Urban Basanawa

Basanawa(Basanawa-dji: ばさなわ) is a West-Germanic (constructed) language, it is an Ingvaeonic language(or a North Sea Germanic language) and is very close to English, 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".

Basanawa is the main language of the Detch people(or Deetch people), more than 99.9% of the Detch people speak Basanawa as their native tongue. 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, Basanawa doesn't use Latin or Ancient Greek as its source of academic terms.

Despite not being an Anglo-Frisian language, many words of 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").

Germanic
Basanawa is a germanic language, it evolves from Old Saxon, most germanic words in Basanawa are inherited from Old Saxon(through sound changes), thus, 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 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 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(Basanawa has lost all nominal cases, and has also lost the germanic V2 order, becoming a SVO language, also, Basanawa has lost all verbal agreements, and adjectival inflections in Basanawa have also become unproductive and fossilized) can hinder the mutual intelligibility between Basanawa and Low German dialects.

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

Besides words that are inherited from Old Saxon, some germanic-origin words in 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)

Austronesian
Basanawa has some from Malay-Indonesian and other Austronesian languages, many Sanskrit(including the word "Basa") and Arabic(the word for The Bible is "Alkitab" in Basanawa, but Arabic terms are largely restricted to religious terms) terms are also borrowed indirectly through Austronesian languages, it is thought that Austronesian languages(mainly Malay-Indonesian) were substratums among the speakers of Basanawa.

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

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

Greek and Latin-Romance
Compared to other Germanic languages, Basanawa has less influence from Ancient Greek and Latin/Romance languages, most words from Ancient Greek and Latin/Romance languages in Basanawa were borrowed in the Old Saxon period or earlier.

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

Japanese people never ruled or colonized the Basanawa speakers, but Japanese was seen as a superior language by Basanawa speakers.

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 pronounced as [x] when it is not followed by a vowel and is preceded by a non-front consonant; /h/ is pronounced 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, Basanawa doesn't have front rounded vowels, the vowel system of 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]

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

Roman Script/Oldwriting
The Roman Script for Basanawa, also called the "Oldwriting"(Basanawa-dji: 古文/古書てぃんﾟ) in Basanawa, is a way to write Basanawa. Roman Script never became widespread among the Detch people, and it has become obsolete, but for the sake of the readers, most 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 - /r/~/ur/
 * 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 Basanawa.

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

The Kanji and Kana system used to write Basanawa is called the "Basanawa-dji"(Basanawa-dji: ばさなわ字)

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

Word Order
The word order of Basanawa is very similar to English: Basanawa does not have V2 order at all, and word order inversion is not used for interrogatives, and 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 Basanawa, word order inversion is not used for interrogatives:
 * Du sach wat? - what did you see?
 * Hau du feel? - how do you feel?

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".

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 luëvë, 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 ken dat Noire, dë Megami fon Lastation, havë fallën in koi mid iem. - Nep-nep doesn't know that Noire, the Goddess of Lastation, has fallen in love with her.

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
 * 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 Basanawa, and in colloquial speech it is common to use singular forms in place of plural forms.

Verb
Verbs don't agree with subjects, but they still conjugate according to tense-aspect-moods.

Verbs have infinitive, present, past, present participle, past participle forms, in earlier forms of 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, 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 etë gohan - Nep-nep eats a meal
 * Nep-nep is etënd gohan - Nep-nep is eating a meal
 * Nep-nep doo etënd gohan - Nep-nep is eating a meal
 * Nep-nep atë gohan - Nep-nep ate a meal
 * Nep-nep havë etën gohan - Nep-nep has eaten a meal

Weak verb:
 * hi makë rings - he/she makes ring.
 * hi is makënd rings - he/she is making rings.
 * hi doo makënd rings - he/she is making rings.
 * hi makëd rings - he/she made rings.
 * hi havë makëd rings - he/she has made rings.

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

Copula
The copula is highly irregluar, but it does not agree with persons either: 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.

Adjective
Like English, adjectives in the standard form of Basanawa don't agree with nouns they modify, however, in archaic usages, adjectives for indefinite plural nouns and definite singular nouns are ended with -e, adjectives for definite plural nouns are ended with -ën.

Adjectives of Germanic origin have comparative and superlative forms: These forms are sometimes used on adjectives of non-germanic origins, but its use is largely restricted to germanic adjectives.
 * comparative: -ër
 * superlative: -ëst

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: sy/sinë(彼い/彼ん)

1st person plural:
 * subject: wi(我等)
 * object: us(我等す)
 * genitive: uns(我等んす)
 * 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)
 * genitiv: ier(彼等る)

reflexive: self(己)

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: drai(三)
 * 4: fiur/fier(四)
 * 5: faif/fimf(五)
 * 6: sex(六)
 * 7: sivën~sif(七)
 * 8: acht(八)
 * 9: niun/nigën(九)
 * 10: ten(十)
 * 11: elvën~elf(十一)
 * 12: twelf(十二)
 * 13: draitin(十三)
 * 14: fiurtin/fiertin(十四)
 * 15: fiftin(十五)
 * 16: sextin(十六)
 * 17: sivëntin(十七)
 * 18: achtin(十八)
 * 19: niuntin(十九)
 * 20: twentig(二十)
 * 30: drietig(三十)
 * 40: fiurtig/fiertig(四十)
 * 50: fiftig(五十)
 * 60: sextig(六十)
 * 70: sivëntig(七十)
 * 80: achtig(八十)
 * 90: niuntig(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)

Names of Months
Basanawa has two set set of names of months, one is Slavic-origin, the other is Japanese-origin:

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

Comparison with other West-Germanic languages
Note:
 * 1) In Basanawa, the word "frind" is considered obsolete in Basanawa, the japanese loan tomodatchi is much more common.
 * 2) In Basanawa, besides the germanic word "food", the synonym borrowed from Malay/Indonesian "pangan" is also used.

Example sentences

 * Nepgear is en kawaii musume, Uni is ook en kawaii musume. - 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, havë wordën dë hanayome fon Nepgear, dë imowto fon Nep-nep. - 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.
 * dë macht fon Megami, laat mi show yu! - Let me show you the power of Goddess(Japanese translation: 女神の力、見せてあげるわ)

UDHR Article 1 in Basanawa:
 * All ningen is born free en gelike in songen en rechts, sie is geven mid risei en riyowshin, en shall doo mid en-oder in en gest fon kinnigheid.(全るﾟ人間いす生おるん自由えん同く中ん尊厳えん権、彼等いす与えわﾟんみど理性えん良心、えんしゃるﾟ為う互るﾟ中ん一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 Basanawa:

Oldwriting:


 * uns Fader, d'is an heven,
 * hope dy name doo heeliged,
 * hope dy kingdom kome,
 * hope dy will wese doon
 * an erd like an heven.
 * uns daglik brood, hope du geve to us desdag
 * en hope du fergeve uns shuldes,
 * like wi fergeve uns beshulders
 * en hope du ne leed us into yuwaku
 * ak friche us weg fon ivel.
 * 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
 * 又ん望汝無ん率ど我等す入と誘惑
 * 但く救るﾟ我等す離ぐふぉん邪悪
 * あめん

The following 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)