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 restrictive 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 only b, g, d, z, f, j, h, x, l, n, ng or m word-initially 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").

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') or by derivation. 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 range' (binji 'mountain'), puddo 'pack of dogs' (puz 'dog'), gyondo 'band' (gyong 'man').
• -bu indicates a totality of things, a class, and also the state of being a member of that class, e.g. binjibu 'mountains', pubbu 'dogs', gyombu 'men; manhood'.
• i- indicates a mass of things, igyong 'crowd, throng'.

Verbs

Verbal Auxiliaries

Mood	Tense	Intransitive	Transitive
yita 'be'	izu 'have'
Aff	Neg	Aff	Neg
Realis	Present	jaite	denite	dozu	donuzu
Past	xiteng	xiniteng	xizung	xinuzung
Hypothetical	yite	linite	lizu	linuzu
Irrealis	Present	deji	donuji	daipa	danoipa
Past	xijing	xinujing	heipang	henoipang
Hypothetical	liji	linuji	leipa	lenoipa
Imperative	biite	benite	bozu	bonuzu

Vocabulary

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