Behru cesik

Behru Cesik (meaning Behru way of speaking) is the highest language of the Behru empire. The stage of the language represented in this article is that spoken when the empire conquered the Yamazi dynasty of Winanda and began imposing its culture over a wide area.

Phonology

Phonemes

All Behru consonants except /h/ have voiced and voiceless counterparts. Voiceless consonants are usually weakly aspirated, the voiceless sonorants strongly so. Voiceless consonants are listed after their voiced counterparts in the table. Romanization is listed in Bold below the ipa. Romanization will be used in all sections of the article other than the phonology section.

Consonants (muhlámaleslzilíi)

	Labial (Kálihi)	Alveolar (jüdíixáahniík)	Post alveolar (jüdíixëhnémihi)	Palato-alveolar (jüdíixáansingerihi)	Palatal (singerihi)	Velar (singezóok)	Glottal (mákughétóok)
Plosive (zotozilíi)	p b p b	t d t d				g k g k	h h
Afrricate (zotaxehmozilíi)				tɕ dʑ c j
Fricative (xehmozilíil)	ɸ β f v	s z s z		ɕ ʑ sh zh		x ɣ x gh
Nasal (dzátacetozilíi)	m m̥ʰ m hm	n n̥ʰ n hn			ɲ ɲ̥ʰ ñ hñ	ŋ ŋ̥ʰ ng hng
Approximant (manjiuzilíi)	w w̥ʰ w hw	l l̥ʰ l hl	r r̥ʰ r hr		j j̥ʰ y hy

Behru has 4 base vowels, a, ɛ, u, and o, whose qualities change based on length and stress. Each vowel has 3 forms, long, short, and reduced. The vowel centralizes when it reduces, a and o reduce to ə̆, u reduces to ʊ, ɛ reduces to ɪ̆. The vowel ɛ uniquely changes to i: when lengthened. As before, romanized forms are marked in the chart. In addition, vowels may carry a high tone or a low tone, a high tone is marked with an acute, e.g., á, í, úu, óo. Low tone is unmarked. Reduced vowels are always low tone, even if derived from an originally high toned vowel.

Vowels (lámozilíi)

	Front	Front-mid	Mid	Mid-back	Back
Close	i: ii	ɪ̆ i		ʊ̆ ü	u u: uu u
Mid	ɛ e		ə̆ ë		o o: oo o
Open	a: a aa a

Phonotactical restraints and Sandhi

Rule 1

All syllables start with 1 to 4 consonants and contain only 1 vowel, no more, no less.

j̥ʰa, mút, cen, xoo, ɲɛ are all permitted.

ɛt, u and itɕ are not permitted due to not having an initial consonant.

sɛun, lai, and ɣə̆if are not permitted due to having 2 vowels.

tpt, xn, mj̥ʰ are not permitted due to having no vowels.

*exception: kl̥t and zrn are permitted because /l/ and /r/ may optionally function as reduced vowels.

Rule 2

All consonants in a consonant cluster must agree in voicing if they do not, the voicing of the first consonant of the second syllable controls the voicing. kx, tɸ, n̥ts, bw, dɣy and m̥y̥ʰ are all permitted due to all members of the cluster agreeing in voice. sʊ̆ɸk+zwáan must be changed to sʊ̆βgzwáan because they do not agree in voicing. As z is the first consonant of the second syllable and is voiced, it changes all unvoiced consonants in the cluster to voiced, changing k to g and ɸ to β l̥ʰən+ksɛ must become l̥ʰən̥ksɛ, because k, the first consonant of the second syllable, is unvoiced, changing the voiced n to voiceless n̥.

Rule 3

Syllable initial consonant clusters are permitted, they may consist at most

Stop + Fricative + Liquid (/l/ or /r/) + /w/ or /j/, or

Nasal+ /w/ or /j/ in that order.

kfr̥j̥ is permitted as it contains a stop fricative, liquid, and /j/ in the right order, and all consonants agree in voicing, as specified in rule two. kn̥ and ŋr are not permitted as nasals may not coexist with stops, fricatives, or liquids in consonant clusters. skj̥ is not permitted as fricatives may not precede stops, sɲ̥ is not permitted as fricatives may not precede nasals. mj is permitted as /j/ may come after a nasal. zlw is permitted as all constituents are in the right order, fricative>liquid> /w/ or /y/ wzl and lzw are not, however, they are not in the right order. βj is permitted, the contituents are in the right order and of the right type. Rule 4 any alveolar consonant followed by /j/ is transformed to its palatal counterpart. tj̥ and dj become tɕ and dʑ respectively. sj̥ and zj become ɕ and ʑ respectively nj and n̥j̥ʰ become ɲ and ɲ̥ʰ respectively.

Rule 5 The combinations /ji:/ and /jɪ/ are always converted to /ʑi:/ and /ʑɪ/ respectively. In the same manner, /wʊ/ and /wu:/ are always converted to /βʊ/ and /βu:/ respectively. This rule overides rule 3, the syllable /zlji:/ will be converted to /zlʑi:/ even though /zlʑ/ is otherwise forbidden at the beginning of a syllable due to having a fricative after a liquid. The /β/ and /ʑ/ will be converted into /ɸ/ and /ɕ/ if it would violated rule 2, /pl̥w̥ʰʊ/ would be converted to /pl̥ɸʊ/, not /pl̥βʊ/, /kj̥i:/ to /kɕi:/, not /kʑi:/. Rule 6 The only consonants that may occur syllable finally are t/d, p/b/, ɸ/β, k/g, n/n̥, m/m̥, ɲ/ɲ̥, ŋ/ŋ̥, and ɕ/ʑ. Voicing is not distinguished in the final position. Final stops and fricatives may have nasals preceding them , and ɕ/ʑ and ɸ/βmay precede any one of the others(but not eachother). Two nasals may not occur in a row in these syllables. raβn is a permitted syllable, but raβʑ is not. ramβ is permitted. l̥̥ʰʊm̥k is permitted, l̥ʰumn is not. kaβʑ and kaʑβ are not permitted, ʑ and β may not be together at the end of a syllable. Rule 7 A sequence of vowels is always interrupted by glides and or has the first vowel deleted to avoid violating rule 1. The change depends on the first vowel, ɛ, ɪ, and ii insert /j/ in a sequence of vowels. /ɪ/ is deleted when /j/ is inserted. uu, u, o, and ʊ insert /w/ in a sequence of vowels. /u/ and /ʊ/ are deleted when /w/ is inserted. kaɛ would become kɛ kau would become ku kɛɛ would become kɛjɛ kɪo: would become kjo: ki:o would become ki:jo ku:a would become ku:wa kua and kʊa would both become kwa kɛi: would become kɛji:, which would then become kɛʑi: due to rule 5 kʊu and kuu would both become kwu, which would then become kβu due to rule 5, and then kɸu due to rule 1. sɪɪ would become sjɪ due to rule 5, which would then become ɕi due to rule 4.

Nouns

Behru nouns delcine for 12 cases and 3 numbers. The 12 cases can be grouped into the simple cases, Nominative, Causative, Ablative, Benefactive, Posessive, Instrumental, Adessive, Locative, and Dative, and the complex cases, Accusative, Genitive, and Comparative. The complex cases use a different stem than simple cases.

Declension of Vowel deleting nouns

	múki, dog-like animal (i-type )	ratu, wind (u-type )	ksopa, shelf (a-type)
Nominative	múkësh	ratët	ksopët
Causative	múkye	ratúsh	ksopé
Ablative	múking	ratung	ksopang
Benefactive	múkimpi (múki-kimpi)	ratwimpi	ksopempi
Posessive	múkihno (múki-kihno)	ratwihno	ksopehno
Adessive	múkicra (múki-kicra)	ratwicra	ksopecra
Instrumental	múkl	rato	ksopo
Locative	múxi (múk-hi)	raswi (rat-hwi)	ksofi (ksop-hi)
Dative	múkci	ratcwi	ksopci
Paucal stem	múkíi-	raswíi-	ksopégii-

Declension of vowel holding nouns

	myéngu water	bghoze bucket	nadno berry	rwidli people, tribe	hnáza platform, step
Nominative	myénguzu	bghozezu	nadnozu	rwidlizu	hnázazu
Causative	myéngóye	bghozéjje	nadnóye	rwidlíish	hnázáash
Ablative	myéngweng	bghozeng	nadnweng	rwidleng	hnázang
Benefactive	myéngwimpi	bghozempi	nadnokimpi	rwidlikimpi	hnázempi
Posessive	myéngwihno	bghozehno	nadnokihno	rwidlikihno	hnázehno
Adessive	myéngwicra	bghozecra	nadnokicra	rwidlikicra	hnázecra
Instrumental	myéngo	bghozho (bghoz-yo)	nadno	rwidlyl	hnáza
Locative	myéngwíik	bghozíik	nadnóok	rwidllíik	hnazíik
Dative	myénguci	bghozeci	nadnoci	rwidlici	hnázaci
Paucal stem	myéngugíi	bghozíi	nadnwíi	rwidlíi	hnázegíi

Declension of sonorant nouns.

	tsan support	húm fluid	byéng metal	südzlar elbow	kwél cloud
Nominative	tsaan	húum	bzhíing	südzlaar	kwíil
Causative	tsañje	húhmye	byén'gye	südzlarje	kwélje
Ablative	tsanding	húmbing	byén'ging	südlarjing	kwélzing
Benefactive	tsaanpi	húmpi	bzhíingpi	südzlarpi	kwíilpi
Posessive	tsaahnno	húuhmno	bzhíihngno	südzlahrno	kwíihlno
Adessive	tsaancra	húumcra	bzhíingcra	südzlarcra	kwíilcra
Instrumental	tsaahnu	húuhmu	bzhíihngu	südzlaarzho	kwíiyo
Locative	tsanti	húmpi	byéngki	südzlarshi	kwélsi
Dative	tsaanci	húumci	bzhíingci	südzlaarci	kwíilci
Paucal stem	tsansíi	húmvíi	byéngxíi	südzlarzhíi	kwélzíi

Verbs

   Behru verbs agree with both subject and object in number an animacy, and can function as replacements for many nouns. For example, the Behru word "muhlamaleslzilíi" means "you can't sing them", a verb used in place of a noun meaning "consonants". Like a regular noun, it may have endings added to it and be declined.

Abstract endings (kshémudoon ceddobaaghe)

Abstract Intransitive endings

Number	Singular	Paucal	Plural
First person	hi	bu	ñji
Second person	ka	ku	(long)he
Third person	hyu	zú	hlon
Fourth person	li