Behru cesik

Sározòng màdzò lónro tu, cérazo gi. From order there is peace, but also stagnation. Template:Progress Template:Conlang Info

Setting

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 1 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 An exception, of All free roots except particles have a suffix or infix of some sort indicating its 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 rising or falling ´ or `. Along with this, the vowel carrying a tone also carries a strength, an aspect of the root which carries grammatical information, and this strength can be on 1 of 3 levels. Polysyllabic compound Words carry the vowel strength on the second to last syllable.

The vowel i can be found as a non prolonged sound in some bound morphemes, but never occurs as the vowel of an unbound morpheme.

Vowel strength

Weak	ë	ë	î	ü	l	r
Strong	a	o	e	u	ol	ar
Prolonged	a	o	i	u	ul	er

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 (happens both inside words and between to consecutive words)

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

Rule 2: n assimilates with follwing consonant in point of pronounciation if stop, fricative, or nasal

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	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	become p,kh,c,sh,t,s,p,f (and the unfortunate spellings khh and shh can be created)

Rule 8: w and y become v and zh when not followed by vowels

w and y	when followed by another consonant	become v and zh

Vowel Sandhi (only happens inside the word)

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,î	become ey,y
e,i	when followed by i	become ezh,zh
a	when followed by any vowel	dissapears

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

Behru Nouns may be modified to show the nouns role in the sentaence. This modification is shown through vowel strength, final consonant mutation, and suffixes. A nouns number is also shown in this way, and there is no distinction between number and role markers. The standard Hedri dialect has 9 sentence roles and 3 numbers attached to the noun fusionally. The three numbers of Behru are one, few, and many. The few number is used for small groups of things, pairs, and a cluster of things. The many number implies that there are too many of a noun to be easily counted. There is also a mass noun suffix, -mik, with its own endings, but grammatically it is treated effectively identically to the one number. Nouns, excluding irregular ones, can be divided into the following declension groups: k, t, n, ik, ot, l, a, i, e, r. The declensions may also be divided into animate, inanimate, and abstract/mass, each of which use slightly different endings. The singular cases use the strong core vowel for most cases, the weak vowel for the reciever and owner, and a prolonged core vowel for the few and many forms.

Consonant declension

	Stop Consonant declension (inanimate-animate) k nouns				t nouns			p nouns
	Role	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many
Strong	Doer	k	v-zh	ke	t	du-di	te	p	bu-bi	pe
	Cause	kye-kwe	vi-zhe	gye-kun	ce-ce	dvi-je	d-do	pye-bve	bvi-bye	b-bo
	Origin	ng	mwa-ña	ngin	n	mmwa-ñña	nnin	m	mmwa-mmya	mmin
	Companion	kl-kur	vl-zhir	kln-grn	tl-tur	dul-dir	tln-drn	pl-pur	bul-bir	pln-brn
	Location	xi	hwi-shi	ghi	si	duhi-dihi	zi	fi	buhi-bihi	vi
	Direction	kshi	fshi-sshi	gzhi	ci	dushi-dishi	ji	pshi	bushi-bishi	bzhi
	Means	kl-gvo	vl-sho	kan-gho	dl-dvo	dul-co	tan-to	bl-bvo	bul-pco	bil-po
Weak	Receiver	k-xa	v-sha	ke-gha	t-sa	tu-ca	te-za	p-fa	bu-psha	pe-va
	Owner	ngo-ksa	mo-sha	gmo-gza	no-tsa	dmo-ca	mmvo-dza	mo-tsa	bmo-psha	mmvo-bza
	Comparison	xo	hwo-hyo	gho	so	swo-shyo	zo	fo	fwo-fyo	vo

Nasal consonant declension, always animate

	m			n			ng
	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many
Doer	m	mi	me	n	ni	ne	ng	ngi	nge
Cause	mwe	mzhe	mmo	nwe	ñzhe	nno	ngwe	ngzhe	ngno
Origin	mmë	mye	min	nnë	ñe	nin	nngë	ngye	ngin
Companion	hmu	misha	më	hnu	nisha	në	hngu	ngisha	ngë
Location	hmi	mizha	mi	hni	nizha	ni	hngi	ngizha	ngi
Direction	mshi	mji	mzhi	ñshi	ñji	ñzhi	ngshi	ngji	ngzhi
Means	mvo	myo	myom	nvo	ño	nom	ngvo	ngyo	ngom
Receiver	hmé	mí	mé	hné	ní	né	hngé	ngí	ngé
Owner	mo-msa	mmó-mísa	mvó-mzá	nó-nsá	mmó-nísa	mvó-nzá	ngó-ngsá	ngmó-ngísa	ngvó-ngzá
Comparison	hmo	hmyo	mého	hnó	hñó	ného	hngó	hngyó	ngóho

Ka declension (irregular suffix)

	One	Few	Many
Doer	ka	u/v	ke
cause	kamyu	wi	kamyun or kun(some dialects)
Origin	ng	mwa	ngen
Companion/means	kal	ul/vl	kln
Location	xi	hwi	kin
Direction	kashi	ushi/fshi	kshin
Reciever	ká/	ú/v	ké
Owner	kángo/kása	úmo/vmó úsa/fsá	kámo/ksán
Comparison	xó	úho/hwó	kón

Vowel declension

(note) using vowel sandhi, the endings for all declensions can be predicted based on the a declension endings.)

(note) nouns ending in l or r are considered to be vowel declension)

	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many
Doer	a	u-i	e	i	yu-zhi	ye	u	vu-wi	we
Cause	aye-awe	wi-ye	ange-on	iye-iwe	iwi-iye	inge-yon	uye-uwe	uwi uye	unge-won
Origin	ang	angu-angi	angin	ing	ingu-ingi	ingin	ung	ungu-ungi	ungin
Companion	al-ur	ul-ir	aln-arn	il-yur	yul-zhir	iln-irn	ul-vur	vul-wir	uln-urn
Location	ahi	wi-zhi	ang'i	ihi	iwi-izhi	ingi	uhi	uwi-uzhi	ungi
Direction	ashi	ushi-ishi	azhin	ishi	yushi-izhëshi	izhin	ushi	vushi-wishi	unzhin
Means	al-avo	ul	an-om	il-ivo	iwosa-iyo	in-yom	ul-uvo	uwosa-uyo	un-wom
Receiver	á-hé	ú-hyé	é-hé	í-yé	yú-íye	ye	ú-hwé	vú-úhye	wé-ún
Owner	ángo-ása	úmo-ísa	ámvo-ángza	íngo-ísa	yúmo-zhísa	ímvo-íngza	úngo-úsa	vúmo-wísa	úmvo-´¨ngza
Comparison	áho	úho-ího	ého	ího	yúho-zhího	yého	úho	vúho-wího	wého

Uncountable declension.	mik	ik	ot	mass -eng
	Mass	One	One	Mass
cause	myuwe	yuwe	otwe	émyuwe
origin	ming	ing	on	éng
companion/means	mil	il	otl	éngl
location	hmi	shi	oshi	éhmi
Direction	mshi	ci	oci	éñshi
owner	mingo	ingo	ono	îngo
reciever	mik	ik	ot	îng
Comparison	mixo	ixo	oso	ehngo

Showing that a noun is posessed.

If a noun is owned by/part of another noun, Its stem is modified by a suffix. Notice how in the declination charts there are two possible endings for a noun in the owner case. Although in modern days these suffixes simply agree with the animacy of the noun, in the past they indicated whether the owned object was removable or not. Nonremovable posessions were indicated by the inanimate owner suffix -ngo, and indiacted unremovable things like your arm, your mother, or your feelings. The animate suffix indicated things that you bought/took and could be easily given away, like your dog or your house.

Behru posessed noun suffixes

	One(mine,yours,its)	Few (ours, yours, theirs)	Many (Allof ours etc...)
My/ours(removable)	va	fi	ma
My/ours(unremovable)	fo	fu	hma
Yours(removable)	ka	ki	nga
Yours(unremovable)	xa	ku	hnga
His/hers/its/theirs(removable)	ra	ri	n
His/hers/its/theirs(unremovable)	la	lu	n
4th person's	li	li	li

Positioning of the suffix

If noun ends in consonant other than n or m like múk	Add infix directly after and decline suffix like noun múk to múkki (your dog) example of declination múkkizhës (with your two dogs)
If the noun ends in n or m like shún	add infix before the n or m músha shúzhin (the dog's man)
If the noun ends in a vowel like náwa	Add infix before vowel (and remember vowel sandhi) náw-lu-a návlwa (his/her/its mother)

Locational suffixes from the owner case

Locational suffixes are added to the genitive stem of a noun  

Formation of the owner stem

Decline a noun to the owner case, withouth weakening the core vowel. múk to múngo dog to dog's	remove the o múngo to múng	Add suffix múngu inside the dog	Decline noun as normal múngu to múnguci into the dog

Locational suffixes

u	inside
el	outside
ye	above, on
ok	below, under
yar	on, touching
cu	until, up to
ju	by, at this time
sr´lu (changes noun to descriptive verb)	-like
sr´t	likeness
jep	after (time)
cep	in front of
sat	before (time)
zat	behind
he	to the side of

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.

Step 1: Mood and transitivity

In Behru, mood and transitivity are fused categories. Moods are associated with either a weak or strong stem of the verb. The weak stem indicates uncertartainity.

Formation of the strong basic stem

If verb root ends in p,t,k, like cèt	Then change to f,s,x cèt to cès
If verb ends in anything else, like mála	no change mála

Formation of the strong derived intransitive stem

If verb root ends in p,t,k like cèt	Voice the final consonant to b,d,g and add -la cèt to cèdla
If verb root ends in anything else like mála	add la mála to málala

Formation of the weak basic stem

If verb ends in p,t,k like cèt	weaken vowel cèt to cî`t	then change final consonant to f,s,x cî`s
if verb ends in ng,n,m like mùn	weaken vowel mùn to mü`n	then change final consonant to nggh,nz,mv mü`n to mü`nz
If verb ends in r,l like còr	weaken vowel còr to cë`r	then change final consonant to y,z cë`r to cë`y
If verb ends in a vowel like mála	weaken core vowel mála to më´la	then weaken ending vowel më´la to më´lë

Formation of the weak intransitive stem

If verb ends in p,t,k like cèt	weaken core vowel cî`t	then voice final consonant to b,d,g cî`d
If verb ends in anything else like mála	weaken core vowel më´la	-

Note: verb roots can be divided into 2 groups: roots that can be either transitive or intransitive (like cét)

and true intransitive verbs (like nèb). True intransitive roots use only the strong basic and weak intransitive stem forms. They can never be used in a transitive sense in the active voice. These roots are listed in bold in the vocabulary section, and may end in the ordinarily forbidden consonants b,f,v,d,s,z,c,j,sh,zh,g,gh.

Mood suffixes

Mood		Transitive suffix form	Intransitive suffix form
Used with strong form	Indicative he X-s/is X-ing	- (cès)	- (málal)
	Inevitable condition if he X-s, he will Y	e (cèse)	ot (málot)
Used with weak form (all suffixes steal tone of core verb)	Possible condition if he X-s, he may Y	í(y) (cîsì) (cîsìyu)	ô´t (mëlô´t)
	Interrogative is he xing?	éj (cîsèj)	ój (mëlój)
	Possibility he may X	è (cîsè)	lè(mëllé)
	Capability he can x	sú (cîssù)	só(mëlasó)

Command stem formation

For consonant verbs Lengthen core vowel cèt to cìt If intransitive, do the same, but add-l and voice the final consonant mála to mâ´lal
for vowel verbs Lengthen core vowel weaken second vowel mála to mâ´lë add l if intransitive

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".

Mood stem

Mood stem formation

For consonant verbs weaken final consonant, voice it (if applicable) cèt to cèz zén to zénz málal to málaz	add -a cèza zénza málaza
For vowel verbs Add ya to the end of the stem mála to málaya

Linking stem

Leave in basic stem, no changes. This form is used when for compound verbs.

Step 2: Tense

Formation of past and future tenses

To form the past tense of a strong stem verb like cès	add le after the core vowel cès to cèles
To form the past tense of a weak stem verb like cî`s	add l after the core vowel cî`s to cî`ls
To form the future tense of a strong stem verb like hyéf	add ne after the core vowel hyéf to hyénef
To form the future tense of a weak stem verb like hyî´f	add n after the core vowel hyî´f to hyî´mf

Step 3: Aspect

Habitual aspect

The habitual aspect would indicate a habit, or something frequently done. It may be combined with the past tense.

Find the first consonant or consonant at the end of a consonant cluster of a verb	insert a weakened version of the core vowel after the inital consonants (applies to all verbs) cèt to cîèt	and divide vowels with a voices fricative of the same point or pronounciation cîèt to cîzhèt

The habitual voice is used to indicate actions that the speakers does or did frequently. ghùtrhi mòkshi zîzénenu would mean I used to go to the beach (on a regular basis). When used with the future tense, it indicates a desire to get into a habit, mòkshi zîzélenu would mean I will (get into the habit of) going to the beach.

Momentous aspect

By prefixing pà- to a verb, a sense of sudenness is given to a verb. It expresses a bit of surprise on the part of a speaker as well.

Subject 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. .

Behru subject agreement in intransitive verbs

		True			Derived			Reflexive
		One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many
Strong (realis)	First person	u	uv	we	li	lizh	lye	ufa	ufi	ufe
	Second person	ka	kav	ke	le	lezh	leye	kaxa	kixi	kexe
	Third person	hro	hrov	hron	hlo	hlozh	hlon	hroyo	hrozhi	hroye
	Fourth person	ir

Transitive verb subject object agreement

Subject> Object	1st p one	1st p few	1st p many	2nd p one	2nd p few	2nd p many	3rd p one	3rd p few	3rd p many	4th p
1p one		vum	vem	kam	kvam	kem	rom	rim	rem	ilm
1p few	umva			kamva	kumva	kemva	romva	rimva	remva	irmva
1p many	ume			gve	kwe	keme	rome	rime	reme	irme
2p one	ung	vung	veng		kung	keng	rong	ring	reng	irng
2p few	ungi	vungi	vengi	kangi		kengi	rongi	ringi	rengi	irngi
2p many	unge	vunge	venge	kange	kunge		ronge	ringe	renge	irnge
3p one	un	vun	ven	kan	kun	ken	rozh	rin	ren	iro
3p few	uni	vuni	veni	kazh	kwi	krezh	rozha	rizh	reni	iri
3p many	une	vune	vene	kane	kune	kene	ron	rine	rezh	ire
4p	ul	vul	vel	kal	kul	kel	rol	ril	rel	uli

In the first person endings, the few and many endings carry different implications. mëmalalizh would mean "we are moving" (just us) but mëmalalye would mean "we are moving" (inculding the people being spoken to.) The fourth person endings are used to name a vague, distant, or unknown subject. These endings are used to indicate an action directed to the self, "cèleshu" would mean "I said to myself."

Descriptive verbs

Descriptive verbs are a special form of intransitive verb that are used to show ongoing states, like "the boiling rock" or permanent states, like "the rock is hard". Descriptive verbs function as adjectives. They agree with the noun being described in number, and use the intransitive stem. They are placed before the modified noun. When descriptive verb endings are not used, a participle is implied. -l descriptive verbs are attached to the intransitive stem of a verb, resultive verbs are attached to the basic stem.

Endings of a Behru descriptive verb

	One	Few	Many
Third person	lu	luv	lun
Secord person	ghu	ghuv	ghe
First person	vu	vuv	ve

Resultive state endings

	One	Few	Many
Third person	ru	ruzh	run
Second person	xu	xuzh	xe
First person	fu	fuzh	fe

Resultant state endings are used to indicate an action has already happened to the described object

An illustration of the three ways to describe nouns with verbs

lwóhmro kàrt: rock that is being heated up

lwóhmlo kàrt: rock that is heating uo

lwómlu kàrt: Hot rock

lwómru kàrt: Rock that has become heated.

These verbs may be used in both attributive an predicative positions, for example, both lwómlu kàrt and kàrt lwómlu would be gramatically correct.

Comparative and superlative verbs.

A comparative verb is like an adjective, stating that x is more/less y than z. The superlative says that x is the most/least y out of everything. A superlative verb agrees with the noun it describes, like an intransitive verb, and the comparative verb agrees with both the thing it describes and the thing it compares to, like a transitive verb

Comparative verb endings

	Descriptive																		Resultant
	"More"									"Less"									"More"									"Less"
Described noun- Compared noun |	1st person one	1p few	1p many	2p one	2p few	2p many	3p one	3p few	3p many	1p 1	1p few	1p many	2p one	2p few	2p many	3p one	3p few	3p many	1p one	1p few	1p many	2p one	2p few	2p many	3p one	3p few	3p many	1p one	1p few	1p many	2p one	2p few	2p many	3p one	3p few	3p many
1p one		vum	vem	ghom	ghum	ghem	lom	lum	lommë		bvom	vwem	kwom	kfum	kwem	lwom	lvom	lwommë		fim	fem	xom	xim	xem	rom	rim	rem		pfim	fwem	xwom	kfim	xwem	rwom	com	rwem
1p few	vomu			ghomu	ghumu	ghemu	lomu	lumu	lommu	vwomu			kwomu	kfumu	kwemu	lwomu	lvomu	lwommu	fomi			xomi	ximi	xemi	romi	rimi	remi	fwomi			xwomi	kfimi	xwemi	rwomi	comi	rwemi
1p many	vome			ghome	ghume	gheme	lome	lume	lomme	vwome			kwome	kfume	kweme	lwome	lvome	lwomme	fome			xome	xime	xeme	rome	rime	reme	fwome			xwome	kfime	xweme	rwome	come	rweme
2p one	vong	vung	veng	ghong	ghung	gheng	long	lung	lonngë	vwong	bvong	vweng	kwong	kfung	kweng	lwong	lvong	lwonng	fong	fing	feng	xong	xing	xeng	rong	ring	reng	fwong	pfing	fweng	xwong	kfing	xweng	rwong	cong	rweng
2p few	vongu	vungu	vengu	ghongu	ghungu	ghengu	longu	lungu	lonngu	vwongu	bvongu	vwengu	kwongu	kfungu	kwengu	lwongu	lvongu	lwonngu	fongi	fingi	fengi	xongi	xingi	xengi	rongi	ringi	rengi	fwongi	pfingi	fwengi	xwongi	kfingi	xwegni	rwongi	congi	rwengi
2p many	vonge	vunge	venge	ghonge	ghunge	ghenge	longe	lunge	lonnge	vwonge	bvonge	vwenge	kwonge	kfunge	kwenge	lwonge	lvonge	lwonnge	fonge	finge	fenge	xonge	xinge	xenge	ronge	ringe	renge	fwonge	pfinge	fwenge	xwonge	kfinge	xwenge	rwonge	conge	rwenge
3p one	von	vun	ven	ghon	ghun	ghen	lon	lun	lonnë	vwon	bvon	vwen	kwon	kfon	kwen	lwon	lvon	lwonnë	fon	fin	fen	xon	xin	xen	ron	rin	rene	fwon	pfin	fwen	xwon	kfin	xwen	rwon	con	rwen
3p few	vonu	vunu	venu	ghonu	ghunu	ghenu	lonu	lunu	lonnu	vwonu	bvonu	vwenu	kwonu	kfonu	kwenu	lwonu	lvonu	lwonnu	foni	fini	feni	xoni	xini	xeni	roni	rini	reni	fwoni	pfini	fweni	xwoni	kfini	xweni	rwoni	coni	rweni
3p many	vonnë	vunnë	vennë	ghonnë	ghunnë	ghennë	lonnë	lunnë	lonnë	vwonnë	bvonnë	vwennë	kwonnë	kfonnë	kwennë	lwonnë	lvonnë	lwonnë	fonnë	finnë	fennë	xonnë	xinnë	ene	ronnë	rinnë	ronnë	fwonnë	pfinnë	fwennë	xwonnë	kfinnë	xwennë	rwone	connë	rwennë

Superlative verb endings

	Descriptive						Resultant
	"Most"			"Least"			"Most"			"Least"
	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many	One	Few	Many
Third person	lelu	leluv	lele	nelu	neluv	nele	reru	rerizh	rere	niru	nirizh	nire
Second person	xe	xeyu	xeye	nge	ngeyu	ngeye	kehu	kehi	kehe	ngehu	ngehi	ngehe
First person	fe	feyu	feye	meng	meyu	meye	pehu	pehi	pehe	mehu	mehi	mehe

Voice

Behru verbs have voices, passive, causative, anticausative The causative, anticausative and passive voices may be fused to make the causative passive.

Passive voice formation

The passive voice is used for sentences without an agent, or where the agent's role isminimalized.

		add y after the first consonant, mû`n to myû`n
For verbs starting with or containing a consonant cluster ending in c,j,sh,zh,ñ,y like jl`to	strenghten the core vowel, jl`to to jùlto	Then add ry after the first consonant or at the end of the cluster jùlto to jryùlto
For verbs starting with or containg a consonant cluster ending in t,d,s,z,n like dóla	strengthen the core vowel dóla to dô´la	then add ly after the first consonant or at the end of the cluster dô´la to dlyô´a
For verbs starting with or containing a consonant cluster with y like hyép and yùl	strengthen thr core vowel hyép to hyíp yùl to yû`l	then change the y to ey(or yey if that would leave the word starting with a vowel) hyíp to hezhíp yû`l to yeyû`l

In order to form the weakened stem of a passive verb

For passive verbs ending in consonants lik myû`n dlyóla	Weaken the final consonant (if applicable) and core vowel and add é/è(depending on the accent of the core vowel myünzè dlyëlé

Causative formation

Formation of the causative stem

if root starts with or contains a cluster ending with b,p,f,v,m like mála	strengthen core vowel mála to mála	and add o to after the initial consonant or cluster mála to mowála
If root starts with or has a consonant cluster ending in w like gwàmo	strengthen the core vowel gwámo to gwámo	and add o to the end of the initial consonant or cluster gwámo to gwowámo

The causative voice is used to indicate that someone played a role assisting or causing another action. The causative stem has several verb suffixes added to add to its meaning.

Causative stem suffixes

Kèm: indicates forced action	mowâ´lakèmraya (someone) is making him/her move something
xù: indicates assistance in an action	mowâ´laxùraya (someone) is helping him/her move something
mésa: indicates a permitted action	mowâ´lamésaraya (someone) let him her move something
sù: indicates an action caused indirectly or as a result of something else.	mowâ´lasùraya(something else happened) that let/ caused him/her to move something

Anticausative formation

The anticausative is the opposite of the causative, it indicates that an action was interfered with/ stopped by an outside force. It also strengthens the core vowel

If verbs starts with/ ends in a consonant cluster with k,g,x,gh,h,ng	Infix -ang- after the first consonant(s), like kát to kangâ´t
If verb starts with/ ends in a consonant cluster with c,j,sh,zh,r,y,ñ	infix -en- after the first consonants, like yùl to yenû`l
If verb sarts with/ ends in a consonant cluster with t,d,s,z,l	infix -an- after the first consonants, like dére to daníre
If verb starts with/ ends in a consonant cluster with b,p,f,v,m,w	infix -um- after the first consonants, like mála to mumâ´la

The anticausative uses the same causative endings, with opposite meanings, for example

yenû`lkèmu (someone) stops me from walking

yenû`lxfù(someone) interferes my walking

yenû`lmésu (someone) won't let me walk

yenû`lsfù (something caused) me to not walk

(note: y and w, when at the end of an initial consonant cluster are Not used for determining the infix)

Fusing voices

Combining Causative and anticausative with the passive

To combine passive with the causative or anticausative, one first changes the stem to causative or anticausative, then palatalizes it. Example: Kàsa to kwàsa to kuyàsa, brúvi to brenû´vi to breñû´vi.

Deriving verbs to nouns

The most common way to change a verb into a noun is adding the suffix -ka to the end of a fully conjugated verb. Ka conjugates as a normal "a" noun, despite being only one syllable. Ka is used in a great variety of sentance constructions. For example, "rùnalu shùnza mási cèt ka céshro" "She doesn't like the act of speaking in front of other people" glossed "she dislikes speaking in front of other people."

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)

Behru sentence and phrase construction

Sentance introductory particles

These paticles are placed at the beginning of the sentence and are used to indicate the speakers viewpoint about what they are saying. They include

ghé: indicates a new observation, ex: ghé mòk màshro, (I just noticed) the sea is calming down.

wèn: indicates an opinion or belief. ex: wèn yùdon mesë´hmfro (I think) that child can't see. cì: indicates a reminder, can be somewhat rude,

Transitive sentence structure

A Behru transitive verb agrees with both its object and subject in person and number. The subject of a Behru sentence is unaltered, and the object is put in the receiver case

A transitive sentence: shún kr`du zòsrozha

Man-subj rock-few-obj break-3rdperson-one-subj-3rdperson-few-obj

Gloss: The man breaks some rocks

Because transitive sentences agree with the subject and object, Behru does not have pronouns, as they would be redundant. A sentence consisting of only the verb would look like this: cézvung (we talked to you)

Intransitive sentence structure

An intransitive verb in Behru may either be intransitive by default or derived from a transitive verb. A transitive verb agrees with its subject, which may be either in the basic or receiver cases. The verb still agrees with it in person and number, though. Here is an example of the differance in meaning depedning on the case used

basic case: shùn dwéhnlo "The man cooled off" (intentionally) vs. shü´hnë dwéhnlo "The man cooled off (because it was cold outside). This is why Behru cesik is considered to have "fluid ergativity" as linguistics say.

"Bu" particle

Verbs associated with the bu particle usually have to do with opinions or thoughts. cét (to speak, to say) and hmèn also use thebu particle like quotes, it marks off the subject thought about or the words said. In most verbs, bu indicates the target of an opinion. Bu may encapsulate a subordinate clause without using abstract nouns like zo or ka. An example would be: "náwa së´mvarime" bu mü´klë dòn cèsraya.

"Mom can't see us" the kid said to his dog.

Passive sentence structure

In a passive sentence, the subject is deleted, the passive verb agrreing in person and number with the object instead. The object is left in the basic case, rather than the receiver case. The subject may optionally be indicated through the means case. The passive can indicate two things, a vagueness about the subject, and a dissapointment about the action referred to on the part of the speaker. When the passive form is used with an intransitive verb, it is always used to indicate dissapointment.

A passive sentence: mùgvo kàrt zryònesro (The rock was broken by the dog) or, deleting the subject: kàrt zryònesro (the rock was broken). Even the object can be removed: zryònesro (it was broken) Usage with the intransitive: kàrt zònetlo: the rock broke (speaker wishes that didn't happen.)

Causative and Permissive sentence structure

In a causative or permissive, a third player, the causer, put in the cause case, either forced (in a causative form) or allowed(in a permissive form) an action to happen

an example of a causative sentence: shúnwe rùnayònën "cálmu" bu dòn cwèsrozha: The person made the child say to the other men "I'm fine".

The direction case

The direction case inicates the destination of a verb of motion, or the goal of another action.

The location case

The location case indicates the location or context where an action takes place.

The origin case

the origin case indicates the origin of an action, or the reason for an action, sometimes meanin "because"

The means and companion cases

The means case indicates the tool used to do an action, usually translated as "with". The companion case indicates a companion in a sentence, and can usually be translated as "together with". Both cases can be negated with the infix -(a)ma, meaning without, inserted immediatly after the noun stem (the a is useed when the noun stem ends in a consonant.) The noun is then declined into the means or companion cases.

An example of the means case: kàrdl zòlesraya He broke it with a rock.

An example of the comanion case: múkur yùlu I walked with a dog.

Negated versions of the above sentences: kàrtamal zòlesraya: He broke it without a rock

múkamit zòlesraya: I walked without the dog.

Compound sentences

Conjunctions

tu: sentence a but sentence b

fa: sentence a thus sentence b

lya sentence a or sentence b

Behru cesik uses only these three conjunctions independantly, most other sentence linking is done through clause subordination.

Chaining nouns and verbs

Behru nouns and verbs may be chained in a variety of ways with post position pronouns.The simplest way to chain nouns together is to add "ce" to the last word in the list. This means and, and a noun phrase ending in ce has all inflection shifted to the ce as if it were a noun. The nouns in the phrase are declined for number. An example of this would be "yón vén cèsa dòn (sùlu)" this is the man and woman's child. Other postpositional pronouns that function like ce would include bi (or) xa (including, with, consisting) ño (all) fe(some) txa(inexhaustive list) and gi(also, in addition). When chaining verbs in this manner, it is typical to add the suffix -ka to nominalize them.

Examples of usage:

múg jwòja bi lnémuhro Do they want a dog or a cat.

Verbs that incorporate nouns

Behru has no independant copula. Instead -lòn is suffixed to a noun to change it into a to be verb, for example

sùmúk mejwòjalóhnro This dog isn't a cat. Other verbs are changed into suffixes like this as well, for example, -lór (to become, as in yùmúk jwòjakóllehrro that dog became a cat. The third major incorporating verb is -lû´r (to make) as in

mebóloniyéyejuv? can't we make bolo?

Because adjectives are ensentially altered forms of verbs, they can be considered to have the copula "built in" and do not need any

Numbers

Behru has a base 12 numbering system. Simple numbers are simply prefixed before the nouns they count.

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 dot	120 dotu
11 ruse	121 rusu

Complex numbers.

To make complex numbers, like 25, or 156, one strings together the simple numbers and adds ce (meaning and) to the end.

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

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

157: srangucemuce

305: fowangucedacce

Honorifics

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