Vallo Grammar

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"The Grammar", a marble cameo panel dated to 1503 from a museum (library) in Falcatta, by Rofello Feínes. The scene is an allegory of grammar and by implication of all education. Note the open door in the background symbolizing that all are welcome and permitted knowledge and the unshod feet of the disciple—or student—indicating the status of the ignorant and the supreme value of literacy in Falcian society.

Vallo grammar is the plan of forms which describe the meaningful architecture of the Vallo Language. It has many traits in common with other Vallonic languages. Like most Indo-European languages, words can have genders, plurals, articles (borrowed and modified from Greek), cases and inflections. Vallo has masculine, feminine, and neuter genders. In addition to plurals, it also has an unusual singulative marker. The language has both a definite and indefinite article.

Vallo has four declensions of nouns and three conjugations of verbs (although some words are inflected according to irregular patterns). It has articles and in almost all cases an article is used. Vallo uses prepositions, and generally places adjectives after nouns. The language can also omit pronouns in certain situations, meaning that the form of the verb alone is generally sufficient to identify the agent; pronouns are most often used for emphasis. Vallo exhibits Latinate verb-framing, in which the path of motion is encoded into the verb; e.g., "exit" (a compound of ex- and it) means "he/she/it goes out."

The grammar of Vallo, like that of some Indo-European languages, is highly inflected; consequently, it allows for a high degree of flexibility in choosing word order. In each word the suffix and not the position in the sentence marks the word's grammatical function. Word order, however, is generally subject–object–verb (like its mother language Latin), although variations on this are especially common in poetry and express subtle nuances in prose (again, as in Latin).


Nouns decline in accordance with one of the four declensions.

1st Declension

All first declension nouns end with the letter "a". Nearly all the nouns of this declension are feminine. The most common masculine nouns are náuda and axricóla (sailor and farmer, respectively).

First Declension Singular Plural Example (hé náuda (f) - the sailor)
Nominative -a -ae hé fémina háe femináe
Genitive -ae -arum tés femináe tón feminárum
Dative -i -is té fémini táes féminis
Accusative -am -as tén féminam tás féminas
Ablative -e -es té fémine tés fémines
Vocative -e -ae fémine féminae

2nd Declension

Most nouns of the second declension are either masculine or neuter and end with the letter "u". Steadfast exceptions are proper names of cities and geographical features, which are always feminine.

Second Declension Singular Plural Example (hó sérfu (m) - the slave)
Nominative -u -i hó sérfu hóe sérfi
Genitive -i -orum tó sérfi tóen serfórum
Dative -o -os tó sérfo tóes sérfos
Accusative -um -us tón sérfum tós sérfus
Ablative -e -es té sérfe tés sérfes
Vocative -e -i sérfe sérfi

2.5 Declension

Nouns of the second and a half declension end with the letter "u" but take different endings. Gender can be determined by the article but mostly correspond to their Latin equivalents in that languages Fourth Declension.

Second and a Half Declension Singular Plural Example (tó córnu (n) - the horn)
Nominative -u -i tó córnu tá córnua
Genitive -us -urum tóu córnus tón cornúrum
Dative -ui -ufus táes córnui tóen cornúfus
Accusative -um -us tó córnum tá córnus
Ablative -u -ufus táes córnu tóen cornúfus
Vocative -e -i corné corní

3rd Declension

Nouns of the third declension end with either "-is", "-es", "-e", or "-er"; they can be masculine, feminine, or neuter (the easiest method of identification is the accompanying article).

Third Declension Singular Plural Example (hó _____ (m) - the _____)
Nominative -is, -es, -e, -er -es hóe
Genitive -is -irum tóen
Dative -i -ifus tóes
Accusative -om -os tón tós
Ablative -e -es tés
Vocative -e -i _ _

4th Declension

Nouns of the fourth declension end with "-es" but take different endings than those of the third; they are feminine with the sole exception of dies (day) which is masculine.

Fourth Declension Singular Plural Example (hó _____ (m) - the _____)
Nominative -es -es háe
Genitive -ei -erum tés tón
Dative -ei -evus táes
Accusative -em -es tén tás
Ablative -ei -evus tés
Vocative -es -es _ _


1st & 2nd Declension Adjectives

Superlative Adjectives

Pronominal Adjectives

3rd Declension Adjectives

Three Endings

Two Endings

One Ending


Adverbs of 1st & 2nd Declension Adjectives

Adverbs Using -iter

Irregular Adverbs

Comparative Adverbs

Superlative Adverbs


Personal Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflexive Possessive & Possessive Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns

Intensive Pronouns

Relative Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns


Verbs conjugate in accordance with one of the four families.

1st Conjugation

All first conjugation verbs present stem ends in -a, infinitive in -are.

Active Passive
1PS -or -orem
2PS -aris -arisem
3PS -atur -aturis
1PP -amur -amuris
2PP -amini -aminim
3PP -antur -anturem

2nd Conjugation

Use of Cases

Grammatical Constructions