Bjoden

Natively known as: bjode /ˈbʤodiː/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ba bing mond gela sa nngwo ba leh sa thang bahlang kong akah
Pronunciation: /bɑ bɪŋ mond ˈxiːlɑ sɑ nŋwo bɑ liːh sɑ tʰɑŋ ˈbɑhlɑŋ koŋ ˈɑkɑh/
Bjoden word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f h j k kʰ l m n p pʰ r s t tʰ w x ŋ ɫ ɫʰ ɲ ʃ ʤ ʧ ʨ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ɲ	ŋ
Stop	b pʰ p		d t tʰ				k kʰ
Affricate				ʤ ʧ	ʨ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ			x	h
Approximant						j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar	Velarized alveolar
Approximant	w
Lateral approximant		ɫ ɫʰ

  Vowel inventory: iː o ɑ ɪ ʊ  

	Front	Back
High	iː
Near-high	ɪ	ʊ
High-mid		o
Low		ɑ

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
tɫʰ	tlh
ʨ	tšh
tɫ	tl
tʰ	th
pʰ	ph
ɲ	ny
ŋ	ng
kʰ	kh
kx	kg
j	y
ʊ	u
ʃ	š
ʤ	j
ɪ	i
x	g
iː	e
ɑ	a

 

---

Grammar

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

Nouns

 

Singular	Prefix xiː- gedah /ˈxiːdɑh/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lɑ- ladah /ˈlɑdɑh/ dogs

 

Articles

 

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	gon /xon/ the	kang /kɑŋ/ a
Plural	fo /fo/ the	lo /lo/ some

  Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

  Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’
• 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

 

1st singular	le /liː/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	a /ɑ/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	bing /bɪŋ/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	na /nɑ/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	bjo /bʤo/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	yend /jiːnd/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	gu /xʊ/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	lo /lo/ my
2nd singular	la /lɑ/ your
3rd singular masc	sa /sɑ/ his
3rd singular fem	gang /xɑŋ/ her
1st plural	song /soŋ/ our
2nd plural	po /po/ your (pl)
3rd plural	nngwang /nŋwɑŋ/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	Prefix kɑ- kapa /ˈkɑpɑ/ (I) learn	Prefix o- opa /ˈopɑ/ (I) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix kiː- kepa /ˈkiːpɑ/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Prefix ɑ- apa /ˈɑpɑ/ (you) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bɑ- bapa /ˈbɑpɑ/ (you) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix biː- bepa /ˈbiːpɑ/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Prefix ʊ- upa /ˈʊpɑ/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix xiː- gepa /ˈxiːpɑ/ (he/she/it) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xo- gopa /ˈxopɑ/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	Prefix iː- epa /ˈiːpɑ/ (we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix diː- depa /ˈdiːpɑ/ (we) learned	Prefix xɑ- gapa /ˈxɑpɑ/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dɑ- dapa /ˈdɑpɑ/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xɑ- gapa /ˈxɑpɑ/ (you all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix x- Else: Prefix xiː- gepa /ˈxiːpɑ/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix iːn- Else: Prefix iːno- enopa /iːˈnopɑ/ (they) learn	Prefix mo- mopa /ˈmopɑ/ (they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lɑ- lapa /ˈlɑpɑ/ (they) will learn

 

Imperfective aspect

  The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Bjoden uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:  

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: ɪ - i pa /ɪ pɑ/ learn

 

Numbers

  Bjoden has a base-12 number system:   1 - ka
2 - neng
3 - ga
4 - de
5 - go
6 - khe
7 - lero
8 - be
9 - dong
10 - gatlo
11 - sind
12 - lang
144 - kogwe
1728 - yu
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Prefix o-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix no-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix o-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix iːm-
Else: Prefix iːmiː-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j-
Else: Prefix jo-
Noun to verb = Prefix jɑ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ts-
Else: Prefix tsʊ-
Tending to = Prefix ʨɑ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix nɑ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix xiː-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix x-
Else: Prefix xɑ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix x-
Else: Prefix xiː-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑkx-
Else: Prefix ɑkxiː-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix x-
Else: Prefix xiː-