Béu : Chapter 9

..... 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

jodu =	movement ...............	nandau =	a word ....................	nandau jodu =	"a word of movement"	=>	jodədau =	a verb
fanyo =	an object, a thing(physical)	nandau =	a word	nandau fanyo =	"a word of an object"	=>	fanyədau =	a noun
sài =	a colour	nandau =	a word	nandau sài =	"a word of colour"	=>	saidau =	an adjective

Actually jodədau has been shortened further and is jodau

Also fanyədau has been shortened further and is fandau

jodauza = a predicate (verb phrase)

fandauza = a noun phrase

jodaunyo = a verb phrase OR a simple verb

fandaunyo = a noun phrase OR a noun

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

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.

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

A rule/power or -KAS

londoŋkas = the UK

pariskas = france

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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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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fandau = a noun, fandauza = a noun phrase

jodau = a verb, jodauza = a predicate

hipe = an infinitive, hipe = an infinitive phrase (these are the equivalent of complement clauses in béu)

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Something more complex OR the original thing -NYO

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fandau = a noun, fandaunyo = a noun phrase OR a noun

jodau = a verb, jodaunyo = a predicate OR a verb

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Depository for béu linguistic terms

LINGUISTIC JARGON ... In the Western linguistic tradition, these markers are said to represent "person" and "number". Person is either first, second or third person (i.e. I, you, he or she). In the béu linguistic tradition they are called cenʔo-markers. (cenʔo = musterlist, people that you know, acquaintances, protagonist, list of characters in a play)

These markers represent the subject (the person that is performing the action). Whenever possible the pronoun that represents the subject is dropped, it is not needed because we have that information inside the verb with the cenʔo-markers.

Now these markers represent what are called tense/aspect markers in the Western linguistic tradition. In the béu linguistic tradition, they are called gwomai or "modifications". (gwoma = to alter, to modify, to adjust, to change one attribute of something).

4) and finally one of the 4 teŋko-markers shown below is added.

teŋkai is a verb, meaning "to prove" or "to testify" or "to give evidence" or "to demonstrate" ... teŋko is a noun derived from the above, and means "proof" or "evidence".

By the way, the béu terms for the five aspects represented by these 5 rows are ... baga, dewe, liʒi, pomo and fene ... i.e. in the tense/aspect table.

doikoryi => He/she had not walked ... doikorya => He/she hasn't walked yet ... doikoryu => He/she will not have walked Quite often this tense is followed by the word ki.e. This emphasises the "present time" meaning (This probably would not be necessary if the -w- tense had not included the "at least once" meaning). ???

Limitations of my tense/aspect system ...

Note .... Even with 16 tense/aspect markers, not every situation can be exactly expressed.

For example suppose two old friends from secondary school meet up again. One is a lot more muscular than before. He could explain his new muscles by saying "I have been working out" (using the progressive plus the perfect aspects). The "have" is appropriate because we are focusing on "state" rather than "action". The "am working out" is appropriate because it takes many instances of "working out" (or working out over some period of time) to build up muscles. béu has no tense/aspect marker so appropriate.

Every language has a limited range of ways to give nuances to an action, and language "A" might have to resort to a phrase to get a subtle idea across while language "B" has an obligatory little affix on the verb to economically express the exact same idea. You could swamp a language with affixes to exactly meet every little nuance you can think of.

By the way, for the above example, in béu, the muscular schoolmate would use the r form of the verb plus the béu equivalent of "now" ki, to explain his present condition ... good enough.

AND I EXPLAIN WHAT THE PERFECT IS ...

While the perfect tense, logically this doesn't have that much difference from the past tense it is emphasising a state rather than an action. It represents the state at the time of speaking as the outcome of past events. We have this tense/aspect in English and it is realized as "have xxxxen". For example if you wanted to talk to John and you went to his office, his secretary might say "he has gone to lunch" (as opposed to "he went for lunch"), which emphasises the absence of John. And think about the difference in meaning between "she has fallen in love" and "she fell in love" ... the first one means "she is in love" while the second one just talks about some of her history.

MORE ABOUT THE "ALREADY" & THE "NOT YET" TENSE

I read the book on geometry .... this doesn't specify whether you read it all or whether you read just a bit of it. .... (the past tense)

So ... I have read the book on geometry ... is more specific ... I have read it all the way thro'. .... (the perfect)

And by default, the perfect implies current relevance, it describes what kind of person I am NOW .... a person with some knowledge of geometry.

Now in the example above the "time window" is not important (assuming you don't forget things easily). If you read the book five years ago or last week ... you are still a person with some knowledge of geometry.

I will talk about "wide time" and "narrow time". "narrow time" comprises only the recent past but "wide time" comprises the recent past plus time periods further back.

But take this example .... a man saying to his daughter ... "Have you cooked chilli con carne" (OK ... assume the man is speaking a language with no definite article. In English "Have you cooked the chilli con carne" is "narrow time", "have you cooked chilli con carne" is "wide time".

Does he mean ... "have you finished tonights meal" or is he saying "do you possess the ability to cook chilli con carne" .... "narrow time" versus "wide time"

To make himself explicit he will perhaps add "already" to help specify "narrow time". Or he may add "ever" or "before" to help specify "wide time".

IS THIS ONE OF THE REASONS THAT SOME LANGUAGES HAVE 4 PAST TENSES ... TO GIVE THIS "narrow time", "wide time" distinction ???

So people find it necessary to define the 2 situations (one regular one a once-off) in a different way tense-wise.

YīnYáng

liʒi and lugu can be considered the béu equivalents of Yin and Yang.

According to the Taoist tradition ...

Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity and nighttime.

Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive; and is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime.

Unfortunately the béu tradition is not so delightfully colourful. It is more workaday.

It is basically the association in morphology of the sound i to the negative, and of u to the positive.

Also there is a weaker association of i to the left and the past, and of u to the right and to the future.

wa or -ua or to a lesser extent u- are associated with positiveness.

Also ya or -ia or to a lesser extent i- are associated with negativity.

kludi and kludu might be expected to be swopped over ...

-i is suffixed to indicate an action already done on an object and hence there IS NOT any action pending. ( IS NOT = negative )

-u is suffixed to indicate an action IS pending. ( IS = positive )

Also i is associated with past time and u is associated with future time (refer to the tense/aspect markers).

In the béu mathematical tradition the primary axis is always horizontal. The origin is called the lalapoint.

Negativity is to the left of this point and positiveness to the right. ( OK not so much difference from the way we do things in the West )

In calculus there is a strong preference to vary other dimensions with respect to time.

Units

We have alread discussed numbers quite extensively.

Now it is time to discuss béu units (jada).

The unit of distance is the cwài (3.68 km) ... this is actually the radius of the earth divided by 1000₁₂.... cwì = "distance"

The unit of height is the hú (2.13 m) ... this is actually the yí divided by 1000₁₂.

The unit of weight is the wó (5.6 kg) ... this is actually (the weight of water in a cube with every side one hú long) divided by 1000₁₂.

The unit of area is the nàu (7,839 m²) ... this is actually (the area of a square with every side one hú long) multiplied by by 1000₁₂.

The unit of temperature is the mái (87 degrees Kelvin). This makes the temperature of the human body equal to 3 1/2 units.

Also 3.0 mái is -12 degrees celsius and 4.0 mái is 75 degrees celsius. As the temperature of the air is nearly always between these two limits, when people discuss the weather, they normally drop the "3".

The unit of time is the dé (24 hours).

The unit of angle is the ombada (360 degrees).

The unit of speed is the són (0.15333 km/hour)

The above units are not normally written out in full. But they have special symbols as given below.

Now we must lay down how the unit word interacts with the number and with the 7 number "placeholders". This must be defined for both speech and notation.

Well first of, if the number is such that it is next to omba (the decimal point), then omba is replaced with the units being used (in both recitation and in notation). For example hú is the unit used to measure height (it equals 2.237 mtr). My height (1.8 mtrs) would be pronounced hú apaijauza. A height of 4.037 mtrs would be pronounced as aja hú apaijauza. (see the chart above to see how this would be written down).

Now if the number doesn't occur next to omba but on one side of a placeholder, then the unit is placed on the opposite side from the placeholder.

If the number occurs on both sides of a placeholder, then the unit is place at the very front.

Notice that in the notation the numbers must be contiguous with the placeholders. If there is a gap, then the sign for "h" must be inserted into the gap. Exactly as we insert zero's. But one different between our system and the béu system, is, in our system, zero's must be inserted to make the number contiguous with the decimal point (assuming we are using non-scientific notation), in the béu system "h"'s must be inserted to make the number contiguous with any placeholders that are used.

The béu system may at first appear more complicated then the systems currently used. However it is all a matter of familiarity. It is just due to exposure to it for most of our lives that, for example, using hours, minutes and seconds seems so easy. With all equal amount of exposure, the béu system would be even easier.

In our SI system, magnitude words are prefixed to the unit of measurement (for example "kilo" in kilometre). béu also has magnitude words (the placeholders) but they are inserted into the number itself (the béu system is better than the SI system because you get a different magnitude word every time your dynamic range passes 1728). Notationwise, it is a bit similar to the way we use comma's to separate a long number string into groups of three digits.

This is rubbish

The plovaza (adjective phrase) is a clause that sets the scene for the main action.

1) "waiting on tables six nights a week", Kirsty had come to know all the regular customers // "their mains flowing", they ran across the field and down to the river.

2) "his leg broken", he slowly crawled up the sand dune and ...

3) "having to pack all the stereos before lunch", he did not stop for a tea-break.

In English grammar this is called a nominative absolute construction. It is a free-standing (absolute) part of a sentence that describes or modifies the main subject and verb. It is usually at the beginning or end of the sentence, although it can also appear in the middle. Its parallel is the ablative absolute in Latin, or the genitive absolute in Greek.