Eclectic Language Made Simple

I have finished making notes on Italian and Spanish Made Simple. New ideas arise...

The pronoun system becomes more complex. I had wondered what had happened to the second person plural was after the honorific kembí entered the language. The example of Spanish suggests that it survives as the plural form of the familiar pronoun ako.

I have also learned some conculture about the People. Their mid-day meal is merenda in the early afternoon. I haven't discovered whether they also practice a mid-day nap. Perhaps they are going to turn out to be a Mediterranean climate culture.

I need to do some more writing on grammar of this language. Where to start?

An Occasional Word: Duona Blaneta

Duona Blaneta, New Year. New Year Celebrations.

Dachant Duonan Blanetan, To celebrate New Year.

I have been working my way through a dictionary of Bislama looking for words that expand the lexicon and the use of words in Bâha. I found this word and decided it worked perfectly. In Bislama it is Boname, an obvious borrowing from French administrators in Vanuatu, who would have called it Bonne Annee.

It works equally as well for the Shente, who call it Duona Blaneta, Good Year. In their calendar they mark the beginning of the month at the new moon. The first new moon after the winter solstice is observed as the beginning of the new year. The Shente count off five days then light fires and celebrate that at the cold of the year they are calling back the sun and the days are getting longer.

If their seasons are in tune with mine then that is what they are doing around this time. Dachú Duonan Blanetan!, Celebrate the New Year!

How to learn an eclectic language

The conlang list was talking about this link a week ago as I write. Without considering the debate on the list I wondered how the sentences would work in Bâha:

Ta yablok tí kidmit, The apple is red.
Ta tí yablok a Yônú, It is John's apple.
Bodú dô ta yablok kapena Yône, I give the apple to John.
Nas dôyen ta yablok kapena tamú, We give him the apple.
Ta dôt ten kapena Yône, He gives it to John.
Da dôt ten kapena damú, She gives it to her.

Bodú mí múhant dôyant ten kapena tamú, I must give it to him.
Bodú wol dôyant ten kapena damú, I want to give it to her.

Well, creating the sentences and comparing them proved to be an interesting exercise. The first sentence shows how to use a predicative adjective, although says nothing about attributive adjectives. The rest of the first group of sentences give examples of various pronouns with number and gender and how they work. More enquiry would fill in more gaps. There is no example of a noun as subject. It also shows that Bâha declines nouns. From the examples above a learner has all the forms of the present tense finite verb, which is lucky.

And, my god, this is a long-winded language, especially when auxiliaries are used!

I think the theory has merit. A learner could be introduced to a language. It would take longer to master it, at least to the point ordering beer!

Reading and Writing

After watching the thread on this theme on the Conlang list I went and looked up these words in Bâha. To read, recite, or learn, is lehant, and to write is kiribant.

yao/bodú les/kirib, I read, I write.

nas/te lehen/kiriben, we, they read, write.

X lest/kirift, X reads, X writes (X can be any other pronoun or noun).

Lehant is borrowed from Germanic, kiribant from Romance with some changes to the stem that reflect influences from similar forms in other languages.

Related verbs to kiribant are nakiribant, to finish writing, and shakiribant to make notes, to note down. Kiriba, a feminine noun, means writing, usually as read on a page.

Out of curiosity I looked up the same words in Maori. To read is korero pukapuka, to talk book, and to write is tuhi or tuhituhi, which if I understand it correctly, originally meant to stitch patterns into a wall panel. I think both of those are kind of cool.

Pronoun notes: There is

Ten ítí yodin pô nikeye, there is a port in the village

Ei ta pô, there is the port

Bâha has a number of rules about saying 'there is'. I'm settling down to this contrast. Ten ítí, literally 'it is (at)'. If somebody asks if there is a port in the village, you can say 'there is, it exists,' which is what the first sentence means. If you are going to point something out then the topic marker is used to mean 'there is'.

Pronoun notes: What?

Ei petta? What is that? What is this?

A common formation in the language. Ei is the topic marker. It indicates a new subject in talk, or something that has just appeared. So when the conversation changes then this phrase comes up. I imagine it is quite a common phrase.

Pronoun notes

Kude ítí-ten kem kembí yiret?, where are you going?

or Kembí yiret kude?

Today's question word is kude. Bâha ye shente has two words for where. Kude involves motion, to or from where, whither and whence. There is a group of prefixes that can go onto place words, including kude, to show direction.

To look for something in its place the question word is wú. I thought that this was a description about wú. Then I realised going meant motion not location and kude was more appropriate in these sentences.

Bâha ye shente, language of people, can be a good name for this language until such time as I find an ethnonym for it.