Boghash

Thanks to the creators of Mestian, Enhe, Xwarṣa, Luluvo and Valyrian for supplying me with some inspiration!

Boghash is a language spoken by the people of Boghash, or Boghash-iri ('iri' means 'people, nation'), one of several peoples inhabiting the island of Munnaya. They're a strongly military nation, and their belief system is centered about the element of fire, and that maight be one of the reasons why they have built their main city in a crater of an extinct volcano.

Classification and Dialects
There are two main dialects (or, rather, modes of speech), these being the Rraki-lana, lit. 'hard-speech', and Enqu-lana (lit. 'soft-speech'). The first one is spoken mainly in the northern parts of their lands, as well as rural areas and in and out of the City of Boghash. The other dialect is used everywhere else.

There are several differences between the two, phonological, but also syntactical and grammatical.

Distinctly from those, there are also so-called 'speech modes': Informal, Formal and Book. The Formal mode is used in presence of people with high social status or with strangers, and it uses a somewhat limited set of grammatical forms; The Book mode, as the name suggests, is used only in tales, writings and religious texts; it's the most ancient one, preserving many properties of the older stages of the language's development.

Vowels
There is no length distinction.

Stress patterns depend on several conditions.

Diphthongs are formed with a non-close vowel + a close vowel with the same roudness, that is, an a might be joined to an i, but not an ü.

Consonants
Boghash consonants show a very interestnig distinction between so-called heavy and light consonants. Every word must be 'balanced', that is, the first and final syllable(s) must have exactly the same weight; that causes some sound changes.

Nouns
Nouns have 4 numbers (Singular, Dual, Paucal, Plural), 12 cases (Nominative, Absolutive, Genitive, Locative, Dative, Distributive, Instrumental, Comitative, Possessed, Privative, Adjectival/Equative, Adverbial/Essive), 5 classes (Fire/holy things, Masculine, Feminine, Neuter/mixed, Abstractions/uncountables), as well as three states of Formality. They are declined in a fusional/agglutinative way, with the stems varying and ending parts changing (although this usually affects only consonants). There are several declensions.

Number
In Boghash, there are 4 numbers:


 * Singular (for single things)


 * Dual (for pairs or couples only)


 * Paucal (for small groups or parts of a greater whole; corresponding to 'some')


 * Plural) (large numbers)

Case
There are 12 cases:


 * Absolutive (Boghash is descended from an Erg.-Abs. language; the Absolutive is still the simplest case, even though in most instances it will be used like Accusative; only in Formal, Book and - sometimes - Hard speech it takes place of the Nominative in intransitive sentences)


 * Nominative (old Ergative; now it's used almost like the usual Nominative we know from Indo-Eur. langs)


 * Distributive (unlike what is commonly termed as Dist., in Boghash it's the direct object of a sentence that describes an action associated with giving; the recipient(s_ is/are marked with the Dative)


 * Genitive (the source or origin; also a maker or previous owner of a thing)


 * Dative (the destination or recipient; also a present/future owner of a thing)


 * Instrumental (the instrument of an action; the means by which sth is done)


 * Comitative (the person/thing that somehow participates in an action or event, although not directly, or simply accompanies sb/sth)


 * Possessed (the thing which is possessed; it's an adjectival form, so it usually precedes the possessor; think of English -ful adjectives)


 * Privative (the opposite of the above; indicates the lack of sth)


 * Locative (the place where sth occures; also (Book/Formal only) a present possessor of sth)


 * Adjectival/Equative (or simply Adjectival; indicates similiarity between two things)


 * Adverbial/Essive (or simply Adverbial; marks something as identical to sth else)

Class
There are 5 classes:


 * Fire/Holy (encompasses modtly things associated with cult or fire)


 * Masculine (males and male things)


 * Feminine (females and female things)


 * Neuter/Mixed (things that cannot be fully qualified to any of the two 'sex' classes)


 * Liquid (uncountables, liquid or loose things/substances, also abstractions)

Formality
There are 3 levels of formality in Boghash:


 * Formal (the most formal of the three; used mostly in the Formal Speech)


 * Informal (think of diminutives)


 * Neutral (neither formal or informal)

Pronouns and verbs usually have only 2 levels of formality, distinguishing between Formal and Informal/Neutral levels.

First declension
Only Fire and Masculine classes inflect according to this declension.

Inflection of a Class 1 heavy noun zho'arr (fire):

Inflection of a Class 1 light noun tana (sanctuary, temple):

In the Class 2 there are some changes, as seen in this inflection of a heavy noun qärhä (village, small town):

...or this light noun siva (dagger, short sword):

As you can see, there are some important rules that govern inflection and affixion processes; most importantly, Consonant Balance and Retroflex Doubling. The first one is described above; the Retroflex Doubling priniciple states that a retroflex consonant cannot directly follow a close front vowel ([i] or [y]); that causes it to become alveolar, and it's suffixed back after a linking vowel (usually an [e] or [ø]); this often causes some changes in the given words balance.

You can also notice some declension patterns typical for the 1st and 2nd clases of nouns (genders); for example, INS=COM=POSD and GEN=PRI for the Fire class, or the NOM=LOC and INS=ADJ, as well as last vowel dropping in ADV for Masculine. These patterns will continue to appear also in the other declensions where those classes occur.

Second declension
The Second decl. encompasses mostly Feminine class.

This is perhaps the simplest declension in Boghash, yet it also has some own peculiarities. It contains words that end in i, e, ei and ai.

Below is depicted inflection pattern of a heavy noun maib ('mother'):

And here is a light noun zir ('arrow'):

Third declension
This declension covers some Masculine and Neuter class nouns.

Words in this declension have o, u, ou, or äu in their final syllables.

Consider, for example, a heavy noun of the Neuter class, magqou ('mountain'):

...Or this light noun of the same class, gharu ('wisp of smoke'):

The Masculine is inflected according to the same principles, but with the same patterns as you could see in the 1st declension. Of course, there are still differences between hard and soft nouns:

Inflection of a heavy noun thäug ('shield'):

A light noun vado ('father'):

Fourth declension
There are words from all classes that fit into this declension, so this is the most 'strechable' of all Boghash declensions; as such, it's usually used for loanwords. This declension also shows a system of endings differing from those we've seen in the previous ones.

See the inflection pattern of 4th decl., Neuter class heavy noun bulh ('head'):

The inflection pattern of a light noun nokh ('robe' (of special kind)):

Fifth declension
This one has some Neuter and Abstract class words.

Sixth declension
This declension actually consists of several sub-declensions for some more rare inflection patterns.

Postpositions
All postpositions are enclitic, which means stress changes in the preceding word. Most postpositions agree with nouns they modify in number, and some also in formality; they generally don't agree in class or case.

Adjectives and adverbs
Boghash has several ways of describing words. There are relatively few 'pure adjectives'; mostly, nouns in the Adjectival/Equative case or participles are used in this position. All adjectives and adverbs are uninflectable.

In the function of predicative adjectives there are usually so-called 'stative verbs'; the existential pro-verbs are also used in such constructions, playing a role which is similar to that of copulas.

The adverbs follow the same pattern.

Verbs
The verbs are much more complicated than nouns, and they are inflected in a rather agglutinative manner. They have 5 tenses (Present, Near Past, Remote Past, Near Future, Remote Future), 3 semi-tenses (Perfect, Imperfect, Prospective), 4 aspects (Indefinite, Durative, Momentane, Repetitive) and 14 moods. They also agree with the object (the subject in intransitive clauses) in Person, Number, and, sometimes, also Class and Formality. There are also 3 voices: Active, Passive and Antipassive.

Every (nearly) Boghash verb has 4 stem forms: Affirmative and Negative, both in Main and Subordinate variants.

Tense/aspect
Boghash verbs conjugate for 5 tenses, each having one of 12 aspects; there are also so-called relative tenses, as well. There are two major conjugations, as well as many irregular verbs.

The 1st Conjugation encompases mostly verbs with stems that end in a consonant:

The 2nd Conjugation has mostly verbs with vowel-ending stems:

In reported speech, there are also special prefixes that mark the relative tense (that is, the time a reported sentence has been said). These are:


 * Present: li'-
 * Near Past: zo-
 * Remote Past: mu-
 * Near Future: re-
 * Remote Future: gqe-

Mood/Agreement
The mood/agreement suffix is added just after the tense morpheme. It agrees with direct object in transitive clauses, but with subject in intransitive ones.

This occurs because the parent language used to be Ergative-Absolutive rather than Nominative-Accusative; the switch happened not too long ago, and some Erg.-Abs. features still remain (for example, clauses with stative verbs/copulas are permitted to use Absolutive as their subject case rather than Nominative).

There are 14 moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative, Evidential, Referential, Putative, Dubitative, Volitive, Optative, Attemptive, Potential, Permissive, Necessitative, Obligative.

Indicative
The most primary mood, used for actions that are known to be real. It agrees in person, number, formality (Informal and Neutral formality levels are fused) and (in the 3rd person only) gender/class.

Subjunctive
Used for hypothetical or conditional situations, among others. It agrees in person, number (Dual, Paucal and Plural are fused) and formality (Informal and Neutral are fused).

Imperative
Used to issue orders. Agrees in person (2nd only) and number. Its complement is Volitive.

Evidential
Used to speak of something that is proved, or the speaker thinks so; the stronger form of Indicative. Agrees in person, number, formality and class (3rd person only).

Referential
Used when repeating what someone else said (analogue of 'they say...' or 'it is said that...' constructions). Agrees in person, number (Dual, Paucal and Plural fused) and class.

Putative
Used to express one's subjective opinion (I think that...'). Agrees in person, number and class.

Dubitative
An archaic mood, now, in most cases, Putative is used in its place; used to express doubt (like 'I don't think that...' statements). Agrees in person, number (Dual, Paucal and Plural fused) and formality.

Volitive
Used to make statements like 'I want that...', and is a complement to the Imperative, as it agrees in person, number (Dual, Paucal and Plural fused), formality and class.

Optative
Used for expressing wishes, as well as for giving advice. It agrees in person, number and formality.

Attemptive
Used to express that someone attempts to do something, not specifying whether he/she/it succeeds or not (though usually implying the latter). Agrees in person, number and class.

Potential
Used to express that some event is possible to occur; agrees in person, number (Dual, Paucal and Plural fused) and class.

Permissive
Used to say that something can happen, because it has been permitted; agrees in person and number.

Necesitative
Used to express that something must, or is necessary to, occur, either because of an internal impulse, or because such is the natural way of things (for example, when you see a cloud, and you konw that it must rain). Agrees in person, number (Dual, Paucal and Plural fused) and formality.

Obligative
Used to express obligation, or that something has to happen, because it has been obliged to do so, either because it has been forced by someone, or because marks that are left suggest it (for example, when you see a burnt spot and you know there has been a fire); it agrees in person, number and class.

Voice
In Boghash, voice can be Active, Passive or Antipassive and is marked with an enclitic that acts in a way similar to a postposition.


 * Active: maq (used only for emphasis)
 * Passive: thulh
 * Antipassive: kairr

Pronouns
Boghash pronouns usually have two forms: 'stronger', or 'detached', and 'weaker' or determiner (in the latter form, they always follow their object(s)).

Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns agree with nouns they stand for in person, number, case, formality (only distinguishing between Formal and Informal/Neutral states) and class (3rd person only).


 * 1st person:


 * 2nd person:


 * 3rd person:


 * Reflexive pronoun


 * Reciprocal pronoun


 * Personal determiners:

Personal determiners don't inflect, but they exist in 4 forms each: Basic, Emphatic, Vocative and Possessive.

Demonstrative pronouns
There are 6 types of demonstrative pronouns in Boghash: Proximal, Medial (near to the party addressed, but far from the speaker), Distal (far from both), Precedential ('that one behind you; the previous one'), Consequential ('that one before you; the next one') and Referential ('the one mentioned earlier'), each with its own agreement system.


 * Proximal demonstrative:


 * Medial:


 * Distal:


 * Precedential:


 * Consequential:


 * Referential:


 * Demonstrative determiners:

Demonstratives, like personal pronouns, do not inflect in this form, but they still come in two variants: Basic and Possessive.

Other pronouns

 * Relative


 * Interrogative


 * Generic


 * Universal/Distributive


 * Collective


 * Negative


 * Assertive existential/Indefinite


 * Elective exist.


 * Alternative


 * Consistent


 * Dual genitive pronouns

Dual genitive pronouns (like either, neither, both etc.) form a separate group within Boghash pronomial system. each also has the two usual determiner forms (basic and possessive).


 * Other pronomial determiners

Pro-adjectives and pro-adverbs
Pro-adjectives and pro-adverbs are indeclinable.

Pro-verbs
Are like pronouns to the nouns; similiarly to pronouns, there is a limited number of these, and they often are found in the determiner form, modifying verbs, which in such a position are always changed into Subordinate.

Syntax
Boghash is rather head-final, so it prefers OSV (at least in the Hard Speech) word order, as well as postpositions to prepositions. Adjectives stand before nouns they modify rather than after them (the same applies to adverbs). Soft Speech prefers SVO word order, and some of the adpositions placed before their objects rather than after them; also determiners are put in front of words they modify.