Béu : Chapter 9 : Word Building

..... Word building

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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.

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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

Fellow or -PEU

ampeu = a comrade, a fellow, a peer, someone of the same social status as you and on friendly terms with you. Not exactly a friend but you rub along with this person for mutual advantage. Emotionally neutral ... between friend and enemy.

polji = womb ... poljəpeu = a twin

hodo = class (in a school) ... hodəpeu = a class mate

donəpeu = a companion

yearpeu = somebody born in the same year as you

namepeu = a namesake, somebody with the same name as you

countrypeu = a compatriate

zz = aim, objective, a purpose, a cause ... zzpeu = a comrade, a fellow traveller

All these words are their own plural

Subject or -GAU

A field of study = megau

peugəŋgau = the entirety of human knowledge

laigau = calculus

Book or -LI

A book = toili

Tool or -GU

A tool = tagu

Machine or -NO

sweˊ = to speak

sweno = the telephone

Belief/theory or -GAI

Wagon or -WEU

A vehicle = wèu

Building or -DO

bundo = building

??or should it be bundu ??

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

A station/base or -HEU

The original meaning of hèu is "farm" .... i.e. a sort of spread out place where many activities take place. There are store houses and/or workshops related to these different activities plus a fair amount of open space.

From this original meaning, hèu has become an affix with the meaning "station". As in police station, army base, petrol station, townhall etc. etc.

tun = rule, power tun kas => tun.heu = the townhall

pya.heu = an airport

Something complex or -KAS

maŋga = infinitive verb

maŋkas = infinitive verb phrase

seŋko = object

seŋkas = noun phrase

helgo = a finite verb

helkas = a clause

Professional or -TAI

a professional (a person who's job requires book-learning) = notai

A container or -COI

A container = mencoi

Tradesman or -VAU

The suffix -va indicates a person who has learnt skills through instruction and practice, practice, practice.

a pair of hand = duvau

damaivau = metalworker

weuvau = a truck driver

"deckhand" would not be translated into béu using -vau because it would be classed as casual labour and not skilled labour.

Shop or -VU

shop/stall = kanfu kanfu pabla = a stall .... "stall" usually simply designated as pabla "table"

gozəvu = a fruit shop, a fruit stall

Shopkeeper or -VAI

A Seller/Shopkeeper/Merchant = kanfai

gozəvai = a fruiterer

Stuff/powder ? or -YO

powder = ponyo

bunduyo = cement

wheatyo = flour

maizeyo = maize flour

ʔazwoyo = milk powder

Language or -BA

A tongue, a language = limba

Metal or -MOI

metal = delmoi

copper = ʔolimoi

bronze = pwemoi

iron/steel = gumoi

tin = fujemoi

lead = wobumoi

aluminium = yekimoi

zinc <= needle ??

gold = koimoi ... kòi = sun, day (24 hours)

silver = deumoi ... dèu = moon

Water or -SE

water = moze

moze amazon = water of Apple => Apple Juice = amaze

ʔolaze = orange juice

habis = bee

habize = honey ... (some erosion here)

Air/gas or -LE

Air/gas = gale ... jamu = wind

hydrogen = mozele

helium = koile

Disease or ʔI

lisʔi = disease

Fish or -SAI

a fish = fizai ..... note ... fish in general are fiʒi

cuttlefish = byozai ..... the plural is byozai.a .... they all take their plurals in the same way.

Trees or -PAI

a tree = ʔupai

Note ... a forest is ʔupo

Apple tree = amapai

Mango tree = byopai

Fruit/nuts or -SO

gozo = fruit

Apple = amazo

Mango = byozo

?? add wood & leaf to ... fruit & tree??

Shape/form or -PE

mepe = shape, form

hiape = reddish .... from hìa = red

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

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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 -VAN

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

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yái	to have	yaivan	gear, moveable property
wàu	to own	wauvan	possessions, property
flò	to eat	flovan	food
dó	to do, to make, to produce	dovan	products, produce (the noun)
náu	to give	nauvan	tribute, tax
glà	to store	glavan	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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Adjectivalizer to make adjectives with the meaning "attracted to" -BIS

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-bis is affixed to a few nouns and a few adjectives. Its has the sense of "liking", "tending towards", "accustomed to" or "addicted to".

ái	white	aibis	faded
lozo	grey	lozbis	grizzled
pà	I	pabis	selfish
mama	mother	mambis	motherbound
nambo	house	nambis	domesticated
toili	book	tolbis	bookish
alka	alcohol	alkabis	(an) alcoholic
alha	flower	habis	a bee
ʔinte	ant	ʔintebis	an anteater, pangolin or aardvark

As you can see, the derived word can have some erosion.

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Adjectivalizer to make adjectives with the meaning "repelled by" -DUS

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dus is affixed to a few nouns and a few adjectives. Its has the sense of "disliking", "scared of", "avoiding" or "hating".

ʔazwo	milk	ʔazwodus	lactose intolerant
glabu	person	glabudus	timid, shy (of an animal)
moze	water	mozdusʔi	rabies
peugan	society	peugandus	antisocial, an antisocial person	peugandusmai	antisocial behaviour
---	an electron	---bis	positively charged	---dus	negatively charged	---gan	charge (electrical)
kòi	sun	koidus	nocturnal

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Group or -BU

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peubu = a society, association,

lentobu = a league (or should that be a club ?)

kodaibu = cooperative

pullbu = team, club

treatybu = alliance

donobu = a gang, a band

alhabu = a bunch of flowers, a bouquet ... fizbu = a school of fish ... bodebu = a flock of birds ... pobu = forest

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Member or -KI

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beuki = an officeholder of beugan

puliski = a policeman (or woman)

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Person or -ME

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to compete, to struggleme = a capitalist

to shareme = a socialist

to be equal, to be the sameme = a communist

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A place/shop or -DA

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Not part of any independent word.

floda = a restaurant

solbeda = a bar

(Yes it means about the same as bwò ???)

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Something more complex -SA

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Surely this is done by KAS now.