Béu : Chapter 9 : Word Building

Welcome to béu

..... Word building

Many béu words can be analysed as being constructed from more basic elements.

In chapter 5 we showed how a noun could be made out of two basic nouns.

Here are some more examples ;-

bái	to raise	gwaino =	a machine	gwaino bái =	"a machine of levitation"	=>	baino =	a lift or an elevator
bái =	to rise	tagu =	a tool	tagu bái =	"a rising tool"	=>	baigu =	a ladder
nandau =	a word	toili =	a book	toili nandau =	"a book of words"	=>	nandɘli =	a dictionary
limba =	a tongue or language	megau =	a body of knowledge,	megau limba =	"the study of language"	=>	limbəgau =	linguistics

And below is a list of the most common words that are made this way. They are grouped according to their tail element.

Word or -DAU

A word = nandau

sky.sound = a vowel sky.sound.za = a diphthong or a triphthong sky.sound. nyo = a vowel OR a diphthong/triphthong

earth.sound = a consonant earth.sound.za = a consonant cluster earth.sound.nyo = a consonant OR a consonant cluster

Book or -LI

A book = toili

Machine or -NO

swe = to speak

sweno = the telephone

Wagon or -WEU

A vehicle = wèu

Building or -DO

bundo = building ... from the verb ... bunda = "to build"

Side or -ʔA

ʔà = side

aibaʔa = a triangle

ugaʔa = a square

idaʔa = a pentagon

elaʔa = a hexagon

ò atas nambo = he/she is above the house ... however if "house" is understood, and mention of it is dropped, we must add ʔa to atas ... for example ...

ò atasʔa = he/she is above

dauniʔa = underneath

liʒiʔa = on the left hand side

luguʔa = on the right hand side

noldo, suldo, westa, istu niaka, muaka faceside backside etc. etc.

Face (or 2D stretch but typically non-horizontal) or -ʔAU

daʔau = face

ugaʔau = a tetrahedron

elaʔau = a cube

ezaʔau = an octahedron

ajauʔau = a dodecahedron

ajauzaʔau = an icosahedron

Volume/Room or -ʔAI

daʔai = volume, room

moʃiʔai = water room = bathrooom

= bedroom

= cookroom

= livingroom

= store room

You can name the regular shapes in 4 dimensions.

idaʔai = a 5-cell

ezaʔai = an 8-cell

ajaugaʔai = a 16-cell

uvauʔai = a 24-cell

apauʔai = 120-cell

agaivauʔai = 600-cell

Something complex or -KAS

maŋga = infinitive verb

maŋkas = infinitive verb phrase

seŋko = object

seŋkas = noun phrase

helgo = a finite verb

helkas = a clause

A container or -COI

A container = mencoi

Stuff/powder ? or -YO

powder = ponyo

bunduyo = cement

wheatyo = flour

maizeyo = maize flour

ʔazwoyo = milk powder

Air/gas or -LE

Air/gas = gale ... jamu = wind

hydrogen = mozele

helium = koile

Group -DE

This one deletes the last vowel of the root if attached to a diphthong ...... like -ko or -da or -la.

dode = a mountain range < dòi

alhade = a bunch of flowers

bodede = a flock of birds

gwade = an archipelago < gwái

fizade = a school of fish

ʔupode = forest

ampede = a society, an association < ampeu

lentode = a league

pullde = a team, a club

kodade = cooperative < kodai

treatyde = alliance

doikade = a gang, a band

Member -CO

This one deletes the last vowel of the root if attached to a diphthong ...... like -ko or -da or -la.

kuda = a shop

kudaco = a shop assistant

beco = an active member of the béu community ... as opposed to a beume who follows béu in a private manner ???

Shape/form or -PE

mepe = shape, form

We do not want a "unit", "boat".

⁕⁕nandauli is a good example of béu word building. toili = book, nandau = word, toili nandaun = book of words. However if two words such as these geudidau means extended word. It is also a good example of an extended word, in itself.

geuda is a verb meanbéuing to extend in one direction (usually not up). geudo is an noun meaning an extension or appendix. geudi is an adjective meaning extended.

nandau geudi = extended word ... now when a noun and a following adjective occur together a lot (and maybe take on a meaning slightly different) the concept they represent is normally upgraded to a word, by deleting all but the last CV (consonant vowel) in the first word, and sticking this CV on to the end of the second word.

Hence we get geudidau. In theory there is no limit to the combinations that can occur. However in practice (outside of technical language) there are slightly under a hundred different CV's, and the number of elements that every CV can combine with, varies from 3 or 4 up to about 40.

In English we have a number of common endings, such as "-ism", "-ology", "ist", etc. etc. In béu the end-stuck CV's can be thought of as equivalent to these English endings : the main difference is that this word building process is much more prevalent in béu.

The CV -dau (from nandau) is found in combination with a number of other elements. For example ;-

Note that in the last example, the meaning of the extended word has shifted a bit with respect to the meaning of the original words.

It is possible to extend further an extended word. For example ;-

kaza is an adjective meaning compicated and also is a noun meaning "a complicated thing" or "a complex".

kaza cwipadaun = a complex of a noun => cwipadauza = a noun phrase

..... More word building

The above are examples of non-basic words originating from two nouns.

There is also another kind of non-basic word. This one originating from a noun and a particle.

The particle is not an independent word and usually only exists as a suffix ( -da is an exception to this, it can occur as a prefix as well)

Note that in some occasions a bit of erosion has occurred. For example ...

"bee" = habis and not *alhabis

"society" = peugan and not *ampeugan

The reason for this ... well common words should not be to long. But why did I not just create a new short word for the concepts "bee" and "society". It was not that I am trying to construct a language family with a different set of phonological rules to derive each of the daughter languages from the Ur-language. The fact is that I expect people (on some level at last) to associate the first syllable in "bee" with the last syllable in "flower", first syllable in "society" with the last syllable in "associate". Also I expect people to associate the concept of "bee" to the concept of "flower", the concept of "society" to the concept of "society" (again probably at a subconscious level).

I feel that in doing things the above way makes béu more "poetic". Also that it holds the whole thing together.

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Nominalizer -FAN

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This suffix usually produces an uncountable tangible nouns ... well sort of tangible.

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yái	to have	yaifan	gear, moveable property
wàu	to own	waufan	possessions, property
flò	to eat	flofan	food
dó	to do, to make, to produce	dofan	products, produce (the noun)
náu	to give	naufan	tribute, tax
glà	to store	glafan	reserves, stores

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Nominalizer to make uncountable intangible nouns -GAN

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This suffix is sometimes used to make a more complex concept from a simple concept. Of course there must be some relationship between the base concept and the derived concept, however tenuous.

Also it is used in a few instances to give a sort of "collective" meaning. The items in the below table all have a "collective" derivation.

hái	high, tall	haigan	the first dimension
joga	broad	jogan	the second dimension
guboi	deep	gugan	the third dimension
xxx	position	xxgan	space
kyù	occasion (time)	kyugan	time (in the general sense)

And not forgetting dekogan meaning "spacetime".

Also (very important) ...

béu = A culture, with the speaking, reading and writing the béu language having a significant roll.

beugan = The community of béu. That is the sum total of all people who follow béu together with all written texts, buildings and other artifacts to do with béu

Another important one ...

peugan = society at large, society in general, the entirety of humanity

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Used to derive names of states or dynasties -TUN

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No longer a word in its own right. It might originally have meant something like "power" or "rule". Now used purely as an affix. A number of countries that have a capital city a lot bigger that any urban center are named after their capital. For example ...

londontun = The United Kingdom

palistun = France

baŋkotun = Thailand

Also used for naming dynasties. For example ...

yuantun = The YUAN dynasty in China

wilyamtun = The system of government in England after the Norman Conquest.

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Person or -BU

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This affix is used with the 5 correlatives ubu jubu ibu ebu and embu

Also it is used for paid professionals. For example ....

ʔazwo = milk => ʔazwobu = milkman

pulis = the police => pulizbu = a policeman .... pulizbu galai = a police woman

-bu and -me also impinges on -tai "a professional" and -vau "a craftsman"

Note ... heume = farmer, the owner of a farm ... heubu = a farmer, a farm laborer ... heuvau = farm hand, seasonal farm laborer

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Person or -ME

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beume = a follower of béu

to compete, to struggleme = a capitalist

to shareme = a socialist

ʔài = same => ʔaimai = equality => ʔaimaime = a communist

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Something more complex -SA

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Surely this is done by KAS now.