Gilo Quick Guide

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1    Introduction

1.1       Quick Guide

This Quick Guide contains extracts from the full Gilo Guide and is intended to enable readers to quickly see the main features of Gilo.  For more information please see the Gilo Grammar

1.2       The Reason for Gilo

The aims of Gilo are quite simple – to provide an auxiliary language for world use, that is simple to use and learn, that is unambiguous in use and, by basing the vocabulary and format as much as possible on English, providing a language is most familiar to the maximum number of people.

1.3       The main features of Gilo:

·           Gilo follows the word order convention of English, Chinese etc (i.e. Subject, Verb, Object) but with a simpler grammar and vocabulary.

·           The vocabulary is based on 'condensed' English, providing maximum familiarisation for those people who have some knowledge of English as a first or second language and short simple words to learn for those who don't.

·           The whole vocabulary is logically categorised by the meaning of the words.

·           The grammar is 'logical', in that qualifiers (adjectives & adverbs) follow the word they are qualifying, enabling the listener to begin to understand the meaning of each sentence as it is spoken or read, rather than having to wait until the end.

·           International conventions for numbers and Latin based plant & animal genus names are retained (but transcribed into phonetic Gilo words).

·           The optional Gilo alphabet, using a single symbol matched to each sound, overcomes many of the difficulties associated with the well used, but far from uniform, Roman alphabet.  For further details see Gilo Alphabet

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2.1       Gilo Alphabet Pronunciation

Two of the normal Roman alphabet letters are given their own consonant sounds.  'c' is pronounced 'ch' (as in cheddar) and 'x' is pronounced 'sh' (as in shed).  Two new vowels are added to the Roman alphabet.  The first is ã pronounced as in far and is symbol 0227 (using number lock and Alt key).  The capital à is symbol 0195.  The second is ø pronounced as in fort and is symbol 0248.  The capital Ø is symbol 0216.

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3.1       Normal word order, Subject-Verb-Object, 'Active' Subject:

3.2       Alternative word order, 'Passive' Subject.

Modify verb with 'ad' prefix :

3.3       Adjectives & Adverbs

Adjectives (using an 'a' suffix) always follow nouns.

Adverbs (using an 'a' suffix) always follow verbs.

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4.1       Classification

Gilo is classified into approximately 1000 main classes of meaning.  The classification is based on those used by Peter Roget in his Thesaurus.  Each main heading of meaning is numbered.  Sub headings and individual words are shown by additional letters to a maximum of 3 digits and 3 letters e.g.:

4.2       Root Words

An example of a root noun is 'bel', meaning beauty (an abstract noun).  To this root we add a verbal suffix to create the verb 'beliz', meaning 'to beautify'.  We can also add an adjective suffix 'a' to make 'bela' e.g. 'peel bela' (a beautiful woman).  The same affix 'a' can also make an adverb e.g. 'pentoz bela' (beautifully painted).  Note that a 'qualifying' word following a noun will always be an adjective and one following a verb will always be an adverb.

A number of frequently used words consist of single letter roots e.g.:

However the above roots are never used alone, they will always have an additional letter or letters to make them into a noun, adjective, verb or adverb e.g.:

4.3       Gilo Vocabulary

The Gilo Vocabulary has a separate web page.  It consists of the complete Gilo word list categorised by Roget reference number.  The complete wordlist can be copied from the web page onto any spread sheet and then re-sorted into alphabetical order of English or Gilo words as required.

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5.1       Affixes can be added to any word:

5.2       Plurals

Add suffix 'i' to the word.  If the noun is already clearly plural (e.g. with a preceding number) then the 'i' can be omitted.

5.3       Pronouns

(Refers to previous subject noun or pronoun)

5.4               Noun Affixes

Virtually any words can be merged to form new compound words.

Type :- N = Noun:   s = suffix:   p = prefix:

5.5       Compound Words

Normally a 'headword' will always precedes any words which qualify it.  However in the case of compound words, the rootwords are usually of equal importance.  Generally the 'tangible' noun root will come last, since it is often qualifying the preceding word.

E.g: baby oil, engine oil, cooking oil.  The word 'oil' is qualifying the words baby, engine and cooking, i.e. an oil for the purpose of applying to babies, for the purpose of adding to engines and for the purpose of cooking.  In Gilo they are not translated as øl baba,  øl mota, øl kuka but instead made into compound words babøl, motøl, kukøl.  This then enables the new compound words to be qualified themselves in the normal way e.g.

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6.1       Quality (suffix 'a', follows noun)

Note that 'øl baba' would imply oil made from babies! Hence the production of a new compound word 'babøl'.

6.2       Active/Participles (suffix 'a', follows noun)

For an 'active' adjective (using verbal infinitive form), add suffix 'a', as a normal adjective.

6.3       Possessive (prefix 'ov', precedes noun)

6.4       Comparative (suffix or preposition)

The expressions follow the normal degrees of positive, comparative and superlative using either suffixes or prepositions.  These can be used for both adjectives and adverbs (using 'a' suffix).

In addition there are 'negative' comparatives.

However some Gilo words use a 'neutral' root word which first needs to be modified in order to form the positive or negative base word.  This modification is done with 'om' for positive and 'ot' for negative e.g.

Note also