Bresouian-Western

a language spoken by most people from the southwest.  

Natively known as: bresou /brɛˈsɑu̯/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
spij vart gree kou vrorluil wom spij kou schreurcht zirtrie gezed drechtun plie
Pronunciation: /spɛi̯ vaːrt ɣreː kɑu̯ vrɔˈrlœy̯l ʋɔm spɛi̯ kɑu̯ sxrøːrxt zɪrˈtri ɣəˈzɛt drəxˈtyn pli/
Bresouian word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f j k l m n p r s t v x z ŋ ɣ ɦ ʋ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ŋ
Stop	p b		t d		k
Fricative		f v	s z		x ɣ	ɦ
Approximant		ʋ		j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Vowel inventory: aː eː i oː u y øː œy̯ ɑ ɑu̯ ɔ ə ɛ ɛi̯ ɪ ʏ   Diphthongs: œy̯ ɑu̯ ɛi̯ ?  

	Front	Central	Back
High	i y		u
Near-high	ɪ ʏ
High-mid	eː øː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low	aː		ɑ

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
sx	sch
x	g / _#
x	ch
ʋ	w
p	b / _#
t	d / _#
d	t / C_#
ɣ	g
ɦ	h
ŋk	ng
ŋ	ng
yu	uw
u	oe / !_w
ɑoe̯	ou
eː	ee
aː	a
ɑ	a
oː	o
ɛi̯	ij / _#
ɛi̯	ei
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
i	ie / C_#
œy̯	ui
ɪ	i
ʏ	u
y	u
øː	eu
ə	e
̯

 

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Grammar

  Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary the door opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?  

Nouns

  Nouns have five cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.

Nominative	No affix stuchtert /stʏxˈtɛrt/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix joː- jostuchtert /joːstʏxˈtɛrt/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix oː- ostuchtert /oːstʏxˈtɛrt/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix ɦœy̯- huistuchtert /ɦœy̯stʏxˈtɛrt/ to dog
Locative	Prefix eː- eestuchtert /eːstʏxˈtɛrt/ near/at/by dog

 

Singular	Prefix bøː- beustuchtert /bøːstʏxˈtɛrt/ dog
Plural	No affix stuchtert /stʏxˈtɛrt/ dogs

 

Articles

 

Definite	e /ə/ the
Indefinite	kloeft /kluft/ a, some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

  Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

 

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	dangt /dɑŋkt/ I	krui /krœy̯/ me	zwa /zʋaː/ mine	juirt /jœy̯rt/ to me	spent /spənt/ to me
2nd singular	plu /ply/ you	joe /ju/ you	nui /nœy̯/ yours	jee /jeː/ to you	zeen /zeːn/ to you
3rd singular masc	vart /vaːrt/ he, it (masc)	kou /kɑu̯/ his, it (masc)	me /mɛ/ his, its (masc)	ba /baː/ to his, to it (masc)	ne /nə/ to his, to it (masc)
3rd singular fem	be /bə/ she, it (fem)	res /rɛs/ her, it (fem)	stoe /stu/ hers, its (fem)	slees /sleːs/ to her, to it (fem)	stast /staːst/ to her, to it (fem)
1st plural	prie /pri/ we	schrung /sxrʏŋ/ us	ij /ɛi̯/ ours	lui /lœy̯/ to us	vou /vɑu̯/ to us
2nd plural	schart /sxɑrt/ you all	stin /stin/ you all	kwost /kʋɔst/ yours (pl)	dukt /dykt/ to you all	vrakt /vrɑkt/ to you all
3rd plural	vee /veː/ they	loe /lu/ them	am /aːm/ theirs	deelf /deːlf/ to them	dreun /drøːn/ to them

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	zwa /zʋaː/ my
2nd singular	nui /nœy̯/ your
3rd singular masc	kou /kɑu̯/ his
3rd singular fem	stoe /stu/ her
1st plural	ij /ɛi̯/ our
2nd plural	kwost /kʋɔst/ your (pl)
3rd plural	am /aːm/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Present	Past	Remote past
1st singular	Prefix aː- aple /aːˈplɛ/ (I) learn	Prefix ɔ- ople /ɔˈplɛ/ (I) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʋ- Else: Prefix ʋɛ- weple /ʋɛˈplɛ/ (I) learn (long ago)
2nd singular	Prefix nɔ- nople /nɔˈplɛ/ (you) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix tr- Else: Prefix trɪ- triple /trɪˈplɛ/ (you) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑrɦ- Else: Prefix ɑrɦɑu̯- arhouple /ɑrɦɑu̯ˈplɛ/ (you) learn (long ago)
3rd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɦ- Else: Prefix ɦɔ- hople /ɦɔˈplɛ/ (he/she/it) learns	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nɪ- niple /nɪˈplɛ/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix sprə- spreple /sprəˈplɛ/ (he/she/it) learns (long ago)
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bə- beple /bəˈplɛ/ (we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lɔ- lople /lɔˈplɛ/ (we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lœy̯- luiple /lœy̯ˈplɛ/ (we) learn (long ago)
2nd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bɑ- baple /bɑˈplɛ/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix jy- juple /jyˈplɛ/ (you all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɪd- Else: Prefix ɪdɔ- idople /ɪdɔˈplɛ/ (you all) learn (long ago)
3rd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix øːrn- Else: Prefix øːrnoː- eurnople /øːrnoːˈplɛ/ (they) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix zɛi̯- zeiple /zɛi̯ˈplɛ/ (they) learned	Prefix bɪ- biple /bɪˈplɛ/ (they) learn (long ago)

  Bresouian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: lyls - luls ple /lyls plɛ/ will learn

 

Progressive aspect

  The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Bresouian uses an affix for progressive:  

Progressive

Prefix ə- eple /əˈplɛ/ is learning

 

Habitual aspect

  The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Bresouian uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: uk - oek ple /uk plɛ/ learns

 

Numbers

  Bresouian has a base-10 number system:   1 - ein
2 - dre
3 - moed
4 - gol
5 - rij
6 - hee
7 - klirs
8 - ok
9 - twu
10 - stou
100 - wo
1000 - zee
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɣ-
Else: Prefix ɣøː-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ɛi̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix iŋk-
Else: Prefix iŋkeː-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix eː-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix brɛ-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑtz-
Else: Prefix ɑtzʏ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix bɑ-
Tending to = Prefix nɛ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix baː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix du-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɣ-
Else: Prefix ɣu-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix vr-
Else: Prefix vrə-
Diminutive = Prefix ɣɪ-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛɣ-
Else: Prefix ɛɣu-