Béu : Chapter 3

..... A short verb

In the above two sections we have seen that the first step for making an indicative or an imperative verb form is to delete the final vowel. However this is only applicable for non-monosyllabic verbs. With monosyllabic verbs the rules are different.

For a monosyllabic verbs with a non-diphthong vowel the indicative endings are simply juxtaposed and the imperative endings are both changed to simply -ʔa. For example ...

swú = to fear ... swu.ur = They fear ... swu.ar = I fear

For a monosyllabic verbs with a diphthong vowel, the final i -> y or the final u -> w for the the indicative.

gái = to ache, to be in pain ... gayar = I am in pain

ʔáu = to take, to pick up ... ʔawar = I take ... ʔauya = take !

However for the 37 monosyllabic verbs listed below the rules are different. Their vowels are deleted for the indicative and imperative verb forms. These 17 single-initial-consonant verbs and 20 double-initial-consonant verbs have their vowels totally obliterated in the indicative and imperative verb forms For example ...

'myar gì = I love you : poiya nambo = enter the house

..... 37 short verbs

ʔái = to want

mìa = to get

yái = to have

jìa = to be

féu = to exit

bùa = to change

gói = to descend

dèu = to arrive

lái = to go

cía = to depart

sèu = to ascend

kói = to be able to

pòi = to enter

túa = to put

wàu = to lack

núa = to give

hàu = to be good, to be of use

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myù = to like, to love

jwà = to drink

fyùa = to do

flàu = to extract

byà = to eat

bláu = to tell

bwò = to know

glìa = to lower

gwù = to store

dwì = to follow

cwài = to use

slúa = to raise

swè = to speak, to say

kyò = to show

klòi = to see

kwèu = to cross

pyè = to be enough

plái = to insert

twìa = to meet

nyì = to return

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Note that have/lack, depart/arrive, exit/enter, ascend/descend, raise/lower and insert/extract are alphabetical opposites.

data = to come ... lái and data were not considered sufficiently opposite in meaning (well in usage) to make them alphabetical opposites.

Also túa and ʔáu were also not considered sufficiently opposite in meaning (well in usage) to make them alphabetical opposites.

Also note that there seems to be some connection between gói/glìa, sèu/slúa, pòi/plái and féu/flàu. Some derivation process productive in thousands of years ago ... or just coincidence ... who can tell.

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hemo = to be obliged

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..... 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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... 12 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
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	bozor	he/she improves	kegor	he/she made something worse	boʒido	to improve	kegudo	to made worse
faizai	richer	paugau	blander	faizor	she developed	paugau	she run something down	faizaido	to enrich/develope	paugaudo	to run down
ái	white	àu	black	aidor	he whitened	audor	he turned something black	áido	to whiten	àudo	to blacken
hái	high	ʔàu	low	haidor	she raised	ʔaudor	she lowered	háido	to raise	ʔàudo	to lower
guboi	deep	sikeu	shallow	gubodor	she deepens	sikedor	she makes shallow	gubodo	to deepen	sikedo	to make shallow
seltia	bright	goljua	dim	seltidor	he brightens	goljudor	he dims	seltido	to brighten	goljudo	to dim
taiti	tight	jauju	loose	taitidor	she tightens	jaujudor	she loosens	taitido	to tighten	jaujudo	to loosen
jutu	big	tiji	small	jutudor	he expands	tijidor	he shrinks	jutudo	to enlarge	tijido	to shrink
felgi	hot	polzu	cold	felgidor	she heats up	polzudor	she cools down	felgido	to heat up	polzudo	to cool down
maze	open	nago	closed	mazori	he opens	nagori	he closes	mazedo	to open	nagodo	to shut
baga	simple	kaza	complex	bagador	she simplifies	kazador	she complicates	bagado	simplify	kazado	to complicate
naike	sharp	maubo	blunt	naikedor	he sharpens	maubodor	he blunts something	naikedo	to sharpen	maubodo	to blunt
nucoi	wet	mideu	dry	nucodor	she makes wet	midedor	she dries	nucodo	to make wet	midedo	to dry
fazeu	empty	pagoi	full	fazor	he empties	pagor	he fills	fazedo	to empty	pagodo	to fill
saco	fast	gade	slow	sacori	she speeds up	gadori	she slows down	sacodo	to accelerate	gadedo	to decelerate
wobua	heavy	yekia	light	wobudor	he loads up	yekidor	he unloads	wobudo	to load up	yekido	to unload
hauʔe	beautiful	ʔaiho	ugly	hauʔor	she beautifies	ʔaihor	she makes ugly	hauʔedo	beautify	ʔaihodo	to make ugly
pujia	thin	fitua	thick	pujidor	he makes thin	fitudor	he thickens	pujido	to make thin	fitudo	to thicken
yubau	strong	wikai	weak	yubador	she strengthens	wikador	she weakens	yubado	to strengthen	wikado	to weaken
ailia	neat	aulua	untidy	ailor	he tidies up	aulor	he messes up	ailido	to tidy up	auludo	to mess up
fuje	soft	pito	hard	fujedor	softens	pitodor	she hardens	fujedo	to soften	pitodo	to harden
joga	wide	teza	narrow	jogor	he widens	tezor	he narrows	jogado	to broaden	tezado	to narrow
gelbu	rough	solki	smooth	gelbudor	she roughens	solkidor	she smoothes	gelbudo	to roughen	solkido	to smooth
ʔoica	clear	heuda	hazy	ʔoicador	she explains	heudador	she confuses	ʔoicado	to explain	heudado	to muddy the waters
selce	sparce	goldo	dense	selcedor	he prunes	goldodor	he intensifies	selcedo	to prune	goldodo	to intensify
cadai	fragrant	dacau	stinking	cadador	she make fragrant	dacador	she makes stinky	cadado	to make fragrant	dacado	to make stinky
detia	elegant	cojua	crude	detidor	he decorates/embellishes	cojudor	he spoils	detido	to decorate	cojudo	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 = tall, tìa = short

wazbia = far, mùa = near ... wazbo = distance, wazbai = about 3,680 mtr (the unit of distance)

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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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..... SVC's

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Extensive use is made of serial verb constructions (SVC's). You can spot a SVC when you have a verb immediately followed (i.e. no pause and no particle) by another verb. Usually a SVC has two verbs but occasionally you will come across one with three verbs.

... Motion

.. to & from

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SVC's are used where "to" & "from" are used in English.

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The 3 below examples are the commonest situation ....

lái london = to go to London ... this is not a SVC..................(here)...x--------------------> London

lái pobo = to go to the forest ... this is not a SVC

lái twè jono = to go to meet John = to go to John

And the 3 examples are also common ....

data cía london = to come from london................................(here)...<--------------------x London

data cía pobo = to come from the forest

data cía jono = to come from John

The 3 examples below rare ... "to come to London" is in contrast to "to come to England" or "to come to Notting Hill" but if this distinction is not needed, then "to come" is sufficient.

data dèu london = to come to London.............................................x--------------------> London (here)

data dèu pobo = to come to the forest

data twè jono = to come to meet John

The below examples are rarer still .... in most situations, simply "to go" would be sufficient.

lái cía london = to go from London = to leave London.....................<--------------------x London (here)

etc. etc.

These SVC's always have the verbs in the above order. They can not be swapped around.

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.. out of & into

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data féu talo = to come out of the house

lái pòi talo = to go into the house

data pòi talo = to come into the house

lái féu talo = to go out of the house

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.. across & along

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? = road

doika kwèu ? = to walk across the road

doika dwì ? = to walk along the road

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.. away

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jaŋka = to run

jaŋka lái = to run away

jaŋka lái dèu London = to run away to London

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.. here and there

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awata = to wonder

jaŋka awata = to run around

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.. bring & take to

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kizu = a knife

kizu ʔáu lái = to take the knife away

kizu ʔáu data = to bring the knife

kizu ʔáu lái núa jono = to take the knife and go and give to John

kizu ʔáu data núa jono = to bring the knife and give to John

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... For or against

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senfe = to help, assist, support

gompo = to hinder, to be against

timpa = to fight ??

timpa senfe jono = to fight for John OR to fight with John

timpa gompo jono = to fight against John

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... To change

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bùa = to change

bùa jìa = to change into, to become

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... To give

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núa = to give

núa jono = to give to John

núa lái = to give away

Notice that the recipient must always come immediately after the verb. To drop the recipient, the verb form núa lái must be used.

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..... Some fundamentals of the grammar

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This is an ergative language. The ergative marker is -s or -os for words ending in a vowel or só for a multi-word NP.

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

(SideNote) ... é and è also code for indefiniteness ... OK they are useful for oblique NP and subclauses ... when they appear with S, A or O arguments in a main clauses they impart the notion that the argument is unknown to the speaker as well (or at least that the speaker has limited interest in the argument).

^* Actually in a piece of discourse, it is most likely that the S or A argument are old information and hence the topic. When this is the case the S or A argument is dropped and instead of the 8 sentence types ... SV, VS, AVO, AOV, VAO, OVA, OAV or VOA ... we have only the 3 sentence types ... V_s, O V_a or V_a O.

(V_s represents a verb marked for the person and number of the S argument and V_a represents a verb marked for the person and number of the A argument)

..... Noun phrases

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There are 4 types of noun phrase in béu ...

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1) The noun phrase for countable nouns

2) The noun phrase for uncountable nouns

3) The noun phrase for pronouns

4) The noun phrase for verbs

5) The noun phrase for places

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From now on I will not refer to a "noun phrase", but will be using the béu term fandauza or fandaunyo.

fandau = noun ... this (like many non-basic words in béu is an amalgam word). It is equivalent to nandau fanyo with nandau = "word" and fanyo = "object" or "a physical thing".

The amalgamation process gives ^*fanyodau. However in this particular word, there has been another contraction, to give fandau.

Now the suffix -za, is a suffix used to give the meaning "something more complicated than the basic non-suffixed word. So fandauza = noun phrase

Now the suffix -nyo, is a suffix used to give the meaning "something more complicated than the basic non-suffixed word or the non-suffixed word.

So fandaunyo = "a noun or a noun phrase".

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... The countable nouns fandauza

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It can consist of ... (1) the emphatic particle ... (2) a specifier koiʒi ... (3) a number ... (4) the head hua ... (5) adjectives saidau ... (6) a determiner ... (7) a question word ... (8) a relative clause. Only the head is mandatory.

Actually there are quite a few restrictions. For example (7) would never occurs with (8) .... mmmh why did I insert "would" here ??

Many restrictions between (2) and (3)

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.. The question words

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The set of possible question word (within a NP) is very small. Only three ... nái "which", láu "how much" or "how many", kái "what kind of".

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.. The determiners

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The set of possible determiners is very small. Only two ... dí "this", or dè "that".

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.. The adjectives

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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.

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.. The head

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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"

geumai = "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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.. The specifiers

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The specifiers = nandau.a koiʒi or just koiʒia

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

It also means forewarning or harbinger ... as in "that slight tremor on Tuesday night, was koizi of the quake on Friday"

Immediately before the core you can have a specifier.

There consist of the following ...

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kyà = no, í = any, é = some(for singular noun), yú = every, è = some(for plural nouns), nò = plural, ù = all, auva => ataitauta = 2=>1727, uwe = many, iyo = few, ege = more, ozo = less.

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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. (Side Note ... 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 4 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 ... this is a contraction of "é toto OR nò toti"

í auva toti = any two children

ege auva toti = two more children

ozo auva toti = two less children

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.. Specifiers X determiners

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Below is a table showing all the specifiers plus a countable noun plus the proximal determiner "this".

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1	ù 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 => ataitauta báu dí ... 1727 of these men
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 2 of these men => í ataitauta báu dí ... any 1727 of these men

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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" ù.

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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This table is also valid for the distal determiner "that". For the third determiner ("which") the table is much truncated ...

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1	nò báu nái	which men
2	... auva báu nái	which two men => ataitauta báu nái which 1727 of these men

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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	ù 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	2 of these => ataitauta dí ... 1727 of these
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 2 of these => í ataitauta dí ... any 1727 of these

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1	nò nái	which ones
2	... auva nái	which two => ataitauta nái which 1727

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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.

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.. The emphatic particle

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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 uncountable noun fandauza

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It can consist of ... (1) "the holder" ... (2) the head hua ... (3) adjectives saidau ... (4) a determiner didedau. Only the head is mandatory.

auva hoŋko ʔazwo pona dí = two cups of this hot milk

Note ... even though we have no word "of" ... there is no ambiguity. If the above was two fandaunyo, there would either be a pause between hoŋko and ʔazwo (for example if one was A and one was the O argument), or they would be separated by "and" wí if they were separate fandaunyo but comprised only one argument.

In this respect béu takes after Indonesian. For example ... five big bags of this black rice = lima tas besar beras hitam ini (literally ... five bag big rice black this)

Note that the "holder ???" can be a complete countable noun fandaunyo in itself.

lima tas besar beras hitam ini

(5 bag big) (rice black this) .... Usually languages have a linker, particular when the phrases are long. For example Chinese "de", English "of", Japanese "no". béu has no linker (similar to Indonesian) ... (however à or fí could be pressed into service if needed ??? )

(SideNote) ... ʔazwe = to suck ... ʔazweye = to suckle, to offer the breast

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... The pronoun fandauza

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Below the forms of the béu pronouns are the given for when the pronoun represent the S or O argument. This form can be considered the "base form" or the "unmarked form".

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

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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.

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There is another pronoun but this one only occurs as an O argument. When a action is performed by somebody or something 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. ..

Below is a table with nù "they" occurring with the allowed specifiers. yùa, wìa, jè and ʃì pattern in a similar way.

1	í nù	any of them
2	é nù	one of them
3	yú nù	every one of them
4	è nù	some of them
5	kyà nù	none of them
6	ù nù	all of them
7	kyà nù	none of them
8	í auva nù	any two of them
9	ege nù	more of them
10	ozo nù	less of them

Nothing really surprising in the above. However I thought that I should lay it out in black and white. (what about emo "the most" and omo "the least" ??)

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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.

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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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

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... The sandaunyo

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The sandaunyo is similar to the fandaunyo but built around a sandau as opposed to a fandau.

sandau = a verbal noun, an infinitive, a maSdar .... whatever you want to call it. Ultimately derived from the word sanyo which means "an event". (fanyo and sanyo are equivalent to the Japanese "mono" and "koto"). The word for "verb" is jaudau. Of course there is a one to one relationship between the jaudau and the sandau (as in English if you have an infinitive verb form, you are of course going to have a corresponding finite verb form).

In the sandaunyo there are fixed word orders. They are VS and VAO. If there are any adverbs or locatives they follow the S or the O. For example ...

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somwo pà = "my sleep"

timpa báu glà = the man's hitting of the woman ... Note that báu does not have the ergative suffix -s

solbe pà moze pona sacowe rì kéu = My drinking the cold water quickly was bad

timpwa glà = the woman being struck ... Note ... to form an passive, you infix w.

solbwe moze rì kéu = The drinking of the water was bad

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..... The hipeza

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A hipeza could be translated as "infinitive phrase"

Now a hipe is a type of nouns. So when determiners etc. etc. are added on they must conform to the rules for regular NP's.

However they differ in that they never take plurals and are never possessed (that is followed by yú ).

A hipeza is any phrase with a hipe at its heart.

Now on occasion S, O and A arguments must appear in a hipeza.

béu is quite strict on how these arguments can be added.

They must all follow the infinitive.

1) If in the indicative or subjunctive, an argument takes the ergative affix s, in the infinitive, while having no affix, must be preceded by hí.

2) The O argument always comes before the A argument.

3) Other argument relating to time, place and manner come after the S, O and A arguments.

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English has quite a number of different ways of including S, O and A arguments with the infinitive. See below ...

1) Attila's destruction of Rome

2) Rome's destruction (by Attila)

3) The destruction of Rome (by Attila)

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Tie in the participle phrase (equivalent to Dixon's complement clause)  ???

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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