Bis Burunko

Bis Burunko (/bɨs bʉˈɾʉnkɔ/, literally 'the Burungian language'), also known as Burunko or Burungian, is a language isolate spoken on the island of Burung in the north Atlantic.

Phonology and Orthography

Bis Burunko has a relatively simple phonology with 21 consonants, 5 pure vowels and 6 true diphthongs. The orthography is almost entirely regular and predictable, based on a 1:1 spelling to pronunciation system.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m /m/	n /n/		ng /ŋ/
Plosive	p /p/ b /b/	t /t/ d /d/		k /k/ g /g/
Sibilant		s /s/	sh /ɕ/ z /ʑ/
Fricative	f /ɸ/		x /ç/		h /h/
Affricate			ch /t͡ɕ/ j /d͡ʑ/
Flap or tap		r /ɾ/
Approximant	w, u /w/		y /j/
Lateral app.		l /l/

Notes:

• n is realised as /ŋ/ before g, k, ng
• medial h is often simply hiatus between vowels
• /w/ is spelled u immediately after a consonant but w elsewhere
• all consonants except fricatives and glides (w, y) may be doubled word-internally; note the trigraphs ssh, cch, nng

For consonant clusters, see Phonotactics below.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i /ɨ/	u /ʉ/
Open-mid	e /ɛ/	o /ɔ/
Open	a /a/

Vowels are considered to be short in all environments but may occur consecutively as in biitosh 'gender neutral person' /bɨ:'tɔɕ/.

Note: word-initial sequences of i + i and u + uu are written yi-, wu-.

Diphthongs

There are six diphthongs proper: ai /aɨ/, ei /ɛɨ/, oi /ɔɨ/, au /aʉ/, eu /ɛʉ/ and ou /ɔʉ/, which may be considered sequences of vowels in measuring syllables. In addition, any vowel is permitted to occur following the 'glides' /w/ or /j/.

Phonotactics

Bis Burunko has a relatively restricted syllabic structure, with a maximal form CGVVC, in which C represents a consonant, G a glide and V a vowel or part of a diphthong. Of these, only the central vowel is essential but there are also restrictions on the other elements. The table below shows the rules governing each position in the syllable:

C1	G	V1	V2	C2
optional any consonant but sh, r word-initially (s and p only occur before u) any consonant word-medially	optional only y or w/u	mandatory any vowel	optional only i, u or the preceding vowel repeated	optional only s, sh, ng or z word-finally only n or m before a consonant, except in the case of geminates

The word-final consonants s, sh, ng and z are not permitted to occur before another consonant, so undergo changes in compounds or when consonant-initial endings are added:

• -s is lost, the preceding vowel is doubled and a following voiced plosive or j is devoiced:

gis 'man' + -do (collective) = giito 'group, band'

• -sh becomes -i-, forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel, and a following voiced plosive is devoiced:

sush 'empty' + bupung 'person' = suipupung 'vain person'

arash 'night' + -te (time) = araite 'night-time'

• -ng becomes -m before p, b, f and n before any other consonant:

gyong 'man' + -bu (collective) = gyombu 'warrior class'

yong 'foot' + -ko (adjectival) = yonko 'sock'

• -z is lost and causes a following consonant to double, except x which becomes s and h which is lost, while z remains:

az 'male' + -chi (adjectival) = acchi 'masculine'

haz 'old' + kora 'bitch' = hakkora 'hag'

buaz 'sun' + xu 'fire' = buasu 'heat of the sun'

fuz 'tree' + HUZ 'lack' = fuzuz 'treeless'

In some cases a word ending in a vowel + -i will alter to vowel + -u when a suffix or the second element of a compound begins with a consonant:

mei 'dark' + kezi 'stone' = meukézi 'obsidian'

Word-final vowels may also be altered or lost when they come into contact with initial vowels in compounds or endings.

Stress

Syllables may be defined as either heavy or light:

• a heavy syllable being either ends in a consonant (az, gyom-bu, ut-te) or contains a long vowel (bii, gii-to) or diphthong (mei, a-rai-te)
• a light syllable ends in a single vowel (fa-be, xu).

Monosyllabic words carry stress. In polysyllables, stress is attracted to heavy syllables. In words containing more than one heavy syllable, primary stress is placed on the last such syllable, with secondary stress on the penultimate heavy syllable. In words with no heavy syllables, primary stress falls on the first syllable.

In some instances, stress does not follow these rules and is marked with an acute accent (e.g. béyong "knee", búrus "iriji person", ugáras "breast").

Orthography

Bis Burunko was traditionally written in a semi-syllabary called higomido, which was originally a rune-like system carved into stone, wood and bone but later developed a more calligraphic style used on paper-like sheets of wood.

The higomido consist of five specific vowel graphs, 41 consonant-vowel combinations (plosives, fricatives and affricates) and 7 individual consonant symbols (finals s, sh, ng and the remaining nasals and liquids m, n, l, r).

Other sequences of sounds are formed using these 53 symbols in combination:

• diphthongs and double vowels are written using either a vowel + vowel combination (e.g. a + i = ai), or the relevant syllabic + vowel combination (ba + i = bai).
• glide + vowel combinations are written using i/u + vowel (e.g. i + a = ya), or Ci/Cu + vowel (e.g. bi + a = bya).
• sequences of chV and jV are written with the symbols for chi and ji + the relevant vowel (e.g. chi + a = cha).
• nasals and liquids are simply followed by the relevant vowel (e.g. m + a = ma).
• while there is a specific symbol for pu, other combinations of pV - which only occur as a result of devoicing by a preceding (former) sibilant - are formed with the b-syllabics preceded by either s or sh (e.g. )

Roots, Stems and Derivation

The majority of lexical items in Bis Burunko are based on mono- or disyllabic roots that may have verbal, nominal or adjectival meaning - or a combination of these, e.g. DANG 'drink', GI 'meat, flesh', MEI 'dark'. In this article, roots are written in capitals to denote them as such.

Some roots can be used as nouns or adjectives without further modification, e.g. gi 'meat, flesh', uz 'water', mei 'dark'. Verbs require the addition of the prefix e-, i-, y- to create a basic infinitive form (e.g. edang 'drink'), or they can be compounded with other elements (e.g. uddang 'drink water' < UZ + DANG). Primarily verbal roots can be nominalised with the prefix a-, e.g. adang 'a drink'.

The most common way of deriving new words is by compounding.

Grammar

Natural Gender on Burung

Grammatical gender does not occur in Bis Burunko, but natural gender is frequently marked on nominals, either by employing different words (e.g. az 'male', deme 'female', biitosh 'iriji person') or by derivation (e.g. with the honorative suffixes -osh (m.) and -ez (f.), -ai (mid.)). The concept of natural gender differs somewhat from the usual Western concept.

All things are considered to be either animate (bui) or inanimate (nabui), the primary distinction being whether a thing is capable of acting under its own power. This means humans, deities/spirits, most animals and some natural features, such as the sun and the sea, are considered bui while plants, rocks and most abstracts are nabui.

Within the category of animate nouns, all things are then considered to be masculine (acchi), feminine (demechi) or middle (iriji). The relevant gender is based partly on biological sex, partly on particular characteristics and partly on social roles. All children are considered iriji until puberty when they will be assigned one of the three genders.

Each of the four categories has a complex series of associations and is considered an equal part of a harmonious whole.

Case

ba	Example	Example
Topicaliser	marks a subject or object as the focus of the utterance
ze	Example	Example
Nominative	marks the subject of a verb (where it is not the topic)
ke	Example	Example
Accusative	marks the direct object of a verb (where it is not the topic)
na	Example	Example
Possessive	marks the (animate) possessor of an (inanimate) object. Used only for alienable possession.
le	Example	Example
Genitive	marks the possessor of an inalienable object, or marks an object related to another.
i	Example	Example
Dative	marks the indirect object of a verb (where it is not the topic)
la	Example	Example
Allative	marks motion towards 'to'
chi	Example	Example
Ablative	marks movement away 'from, of, through'
ang	Example	Example
Locative	marks location 'in, on, at'
mi	Example	Example
Instrumental	marks use of, 'with, by'.

Nouns

Nouns are non-inflecting and do not mark grammatical gender, number or definiteness, so e.g. puz can mean 'dog/dogs/a dog/(some) dogs/the dog/the dogs' etc. Grammatical case is indicated by the particles above after the noun.

Though grammatical number is not marked, nouns may take the following affixes to show a collective sense:

• -do indicates a discrete group of things, usually located together, e.g. binjido 'mountain ridge' (binji 'mountain'), fuddo 'copse, small wood' (fuz 'tree'), gyondo 'band' (gyong 'man').
• -bu indicates a totality of things, a class, and also the absract state of being a member of that class, e.g. binjibu 'mountains; mountain-hood', fubbu 'trees; treehood', gyombu 'men; manhood, masculinity'.
• i- indicates a mass of things, ibinji 'mountain range', ifuz 'forest', igyong 'population'.

Reduplication is used to indicate intensity and in some cases can take on a collective meaning, e.g. gyongyong 'crowd, throng', yaiyai 'storm' (yai 'wind').

Adjectives

Adjectives are of two types. Verbal adjectives are the participles in -ng/na or -i (e.g. ekonna "growing", ewai "tired, exhausted, spent"). Nominal adjectives are either primary adjectives (e.g. haz "old", ong "good") or derived from a noun, other adjective or a verb (e.g. acchi "masculine", ukko "watery, aquatic", eyiking "pessimistic, defeatist" < exi "despair").

Any of these adjectives may occur attributively by preceding the noun they qualify unmodified, e.g. haz gyong to "that old man", ekonna fuz "a growing tree", eyiking heni chiri "three pessimistic guards".

When used predicatively, both types of adjective follow the entire noun phrase and precede the relevant form of yita "to be". Verbal adjectives are unmodified in this usage and, as often with English, the adjectival function of the participle is indistinguishable from the verbal function, e.g. fuz tong ba ekonna xiniteng "this tree wasn't growing", haz gyong to ba ewai jaite "that old man is tired".

Numerals

Cardinal Numbers

1	su(ng)	11	xassu(ng)	21	hatorunsu
2	hai	12	xazai	22	hatorunhai
3	gi	13	xaggi	30	gyauka
4	xa	14	xasa	40	xauka
5	maka	15	xammaka	50	makauka
6	ute	16	xazute	60	utauka
7	gyeng	17	xaggyeng	70	gyengauka
8	eileng	18	xazeileng	80	eilengauka
9	suneng	19	xassuneng	90	sunengauka
10	haz	20	hatrung	100	inung

Numbers are based on a decimal system, though numbers above 10 are, in reality, rarely used. The word inung, translated here as '100', is generally used for any large number. Higher numbers can be created, somewhat artificially, in the form su le inung '101', xaggyeng le inung '117'.

Ordinal Numbers

1st	sus	11th	xassus
2nd	haus	12th	xazaush
3rd	gish	13th	xaggish
4th	xash	14th	xasash
5th	makachi	15th	xamakachi
6th	utechi	16th	xazutechi
7th	gyenchi	17th	xaggyenchi
8th	eilenchi	18th	xazeilenchi
9th	sunenchi	19th	xassunenchi
10th	hacchi	20th	hatrunchi

Pronouns

Personal

	Standard	Emphatic
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
1st	ni	bi (excl.) bu (incl.)	nibez	bibez (excl.) bubez (incl.)
2nd	chi	fu	chibez	fubez
Indefinite	yeka	yekabez

Personal pronouns only truly exist for the 1st and 2nd persons, the 3rd person pronouns being demonstratives. There is also an indefinite pronoun yeka, often used as a formal 1st singular.

Note that the 1st person plural has both exclusive bi 'us (but not you)' and inclusive bu 'us all'.

No distinctions of gender case are made, the pronouns being followed by the case particles like nouns. To form possessive pronouns, the forms are followed by the possessive particle na (when referring to alienable possession) or the genitive particle le (when inalienable), e.g. ni na hato 'my knife' but ni le ata 'my father'.

Emphatic forms of the personal pronouns are created with the suffix -bez, i.e. nibez, chibez, bibez, bubez, fubez, yekabez. These function as both emphatic pronouns, drawing particular attention to the person, and reflexive pronouns.

There is a tendency to omit pronouns, particularly the subject, where the person referred to is understood from context.

A number of terms of address are used in place of 2nd person pronouns or demonstratives when speaking of high ranking individuals, including: fuchi, furung (for any addressee), burosh, andosh (for masc. addressees), burez, andez (for fem. addressees); burai, andai (for iriji addressees).

Demonstratives

Demonstratives function as both determiners (preceding the noun) and pronouns and distinguish proximal tong 'this (near speaker)', medial to 'that (near listener)' and distal taz 'that (distant from both listener and speaker, or abstract)'. No distinction is made for gender, and case is marked by particles.

	Simple	Emphatic
Proximal	tong	tombez
Medial	to	tobez
Distal	taz	tabbez

The plural forms tombu, tobu, tabbu occur where number is necessary for clarity or emphasis; otherwise the simple forms are used for both singular and plural referents.

Interrogatives and Indefinites

Burunko has a related series of adjectives, adverbs and pronouns denoting ...

	Proximal	Medial	Distal	Interrogative	Indefinite
'any, no'	'every'	'some'
An.	tong 'this'	to 'that'	taz 'that'	nobuji 'who'	imbuji 'anyone'	aubuji 'everyone'	bujido 'someone'
Inan.	nohez 'what'	inhez 'anything'	auhez 'everything'	heddo 'something'
Place	tonsuki 'here'	tosuki 'there'	tassuki 'there'	nosuki 'where'	insuki 'anywhere'	ausuki 'everywhere'	sukido 'somewhere'
Manner	tombye 'like this'	tobye 'like that'	tabbye 'like that'	nobye 'how'	imbye 'anyhow'	aubye 'every way'	byedo 'somehow'
Time	tombeng 'now'	tobeng 'then'	tabbeng 'then'	nobeng 'when'	imbeng 'anytime'	aubeng 'always'	bendo 'sometime(s)'
Cause	tongeze 'because'		tazeze 'because'	noze 'why'	ineze 'any reason'	aweze 'all reasons'	ezedo 'some reason'

Verbs

Burunko has no true finite verb forms and does not mark verbs according to person, number or tense. The current verbal system appears to reflect an earlier periphrastic system using participles and other non-finite forms.

All verbs may be described as primary, secondary or compound. The base of every verb is taken from a closed class of verbal roots, which sometimes have broad meanings, such as DANG 'drink; absorb', ZUKI 'hold, have', KASH 'learn', AZ 'take'. This root is the only part of a verb that can take derivational or inflexional affixes.

Primary verbs are composed of a root with the verbalising prefix E-, realised as i- before a high vowel (i, u) in the next syllable, as y- before vowels and as e- elsewhere, .e.g. edang, izuki, yaz, ekash. This is the minimal form a verb can take in use.

Secondary verbs are derived from primary verbs by affixation and include frequentatives, causatives, applicatives, impersonals etc, e.g. edakash 'teach', edanko 'sip', enaz 'steal'.

Compound verbs are derived from a primary or secondary verb by prefixing the verb stem with another part of speech, e.g. izimizuki 'poke, finger', uddang 'drink water'. This is a large and highly productive class, in which new verbs can be formed easily. Reduplicated verbs also fall into this category, e.g. yazaz 'grasp, grab'. Compound verbs don't require the verbal prefix E-, unless the initial element is a verb.

Aspect

Verbs do not show tense, but take suffixes to show aspect:

• The aorist participle is the unmodified form of the verb e.g. izuki 'touch', ekash 'learn', yommikei 'kick'. It is an aspectless form, referring to an action as an abstract, without any reference to time. It is also used as a verbal noun.
• The imperfective participle is created by adding -N to the aorist, which is realised as -ng following vowels and -na following consonants in the stem, e.g. izuking 'touching', yanna 'taking', ekaina 'learning'. It refers to an action or state which is either ongoing or habitual.
• The perfective is created by adding -i to the aorist, e.g. izukii 'touched', yazi 'taken, took', yommikeyi 'kicked'. It is used to denote an action or state in its entirety, without reference to its duration.

The iterative/frequentative aspect can be expressed by the secondary ending -iko (after a vowel) or -ko (after a consonant), which denotes frequent or repeated action, or an action seemingly composed of multiple smaller instances of an action, often where the result is quiet or of limited intensity e.g. ekaiko 'study' < KASH 'learn', edanko 'sip' < DANG 'drink', ebaiko 'babble, chatter' (softly, as of a baby) < BA 'speak', yedeiko 'nibble' < EDE 'bite'.

A reduplicated root may also be used to create a frequentative, but always with an intensive and often a pejorative sense, e.g. edandan 'gulp, quaff' < DANG, yedede 'to chomp' < EDE, ebaba 'yammer, gossip, yak' < BA.

Reduplicated verbs and those in -(i)ko form new aorist participles, to which the imperfective and perfective suffixes may be added, e.g. ekaiko, ekaikong, ekaikoi.

Valency

Verbs may be inherently transitive or intransitive, but are generally marked where they increase or decrease valency.

Valency can be decreased by:

• Object-incorporation, in which the object noun is added to the front of the verb, replacing E-, e.g. uddang 'drink water' < uz 'water' + edang 'to drink' (compare uz-ke edang 'to drink water').
• The generic object suffix -to is added to transitive verbs where the direct object is not stated, creating an intransitive e.g. ipuito 'see', ekaito 'learn'".
• The reciprocal/reflexive infix -be- is added to transitive verbs to indicate that the subject(s) and object(s) are the same, e.g. ebekash 'teach oneself/each other", ebepush 'see oneself; see each other, meet'.

Valency is increased by:

• The causative infix -da-, which comes between the verbaliser E- and the root, e.g. edakash 'teach' < ekash 'learn'. This form of causative is mainly added to intransitive verbs and transitive verbs in which the subject has little or no control over the action (e.g. edapush 'show' < ipush 'see').
• The intransitive applicative suffix -gi, which makes an indirect object the direct object and indicates the beneficiary, recipient, purpose or goal of the action, depending on context and the meaning of the verb, e.g. edakaigi 'teach someone', edapuigi 'show someone'.

Mood

Mood is primarily denoted by sentence-final particles to express evidentiality, expectation, and other moods. The unmarked verb denotes a general declarative, e.g. taz ze uddang 's/he drinks water'.

bi	taz ze uddang bi	's/he drinks water' (because I've seen it)
Evidential	indicates that the speaker has direct experience or knowledge of the fact
kou	taz ze uddang kou	'(I hear) s/he drinks water'
Reportative	indicates that the speaker has received the information from another source
teng	taz ze uddang teng	'(I assume) s/he drinks water'
Inferential	the speaker assumes that the information is correct based on other factors
ofu	taz ze uddang ofu	'perhaps s/he drinks water'
Dubitative	suggests uncertainty, lack of facts or doubt
ite	taz ze uddang ite	's/he may drink water'
Hypothetical	the event may be true or possible
eiki	taz ze uddang eiki	'I wish s/he drank water'
Desiderative	the speaker hopes or wishes something to be the case
ai	taz ze uddang ai?	'does s/he drink water?'
Interrogative 1	to ask simple, direct yes/no questions
wa	taz ze uddang wa?	'does s/he drink water or not?'
Interrogative 2	to ask tentative yes/no questions
bis	taz ze uddang wa?	'does s/he drink water or not?'
Interrogative 2	to ask tentative yes/no questions

Secondary Verbs

The main affixes used to create secondary verbs are:

• The pejorative infix -na-, which takes the same position as -da- and perversity, ill intent or action resulting in unfortunate circumstances, e.g. enakash 'mislearn, learn wrongly', enadang 'drink heavily, get drunk'. When used with the causative, it becomes -dan-, e.g. edankash 'teach wrongly'.
• The iterative/frequentative suffixes -iko (after a vowel) or -ko (after a consonant), which denotes frequent or repeated action, or an action seemingly composed of multiple smaller instances of an action, often where the result is quiet or of limited intensity e.g. ekaiko 'study' < KASH 'learn', edanko 'sip' < DANG 'drink', ebaiko 'babble, chatter' (softly, as of a baby) < BA 'speak', yedeiko 'nibble' < EDE 'bite'.

A reduplicated root may also be used to create a frequentative, but always with an intensive and often a pejorative sense, e.g. edandan 'gulp, quaff' < DANG, yedede 'to chomp' < EDE, ebaba 'yammer, gossip, yak' < BA.

Compound Verbs

The initial element may be:

• a noun denoting the direct object of the verb, e.g. xemmang 'to name' < xeng 'name' + MANG 'give', loging 'to sleep' < lo 'sleep' + GING 'do'. These verbs may take a new object, e.g. ...
• an adjective, denoting various senses of being or becoming a state, or to denote the subject's feelings or opinion, e.g. futtoz 'turn white' < fuz 'white' + TOZ 'come', ongushi 'like, approve of' < ong 'good' and USHI 'consider'.
• an adverb denoting the method, direction or means of doing the action, e.g. fimiroz 'move quickly' < fimiro 'quickly' + OZ 'move'; yommikei 'kick' < yommi 'with the foot' + KEI 'strike, hit'.

Derivation

Bis Burunko has a highly productive derivational system, primarily based on suffixes.

Suffix	Meaning	Added To	Examples
Nouns
-ai	augmentative, honorific (mid.)	n, adj
-aro	"time, season, right time"	n, adj, vn
-ba, -be	kinship suffix denoting primary line	n
-do	collective	n
-ez	augmentative, honorific (fem.)	n, adj
-fo	diminutive	n
-ji	(domesticated) animal	n, adj
-jing	"period of time, age, era"	n, adj, v
-ko1	"thing for, connected with"	n
-ko2	diminutive	n
-mi	diminutive	n
-ni, -ng	agent	v
-o	instrument, tool	v
-osh	augmentative, honorific (masc.)	n, adj
-pung	"having"	n
-taz, -daz*	"person/thing from"	n
-te, -de*	"(short) stretch of time, period"	n	araite "nighttime"
-teng, -deng*	diminutive	n
-to1, -do*	instrument, tool	n, v, adj
-to2	diminutive	n
-yo	kinship suffix denoting 2 removed from ego	n
Adjective
-chi, -ji*	"of, like, pertaining to; characteristic of"	n	demechi "female, feminine"
-king	"tending to, fond of"	n, v
-ko	"related to, characteristic of"	n
Adverbs
-mi	means, method	n	yommi "with the foot"
-ro	manner	adj	fimiro "quickly"

Vocabulary

• General Vocabulary
• Gender and Age
• Kinship

Gender Terms

Gender terms for humans and gods are partly based on the individual's age. Burung society sees life divided into four ages:

• Childhood (pumebu) from birth to the onset of puberty, in which all individuals are considered iriji.
• Young Adulthood (garaapu) from the onset of puberty to full initiation into adult life.
• Adulthood (koziji) encompasses the working life, a time for raising a family.
• Old Age (hajji) from retirement to death.

Gender	Child	Young Adult	Adult	Senior
Acchi (masc.)		az
goi	gis, gyong	hoz
Demechi (fem.)	deme
madash	xoz	axoz
Iriji (mid.)	haya
pume	poda	búrus

Primary Verbs

Root	Meanings	Infinitive	Gerundive	Perfective
OZ	move	yoz	yonna	yozi
ARANG	move back and forth, swing, sway	yarang	yaranna	yarangi
GA	go up; ascend, climb; improve	ega	egang	egai
BE	go down, descend; fall; deteriorate	ebe	ebeng	ebei
IGI	go past, pass; exceed; change state	yigi	yiging	yigii
XAZ	go in(to), enter; penetrate	exaz	exanna	exai
ZUKI1	go out, exit, leave	izuki	izuking	izukii
LIPU	go	ilipu	ilipung	ilipui
TOZ	come	etoz	etonna	etozi
ES	approach; press	yes	yeena	yeshi
ZUKI2	touch, come into contact; mention	izuki	izuking	izukii

Swadesh List

No.	English	Burunko
1	I	ni
2	you (sg.)	chi
3	he	az (m.)
4	we (inc.)	bi
5	you (pl.)	fu
6	they	abbu (m.)
7	this	tong
8	that	taz
9	here	sukitong
10	there	sukitaz
11	who (int.)	nosha
12	what (int.)	nohez
13	when (int.)	nobeng
14	where (int.)	nusuki
15	how (int.)	nubide
16	not	-no-
17	all	alo
18	many	mupu
19	some	xama
20	few
21	other	ai
22	one
23	two
24	three
25	four
26	five
27	big	enji
28	long	los
29	wide
30	thick
31	heavy
32	small	bing
33	short	dobuz
34	narrow

thin woman man (adult male) man (human being) child wife husband mother father animal fish bird dog louse snake worm tree forest stick fruit