Is Burunking

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Is Burunking (/is buɾˈuŋkiŋ/, literally 'Burungian language') is the language of Burung, an island in the north Atlantic Ocean.

Background

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Alveolar Post-alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal      m      n      ŋ
Plosive p    b t    d k    g
Fricative ɸ      s      ʃ           ʐ ç      h     
Affricate t͡ʃ    d͡ʒ
Flap or tap      ɾ
Approximant      w      j
Lateral app.      l

Vowels

Front Back
Close i u
Open-mid ɛ ɔ
Open a

Vowels are considered to be short in all environments but may occur consecutively as in aanas 'sound' /ˈaːnas/.

Diphthongs

There are six diphthongs proper: ai /ai/, ei /ei/, oi /oi/, au /au/, eu /eu/ and ou /ou/, 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

Is Burunking 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 diphthong. Of these, only the central vowel is essential but there are restrictions on the other elements also:

C1 G V1 V2 C2
  • optional
  • only b, g, 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

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:

  • Final -s is lost, the preceding vowel lengthens and a following voiced plosive is devoiced: is 'language, speech' + -do (pejorative) = yito 'curse', os 'cold' + -pung (abstract) = oopung 'coldness'.
  • Final -sh is replaced by -i-, forming a diphthong with the preceding vowel (ush > oi, ish > ei, ii), and a following voiced plosive is devoiced: banash 'fruit' + -to (diminutive) = banaito 'berry', ush 'empty' + gyong 'person' = oikyong 'vain person'.
  • Final -ng becomes -n- (or -m before p, b, f): gyong 'person' + -zoi (collective) = gyonzoi 'team, band', yong 'smooth' + -pung (abstract) = yompung 'smoothness'.
  • Final -z is lost entirely: az 'man' + -chi (adjectival) = achi 'masculine'.

Word-final vowels may also be altered or lost when they come into contact with initial vowels in compounds or endings. In words of three or more syllables, the vowel is always lost, e.g. arato 'food' + -oi (adjectival) = aratoi 'gluttonous', eshayo 'sea' + ugi 'bread' = eshayugi 'seaweed'. Words of two syllables usually lose their final vowel, e.g. binji 'mountain' + arate 'gap' = binjarate 'mountain pass', but when the second word is only one syllable the final vowel sometimes remains, forming a glide in the case of i or u e.g. bigi 'eye' + uz 'water' = bigyuz. In reduplication, the final vowel often remains in disyllables, e.g. aze-aze 'very dark'.

Stress

Primary stress is generally on the penultimate syllable of polysyllables, e.g. berósu 'nine', esháyo 'sea', ázeng 'fish'.

Orthography

Is Burunking was originally written in a syllabary called hookozoi, mainly carved into wood or, occasionally, stone.

When the language was initially discovered by Europeans the Greek alphabet was used in its transcription, but later studies preferred to use the Latin script, which is still used today.

Graph IPA
Consonants
b /b/
ch /t͡ʃ/
d /d/
f /ɸ/
g /g/
h /h/
j /d͡ʒ/
k /k/
l /l/
m /m/
n /n/
ng /ŋ/
p /p/
r /r/
s /s/
sh /ʃ/
t /t/
w /w/
x /ç/
y /j/
Vowels
a /a/
e /ɛ/
i /i/
o /ɔ/
u /u/
Diphthongs
ai /ai/
au /au/
ei /ei/
eu /eu/
oi /oi/
ou /ou/

In word or syllable initial position the sequences ii, uu are written yi, wu. The glide /j/ is always written y but /w/ is written u following a consonant and w syllable initially.

Grammar

Nouns

Gender

Nouns are classified as either animate (bii) or inanimate (es bii) and animate nouns belong to one of three genders: masculine (achi), feminine (buyachi) or common (iziji). Inclusion within a class is based to a large extent on natural gender.

Animate Masculine
  • adult male humans
  • some male animals
  • male deities
  • fu 'fire', oi 'sun'
Feminine
  • adult female humans
  • some female animals
  • female deities
  • luz 'earth'
Common
  • human children
  • most animals
  • edible plants
  • uz 'water', yozi 'rain'
Inanimate
  • unmoving objects
  • most materials
  • abstracts

These gender distinctions have a limited effect on the morphology of nouns themselves but affect the way other words behave.

Number

Nouns are generally not marked for number and context is usually sufficient to show whether heuji means 'horse' or 'horses'. Numerals or adjectives can be used to qualify the noun for number, e.g. bade oz 'one dog, a dog'.

There are two collective suffixes, which may sometimes translate the English plural: -zoi is used to refer to a group of things, usually within a single place, e.g. gyonzoi 'band, group, team of people', heujizoi 'a herd of horses'; -bua is more abstract, referring to all things within a class collectively and also to the state of being an object within that class, similar in some ways to the English suffix '-hood' in a word like 'priesthood', e.g. gyombua 'everybody, humanity, humankind, population', binjibua 'mountains'. Both of these suffixes are productive, though in some cases the noun with the suffix has taken on a specialised meaning as in azoi 'council, assembly' from az 'man'. Reduplication may also be used to express a large group of something, often with an intensive meaning, e.g. gyongyong 'crowd, mass of people', yaiyai 'storm' (from yai 'wind').

Adjectives

Pronouns

Personal

Singular Plural
1 inclusive ngi boro
exclusive bu
2 yi fu
3 masculine ngane xinxing
feminine nepa
common xing


There are no inanimate forms, the demonstrative pronouns being used instead.

Possessives may be formed with the postposition go, e.g. ngi go yata 'my father', xing go eshe 'his house'. The phrase go buru is used with the pronouns to create reflexive pronouns, e.g. yi go buru 'yourself',

Demonstrative

this waz
that (non-distal) uzi
that (distal) az


The demonstratives may be used attributively following the noun, e.g. az waz 'this man', xagaz uzi 'that apple', binji az 'that mountain'. With uki they form the equivalent adverbs of place: uki waz 'here', uki uzi 'there', uki az 'there (distal)'.

Interrogative

Interrogative pronouns and adverbs are formed with the prefix n(o)- and a nominal element:

what nohez
who nogyong
where nuki
how nobide
why nonaze
when neuji

These interrogatives may take postpositions such as nogyong go 'whose'

Indefinite

Indefinite pronouns are formed using the same nominal elements as the interrogative pronouns, but with different affixes.

some-
(-do)
any-
(eno-)
every-
(-bua)
-thing hedo enohez hebua
-one, -body gyondo enogyong gyombua
-where ukido enuki ukibua
-how bidedo enobide bidebua
(reason) nazedo enonaze nazebua
-time eujido eneuji eujibua


The 'any-' forms are also used as the equivalent of English pronouns with '-ever', e.g. enobide 'however', enogyong 'whoever'. They are also employed in negative sentences to mean 'no-one', 'nowhere' etc.

Verbs

Postpositions

Derivation

Derivation is carried out using a number of suffixes and independent particles, and by compounding.

Suffix Use Example
Adjectives
-chi of, like, pertaining to buyachi 'feminine, female'
-fu full of, covered with, made of uzefu 'golden'
-king of, like, pertaining to Burunking 'of Burung'
-oi tending to, fond of aratoi 'gluttonous'
Nouns
-bua collective, abstract bidebua 'route'
-daz person or thing from eshayodaz 'foreigner' (lit. sea-dweller)
-do pejorative izido 'mocking laughter'
-ko instrument, person connected with onuuko 'goatherder'
-le agent erole 'killer'
-no diminutive (often pejorative) ano 'coward'
-pung abstracts states, conditions buchipung 'smallness'
-te continual or chronic states izite 'sickness'
-to diminutive hizito 'piglet'
-zoi collective, group eshezoi 'settlement'

Syntax