Quirks
What the rules do not predict. Every item here is current, none of it is recommended, and none of it is an error.
The jizdu paradigm
The grammar gives the verb one shape and puts person on the pronoun. Jizde has an informal set that no other verb in the language has.
| Form | Sense |
|---|---|
| jizdu | the ride as a thing, and, said to a person on a platform, get yourself off it |
| jizder | the one who rides |
| jizdons | we ride, and also let us ride |
| jizdez | a whole carriage of people told to ride |
| jizdont | they ride |
| jizdent | the same, in the western communes |
| jizdaie | what a child says when the tram is coming |
The Slovak railway and its typo
The Slovak railway company is Železničná spoločnosť Slovensko. It entered the lexicon a second time as zelenica spocnost slovenska, which is that name mistyped. It is listed as the alternate name under the ordinary test, which is that the survey finds it in use. Three members recorded a dissent against this, printed in decision 218.
SBB CFF FFS, and what happened to the rule
The older rule required the Swiss railway to be written SBB CFF FFS in full, all three, every time, on the ground that a body naming itself in three languages is entitled to all three.
Newer documents use SBB or CFF or FFS according to the branch meant, and the survey of 2016 placed the branch abbreviations ahead in every register except the formal. Both practices are current. Decision 178 withdrew the description and not a recommendation, none having been made.
JR means JR East
Written alone, JR is read here as JR East and nothing else. A writer meaning any of the other companies has to name it.
Decision 170 records that the reading has no linguistic basis. Almost all Japanese platform footage held in the country was filmed on those lines.
The Ravelluri plural
The rule adds -s after a vowel and -es after a consonant. On the eastern seaboard a vowel-final noun takes -es anyway, so cosa gives coses and porta gives porte. Both turn up in station announcements recorded at Marendo and are understood everywhere without comment.
The participle of fa
The past participle is formed in -t, which would give fat. Ravelluri says facit, built on the older stem the rest of the language dropped. It is the only common verb whose participle differs by sub-region.
An adjective in -al takes -ite
The abstract noun of a quality is normally made in -tate. An adjective ending in -al takes -ite instead, so actual gives actualite and total gives totalite, while dign keeps dignitate.
The linking vowel in -ment
The adverb is made with -ment. An adjective ending in a vowel or in l, n, r or s takes the suffix directly, giving simplement and finalment. Anything else takes a linking -a-, giving certament and rapidament. Decision 209 recorded the pattern in 1998, after testing found every word already made this way.
Prexa stands before its noun
The adjective follows its noun. Prexa does not, with prexa statiun as an example. The eastern prexim obeys the rule and gives statiun prexim. Both are printed, and the exception is older than the rule that it breaks.
Nove is two words wearing one coat
Nove is both new and nine. Position decides: after a noun it is the adjective, in a designation slot it is the numeral, so autovuz nove is bus nine and un vuz nove is a new tram car. The proposal to spell the numeral nov has been put three times and refused three times.
Counted nouns may or may not be plural
Tri anu and tri anos are both current, because the number is already given and the ending adds nothing. Speech prefers the short one and print the long one. Decision 206 records the split and recommends neither.