Bàtùumi Bààcineé-Njúkaì

A forum for all topics related to constructed languages
Post Reply
User avatar
Shemtov
runic
runic
Posts: 3284
Joined: 29 Apr 2013 04:06

Bàtùumi Bààcineé-Njúkaì

Post by Shemtov »

Bààcineé-Njúkaì (Meaning "Language of the Breaker Waves) is a language group spoken on islands off the southwest Momṭẓʿālemeōm coast. This post will focus on the variety of the island of Bàtùumi.
PHONOLOGY:
/t t͡s t͡ʃ k/ <t c ch k>
/b d d͡z d͡ʒ/ <b d z j>
/ⁿb ⁿd ⁿd͡z ⁿd͡ʒ/ <mb nd nz nj>
/m n ɲ/ <m n ñ>
/ⁿp~m̥ ⁿt~n̥/ <mp nt>
/ɸ v s ʃ h/ <f v s sh h>
/l/ <l>
/r/ <r>
/j w/ <y w>

/i u/ <i u>
/i: u:/ <ii uu>
/e o/ <e o>
/e: o:/ <ee oo>
/a/ <a>
/a:/ <aa>

/ai au/ <ai au>
/oi eu/ <oi eu>
/io ia ue ua/ <io ia ue ua>

/˧ ˩ ˥ ˩˧ ˧˩ ˧˥ ˥˧/ <V V̀ V́ V̀V VV̀ VV́ V́V>

PHONOTACTICS, PHONOLOGICAL PROCCESES AND ALLOPHONY:
(C)V(:/V)
Contour tones can only occur on long vowels and diphthongs.
The language has transvocalic coronal sibalant harmony.
The unvoiced nasal series cannot occur in the same root as the voiced prenasalized series. They are pronounced as unvoiced nasal word-medially, and as prenasalized voiceless plosives word-initially.

NOMINAL MORPHOLOGY PART I:

Bàtùumi Bààcineé-Njúkaì has noun eight classes, that are marked by prefixes, and have special plural forms:
1. Ku plr. Kuù: Masculine humans
2. Ña plr. Ñàà: Feminine humans
3. Mbi plr. Mii: Land animals, some birds, trees
4. Feú plr. Fau: Land invertabrates rodents, and plants, except for trees.
5. Bà plr. Bàà: Natural features, place names, fish, birds not in Class 3
6. Ze/Je plr. Zaì/Jaì: Food
7. Sò/Shò plr. Sòo/Shòo: Tools
8. ∅: Intangibles
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
User avatar
Shemtov
runic
runic
Posts: 3284
Joined: 29 Apr 2013 04:06

Re: Bàtùumi Bààcineé-Njúkaì

Post by Shemtov »

Nouns can be marked for possesion.
For the first and second persons, the suffixes are:
1P sing: -mo
1P plr exlc: -no
1P plr incl. -nòò
2P sing: -to
2P plr: -zo/jo

For the 3p, it simply takes the class prefix as a suffix.

Example: Vèesì "Power"
Vèesìmo
"My power"
Vèesìno
"Our [excl] power"
Vèesìnòò
"Our [incl] power"
Vèesìto
"Thy power"
Vèesìzo
"your power"

Vèesìku
"His power"
Vèesìña
"her power"
Bààcineé vèesìbàà
"The breaker wave's power"

Sòmpolúúmo vèesìsò
Sò-mpolúú-mo ∅-vèesì-sò
CLASSVII-sword-1P CLASSVIII-power-CLASSVII
"My sword's power"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
User avatar
Shemtov
runic
runic
Posts: 3284
Joined: 29 Apr 2013 04:06

Re: Bàtùumi Bààcineé-Njúkaì

Post by Shemtov »

Verbs have two stems, a non-past and a past.
These can be formed by the following methods:
Shifting the kind of sibalant: Sísíi "Eat" Shíshíi "Ate"
Raising a low tone to a mid tone: Mùka "Run" Muka "Ran"
Shifting a mid tone to a high tone: Rechái "Kill" Recháí "killed"
Prefix Yé: Hundà "Fall" Yéhundà "Fell"
Suppletion: Foówé "Drink" Mbáúsa "drank"

The suffix nzó/njó is used to mark the perfective. Note that if the last vowel in the stem is a low tone, this shifts to nzo/njo.


The subject markers are the same as the possesion markers of the noun. A transitive verb may take an anaphoric object marker, the same as the subject marker, but this cannot occur if an object is specified.

Sísíimo jechaàlà
"I am eating crab roe"

Shíshíimo jechaàlà
"I ate crab roe"

Shíshíijomo jechaàlà
"I have eaten crab roe"

Shíshíijomoze
"I ate it [the food]
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
User avatar
Shemtov
runic
runic
Posts: 3284
Joined: 29 Apr 2013 04:06

Re: Bàtùumi Bààcineé-Njúkaì

Post by Shemtov »

Modal verbs work by place the lexical verb into the infinitive. This is done by the suffix ndóo or ndoò, the latter of which occurs when the last tone is low. Most modal verbs, in addition to the past and non-past forms have negative forms.

Let's look at the volitive mood.
Present positive: Ntubúá
Present negative: Yéntubúá
Past positive: Saàrà
Past negative: Shaàrà

So:
Ntubúámo sísíindóo jechaàlà
"I want to eat crab roe"

Saàràmo shíshíindóo jechaàlà
"I wanted to eat crab roe

Yéntubúámo sísíindóo jechaàlà
"I don't want to eat crab roe"

Negation in general is formed like a modal, by using the verb Nzìòhaá in the present, and Njìohaá in the past:

Njìohaánjómo shíshíindóo jechaàlà
"I have not eaten crab roe"
Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could write.
-JRR Tolkien
Post Reply