Khuvo's Languages • Bòngen • The Language of the Upper Class

Natively known as: Bònge /ˈbəngɛ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
kì ṣù kì dēlò daṣ yōblo kì ses mēm kì otkò nokòk gòntòm
Pronunciation: /kɪ ʂʊ kɪ ˈdeːlə dɑʂ ˈjoːblɔ kɪ sɛs meːm kɪ ˈɔtkə ˈnɔkək ˈgəntəm/
Bòngen word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d g j k l m mb n nd p s t w ŋg ʂ ʔ/

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↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Prenasalized stop	mb	nd			ŋg
Stop	p b	t d			k g		ʔ
Fricative		s	ʂ
Approximant				j		w
Lateral approximant		l

Vowel inventory: /eː i oː u ɑ ɔ ə ɛ ɪ ʊ/

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	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low			ɑ

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, d, g, j, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, w, ʂ, ʔ
Mid-word consonants: b, bd, bl, d, g, gm, j, k, kp, ks, kt, l, lk, m, mb, n, nd, ng, nl, ns, nt, p, pt, s, t, tk, w, ʂ, ʔ
Word final consonants: b, d, g, k, l, m, n, s, w, ʂ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• S → S[-voice] / _#

Spelling rules:

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Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
ɑ	a
ɔ	o
ə	ò
ɛ	e
ɪ	ì
ʂ	ṣ
ʊ	ù
ʔ	ʻ
ː	macron over vowel

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject-Oblique-Object-Verb. "Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Mary with a key the door opened.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions

Noun

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Singular	No affix pek /pɛk/
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑj- Else: Prefix ɑjə- ayòpek /ɑˈjəpɛk/

Nouns have five cases: Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man. Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog. Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man. Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog. Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.

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Nominative	No affix pek /pɛk/
Accusative	Prefix gɛ- gepek /ˈgɛpɛk/
Genitive	Prefix i- ipek /ˈipɛk/
Dative	Prefix ɛ- epek /ˈɛpɛk/
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ind- Else: Prefix indɛ- indepek /inˈdɛpɛk/

Articles

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	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	gēg /geːg/ the	ṣù /ʂʊ/ a
Plural	ʻa /ʔɑ/ the	nù /nʊ/ some

Pronouns

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	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	ge /gɛ/ I	kim /kim/ me	e /ɛ/ my, mine	bò /bə/ to me	ṣub /ʂub/
2nd singular	sum /sum/ you	gēb /geːb/ you	bòk /bək/ your, yours	ga /gɑ/ to you	se /sɛ/
3rd singular masc	ṣù /ʂʊ/ he, it	mēm /meːm/ him, it	kì /kɪ/ his, its	wim /wim/ to him	wi /wi/
3rd singular fem	ṣùg /ʂʊg/ she, it	pòk /pək/ her, it	mò /mə/ her, hers, its	ṣōk /ʂoːk/ to her	go /gɔ/
1st plural	ne /nɛ/ we	mòb /məb/ us	tòw /təw/ our, ours	o /ɔ/ to us	pem /pɛm/
2nd plural	goṣ /gɔʂ/ you (all)	nus /nus/ you (all)	to /tɔ/ your, yours (all)	nig /nig/ to you (all)	lem /lɛm/
3rd plural	mì /mɪ/ they	tòk /tək/ them	tòg /təg/ their, theirs	ṣus /ʂus/ to them	kē /keː/

Verbs

Future tense is indicated with the word:
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Future particle

be /bɛ/ future tense particle

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Present	No affix bòbla /ˈbəblɑ/
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pɔ- pobòbla /pɔˈbəblɑ/

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am studying, and habitual actions, such as I study (every night).
It is indicated with the affix:
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Imperfect

Prefix bə- bòbòbla /bəˈbəblɑ/

Numbers

Bòngen has a base-10 number system:

1 - yù
2 - dē
3 - gì
4 - nō
5 - go
6 - gò
7 - si
8 - su
9 - nel
10 - new
11 - new kì yù “ten and one”
100 - yù ben “one hundred”
101 - yù ben kì yù “one hundred and one”
200 - dē ben
1000 - yù yio “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix gɔ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix eː-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑb-
Else: Prefix ɑbɛ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix bɛ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɛks-
Else: Prefix ɛksɛ-
Noun → verb (to create [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d-
Else: Prefix dɑ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɔj-
Else: Prefix ɔjɪ-
Verb → adjective (likely to do [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ənt-
Else: Prefix əntu-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɛ-
Verb → noun that verb physically produces (e.g. build → building) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʊd-
Else: Prefix ʊdʊ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix əng-
Else: Prefix əngə-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
Else: Prefix tɪ-
Diminutive = Prefix wi-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑw-
Else: Prefix ɑwɛ-

Dictionary

4325 Words.