Urban Basanawa

Urban Basanawa(Basanawa-dji: ばさなわ), natively known as Saxënspraak(Basanawa-dji: サクサン語), Basakota(derived from Rural Basanawa), Burgbasa or Burgspraak, is a West-Germanic (constructed) language belonging to the Indo-European language family, it is an Ingvaeonic language(or a North Sea Germanic language) and is very close to English(in terms of basic words), it is spoken on another planet called "Dë Niuland"(also called "Dë Niuwerld", Basanawa-dji: だ新世界), as the speakers were accidentally transferred by a wormhole to "Dë Niuland".

Urban Basanawa is one of the two language of the Detch people(or Deetch people), the other is Rural Basanawa, more than 70% of the Detch people speak Urban Basanawa as their native tongue.

Like English, Yiddish and Wymysorys, Urban Basanawa is a west-germanic language with a large amount of loanwords. Urban Basanawa developed from Old Saxon, but the inflection system has been greatly reduced; There are many loanwords from Slavic languages(Mainly a language closely related to Polish, perhaps a dialect of Polish), Malay and Japanese, also, due to the influence of Japanese, and being isolated from other germanic languages, Urban Basanawa doesn't use Latin or Ancient Greek as its source of academic terms.

Despite not being an Anglo-Frisian language, many words of Urban Basanawa are pronunced the same or similar to their English cognates, like feet("feet", pronunciation /fi:t/), fish("fish", pronunciation /fiʃ/), bring("to bring", pronunciation /briŋ/), green("green", pronunciation /gri:n/); but some words are pronunced differently from their English cognates, like ook("eye", pronunciation /u:x/), eggë("edge", pronunciation /ek/), etë("to eat", pronunciation /e:t/); also, there are words which are false friends to their English cognates, for example, deer("animal", pronunciation /di:r/, cognate to English "deer"), selfish("private", pronunciation /selfiʃ/, cognate to English "selfish" but with very different meanings to its English cognates), sood("to prove", pronunciation /su:t/, cognate to English "soothe").

It is thought that Toka na Musume, a language of anime-girl-like girls, is derived from Urban Basanawa, or a creolized form of Urban Basanawa.

The name "Basanawa" is shared by two languages spoken by the Detch people, one is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language, called "Urban Basanawa"; the other is an Malayic Malay-Polynesian language, called "Rural Basanawa", what is introduced in this article, is the "Urban Basanawa" language. Despite sharing the name and used by the same ethnic group, "Urban Basanawa" and "Rural Basanawa" belong to two unrelated language families.

Origin of words
Urban Basanawa is a language with a large quantity of loanwords, the source of words is various, and many(if not most) of them are of non-european origin. It is said that most classical languagew of Eurasia of our word, including Classical Chinese(mainly via Japanese), Sanskrit(mainly via Malay-indonesia), Arabic(mainly via Malay-indonesia), Latin and Ancient Greek have all contributed some words to Urban Basanawa.

Despite having numerous loanwords, Urban Basanawa is certainly a west Germanic language close to English, Low German and Frisian, and most of its grammatical structures and functional words are of Germanic origin.

Germanic
Urban Basanawa is a germanic language, it evolves from Old Saxon, most germanic words in Urban Basanawa are inherited from Old Saxon(through sound changes), thus, Urban Basanawa could be seen as a dialect of Low German, but the merger between front rounded vowel into their unrounded counterparts, the breaking of Old Saxon /i:/ and /u:/(Old Saxon /i:/ and /u:/ have become /ai/ and /au/ respectively in Urban Basanawa), the raising of Old Saxon /e:/ and /o:/(the breaking of Old Saxon /i:/ and /u:/, and the raising of Old Saxon /e:/ and /o:/ have made some Urban Basanawa words sound like their English or Standard German cognates), the preservation of the distinction between Old Saxon short /o/ and /u/, lexical differences(Besides loanwords, semantic shift of native words can also create obstacles in communication) and grammatical changes(Urban Basanawa has lost all nominal cases, and has also lost the germanic V2 order, becoming a SVO language, also, adjectival inflections in Urban Basanawa have also become unproductive and fossilized) can hinder the mutual intelligibility between Urban Basanawa and Low German dialects.

Unlike Low German dialects, the distinction between short /o/ and /u/ of Old Saxon is still maintained in Urban Basanawa.

Besides words that are inherited from Old Saxon, some germanic-origin words in Urban Basanawa are borrowed, some of them are early borrowings borrowed from other germanic dialects in Old Saxon Period, some others are borrowed later indirect through Slavic languages or Japanese, which created some doublets:


 * land("land", a native word inherited from Old Saxon) - lond("owned land, owned field, property", a slavic borrowing)
 * ring("ring", a native word inherited from Old Saxon) - rinek("market", a slavic borrowing)
 * shirt("apron", a native word inherited from Old Saxon) - shatzu("shirt", a japanese borrowing)

Although Urban Basanawa has borrowed kinship terms from Japanese, kinship terms of germanic origin are actually still used in daily communications, also, the pronominal system of Urban Basanawa is still germanic, not influenced by other languages.

Austronesian
Urban Basanawa has some from Malay-Indonesian and other Austronesian languages, many Sanskrit(including the word "Basa") and Arabic terms are also borrowed indirectly through Austronesian languages, it is thought that Austronesian languages(mainly Malay-Indonesian) were probably substratums among the speakers of Urban Basanawa.

Slavic
Urban Basanawa has words from slavic languages, especially Polish and/or Polish-like languages(words borrowed from other slavic languages also exist), before Urban Basanawa speakers started to adopt Japanese, a Polish-like slavic language was served as the superstratum among the speakers of Urban Basanawa.

Besides some lexical words, many proper nouns in Urban Basanawa are influenced by slavic languages, for example, some village names are ended with -vitze, which is considered to be from Polish -wice, also, many given names are of Slavic origin, and there are even non-slavic-origin family names ended with -ski(for example, Umeski).

The existence of slavic words may indicte that the direct ancestor of Urban Basanawa(before the speakers being accidentally transferred) was spoken in Poland(of our world) in Middle Ages.

Slavic words for animals are also used as euphemisms by hunters, fishers and butchers speaking Urban Basanawa, as they consider germanic names of animals will bring bad luck when these words are referred in hunting/fishing.

Greek and Latin-Romance
Ancient Greek and Latin are much less important among Urban Basanawa speakers than they are in most parts of Europe, compared to other Germanic languages(and most other languages originate from Europe of our world), Urban Basanawa has less influence from Ancient Greek and Latin/Romance languages, most words from Ancient Greek and Latin/Romance languages in Urban Basanawa were borrowed in the Old Saxon period or earlier, or indirectly through other languages.

Japanese and Chinese
It is known that Japanese culture has a profound impact on Urban Basanawa-speakers, so Japanese language(Modern Japanese) also has significant influence on Urban Basanawa, Japanese lexicon, especially Sino-japanese ones, is used as a source for academic terms in Urban Basanawa, many modern concepts in Urban Basanawa are from Japanese, Urban Basanawa speakers has even adopted Japanese kana and kanji to write Urban Basanawa.

Japanese people never ruled or colonized the Urban Basanawa speakers, but Japanese was seen as a superior language by Urban Basanawa speakers; also, as some Japanese words are very common in Urban Basanawa, it is supposed that Japanese may also served as an substratum in an earlier stage.

Most of the Sinitic words in Urban Basanawa are borrowed through Sino-Japanese words, but there are Sinitic words in Urban Basanawa that are not borrowed through Sino-Japanese words, some of them are borrowed through Malay-Indonesian but others are probably not. Below are some supposed Sinitic words that are not from Sino-Japanese words:
 * lobak - radish(through Malay-Indonesian)
 * lonkang - drain(through Malay-Indonesian)
 * lomuwa~loma - gangster
 * bulahi~blahi - whitebait

Ainu Itak
There are also some words originating from Ainu, below are some examples:


 * tunackai /tu'nakai/ "reindeer" - from Ainu tunakkay
 * mossir /'mosir/ "land, region, island" - from Ainu mosir
 * tchisse /'tʃise/ "shelter, house" - from Ainu cise
 * kamui /'kamui/ "anglic god-like spirit" - from Ainu kamuy
 * kamuimossir "paradise, heaven, land of god" - from Ainu kamuymosir

Calquing in Urban Basanawa
Besides direct borrowings, calquing is also common to form new words in Urban Basanawa:


 * handsack/手袋 /'hantsak/ "glove" - from hand/手 /'hant/ "hand" + sack/袋 /'sak/ "bag,sack", calquing Japanese てぶくろ/手袋 "glove"
 * weidkind/茸 /'we:tkint/ "mushroom" - from weid/木 /'we:t/ "wood" + kind/子 /'kint/ "child", calquing Japanese キノコ/茸 "mushroom"
 * gardfogel/鶏 /'gartfogəl/ "chicken" - from gard/庭/園 /'gart/ "garden" + fogel/鳥 /'fogəl/ "bird", calquing Japanese にわとり/鶏 "chicken"
 * potding/鍋物 /'potdiŋ/ "hot pot, nabemono", calquing Japanese なべもの/鍋物 "hot pot, nabemono"

Consonants

 * /v/ is actually the labiodental approximant [ʋ] rather than the labiodental fricative [v] in the actual speech of many speakers.
 * /dz/ is sometimes realized as [z]
 * /ŋ/ is only contrastive with /n/ at the end of a word, in other places, /ŋ/ is an allophone of /n/ before velars.
 * /h/ is pronunced as [x] when it is not followed by a vowel and is preceded by a non-front consonant; /h/ is pronunced as [ç] when it is not followed by a vowel and is preceded by a front consonant
 * the contrast between /p/ and /b/, /t/ and /d/, and /k/ and /g/ is in fact a contrast between fortis and lenis plosives, rather than a contrast between voiceless and voiced plosives, or a contrast between aspirated and non-aspirated plosives.
 * /b/, /d/, /g/, /dz/, /dʒ/, /v/ are neutralized respectively with /p/, /t/, /k/, /ts/, /tʃ/, /f/ word-finally.

Vowels
Like English and Yiddish, but unlike other Germanic languages, Urban Basanawa doesn't have front rounded vowels, the vowel system of Urban Basanawa is more similar to that of Spanish or Japanese:


 * In some dialects, the actual pronunciations of the short vowels /i e a o u/ are [ɪ ɛ ɐ ɔ ʊ]

Sound Changes from Old Saxon to Urban Basanawa
Although Urban Basanawa has numerous borrowings, and most of them are from non-european languages, most common words and most words used in everyday speech are inherent from Old Saxon, which clearly shows that Urban Basanawa is a West-Germanic language, and as Urban Basanawa has evolved for a long time from Old Saxon, there are certainly some sound changes.

Rules listed below are only speculations, they might not be correct, and may not be the complete list. Some of the sound changes coincide with those happened in other Low German dialects, others are peculiar to Urban Basanawa.

Most sound changes of Stage I occured when people who spoke the ancestor languages of Urban Basanawa(persumbly Old Saxon and Middle Low German dialects) were still live in our world, and most sound changes of Stage II occured after they arrived "De Niuland".

Stage I


 * i:a > e:
 * io > e:
 * iu > y:(?) or ie(?) > i:


 * ao,aw,auw > ɔ:
 * a:o > a:w
 * a:i > a:i
 * iuw > iu
 * euw > eu
 * ei,e:i > i:
 * e:o,e:w > e:
 * V[-stressed](especially when V is a high vowel) > &Oslash; / R_(R is an resonant /m n l r/)(however, this rule is controversial)


 * Open syllable lengthening:
 * a > ɑ: / Old Saxon open stressed syllables
 * o,u,au > ɔ: / Old Saxon open stressed syllables
 * e,i > ɛ: / Old Saxon open stressed syllables
 * ø,y > œ: / Old Saxon open stressed syllables


 * V[-stressed] > ə
 * V:[-stressed] > V


 * θ > d


 * Unronding of front rounded vowels(this sound change probably occured much later, but it certainly occurred before the earliest writing record):
 * y: > i:
 * ø: > e:
 * y > i
 * ø > e
 * œ: > ɛ:

Stage II


 * V: > V / _C(ə)R(R is an resonant /m n l r/)(this happens before the diphthongization of vowels and the raising of long vowels; moreover, in certain words, the process was undone due to morphological levelling)


 * C: > C


 * diphthongization of vowels:
 * i:,a:i > ai
 * u:,a:w > au
 * o:i > oi
 * eu,iu > iu


 * raising of long vowels:
 * ɑ:,a: > a:
 * e: > i:
 * o: > u:
 * ɛ > e
 * ɔ > o


 * z > s / #_


 * h > &Oslash; / V_V(this sound change probably occured much earlier)


 * ə > &Oslash; / _#

there are some irregularities among words, the emergence of these irregularities were probably due to dialect mixing and dialect levelling at some earlier stages of Urban Basanawa:


 * Old Saxon sumar > Urban Basanawa summer/夏 /sumər/ "summer" (the expected form would be *sommer /somər/, it is possible that it changed to summer by analogy of the semantically related word sun "sun", possibly an result of dialect leveling/dialect mixing)
 * Old Saxon thiudisk > Urban Basanawa detch /detʃ/ and deetch /di:tʃ/ (the expected form would be *daitch /daitʃ/, possibly an result of dialect leveling/dialect mixing, or it was remodelled after the related Old Saxon word thīod or its descendants before the formation of Urban Basanawa)
 * Old Saxon duru > Urban Basanawa door/扉 /du:r/ "door" (the expected form dore/扉 /do:r/ also exists, which created a pair of doublets /do:r/ and /du:r/, it is possible that the emergence of doublet in this word and some other words was due to dialect leveling/dialect mixing)
 * Old Saxon wika > Urban Basanawa week/週 /wi:k/ "week" (the expected form would be *weik /we:k/, possibly an result of dialect leveling/dialect mixing)
 * Old Saxon *butera(speculated form, deduced from Proto (west) Germanic *buterô) > Urban Basanawa butter/ブッタル /butər/ "butter" (the expected form would be *botter, possibly an result of dialect leveling/dialect mixing, or actually evolved through the sound change "V[-stressed](especiall when V is a high vowel) > &Oslash; / R_C(R is an resonant /m n l r/)" regularly)

possible irregular words:


 * Old Saxon frī > Urban Basanawa free/自由い /fri:/ "free" (the expected word would be *frai */frai/ or *frei */fre:/, but it is possible that it was actually a regular sound change modelled after certain forms of adjectives, or modelled after dree, free(the verb evolved regularly from Old Saxon frīohon) or was an result of dialect leveling/dialect mixing)
 * words that are subject of the rule "i,u[-stressed] > &Oslash; / R_(R is an resonant /m n l r/)":
 * Old Saxon bilith > Urban Basanawa bild/図/像 /bilt/ "picture, image" (the expected word would be *beld */belt/, it is possible that the form *bilthi also existed in the dialect of Old Saxon ancestral to Urban Basanawa)
 * Old Saxon miluk > Urban Basanawa milk/乳/ミルク /milk/ "milk" (the expected word would be *melk */melk/, it is possible that the form *milk also existed in the dialect of Old Saxon ancestral to Urban Basanawa)
 * Old Saxon kirikǭ > Urban Basanawa kirk/教会 /kirk/ "church" (the expected word would be *kerk /kerk/, it is possible that the form *kirkǭ also existed in the dialect of Old Saxon ancestral to Urban Basanawa)
 * Old Saxon siluvar > Urban Basanawa silver/銀 /silvər/ "silver" (the expected word would be *selver /selvər/, it is possible that the form *silvar also existed in the dialect of Old Saxon ancestral to Urban Basanawa)

Writing systems
There are several ways to write Urban Basanawa. two of them are introduced below:

Roman Script/Oldwriting
The Roman Script for Urban Basanawa, also called the "Oldwriting"(Basanawa-dji: 古文/古書てぃんﾟ) in Urban Basanawa, is a way to write Urban Basanawa. Roman Script never became widespread among the Detch people, and it has become obsolete, but for the sake of the readers, most Urban Basanawa contents in this article will be written using Roman Scripts.


 * A - /a/
 * AA - /a:/
 * A$Ë - /a:/
 * AI - /ai/
 * AU - /au/
 * B - /b/
 * BB - /b/
 * CH - /x/
 * CK - /k/
 * D - /d/
 * DD - /d/
 * DJ - /dʒ/
 * DZ - /dz~z/
 * E - /e/
 * Ë - /ə/, if it ends a word and is not followed by any consonant, it is silent
 * EE - /i:/
 * EI - /e:/
 * E$Ë - /e:/
 * F - /f/
 * G - /g/
 * GG - /g/
 * H - /h/
 * I - /i/
 * IE - /i:/
 * I$Ë - /ai/
 * K - /k/
 * L - /l/
 * M - /m/
 * N - /n/
 * O - /o/
 * OO - /u:/
 * OU - /o:/
 * OW - /o:/
 * O$Ë - /o:/
 * P - /p/
 * PP - /p/
 * R - /r/
 * S - /s/
 * SS - /s/
 * SH - /ʃ/
 * T - /t/
 * TT - /t/
 * TZ - /ts/
 * TCH - /tʃ/
 * U - /u/
 * U$Ë - /au/
 * UË - /u:/
 * UU - /u:/
 * V - /v/
 * W - /w/
 * WR - /vr/
 * Y - /j/(as a consonant),/ai/(as a vowel)

Note:
 * 1) $ represents any single consonant
 * A, E, O are lengthened to /a:/,/e:/,/o:/ in open syllables
 * 1) &Euml; is not used in actual manuscripts of Urban Basanawa.

Kanji and Kana
Urban Basanawa is highly influenced by the Japanese language, and the Detch people have even adopted Japanese Kanji and Kana to write Urban Basanawa, Kanji and Kana for Urban Basanawa has become the most widespread way to write Urban Basanawa among the Detch people.

The Kanji and Kana system used to write Urban Basanawa is called the "Basanawa-dji"(Basanawa-dji: ばさなわ字), the Kanji part is called 漢字(Oldwriting: Kandji) in Urban Basanawa, the Kana part is called 仮名(Oldwriting: Kana) in Urban Basanawa.

Reading of Kandjis in Urban Basanawa
Like Japanese Kanji, there are several ways to read Basanawa kandji of Basanawa-dji: 音読えせぃんﾟ(Oldwriting: On-lesing), 訓読えせぃんﾟ(Oldwriting: Kun-lesing), 混すど読えせぃんﾟ(Oldwriting: Mixed-lesing) and 熟字訓(Oldwriting: Djukudjikun), they are similar to the Japanese On'yomi, Kun'yomi, Mixed readings and Special readings.

音読えせぃんﾟ(On-lesing)
The On-lesing, the Sino-Japanese-Basanawa reading, is a reading based on the pronunciation of a Sino-Japanese word, all On-lesings are borrowed from Japanese On'yomi.

The On-lesing of many words in Urban basanawa are pronunced almost the same as the On'yomi of their Japanese counterparts.

More formal or academic terms are more likely to use On-lesing; while more informal or daily terms are more likely to use Kun-lesing, but there are exceptions.

Example of On-lesings(kandji - On-lesing pronunciation - meaning):


 * 音楽 - /ongaku/ - "music"
 * 科学 - /kagaku/ - "science"
 * 生物学 - /se:butsugaku/ - "biology"
 * 地質学 - /tʃiʃitsugaku/ - "geology"
 * 予算 - /josan/ - "budget"
 * 細胞 - /saibo:/ - "cell(biology)"
 * 証明書 - /ʃo:me:ʃo:/ - "certificate"
 * 学校 - /gakko:/ - "school"
 * 廃墟 - /haikijo/ - "ruin"
 * 報酬 - /ho:ʃu:/ - "reward"
 * 責任 - /sekinin/ - "responsibility"
 * 気体 - /kitai/ - "gas"
 * 工場 - /ko:dʒo:/ - "factory"
 * 魔法 - /maho:/ - "magic"
 * 少女 - /ʃo:dʒo/ - "girl"
 * 経済 - /ke:dzai/ - "economy"
 * 博士 - /hakuʃi/ - "doctor(one with a doctorate degree)"
 * 割引 - /waribiki/ - "discount"
 * 国家 - /kokka/ - "country"

however, not every pronunciation from Japanese is seen as a On-lesing, a pronunciation that is from the Yamatokotoba of Japanese is seen as a Kunn-lesing in Urban Basanawa.

訓読えせぃんﾟ(Kun-lesing)
The Kun-lesing, the non-Sino-Japanese-Basanawa reading, is a reading based on the pronunciation of a non-Sino-Japanese word, or Landsword(Basanawa-dji: 国詞), that closely approximated the meaning of the Chinese character when it was introduced. As with On-lesing, there can be multiple Kun-lesing for the same kandji, and some kandji have no Kun-lesing at all.

Most of the Kun-lesings are of Germanic origin and are inherited from Old Saxon rather than borrowed, and many of them are basic words used in everyday speeech, which reflects the fact that Urban Basanawa is actually a west-Germanic language despite not using writing systems common to other Germanic languages, those Germanic-origin words inherited from Old Saxon are sometimes called Saxënword(Basanawa-dji: サクサン詞). All Saxënwords are Landswords, but not all Landswords are Saxënwords, as Landswords contain words of Austronesian origin, words of Slavic origin, and words of other origins.

Example of Kun-lesings(kandji - Kun-lesing pronunciation - meaning):
 * 西 - /'west/ - "west"
 * 北 - /'nort/ - "north"
 * 屋 - /'haus/ - "house"
 * 橋 - /'brik/ - "bridge"
 * 馬 - /'ros/ - "horse"
 * 山 - /'berx/ - "mountain"
 * 朝 - /'morgən/ - "morning"
 * 夜 - /'naxt/ - "night"
 * 日 - /'sun/ - "sun"
 * 日 - /'dax/ - "day"
 * 病 - /'ba:n/ - "disease"
 * 鬼 - /'gi:st/ - "ghost"
 * 魚 - /'fiʃ/ - "fish(general term)"
 * 魚 - /'riba/ - "fish(euphemism used by fishers and anglers)"
 * 畑 - /'felt/ - "field"
 * 田 - /'sa:wa/ - "paddy field"
 * 鶏 - /'manuk/ - "chicken"
 * 綿 - /'kapuk/ - "cotton"
 * 帝 - /'radʒa/ - "emperor, raja"
 * 薬 - /'lek/ - "medicine(substance for curing), drug"
 * 壺 - /'dzbanek/ - "jug"
 * 蛸 - /'tako/ - "octopus"
 * 猫 - /'neko/ - "cat"
 * ときめき - /tokimeki/ - "crush(feeling of love)"
 * 萌え - /'moe/ - "crush(feeling of love, especially to a cutie), cute(especially for a lovely girl)"
 * 食えいと - /'e:t/ - "to eat"
 * 見えい - /'se:/ - "to see"
 * 見いんど - /'fint/ - "to find"
 * 作く - /'ma:k/ - "to make"
 * 送ど - /'sent/ - "to send"
 * 費ど - /'spent/ - "to spend"
 * 老ど - /'olt/ - "old"
 * 他る - /'odər/ - "other"
 * 大と - /'gru:t/ - "great, large, big"
 * 生う - /'ro:/ - "raw"
 * 大い - /'vilki/ - "large"

混すど読えせぃんﾟ(Mixëd-lesing)
There are kandji compounds that use a mixture of On-lesing and Kun-lesing, they are known as Mixëd-lesing.

義訓(Gikun)/熟字訓(Djukudjikun)
Gikun and Djukudjikun are readings of kandji combinations that have no direct correspondence to the characters' individual On-lesing or Kun-lesing, but rather are connected with their meaning.

Example of Gikun/Djukudjikun(kandji - Gikun/Djukudjikun pronunciation - meaning):
 * 兵器 - /'wa:pən/ - "weapon"
 * 飛行 - /'fle:x/ - "flight"
 * 結婚式 - /'svadba/ - "wedding ceremony"
 * 精神 - /'gi:st/ - "spirit"
 * 聖書 - /al'kitap/ - "The Bible"
 * 玻璃 - /'glas/ - "glass"
 * 教会 - /'kirk/ - "church"
 * 子牛 - /'kalf/ - "calf(of a cow)"
 * 地獄 - /'hel/ - "hell"

Grammar
Being a germanic language, it shares many common structures with English, but there are also differences.

Word Order
The word order of Urban Basanawa is very similar to English: Urban Basanawa does not have V2 order at all, and word order inversion is not used for interrogatives, and Urban Basanawa has even developed an initial yes-no question particle.
 * Basic word order: Subject-Verb-Object(SVO)
 * Adpositions are prepositions
 * Demonstratives and Numerals precede the noun they modify, relative clauses follow the noun they modify, adjectives can precede or follow the noun they modify(prenominal adjectives are more common)

Interrogatives
In Urban Basanawa, word order inversion is not used for interrogatives:
 * Du saast wat? - what did you see?
 * Hau du feelst? - how do you feel?

Urban Basanawa has even developed an initial particle for yes-no questions "is-it dat":
 * is-it dat it is de haus fon dy tomodatchi? - is it the house of your friend?

"is-it dat" is frequently contracted to "ista".

It is also possible to ask yes-no questions simply by using a raising intonation on a sentence(In Urban Basanawa, like English, declarative sentences usually have a falling intonation):


 * Noire hat fallën in koi mid Nep-nep? - has Noire fallen in love with Nep-nep?

which is equivalent to the following sentence:


 * is-it dat Noire hat fallën in koi mid Nep-nep? - has Noire fallen in love with Nep-nep?

Tag question is formed by adding the negation word "ne" to the end of the sentence:


 * Noire hat fallën in koi mid Nep-nep, ne? - Noire has fallen in love with Nep-nep, hasn't she?

Relative clauses
Relative clauses start with the invariant relativizers dë and dat:
 * dë haus, dë is by dë strand, was bocht faif yaars beforë - the house, which is by the beach, was bought five years ago.
 * dë musume, dë Nepgear luëvët, is dë imowto fon Noire - the girl, whom Nepgear loves, is the younger sister of Noire.

dat can also be used to form nominal clauses:
 * it is good, dat all kindër kan gaa to gackows. - it is good that all children can go to schools.
 * Nep-nep ne kent dat Noire, dë Megami fon Lastation, hat fallën in koi mid iem. - Nep-nep doesn't know that Noire, the Goddess of Lastation, has fallen in love with her.

Unlike most European languages, interrogative words(the so-called relative pronouns) are not used for relative clauses except for relative clauses without antecedents.

Negation
negation is formed by using the negation word ne, the word ne precedes the word it negates:


 * Leanbox ne hat Megami Kouhosei - Leanbox doesn't have CPU candidates.
 * In dë miestze, dë hat fishbeens swimmënd, Uni sheedë mid Nepgear, for Uni dacht, dat Nepgear ne heelëd Noire, dë oneisan fon Uni. - in the place where there are swimming fishbones, Uni broke up with Nepgear, for Uni thought that Nepgear didn't save Noire, Uni's big sister.

ne usually follows an aux verb:


 * Nepgear konst ne fërstand, wai Uni weld ne feech ien. - Nepgear couldn't understand why Uni didn't want to join her.

It is supposed that the Urban Basanawa ne is not directly from Proto-Germanic ne, but rather a contraction of earlier negations.

Possession
Possession can be formed by using prepositions, the most common preposition for possession is "fon", if a preposition is used for possession, the possessor follows the possessed:


 * dë haus fon dë megami - the goddess's house
 * dë wagën fon dy fadër - the car of your father

also, a structure similar to the "His-genitive" in English is also used, where the 3rd singular possessive pronoun "is" is used, if the structure similar to the English "His-genitive" is used for possession, the possessor precedes the possessed, the possessive pronoun frequently pronunced as "s" and written as "së" in Oldwriting:


 * dë megami së haus/だ女神彼す屋 - /də 'megami s 'haus/ - the goddess's house
 * dy faddër së wagën/だ父彼す車 - /dai fadər s 'wagən/ - the car of your father

The "is" in this usage does not influenced by the number of possessor or possessed:


 * dë werker së gëreed - /də werkər sə gəri:t/ - the tool of the worker
 * dë werker së gëreeds - /də werkər sə gəri:ts/ - the tools of the worker
 * dë werkers së gëreed - /də werkərs sə gəri:t/ - the tool of the workers
 * dë werkers së gëreeds - /də werkərs sə gəri:ts/ - the tools of the workers

the structure similar to the English "His-genitive" is standard in Urban Basanawa.

there was an genitive case suffix -s, but the genitive -s suffix has fallen out of use and has become a derivative affix used for some compounds.

Noun
Nouns has lost the distinction between genders and cases, but it still has the distinction between singular and plural forms.

there are different types of nouns: s-nouns, n-nouns, r-nouns, umlaut-nouns.

the plural form of a s-noun is formed by adding the -s/-ës suffix to the end of the noun, it seems that most nouns belong to this class:


 * man("man") - mans(the plural form of man can also be men or mennër)
 * fingër("finger") - fingërs
 * boom("tree") - booms
 * fish("fish") - fishës
 * ring("ring") - rings
 * dag("day") - dagës
 * maud("mouth") - maudës

the plural form of a n-noun is formed by adding the -n/-ën suffix to the end of the noun:


 * oog("eye") - oogën
 * erd("earth") - erdën

the plural form of a r-noun is formed by adding the -r/-ër suffix to the end of the noun, and the stem vowel may undergo umlaut:


 * lamb("lamb") - lembër
 * kalf("calf") - kelvër
 * kind("child") - kindër

the plural form of a umlaut-noun is formed by changing the stem vowel:


 * foot("foot") - feet
 * book("book") - beek
 * kau("cow") - kai
 * maus("mouse") - mais
 * gast("guest") - gest
 * burg("city") - birg

Plural forms are not obliged in Urban Basanawa, and in colloquial speech it is common to use singular forms in place of plural forms.

Verb
Verbs conjugate according to tense-aspect-moods.

Verbs have infinitive, present, past, present participle, past participle forms, in earlier forms of Urban Basanawa, the infinitive form of a verb ends with -ën, but the -ën ending has been dropped, and they are identical to the present form in almost every case(some verbs still maintain different infinitive forms), the infinitive form ending in -ën is largely considered as an archaic form.

as most germanic languages, Urban Basanawa verbs can be devided into two classes: strong verb and weak verb.

the past tense of a verb is formed by adding -ëd/-d/-t to the end of the infinitive form if it is a weak verb, formed by changing the stem vowel if it is a strong verb

the present participle of a verb, no matter it is a strong or weak verb, is formed by adding -ënd to the end of the infinitive form.

the past participle of a verb is formed by adding -ëd/-d/-t to the end of the infinitive form if it is a weak verb, formed by changing the stem vowel and then adding -ën to the end if it is a strong verb, in more archaic or some dialectical usages, the prefix gë- is used for past participle forms also.

some examples are shown below:

Strong verb:
 * Nep-nep etët gohan - Nep-nep eats a meal
 * Nep-nep is etënd gohan/Nep-nep is an (dë) etë gohan - Nep-nep is eating a meal
 * Nep-nep doot etënd gohan - Nep-nep is eating a meal
 * Nep-nep atët gohan - Nep-nep ate a meal
 * Nep-nep hat etën gohan - Nep-nep has eaten a meal

Weak verb:
 * hi makët rings - he/she makes ring.
 * hi is makënd rings/hi is an (dë) makë rings - he/she is making rings.
 * hi doot makënd rings - he/she is making rings.
 * hi makëd rings - he/she made rings.
 * hi hat makëd rings - he/she has made rings.

Like English, infinitives of Urban Basanawa can be preceded by the particle "to", but the to-infinitive is not frequently used in some dialects of Urban Basanawa.

In Urban Basanawa, the verbal noun of a verb is formed by using the -ing suffix, also, in many strong verbs, the verbal noun can be formed by simply applying the ablaut of the stem:


 * (to) makë("to make") - making("act of making")
 * (to) sing ("to sing") - sang/singing("act of singing")
 * (to) find ("to find") - fand/finding("act of finding")

however, ablaut forms are largely fossilized in Urban Basanawa, and the -ing forms are more common even for strong verbs.

the usage of verbal nouns in Urban Basanawa is similar to that of English:


 * warding folks is en megami is shigoto. - protecting people is the job of a goddess.
 * drinking alë smertët eener is rau - drinking beers harms one's body.

-ing forms cannot be used for present particles, and present particles cannot be used for gerunds, so the sentences below are incorrect:
 * *hi is making rings(the correct form is "hi is makënd rings" or "hi is an (dë) makë rings")
 * *drinkënd alë smertët eener is rau(the correct form is "drinking alë smert eener is rau")

Agreements
present:
 * 1st person singular: -
 * 2nd person singular: -st/-est
 * 3rd person singular: -t/-et(same as 1st person singular in modal verbs )
 * plural: -t/-et(-en in modal verbs)

preterite(past tense, agreement suffixes added after the past tense suffix -ëd in weak verbs):
 * 1st person singular: -
 * 2nd person singular: -st/-est
 * 3rd person singular: -
 * plural: -n/-en

the verb "wese"("to be") and "have"("to have") have irregular forms:

"wese"("to be"): present:
 * 1st person singular: bin
 * 2nd person singular: bist
 * 3rd person singular: is
 * plural: sind

preterite:
 * 1st person singular: was
 * 2nd person singular: weer
 * 3rd person singular: was
 * plural: warn

"have"("to have"): present:
 * 1st person singular: have
 * 2nd person singular: hast
 * 3rd person singular: hat~haft
 * plural: have

preterite:
 * 1st person singular: had
 * 2nd person singular: haddest
 * 3rd person singular: had
 * plural: hadden

Copula
In Colloquial usage, copulae can be omitted, especially the present copula "is":
 * infinitive: wesë
 * present: is
 * past: was
 * past particle: wesën
 * dat man en ribanik - that man is a fisher.
 * dat ovët sweet - the fruit is sweet.

Strong verbs
Like other germanic languages, there are strong verbs in Urban Basanawa, and they follow certain patterns to produce different forms, although there are anomalies in strong verbs, making the patterns less regular.

Besides these patterns of stem vowel changes, the past participle forms of strong verbs require an -ën/-あ*ん(あ* is an A-dan kana where the consonant corresponds the ending consonant of the infinitive/present form of the verb it attaches to) ending.

The stem vowel of different classes of strong verbs are listed below(arranged in the form of "Present Tense - Past Tense - Past Participle"):

In Oldwriting：
 * Class I: i$ë - ie$ - i$($)*
 * Class II: au/ee - oo - o
 * Class III:
 * i - a - u
 * e - a - o
 * Class IV: e - a - o
 * Class V: e/i - a - e
 * Class VI: a - oo - a
 * Class VII*:
 * a/o - e/(ee/ie) - a/o
 * aa/oo - ee - a/o

In Basanawa-dji:
 * Class I: あい - いい - い
 * Class II: あう/いい - うう - お
 * Class III:
 * い - あ - う
 * え - あ - お
 * Class IV: えい - ああ - お
 * Class V:
 * えい - ああ - え
 * い - あ - え
 * Class VI: あ/ああ - うう - あ
 * Class VII*:
 * あ/お - え/(いい) - あ/お
 * ああ/おう - いい - あ/お

Note:
 * 1) In General, in Class VII strong verbs, if the stem vowel of the present tense form is short, then the stem vowel of the past tense form is also short; if the stem vowel of the present tense form is long, then the stem vowel of the past tense form is also long; however, in the past tense forms of some Class VII strong verbs, while the stem vowel of the present tense form is short, the stem vowel of the past tense form is also short, although in these verbs, there are usually more regular alternatives.
 * 2) The $ in the Class I strong verb pattern is a single consonant letter in Oldwriting.

Adjective
Like English, adjectives in the standard form don't agree with nouns they modify in Urban Basanawa, however, in archaic usages, attributive adjectives are ended with -ë:


 * en goodë dag - 一ん良だ日 - a good day
 * goodë dagës - 良だ日す - good days
 * dë goodë dag - だ良だ日 - the good day
 * dë goodë dagës - だ良だ日す - the good days

predicative adjectives, however, don't take the -ë ending:


 * fondag is good - 今日いす良で - today is good

Adjectives of Germanic origin have comparative and superlative forms:
 * comparative: -ër
 * superlative: -ëst

for example:


 * fondag is heet - 今日いす暑と - today is hot
 * fondag is heetër dan gestërn - 今日いす暑たるだん昨日 - today is hotter than yesterday
 * fondag is dë heetëst dag in dis yaar - 今日いすだ暑たすと日中ん此年 - today is the hottest day in this year

These forms are sometimes used on adjectives of non-Germanic origins, but its use is largely restricted to Germanic adjectives.

Due to the large amount of Japanese words in Urban Basanawa, there are also na-adjectives in Urban Basanawa. In Urban Basanawa, all na-adjectives are ended with -na(-な) or -no(-の), the -na(-な) and -no(-の) are dropped when these adjectives are used predicatively:


 * en okubiyow-na kuroneko - 一ん臆病な黒猫 - a timid black-cat.
 * dë kuroneko is okubiyow - だ黒猫いす臆病 - the black-cat is timid.

the -no(-の) ending can also be used for possessive adjectives.

personal pronouns
Pronouns have cases, but the usage of subject pronouns is declining, and many dialects don't use subject pronouns at all.

1st person singular:
 * subject: ik(吾)
 * object: mi(我)
 * genitive: my/minë(我い/我ん)

2nd person singular:
 * subject: du(汝)
 * object: di(爾)
 * genitive: dy/dinë(爾い/爾ん)

3rd person singular:
 * subject it(彼と)(inanimate)/hi(彼)(animate)
 * object: it(彼と)(inanimate)/ien(彼ん)(animate)
 * genitive: is(彼す)

1st person plural:
 * subject: wi(我等)
 * object: us(我等す)
 * genitive: aus/ur~aur(我等す/我等る)
 * subject/object(in some dialects): mi allër(generic or exclusive)/yumi(inclusive, from yu+mi)

2nd person plural:
 * subject: yi(汝等)
 * object: yu(爾等)
 * genitive: yur(爾等る)

3rd person plural:
 * subject/object: allër/sie(彼等)
 * genitive: ier(彼等る)

reflexive: self(己)(also used with the genitive form of other pronouns)

for some personal pronouns, there were emphatic forms:

1st person singular:
 * object: my

2nd person singular:
 * subject: dau
 * object: dy

1st person plural:
 * object: aus

demonstratives

 * this: dis/dit(此)
 * that: dat(彼)
 * these: dese(此す)
 * those: die(彼い)
 * here: hier(ひいる/此る)
 * there: daar(だある/彼る)
 * the(definite article): dë(だ)

interrogative pronouns
Interrogatives are not used to start relative clauses when there are antecedents.
 * who: wee(誰い)
 * what: wat(何と)
 * when: wan(何ん)
 * where: wor(をる/何る)/war(わる/何る)
 * how: hau(はう/何う)
 * why: wai/warum(わい/何い)
 * which: wilk(ゐるﾟく/何く)

Numerals

 * 1: een/en(一)
 * 2: twee(二)
 * 3: dree(三)
 * 4: fier(四)
 * 5: faif/fimf(五)
 * 6: sex(六)
 * 7: sevën(七)
 * 8: acht(八)
 * 9: negën(九)
 * 10: ten(十)
 * 11: elvën~elf(十一)
 * 12: twelf(十二)
 * 13: dreetin(十三)
 * 14: fiertin(十四)
 * 15: fiftin(十五)
 * 16: sextin(十六)
 * 17: sevëntin(十七)
 * 18: achtin(十八)
 * 19: negëntin(十九)
 * 20: twentig(二十)
 * 30: dreetig(三十)
 * 40: fiertig(四十)
 * 50: fiftig(五十)
 * 60: sextig(六十)
 * 70: sevëntig(七十)
 * 80: achtig(八十)
 * 90: negëntig(九十)
 * hundred: hundërd(百)
 * thousand: dausënd(千)


 * ordinal number marker: -t/-ët(番)

For ordinal numbers, first and second have special forms:
 * first: erst(一番)
 * second: odër(二番/他る)(also means "other", the regular form "twee-t" is also used)

Conjunctions

 * when/if: wen(ゑん)
 * if: ef(えふ)
 * before: bëforë(ば前る/前る)
 * after: aftër(後た)
 * and: end/en(えん/又ん)
 * or: ed/eddë(えだ)
 * but: ack(あく)
 * then/than: dan(だん)

Names of Months
Urban Basanawa has two set set of names of months, one is Slavic-origin, the other is Japanese-origin, the set of the latin-derived calendar month names used in many western europe languages(like English) is not used in Urban Basanawa:

Japanese-origin:
 * 1) January: Mutzuki(睦月)
 * 2) February: Kisaragi(如月)
 * 3) March: Yayoi(弥生)
 * 4) April: Udzuki(卯月)
 * 5) May: Satzuki(皐月)/Sanaetzuki(早苗月)
 * 6) June: Minadzuki(水無月)
 * 7) July: Fumidzuki(文月)
 * 8) August: Hadzuki(葉月)
 * 9) September: Nagatzuki(長月)
 * 10) October: Kannadzuki(神無月)
 * 11) November: Shimotzuki(霜月)
 * 12) December: Shiwasu(師走)

Slavic-origin:
 * 1) January: Stitchen
 * 2) February: Luti
 * 3) March: Madjetz
 * 4) April: kvitchen
 * 5) May: Mai
 * 6) June: Tchervitz
 * 7) July: Lipitz
 * 8) August: Sherpin
 * 9) September: Vdjeshen
 * 10) October: Pazdjernik
 * 11) November: Listopat
 * 12) December: Grudjen

Days of a week
The word "sobota" is the most common term for saturday in Urban Basanawa
 * 1) Monday: maandag(月日)/getzuyowbi(月曜日)
 * 2) Tuesday: firedag(火日)/kayowbi(火曜日)
 * 3) Wednsday: waterdag(水日)/suiyowbi(水曜日)
 * 4) Thursday: wieddag(木日)/mokuyowbi(木曜日)
 * 5) Friday: golddag(金日)/kinyowbi(金曜日)
 * 6) Saturday: sobota/erddag(土日)/doyowbi(土曜日)*
 * 7) Sunday: sundag(日日)/nitchiyowbi(日曜日)

Kinship terms

 * Father: fadër(父)
 * Mother: modër(母)

The terms for sibling is rather complex in Urban Basanawa, comparable to that of Hungarian:

that means all the sentences below can be used to mean "Nepgear is the little sister of Nep-nep":
 * Nepgear is dë swestër fon Nep-nep(specify the gender, but not the relative age)
 * Nepgear is dë adik fon Nep-nep(specify the relative age, but not the gender)
 * Nepgear is dë imowto fon Nep-nep(specify both the gender and the relative age)

Comparison with other West-Germanic languages
Note:
 * 1) In Urban Basanawa, the japanese loanword "tomodatchi" is also used to mean "friend".
 * 2) In Urban Basanawa, besides the germanic word "food", the synonym borrowed from Malay/Indonesian "pangan" is also used.

Similarities to English and other west-germanic languages
While talking about things of the everyday life, Urban Basanawa does not differ much from other west germanic languages, except for the writing system:


 * dë man is in dë Haus /də man is in də haus/ - だ男いす中んだ屋 - The man is in the house
 * du hast twee kau /du hast twi: kau/ - 汝持すと二牛 - you have two cows
 * dat is ne dy ball, it is my ball /dat is ne dai bal it is mai bal/ - 彼いす非爾い球、彼といす我い球 - that is not your ball, it is my ball.

Some sentences are even identical or near-identical to their counterparts in other west germanic languages:
 * It is good. - /it is gu:t/ - 彼といす良ど - It is good.(similar to its counterpart in English when written in Oldwriting)
 * My hand is in warm watër. - /mai hant is in warm watər/ - 我い手いす中ん温む水 - My hand is in warm water.(similar to its counterpart in English and Afrikaans when written in Oldwriting)
 * Dat is en hund. - /it is en hunt/ - 彼いす一ん犬 - that is a dog(similar to its counterpart in Low German when written in Oldwriting)

But when it comes to more academic ideas, Urban Basanawa sometimes can be almost completely alien to speakers of other germanic languages:


 * Bibunsekibungaku is dë kihontekina bubun fon kaisekigaku, it doo kenkiyuu bibunhow en sekibunhow /bibunsekibungaku is də kihontekina bubun fon kaisekigaku it du: kenkju: bibunho: en sekibunho:/ - 微分積分学いすだ基本的な部分ふぉん解析学、彼とどぅう研究微分法又ん積分法 - Calculus is the fundamental part of mathematical analysis, it researches differentiation and integration.

Example sentences
(Oldwriting - Basanawa-dji - English translation)
 * Nepgear is en kawaii musume, Uni is ook en kawaii musume. - ネプギアいす一ん可愛い娘、ユニいすううく一ん可愛い娘. - Nepgear is a cute girl, Uni is also a cute girl.
 * Noire weepëd an dë svadba fon Nepgear en Uni, for Uni, dë imowto fon Noire, hat wordën dë hanayome fon Nepgear, dë imowto fon Nep-nep. - ノワール泣ぱど在んだ 結婚式(svadba) ふぉんネプギア又んユニ、為るユニ、だ妹ふぉんノワール、はと成おるだんだ花嫁ふぉんネプギア、だ妹ふぉんねぷねぷ. - Noire weeped at the wedding ceremony of Nepgear and Uni, for Uni, the little sister of Noire, has become the bride of Nepgear, the little sister of Nep-nep.


 * Bunkatekina mixing en fërbettëring is dë dentow fon dë Urban Basanawa sprekërs. - 文化的な混しんﾟ又ん変る良たりんﾟいすだ伝統ふぉんだばさなわ話者す - Cultural mixing and enhancing is the tradition of the Urban Basanawa speakers.
 * en Basa is en howgen mid en guntai en kaigun. - 一ん語いす一ん方言みど一ん軍隊又ん海軍 - A language is a dialect with an Army and Navy(אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט)
 * ne neme af my seiraafuku - ね脫む去ふ我いセーラー服 - Don't take off my sailor suit.

UDHR Article 1 in Urban Basanawa:
 * All ningen sind born free en gelike in songen en rechts, sie sind geven mid risei en riyowshin, en shallen doo mid en-oder in en gest fon kinnigheid.(全るﾟ人間すぃんど生おるん自由いえん同く中ん尊厳えん権、彼等すぃんど与えわﾟんみど理性えん良心、えんしゃらﾟん為う互るﾟ中ん精神ふぉん親族にきﾟへいど) - All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Lord's prayer in Urban Basanawa:

Oldwriting:


 * ur Fadder, d'is an heven ,
 * hope dy name doo heeliged,
 * hope dy kingdom kome,
 * hope dy will wese doon
 * an erd like an heven.
 * ur daglik brood, hope du gevest to us fondag
 * en hope du fergeve ur shuldes,
 * like wi fergeve ur beshulders
 * en hope du ne leedst us into yuwaku
 * ak free us weg fon evel.
 * Amen

Basanawa-dji:


 * 我等之父，だいす在ん天
 * 望爾い名為う聖りﾟがど
 * 望爾い(王)国来む
 * 望爾い志ゑいす成ん
 * 在ん地如く在ん天
 * 我等之日りﾟく食望汝与うﾟすとと我等す今日
 * 又ん望汝赦えうﾟ我等之債
 * 如く我等赦えうﾟ我等之負者
 * 又ん望汝無ん率どすと我等す入と誘惑
 * 但く救い我等す離ぐふぉん邪悪
 * あめん

The following Urban Basanawa sentences are same to the corrsponding sentences in some other languages in respect of both written forms and meanings:
 * It is good.(when written in "Oldwritting", it is same to the corresponding sentence in English)
 * My hand is in warm watër.(when written in "Oldwritting", it is same to the corresponding sentence in English and Afrikaans)
 * Dat is en hund.(when written in "Oldwritting", it is same to the corresponding sentence in Low German)
 * Oneitchan daisuki(お姉ちゃん大好き) - (when written in "Basanawa-dji", it is same to the corresponding sentence in Japanese)