Behru cesik

Setting
Behru cesik (a combination of Behru, an ethnonym, and cesik, meaning "way of speaking"), is the official language of the 7 billion denizens of the Behru empire, which expands across the Behru and Maidn river valleys (exluding the maritime regions ravaged by the sea of endless storms) and the fertile plains atop the plateau of the Jisok outcropping. The language represented in this article is that of the empire 4000 years after its founding, when Behru Cesik was first widely standardized.

Phonotactics
All Behru free morphemes of native origin consist of a 2 syllable root with a maximum structure stop-fricative-approximant-vowel/syllabic l or r-consonant-vowel. Bound morphemes are permitted to have a reduced structure, so long as they start witha consonant should they be allowed to occur word initially. All syllables must start with a consonant. Alll free roots except particles and nouns in the agent case singular have a suffix of some sort indicating their grammatical role in the sentence.

Vowels
All roots that can exist unbound, along with several bound roots, hold a tone. This tone may be either a high ´tone like in lé, or a low tone le (low tone is unmarked). A high tone is only found in noun, verb, and particle roots, it is never found on the suffixes with the exception of several toneshift sandhi rules. In addition, a vowel may be of one of 3 "strengths". A weak vowel is reduced and centralized, and may carry have a high tone. A medium vowel is clearly pronounced but clipped in length. A strong vowel is held out in length. Some roots contain the sequence CV l/r C(V). The combination of a vowel and and l and r usually fuse in an unusual way.
 * roots containing l or r may strengthen according to two different series.

Sandhi
Sandhi in behru can be divided into two categories, tone sandhi and consonant sandhi. Vowel sandhi only occurs word internally, as all morphemes that can occur at the front of a word start with consonants.

Consonant sandhi
n assimilates in the point of articulation of the following consonants


 * note: The effects of rule 10 are never written, as they can always be determined, samt will always be pronounced as |sahmt|, no rules can reverse this.

Notes: the only rules which can change the voicing of c and j are rules 2 and 7.

Only the rules 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8 occur across word boundaries. Final consonants affected by rules 6 and 7 across word boundaries double. The h doesn't dissapear of rule 8 occurs across word boundaries.

Orthography
Behru romanized orthography matches the symbols given in the phonology section. Sandhi is indicated always in both written systems. The Behru native writing system is an alphabet, with symbols for vowels, consonants, vowel strength and tone arranged into syllabic blocks, written up to down, left to right. Pictures of these will be uploaded later.

Basic Grammar
Behru in the modern day is highly fusional, although the language of old, in the days of empire, was far more agglutinative. This older stage of the language is popular in literature, but this article primarily focuses on the Hedri colloquial. All root morphemes of the language can be split into 4 groups. All free morphemes are part of onne of 3 parts of speech, verb, noun, or particle. Adjectives and adverbs do not exist as a part of speech, they can exist as either prefixes or derived from verbs. The language is most commonly uses a subject object verb word order, but there are no strict rules on word order in most sentences. The language is exclusively head final, with all modifiers placed before the head. The verb always comes a finally when it is the head of a clause, and is the only portion of the sentence that may not be omitted under any circumstances.

Morphemes
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Free
! scope="col"|Bound
 * Semantemes
 * Verbs, Nouns
 * adjectival prefixes, adverbial prefixes, derivational sufixes
 * Grammemes
 * Grammatical particles
 * grammatical sufixes, positional sufixes, grammatical infixes
 * }
 * grammatical sufixes, positional sufixes, grammatical infixes
 * }

Simple consonant variation nouns
A behru noun has 3 principle parts, the default, weak, and plural forms. The plural form is used in the plural (obviously), and the weak form is used in the patient, genitive, possesive, comparative, and compound cases.

Basic endings
Endings using the first principle part These endings can be added to the 1st prinicple part of the noun using sandhi. One thing must be noted for consonant nouns, nouns ending in a simple voiceless stop will often have a semivowel inserted between the consonant and the ending. Which semivowel is inserted requires knowledge of the second principle part, nouns ending in an ii, like mügíi, will have a y inserted, nouns ending in an uu will hae a w inserted. Nouns ending in aa have nothing inserted. Therefore, the noun múk, mügíi, múugye, will have a y inserted in the ablative (múkyehn), as that ending starts with the vowel e, and múk's second principle part ends in ii.


 * V means vowel of the second syllable, which is reduplicated. Schwa endings do not reveal the final consonant in vowel ending nouns.

Consonant declension
Voiceless consonant ending 1: stems marked in Bold require knowledge of the invisible vowel, always marked in the second principle part

2: stems marked in are formed off of the second principle part

3: stems marked in are formed off of the third principle part

4: endings marked in use the ablative stem, and are similar across all nouns. Forming the ablative stem require knolwedge of both the first and second principle parts.

Endings added to the combining stem
These endings are added to the combining stem, and must themselves be declined before the noun is used. These nouns may only be declined in the dative, locative, vialis, and ablative. They are effectively "prepositional nouns". They decline irregularily.

The Location in time suffixes are effectively only used for events and verbal nouns,. For example "cénzupor": means "the event of me seeing him". Add the time locative jep to the combining stem, and you get "céninzuprejep", meaning "at the time I was speaking to him". Adding "nu" before  "jep" means before, adding "pya" means after, "céninzuprenujep": before I spoke to him, "céninzuprepyajep": after I spoke to him.

The dative means "until", "céninzupresañci me zénihnloo" means "he didn't go until I saw him."

The vialis means "during", or "the whole time", "shúñci ceñocayolshaajut cíirváa" means "During he entire time I was speaking to the man, he watched me". "Shüñáajut pécukihn zénlíil behrudokci." means "It takes the whole day to get from here to the Behru capitol."

The ablative means "since", "nushüñáamihn me cíininwaan" means "I haven't seen him since yesterday."

The other suffixes are used in effectively the same way as their simple counterparts, eg:

mélohi: at the car mélokihn: from the car. méloci: to the car

milóone: in the car milóonehn: from in the car. milóoneci: to the inside of the car.

milóore: outside of the car milóorehn: from outside of the car, etc.

Showing that a noun is posessed.
If a noun is owned by another noun (marked in the posessive case), an infix is inserted before the second syllable/final consonant that agrees with the possessor. The genitive case is only used when one noun owns another noun, or with relations (my mother, your father). If one noun is part of the other noun, then a compound word using the combining stem is used instead. Inanimate objects always use the combining stem, never the posessive. The possessed nouns may be further declined, múbik (our dog), múbigii (our dogs), múbigiiñipi (for our dogs).

note: the consonants n,m,ng,ñ,r,l,f,v,sh,and zh are considered part of the previous syllable when followed by another consonant, for example, xworji divides into xwor-ji, xamp divides to xam-p, thus you'd get xworziji and xamzip, not xwozirji and xazimp.

Verb Morphology Behru verbs are conjugated by factors, person, number, transitivity, tense aspect, and mood. Many Behru sentences consist of only a verb, as both the subject and object may be dropped if they can be determined by context.

The four basic stems
Each verb has four stems whose forms are unpredictable from eachother, which are are the basic, causative, weak, and special stems. All other verb stems can be predicted from these four.

The four stems of the root cet, meaning to speak, are: cet, crwiit, cidaa, and cocash(y).

The basic stem and independent conjugation.
The basic stem has the Independant personal agreement endings added to it, for example, the basic stem of cet, is well, cet, and the conjugated forms are: cedúu: I speak, cedabi: we(ex.) speak, cedaji: we(inc.) speak, cedaak: you (singular) speak, cedaak: you(paucal) speak, cedage: you(plural) speak, etc. However, these endings are not added onto the stem directly, some sound changes must be done first, according to the rules listed below.

Ivc Rule 1
The fully conjugated form of the verb must have two syllables after the verb stem.

(verb-stem final vowels are considered to be after the verb stem, not a part of it)

Clause 1
If not, lengthen the first vowel after the verb stem If you want to say "I speak" (in an independant clause, of course, as we are studying the Independant forms of a verb), you take the basic stem of the verb to speak(cet, and add the 1st person subject ending (intransitive of course), ú, making cedú (not cetú, remember sandhi rule 12, it caused that t to change to a d.). However, that is not actually the correct form, due to Ivc(independant verb conjugation) rule 1: all ivc forms must have at least 3 syllables. Ivc rule one says "lengthen the second syllable", thus, lengthen the second syllable. So, lengthen the second syllable of "cedú" to "cedúu". If you want to say "you(singular) flee", you add "k" to the basic stem of to flee, "shúnda", forming "shúndak", and then apply rule 1, forming "shúndaak". Remember, the final "a" in "shúnda" is considered to be after the verb stem, not a part of it, which is why it is lengthened by rule 1.

However, ivc rule 1 isn't that simple. You might assume that in order to say we(ex.) speak, you would add cet and bi to make cedbi, and then apply rule 1 on the second syllable to make it cedbii(3 syllables). However the true form of we (ex.) speak is "cedabi", not "cedbii". You will learn why in ivc rule one clause 2

Clause 2
Do not lengthen the second syllable if it follows a consonant cluster created by the end of the verb stem and the beginnning of a personal ending. Instead, insert an epenthetic vowel appropriate to the verb stem between the stem and ending. That was allot to take in, wasn't it? It will seem simpler with examples. For examples, the form "cedbi" would have ivc 1 clause 2 applied to it because a: it is only 2 syllables long (ced+bi), and, the cluster "db was created by the t(changed to a d) at the end of the verb stem "cet" + the b at the beginning of the personal ending "bi". Thus, you'd add the epenthetic vowel appropriate to "cet" (a), between stem and ending, producing "cedabi" (cet+a+bi).

However, if you want to say "I float", clause two does not apply. When you take the basic stem of to float, "kómt"(takes the epenthetic vowel a), and add "ú", you make "kómtú"(Why didn't the t change to a d like in "cedú"? Read sandhi rule 12.). You might think to apply clause two because of the consonant, making "kómadú", but that is not correct. The consonant cluster was not created by contact with the end of the verb stem and beginning of the personal ending, it was already there in the stem, thus clause one would apply, forming "kómtúu". However, clause two does apply in the form "kómdbi" (we speak), because the cluster "mdb" was created by the b in the ending "bi", meaning we(ex.), thus, "kómdbi" would become "kómtabi", not "kómdbii".

You can usually tell the epenthetic vowel by the final vowel of the weak stem form, for example, the weak stem of "cet" is "cida a ", so the epenthetic vowel is "a". However, this does not always work, for example, "we swim" would be "vábebi", even though the weak stem of váp is "vábii", suggesting that "we swim" would instead be "vábibi". These irregularities just have to be learned by rote. However, we are still not done with ivc rule 1.

Clause 3
If, after the application of Clause 2, the verb ending is still not 2 syllables long, lengthen the epenthetic vowel inserted by Clause 2. This rule would apply in cases like when you want to say "you(singular) speak". You add the ending "k" to "cet", forming "cetk". you then apply clause two to "cetk", forming "cetak". However, there is still only one syllable after the stem even after the applucation of clause two. Clause three says to lengthen the epenthetic vowel inserted by clause two, thus "cetak" becomes "cedaak". "kómtk" (you float) becomes "kómtak" beomces "kómtaak", "vápk" (you swim)becomes "vápek", becomes "vábiik", etc. (the e in vabek lengthens to "ii", not "ee", this alway happens, as there is no "ee" sound in Behru).

Ivc rule 2
Disyllabic endings become monosyllabic after verb stems ending in a vowel. This rule is in much the same vein as ivc rule 1, it keeps the verb ending at two syllables, as the final vowel in the verb stem takes up a syllable, forcing the ending to give up a syllable in its place. For example, "they go", is "zíihnloon" (zíin+hloon), however, "they flee", is "shúndahlon", "hloon" giving up a vowel to become "hlon" to accomodate the final a in "shúnda".

"you heal me" is "hnaalnimu"("hnaal"+"nimu"), however, "you hit me", is "cábammyu", "nimu" being reduced to "mmyu" to accomodate the final a in "cába".

"you heal us", is "hnaaldasa"("hnaal+dasa), "you hit us", is "cábatsa", etc. The shortened verb endings are listed to the left of long endings in the polypersonal agreement endings chart.

Ivc rule 3
Ivc  rule 3 applies only to verb stems ending in liquids (n,m,ng,r, and l)., and overrides any other ivc rules of a lower number that could be applied.

Verbs stems ending in said consonants have their core vowel shortened before personal endings starting with a vowel. In addition, an epenthetic consonant appropriate to the verb stem is inserted.

For example, if you want to say "I go", you add the stem for "to go", "zíin", and add "ú" for the ending. However, "ú" starts with a vowel, so Ivc special rule 1 would apply. The appropriate consonant to insert for verbs ending in an "n" is "z", thus zíinú has its vowel shortened to "zénú", then the epenthetic consonant inserted, producing "zénzú.

For verbs ending in an "ng", add "g", "míing-ú"(I shrink) becomes "ménggúu"

For verbs ending in an "m", add "v",  "xáam-ú"(I slip) becomes "xámvúu"

For verbs ending in an "l", add "z", "yuul-ú"(I walk) becomes "yulzúu"

For verbs edning in an "r", add "zh", "cíir-óxa"(he watches thou) becomes "cérzhóxa"

Ivc rule 4
Verb stems that would be affected by ivc rule 3 are unnafected by clauses 2 and 3 of ivc rule 1

Clause 1
The first vowel of the verb ending is lengthened if the ending is not 2 syllables long If the verb stem ends in n, m, ng, l, or r. Thus, "yuul-bi" (we walk), which has a one syllable ending, is changed to "yuulbii", "cíin-tó" (I see thee) is changed to "cíintóo".

Clause 2
If the verb stem ends in n, m, ng, l, or r, the endings -k and -k are changed to -kaa and -kii.

The ending "k" is actually two endings, one meaning "thou" and the other meaning "you few". In ordinary verbs, these endings are both the same, but in these verbs, the ending splits, if you want to say "thou walk", you say "yuulkaa", if you want to say "you walk", you say "yuulkii"

The passive and causative stems
The passive is formed by palatilizing the last consonant in the first consonant cluster (adding a y). The causative is formed by labialization of that same consonant(adding a w). The first vowel is lengthened in both forms. Some initial consonants/ consonant clusters must be sonorized before being palatalized or labialized. The causative stem is included in the principle parts to show whether or not this happens. You must check this in the dictionary entry on the verb's stems. For example, the causative stem of cet is crwiit. To change it to passive, replace the w with y, crwiit to cryiit. Sandhi changes cryiit to crshiit. The causative stem of lup is lvuup. The v was a w, changed to a v by sandhi. So replace the w(changed into a v), with y, lvuup to lyuup

Special compound stem
There exists a closed class of clitic verbs in Behru which are suffixed to the stem of a free standing verb. The basic stem is not used, instead the special compound stem is used. The form of the special compound stem is unpredictable and thus is a principle part. (note: the basic stem is used in ordinary compound verbs, not the special compound stem.) The special compound stem is also used to add nominal endings to.

cet becomes cocash/ cocay

mála becomes hmáalash/ hmáalay

zén becomes zhóni/ zhónis

zot becomes zootwash/ zootway

xworji becomes xworojii/ xworojii(s)

Common clitic verbs

-es/et: possible, eg: cocayesú: I can speak

ghóon: to start, eg: cocazhghóohnlo: he is about to begin speaking

shosu: to cease, eg: zéyëdacosuji: we will stop moving momentarily

Tense and aspect in compound verbs.
The very last verb in a compound always recieves the tense/aspect infixes, in the same manner as a normal verb.

thus, cocayet: can speak, as in cocayedbi: we can speak, vs cocayenit: was able to speak, as in cocayenidbi: we were able to speak.

Polypersonal agreement
The Behru verb agrees with its preformer, or subject, in person and number. A transitive verb also agrees with its object in person, subject, and number. Verb endings are added to the stem in the same manner noun endings are.

Talking about an entire sentence as a noun
The so called "participial endings" turn an entire clause into a noun. They may be added to the basic, weak and special stems, imparting different meanings in each case. The special stem plus the participial ending describes the entire action as an event, gyáhenibwora (gyáhenibu: to injure past tense, plus -ora, the participial ending meaning the action was done by a singular third person to first person), means "the event of injuring  me". This noun could then be declined into the causative to form a complex sentence, for example "gyáhenibworaye zhánilzúu", "because he hit me I died". Using the basic stem adds a sense of uncertainity, "gyániboraye zhánilzúu" would mean "if he'd injured me I might have died. Use the weak stem describes the preformer of the action rather than the event itself, "gyënibáahora" means "the one who injured me".

Noun incorporation
A Behru verb may incorporate a noun, decreasing its transitivity by one. The noun is prefixed to the verb in its Weak form, and usually acts as the object of the verb.

hyép(transitive): to eat> bëlóohyép(intransitive): to eat bólo.

Some verbs must always incorporate nouns, some of these are attached to the strong stem of the noun, like -tsu.

(x)tsu: to make x> bólotsu(intransitive): to make bólo.

As intransitive verbs cannot lose any more transitivity, a noun incorporated into them instead expresses an instrumental relationship between the noun and verb, for example

zíin(intransitive): to go, jëlóozíin: to go by aircraft, milóozíin: to go by vehicle

kót: to fly, jëlóokót: to fly by aircraft.

Noun incorporation is preffered to using a transitive verb in sentences involving inanimate objects, particularily if the objects are indefinite, giving a subtle difference in meaning.

for example, "bëlóohyénibyúu" means "I ate bolo", however, "bëlóoha hyénipshii" would mean "I ate the bolo."

The copulas
The copulas are suffixes attached to the predicate noun in an equative sentence. It conjugates irregularily. The -lu copula is the stative copula, you use it to say "the dog is red". The ru copula is the change copula, you'd use it to say "the dog has gotten redder", or "the dog is red but it wasn't the last time I saw it.". The byu copula is used to indicate resemblance but not equality, "that dog is like its owner."

The comparative copula
The comparative copula states one thing is more x than another. The copula comes after the adjective it is using for comparison. Its "subject" is what is described, and the "object" is the basis of comparison, in the comparative case. The top of the columns indicate what is being described, the beginning of the rows, what they are being compared to.

Basic case (bsc)
The basic case is used for

-the agent of a transitive verb

múk shüneha kyocaryá: the dog pushes the man

dog-s-bsc man-s-pac push-3psa.3pans.p~idp

-the participant in an intransitive verb

múk cetloo: the dog speaks

dog-s-bsc speak-3ps.it

-before the topic particle zú

múuge zú nebalíl: as for dogs, they run

dog-pl-bsc TOPIC run-4p~idp

The topic
The topic of the sentence is a noun marked with the postposition zú. It is used in the gnomic tense, to set that noun apart from other nouns in a dsecription. The topic need not be the subject of the sentence, it can be in any case. Verbs marked with a 4th person agreement agree with the last stated topic in a discourse

Causative case (cac)
The causative case is used for the cause of a verb in the causative.

cinidémiye múk nwiinibahlo: because I spoke, the dog ran

Some verbs can use the basic or causative cases, this causes a subtle change in meaning

shúun kwootri: the man throws it (causes it to fly), vs.

shúuñe kwoootlo: because of the man, it flies (the man did something else leading it to fly.

Ablative case (abc)
used for the origin of a motion

shúun zú béhrusokihn zéninlíil: as for the man, he came '''from the Behru homeland. '''

Comitative case (cmc)
Is used for the companion in an action.

shúun múkyant ninzebahlon: the man was running with the dog.

And to make adverbs out of nouns

másajákint cenitlo: she spoke strongly (with strength).

Vialis case (vac)
Used to indicate means of travel

shúun sedoñci béhrusokimpi zénihnlo: the man went to Sedone through the behru homeland

jálokimpi wunëdici kodú: I fly to my home '''by aircraft. '''

Instrumental case (isc)
Used to indicate tools used to complete an action.

molumikl hmoonlíil: it shines with heat.

Adessive case (adc)
used to indicate something an action was done without.

wálübakint cidolashamash sedoñci zénihnlo: she went to sedone without talking to her mother.

mother~3ps.po

Locative case (lcc)
Used to indicate the location of an action

doonde vudihi nebahloon: the children run '''in the house. '''

child-pl-bsc house-s-lcc run-3ppl.it

Dative case (dtc)
used to indicate the indirect object of a verb, the exact meaning varies.

The target of a verb of motion: shúuñci múk nenibahlo: the dog ran to the man.

man-sg-dtc dog-s-bsc run~past-3ps.it~idp

The target of a bitransitive verb: shúun vulüdici kwoonitri: the man threw it at his house.

man-sg-bsc house~3ps.po-s-dtc throw~past-3ps.a~3pins.p~idp

Patient case (ptc)
used to indicate the direct  object of an intransitive verb.

shúun tëlübyáaha túnijrehlo: the man took off '''his overshirt. '''

man-s-bsc overshirt~3ps.po-s-ptc remove~past-3ps.a~3pins.p~idp

Posessive case (poc)
used to indicate that one noun owns another.

shüneng tóbi: the man's overshirt

Comparative case (coc)
Used to indicate the basis of comparison

táamtsuu ledëneho: I am taller Than that child (compared to that child)

be.tall-compare-1ps.a~3pans.p that-child-s-coc

For describing relationships.

yóondemo huboloju: They are friends to those men. (In his "in" group)

man-pl-coc accquainted-be-3ppa.it

yóondemo rúnaloju: The are outsiders to those men

man-pl-coc outside-be-3ppa.it

For describing location

ficúuho vénzi yulññehyoju: The women are three miles away from the city

city-s-coc woman-pa-bsc mile-3-s-be.at-3ppa.it

Numbers
Behru has a base 12 numbering system. Simple numbers are simply suffixed after the nouns they count. The result is then declined like a noun.

Compound numbers.

To make complex numbers, like 25, or 156, one strings together the simple numbers in a sequence of addition from the biggest to the smallest number.

25: fumu fu(24) and mu(1)

156: srangu sran(144( and gu(12)

157: srangumu

305: fowanggudat

when a number is affixed to a noun, it is declined like a noun. Typically, the penultimate vowel takes a ` accent and is subject to vowel strengthening or weakening. For example, 25 beds would be mùkfùmu, but if declined in the owner case, it would be mùkfümungò, and in the direction case, it would be mùkfùmuhi. 10 beds would be mùksùk. towards the (12^12)*11 people would be shúnrusesifòshashi

Ordinal numbers
Behru ordinal numbers are formed simply by prefixing a number to a noun. They are usually prefixed to a noun like -tsék(place) or -ya (time, as in a cycle)

Fractional numbers
Fractions in Behru are formed by the suffix -t for numbers which end in a vowel and -ta for ones ending in a consonant. The fractions for half, third, fourth, and twelfth are formed irregularily. They are -kir, nisa, besa, and gusa. they are used the same way normal numbers are, mùkrusèt would be 1 eleventh of a bed. If one wishes to count the fractions, those numbers are suffixed past the fraction. mùksransùktaruse would mean "eleven 154ths of a bed"

Usage of numbers, and approximate quantities
A specific number is always declined in the "few" number, as the few number is considered to encompass all small or specific quantities. A general number, like -not, which means some, is considered a mass noun, and all mass nouns use the "many" case.

General quantity suffixes -hok: every,all -mok: none -hot: some -huk: most -muk: few

Number modifying suffixes: -sát: around, aprroximately -kere: only, just