Is Burunking

Is Burunking (/is buɾˈuŋkiŋ/, literally 'Burungian language') is the language of Burung, an island in the north Atlantic Ocean.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n				ŋ
Plosive	p    b	t    d				k    g
Fricative	ɸ	s	ʃ	ʐ	ç		h
Affricate			t͡ʃ    d͡ʒ
Flap or tap		ɾ
Approximant	w				j
Lateral app.	l

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Open-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Open	a

Vowels are considered to be short in all environments but may occur consecutively as in eekez 'left' /ɛːkɛz/. Note that word-initial sequences of i + i and u + uu are written yi-, -wu.

Diphthongs

There are six diphthongs proper: ai /ai/, ei /ei/, oi /oi/, au /au/, eu /eu/ and ou /ou/, which may be considered sequences of vowels in measuring syllables. In addition, any vowel is permitted to occur following the 'glides' /w/ or /j/.

Phonotactics

Is Burunking has a relatively restrictive syllabic structure, with a maximal form CGVVC, in which C represents a consonant, G a glide and V a vowel or diphthong. Of these, only the central vowel is essential but there are restrictions on the other elements also:

C1	G	V1	V2	C2
optional only b, g, d, h, x, l, n, ng or m word-initially any consonant word-medially	optional only y or w/u	mandatory any vowel	optional only i, u or the preceding vowel repeated	optional only s, sh, ng or z word-finally only n or m before a consonant

The word-final consonants s, sh, ng and z are not permitted to occur before another consonant, so undergo changes in compounds or when consonant-initial endings are added:

• Final -s is lost, the preceding vowel lengthens and a following voiced plosive is devoiced: is 'language, speech' + -do (pejorative) = yito 'curse', os 'cold' + -pung (abstract) = oopung 'coldness'.
• Final -sh is replaced by -i-, forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel (ush > oi, ish > ei, ii), and a following voiced plosive is devoiced: banash 'fruit' + -to (diminutive) = banaito 'berry', ush 'empty' + gyong 'person' = oikyong 'vain person'.
• Final -ng becomes -n- (or -m before p, b, f): gyong 'person' + -zoi (collective) = gyonzoi 'team, band', yong 'smooth' + -pung (abstract) = yompung 'smoothness'.
• Final -z is lost entirely: az 'man' + -chi (adjectival) = achi 'masculine'.

Word-final vowels may also be altered or lost when they come into contact with initial vowels in compounds or endings. In words of three or more syllables, the vowel is always lost, e.g. arato 'food' + -oi (adjectival) = aratoi 'gluttonous', eshayo 'sea' + ugi 'bread' = eshayugi 'seaweed'. Words of two syllables usually lose their final vowel, e.g. binji 'mountain' + arate 'gap' = binjarate 'mountain pass', but when the second word is only one syllable the final vowel sometimes remains, forming a glide in the case of i or u e.g. bigi 'eye' + uz 'water' = bigyuz. In reduplication, the final vowel often remains in disyllables, e.g. aze-aze 'very dark'.

Stress

Primary stress is generally on the penultimate syllable of polysyllables, e.g. berósu 'nine', esháyo 'sea', ázeng 'fish'.

Orthography

Is Burunking was originally written in a syllabary called hookozoi, mainly carved into wood or, occasionally, stone.

When the language was initially discovered by Europeans the Greek alphabet was used in its transcription, but later studies preferred to use the Latin script, which is still used today.

Graph	IPA
Consonants
b	/b/
ch	/t͡ʃ/
d	/d/
f	/ɸ/
g	/g/
h	/h/
j	/d͡ʒ/
k	/k/
l	/l/
m	/m/
n	/n/
ng	/ŋ/
p	/p/
r	/r/
s	/s/
sh	/ʃ/
t	/t/
w	/w/
x	/ç/
y	/j/
Vowels
a	/a/
e	/ɛ/
i	/i/
o	/ɔ/
u	/u/
Diphthongs
ai	/ai/
au	/au/
ei	/ei/
eu	/eu/
oi	/oi/
ou	/ou/

In word or syllable initial position the sequences ii, uu are written yi, wu. The glide /j/ is always written y but /w/ is written u following a consonant and w syllable initially.

Grammar

Nouns

Gender

Nouns are classified as either animate (bihi) or inanimate (es bihi) and animate nouns belong to one of three genders: masculine (achi), feminine (buyachi) or common (iziji). Inclusion within a class is based to a large extent on natural gender.

Animate	Masculine	adult male humans some male animals male deities fu 'fire', oi 'sun'
	Feminine	adult female humans some female animals female deities luz 'earth'
	Common	human children most animals edible plants uz 'water', yozi 'rain'
Inanimate		unmoving objects most materials abstracts

These gender distinctions have a limited effect on the morphology of nouns themselves but affect the way other words behave.

Number

Nouns are generally not marked for number and context is usually sufficient to show whether heuji means 'horse' or 'horses'. Numerals or adjectives can be used to qualify the noun for number, e.g. bade oz 'one dog, a dog'.

There are two collective suffixes, which may sometimes translate the English plural: -zoi is used to refer to a group of things, usually within a single place, e.g. gyonzoi 'band, group, team of people', heujizoi 'a herd of horses'; -bua is more abstract, referring to all things within a class collectively and also to the state of being an object within that class, similar in some ways to the English suffix '-hood' in a word like 'priesthood', e.g. gyombua 'everybody, humanity, humankind, population', binjibua 'mountains'. Both of these suffixes are productive, though in some cases the noun with the suffix has taken on a specialised meaning as in azoi 'council, assembly' from az 'man'. Reduplication may also be used to express a large group of something, often with an intensive meaning, e.g. gyongyong 'crowd, mass of people', yaiyai 'storm' (from yai 'wind').

Pronouns

Personal

		Singular	Plural
1	inclusive	ni	boro
	exclusive		bu
2		yi	fu
3	masculine	ngane	xinxing
	feminine	nepa
	common	xing

There are no inanimate forms, the demonstrative pronouns being used instead.

Possessives may be formed with the postposition go, e.g. ni go yata 'my father', xing go eshe 'its house'. The phrase go buru is used with the pronouns to create reflexive pronouns, e.g. yi go buru 'yourself',

Demonstrative

this	waz
that (non-distal)	uri
that (distal)	az

The demonstratives may be used attributively following the noun, e.g. az waz 'this man', xagaz uri 'that apple', binji az 'that mountain'. With uki they form the equivalent adverbs of place: uki waz 'here', uki uri 'there', uki az 'there (distal)'.

Interrogative

Interrogative pronouns and adverbs are formed with the prefix n(o)- and a nominal element:

what	nohez
who	nogyong
where	nuki
how	nobide
why	nonaze
when	neuji

These interrogatives may take postpositions such as nogyong go 'whose'

Indefinite

Indefinite pronouns are formed using the same nominal elements as the interrogative pronouns, but with different affixes.

	some- (-do)	any- (eno-)	every- (-bua)
-thing	hedo	enohez	hebua
-one, -body	gyondo	enogyong	gyombua
-where	ukido	enuki	ukibua
-how	bidedo	enobide	bidebua
(reason)	nazedo	enonaze	nazebua
-time	eujido	eneuji	eujibua

The 'any-' forms are also used as the equivalent of English pronouns with '-ever', e.g. enobide 'however', enogyong 'whoever'. They are also employed in negative sentences to mean 'no-one', 'nowhere' etc.

Derivation

Derivation is carried out using a number of suffixes and independent particles, and by compounding.

Suffix	Use	Example
Adjectives
-chi	of, like, pertaining to	buyachi 'feminine, female'
-fu	full of, covered with, made of	uzefu 'golden'
-king	of, like, pertaining to	Burunking 'of Burung'
-oi	tending to, fond of	aratoi 'gluttonous'
Nouns
-bua	collective, abstract	bidebua 'route'
-daz	person or thing from	eshayodaz 'foreigner' (lit. sea-dweller)
-do	pejorative	izido 'mocking laughter'
-ko	instrument, person connected with	onuuko 'goatherder'
-le	agent	erole 'killer'
-no	diminutive (often pejorative)	ano 'coward'
-pung	abstracts states, conditions	buchipung 'smallness'
-te	continual or chronic states	izite 'sickness'
-to	diminutive	hizito 'piglet'
-zoi	collective, group	eshezoi 'settlement'