Balog

Balog [ˈbɐɫɔɡ̚] is the main language of the Balog people of Ub as well as the most widely used lingua franca on that planet.

Phonology

Consonants

Manner	Phonation	Bilabial	Dentolabial Labiodental	Dental/Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	voiced	/m/ 1,2 ‹m›		/n/ 2,3 ‹n›			/ŋ/ 2 ‹ŋ / ng›
Plosive	voiced	/b/ 4 ‹b›		/d/ 3,4 ‹d›			/ɡ/ 4 ‹g›
	voiceless	/p/ 5 ‹p›		/t/ 3,5 ‹t›			/k/ 5 ‹k›		/ʔ/ ‹q›
	ejective			/tʼ/ 3,6 ‹tq›			/kʼ/ 6 ‹kq›
Affricate	voiced			/d͡z/ 7 ‹dz›	/d͡ʒ/ 7 ‹dž / dzh›
	voiceless			/t͡s/ 7 ‹ts›	/t͡ʃ/ 7 ‹tš / tsh›
	ejective			/t͡sʼ/ 6,7 ‹tsq›	/t͡ʃʼ/ 6,7 ‹tšq / tshq›
Fricative	voiced	/v/ 8 ‹v›		/z/ ‹z›	/ʒ/ ‹ž / zh›		/ɣ/ 9 ‹ğ / gh›
	voiceless	/f/ 8 ‹f›		/s/ ‹s›	/ʃ/ ‹š / sh›		/x/ 9 ‹x›
Trill / Flap	voiced			/r/ 10 ‹r›
Lateral	voiced			/l/ 3,11 ‹l›
Semivowel	voiced					/j/ ‹y›	/w/ 12 ‹w›

1. /m/ assimilates to the articulation of a following /v/ or /f/, being pronounced bilabially [m] by speakers with bilabial pronunciations of /v/ and /f/ ([β] and [ɸ]), dentolabially [ɱ͆] by speakers with dentolabial pronunciations of /v/ and /f/ ([v͆] and [f͆]) and labiodentally by speakers with labiodental pronunciation of /v/ and /f/ ([v] and [f])
2. Nasal consonants may be pronounced syllabically when not adjacent to a vowel. Their syllabic pronunciations are always short and unstressed.
3. The alveolar/dental consonants /n d t tʼ l/ are pronounced with dental articulation by some speakers and alveolar articulation by others. This varies chiefly by region and/or native language.
4. The voiced plosives /b d g/ are frequently pronounced as implosives post pausa: [ɓ ɗ~ɗ̪ ɠ]
5. The voiceless plosives /p t k/ are generally unaspirated although aspirated pronunciations may be found, especially by L2 speakers: [pʰ tʰ~t̪ʰ kʰ]. The glottal plosive /ʔ/ is never aspirated.
6. The ejective consonants /pʼ tʼ kʼ t͡sʼ t͡ʃʼ/ are frequently pronounced irregularly by L2 speakers who lack ejective consonants in their native languages. As there are many minimal pairs that can result in dangerous misunderstandings if the ejective consonants are not pronounced, many L2 speakers who are unable to pronounce the ejectives substitute them with sequences of a plain plosive or affricate, a weakly articulated schwa and then a glottal stop: [pə͉ʔ tə͉ʔ kə͉ʔ t͡sə͉ʔ t͡ʃə͉ʔ].
7. The affricates are not distinguished phonetically from equivalent sequences of plosive and fricative that come together by compounding processes or even across word boundaries. They are ascribed phonemic status due to their phonotactic patterning.
8. The majority of Balog pronounce the fricatives /v/ and /f/ dentolabially: [v͆] and [f͆]. Due to anatomical differences, the majority of non-Balog pronounce these labiodentally as [v] and [f]. Speakers of certain regions, both Balog and non-Balog, may pronounce them bilabially as [β] and [ɸ].
9. The fricatives /ɣ/ and /x/ may be pronounced either at the velum as [ɣ] and [x], or at the uvula as [ʁ] and [χ]. Speakers with uvular pronunciations of /ɣ/ may frequently pronounce it as a trill [ʀ].
10. The consonant /r/ is generally pronounced as a tap or flap [ɾ] with trilled pronunciations generally restricted to emphatic speech. When geminate, the pronunciation is always as a trill.
11. The lateral /l/ may be, as discussed in point 3., either be dental or alveolar, however there is always a strong velar or pharyngeal coarticulation: [ɫ~ɫ̪]
12. The semivowel /w/ is generally pronounced unrounded by Balog speakers due to anatomical differences. It is, however, pronounced with lip compression that results in a similar auditory effect: [w͍]. Non-Balog who speak it as an L2 may pronounce it with rounding: [w].

Vowels

Header text	Front	Back
High	/i/ [ɪ] ‹i›	/u/ [ʊ͍] ‹u›
Mid	/e/ [ɛ] ‹e›	/o/ [ɔ͍] ‹o›
Low	/æ/ [æ] ‹ä›	/a/ [ɐ] ‹a›

Morphology

Verbs

There is only one class of content word in Balog. These form the equivalent of verbs, nouns, adjectives and pronouns in other languages. Words of this lexical category cannot be sorted into separate discrete classes of nouns, verbs etc. using syntax or morphology. With few exceptions, each content word exhibits complete bidirectional subject-predicate flexibility, meaning they can be used in predicates ("verbally") or become nominalised by a subject marker in order to be used ("nominally") as the subject of a clause without any irregular changes in form or meaning. This class of words in Balog is refered to as "verbs" due to the simple fact that they can appear unmodified in a predicate but must be modified by a nominaliser in order to appear in subjects.

This situation can distinguished from the extensive zero-derivation, such as that employed by English, whereby verbs and nouns can, with a fair degree of flexibility, change category. Zero derivation results in identical verbs and nouns whose meanings relate to one another in somewhat unpredictable ways. For instance, although, by definition, a spy spies and a stray strays, it cannot be said that, by definition, a fish fishes or burger burgers. A tree grows, but there is nothing called a grow that can be said to tree. The verbal and nominal meanings formed by zero-derivation must therefore be regarded as separate (although related) lexical entities in their own right.

By contrast, the meaning of Balog verbs does not change depending on their syntactic position within a clause. Each verb may be given a nominal or a verbal translation into English, but the relationship between them is consistent. If given a nominal translation, then the verbal translation is simply "be [noun]". If given a verbal translation, the nominal translation is simply the agent noun of it or, more specifically, "entity that [verb]s", "one who [verbs]", "that which [verbs]", "those that [verb]" etc.

Balog Verb	Verbal Translation	Nominal Translation
dauz	be a tree	tree
ŋaž	be tall	tall one
magaz	fall over	one that falls over
dek	die without obvious cause	one that dies without obvious cause
vaŋ	hunt; be a hunter	one who hunts; hunter

It could be argued that a non-syntactic division of the category of verbs into classes of true verbs, nouns, adjectives etc., could be made on the basis of semantics. For example, semanticists may argue that the verb magaz (fall over) is semantically a true verb as it describes "an action/state", whereas the verb dauz (be a tree) is semantically a noun because it describes "an entity". This semantic approach to the creation of additional categories that are not supported by syntactic analysis will, however, inevitably cause disagreements as semantic categories have fuzzy edges. A verb such as lisim could equally well regarded as a noun meaning "(an) annoyance" or "nuisance" or as a true verb meaning "annoy" or "bother". The question as to whether lisim refers to an entity or to an action/state can be answered with "Both!" Lisim refers to the action and the agent of that action. Likewise, the verbvaŋ could be argued to be a true verb meaning hunt (an action) or a noun meaning "hunter" (an entity or that performs the action). Even in more apparently clear-cut cases, although the verb magaz "fall over", which patently seems to describe an action, is most conveniently translated into English as a verb, it also describes an entity that falls over (a "faller-over"). Likewise, the verb dauz describes an entity, a "tree", yet it also describes the action/state of being a tree. Balog simply makes no syntactic or lexical distinction between performing an action or being the agent of such an action.

In many cases, the difference between what semanticists would regard as true verbs or nouns depends on the the intrinsic temporal aspect or Aktionsart of the word's definition. Words describing relatively long-lasting and static attributes of an entity, such as dauz "be a tree" or ŋaž "be tall" are less likely to be perceived by semanticists as true verbs and also less likely to be translatable by verbs alone in languages with a noun-verb distinction. Dynamic states or actions involving movement or change, especially transient or momentane descriptions of an entity that the entity may quickly pass through, are more likely to be regarded as intrinsically "verb like" and, when translated into English, may frequently have awkward, clunky nominal translations involving relative clauses headed by "entity that", "one who" or "that which".

The following table illustrates the temporal duration of varying attributes of what may be regarded as a single entity, a tree. This entity can be regarded as performing the action "be tree" for a substantial period of time, although, archetypally, it would most likely be described as a tree when fully grown and not yet fallen over. The size of the X's in the table indicates the suitability of the word. Throughout a tree's life, it undergoes dynamic, changing action/states, some only for a single moment such as germinating or falling over, others, such as flowering may continue for a few weeks or months at a time and recur intermittantly. Other action/states, such as verbal "growing", occur for similar durations of time as more semantically nominal action/states such as "be tree", "be sapling", however these are regarded by semanticists as verbal merely due to the focus of the word on the change of state, contrasting with "be tree", in which changes of state are not in focus.

Balog      Verbal               
Verb:      Translation:       Time:-----------------------------------------------------------------------> 
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________       
dauz      | be tree         | xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ŋurad     | germinate       | X
biyad     | grow:           | XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
zemalik   | be seedling     |  XXXXXXXXXXxxx
dauzit    | be sapling      |         xxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxx
ŋaž       | be tall         |                             xxxxxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
näh       | photosynthesise |  X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X  
zambilif  | flower          |                    XX    XX    XX   XX   XXX  XXX XX
magaz     | fall down       |                                                         X
dišif     | rot             |                                                       xxxXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxx
däžib     | fallen tree, log|                                                          XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxx

Adverbs

Adverbs modify verbs to give them new shades of meaning. The vast majority of adverbs are very short, particle-like words. For example, adverbs indicating tense and aspect optionally stand before a verb and give temporal information about it. These are not restricted to use with semantically verbal verbs, nor are they restricted to syntactic positions within a predicate as subject phrases themselves consist of

In the following example, the imperfective particle hi indicates that the action of dying is not spoken about as a completed whole, but, rather, an action seen from the middle, thus "is dying" (or according to context, "was dying" etc.). The past tense particle do appears before garag "be neighbour" to indicate "be one who was a neighbour", thus "former neighbour" in the translation.

Hi zowak aqaddo garag wenniiž.
[hɪ ˈzɔ͍w͍ɐk ɐʔɐdːɔ͍ ˈɡɐɾɐɡ wɛnːiːʒ]
hi	zowak	aqa(ː)-	do	garag	we(ː)-	ni(ː)-	ž
IPFV	die.of.protracted.illness	SPEC(B)-	PST	neighbour	ESS-	GEN-	1S
"A former neighbour of mine is dying (of a protracted illness)."

Syntactic Clitics

Subject Markers

Subject markers appear at the beginning of every phrase denoting a grammatical subject. They indicate not only that the following base phrase is the subject of the preceding predicate but also convey information about definiteness (whether the addressee is expected to know which exact entity), specificity (whether the speaker knows which exact entity) and an inflectional dimension integral to Balog called status.

Subject Markers

Status (Gloss)		Definite Specific (DEF)	Indefinite Specific (SPEC)	Indefinite Non-Specific (NSPC)
Entities
"Powerful"	(A)	u-	uqu-	uhu-
"Dominant"	(B)	a-	aqa-	aha-
"Intermediate"	(C)	o-	oqo-	oho-
"Subordinate"	(D)	e-	eqe-	ehe-
"Powerless"	(E)	i-	iqi-	ihi-
Propositions
Propositional	(P)	ä-	äqä-	ähä-

Status

All referents are assigned a status any time they are appear as the subject of a clause. Status is not a permanent attribute of a referent but rather a context-dependent assignment within a discourse that depends on the speaker's perceived and expressed relations between the referent and other referents. When a single referent is mentioned, the status used depends only on the speaker's perception of the referent, however when there are two or more referents, statuses may be assigned that would otherwise not be used in order to differentiate between multiple referents within a discourse and rank them relative to one another.

A useful way to conceptualise the typical assignment of status is to use the question "Who would win in a physical fight?" as the deciding metric. Physically larger, stronger and more active referents are assigned a higher status than smaller, weaker referents. The highest status, A, the "powerful" status, indicated with the vowel u, is an exception, dependent not only physical strength but rather social, financial or political power. A referent marked with u is not necessarily physically dominant over other referents, but a conflict with an individual could lead to more significant consequences for referents of lower status than the physical prowess of the A-statused referent alone would afford them. "Weighty" abstract concepts may sometimes be referred to with the A-status when there is no person in the discourse assigned to this status.

Syntax

One of the most unusual features of Balog is its complete lack of grammatical objects. Every verb is monovalent (intransitive), meaning it can refer to only one noun at a time. For this reason, it is essentially impossible to describe the morphosyntactic alignment of Balog. It can, however, be noted that there is a preponderance of unaccusative verbs to describe actions, with semantic agents generally appearing in clauses containing

Complementiser

The propositional subject markers ä-, äqä- and ähä- function as a complementiser akin to "that", attaching to the beginning of the predicate of a clause and marking it as the subject of the matrix clause. Ä- and ähä- are frequently used with the former referring to definite facts and events and the latter referring to the generalised idea. The following examples should elucidate the difference.

M'oož nam ämmelets eel.
[ˈmɔ͍ːʒ ˈnɐm æmˈmɛɫɛt͡s ɛːɫ]
m	o(ː)-	ž	nam	ä(ː)-	melets	e(ː)-	l
feel.emotionally	DEF(C)-	1S	appeal	DEF(P)-	be.happy	DEF(D)-	2S
"I'm glad you're happy." "I like that you're happy."

M'oož nam ähämmelets eel.
[ˈmɔ͍ːʒ ˈnɐm æhæmˈmɛɫɛt͡s ɛːɫ]
m	o(ː)-	ž	nam	ähä(ː)-	melets	e(ː)-	l
feel.emotionally	DEF(C)-	1S	appeal	NSPC(P)-	be.happy	DEF(D)-	2S
"I like the idea of you being happy."