Béu : Chapter 2

..... The fundamentals of the grammar

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This is an ergative language. The ergative marker is -s (-os for words ending in a vowel).

In the main clause there is free word order. That is, you can have SV, VS, AVO, AOV, VAO, OVA, OAV, VOA.

The choices VAO/VOA and AOV/OAV are made on discourse grounds.

The other choices are made according to the definiteness of S, A and O.

If definite they come before the verb, if not they come after.

(é and è also code for indefiniteness ... maybe they are only necessary in oblique NP and subclauses ... maybe not necessary for S, A and O in main clauses)

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..... The noun phrase core

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Now we talk about the béu noun phrase (fandauza).

The fandauza consists of the head hua (3) followed by one or more adjectives saidau (2) followed by a determiner (1). Only the head is mandatory.

1) The set of possible determiners is very small in béu. Only three ... dí "this", or dè "that" or nái "which".

In the Western Linguistic tradition "which" is not usually thought of as a determiner. It is however in the béu linguistic tradition. When nái is used you of course have a question.

2) Not much to say about this one, you can string together as many as you like ... the same as in English. Also genitives are put in this slot. A genitive is a word derived from a noun by the suffixing of -n (or -on) which indicates possession^*. Genitives always come after the regular adjective.

^*Actually it can also stand for a location ... where the NP is at.

3) This is usually a noun. However it can also be an adjective. When it is an adjective it has concrete reference instead of representing a quality (as happens often in English). For instance, when talking about ... say ... a photograph, you could say "the green is too dark". In this sentence "the green" is a NP meaning the quality of being green. In béu if green is used as the head of a NP it always means "the green one" : "the person/thing that is green".

In béu, geunai would be used in a sentence such as "the green is too dark".

gèu = "green" or "the green one"

geunai = "greenness"

saco = "slow" or "the slow one"

saconi = "slowness"

Notice that the suffix has two forms ... depending upon whether the base adjective has one syllable or more than one syllable.

Sometimes the head is a determiner. In these cases the NP is understood to refer to some noun ... but it is not spoken ... it is just understood by all parties. In these cases the determiners undergo a change of form ...

dí => adi = "this one"

dè => ade = "that one"

nái => anai = "which one"

Related to dí and dè are the two nouns dían (here) and dèn (there). Although nouns, they never occur with the locative case or the ergative case.

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..... Pronouns

Below the form of the béu pronouns is the given for when the pronoun is the A argument.

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I	pás	we (includes "you")	yúas
		we (doesn't include "you")	wías
you	gís	you (plural)	jés
he, she	ós	they	nús
it	ʃís	they	ʃís

Because the person and number of the A or S argument is expressed in the actual verb. The above are usually dropped (however the third person pronoun is occasionally retained to give the distinction between human and non-human subject) so when the pronouns above are come across, it might be better to translate them as "I myself", "you yourself" etc. etc.

Below the form of the béu pronouns is the given for when the pronoun is the S or O argument. When they are used as an S arguments (i.e. with an intransitive verb), it might be better to translate these pronouns as "I myself", "you yourself" etc. etc.

me	pà	us	yùa
		us	wìa
you	gì	you (plural)	jè
him, her	ò	them	nù
it	ʃì	them	ʃì

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The above table is for S and O arguments, it fact we have another pronoun but this one only occurs as an O argument. When a action is performed by somebody on themselves we use tí to represent the O argument.

Just as in English, we do not say "*I hit me", but "I hit myself" ... in béu we do not say *pás pà timpari, but pás tí timpari.

It is a rule that tí must follow the A argument (if it is overtly expressed ... i.e. by a free-standing pronoun and not just in the verb)

LINGUISTIC JARGON ... "myself" is what is called a "reflexive pronoun". In English there are many reflexive pronouns (i.e. "myself", "yourself", "herself", etc. etc.) : in béu only one.

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The possessive form of these pronouns are ...

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my	pàn	our	yùan
		our	wìan
your	gìn	your (plural)	jèn
his, her	òn	their	nùn
its	ʃìn	their	ʃìn

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And we also have tín which is used if the possessor is the same as the subject of the clause.

Actually the n suffix is the locative. In the grammar, location and possession are marked identically.

This is similar to Scotch Gaelic. Consider Scotch Gaelic ... "Taigh agam" = "My house" (lit. "A house at me") ^*

Basically if n is appended to a noun that refers to a person, then the n indicates possession.

And if n is appended to a noun that refers to a place, then the n indicates location.

Sometimes the same affix can be used twice on the same word. For example cavia is a male first name.

Now in the béu lands it is quite common for small eateries and drinking establishments to be named after their owner, so cavian is, in the first instance an adjective meaning "belonging to cavia ". But in the second instance it can be a noun meaning "the place of cavia ". Then to indicate "at the place of cavia " you would have the word cavianon.^**

^*And in a similar way to Gaelic, béu has no possessive verb (i.e. it has no verb "to have")

Compare Gaelic ... "Tha taigh agam" — "I have a house" (lit. "A house is at me")

and béu ... twor nambo pàn — "I have a house" (lit. "Exists a house at me" or "There exists a house at me")

^** Note the linking vowel o between the two n's. béu uses o as a linking vowel for nouns and e as a linking vowel for verbs.

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..... The extended noun phrase

Actually around the NP core you can have some other elements.

The specifiers

The specifiers = nandau.a koiʒi or just koiʒia

koiʒi actually means "preface" as in "the preface to the book"

Immediately before the core you can have a specifier.

There consist of the following ...

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"no" (kyà), "any" (í), "some"(singular) (é), "every" (yú), "some"(plural) (è), "plurality" (nò), "all" (ù), "two" (auva) => 1727 (ataitauta), many" (uwe), "a few" (iyo)

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Notice that the specifier that implies zero number has low tone, the 3 specifiers that imply singular* number have high tone and the 3 specifiers that imply plural* number have low tone.

.* Well this is true for the English translations anyway. (SideNote ... Actually I am not so sure about the "logic" of my little scheme. Also I would like to look into how a spectrum of other languages use specifiers)

Also note that nò is a noun (meaning "number") as well as a particle that denotes plurality. In the béu mathematical tradition, nò means a number from 2 -> 1727 only (of course there are expressions for expanding the concept to integers, rational numbers etc. etc.)

After a koiʒi the head is always in its base form with regard to number. For example ...

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é glà = some woman

è glà = some women ... not *è gala

í toti = any child .......... not *í totai

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The are 2 cases where you can have two koiʒi together ... é nò or when you have í followed by a number greater than one. For example ...

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é nò toti = some child or children

í auva toti = any two children

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The specifiers with a determiner

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Below is a table showing all the specifiers plus a countable noun plus the proximal determiner "this". This table is also valid for the distal determiner "that".

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1	ú báu dí	all of these men	OR	all these men
2	uwe báu dí	many of these men
3	iyo báu dí	few of these men	OR	a few of these men
4	auva báu dí	two of these men	ETC	ETC
5	kyà báu dí	none of these men
6	í báu dí	any of these men	OR	any one of these men
7	é báu dí	one of these men
8	è báu dí	some of these men
9	yú báu dí	every one of these men
10	nò báu dí	several of these men	OR	several of these men here
11	é nò báu dí	one or more of these men
12	í auva báu dí	any two of these men	ETC	ETC

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The above table is worth discussing ... for what it tells us about English as much as anything else.

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One line 1 ... I do not know why "all these men" is acceptable ... on every other line "of" is needed (to think about)

Similarly on line 3 ... I do not know why "a few" is a valid alternative.

Notice that *aja báu dí does not exist. It is illegal. "one of these men" is expressed on line 7. aja only used in counting ???

I should think more on the semantic difference between line 10 and line 8. ???

line 1 and line 9 are interesting. Every language has a word corresponding to "every" (or "each", same same) and a word corresponding to "all". Especially when the NP is S or A, "all" emphasises the unity of the action, while "every" emphasises the separateness of the actions. Now of course (maybe in most cases) this dichotomy is not needed. It seems to me, that in that case, English uses "every" as the default case (the Scandinavian languages use "all" as the default ??? ). In béu the default is "all" ú.

On line 9, it seems that "one" adds emphasis to the "every". Probably, not so long ago, "every" was valid by itself. The meaning of this word (in English anyway) seems particularly prone to picking up other elements (for the sake of emphasis) with a corresponding lost of power for the basic word when it occurs alone. (From Etymonline EVERY = early 13c., contraction of Old English æfre ælc "each of a group," literally "ever each" (Chaucer's everich), from each with ever added for emphasis. The word still is felt to want emphasis; as in Modern English every last ..., every single ..., etc.)

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For the third determiner ("which") the table is much truncated ...

1	nò báu nái	which men
2	auva báu nái	which two men	ETC	ETC

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Below I have reproduced the above two tables for when the noun is dropped (but understood as background information). It is quite trivial to generate the below tables. Apart from lines 8 and 10, just delete "men" from the English phrase and báu from the béu phrase. (I must think about why 8 and 10 are different ???)

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1	ú dí	all of these	OR	all these
2	uwe dí	many of these
3	iyo dí	few of these	OR	a few of these
4	auva dí	two of these	ETC	ETC
5	kyà dí	none of these
6	í dí	any of these	OR	any one of these
7	é dí	one of these
8	è dí	some of these	OR	several of these
9	yú dí	every one of these
10	nò dí	these	NOT	several of these
11	é nò dí	one or more of these
12	í auva dí	any two of these	ETC	ETC

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1	nò báu nái	which (plural understood)	OR	which ones
2	auva nái	which two	ETC	ETC

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In the last section we introduced the rule, that when a determiner is the head, then the determiner changes form (an a is prefixed to it)

Now we must introduce an exception to that rule ... when you have a specifier just to the left of a determiner (in this conjunction, the determiner MUST be the head) the determiner takes its original form.

The emphatic particle

Now even before the specifiers it is possible to have an element. This is the emphatic particle á.

This is also used as a sort of vocative case. Not really obligatory but used before a persons name when you are trying o get their attention.

When this particle comes directly in front of adi, ade and anai an amalgamation takes place ( á adi etc etc are in fact illegal)

á adi => ádí = "this one!"

á ade => ádé = "that one!"

á anai => ánái = "which one!"

These three words break the rule that only monosyllabic words can have tone. These 3 words are the only exception to that rule.

By the way, emphasis is always used when contrasting two things. as in "this is wet, but that is dry" = ádí nucoi, ádé mideu

When written using the béu writing system, only the initial a is given the dot on the RHS which indicates high tone. The second syllable is unmarked.

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The relative clause

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béu relative clauses work pretty much the same as English relative clauses.

báu à glà timpori = the man whom the woman hit

báu às glà timpori = the man who hit the woman

The relativizer is à or às. à if the NP has an S or O role within the relative clause ... às if the NP has an A role within the relative clause ... béu being an ergative language.

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..... The verbal noun phrase

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In subclauses there is a fixed order. It is VS and VAO. In these subclauses the V is not really a verb but more a verbal noun, a maSdar .... whatever you want to call it.

..... 72 Adjectives

..... 4 of which serve as intransitive verbs

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bòi *	good	boizora	she is healthy	bòis	to be healthy/health
kéu	bad	keuzora	he is ill	kéus	to be sick/illness
fái	rich **	faizora	she is interested	fáis	to be attentive/attention
pàu	bland	pauzora	he is bored	pàus	to be bored/boredom

^* Note that the adverb version of this word is slightly irregular. Instead of boiwe it is bowe. People often shout this when impressed with some athletic feat or sentiment voiced ... bowe bowe => well done => bravo bravo

Also instead of keuwe we have kewe. People often shout kewe kewe kewe if they are unimpressed with some athletic feat or disagree with a sentiment expressed. Equivalent to "Booo boo".

^**In a non-monetary sense. If applied to food it means many flavours and/or textures. If applied to music it means there is polyphony. If applied to physical design it means baroque.

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... 14 of which don't serve as any type of verbs

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igwa	equal, the same
uʒya	different, not the same
sài	young
gáu	old (of a living thing)
jini	clever, smart
tumu	stupid, thick
nìa	near
múa	far
wenfo	new
yompe	old, former, previous
cùa	east, dawn, sunrise
día	west, dusk, sundown
lugu	right, positive
liʒi	left, negative

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(Of course you can always use a periphrastic expression if you wanted.)

... 54 of which serve as transitive verbs

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boʒi	better	kegu	worse	bozori	he improved something	kegori	he made something worse	boʒis	to improve	kegus	to made something worse
faizai	richer	paugau	blander	faizori	she developed something	paugau	she run something down	faizais	to enrich/develope	paugaus	to run down
ái	white	àu	black	aizori	he whitened something	auzori	he turned something black	áis	to whiten	àus	to blacken
hái	high	ʔàu	low	haizori	she raised something	ʔauzori	she lowered something	háis	to raise	ʔàus	to lower
guboi	deep	sikeu	shallow	gubori	she deepened something	sikori	she made something shallow	gubois	to deepen	sikeus	to make shallow
seltia	bright	goljua	dim	seltori	he brightened something	goljua	he dimmed something	seltias	to brighten	goljuas	to dim
taiti	tight	jauju	loose	taitori	she tightened something	jaujori	she loosened something	taitis	to tighten	jaujus	to loosen
jutu	big	tiji	small	jutori	he expanded something	tijori	he shrank something	jutus	to enlarge	tijis	to shrink
felgi	hot	polzu	cold	felgori	she heated something up	polzori	she cooled something down	felgis	to heat	polzus	to cool down
maze	open	nago	closed	mazori	he opened something	nagori	he closed something	mazes	to open	nagos	to shut
baga	simple	kaza	complex	bagori	she simplified something	kazori	she complicated something	bagas	simplify	kazas	to complicate
naike	sharp	maubo	blunt	naikori	he sharpened something	maubori	he blunts something	naikes	to sharpen	maubos	to blunt
nucoi	wet	mideu	dry	nucori	she made something wet	midori	she dried something	nucois	to make wet	mideus	to dry
fazeu	empty	pagoi	full	fazori	he emptied something	pagori	he filled something	fazeus	to empty	pagois	to fill
saco	fast	gade	slow	sacori	she speeded something up	gadori	she slowed something down	sacos	to accelerate	gades	to decelerate
wobua	heavy	yekia	light	wobori	he loaded something up	yekori	he unloaded something	wobuas	to load up	yekias	to unload
haube	beautiful	ʔaiko	ugly	haubori	she beautified something	ʔaikori	she made something ugly	haubes	beautify	ʔaikos	to make ugly
pujia	thin	fitua	thick	pujori	he made something thin	fitori	he made something thick	pujias	to make thin	fituas	to thicken
yubau	strong	wikai	weak	yubori	she strengthened something	wikori	she weakened something	yubaus	to strengthen	wikais	to weaken
ailia	neat	aulua	untidy	ailori	he tidied up something	aulori	he messed something up	ailias	to tidy up	auluas	to mess up
fuje	soft	pito	hard	fujori	she softened something	pitori	she hardened something	fujes	to soften	pitos	to harden
joga	wide	teza	narrow	jogori	he widened something	tezori	he narrowed something	jogas	to broaden	tezas	to narrow
gelbu	rough	solki	smooth	gelbori	she made something rough	solkori	she smoothed something	gelbus	to roughen	solkis	to smooth
ʔoica	clear	heuda	hazy	ʔoicori	she explained something	heudori	she confused somebody (intentionally)	ʔoicas	to explain	heudas	to muddy the waters
selce	sparce	goldo	dense	selcori	he pruned something	goldori	he intensified something	selces	to prune	goldos	to intensify
cadai	fragrant	dacau	stinking	cadori	she made fragrant	dacori	she made stinky	cadais	to make fragrant	dacaus	to to make stinky
detia	elegant	cojua	crude	detori	he decorated something	cojori	he decorated something BADLY	detias	to decorate	cojuas	to decorate in a gauche style

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The top 4 adjectives in the table above are actually irregular comparatives.

The standard method for forming the comparative and superlative is ... ái = white : aige = whiter : aimo = whitest

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However not quite all antonyms fall into the above pattern. For example ...

loŋga

long

tìa

short

loŋgori

he lengthened something

tiazori

he shortened something

loŋgas

to lengthen

tìas

to shorten

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..... Antonym phonetic correspondence

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In the above lists, it can be seen that each pair of adjectives have pretty much the exact opposite meaning from each other. However in béu there is ALSO a relationship between the sounds that make up these words.

In fact every element of a word is a mirror image (about the L-A axis in the chart below) of the corresponding element in the word with the opposite meaning.

ʔ
m
y
j		ai
f		e
b		eu
g		u
d		ua		high tone
u	===========================	a	============================	neutral
c		ia		low tone
s/ʃ		i
k		oi
p		o
t		au
w
n
h

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Note ... The original idea of having a regular correspondence between the two poles of a antonym pair came from an earlier idea for the script. In this early script, the first 8 consonants had the same shape as the last 8 consonants but turned 180˚. And in actual fact the two poles of a antonym pair mapped into each other under a 180˚ turn.

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An adjectives is called moizana in béu .... NO NO NO

moizu = attribute, characteristic, feature

And following the way béu works, if there is an action that can be associated with noun (in any way at all), that noun can be co-opted to work as an verb.

Hence moizori = he/she described, he/she characterized, he/she specified ... moizus = the noun corresponding to the verb on the left

moizo = a specification, a characteristic asked for ... moizoi = specifications ... moizana = things that describe, things that specify

nandau moizana = an adjective, but of course, especially in books about grammar, this is truncated to simply moizana

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... Simple arithmetic

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noiga = arithmetic

Above right you can see the numbers 1 -> 11 displayed. Notice that the forms of 1, 3, 6, 7 and 9 have been modified slightly before the "number bar" has been added.

In the bottom right you can see 7 interesting symbols. These are used to extend the range of the béu number system (remember the basic system only covers 1-> 1727). Their meanings are given in the table below.

elephant	huŋgu
rhino	nàin
water buffalo	wúa
circle	omba
hare	yanfa
beetle	mulu
bacterium, bug	ʔiwetu

To give you an idea of how they are used, I have given you a very big number below.

Which is => 1,206,8E3,051.58T,630,559,62 ... E represents eleven and T represents ten ... remember the number is in base 12.

O.K. this number has a ridiculous dynamic range. But this is for demonstration purposes only: if you can handle this number you can handle any number.

This monster would be pronounced aja huŋgu ufaila nàin ezaitauba wúa idauja omba idaizaupa yanfa elaibau mulu idaidauka ʔiwetu elaifau dó

Now the 7 "placeholders" are not really thought of as real numbers, they are markers only. Used in the same way that we would say "point"/"decimal" when reeling off a number.

When first introduced to this system, many people think that the béu culture must be untenable, however strangely enough the béu culture has lasted many thousands of year, despite the obvious confusion that must arise when they attempt to count elephants.

One further point of note ...

If you wanted to express a number represented by digits 2->4 from the LHS of the monster, you would say aufaidaula nàin .... the same way as we have in the Western European tradition. However if you wanted to express a number represented digits 6 ->8 from the RHS of the monster, you would say yanfa elaibau .... not the way we do it. This is like saying "milli 630" instead of "630 micro".

To make a number negative the "number bar" is placed on the left. See below ;-

Also a number can be made imaginary by adding a further stroke that touches the "number bar". See below ;-

As you can see above, there is no special sign for the "addition operation". The numbers are simply written one beneath the other. Similarly with subtraction but one number would be negative this time.

There is a special sign to indicate multiplication (+), and there is an equals sign (-).

Division is the same as multiplication except that one of the numbers is in "fractional form".

There is an alternative multiplication/division notation : instead of using the + sign, the two quantities can instead be written side by side (see the example above).

-6 is pronounced ela liʒi ... liʒi means left or "negative

By the way lugu means right (as in right-hand-side) or positive.

4i is pronounced uga haspia ... and what does haspia mean, well it is the name of the little squiggle that touches the number bar, for one thing.

-4i is pronounced uga haspia liʒi

-1/10 is pronounced diapa liʒi

i/4 is pronounced duga haspia

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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