Bumiswen

English•

* this page is currently undergoing some changes*

Classification
Bumiluga is an IAL (International Auxiliary Language) with a mostly isolating grammar (thought there are affixes and word combination, each part remains independent and unchanged). It's phonology is relatively simple. Words originate mainly from the world's five most spoken languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic.

It is an a posteriori isolating SVO language.

Phonology
Bumiluga uses letters of the basic Latin alphabet plus the macron diacritic for vowels.

Writing System
Their names are a, ce, e, fe, he, i, ke, le, me, ne, o, pe, se, te, u, xe.

Stress
Stress falls on the second to last syllable.

Phonotactics
I was inspired to make Bumiluga mostly by CV languages, but it's not one of them, there are some consonant clusters allowed for the onset and some codas.

Onset:

 * c, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, x, -

Nucleus:

 * a, e, i, o, u

Coda:
The coda is limited to what the following onset is, only the following combinations can happen (ignoring that nuclei containing diphthongs can cause palatalization or labialization):
 * l, m, n, s, x
 * lf, lp, lk, lt, lm, ln, ls, lx, sp, sk, st, nf, mp, nk, nt, ns, xp, xk, xt

Diphthongs
Diphthongs are not phonemic in Bumiluga. The letters i and u might be pronounced as the nucleus of their own syllables, palatalizing/labializing the previous consonant, or forming a diphthong with another vowel. When u and i come after one of the other vowels (a, e, o), they cannot take the stress, instead the strassed is moved to that other vowel (if i is preceded by u or viceversa, the stress doesn't move).

For instance something like "alia" might be pronounced in several ways: /'a.li.a/, /'al.ja/, /'a.lʲa/ (all vowels on their own, i as a consonant to a, or i palatalizing l). Similarly "pauta" would be pronounced /'pa.u.ta/ or /'paw.ta/. Note that stress doesn't move however you pronounce i and u.

Roots
Apart from respecting the phonotactics described above, all roots must follow two more rules:
 * They must end in a vowel (even if it's an i or u that can be interpreted as /w/ or /j/)
 * They must NOT start with i or u.

Pronouns
Plural pronouns are created adding -me.

Nouns
Nouns do not express number, but plural number may be shown adding -me.

Adjectives and adverbs
Unchanged words can be used as adjectives without change if context is clear, otherwise adjectives end in -na and adverbs end in -mo. They don't change for number.

Verbs
There are some particles that can clarify meaning in time, mood or voice, but infinitive verbs may be used instead of them whenever it's clear. Aspect particles can go after one of the tense particles or the conditional particle: Particles and their combinations should not be overused when context allows the use of the bare verb.
 * Perfective aspect + tense
 * Mi nau le manca = I have eaten
 * Mi ti le manca = I had eaten
 * Mi ua le manca = I will have eaten
 * Mi fu le manca = I would have eaten
 * Prospective aspect + tense
 * Mi nau pol manca = I am about to eat
 * Mi ti pol manca = I was about to eat
 * Mi ua pol manca = I will be about to eat
 * Mi fu pol manca = I would be about to eat
 * Habitual aspect + tense
 * Mi nau sue manca = I usually eat
 * Mi ti sue manca = I used to eat
 * Mi ua sue manca = I will usually eat
 * Mi fu sue manca = I would usually eat
 * Progressive aspect + tense
 * Mi nau sai manca = I am eating
 * Mi ti sai manca = I was eating
 * Mi ua sai manca = I will be eating
 * Mi fu sai manca = I would be eating