Béu : Discarded Stuff

..... Funny Vowel Store

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à...á

ì...í

ù...ú

ò...ó

è...é

...ə

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honda	order	aska	chaos
suna	sky blue	nela	orange
	tranquility		activity

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Pondering the subjunctive

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I think the first verb we learn when we are growing up. And it retains its importance to us all thru life. I thought it deserves a section to itself.

Maybe I should forget about the subjunctive (ends in xn, before ended in xs, maybe should end in xk) and do things another way ??

The transitivity of verbs in béu

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All languages have a Verb class, generally with at least several hundred members.

Leaving aside copula clauses, there are two recurrent clause types, transitive and intransitive. Verbs can be classified according to the clause type they may occur in: (a) Intransitive verbs, which may only occur in the predicate of an intransitive clause; for example, "snore" in English. (b) Transitive verbs, which may only occur in the predicate of a transitive clause; for example, "hit" in English. In some languages, all verbs are either strictly intransitive or strictly transitive. But in others there are ambitransitive (or labile) verbs, which may be used in an intransitive or in a transitive clause. These are of two varieties: (c) Ambitransitives of type S = A. An English example is "knit", as in "She_S knits" and "She_A knits socks_O". (d) Ambitransitives of type S = O. An English example is "melt", as in "The butter_S melted" and "She_A melted the butter_O".

English verbs can be divided into the four types mentioned above. béu verbs however can only be divided into two types, a) Intransitive, and b) Transitive. In this section it will be shown how the four English types of verb map into the two béu types. (Of course there is nothing special or unique about English ... other than the fact that a reader of this grammatical sketch will already be familiar with English)

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intransitive

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An intransitive verb in English => an intransitive verb in béu

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An example of an intransitive verb in English is "laugh". This is also an intransitive verb in béu. In a clause containing an intransitive verb, the only argument that you have is the S argument.

By the way ... some concepts that are adjectives in English are primarily intransitive verbs in béu, for example ;- to be angry, to be sick, to be healthy etc. etc.

Ambitransitive of type S=O

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	x) An intransitive in béu
An "ambitransitive of type S=O" =>	y) A pair of verbs, one being intransitive and one being transitive
	z) A transitive in béu

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x) "Ambitransitive verbs of type S=O" which have greater frequency in intransitive clauses, are intransitive verbs in béu.

For example ;- flompe = to trip, (ò)_S flomporta = She has tripped

y) "Ambitransitive of type S=O" verbs which are frequent in both transitive and intransitive clauses, are represented as a pair of verbs in béu, one of which is intransitive and one transitive. There are a few hundred béu verbs that come in pairs like this. One should not be thought of as derived from the other; each form should be considered equally fundamental. All the pairs have the same form, except the transitive one has an extra "l" before its final consonant.

For example hakori kusoni_S = his chair broke : (pás)_A halkari kusoni_O = I broke his chair :

z) "Ambitransitive of type S=O" verbs which have greater frequency in transitive clauses, are transitive vebs in béu.

For example ;- nava = to open, (pás)_A navaru pinto_O = I am going to open the door

Ambitransitive verbs of type S=A and Transitive verbs . .

An "ambitransitive of type S=A"
or	=> A transitive in béu
A transitive verb in English

. .

I am taking transitive and ambitransitive of type (S=A) together as I consider them to be basically the same thing but tending to opposite ends of a continuum.

Consider the illustration below.

At the top (with the "objects easily guessed") are verbs that are normally designated "ambitransitive of type S=A".

At the bottom (with the "objects could be anything") are verbs that are normally designated "transitive".

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Considering the top first. One can have "I_A eat apples_O" or we can have "I_S eat"

Then considering the bottom. One can have "I_A hit Jane_O" but you can not have "*I_S hit"

Moving up from the bottom. One can imagine a situation, for example when showing a horse to somebody for the first time when you would say "She_S kicks". While this is possible to say this, it is hardly common.

As we go from the top to the bottom of the continuum;-

a) The semantic area to which the object (or potential object if you will) gets bigger and bigger.

b) At the bottom end the object becomes is more unpedictable and hence more pertinent.

c) As a consequence of a) and b), the object is more likely to be human as you go down the continuum.

béu considers it good style to drop as many arguments as possible. In béu all the verbs along this continuum are considered transitive. Quite often one or both arguments are dropped, but of course are known through context. If the O argument is dropped it could be known because it was the previously declared topic (however more often the A argument is the topic tho', and hence dropped, represented by swe tho' as its case marking can not be dropped), it could be because the verb is from the top end of the continuum and the action is the important thing and the O argument or arguments just not important, or the dropped argument could be interpreted as "something" or "somebody", or it could be a definite thing that can be identified by the discouse that the clause is buried in.

Ambitransitive verbs

fompe is an intransitive and a transitive verb (S and A)

jene fompori = Jane tripped

jonos fompori jene = John tripped Jane

halka is an intransitive and a transitive verb (S and O)

pintu halkori = the door broke

jonos pintu halkori = John broke the door

A list of 6 ambitransitive (S and A) verbs

tonza = to awaken, to wake up

henda = to put on clothes

laudo = to wash

poi = "to enter" or "to put in"

gau = "to rise" or "to raise"

sai = "to descend" or "to lower"

To recognize as a transitive clause you must look for the ergative -s, if no -s then we have an intransitive clause.

Or alternatively you must look for the particle kyebwo

Tom Jerry halkuri = Tom and Jerry broke

Tom Jerry halkuri kyebwo = Tom and Jerry broke one and other.

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ké = result, consequence

bò = case, example, instance

hí = source, origin

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Now while these words are still used as nouns, they have developed a longer form ... possibly to reduce ambiguity with the particulate usage.

ké => kegozo = result, consequence ... (gozo = fruit)

bò => bozomba = case, example, instance ... (somba = to sit)

hí = => hidito = source, origin ... (dito = point, dot)

..... -am- as a none-productive infix

klói = to see

klamoi = to show

tàu = to know

tamau = to tell

bái = to go, to move

bamai = to drive

kàu = to come

kamau = to summon

fyu = to fly

fyamu = to throw

gwoi = to jump (involuntarily), to give a start

gwamoi = to make somebody jump, to give somebody a start

doika = walk

damoika = to manage, to run ......... damoikanai = "the management" or "the managers"

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..... Start, Stop, Try

In béu, three secondary verbs (in English) are expressed by a copula plus a pilana. They are ...

to start drinking => láu solbelke

to stop drinking => láu solbelfe

to try drinking => sàu solbewo

And just to demonstrate that the above doesn't necessary lead to confusion ...

He talks about drinking => cator solbewo

We talk about trying to drink => catair wo sàu solbewo

So in fact the gomia take 8 of the 12 pilana ... ji ge n ho la lfe lkx wo

The ergative s also occurs but only in its prepositional form sá

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..... two more copula

There are 2 more words that might be considered copula ...

1) twài = to be located, to be placed .... perhaps an eroded form of a participle of tèu "to place"

2) yór = to exist ... a third person indicative form of the verb yái "to have". The third person indicative meaning is completely bleached in this usage.

..... must should can know how to

Also often called the predicate. Called the jaudauza in béu

The predicate is made up of ...

1) one of two particles that show likelihood which are optional.

In the béu linguistic tradition they are called mazebai. The mazebai are a subgroup of feŋgi (the particles)

2) one of five particles that show modality. These are also optional.

In the béu linguistic tradition they are called seŋgebai. The seŋgebai are a subgroup of feŋgi (the particles)

3) a gomua (a full verb)

... mazebai

These appear first in the predicate.

These particles show the probability of the verb occurring.

1) màs solbori = maybe he drank

2) lói solbori = probably he drank

You could say that the first one indicates about 50% certainty while the second indicates around 90 % certainty

... seŋgebai

These appear next in the predicate.

These particles correspond to what is called the "modal" words in English. The five seŋgeba are ...

1) sú which codes for strong obligation or duty. It is equivalent to "should" in English. In English certain instances of the word "must" also carries this meaning.

2) seŋga which codes for weak obligation. It is equivalent to "ought to" in English. (Note ... in certain dialects of English "ought to" is dying out, and "should" is coding weak obligation also)

3) alfa which codes for ability. It is equivalent to "can" in English. As in English it means that subject has the strength or the skill to perform the action. Also as in English it codes for possibilities/situations which are not dependent on the subject. For example ... udua alfa solbur => "the camels can drink" in the context of "the caravan finally reached Farafra Oasis"

4) hempi which codes for permission. It is equivalent to "may" or "to be allowed to" in English. (Note ... in certain dialects of English "may" is dying out, and "can" is coding for permission also)

5) hentai means knowledge. It is equivalent to "know how to" in English. (Note ... in English certain instances of the word "can" also carries this meaning)

The form that these seŋgeba and the main verb take appears strange. Where as, logically, you would expect the suffixes for person, number, tense, aspect and evidential to be attached to the seŋgeba and the main verb maybe in its infinitive form, the seŋgeba do not change their form and the suffixes appear on the main verb as normal. This is one oddity that marks the seŋgeba off as a separate word class.^*

Some examples ...

1)

a) sú -er => you should visit your brother

b) sú -eri => you should have visited your brother

c) sú hamperka animals => you should not feed the animals

d) sú hamperki animals => you shouldn't have fed the animals

Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza súa

2)

a) seŋga humper little => you ought to eat a little

b) seŋga humperi little => you ought to have eaten a little

c) seŋga solberka brandy => you ought to not drink brandy

d) seŋga solberki brandy => you ought to have not drunk that brandy

Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza seŋgua

3)

a) fuà -or => he can swim across the river

b) fuà-ori => he could swim across the river

c) fuà solborka => he can stop drinking

d) fuà solborki => he could stop drinking

Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza fùa

4)

a) hempi bor festa => "she may go to the party" or "she can go to the party" or "she is allowed to go to the party"

b) hempi bori festa => she was allowed to go to the party

c) hempi borka school => he is allowed to stop attending school

d) hempi bori school => he was allowed to stop attending school

Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza hempua

5)

a) hentai bamor car => "she can drive a car" or "she knows how to drive a car"

b) hentai bamori car => she knew how to drive a car

c) hentai boikorka car => He has the ability not to crash the car

d) hentai boikorki car => He had the ability not to crash the car

Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza hentua

^*Two other oddities also marks off the seŋgeba as a separate word class. These are ...

1) When you want to question a jaudauza containing a seŋgeba you change the position of the main verb and the seŋgeba. For example ...

bor hempi festa => "may she go to the party" ... shades of English here.

2) All 5 seŋgeba can be negativized by deleting the final vowel and adding aiya. For example ...

faiya -or ??? => he can't swim across the river

Note ... sometimes the negative marker on the seŋgeba can occur along with the normal negative marker on the main verb to give an emphatic positive. Sometimes it produces a quirky effect. For example ...

jenes faiya humpor cokolate => Jane can't eat chocolates (Jane lacks the ability to eat chocolates) ... for example she is a diabetic and can not eat anything sweet.

jenes fa humporka cokolate => Jane can not eat chocolates (Jane have the ability not to eat chocolates)... meaning she has the willpower to resist them.

jenes faiya humporka cokolate => Jane can not not eat chocolates (Jane lacks the ability, not to eat chocolates) ... meaning she can't resist them.

There are 5 nouns that correspond to the 5 seŋgeba

anzu = duty

seŋgo = obligation

alfa = ability

hempo = permission or leave

hento = knowledge

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Note on English usuage (in fact all the Germanic languages) ... the way English handles negating modal words is a confusing. Consider "She can not talk". Since the modal is negated by putting "not" after it and the main verb is negated by putting "not" in front of it, this could either mean ...

a) She doesn't have the ability to talk

or

b) She has the ability to not talk

Note only when the meaning is a) can the proposition be contracted to "she can't talk". In fact, when the meaning is b), usually extra emphasis would be put on the "not". a) is the usual interpretation of "She can not talk" and if you wanted to express b) you would rephrase it to "She can keep silent". This rephrasing is quite often necessary in English when you have a modal and a negative main verb to express.

... wepua

We have already mentioned the two mazeba at the beginning of this section.

Actually there is another particle that occurs in the same slot as the mazeba and it also codes for likelihood. This is wepua and it constitutes a subgroup of feŋgi (the particles) all by itself.

1) más solbori = maybe he drank

2) lói solbori = probably he drank

3) wepua solbori = he must have drank

You could say that while the first one indicates about 50% certainty while the second indicates around 90 % certainty, the third shows 100% certainty.

3) Indicates that some "evidence" or "background information" exists to allow the speaker to assert what he is saying. It also carries the meaning "there is no other conclusion given the evidence".This obviously has some functional similarities to the -s evidential. However the -s evidential carries less than 100 % certainty ...

solboris = I guess/suppose he drunk

wepua never appears in front of the first two seŋgebai. This is the difference between wepua and the mazebai.

The word wepua is derived from pè meaning "to need". pòi means necessities.wepua can be thought of as meaning something like "being necessary" or "of necessity".

The reciprocal construction

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The reciprocal particle can be said to historically come from both náu and mài.

jonos jenes timpura namai = "John and Jane are hitting each other" = "John and Jane hit one and other"

namai the reciprocal particle (usually comes immediately after the verb) is obviously derived from the phrase náu mài

Note ... lè "and" is not used when two nouns in the ergative case occur adjacent to each other.

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.... -fa, and -inda

These all form adjectives. The first might have some connection with a seŋgeba.

i.e. solbe = to drink

moze = water

moze solbefa = drinkable water

Maybe related to fua "can".

moze solbinda = water worth drinking

There is also another suffix, but this one can be said to be unrelated to "like" kinda

Maybe related to kinda "to like".

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..... Machine symbols

The "béu.symbol" is a orange disk with a sky blue background (the "béu.symbol" has both a simple and a complex representation)

This imagery continues into the way that machines are marked ...

To show that a machine is working, an orange disc is illuminated To show that a machine is switched off, a sky blue square is illuminated

The button to switch a machine on, is an orange disk with a black ring on it The button to switch a machine off, is a sky blue square with a black ring on it

( Of course the functions of indication and switching are often combined in one button )

For rocker switches ( such as light swithes ) the top part is square and you push this

to switch off ... the bottom part is semicircular and you push this to switch on

By the way "red" is associated with danger and "green" is associated with safety So for example traffic lights are exactly the same ( including the orange in the middle )

By the way there are no other associations with colour ... you do not talk about a blackheart or a yellow streak etc etc ... kids are not split up according to pink or blue clothes.

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YĪN YÁNG

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   femininity					     masculinity
   the moon						the sun
   the earth						the sky
   diffuseness						focused

   femininity					     masculinity

===========================

	soft							hard

yielding solid passive aggressive/active fast slow

   the moon						the sun

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black white cold hot wet dry water fire nightime daytime

Strictly NO association between "order"/"chaos" and the concepts not highlighted.

Also no associations with ...

good bad truth falsehood

	right							wrong

north south beauty uglyness positive negative right left

..... Introduction

The language and culture of béu are listed in the 10 chapters that follow. At the moment only the first chapter can really be considered finished ... at least as far as the language goes. Approximately the first 13 pages of every chapter concern the language and the last 6 pages or so concern the culture.

The cultural sections seem to be pretty solid at the moment but the linguistic sections are still in flux. Hopefully in the not too distant future the language will become equally solid.

In this introduction, I first discuss the language. Then I discuss some of the foundations of the culture of béu. Finally I mention some of the more esoteric bits of the culture.

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A history of the Language ...

The very first language that I tried to construct was called HARWENG. This was eventually given up about 14 years ago. The basic problem was that I didn't know enough about linguistics. "if you want to get high, you first must build a strong foundation" When I tried to build on the foundations that I had established, I found too many things just didn't harmonise : it seemed like an impossible task to cut though the tangles, so I put that project reluctantly aside.

My second project was called SEUNA. The reason that I put this one aside was that I wasn't too happy with the SEUNA script. However my third language ... BEU (from now on referred to as béu ... by the way, the diacritic above the "e" indicated a high tone) seems like it will carry on to fruition.

What interests me most in linguistics is that fascinating area where logic, grammar and semantics intersect. I appreciate the elegant patterns that are found in natural languages. However most natural languages have elements which I don't like. Such as the tendency of natural languages to appropriate existing grammatical particles when evolving a new structure. Probably the forces that drive natural language change are fundamentally unable to form a language sufficiently "efficient" and "elegant" for me ... evolution by "decree" rather than natural forces just seems so much more easy.

Also I have always been a perfectionist ... keenly aware of all the imperfections that everyday life entails. I have always had the feeling that in order to build perfection you must start at the very bottom ... and I also have had the feeling that language is the most basic thing^* that makes us human. Hence the first step to making a better world is to develop a logical, elegant and beautiful language.

All of the above motivated me to construct a new language.

The best constructed language which I have so far come across was CEQLI. However it was not much more than a sketch. Also the two languages created by Dirk Elzinga ... TEPA and SHEMSPREG were also very neat. However again they were not fully thought out ... not complete languages. I intend that béu will be a fully formed language.

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The "bubble fountain" above is how I see the world 4,000 languages (OK I haven't drawn 4,000 bubbles ... pretend) of the world. The vertical axis is complexity. The black line at the bottom represents zero ... the way that a group of people would communicate initially if they all spoke totally different languages and were forced to associate together by some twist of fate. There would be zero grammaticisation ... it would be a very inefficient means of communication and I would presume quite frustrating to try and converse in. The horizontal axis represents how far the different languages diverge from each other (this "divergence" should be multi-dimensional because of course languages diverge from each other in many many different ways ... but I am afraid we must make do with one dimension on my little chart).

You will notice that the simple languages at the bottom of the chart differ less from each other less than the more complex languages at the top. These simple languages tend to have one concept to one word ... they are analytic. Now a simple language is just as fit-for-purpose as a complicated language. And I certainly didn't want complexity for complexity's sake : I just wanted a language that was easy to learn and that would appear to be "natural". Hence the structure of béu is not a million miles away from the structure of English ... or Mandarin. In its final form béu seems like a natural language : the grammar and the "patterns" in the language wouldn't be considered out of place in a natural language.

In its long history (HARWENG => SEUNA => béu) it has changed many many times. It has gone thru' many iterations^**. I would change one part of the grammar and then find that this change didn't fit with something else. So I would change it back, or modify the "something else", or maybe try out a completely new paradigm. This happened many many times. I suppose the changes that happened in in the development of béu are similar to the diachronic changes that happen to natural languages, and hence béu ended up looking quite naturalistic.

^* I believe that language co-evolved with the increase in the human cranial capacity ... so language has been with us for well over a million years.

^** A good analogy to this how a protein takes its shape. This is a long linear chain molecule that folds up on itself to takes on a very definite and complicated shape. The final shape is determined by a series of movements that are initiated by the attractive and repulsive forces that the various links in the chain have for each other. In a similar way the final shape of béu was determined by the way that different grammatical patterns and phonological patterns either clashed with each other, or matched with each other through a number of successive iteration.

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Addendum ... When talking about grammar I follow the lead given by R.M.W. Dixon in "Basic Linguistic Theory". I would thoroughly recommend this book. As well as giving a broad topological perspective of the World's languages, it puts the convoluted terminology that has grown up in the field of linguistics over the years, firmly in its place.

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..... Index

1. Introduction to Béu
2. Béu : Chapter 1 : The Sounds
3. Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun
4. Béu : Chapter 3 : The Verb
5. Béu : Chapter 4 : Adjective
6. Béu : Chapter 5 : Questions
7. Béu : Chapter 6 : Derivations
8. Béu : Chapter 7 : Way of Life 1
9. Béu : Chapter 8 : Way of life 2
10. Béu : Chapter 9 : Word Building
11. Béu : Chapter 10 : Gerund Phrase
12. Béu : Discarded Stuff
13. A statistical explanation for the counter-factual/past-tense conflation in conditional sentences