Baljek

Baljek jîi géman lé jé
Spoken in:	The northern and northeasten regions called Northwest Atipica
Timeline/Universe:	-
Total speakers:	Approx. 2.8 million
Genealogical classification:	Family: Weyr
Basic word order:	SOV
Morphological type:	-
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Created by:
bornforwater	2009-

Baljek (also known as Baljek Weyr, jéi kémani, or jîi géman lé jé) is one of several languages spoken by the people of the planet Ŵadin on the continent called Wytn. Baljek Weyr is spoken in the northern parts of the continent, in the heavy rainforests and fertile grasslands surrounding the stro pa yehén.

The meaning of the name of the language is unclear, but it appears to be influenced or perhaps indirectly descended from an older name for Badis, Parej (or Pareš). It is a language in the family called Weyr, and counts among its closest relatives Pantrelai (also called Pantrelan), and jîi géman lé tré (which is also called Sandic Weyr or Sandic). An offshoot dialect which is mostly mutually-intelligible with Baljek Weyr is Talēli, which is spoken in areas inhabited by descendants of the victims of the Audacity of Abial.

The dialect represented here is Mégabo standard (the dialect of the region's capital), unless otherwise indicated.

Grammar

Letters and such

Note: all pronunciations are based off of the sound of the highlighted parts of the given words as they appear in American English, except where otherwise stated.

Words are spelled as they are pronounced in the dialect of Mégabo.

Vowels

a e é i î o u ú

• a as in ball
• e as in grief
• é as in lay
• i as in in
• î as in eye
• o as in over
• u as in you
• ú as in under

Consonants

b d f g h j jj k l m n p r s t v w z

• b as in ball
• d as in dull
• f as in fast
• g as in girl
• h as in how
• j as in choose
• jj as in just
• k as in cow
• l as in late
• m as in man
• n as in number
• p as in purse
• r as in are
• t as in toggle
• v as in vest
• w as in vest
• z as in zoom

Nouns

Nouns have no separate ending which distinguishes them from verbs (or vice-versa), which can make telling the two apart a skill which must be acquired through much practice (or learning the language natively).

There are is only one definite article: lé, which is used to mark both singular and plural nouns and is not affected by noun declension.

Nouns decline both by number and by case.

Declining by number:

• meka (meaning 'cat')

becomes

• mekan (meaning 'cats')

Note that to create a plural one simply adds +(a)n to the noun. To give a further example of creating a plural noun, we'll use 'gém', which means person.

• gém ('person')

becomes

• géman ('people')

Declining by case:

• meka ('cat')

becomes

• mekat ('cat' in the accusative)

• mekan ('cats')

becomes

• mekatan ('cats' in the accusative)

Again, we'll use gém as a second example:

• gém ('person')

becomes

• gémit ('person' in the accusative)

• géman ('people')

becomes

• gémitan ('people' in the accusative)

Pronouns

Like its cousin, Sandic, Baljek Weyr tends to drop pronouns unless they are being used for emphasis. An exception to this is formal speech, in which pronouns are always used.

	Subject	Object	Fa (for)	To ____
I (1ps)	Fia	fiat	fia	ian fia
You (2ps)	Pé	pét	pé	ian pé
He (3ps.m)	Ka	kat	ka	ian ka
She (3ps.f)	É	ét	é	ian é
It (3ps.n)	Da	dat	da	ian da
We (1pl)	Uc (Us)	uct (ust)	uc (us)	ian uc
You (2pl AND 2pl.fml)	Péan	nat	péan	ian péan
They (3pl)	Also	cot (sot)	also	ian also

Pronoun verb markers

Every pronoun has an associated verb-marker which is derived from the full form of the given pronoun. These are used to conjugate verbs (see the verb section for more details).

• I -- ia
• You -- pé
• He -- a
• She -- é
• It -- da
• We -- us
• You (pl/fml) -- na
• They -- al

Adjectives

Adjectives decline neither by number or case. Adjectives have no distinct markers which make them easy to distinguish in sentences, which makes picking them out a skill to be learned.

Adjectives are normally linked to the noun they are modifying by the particle 'lé'. Note that this 'lé' is not the same as the definite article 'lé', despite the fact that they are homophones.

Examples of adjective use:

géma lé aso
Person (x) good
(a) good person

géman lé aso
People (x) good
good people

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future	Conditional	Command
Fia	iakajé	so ia kajé	t'iakajé	iakaji	j'iakajé
Pé	pékajé	so pékajé	te pékajé	pékaji	jiapékajé
Ka	akajé	so akajé	t'akajé	akaji	j'akajé
É	ékajé	so ékajé	t'ékajé	ékaji	j'ékajé
Da	dakajé	so dakajé	te dakajé	dakaji	jiadakajé
Uc/Us	uckajé	so uckajé	t'uckajé	uckaji	júckajé
Péan	nakajé	so nakajé	te nakajé	nakaji	jia nakajé
Alco/Also	alkajé	so alkajé	t'alkajé	alkaji	j'alkajé

Baljek Weyr also uses an additional verb tense (marker? case?) to report actions which were done because of the wishes of another, or which the speaker themself *wishes* were done.

This case/marker/tense is formed by using the past tense conjugation of the verb plus the particle 'lu'. Thus, "He thanked (because someone else wanted him to)) is: "lu t'akajé".

Examples

This section aims to familiarize the viewer with the 'look and feel' of Baljek Weyr. Below are some examples of texts which have been translated into or have originated in Baljek Weyr.

The Tower of Babel FRAGMENT (Mégabo standard)

1. Imprîa lé ivi te dalét tre jaeast ma tré jaet faé gém lé grena.

2. Mar fédi lé dél dé ra, te daju lé dél lorat pa lé pos <Jînar> ma pa rak te dama lé ralditan lé also.

3. Te dajî ian gém dé gém- "jálma sinitan lé ma, ma cot jálred hel."

4. Te dajî- "jálma fa alco lé dél tufanit, ma - "