Bźatga
Phonology and Orthography
Orthography
Bźatga is written with the following 18 letters of the Latin alphabet:
a b c d e g i j l m n o r s t u v z
In addition to these base forms, called primary or unmarked letters, diacritics are used to create secondary and tertiary forms, which are collectively called the marked letters. In the case of vowels, secondary forms represent pretonic and therefore unstressed variants and are marked with a breve, e.g. răveusemi "I have seen". Secondary forms of consonants are iotised variants of the primary sounds and are marked with an acute accent, e.g. craśu "drier". The tertiary forms of both vowels and consonants are marked with the caret and only the letters ê, ô, ŝ and ẑ occur. They are not derived from the primary forms.
The table below shows the various forms of the letters:
| Vowels | Stops | Fricatives | Sonorants | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | a | e | i | o | u | b | t | d | c | g | v | s | z | j | l | m | n | r |
| Secondary | ă | ĕ | ĭ | ŏ | ŭ | ć | ǵ | ś | ź | ł | ń | ŕ | ||||||
| Tertiary | ê | ô | ŝ | ẑ |
Additionally, two purely orthographic conventions are used:
- The letters î and û occur in diphthongs deriving from vi, *ji and *vu; e.g. doû, doî "black" from **dovu, **dovi
- The hook is used with any vowel or diphthong to show the absence of a following nasal, in Class 4 Nominals; e.g. camvǫ "foster son", pl. camvone.
Taken together the following letters may occur in Bźatga orthography:
a ă ą b c ć d e ĕ ê ę g ǵ i ĭ î į j l ł m n ń o ŏ ô ǫ r ŕ s ś ŝ t u ŭ û ų v z ź ẑ
Consonants
Bźatga contains the following consonant inventory:
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||
| Plosive | b | t d | k g | ||
| Fricative | β | s z | ʃ ʒ | ||
| Affricate | t͡s d͡z | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | |||
| Approximant | j | ||||
| Trill | r | ||||
| Lateral app. | l | ʎ |
Vowels
Bźatga has the following eight pure vowels:
| Front | Near- front | Central | Near- back | Back | ||
| Close | 
| |||||
| Near-close | ||||||
| Close-mid | ||||||
| Mid | ||||||
| Open-mid | ||||||
| Near-open | ||||||
| Open | ||||||
Note: /ɐ/ is an allophone of /a/ found in unstressed final or pretonic position.
In addition there are the following six diphthongs: /aj/, /ɛj/, /ɔj/, /aw/, /ɛw/, /ɔw/.
Stress
Stress placement is regularly on the first syllable of a word. The only exception to this is in words with an unstressed prefix, the vowel of which is marked with a breve, e.g. căbrova "tribesman" /kɐˈbrɔvɐ/.
Phonetic Processes
Bźatga has a number of phonetic processes which affect the spelling and pronunciation of words in inflexion and composition.
Iotisation
Iotisation is the process by which an inflexional j affects the preceding consonant. It is seen, for example, in the comparative forms of adjectives and in some verb forms. All consonants, except j itself, are affected by iotisation, in the following ways:
- most consonants change to their secondary form, e.g. glasa "clear, blue", cpv. glaśu "bluer".
- d and t become ć and ǵ respectively, e.g. môde "soft", cpv. môǵu "softer".
- b and m are simply followed by the letter j, e.g. caba "crooked", cpv. cabju "more crooked".
- v becomes j, e.g. dova "black", cpv. doju "blacker".
Palatalisation
Palatalisation is an allophonic process whereby certain consonants are affected by a following i. This mainly affects the sonorants l, n and r, which are altered to their secondary form, and the letters d and t which become ẑ and ŝ respectively. For example, dana "gift", pl. dańi, cata "pool", pl. caŝi.
A summary of Iotised and Palatalised consonants is given below:
| Stops | Fricatives | Sonorants | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | b | t | d | c | g | v | s | z | j | l | m | n | r |
| Iotised | bj | ć | ǵ | ć | ǵ | j | ś | ź | ł | mj | ń | ŕ | |
| Palatalised | ŝ | ẑ | ł | ń | ŕ |
Alternation of j/i and v/u
As stated above, there are six dipthongs in Bźatga: ai, ei, oi and au, eu, ou. These are only permitted to occur before a consonant or at the end of a word. When any of these comes to occur before a vowel, the second element becomes j or v respectively, e.g. saide "(he) seeks" but saja "seek!". The same is true in reverse, so dova "black" becomes doudra "blackness".
Because of this alternation, only a, e and o can usually occur before j and v. In a few rare cases the combination iv occurs, which becomes û before a consonant, e.g. łiva "colour" becomes łûleda "colourful, coloured".
Whenever the combinations **ji and *vu would occur as a result of inflexion or derivation, the consonant is lost and the remaining i or u forms a diphthong with the preceding vowel. The same occurs to the combination *ovi, which becomes oî. The second element of a diphthong formed in this way is marked by a caret, not to show a difference in pronunciation from the unmarked form, but to show the absence of the consonant. This process can clearly be seen in the declension of the adjective dova "black": dova (NAsg), doû (Osg, < *dovu), doî (Pl, < *dovi). Note also the change of *iji > î and *ivu, *iju > û (e.g. bźija "power, status", Osg. bźû, pl. bźî).
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns have no grammatical gender but are marked for case, number and definiteness. There are two cases in the singular: the Nominative-Accusative (NA) which is used for the subject and direct object of verbs; and the Oblique (O) which is used following prepositions and in some other constructions. Case is not marked in the plural.
Nouns belong to one of four declensions based on the NASg. Indef:
- 1st and 2nd declension end in a vowel (-a or -e)
- 3rd declension end in a consonant
- 4th declension have a stem in -n but a NASg Indef. in a vowel marked with a hook (e.g. aų).
Every noun has an Indefinite and a Definite form for each case and number. All definite nouns are declined according to the 1st declension though the noun is still considered to belong to its original declension. Definite forms are only used in the absence of another determiner, such as a possessive adjective, and are not usually used with proper nouns.
| Decl. | Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom.-Acc. | Oblique | ||||
| 1 | Indef. | dońa | dońu | dońi | "person" |
| Def. | dońida | dońidu | dońiẑi | ||
| 2 | Indef. | sule | sule | sułi | "sun" |
| Def. | sułida | sułidu | sułiẑi | ||
| 3 | Indef. | troud | trouda | troude | "foot" |
| Def. | trouẑida | trouẑidu | trouẑiẑi | ||
| 4 | Indef. | aų | auna | aune | "name" |
| Def. | auńida | auńidu | auńiẑi |
Notes:
- stem-final consonants may undergo palatalisation in the Indef. plural and all definite forms, e.g. vade "oracle", pl. vaẑi.
- stem-final v or j may also disappear before -i according to rules set out above, e.g. căbrova "tribesman", pl. căbroî.
The following nouns are irregular:
| Decl. | Singular | Plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom.-Acc. | Oblique | ||||
| 3 | Indef. | źi | źija | źije | "king" |
| Def. | źîda | źîdu | źîẑi | ||
| 3 | Indef. | bô | bova | bove | "cow" |
| Def. | boîda | boîdu | boîẑi |
Adjectives
Adjectives follow the noun they qualify and agree with that noun in number and case. Adjectives belong to one of two declensions much like those of nouns, according to the sound at the end of the word. There are no definite forms of adjectives.
| Decl. | Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nom.-Acc. | Oblique | |||
| 1 | mara | maru | maŕi | "great" |
| 2 | made | made | maẑi | "good" |
Comparison
The comparative adjective is formed by adding –ju to the stem, which undergoes iotisation where possible, e.g. maŕu "greater" < mara, seńu "older" < sena, doju "blacker" < dova. Comparative adjectives are not inflected for case or number.
The superlative adjective is made with the suffix -va, which also causes iotisation to the preceding consonant, e.g. maŕva "greatest", seńva "oldest", doiva "blackest". Superlatives function like normal adjectives and agree with their noun in number and case.
Numerals
Cardinal
The cardinal numbers occur before singular forms of nouns. Only ôna "one" is inflected for case.
The lower numerals are:
- 1-10: ôna, da, ći, ceudre, ćace, seś, seća, oću, nava, dega
- 11-19: ônzega, dazga, ćizga, ceǵzega, ćiaczega, seźega, sećzega, oćzega, nauzega
The decades from 20 to 100 are: vegŝi, ćigot, ceǵgot, ćacot, seśgot, sećcot, oćcot, naucot, cata.
These are nouns which stand in the NASg. before a NASg. noun. Vegŝi is indeclinable and cata is a 1st declension noun; the others are all 3rd declension.
Numbers like "26" or "69" are formed with the unit followed by the decade in the OSg., e.g. seś vegŝi "26", nava seśgota "69". Nouns may be placed between the two numerals in the NASg., e.g. seś vera vegŝi "26 men", nava teja seśgota "69 houses".
Ordinal
Ordinal numbers are adjectives of the 1st declension, which behave like any other. They ordinals from 1-10 are: ćata, ała, ćića, ceuǵa, ćacda, seśda, sećveda, oćveda, naveda, degveda.