Late Boselenan

The Late Boselenan language (tyerę Boselenesche kórd) is the variety of Boselenan decended from Early Boselenan, which is characterised by extensive borrowing from Portuguese and several sound and orthographical changes.

=Changes from Early Boselenan=

Changes in Phonology
The most common sound change was that of the common sound combination /ie/ becoming the regular vowel /e/ in almost every case. This new sound is represented by the e-caudata <ę>, which represents the same sound as <é>.

The bilabial consonants /p/, /b/ and /m/ also went through severe weakening. After a vowel, they became [ɸ], [β] and a nasalised [β] respectively. These later changed to [f], [v] and nasalised [v] and came to be represented by ,  and the digraph . Although later on, nasal [v] became denasalised, it is still represented by .

Labialised consonants also went through a variety of changes. /kʷ/ and /gʷ/ remain unchanged, although represented slightly differently in orthography. /ʃʷ/ and /ʒʷ/ became completely delabialised, merging with their non-labialised counterparts. /hʷ/ became /ɸ/, which later became /f/,

Sibilant consonants were also lost completely at the end of words, resulting in words like ko from previous kosh "carpet". If these words need to be pluralised, the sibilant consonant reappears (ko "carpet" > koshér "carpets"), it also does should a noun case suffix be needed to be added to the noun.

Palatal /ɲ/ became alveolar /n/ in all native Boselenan words, however it was later reintroduced to the language along with /ʎ/ in Portuguese loanwords.

The affricate /ts/ became /s/ in all circumstances.

Changes in Orthography
The most noticeable change in orthography between Early Boselenan and Late Boselenan is the use of the e-caudata/e-ogonek <ę> which represents /e/ from the collapse of the exceedingly common vowel combination /ie/. It represents the same sound as the letter <é>, and the use between them is entirely etymological. Old words such as shtienie "adequate" have become shtęnę.

The digraph  is also widely used, to represent the weakening of the nasal /m/ to a fricative /v/. It represents the same sound as the letter , and use of them both is entirely etymological.

The breve diacritic was abolished altogether. In vowel combinations, they were replaced with their non-breve counterpart (e.g. leĭ > lei, randaŏ > randao). When u-breve ŭ represented a labial consonant, different rules were implemented depending on the evolution of that consonant:
 * Gŭ and Kŭ, which have retained their labialised values, became represented with the more Portuguese-esque Gu and Qu respectively. If a word contains the sequence /gu/, then the combination ghu is used.
 * Hŭ came to represent the same value as , so was replaced by  in all circumstances.
 * Shŭ and Zhŭ delabialised, and became represented as Sch and Zch respectively.

Due to the influx of Portuguese loanwords, several Portuguese letters were retained to reflect etymology:
 * Lh and Nh were brought in to reflect the Portuguese palatal phonemes, initially pronounced simply /l/ and /n/ early on by native Boselenan speakers, but gradually came to represent their native portuguese values.
 * X was retained in Portuguese words representing the phoneme /ʃ/, for example pexe "fish" from Portuguese "peixe".
 * C had lost its original value that it had in Early Boselenan (/ts/), and had been replaced in all cases by s or ss. It since had only appeared in the combinations ch, sch and zch. Therefore it was deemed not too confusing to use it in the suffix -cao, borrowed from Portuguese, where the  represented the sound /s/. The -cao suffix was then applied to native Boselenan words - resulting in new coinages such as gavarcao "music making" from gavar "to play music" and new borrowings such as informacao "information".

As /ts/ had become /s/ in all circumstances, the letter  was replaced by  intervocalically and 's' elsewhere, relegating  to appearing in the combinations ch, sch, zch and cao.

The a-grave diacritic was also introduced to represent the elision of the la a combination. The sequence of words la a appears commonly, for example Lenei la a karro "I like the car", where la represents the nominative first-person pronoun "I" and a represents the definate article "the". As la a commonly became pronounced simply as la, the character à was used to show that it was pronounced as one vowel, but differentiated between them both. Resulting in Lenei là karro "I like the car".

Changes in the Alphabet
In contrast to Early Boselenan, the digraphs ch, gh, gu, lh, mh, nh, qu, sh, sch, zh and zch are rarely considered letters in their own right, rather as combinations of their constituent letters.

The letters é, ó, ę and ĥ with diacritics are considered seperate letters however, with their own position in the alphabet. The character à is slightly different, as it represents no sound of its own, and is purely an orthographical device representing the contraction of two adjacent a's. It is often classed as a letter in its own right, although this is not official.

=Orthography=

Alphabet
The Late Boselenan alphabet consists of the 26 basic Latin letters, with a number of diacritics.

Acute Accent
The acute accent is used on  and  to produce <é> and <ó>. These represent higher vowels than their non-acute counterparts, with <é> representing /e/ and <ó> representing /ɔ/. Though they were considered seperate letters in Old Boselenan, they are usually considered merely as variations of their parent letters. They are collated together with their parent letters in alphabetical ordering. The use of the acute accent is absoloutely compulsory.

Circumflex
The circumflex has two major uses. The first and oldest use is on  to produce <ĥ>. The letter <ĥ> represents the sound /x/, whereas  represents /h/. Although <ĥ> was historically a letter in its own right, it is usually collated together with <h> in alphabetical ordering.

The second major role of the circumflex is on vowels, where it represents the fact that the vowel historically preceded a sibilant consonant which has since been lost. It has no effect on pronunciation, and is used so that we know to insert an 's' after it when declining nouns. The 's' sound was lost only at the end of the word, so it returns when it is no longer at the end of the word - i.e. when a suffix is added. For example elî "sky" becomes elissér "skies", ag elischę "to the sky" etc.

In an attempt to regularise the language, plurals involving a circumflexed letter are always pluralised by removing the circumflex, and adding the suffix -ssér, regardless of the historical ending of the word.

In addition to these five basic circumflex vowels, you sometimes encounter <ế> and <ố>, which show that there was a historical sibiliant following an <é> or an <ó>. Although these characters follow the basic rules on circumflex usage, they are discouraged - with <ê> and <ô> being used in these circumstances for aesthetic purposes. For example historical kerés "child" becoming kerế or kerê, which becomes keressér "children".

Grave Accent
The grave accent is encountered only on <a>, resulting in <à>. It represents the contraction of the sequence la a. For example Lenei la a karro "I like the car" becomes Lenei là karro, reflecting the pronunciation.

Ogonek
The ogonek is used only on the letter <e>, resulting in <ę>. It represents the vowel /e/ where it occurs as a result of the collapse of the sequence /ie/. It represents the same sound as the letter <é>, and which one to use requires memory and serves a purely etymological purpose.

Trema
The trema is used only on the letter 'u', resulting in <ü>. The letter <ü> is used to indicate the etymology of words derived from Greek containing the letter upsilon. Although most words from Greek roots were borrowed into Late Boselenan from Portuguese, the letter <ü> replaces the Portuguese letter 'i'. For example hüperatividade, sünkope, mürra, rütmo. In these cases the <ü> is pronounced as /i/.

Digraphs & Trigraphs
Late Boselenan uses a variety of different digraphs and trigraphs to represent unusual sounds. Unlike in Old Boselenan, digraphs and trigraphs are not treated as seperate letters, rather as sequences of two.

Letter C
The letter 'c' is found in several cases, although rarely seen alone. It is part of the very common sequence ch, representing /tʃ/. It is also seen in the slightly less common sequences of sch and zch, which represent /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ respectively. Finally, it is seen in the suffix -cao, where the 'c' represents the sound /s/.

Letter Y
The letter Y is never seen on its own, and is only seen as part of the sequences dy and ty, where it shows that the consonant before it is palatal, rather than alveolar.

=Basic Grammar=

Nouns
There are four declensions in Late Boselenan. The first declension is words ending in plain vowels, the second is words ending in consonants, the third is words ending in circumflex vowels, and the fourth is words ending in labialised consonants.

Case
Each of the four declensions have slightly different suffixes for all of the noun cases that Boselenan has to offer. The table below uses examples from each of the declensions.

Adjectives and Adverbs
Late Boselenan uses a prepositional system to indicate the intensity of adjectives and adverbs. This is in direct contrast to Early Boselenan, which had a system of suffixes. These prepositions are all inherited from Portuguese.

Adverbs are formed from Adjectives by adding the suffix -kai, for example vezedau zhilimh "nice talk" versus vezed zhilimkai "talk nicely". Adjectives and adverbs are placed after the nouns and verbs they are describing.

Comparisons
To make a comparison, for example My couch is nicer than yours, the word ment is used to link the clauses. sofa lachę au maî zhilimh "my couch is nicer", is linked to sofa dyéchę "your sofa" by the word ment, resulting in sofa lachę au maî zhilimh ment sofa dyéchę.

Word Order
Like Early Boselenan, Late Boselenan follows a VSO word order. For example Kurvan la hugt ha dezei dyé ie "I know what you want" literally means "Know I what want you".

Transitivity
Most verbs in Boselenan can take on a transitive and an intransive form, without any morphological change. Transitive verbs take on the usual VSO form, for example Tyeschet là taló mennshęt "I read the book all the time". However, intransitive verbs (ones which only take a subject, with no object) require the insertion of the auxilliary object ie. For example Tyeschet la ie mennshęt "I read all the time" requires the insertion of ie to indicate the nonexistant object.

Voice
The active voice is the base voice, the most common, and the form which verbs take in dictionaries. The passive voice is formed by adding the prefix e- to the front of the verb.

So for example Lenei là sechę "I like the cat", can be changed to Elenei là sechę "I am liked by the cat".

=Dictionary= Late Boselenan Dictionary

=Example text= ...