Meberebabadi

Classification and Dialects
Meberebabadi is an esperantoesque agglutinative auxiliary language with near perfect regularity. The specific linguistic features and sounds are chosen simply because I like them and they don't appear together and with regularity in a natural language I know of.

One goal is to flesh out the lexicon enough to learn to speak the language. Another is for it to be the eventual in-world auxlang for a worldbuilding project. The source languages could then be back-formed as well as their families and proto-langs, all of which would of course not have the same regularity of Meberebabadi.

Consonants
All plosives are unaspirated

/ʔ, p, g, s, ɕ, ɣ, h, l / can only appear in an initial position

/j, w/ can appear initially or medially, but not finally

/c, k, q, ɲ, ŋ, N, ç, x, χ, m, n, r, ɾ, t, Θ, ʃ/ can be used initially or finally

/c/,/k/,/q/ are allophones

/ɲ/,/ŋ/,/N/ are allophones

/ç/,/x/,/χ/ are allophones

Phonotactics
C(Aprox)V(C)

/ʔ, p, g, s, ɕ, ɣ, h, l / can only appear in an initial position

/j, w/ can appear initially or medially, but not finally

/c, k, q, ɲ, ŋ, N, ç, x, χ, m, n, r, ɾ, t, Θ, ʃ/ can be used initially or finally

/c/,/k/,/q/ are allophones

/ɲ/,/ŋ/,/N/ are allophones

/ç/,/x/,/χ/ are allophones

Word initial stress unless otherwise marked (e.g. uaná'i has second syllable stress)

Consonant clusturs, including geminates, are tolerated at a syllable border. Eg gemmayyay /gem.mɑŋ.ŋɑ/, kadkadazka /kɑt.kɑ.tɑʃ.kɑ/

Affixes are single syllables, function words are two and most roots are three, unless derived from a previous compounding and therefore can be longer.

Writing System


When writing in the conscript, vowels and possible final consonants are written as super- and subscripts respectively that attach to the "full-sized" initial consonant.



Lemebere (person/people) kadkadazkaha (have courage)     'iuo(yes)    yioyio (no)            kuer (4)

There can be some ambiguity about syllable boundaries when using the romanization if a non initial syllable contains a glide, eg: mabia is obviously ma-bia because b cannot be syllable final, but macia could be mac-ia or ma-cia, 'arria could be 'arr-ia, 'a-rria or 'ar-ria. The following examples demonstrate how the conscript clarifies this ambiguity:

The conscript can also be more compact, as repeated syllables can be underlined to indicated the repetition (eg babadi) and can even receive an additional marker to indicate a second repetition (bababadi), but this cannot cross word boundaries, eg:

yameberebabadi bababadihari (they are speaking meberebabadi)

yasoygietle lelebeha ((the/a) bird(s) live(s) / is/are alive)

/c/,/k/,/q/ are allophones and therefore all written k

/ɲ//ŋ//N/ are allophones and therefore all written y

/ç//x//χ/ are allophones and therefore all written c

These appear around /i//e//j/, /a//o//w/, and /ɔ̃/ respectively

E.G.  would be /ɲje.ŋa.Nɔ̃/,  would be /cje.ka.qɔ̃/ and  would be /çje.xa.χɔ̃/

Nouns
Nouns in Meberebabadi never take articles and always take a prefix for case. They are preceded by their modifiers which take the same case marker. There is no grammatical number* or gender.


 * Nominative : le-
 * Genitive: ce-
 * Dative: mo-
 * Accusative**: ya-
 * Instrumental: mue-

** ya- is also the absolutive case marker for intransitive verbal subjects of non volition.

* Personal pronouns can be optionally marked for plurality: There is no distinction between genders or living vs non living, eg "leri" can refer to any person or thing and does not necessarily indicate non plurality, plural reduplication is only used when needed for clarity.

* Nominative and accusative personal pronouns can be used for emphasis, but the -mi-, -ti-, and -ri- can simply be added to the front of the conjugated verb to indicate the accusative in the case of a transitive verb or absolutive in the case of an intransitive verb or to the end of the conjugated verb to indicate the nominative.

Meberebabadi is an agglutinative language that makes heavy use of internal derivation and abbreviation, this can be seen on the derivation of the word for sing/song which can be either soygietba or soybadi, both abbreviations of soygietle + babadi meaning bird and speech/speak respectively. Soygietle further derives from somoge + qageietle or fly+animal. Both of these break down further, let us begin with the later: Qageietle (animal) comes from qageua (move or walk) + iet (one who) + lelebe (live), making "animal" roughly "the living one who moves". Somoge (fly) comes from hesomo (sky) + qageua (move/walk), making "to fly" roughly equivalent to "to walk in the sky". Hesomo itself dervies from iehehesomeyuemomo or ie (place of) + heheso (sun) + me (with/and) + yuemomo (moon), making "sky" roughly "the place of the sun and moon". If you put all the original unabbreviated derivational sources for this word together, soybadi would be said to come from iehehesomeyuemomoqageuaqageuaietlelebebabadi, which could be said to roughly translate as ~the speech of the moving one who walks at the place of the moon and sun. See chart below:

Verbs
Verbs are not marked for person or number, but they are marked for mode and aspect with prefixes and for tense with suffixes.

Verbs can be 0 transitive.

There is no copula.

There is no true passive, the nominative subject is simply removed and the accusative object is place at the front of the sentence.

The modes are


 * imperative/jussive for commands (gi-)
 * subjunctive for contrary to fact statements (xio-)
 * optative for desired actions (uez-)
 * permissive for allowed or permitted actions (compare formal meaning of "may" in English or German dürfen / Dutch mogen, pui-)
 * abilitative to mark capability (compare EN can / German können, kion- )
 * obligative for necessary actions (compare EN must/have to miar-)
 * potential for possibilities (comparable meaning to EN constructions using "might" or the adverb "maybe", xiar-)
 * renarrative for indirect speech (comparable usage to German Konjunktiv 1, -bic**)
 * and indicative for other utterances (ø-).

The aspects are


 * inchoative for beginning actions (ke-),
 * conative for attempted actions (cioc-),
 * continuous for ongoing actions (reduplication* of 1st syllable of verb),
 * perfect for completed actions where the completion is being stressed (ci-) and
 * simple (ø-).

The tenses are


 * Distant past -cit
 * Simple past -ci
 * Immediate past -cik
 * Present -ha
 * Immediate future -rok
 * Simple future -ro
 * Distant future -rot

Notes:


 * Continuous and perfect markers are not obligatory and are used to specify when needed.
 * Practically, simple pasts and simple presents are highly favored over present perfects, whereas continuous is often marked when applicable.
 * Subjunctive future is almost never used.
 * *It is always the very first syllable that is reduplicated, regardless of what other grammatical or lexical information said syllable denotes


 * ** -bic is the only modal marker that is a suffix instead of a prefix. It can be combined with any other verb form, as the quoted could have contained any verb form.  It comes after the subject marker if applicable : eg He said he ate: babadiciri, uana'iciribic : speak-past-3P.nom, eat-past-3P.nom-renarrative mood. "babadiciri" is in the indicative because it is true, the speaker knows the other person spoke, but "uana'iciribic" is in the renarrative mood, because the speaker doesn't know for sure if the person ate, they are only reporting on what was said

Example with the root uana'i to eat (also food/meal) (Note-I have only listed the near and distant past and future with the indicative, but these tenses do combine with all moods and aspects, simply add the -k or -t as required) *** rarely if ever used in practice

Continuous aspect is always the reduplication of the first verb syllable, not of the first root syllable. Would be walking = xioxioqageuaha not *xioqaqageuaha


 * This holds true for transative verbs with object marking. I am eating it = ririuana'imi

Many Modes can be combined:

 * Subjunctive can be combined with optative to imply that the action would be desired (under certain conditions), but is not (in reality) xio- precedes uez- in this case
 * Imperative can be combined with optative to imply a sarcastic request (contrast French veuillez, where this is polite). gi- procedes uez- in this case
 * Subjunctive can be combined with permissive to imply that the action would be allowed (under certain conditions), but is not (in reality) xio- precedes pui- in this case, eg xiopuiuana'ihamimi = we would be allowed to eat, (if)...
 * Imperative can be combined with permissive to tell someone to get permission to do something, gi- precedes pui-. Giqageuaha!=go Gipuiqageuaha! = Get permission to go
 * Optative can be combined with permissive to imply that it is desirable for this to be allowed, uez- precedes pui- this case. Egs: uezuana'ihami - I want to eat, puiuana'ihami = I am allowed to eat, uezpuiuana'ihami = I want to be allowed to eat
 * Subjunctive, optative and permissive can be combined to imply that the above would be true (if..) but isn't (really). eg Xiouezpuiuana'ihami = I would want to be allowed to eat, (if)....
 * Subjunctive can be combined with obligative when something would be necessary (under certain conditions), but isn't (in reality). Xio precedes miar: miaruana'ihami = I must/have to/need to eat, xiomiaruana'ihami - I would have to eat, (if)...
 * Optative can be combined with obligative when the speaker wishes that something were required, often used in the negative, uez precedes miar. Eg- uezuana'ihami = I want to eat, miaruana'ihami - I have to eat, uezmiaruana'ihami - I wish I had to eat, niouezmiaruana'ihami - I wish I didn't have to eat
 * Potential can be combined with obligative for things that are advisable, but not mandatory, compare EN should, Dutch zou moeten, German soll(t)en. Xiar precedes miar, xiarmiaruana'ihami - I should eat (potential-obligative-eat-pres-mi)
 * Subjunctive can be combined with abilitative for actions that would be possible (under certain conditions) but aren't (in reality). Xio precedes kion: xiokionuana'ihami - I would be able to eat, (if)...
 * Imperative can be combined with abilitative to order someone to acquire a skill gi precedes kion. Giuana'iha- Eat!, Kionuana'ihati - You can(are able to) eat, Gikionuana'iha- ~ be able to eat! This rare construction would be rendered with "learn" in English and is used when frustrated with someone's inability (compare to Learn to eat (properly)!)
 * Optative can be combined with abilitative for desired abilities, uez precedes kion: Uezuana'ihami - I want to eat, kionuana'ihami - I am able to eat, uezkionuana'ihami - I want to be able to eat
 * This can be further combined with subjunctive: Xiouezkionuana'ihami... = I would want to be able to eat, (if)...
 * Potential can be combined with abilitative for possible (but unsure abilities). xiar precedes kion. Xiarkionuana'ihami - I might be able to eat
 * Obligative can be combined with abilitative for statements where ability is mandatory, for example a job posting might include "must be able to...", miar preceds kion. Miarkionuana'ihami- I must be able to eat. Lesoygietle yiomiarkionsomogeha - Birds don't have to be able to fly (nom-bird neg-oblig-abilit-fly-pres)

Some aspects can also combine:

 * Continuous can combine with conative or inchoative to imply that the attempt or beginning is currently happening

Adjectives
Adjectives are primarily verbs in meberebabadi and take the same markers as any verb to become a noun modifier: a case prefix in accord with the modified head and the suffix -ce after the tense marker which is maintained to indicated past, present and future participles.

E.G.: Red = 'oyrosi, The fish is red = Yatisuebo 'oyrosiha (~reds the fish) , The red fish... = Le'oyrosihace letisuebo...

Adverbs
Adverbs are 2- 3 syllables and can be derived from an adjective. They are incorporated into the verb that they are modifying and precede the root.

E.G.:

gerene- gladly

qageua- walk/go

Lemi gereneqageuaha - I gladly walk (=Ich gehe gerne ~I like to walk/walking)

Syntax
Primary unstressed word order is SOV, though the case structure allows for a large degree of flexibility with speakers able to move things around for emphasis.

There is no distinction between a verbal or noun root, rather base roots can be used as either verbs or nouns with the proper affixes.

Meberebabadi is a nominative-accusative language for transitive verbs, but also features S-spliting of intransitive subjects with subjects of verbs of volition being marked as Sa and the subjects of intransitive verbs of non-volition being marked as Sp. Sa take the nominative marker, while Sp take an absolutive case marker which is identical to the accusative case marker in transitive verbs.

Some verbs do allow for fluid-S constructions where the speaker encodes volition on a potential ambiguous word by their choice of case marker.

* Only when answering a yes/no question can the root be said with neither noun nor verb markers

Mako can be placed at the beginning or end of the sentence, or alternative ko can be dropped and ma- can be added to the noun or verb that is being questioned.

Using mako vs ma- is about formality and stress, similar to lemi vs -mi or yati vs ti-, etc Relative clauses often involve incorporation of multiple roots into one complex verb marked to modify the noun.

Noun roots that precede verbal roots are objects, those following verbal roots are subjects, prefixes precede the combined root EG:

Lexicon
* Terms like left/right do not exist, cardinal directions are used. Time flows east to west.

When modifying a noun the number comes between the case prefix and the root.

E.G. Lemomokio yauagoietle uauana'iha. = The cow is eating plants.

Le arr momokio yauagoietle uauana'iha. = The 2 cows are eating plants.

Example text
I am a person: Lemi lemepere

You(all) are people: Letiti lemepere

They are not a person: Leri yiolemepere

He was a person: Leri mepereci

My home is close to the water, but far from the border

i.     Lecemi leielelebe mouauaka kote, boyá mo’eqaro tata

ii. Nom-gen-1st nom-place-live dat-water closeto but dat-edge far

iii. My home water near but border far

The child(ren) will eat (a) red leaf(ves) during the meal with their sibling(s)


 * Leuagoromebere mouana’i ieie moceri motaxiáyko meme ya’oyrosihace yabebesi sameuana’iro.


 * Nom-grow-person dat-meal dat-gen-3p dat-sibling with at akk-red-pres-modifier akk-leaf together-eat-future


 * Child meal at its sibling with red leaf together eat will

The wise brown cow speaks


 * Le’arra’ahayoyayohace lemomokio babadiha
 * Nom-wise-pres-brown-pres-mod nom-cow speak-pres
 * Wising browning cow speaks

When my uncle eats, he gets food in his brown beard


 * ‘Adia lecemi letaiíko uana’iha, leuana’i yaceri yayoyayohace yatatagihehaze ‘ini


 * Atthattime nom-gen-1p nom-fam1 eat-pres, nom-food acc-gen-3p acc-brown-pres-mod acc-face-hair in(to)


 * Atthattime my uncle eats, food his brown beard into

Is he writing a book about sexual arousal? No but she wrote a book about fear and courage


 * Mako leri mociatkadazka ieie ya’abecibe baba’ábeha? Yioyio, boyá leri mokonkadazkamekadkadazka ieie ya’abecibe ba’ábeci


 * ESC nom-3p dat-sexual.excitement about acc-book cont-write-pres neg-neg but nom-3p dat-fear-excitement-&with-courage-excitement about acc-book write-past


 * Is he sexual arousal about a book writing? No, but she fear with courage about a book wrote.

Kuernazla is watching the bird. The bird is thinking about eating fish. Kuernazla sees the water turn red.


 * Lekuernazla yasoygietle kikihokaha. Lesoygietle moyatisuebouana’iha* ieie kikidariha. Lekuernazla yauauakami’oyrosi kihokaha.


 * Nom-Kuernazla acc-bird cont-see-pres. Nom-bird dat-acc-fish-eat-pres about cont-think-pres. Nom-Kuernazla acc-water-middlevoice-red see-pres


 * Kuernazla bird is seeing. Bird fish eating about is thinking. Kuernazla water-self-red sees.

* here you can use -ro instead of -ha, but then it's more of a future plan than a current desire

Hares eat the flowers in the garden


 * Lehahába ya’iuéna mogartiayko ‘ini uana’iha


 * Nom-hare acc-flower dat-garden in eat-pres


 * Hare flower garden in eat

The rose’s flower is wilting


 * Cedoygo’a le’iuéna ‘e’eheieha


 * Gen-rose nom-flower cont-wilt-pres


 * Rose’s flower wilting

There’s a hare in the garden!


 * Lehahába mogartiayko ‘ini


 * Nom-hare dat-garden in


 * Hare garden in

There’s a hare in the rose garden!


 * Lehahába modoygo’agartiayko ‘ini


 * Nom-hare dat-rose-garden in


 * Hare rose garden in

I would like to have a rose garden


 * Yadoygo’agartiayko lemi xiogereneha’aioha


 * Acc-rose-garden nom-1p sub-gladly-have-pres


 * Rose garden I would gladly have

I would like to have a rose garden (someday in the future, not now)


 * Yadoygo’agartiayko lemi xiogereneha’aioro


 * Acc-rose-garden nom-1p sub-gladly-have-fut


 * Rose garden I would gladly have (future)i

I would like to have courage, but I am afraid


 * uezkadkadazkahami boyá mikonkadazkaha
 * uez-kadkadazka-ha-mi boya mi-konkadazka-ha
 * opt-courage-pres-nom.1P but abs.1P-fear-pres
 * ~wishcouragei but mefear

Would I need to go to a hospital, I would not want to go there in the near future.


 * Yaieyõsanhege ‘ade xiomiarqageuahami, yari ‘ade nioxiouezqageuarokmi


 * Acc-place-caus-heal to/from sub-obl-go-pres-1p.nom, acc-3p to/from neg-sub-opt-go-near.fut-1p.nom


 * ~Cause healing place to would must go I, it to not would want go soon I
 * ~Hospital to would must go I, it to not would want go soon I
 * ~If to the hospital I would have to go, to it would I not soon wish to go

A long time ago, I would have been allowed to have it, but I would not have wanted to have it. Recently, I was able to have it, but I didn’t want it. Now I am allowed to have it, I can have it and I want to have it. I will have it soon!

The man who wanted to eat the fish a long time ago wants to eat plants later today.

Leueztisuebouana’icitce lemebere ‘acihemo yauagoietle uezuana’irok

Nom-optative-fish-eat-distant.past-modifier nom-person today acc-plant optative-eat-near.future

wanted fish eat long ago person today plants want eat soon

The long ago wanting to eat fish person today plants wants to eat soon

The person who wanted to eat fish a long time ago wants to eat plants later today (will want to eat plants today)