Behru cesik

Behru Cesik (a combination of Behru, an ethnonym, cet, to speak, and the suffix -hik, indicating a manner of doing something) is a language spoken in the southern half of the lower Sedonese basin, the Hedri plains, and in the northern portions of Kakinsake. Its speakers form a distinct ethnicity in the south of Sedone, independent from the dominant Idili. The Behru people originated from the distant and now extinct Behru empire, which attempted to settle the Hedri area 1500 years prior. The empire has collapsed since then, and the Behru people are now isolated, their nations being increasingly encroached upon by the native peoples they had once tried to conquer.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal
Nasal	m hm	n hn			ñ hñ	ng hng
Plosive	p b	t d			c j	k g
Fricative	f v	s z			sh zh	x gh
Affricate
Approximant	w hw				hy		h
Trill
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.
Lateral app.			l lh	r hr
Lateral flap

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	i				u
Near-close	e	î		ü
Close-mid
Mid			ë		o
Open-mid
Near-open
Open	a

Phonotactics

All Behru free morphemes of native origin consist of a 2 syllable root with a maximum structure stop-fricative-approximant-vowel/syllabic l or r-consonant-vowel. Bound morphemes are permitted to have a reduced structure, so long as they start witha consonant should they be allowed to occur word initially. All syllables must start with a consonant. Alll free roots except particles and nouns in the agent case singular have a suffix of some sort indicating their grammatical role in the sentence.

Vowels

All roots that can exist unbound, along with several bound roots, hold a tone. This tone may be either a high ´tone like in lé, or a low tone le (low tone is unmarked). A high tone is only found in noun, verb, and particle roots, it is never found on the suffixes with the exception of several toneshift sandhi rules. In addition, a vowel may be of one of 3 "strengths". A weak vowel is reduced and centralized, and may carry have a high tone. A medium vowel is clearly pronounced but clipped in length. A strong vowel is held out in length. Some roots contain the sequence CV l/r C(V). The combination of a vowel and and l and r usually fuse in an unusual way.

Vowel strength

Weak	ë	ë	i	ü	l	r
Strong	a	o	e	u	ol, el*	ar, er*
Prolonged	aa	oo	ii	uu	ul, il*	or, ir*

• roots containing l or r may strengthen according to two different series.

Sandhi

Sandhi in behru can be divided into two categories, tone sandhi and consonant sandhi. Vowel sandhi only occurs word internally, as all morphemes that can occur at the front of a word start with consonants.

Consonant sandhi

Rule 1: first consonant agrees with second consonant in voice if both are stops or fricatives

k,x,c,sh,t,s,p,f	when followed by g,gh,j,zh,d,z,b,v	become g,gh,j,zh,d,z,b,v

n assimilates in the point of articulation of the following consonants

n	when followed by k,g,x,gh ng	becomes ng
n	when followed by c,j,sh,zh,ñ	becomes ñ
n	when followed by p,b,f,v,m	becomes m

Rule 3: palatalization of dental consonants

t,d,s,z	when followed by y	combine with y to become c,j,sh,zh

Rule 4: y and w dissimilate before matching vowels

y	when followed by i	becomes zh
w	when followed by u	becomes v

Rule 5: combining palatal and dental sounds

s,sh,t	when followed by sh	combines with sh to become c
z,zh,d	when followed by zh	combines with zh to become j

Rule 6: h weakens unvoiced stops

k,c,t,p	when followed by h (only if h is in isolation)	combine with h to become x,sh,s,f

rule 7: h aspirates liquid and nasal consonants

y,r,l,w,ng,ñ,n,m	when followed by h	become hy,hr,hl,hw,hng,hñ,hn,hm

Rule 8: aspirated liquids and nasals devoice preceding stops and fricatives

g,gh,j,zh,d,z,b,v	when followed by h (only if h is in isolation)	become p,x,c,sh,t,s,p,f, and the h disappears

Rule 9: w and y become v and zh when not followed by vowels, and vice versa

w and y	when followed by another consonant and preceded by a consonant	become u and i

Rule 10: Progressive devoicing

k, p, t, c, s, sh, f, x	When in contact with any liquid nasal	Devoice said liquid or nasal, eg; k+n = khn, m+t=hmt

• note: The effects of rule 10 are never written, as they can always be determined, samt will always be pronounced as |sahmt|, no rules can reverse this.

Rule 11: regressive devoicing

g, b, d	When followed by an aspirant liquid or nasal directly, or if followed seperated from the aspirant by a short vowel	become k, p, t, eg; g+hy=ky, bu+hm+ puhm, but daa+ hn doesn't equal taahn, because of the long vowel

Rule 12: intervocalic voicing

k, t, p, even if preceded by a nasal or fricative	Voice between two vowels. If a second consonant lies before, this consonant is also voiced. However, if a consonant lies after, this rule does not aplly	aka becomes aga, efto becomes evdo, ampi becomes ambi, but akya deos not become agya

Notes: the only rules which can change the voicing of c and j are rules 2 and 7.

Only the rules 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8 occur across word boundaries. Final consonants affected by rules 6 and 7 across word boundaries double. The h doesn't dissapear of rule 8 occurs across word boundaries.

Vowel Sandhi

Rule 1: vowels have consonants inserted after or become consonants themselves when followed by other vowels

o,u	when followed by e,i,î,a,o	become ow,w
o,u	when followed by u,ü	become ov,v
e,i	when followed by a,o,u,ü,e	become ey,y
e,i	when followed by i.î	become ezh,zh
a	when followed by any vowel	dissapears

Tone Sandhi

If a vowel with a tone is weakened múk to mügii	The tone is shifted to the following syllable mügíi
If a vowel with a tone is converted into a consonant like hí+e hye	The tone is shifted to the following syllable hyé

Orthography

Behru romanized orthography matches the symbols given in the phonology section. Sandhi is indicated always in both written systems. The Behru native writing system is an alphabet, with symbols for vowels, consonants, vowel strength and tone arranged into syllabic blocks, written up to down, left to right. Pictures of these will be uploaded later.

Basic Grammar

	Gender	Cases	Numbers	Tenses	Persons	Moods	Voices	Aspects
Verb	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Nouns	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Adjectives	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Numbers	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Participles	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Adverb	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Pronouns	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Adpositions	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Article	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Particle	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Behru in the modern day is highly fusional, although the language of old, in the days of empire, was far more agglutinative. This older stage of the language is popular in literature, but this article primarily focuses on the Hedri colloquial. All root morphemes of the language can be split into 4 groups. All free morphemes are part of onne of 3 parts of speech, verb, noun, or particle. Adjectives and adverbs do not exist as a part of speech, they can exist as either prefixes or derived from verbs. The language is most commonly uses a subject object verb word order, but there are no strict rules on word order in most sentences. The language is exclusively head final, with all modifiers placed before the head. The verb always comes a finally when it is the head of a clause, and is the only portion of the sentence that may not be omitted under any circumstances.

Morphemes

	Free	Bound
Semantemes	Verbs, Nouns	adjectival prefixes, adverbial prefixes, derivational sufixes
Grammemes	Grammatical particles	grammatical sufixes, positional sufixes, grammatical infixes

Noun Morphology

Principle parts of a Behru noun.

Simple consonant variation nouns

A behru noun has 3 principle parts, the default, weak, and plural forms. The plural form is used in the plural (obviously), and the weak form is used in the patient, genitive, possesive, comparative, and compound cases.

Principle Behru nouns ending in a voiceless stop

	Default	Weak	Plural
Type 1	múk, let, ksac, lóp	mügáa, lidaa, ksëcaa, lëbáa	múuge, liide, ksaaje, lóobe
Type 2	lart, kélc, náp, cwenk	lrdii, klcíi, nëbíi, cwin'gii	lorje, kíljie, náabye, cwiin'gye
Type 3	xámp, zholt, ghúc, juk	xëmbúu, zhlduu, ghücúu, jüguu	xáambwe, zhuldwe, ghúujwe, juugwe

Simple variation vowel nouns

Default	Weak	Plural
lube, nago, mwaco, xéde, sráje	lübii, nëgoo, mwëcoo, xidíi, srëjíi	luubeye, naagowe, mwaacowe, xíideye, sráajeye

Complex variation nouns

Palatal nouns

	Default	Weak	Plural
Voiced stop base Type 1	perji, ñélji, yúgi, tóbi	prjiaa, ñljiáa, yügyáa, tëbyáa	piirjrye, ñíljlye, yúugïngye, tóobüvye
2	náji, húji, tségi, tólbi	nëjjíi, hüjjíi, tsïgzhíi, tlbzhíi	náajrye, húujlye, tsíigïngye, túlbüvye
3	hloji, xworji, ryagi, vyúbi	hlëjiuu, xwrjiuu, ryëgyuu, vyübyúu	hloojrye, xwurdlye, ryaagïngye, vyúubüvye
Voiceless base type 1	gzhéci, dloci, numgi, sólbi	ghiciáa, dlëcaa, nümkyaa, slpyáa	ghzíicrhye, dlootlhye, nuumkïhngye, súupüfye
2	móbi	mëpshíi	móopüfye
3	pláci	plëcáa	pláatlhye

Labial nouns

	Default	Weak	PLural
Voiced 1	ráju	rëjwáa	ráajrwe
2	hwogu	hwëgwii	hwoogüngwe
3	sandu	sëndvuu	saandlwe
Voicless 1	zlecu	zlicwaa	zliicrhwe
2	hméldu	hmltwíi	hmíltlwe
3	shúbu	shüpfúu	shúupüfwe

Historically ejective nouns

Default	Weak	Plural
frábe, lyóndi, shriju, tógo	frëbíi, lyëndíi, shrijuu, tëgóo	fráabüveye, lyóondlye, shriijrwe, tóogëngowe

Intervocal stop nouns

Default	Weak	Plural
tádo, kluge ñárce, sábo	tëdóo, klügii ñërcíi, sëbóo	táadowe, kluugeye ñórjeye, sáabowe

Fricative nouns

	Default	Weak	Plural
Simple voiceless	dvasa, tómfa, rwéshu, zumxe	dvësaa, tëmfáa, rwïsháa, zümxaa	dvaatse, tóompfe, rwíiccwe, zuumkkeye
Complex voiceless	clúso, kólfe, bváfi, hyaxe	clüsóo, klfíi, bvëfii, hyëxii	clúutlhowe, kúlpüfeye, bváa
Voiced	tevo, ñúzo, lazhe	tivoo, ñüzóo, lëzhii	tiivüvowe, ñúuzlowe, laazhreye

Liquid and nasal nouns (4 parts)

Default consonant	Default Vowel	Weak	Plural
shúun, ryaam, pshiing	shúnz, ryamv, pshen'g	shüné, ryëmé, pshingé	shúunde, ryaambe, pshiin'ge
jáal, kóor	jáls, kórsh	jëlé, këré	jáahle, kóohre

Basic endings

Endings using the first principle part

	Singular		Paucal
	Stop Consonant/schwa	Vowel	Stop Consonant/schwa	Vowel
Agent	-	-	ii, uu	zh, v
Causative	ëye	ye	iizhe, uuve	zhazh, vazh
Ablative	ehn	kihn	iiñi, uum	ñzh, ma
Comitative	ent	kint	iiñzhu, uumzhu	ñzhu, mt
Benefactive	empi	kimpi	iiñibi, uumpi	ñip, map
Vialis	or	vr	iiren, uuren	zhrn, vrn
Instrumental	l	l	iyan, uwan	zhën, vën
Adessive	mazh	mazh	iimi, uumi	zhmi, vmi
Locative	hi	hi	iishi, uushi	zhi, vi
Dative	ci	ci	iic, uuc	shc, fc
Patientive	*see 2	yan, wan	*see 2	zhan, van
Posessive	*see 2	ino, uno	*see 2	zhño, vno
Comparative	*see 2	ihno, uhno	*see 2	shno, fno
Genitive/ Combining stem	*see 2	in, un	*see 2	zhñi, vnë

These endings can be added to the 1st prinicple part of the noun using sandhi. One thing must be noted for consonant nouns, nouns ending in a simple voiceless stop will often have a semivowel inserted between the consonant and the ending. Which semivowel is inserted requires knowledge of the second principle part, nouns ending in an ii, like mügíi, will have a y inserted, nouns ending in an uu will hae a w inserted. Nouns ending in aa have nothing inserted. Therefore, the noun múk, mügíi, múugye, will have a y inserted in the ablative (múkyehn), as that ending starts with the vowel e, and múk's second principle part ends in ii.

Endings using the second principle part

Patientive	ha
Possessive	ng
Comparative	ho
Genitive/combining stem	-

Endings using the third principle part

	Consonant	Vowel
Agent	e	e
Causative	ëye	zhe
Ablative	aman	aman
Comitative	amant	amant
Benefactive	amampi	amampi
Vialis	ren	ren
Instrumental	l	hl
Addessive	mazh	mazh
Locative	ëzh	zh
Dative	ëc	c
Patientive	VhVVm*	VhVVm*
Posessive	mo	mo
Comparative	ëhmo	hmo
Genitive/Combing stem	ëm	m

• V means vowel of the second syllable, which is reduplicated. Schwa endings do not reveal the final consonant in vowel ending nouns.

Consonant declension

Voiceless consonant ending

K-nouns group 1 animate, múk, múge, mûgíi (dog-like animal)

	Single	Paucal	Plural
Agent	múk	múgii	Template:Hpc
Causative	múgëye	múgiizhe	Template:Hpc
Ablative	Template:HpcTemplate:Hpc	múgiiTemplate:Hpc	Template:HpcTemplate:Hpc
Comitative	Template:HpcTemplate:Hpc	múgiiTemplate:Hpc	Template:HpcTemplate:Hpc
Benefactive	Template:HpcTemplate:Hpc	múgiiTemplate:Hpc	Template:HpcTemplate:Hpc
Vialis	Template:Hpc	múgiiren	Template:Hpc
Instrumental	múkl	múgiyan	Template:Hpc
Adessive	múkmazh	múgiimi	Template:Hpc
Locative	múxi	múgiishi	Template:Hpc
Dative	múkci	múgiic	Template:Hpc
Patient	Template:Hpc	múgiyan	Template:Hpc
Posessive	Template:Hpc	múgino	Template:Hpc
Comparative	Template:Hpc	múkihno	Template:Hpc
Genitive/Combining form	Template:Hpc	múgin	Template:Hpc

1: stems marked in Bold require knowledge of the invisible vowel, always marked in the second principle part

2: stems marked in Template:Hpc are formed off of the second principle part

3: stems marked in Template:Hpc are formed off of the third principle part

4: endings marked in Template:Hpc use the ablative stem, and are similar across all nouns. Forming the ablative stem require knolwedge of both the first and second principle parts.

Endings added to the combining stem

These endings are added to the combining stem, and must themselves be declined before the noun is used. These nouns may only be declined in the dative, locative, vialis, and ablative. They are effectively "prepositional nouns".

Combining stem endings

	Locative	Dative	Vialis	Ablative
Location in time	jep	sañci	jut	min
Within	ne	neci	nut	nehn
Outside	re	reci	rut	rehn

Showing that a noun is posessed.

If a noun is owned by another noun (marked in the posessive case), an infix is inserted before the second syllable/final consonant that agrees with the possessor. The genitive case is only used when one noun owns another noun, or with relations (my mother, your father). If one noun is part of the other noun, then a compound word using the combining stem is used instead. Inanimate objects always use the combining stem, never the posessive.

Posessive agreement infixes (and use with múk)

	Singular	Paucal	Plural
1st person	në, múnëk	bi, múbik	më, múmëk
2nd person	xë, múxëk	xi, múxik	gë, múgëk
3rd person	lü, múlük	zi, múzik	lnë, múlnëk
4th person	pl, múplk

The possessed nouns may be further declined, múbik (our dog), múbigii (our dogs), múbigiiñipi (for our dogs).

note: the consonants n,m,ng,ñ,r,l,f,v,sh,and zh are considered part of the previous syllable when followed by another consonant, for example, xworji divides into xwor-ji, xamp divides to xam-p, thus you'd get xworziji and xamzip, not xwozirji and xazimp.

Verb Morphology

Behru verbs are conjugated by factors, person, number, transitivity, tense aspect, and mood. Many Behru sentences consist of only a verb, as both the subject and object may be dropped if they can be determined by context.

Command stem formation

Lengthen core vowel weaken second vowel (if applicable) devoice final consonant if ending in n, m, ng, l, or r cet to ciit! speak! yul to yuuhl! walk! mála to máalë! move (it)! add no if intransitive (don't add it if the verb is inherently intransitive) máalëno! move (yourself)! add ji if referring to a group of people yuuhlji walk, all of you! máalënoji! move, all of you!

The command stem is used for the imperative. Also, the command stem can be used to make a "future certain" or a self command with the first person basic subject suffixes.. Cìtu means "I will speak" and shows strong intention, and zínuv means "we will go".

Tense and aspect

Formation of past and future tenses

To form the past tense of a verb like cet	add li before the final syllable of the stem cet to celit
To form the future tense of a verb like mála	add ni before the final syllable of the stem. mála to mánila

Formation of the progressive

To form the progressive tense of a verb starting or containing a consonant cluster ending in a consonant, fricative, y, hy, w, or hw like cet, féde, tádo, yul	Insert an infix after the first consonant consisting of the weakened first vowel and a voiced fricative of the same point of articulation as said consonant cizhet, fivéde, tëzádo, yüzhul (notice, verbs starting in c, j, sh, zh, and ñ can use z or zh depending on whether they sonorize with an l [use z] or and r [uze zh]
To form the progressive of a verb starting in a nasal like ñen, muk, hnédo, ngyoba	do the same as above, but add a nasal consonant before the consonant infix (ñ is treated like n, ng uses n'g ñinzen, mümvuk, hninzédo, ngyën'goba
To form the progressive of a verb starting in or having a consonant cluster ending in r or l like rop, zhlún	reduplicate lV or rV, and weaken first syllable rërop, zhlülún

Passive and causative formation

The passive is formed by palatilizing the last consonant in the first consonant cluster (adding a y). The causative is formed by labialization of that same consonant. The first vowel is lengthened in both forms. Some initial consonants/ consonant clusters must be sonorized before being palatalized or labialized. The passive stem is included in the principle parts to show whether or not this happens.

How to sonorize an initial consonant/consonant cluster

Initial consonant/ final consonant in cluster.
x	add ëhng
g, gh	add ëng
ky, xy, hngy	add ihng
kw, xw, hngw	add ühng
gy	add ing
gw	add ung
c, j, sh, zh, ñ, nw, hñ, hnw	add r or l
ly, lw	add r
d, s, z, tw, dw, sw, rw, ry, hry, hrw	add l
b, v, bw, mw	add üv
by, vy, my	add iv
pw, fw, hmw	add üf
py, fy,hmy	add if
y	change to ghi
w	change to ghü
hy	change to hi
hw	change to hü

Note- a cluster ending in a y or w loses that y or w in sonorization

The sonorant then takes the place of the original consonant for palatalization or labialization.

Clitic verbs

There exists a closed class of clitic verbs in Behru which are suffixed to the stem of a free standing verb. The basic stem is not used, instead the special compound stem is used. The form of the special compound stem is unpredictable and thus is a principle part. (note: the basic stem is used in ordinary compound verbs, not the special compound stem.)

cet becomes cocash/ cocay

mála becomes hmáalash/ hmáalay

zén becomes zéyëdash/ zéyëday

zot becomes zootwash/ zootway

xworji becomes xworojii/ xworojiy

Common clitic verbs

-es/et: possible, eg: cocayesú: I can speak

ghóon: to start, eg: pázootwazhghónzú: I am about to explode

shosu: to cease, eg: zéyëdacosuji: we will stop moving momentarily

ol: to help, eg: múgëye crwoocayoolxá: the dog helps you move

Adding infixes to a a special compound stem verb

In order to add the infixes li and ni to a verb in the special compound stem, one first

uses the special forms of the infixes, yo and ño, instead of li and ni

puts the first syllable of the basic stem (sans final consonant), before, from cet ce-, from mála má-, from zén zé-, from xworji xwo-

puts the remaining syllables that would be in the special stem after

from cocash/cocay cash/cay, from hmáalash/ hmáalay lash/lay, from xworojii/xworojiy rojii/rojiy

(note: if the remainder from the special stem has more than one syllable, like -roji from xworoji, use the regular forms of the infixes(ni and li) instead of the special forms (ño and yo).

Thus, cocash becomes ceñocash or ceyocash, hmáalash becomes máñolash or máyolash, xworoji becomes xwonirojii or xwolirojii.

Polypersonal agreement

The Behru verb agrees with its preformer, or subject, in person and number. A transitive verb also agrees with its object in person, subject, and number. Verb endings are added to the stem in the same manner noun endings are.

Intransitive verb participant agreement

	Singular	Paucal	Plural
1st person	ú	bu	ji
2nd person	xá	xú	xé
3rd person	hlo	zu	hloon
4th person	líl

Nominal form

	Singular	Paucal	Plural
1st person	émi	ébi	éji
2nd person	éjri	énang	éjre
3rd person	olasha	ángude	oliishan
4th person	éhwe

Descriptive form

Singular	Paucal	Plural
lyu	lav	lyoon

Transitive verb subject-object agreement

Object> subject	1 single	1 paucal	1 plural	2 single	2 paucal	2 plural	3 animate single	3 animate paucal	3 animate plural	3 inanimate single	3 inanimate paucal	3 inanimate plural	4th p
1p one	-	-	-	uttó	emru	emir	wan	azhbu	une	i	idu	idán	iga
1p few	-	-	-	ecó	dav	de	izhá	linu	izháa	bi	bidu	bidán	igav
1p many	-	-	-	uttwé	emeru	emezhr	wen	ezhbu	wiin	jie	jiedu	jiedán	ige
2p one	nim	odasa	iwa	-	-	-	lit	kendu	afnan	xi	xidu	xidán	kóoga
2p few	nimu	odasu	ivu	-	-	-	lic	kshindu	ifnan	xizh	xizhdu	xizhdán	kóogav
2p many	nime	odase	iwe	-	-	-	liisht	kshiindu	efnan	xe	xedu	xedán	kóoge
3 single	ova	ufingu	lam	océk	océkyu	ocíigye	rayáa	kabu	uzhgan	ri	ridu	ridán	yavba
3 paucal	ézo	ézidu	ézoon	ohan	ohanu	ohaane	iben	nimu	angizh	zi	zidu	zidán	sinav
3 plural	eva	ufengu	lem	ocek	ocekyu	ociigye	rézh	kebu	wíizhgan	ehli	ehlidu	ehlidán	yavbe
4th person	ógañi	ógamu	ógañe	ózhdo	ózhdov	ózhdwe	ótsa	ódzu	ótsan	óci	ócidu	ócidán	-

Participial endings

	1 single	1 paucal	1 plural	2 single	2 paucal	2 plural	3 animate single	3 animate paucal	3 animate plural	3 inanimate single	3 inanimate paucal	3 inanimate plural	4
1st single	-	-	-	amo	amark	amar	upor	uzhbuk	upran	ér	iráp	iránt	usuk
1 paucal	-	-	-	yazok	dáafk	yezok	ushk	ulnuk	ushken	ber	birap	birant	ufuk
1 plural	-	-	-	émo	émerk	émar	wepor	wezhbuk	wepran	jiér	jieráp	jieránt	uusuk
2 single	oxon	odók	onók	-	-	-	úcohya	ahmaase	fok	ujri	ujrip	ujrint	ákashk
2 paucal	ixan	idák	inák	-	-	-	úcac	ahmaac	fac	ináng	inangáp	inangánt	ikashk
2 plural	oxiin	odíik	oníik	-	-	-	úcíihye	ahmiise	fiik	wiijri	wejrip	wjerint	ákaashk
3 single	osar	lert	ason	uvlak	uvlagu	uvlaage	osep	aksap	osek	ulasha	ulashap	ulashant	azehl
3 paucal	azhar	efek	azhek	usunk	usungvu	usuungwe	wanar	nik	waner	inguut	inguudep	inguudent	idun
3 plural	esar	ledi	asen	uvlek	uvlegu	uvliige	esep	aksep	esek	ulesha	uleshap	uleshant	azehna
4	yagún	yagbin	yagmán	yagák	yagin	yagáak	yaksha	yakshun	yakshe	yahwe	yahwep	yahwent

Descripitive endings

Other preformer	1st person singular	1 paucal	1 plural	2 singular	2 paucal	2 plural	3 animate singular	3a paucal	3a plural	3 inanimate singular	3in paucal	3in plural	4
Described subject	sóop	udbi	sóomt	sóok	sóogu	sóoge	mav	olvu	mev	tek	tekyup	tekyunt	fazh
Described object	bak	bik	omsá	igazh	igizh	igaazh	wor	ihru	wer	pásh	pábi	páñci	dwoo

Deriving verbs to nouns

Nominalizing suffixes

ka (irregularily declined)	gerund, cètka would mean speaking. Often used to form abstract nouns, málaka means "movement"
zo	inanimate object associated with the verb (often imparts an irregular meaning which must be learned independantly) cèdzo would mean "words, speech)
hen	means -er in english, also used to indicate the inhabitant of a location, cèsen would mean speaker, kìdilihen would mean an idili person.
hik	means "a way of doing something, method". cèsik would mean "language"(way of speaking)
ya	indicates an instance or cycle, can be used for both nouns and verbs. Typically paired with a number prefix, ñecèca would mean "third speech"
co	indicates an event, such as in màcco "the event of peace"
láng	means the same thing as -ness in english, added to the descriptive stem of a verb, as in xùweláng "livelyness, health"

The copulas

The copulas is a suffix attached to the predicate noun in an equative sentence. It conjugates irregularily. The -lu copula is the stative copula, you use it to say "the dog is red". The ru copula is the change copula, you'd use it to say "the dog has gotten redder", or "the dog is red but it wasn't the last time I saw it.".

Conjugation of the copulas

	Lu	Ru
	Present	Past	Present	Past
1st person singular	foba	dam	-	-
1 paucal	fobu	dabu	-	-
1 plural	níin	díin	-	-
2nd person singular	foxa	dang	-	-
2 paucal	foxu	dangu	-	-
2 plural	foxe	dange	-	-
3rd person singuar animate	lon	da	ron	ja
3a paucal	loju	daju	roju	jayu
3a plural	kíin	tíin	ríin	jíin
3rd person singular inanimate	lu	du	ru	ju
3ina paucal	luv	duv	ruv	juv
3ina plural	lun	dun	run	jun
4th person	sil	dil	ril	jil

Behru syntax

Basic case

The basic case is used for

-the agent of a transitive verb

múk shüneha kyocarayáa: the dog pushes the man

-the participant in an intransitive verb

múk cetlo: the dog speaks

-before the topic particle zú

múuge zú nebalíl: as for dogs, they run

The topic

The topic of the sentence is a noun marked with the postposition zú. It is used in the gnomic tense, to set that noun apart from other nouns in a dsecription. The topic need not be the subject of the sentence, it can be in any case. Verbs marked with a 4th person agreement agree with the last stated topic in a discourse

Causative case

The causative case is used for the cause of a verb in the causative.

cinidémiye múk nwiinibahlo: because I spoke, the dog ran

Some verbs can use the basic or causative cases, this causes a subtle change in meaning

shúun kwootri: the man throws it (causes it to fly), vs.

shúuñe kwoootlo: because of the man, it flies (the man did something else leading it to fly.

Ablative case

used for the origin of a motion

shúun zú béhrusokihn zéninlíil: as for the man, he came from the Behru homeland.

Comitative case

Is used for the companion in an action.

shúun múkyant ninzebahlon: the man was running with the dog.

Vialis case

Used to indicate means of travel

shúun sedoñci béhrusokimpi zénihnlo: the man went to Sedone through the behru homeland

jálokimpi wunëdici kodú: I fly to my home by aircraft.

Instrumental case

Used to indicate tools used to complete an action.

molumikl hmoonlíil: it shines with heat.

Adessive case

used to indicate something an action was done without.

wálübakint cidolashamash sedoñci zénihnlo: she went to sedone without talking to her mother.

Locative case

Used to indicate the location of an action

doonde wudihi nebahloon: the children run in the house.

Dative case

used to indicate the indirect object of a verb, the exact meaning varies.

The target of a verb of motion shúuñci múk nenibahlo: the dog ran to the man.

The target of a bitransitive verb:shúun wulüdici kwoonitri: the man threw it at his house.

Patient case

used to indicate the direct object of an intransitive verb.

shúun tëlübyáaha túnijrehlo: the man took off his overshirt.

Posessive case

used to indicate that one noun owns another.

shüneng tóbi: the man's overshirt

Numbers

Behru has a base 12 numbering system. Simple numbers are simply suffixed after the nouns they count. The result is then declined like a noun.

1 mu	12 gu	144 sran	1728 ghwe	20736 sha	248832 gusha	429981616 sisha	8916100448256 sifosha	12^16 siñesha
2 fo	24 fu	288 fowan	3456 fowe	41472 fosha	497664 fusha	859963232 fosisha	etc	etc
3 ñe	36 ñu	432 ñeyan	5184 ñewe	62208 ñesha	746496 ñusha	etc
4 ber	48 bru	576 beran	6912 berwe	etc	etc
5 dat	60 datu	etc	etc
6 hmye	72 hmyu
7 vel	84 vlu
8 fer	96 fru
9 niñe	108 niñu
10 suk	120 suku
11 ruse	121 rusu

Compound numbers.

To make complex numbers, like 25, or 156, one strings together the simple numbers in a sequence of addition from the biggest to the smallest number.

25: fumu fu(24) and mu(1)

156: srangu sran(144( and gu(12)

157: srangumu

305: fowanggudat

when a number is affixed to a noun, it is declined like a noun. Typically, the penultimate vowel takes a ` accent and is subject to vowel strengthening or weakening. For example, 25 beds would be mùkfùmu, but if declined in the owner case, it would be mùkfümungò, and in the direction case, it would be mùkfùmuhi. 10 beds would be mùksùk. towards the (12^12)*11 people would be shúnrusesifòshashi

Ordinal numbers

Behru ordinal numbers are formed simply by prefixing a number to a noun. They are usually prefixed to a noun like -tsék(place) or -ya (time, as in a cycle)

Fractional numbers

Fractions in Behru are formed by the suffix -t for numbers which end in a vowel and -ta for ones ending in a consonant. The fractions for half, third, fourth, and twelfth are formed irregularily. They are -kir, nisa, besa, and gusa. they are used the same way normal numbers are, mùkrusèt would be 1 eleventh of a bed. If one wishes to count the fractions, those numbers are suffixed past the fraction. mùksransùktaruse would mean "eleven 154ths of a bed"

Usage of numbers, and approximate quantities

A specific number is always declined in the "few" number, as the few number is considered to encompass all small or specific quantities. A general number, like -not, which means some, is considered a mass noun, and all mass nouns use the "many" case.

General quantity suffixes -hok: every,all -mok: none -hot: some -huk: most -muk: few

Number modifying suffixes: -sát: around, aprroximately -kère: only, just

Honorifics

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