have kept their own formation rules.

However, some basic rules shall help to identify the function of each derived form. An
important feature of Romance derived forms is that they’re based on the “perfect stem” (or
“thema perfectic” in Occidental-Interlingue) of verbs.
This perfect stem is predicted this way:
- Verbs ending with an unstressed e use -at- instead. Thus, from forme (to form) we
get format- and derived forms like formation, formative, formator...
- Verbs ending with ie use -icat- instead. Thus from publie (to publish) we get
publication.
- Verbs ending with ue use -ut- instead. This applies to verbs whose past participle in
“t” ends with wt.
- Verbs ending with eih- use -it- instead. Ex: addeih (to add) produces addit, hence
addition.
- The perfect stem of other verbs corresponds to their past participle in “t”. Ex: scinesd
(to split) gives sciss, hence we get scission, scissible...
Those rules are not absolute since Sambahsa tends to follow the forms seen in Romance
languages and English (ex: the major exception is the perfect stem of posen, which is posit),
but they are very practical, because they provide reliable guidelines for the inclusion of the
international scientific vocabulary in Sambahsa, even when the word is not present in the
dictionaries.
Most common derivation processes:
To express a quality, a state:

Some simple adjectives suffix an –e and undergo ablaut. Ex: long gives longe [londj] (length),
deub [döb] (deep) gives dube [düb], slab (weak) gives sliebe (weakness). But this system
works only if there is a phonetic difference between the adjective and its derived form.
Other adjectives can suffix –(e)t. Ex: mild gives mildet (pity), and mynder (proud) gives
myndert (pride).
Other like suffixes are –os and –ia, and –or and –(i)tat for Romance words.
To express an action:
If the verbal stem alone is not enough (ex: hehlp = “(to) help”), -(e)n can be added to it, and –
sa to verbs ending with a stressed vowel sound. Romance verbs add –ion to the perfect
stem.

To indicate the doer of an action:
The most used suffix is –er on the verbal stem. Its Romance equivalent is –or suffixed to the
perfect stem. A practical set of verbal suffixes are –ant to indicate the one who performs an
action, -eit to indicate whom this action is directed at (cf. English –ee) and –at to indicate the
object or result of this action. Ex: telephonant is the who phones and telephoneit is the one
who is phoned to. Their conversation is a telephonat.
Other suffixes:
Ar: - indicates a collection
- for names of professions, means “maker of”. Ex: stolar/stular (joiner) from stol/stul
(chair)
Asc: means “to become ...”. Ex: khakasc = “to become bad” from khak = “bad”.
At: means “years old”. Ex: Som trigimat = “I’m 30 years old”.
Av: on a verbal stem (verbs in ei and eu turn them to i and u; stems with nasal infix lose their
unstressed “e”), means “inclined to, prone to”. Its Romance equivalent is –ace.
Ber: means berry, fruit. Ex: vinber = “grape”
-ble: on a perfect stem without final –t, corresponds to English adjectives ending “-ble” =
“which can be...”. The corresponding substantive is in –bilitat.
Other verbs suffix –et to the stem if there is no risk of confusion with any other conjugated
form. Ex: dyehrcet [dyE:rtsët] = “glimpsable” from dyehrc = “to glimpse”. Others verbs add –
im.
-del: On a number, indicates a fraction. Ex: tridel = “the third part”.
-dem: Indicates a determined region, like English “dom”. Ex: roydem = “kingdom”
-eus: Adjective of quality; corresponds to English “-ous”. Substantive in –ositat.
-en: Adjective of “substance”. Ex: golden from gold.
-fred: means “free from”.
-ia: quality, science, country
-ic: forms adjectives. Its corresponding substantive ends in –ique.
-iev: means “fruit”, “grain”.
-iko/-ika: means “young male/female”. Ex: potiko = “galant” from poti = “sir”; potnika = “miss”
from potnia = “lady”. .
-il: means “susceptible to, open to”. Has an active value when it is suffixed to the perfect
stem, and a passive one when it is suffixed to the verbal stem.
-in: - female suffix
- indicates “forest of”.
-(i)sk: adjective of origin. Ex: coschmarisk = “nightmarish” from coschmar = “nightmare”.
-isme: state of a thing, theory, ideology. The adherent/practitioner has the suffix –iste.

-ko/-ka: make diminutives (male/female) on an accentuated syllable. Ex: Ritka & Hanko =
“Hansel & Gretel”.
-log: corresponds to English “-logist”.
-ment: corresponds to English words of Romance origin ending in “-ment”. For
accentuational purposes, this suffix counts as an separate substantive within a compound.
-mon: on a verbal stem, means “who can”.
-ner: masculine suffix. Ex: Eireanner = “Irishman” from eirean = “Irish”
-nic/-nica: slight pejorative (male/female). Ex: drehnknic = “drunkard”.
-os: on a verb, can mean “game of”. Ex: skeulkos = “hide-and-seek”
-smee: always on a personal pronouns, to emphasize oppositions. Ex: Weysmee habmos
naiwo likwno nies parents = “We (not you) have never left our parents”.
-ster: feminine suffix
-ure: on the perfect stem, means “result, quality”.
-went : makes adjectives; corresponds to English “-ful”. For accentuational purposes, this
suffix counts as an separate substantive within a compound.
The nasal infix:

This pecularity has been already seen in the part on conjugation. Nearly all these verbs are
transitive, for the initial meaning of the nasal infix was “to equip something/one with”. Ex:
yuneg = “to join, to hitch up” from yug = “yoke”.
5-3 Formation of compounds.

The Sambahsa order follows the English order; ex: weir-nav = “war-ship”.
Adjectives of quality with one element can be made by suffixing –t (or even –(e)n), much like
English “-ed”. If there is more than one element, then there is no suffix at all. Ex: un
penkwekwl wogh = “a five-wheeled wain”. A simple way to express a quality is to use the
preposition samt (see above). Likewise, names of doers can go without a suffix if they
contain more than one element. Ex: nebhskrehb = “sky-scraper” from nebh = “cloud” and
skrehb = “to scrape”.
5-4 Choice of new words.

The primary source for the vocabulary of Sambahsa is its direct ancestor Indo-European. Not
all words have been reconstructed, but many ideas can be obtained by looking at older IE
languages, and above all Sanskrit, Old Greek, Latin.
The other source of vocabulary for Sambahsa is loanwords, i.e. words found in at least two
different linguistic branches. The spectrum stretches from Western Europe up to Eastern
Asia. Thus, the influence of French, English and German on the “modern” (that is to say
“compared with old IE”) appearance of Sambahsa has been decisive. But, for the vocabulary,

the influence of other European languages has been as important. German has given a
relevant amount of vocabulary to East European languages. Baltic languages share some
common basic wordstock. And the Balkanic languages are the best example of a
“Sprachbund” due to their common history (Byzantine and Ottoman dominations).
Moreover, the Balkan Sprachbund is the gateway to the second biggest area of shared
vocabulary, that ought to be called the “Muslim” languages. The spread of Islam (and of the
Arabic language) has taken back and fostered the old Persian heritage which has endured
until the XIX° century. That’s why Arabic and Persian words found in Hausa, Swahili, Turkish,
central Asian languages, Urdu or Indonesian are present in Sambahsa too. The Sanskritic
sphere plays a role in Sambahsa too, but to a lesser extent. Finally, the Sinitic languages
(i.e. languages like Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, that were influenced by Chinese)
provide a minor part of Sambahsa’s vocabulary. This reduced importance is due to the fact
that Chinese loanwords undergo considerable phonetic alterations, and that loss of trans-
linguistic recognizability makes them less interesting for an international language.
This guideline is not absolute; other parameters are taken into account. Among these are
precision, recognizability, shortness and avoidance of the risk of confusion with a preexisting
word.
In sum, the basic vocabulary of Sambahsa is pan-European and contains a balanced
number of cognates with many languages of this continent. See, as an example:
http://www.pagef30.com/2010/06/swadesh-list-comparing-english-french.html
which gives 52% of shared basic vocabulary with English, 46% with French, and about 30%
with Lithuanian.

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THE GRAMMAR OF SAMBAHSA-MUNDIALECT

Edited by Stephen L. RICE

7th edition : May 2012

© Dr. Olivier Simon

5 – Word formation in Sambahsa

© Dr. Olivier Simon

Sambahsa is without a doubt the most interesting auxiliary language to have

© Dr. Olivier Simon

As Steve Rice and Robert Winter have written on the language:

(explication of the vocabulary of the main texts) :

(various downloadable texts on Scribd): http://www.scribd.com/search?

© Dr. Olivier Simon

© Dr. Olivier Simon

1-1 Preliminary definitions:

Sambahsa uses the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet.

Sambahsa’s orthographical and accentual system is quite elaborate; this is because

[a] = like “a” in “car”

© Dr. Olivier Simon

1-2 Other conventions:

“Vowels” (V) are the letters a, e, i, o, u.

For the purposes of Sambahsa orthography, “ck” is equivalent to “k + k”.

© Dr. Olivier Simon

“e”: - [e] when it is stressed or as the first letter of a word.

In all other cases, « e » is [ë].

“h”: - is [h] at the beginning of a word and between vowels.

- at the end of a word or before a consonant, it is unpronounced but lengthens the

© Dr. Olivier Simon

“eau” = [o:]; example: “bureau” = [bürO:]

« aa » = [aa]; example: « saat » = |saAt]; « o’ clock, hour »

“ae”, “ay” = [ay]; example: “mae” = [may]; “don’t!”

“ai” = [ä]; example: “caise” = [käz]; “cheese”

“ee” = [Eë]; example: “eet” = [Eët]; “(he/she/it) was”

“eu” = [ö]; example: “Europe” = [örOp]

“oo” = [oo]; example: “boot” = [boOt]; “boat”

“ou” = [u:]; example: “courage” = [ku:rAdj]

« ue » = [ü:]; example: « continue » = [kontinÜ:]

« ui » = [wi]; example: « tuich » = [twitc]; “empty”

“uy” = [uy]; example: “lastruym” = [lastrUym]; “ship hold”

© Dr. Olivier Simon

Example: “wey” = [wey]; ‘we”

Otherwise, “w” is a very short [u] and “y” is [ü].

“sch” = [c]; example: “muraischmusch” = [muräcmUc]; “swamp-fly”

“ch” = [tc], but [k] before a consonant.

“gn” = [ny]; example: “gnoh” = [nyo:]; “know”

“kh” = [q]; example: “khiter” = [qItër]; “evil”

“ph” = [f]; example: “philosophia” = [filozOfya]

“sc” = [sk], but [s] before “e”, “i” and “y”.

© Dr. Olivier Simon

“sh” = [x]; example: “shienciu” = [xyEntsyu]; “overgrown”

“ss” = [s]; example: “permission” = [përmisyOn]; “permission”

“j” is always [j]

“s” = [s] but turns to [z] between two vowels.

« z » = [dz]; example: « zangir » = [dzAndjir]; « chain »

Some letters, especially the endings, can be slightly modified by a neighbouring

© Dr. Olivier Simon

Some consonants, as well as the vowel [ë], can even be omitted.

Example: “franceois” (“French”) is officially [frantsëOys] but in truth [fransOys]

Example : “skap” (to escape) > “oiskap”.

-Vowel before -h or a double consonant (including ck);