Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun

..... The 7 types of basic word

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All words belong to one of the following 7 categories ...

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1) feŋgi = particle ... this is a sort of "hold-all" category for all words (and affixes) that don't neatly fit into the other categories. Interjections, numbers, pronouns, conjunctions, determiners and certain words that would be classed as adverbs in English, are all classed as feŋgi.

An example is Í .. the preposition indicating the dative.

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2) seŋko = object

An example is bàu ... "a man"

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3) olus = material, stuff

An example is moze ... "water"

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4) saidau = adjective

An example is nelau ... "dark blue"

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5) maŋga ... It is the basic form of the verb. Not considered or a noun or a verb (however the verbs built up from it by adding suffixes ARE considered full verbs). The maŋga and maŋga phrase play an important roll in béu grammar and I will be referring to BOTH of these of MP from now on.

An example is twá ... "to meet"

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6) maŋgas = a discrete verbal noun. A maŋgas is derived from a maŋga just by suffixing an -s. The maŋgas means one instance of the activity denoted by the maŋga. For example ...

twá = "to meet" ...... twás = "a meeting"

holambu = "to explode" ..... holambus = an explosion

Also a game, a thought, a song, a run

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7) saidaus = a noun derived from an adjective. A saidaus is derived from a saidau just by suffixing an -s. The saidauas means one object possessing the property denoted by the saidau.

An example is nelaus = a/the dark blue one

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..... seŋkas

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seŋkas means a noun or a noun phrase ... ( the noun being tangible and discrete).

Below are all the 7 possible elements in the order in which they must occur.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
-----------------------	---------------	-------	-------------	------------	------------	---------------	-------------------
emphatic particle	numerative	head	adjective	locative	genitive	determiner	relative clause

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3) ... the head : the one part who's presence is required ... this is usually a seŋko but can be a saidaus or maŋgas. For example ... bàu = a/the man : gèus = a/the green one : lailas = a/the song*

Also some of the feŋgi can fill this slot. Namely ... dìs, dès and dés [ what about the numbers ? ]

[ Note ... lailas = one art of singing, Champaign Supernova would be called a ???? ]

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4) ... the adjective

More than one adjective are allowed. For example ... bàu gèu tiji = the little green man : gèus baugo tiji = the little manly green guy/one

To make a question, put kái in this slot. For example ... bàu gèu kái = what kind of green man ?

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5) ... the locative. For example ... bàu gèu tiji pobomau = the little green man on top of the mountain

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6) ... the genitive. For example jwado gèu nambomau yó jene = Jane's big green bird on top of the house

Note that the particle yó is usually dropped the possessor is next to the trunk. However as other elements intervene, the likelihood that yó is used, increases.

If mín (who) is used instead of jene in the above ... then we would have a question ...

jwado gèu nambomau yó mín = Whose big green bird on top of the house ? = Whose's the big green bird on top of the house ?

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7) ... the determiner

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There are two determiners ... dí (this) and dé (that). For example ... bàu gèu tiji pobomau dé = that little green man on top of the mountain.

The primary meaning is for comparing two objects that can be seen. Perhaps accompanied by gestures, dé will be appended to the further of the two objects and by way of distinction, dí will be appended to the nearer one.

To make a question, put nái in this slot. For example ... bàu gèu tiji nái = which little green man ?

Also lò "other" appear in this slot ... bàu gèu tiji lò = "the other little green man" or "another little green man"

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2) ... the numerative

If there is any entry in this slot, the head noun will be singular.

I call it the numerative slot instead of just number slot, because some entries allowed are not strictly numbers.

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All numbers can go in this slot of course. Also the particle nò ("number") can go in this slot.

ʔà = one. So also ...

ʔà = some (for singular noun)

ʔài = some (this makes the noun plural)

ʔà ʔà = any (for singular nouns)

Also we can have ...

ú	all			jù	no
hài	many	yahai	a moderate number	iyo	few
haige	more			iyoge	less
haimo	most, a/the majority			iyomo	least, a/the minority

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haige and iyoge can also be qualified by a number (to qualify exactly how much the increase or decrease should be). In béu the number comes last. For example ...

haige hói = two more ... In actual fact, although this is permitted, it is very very rare. Usually it is hè hói. For iyoge followed by a number, there is no such contraction.

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láu (how many) can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole sentence into a question. For example ...

láu bàu r pobomau = How many men are on top of the mountain ?

With more complex seŋkas it is usual to break up the seŋkas : to specify exactly which element was being questioned. For example ...

láu bàu gèu tiji pobomau hù r doikala = " How many little green men on the mountain that are walking? " ... would be re-phrased as ...

wò bàu gèu tiji pobomau _ láu r doikala = w.r.t. the little green man on top of the mountain, how many are walking ? ... or ...

wò bàu tiji pobomau hù r doikala _ láu r gèu = w.r.t. the little man on top of the mountain who are walking, how many are green ?

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Some trivia ...

If one were to say ...

Roger is bla bla bla, Jack is bla bla bla and Charlie is Roger is bla bla bla. All three are bla.

In béu you would not say "all three", but rather "the threesome" (leume) ... which is a head noun rather than a number. OK ... when talking about mathematics we come across it, but otherwise you do not find numbers occurring by themselves.

In a similar manner, "no three" = jù leume and "any three" = ʔài ʔài leume

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1) ... the emphatic particle is hù.

hù is used where we would use what is called "right dislocation" in English. For example ...

bàus hù glán nori alha = It is the woman to whom the man gave flowers.

bàus hù glán nori alha @ = Is it the woman to whom the man gave flowers ?

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8) ... the relative clause

Relative clauses "RC" work pretty much the same as English relative clauses. The relativizer is hù (that, who). Here are some examples ...

yiŋkai nài doikra = the girl that has walked

bàu nài glás timpora = the man whom the woman has hit

glá nàis bàu timpra = the woman who has hit the man

bàu nàin glás fyri yiŋkaiwo = the man to whom the woman told about the girl

glá naiji bàus bundra nambo = the woman for whom the man has built a house

All the pilana can be appended to the relativizer to specify what roll the noun would have in the relative clause if it was a simple clause.

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As English has restrictive relative clauses and non-restrictive relative clauses "NRRC" ... so has béu.

a) ... RNC ... yiŋki hù r doikala nambon sùr hauʔe = the girls that are walking home are pretty

b) ... NRRC ... yiŋki _ hù r doikala nambon _ sùr hauʔe = the girls, that are walking home, are pretty ... (a pause (gap), I represent by "_" )

In b) the NRRC is giving us extra information about the girls.

[ Some thoughts ... I guess a RC is a bit like an adjective and it directly qualifies a noun. A NRRC is a bit like the second element in apposition. It is giving us extra information about the noun (which might otherwise be given in a separate utterance). Both NRRC and the second elements in apposition are isolated using pauses. ]

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In English you get what is sometimes called a headless relative clause "HRC" or a free relative clause ... I guess "free from a noun" is the thinking behind the second term.

"What you see is what you get" is an example of a HRC ... well two examples to be precise.

We have exactly the same in béu ...

hù bwáir or hù màir = what you see is what you get

[You could also say ... dè hù bwáir or dè hù màir ... but this would be considered a bit stiff, a bit pedantic]

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... other

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What about taking more question words out of the big NP as I done in "numerative" ?

What about when dì and dè are the head. Of course the determiners are disallowed when dì and dè are in this slot ??? What about when pronouns are the head. I still haven't resolved the ANY question.

bàu gèu tiji pobomau nái = which little green man on top of the mountain.

bàu gèu tiji pobomau kái = what type of little green man on top of the mountain.

Go into locatives more ... are they restricted to the pilana ? ... are they full blooded adjectives ?

It should be mentioned that emphatic particle oft used with dè and dì , also with peoples names.

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[ 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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A maŋga can also be expanded into a seŋkas. For example ... twá mutu dè .. "that important meeting".

Furthermore a maŋga can also be expanded into what is called a maŋkas*. Maybe best translated as "gerund phrase". The structure of a maŋkas can be derived from the structure of helkas ... Oh wait a minute, we haven't said what a helkas is yet ...

Just as a maŋga can be expanded into a maŋkas, by adding elements ... and the seŋko into a seŋkas ... a helgo can be expanded into a helkas .. "a clause".

OK ... now that we know what a helkas is we can go back to the maŋkas. Mmmhhh ... maybe the best way to explain it is just to do an example ...

falaja jonos jene timpuri pobomau "John hit Jane in the afternoon on top of the mountain" .... this is a helkas

The corresponding maŋkas would be jono timpa jene pobomau falaja ... "John's hitting Jane in the afternoon on top of the mountain"

The above maŋkas could appear in a clause as S, O or A argument.

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There is something also called a colwaikas ... a bit of an amalgam of a seŋkas and a maŋkas. But this is quite a marginal construction. We won't worry about it at the moment.

.* Actually it means "gerund OR gerund phrase", so while the entries in a dictionary are designated maŋga, in most grammatical writing, you just comes across the term .. maŋkas.

Determiner can take its place ... also pronouns.

dè r bòi = that (one) is good

nò dè r bòi = these are good

"noun" nái = "which one ! " ??? ..

hù might be used in exasperated when somebody can not see something. For example ...

hù dì	"this one !"	hù dè	"that one !"
hù nò dì	"these ones!"	hù nò dè	"those ones !"

This can also used as a sort of vocative case ... not obligatory but can be used before a persons name when trying to get their attention. For example ...

hù jene = Hey, Jane

hù gì = Hey, you

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A seŋko can be expanded by the addition of other elements to a seŋkas "a noun phrase". Actually it means "noun OR noun phrase", so the entries in a dictionary might be designated seŋko but in most discussions about grammar one comes across, simply seŋkas.

An example of a seŋkas is bàu nelau dé .. "that blue man"

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Opening a door to the harem, revealing 67 scantily clad houries

1) You can fuck any one.

2) You can fuck every one.

NOT SAME

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..... oluskas

TO THINK ABOUT

3) ... the head : the one part who's presence is required ... this is usually an olus but can be a [ blueness = nelau.mi ? ] or maŋga.

three bags rice brown three bags big (full) wrt rice brown

..... maŋkas

maŋga => maŋkas

..... helkas

helgo => helkas ..

Another important word category is helgo .. "finite verb". That is .. a verb in its r.form, s.form, u.form or i.form.

So helgo are derived from manga. [related words ... helga = "to live" and helgi = "alive"]

..... More details about maŋkas and colwaikas

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As we know, the main elements in a helkas are free. That is the S, A and O arguments can appear either side of the verb. However in other areas word order is not so free. For example in copula clauses. Also maŋkas does not have free word order. So how exactly is it done ... how do we derive maŋkas which has fixed word order from seŋkas which has free word order. Well the element that is marked on the helkas by the vowel just before the "r", comes immediately to the left of the maŋga. Also note that even though this is often dropped in seŋkas it can not in maŋkas*. The O argument (naked noun) of the helkas must come immediately after the maŋga in the maŋkas. Any other peripheral arguments are stuck on at the end.

The helkas = solbari saco he? moze pona = I drank some cold water very quickly

Derived maŋkas = pà solbe moze pona sacowe ... which can be an argument in another helkas or copula clause ...

pà solbe moze pona sacowe r kéu = my drinking the cold water quickly was bad

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.*Well actually it is dropped in certain circumstances. For example ...

ʔár solbe moze = I want to drink water

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If you see a maŋga surrounded by other elements, how do you know if you have a maŋkas or a seŋkas. Well in the maŋkas the manga can not be plural or have any possessors for one thing. For another thing a maŋkas can only take a subset of the pilana. While a seŋkas can take all 17 pilana a maŋkas is restricted to 7 ... là, máu, gòi, tú, jì, só and wò.

dói = month, doiwe = monthly

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..... Pronouns

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Here, for a transitive clause, "that which initiates the action" is called the A argument, and "that which is affected by the action" the O argument. Also, for an intransitive verb, the noun is called the S argument. It is convenient to make a distinction between all three cases. I follow the linguist RMW Dixon in using this terminology.

In most languages the S argument is marked the same way as the A argument. However in some languages the S argument is marked the same way as the O argument. These are called ergative languages. béu is one of these ergative languages. About a quarter of the world languages are ergative or partly ergative.

Below are the béu pronouns for the S and O arguments. This form can be considered the "unmarked form".

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me	pà	us	wìa	inclusive
		us	yùa	exclusive
you	gì	you	jè
him, her	ò	them	nù
it	ʃì	them	ʃì

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Below are the pronouns for the A arguments ( the ergative arguments ).

Pronouns differ from nouns in that their tones change between the ergative and the non-ergative form. This is in addition to the normal suffixing of -s when a noun becomes marked as ergative.

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I	pás	we	wías
		we	yúas
you	gís	you	jés
he, she	ós	they	nús
it	ʃís	they	ʃís

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jè and jés are the second person plural forms.

There is one other pronoun ... the reflexive pronoun tí. This is always an O argument. Notice that it is the only O argument with a high tone.

There is a strong tendency for it to come after the A argument. For example ...

jonos tí timporja jindin = john has not yet hit myself

This particle can be amalgamated to the infinitive to give a reflexive infinitive. For example ...

timpa = to hit ... ti.timpa = "to self-hit"/ "to hit oneself"/"to hit yourself"

[ A dot is used to show that the word comprises two separate elements. I suppose most linguists would use "=" to show cliticization. The dot makes no difference to the pronunciation ]

I suppose I should also mention the reciprocal particle bèn at this point. It always follows the verb. For example ...

jonos jenes timpur bèn = John and Jane hit each other.

The plural pronouns above can also combine with specifiers (and number) to make pronoun phrases.

Below is a table with nù "them".

The other plural pronouns pattern in a similar way. That is ... yùa, wìa, jè and ʃì

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jù nù	none of them	ù nù	all of them
í nù	any of them	é nù	one of them	éu nù	some of them
hài nù	many of them			iyo nù	few of them
haige nù	more of them			iyoge nù	less of them
haimo nù	most of them			iyomo nù	a minority of them

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Notice that nò uhai haizo and haizmo are 4 specifiers that are never used with pronouns. I don't know why.

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..... Word order

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In English it is the order of the verb and the arguments that shows who is the doer and what is the "done to". Namely the A and S argument come before the verb and the O argument after.

[ English is a non-ergative language and hence the A and S argument get treated in the same way. ]

In béu, to show who is the doer and what is the "done to", the suffix -s is appended to the A argument. For example ...

glás bàu timpra = The woman has hit the man

glá bàus timpra = The man has hit the woman

bàu r doikala = The man is walking

[ béu is an ergative language and hence the O and S argument have the same form. ]

But even though béu doesn't use word order to show who is the doer and what is the "done to", it does use word order for another purpose. Namely to show if an argument is definite^* or not. For example ...

bàu doikr = The man walks

doikr bàu = A man walks

So we see ... an argument coming before the verb is definite and one coming after the verb is indefinite.

[ ^*And when we say definite, we mean that the person being spoken to can identify X as one particular X instead of some X or any X. ]

In English only 2 orders are found. Namely ... SV and AVO ... (V = verb). However in béu you have what is called "free word order". This means that you can come across the following 8 orders ... SV, VS, AVO, AOV, VAO, OVA, OAV and VOA.

But actually in a piece of discourse, it is most likely that the S or A argument are old information and probably the topic (the thing that you have been going on about for some time). In béu an established topic is usually dropped and so the 8 sentence types shown above collapse into 3 sentence types. Namely ... V(s), O V(a) and V(a) O

[ V(s) represents a verb marked for the person/number of the S argument and V(a) represents a verb marked for the person/number of the A argument ]

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..... The Case System

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We have just mentioned the ergative case. In total there are 17 cases of course (if you were to include the unmarked case as well you have 18 different forms). They are called the pilana.

These are attached to a noun and show the relationship of that noun with respect to the rest of the sentence.

The word pilana is built up from ;-

pila (v) = to place, to position

pilana (a, n) = positioning, the positioner

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The pilana are either realized as affixes or as stand-alone prepositions. If they are realized as affixes then, in the béu script uses a sort of shorthand. That is the affix is represented as one letter.

Whether the pilana appears as an suffix or a preposition depends on the noun phrase ... if the NP is only one word => suffix  : NP more than one word => preposition. For example ...

nambodua = beyond the house

dùa nambo yinkai hauʔe = beyond the house of the pretty girl

[Also for pilana 11 and 13 .... a preposition is used if the noun ends in a consonant]

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........................................... Specific Location ...................................................

The first 8 define location.

1) -pi = in

2) -la = on

3) -mau = above, over, on top of

4) -goi = below, under, underneath, beneath

5) -ce = this side of

6) -dua = beyond, at the far side of

7) -bene = right, at the right hand side of

8) -komo = left, on the left hand side of

These are used to give a location with respect to some object. For example …

nambopi = in the house

nambomau = on the house, over the house

[ Note ... in a lot of situations, where "on" would be used in English, "above" is used in béu. For example ...

"John is on the mountain" = "jono r pobomau" not "jono r pobola" ]

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...................................................... Roll .............................................................

The next 4 define the roll that the noun plays in the sentence.

9) -tu = with, using

10) -ji = for, for the benefit of

11) -s = “the ergative case”

12) -wo = about, with respect to

bàus glaji nambo bundore kontotu = the man has built the house for the woman with a hammer

gala bauwo catur = the women talk about the man

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......................................................... Motion .......................................................

The next 2 specify motion.

13) -n = to

14) -fi = from

Now these are used to give a motion with respect to some object. For example …

nambon = to the house

nambofi = from the house

The prepositional form of 13) varies. If the NP begins with a vowel, then àn is used, if the NP begins with a consonant, then í is used.

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............................................. General Location ...................................................

The next is a “general locative”.

15) -ʔe = at, on, in

glá (yó) pà r namboʔe = My wife is at home

flovan gì r pazbaʔe = Your food is on the table

boloŋgai r flovanʔe = the flies are at the food (some buzzing around and some crawling on the surface of the food)

boloŋga r flovanʔe = the fly is at the food (sometimes buzzing around and sometimes crawling on the surface)

boloŋga r flovanla = the fly is on the food (i.e. its legs are touching the food)

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.................................... Hybrids of motion & position ........................................

The last two define motion AND position. They are sort of hybrids of the second pilana and the pilana of motion.

16) -lya = onto

17) -lfe = off

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.. As parts of speech

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pilana of location phrases (i.e. nouns with 1 -> 8 or 15) can be considered adjectives if they come after a noun and adverbs if they come after a verb. They must come after a noun or a verb. Sometimes they come after the copula^*. In this case they are adjectives. Now often the copula is dropped ... but if this dropping results in any ambiguity it can be readily "undropped".

pilana of motional phrases (i.e. nouns with 13, 14, 16 or 17) can be considered adverbs. They can come in any position because it is understood that they are qualifying the verb.

pilana phrases defining sentence rolls (i.e. nouns with 9, 10, 11 or 12) can come anywhere. They are considered nouns.

^* [ Notice that in English, you can either say ... "a bird is in the tree" or "in the tree is a bird"

In béu only jwado r ʔupaiʔe is valid ... also note that in this case jwado is not definite because it is left of the verb. That rule doesn't work with the copula. ]

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..... Punctuation and page layout

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The letters in a word are always contiguous, that is there is always a line running right through the word. Writing is firstly from top to bottom and secondly from left to right.

Between words there is a small break in the line. The break should be 25% the height of a letter.

When telling somebody how to spell a succession of words, this small break would be indicated by dù

Between some words there is a gap. This represents a pause. A pauses in English is represented by a comma, a colon or a semicolon. Whenever an orator draws breath, this will be reflected in the writing by a gap. Also there are occasions where the grammar of béu demands a gap. A gaps hould be 75% the height of a letter. When such a gap is required I will represent in in my transcription as an underscore. (I could have used a comma, however I prefer not too ... presumable in English, commas originally were always used for pauses in speech. However nowadays in English many pauses are not represented in any way (presumably in these cases when it is not necessary for reading comprehension. Also in English, in a surprising amount of text commas are found where they shouldn't be. In béu gaps in a textblock have a one-to-one correspondence to a pause in speech).

^*When listing items, béu is similar to English ... there is pause between every item except the last two items. Between these items, béu has lé, English has "and".

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suna_dunu_celai lé àu = "orange, brown, pink and black" ... notice the two gaps and then the two breaks in the béu script above.

By the way, this would be spelled out as ... ‘’’sadu sanu nùa sana jù_duzu sanu nùa sanu jù_compa sane lata sanai dù_lata dite dù_sanau dù dù’’’

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When telling somebody how to spell a succession of words, the gap is indicated by saying jù

Single gaps are very common. Occasionally you can have "double gaps" and even "treble gaps". These rare creatures represent "pregnant pauses" which are sometimes used for comic effect.

When telling somebody how to spell a succession of words, a "double gap" is rendered by bauva ??? , a treble gap by baiba ???.

Note the single point used in the "double gap" and the pair of points used in the "treble gap".

For a "double gap" there should be 75% letter height space above and below the dot. For a "treble gap" it is the same plus a 25% letter height space between the two dots. ..

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There is also a punctuation mark called the "sunmark" ( kòi = sun ). This is basically a full-stop. The "sunmark" has double the diameter of omba (omba means "circle" and is used as a decimal point).

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There are also punctuation marks called "moonmark" ( dèu = moon ). These are basically brackets. The opening one is called "moonmark" damau and the closing one is called "moonmark" dagoi. Direct speech is enclosed in "moonmarks". These bits of direct speech are also highlighted. Usually the first speaker's words are highlighted in blue and the second speaker's words are highlighted in yellow. The highlighted area is lozenge shape. Every "textblock" the protagonists are reset ??. In a story, after the scene is set ... that is the time of speaking and the identity of the speakers have been established, then their names are dropped from the text and the kloi "speak" is also dropped. However somebody reading the text out loud would give this information from their understanding of the situation.

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In a normal narrative, everything is written in "textblocks".

(Please note ... the light lines surrounding the "textblocks" are not real. They are just there to assist me drawing)

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This is the first page in a "chapter". Notice the symbol at the top left hand side of the first "textblock". This is called a "heavy tile".

Textblocks fit in between "rails" about 4 inches apart. The width of a block should be between 60% and 90% ^* of the block height. Of course it is best to start a new block when the scene of the narrative changes or there is some discontinuity of the action, but this is not always possible. Then you just must arbitrarily split the text into two blocks. The standard practice is to stretch the text a bit so that the tops and bottoms of every column line up with their neighbours. XXXXXX

There is no way to split a word between two lines (as we can do in the West by using two hyphens). A "sunmark" must be next to the last word in a sentence (it can not go to the start of a new column by itself) However if a "sunmark" fall next to the bottom rail, then the next column will begin with a "sunmark". This is purely due to a love of symmetry.

The first text block starts at the top left (as you would expect). The second textblock starts below where the first text block stops. In fact the vertical space between the stop and the start of the two textblocks is equal to the horizontal "interblockspace" (see the figure above).

If the last "sunmark" of a "textblock" falls next to the bottom rail (as indeed happens with the very first "textblock" of the "chapter", then this "sunmark" is changed into a symbol called a "bottom tile". If a "textblock" ends in a "bottom tile", then what is called a "top tile" will appear before the first word of the next "textblock". This is purely due to a love of symmetry. Note that the "top tile" is exactly the same as the "bottom tile". (Actually in modern printing techniques, the text in complete "textblocks" can be stretched to prevent the final "sunmark" falling on the bottom rail)

When you come to the end of the page (you will have some sort of margin of course and not go all the way to the edge), you simply continue the block on the LHS of the next rail (or page). Below is the second page of the chapter. This page continues on from the page above.

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In every textblock, one word or short noun phrase is highlighted in red. The shape of the highlighted area is rectangular with rounded edges. Usually a noun is chosen and the more iconic the better. Statistically these highlighted words tend to come towards the beginning of the "textblock".

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There are two sizes for books. For all hardback books the size is about 8 inches by about 11 inches. For all paperback books the size is about 5 inches by about 8 inches. They are stored as shown in the figure below.

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Unlike books produced in the West, these books are held with the spine horizontal when being read. The hardback page has two "rails" per page (i.e. three dark lines).

On the paperback book, the title is written on the spine and on the front of the book. On the hardback book the title is written on the front, also there is a flap that slides into the spine. However when the book is stored on a shelf, it is pulled out and hangs down. Hence the hardback books can be easily located, even when they are in the bookshelf.

A book will be divided into chapters. A chapter will have a number and usually a title as well. Either at the end of the book or just after the chapter, there will be a page, in which all the highlighted words for a chapter are listed in order. Instead of referencing things by page number, things are reference by chapter and textblock (indictated by the highlighted word(s) ).

Any particular word in a book can be reference by 5 parameters ...

1) "title of book"

2) number of the chapter

3) the highlighted word(s)

4) the number of the sunmarks counted. Actually they are counted backwards ... from the final "sunmark" of the "textblock". Note ... all "sunmarks" are counted, even the ones next to the top rail.

5) the number of the word. This is also counted backwards (i.e. the final word of the sentence is word "1" ... and so on)

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^* Occasionally very narrow blocks can not be avoided. And of course in mathematical/scientific tracts the tracts are all over the place ... interspersed with diagrams and what have you.

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..... Noun totality ... collective and individually

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Sometimes we want to talk about all members of the category "noun" acting (or being acted upon) COLLECTIVELY.

For this we use the particle ú before the plural of the noun. For example ...

moltai = a/the doctor

moltai.a = doctors

ú moltai = all doctors

Note ... the same word, when appended to a noun, means "the whole" or "entire". For example ...

falaja ú = all morning

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The opposite of the above, is when all members of the category "noun" is acting (or is being acted upon) INDIVIDUALLY.

By doubling the noun (or the first part of a noun) you give what can be called a distributive meaning.

Some examples ...

kòi = day

kòi kòi = every day

moltai = doctor

moltai moltai = each doctor

falaja = afternoon

fa falaja = every afternoon

Notice that for words over two syllables, only the first syllable is prefixed.

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The "word-hood" of these duplications is murky. I am writing them here as two separate words ... i.e. fa falaja. But maybe fafalaja or fa-falaja would be more appropriate.

Single syllable words retain there tone when duplicated ... which indicates two separate words. However you also get phonological processes that are usually only word internal. That is to say, these structures show "sandhi".

For example ...

yildos yildos (every morning) would be pronounced / jildoʃ jildos /

bàu bàu (every man) could be pronounced / bàu vàu /

Anyway ... these constructions are never written out in full. Instead a special symbol is placed above the simple noun. This symbol can vary a bit, depending on the font being used : it can vary from a lower half circle bisected by a vertical stroke to a shape that looks a bit like the Arabic shaddah.

For example ...

It some contexts, semantically, it does not matter whether the individual or the collective form is used. When this is the case, the default choice is "individual" structure. ú tends to be used with tangible nouns more, it is hardly ever used with nouns denoting periods of time.

Note (as in English) the plural verb form is used for the collective structure, the singular verb form for the individual structure. For example ...

ú bàu súr = all men are

bàu bàu sór = every man is

TO THINK ABOUT ...

?à ?à bàu hù ?ís = any man that you want ( ?ís ... "you would want" ???? )

?ài ?ài bàu hù ?ís = any men that you want

?ài bàu = some men

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..... lé .... lú .... lò

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Earlier we have seen that when 2 nouns come together the second one qualifies the first.

However this is only true when the words have no pilana affixed to them. If you have two contiguous nouns suffixed by the same pilana then they are both considered to contribute equally to the sentence roll specified. For example ...

jonos jenes solbur moze = "John and Jane drink water"

In the absence of an affixed pilana, to show that two nouns contribute equally to a sentence (instead of the second one qualifying the first) the particle lé should be placed between them. For example ...

jenes solbori moʒi lé ʔazwo = "Jane drank water and milk"

jonos jenes bwuri hói sadu lé léu ʔusʔa = John and Jane saw two elephants and three giraffes.

[ Compare the above two examples to á jono jene solbori moze = Jane's John drank water ... i.e. The John that is in a relationship with Jane, drank water ]

This word is that is never written out in full but has its own symbol. See below ...

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Note ... in the béu script, the "o" before "r" is always dropped. This is just a sort of short hand thing.

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The following construction is also found.

lé moze lé ʔazwo = "both water and milk"

The above construction emphasizes the "linking" word lé

Another linking word is lú meaning "or".

jenes blor solbe moze lú ʔazwo = "Jane can drink water or milk"

The following construction is also found.

lú moze lú ʔazwo = "either water or milk"

The above construction emphasizes the "linking" word lú

There is another word that corresponds to the English "or". This is ʔala and it is a question word. For example ...

ʔís moze ʔala ʔazwo = "would you want water or milk"

And the answer expected of would be either "water" or "milk"

Say you were asking somebody if they were thirsty and you had only water or milk to give them. Then you would say ... ʔís moze lú ʔazwo ʔai@

The expected answer to the above question would be either "yes" or "no" (as is always the case when you have @ ( @ is pronouced a bit like ʔai but has contour tone instead of a normal high tone, it has a special symbol and I am using "@" to represent this symbol in my transliteration)).

Now if the question was "would you want water or milk, or both" you should say ...

ʔís mose ʔala ʔazwo ʔala leume

But sometimes (either because of the laziness of the speaker or because the likelyhood was not considered) ... ʔís moze ʔala ʔazwo ʔala leume comes out as ʔís moʒi ʔala ʔazwo.

So ʔís leume (I would like both) is an acceptable answer to the question ʔís moze ʔala ʔazwo

If the questioner would like to rule out the answer ʔís leume he would use the construction .

ʔís ʔala moze ʔala ʔazwo

So ʔala before the first item does exactly the same as lé or lú before the first item : it emphasizes the linking word.

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... "no"

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In béu, jù corresponds to "no".

"neither water nor milk" would be translated as jù moʒi jù ʔazwo

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... lists

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So far we have restricted ourselves to two items. We can summarize the system for two items as below ...

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lé	giving	2	items
lú	giving	1	item	.....	ʔala	asking for	1	item
jù	giving	0	items

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However we can join up more than two items. When more than two items are joined by the above 4 linking words, it is considered good style to have the linking word before the first item and the last item, before each item (except the first and the last) should be a slight pause (I call it a gap ... see "punctuation and page layout" earlier on this page).

For example ...

jenes bwori lé ifa sadu _ uba ʔusʔa _ ega moŋgo lé oda gaifai falaja dí = Jane saw two elephants, three giraffes, four gibbons and five flamengos this morning.

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... other

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lò = other

lòi = others

kyulo = again

welo = otherwise

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..... Correlatives

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juvan	nothing	juda	nowhere	juku	never	jubu	nobody
ivan	anything	ida	anywhere	iku	anytime	ibu	anybody
evan	something	eda	somewhere	eku	sometime	ebu	somebody
uvan	everything	uda	everywhere	uku	always	ubu	everybody

These correlatives are always written in their shorthand form. See the chart above.

The first column is a contraction of jù fanyo, í fanyo, é fanyo and ù fanyo (fanyo = thing)

The second column is a contraction of jù dà, í dà, é dà and ù dà (dà = place)

The third column is a contraction of jù kyù, í kyù, é kyù and ù kyù (kyù = time/occasion)

The last column is a contraction of jù glabu, í glabu, é glabu and ù glabu (glabu = person)

The non-contracted forms are still used, usually when emphasis is wanted.

There is another row in the above table.

This is the plural equivalent of the third row of the table above. The emphatic form of the above series would be ...

è fanyo, è dá, è kyù and è glabu .... if these elements were under^* the main verb, it would be more normal to use ...

fanyoi, nò dá, nò kyù and glabua .... and actually, if any word from the third row of the main table came under the main verb, you could just use ...

fanyo, dá, kyù and glabu ... in this position you have probably a 50% chance of coming across evan and a similar chance to come across fanyo ... the same with eda, eku and ebu.

One interesting point is ... well for example ubu can mean "each person" and "all the people". If ubu was the S or A argument there could be one of two verbs in a SVC. One would have the meaning "to do together"/"to cooperate" and the other would have the meaning "to work alone". If ubu was the O argument or has some other roll in the sentence there is a partical that can be put in above^* ubu. This particle means something like "individual" or "independent" and would disambiguate the meaning of the béu sentence.

^*I was going to say 'after" and "before", however as the béu writing system is vertical I thought I should get in the spirit of things and use "under" and "above".

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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