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Introduction

99% of nouns in Romana come directly from Latin. The rest (~1%) are of foreign origin, or taken directly from English, simply because there is no such word in Latin. Two examples would be "chocolate" or "coffee". I've provided a few rules here to let you convert words from Latin to Romana. Just remember that you should favor the latest (Vulgar Latin / Medieval Latin) words as opposed to classical.

Generic Orthographic Transformations

Just like ancient Greek evolving into modern Greek, many sounds changed over time. This goes also for Romana. To maintain a phonetic system of writing, the orthography (spelling) of the words had to change. Here is a summary of the phonetic changes that lead to changes in spelling compared to classical Latin:

Merging and Splitting of Diphthongs

Changing Inflectional Endings
This is covered in more detail later. The most notable changes are the conversion from 'es' or 'is' to 'e' and 'i', the disappearance of the final 'm', and the disappearance of the final 's'.

Consonants
1. The 'qu' and 'gu' combinations before anything other than 'a' become just hard 'c' and 'g'. For example, 'requirere' -> 'rechirere'.
2. All 'ns' (nasal + s) become just 's' or 'ss'. E.g. 'mensis' -> 'mese'.
3. All 'x' occurrences change to 'ss' (hard 's'). E.g. 'axis' -> 'asse'.
4. All intervocalic 'b' soften to 'v'. E.g. 'debere' -> 'devere'.
5. All aspirates 'h' disappear. E.g. 'habere' -> 'avere'.
6. All ti+vowel become ci+vowel or zi+vowel. E.g. 'ratione' -> 'racione', 'natione' -> 'nazione'.
7. All di+vowel become gi+vowel or zi+vowel. E.g. 'diurnum' -> 'giurno'.
8. The 'silent u' or 'silent i' in words disappears. E.g. 'tabula' -> 'tabla'.
9. The -gi- between two vowels just disappears. E.g. 'magis' -> 'mai', 'triginta' -> 'trenta'.

Converting Nouns

Scroll down to see the complete 3-step guide to converting Latin nouns to Romana.

Third and Fifth Declination

Third declination nouns convert in all sorts of different ways, but eventually all end up ending in "e". Here is a table showing the common endings for third declination nouns and the corresponding ending in Romana (singular nominative).

Verbs and Conjugations

Verbs generally remain intact, beyond the generic word-transformation rules defined above, when transferred from Latin to Romana. Verb participles are converted using the Latin noun conversion process described further down. Past participles change, to reflect the changes that occurred in modern Romance languages. For example, 'avere' becomes 'avuto' in the past, rather than 'avito', as Latin would dictate ('habitus').

Adverbs and Miscellaneous

These words, and their usage, change the most in Romana when compared to Latin. They all take on new meanings, similar to the meanings of their correspondents in modern Romance languages. A very small percentage of these are "made up" (i.e. not found in Latin dictionaries), but most are taken directly from Latin, with few orthographical changes.

Table of Latin Declinations

This will help you see which patterns are most predominant in Latin and if/how they were transferred to Romana.

Patterns

1. Because there is no pattern for nominative singular, the Latin ablative singular is used in Romana to replace the nominative singular. The endings are practically taken directly from Latin in this case, with the exception of the 4th declination "u" which changes to "o" like the 2nd declination.
2. For 1st and 2nd, the "a" of the singular changes to "e" and the "o" of the singular changes to "i". For 3rd and on, the "s" appears predominant. Romana changes the rule for 3rd declination to be the same as 2nd declination. This time, it doesn't rely on the ablative, because the ablative is identical to the dative and are both basically unsuitable.

The Complete Process of Transforming Latin Nouns and Adjectives

Any noun and adjective from Latin can be fully and correctly converted to Romana by following these steps (after applying the generic orthographic transformations described earlier).

1. Take the ablative singular form of the word. If it ends in "u", change the "u" to "o".
2. Change the gender of the word to masculine if it is neutral and it is not an adjective. If the word is a noun, make sure the ending agrees with the Latin gender. For example, the Latin "poeta" would change to "poeto" because the noun is masculine. Similarly, "manus" would change not to "mano" but to "mana" because the word is feminine in Latin.
3. For 5th declension nouns such as "dies", they become 1st declension nouns because they're all feminine anyways. That is, "dies" becomes "dia".

Example 1: haedus = "young goat"

1. Abl. "iedo" (with applied orthographic transformations).
2. Not necessary.
3. Not necessary.

Therefore, the Romana word for "young goat" is "iedo" and is masculine.

Example 2: fetus = "offspring"

1. Abl. "fetu". Must change to "feto".
2. Not necessary.
3. Not necessary.

Therefore, the Romana word for "offspring" is "feto" and it is masculine.

Example 3: laetabilis = "joyful"

1. Abl. "letabile".
2. Not necessary.
3. Not necessary.

Therefore, the Romana word for "joyful" is "letabile".

Example 4: ligamen = "ligament"

1. Abl. "ligamine".
2. The word will now be masculine.
3. Not necessary.

Therefore, the Romana word for "ligament" is "ligamine" and it is masculine.

Example 5: manus = "hand"

1. Abl. "manu". Changes to "mano".
2. Because the word is feminine in Latin, the word changes to "mana".
3. Not necessary.

Therefore, the Romana word for "hand" is "mana" and it is feminine.

See how easy it is? Basically, if you know your Latin vocabulary, you should have no trouble with Romana.