Banuala literally means ‘tongue of the people’ or ‘the people’s tongue’: tongue(NOM) people(GEN). ‘Banu’ means tongue, language or speech.
Syntax
Banuala is usually a verb-subject-object language. Adjectives often precede nouns in Banuala, but they can technically be placed anywhere because of the case system. Banuala does not have a productive adverbial system, apart from a few fixed phrases from the language’s earlier history.
Verbs
Regular verb paradigm, using ‘muta’ (to eat) as an example
Muta – to eat; stem – mut-
two main tenses – close and distant; past and future are denoted by expressions of time
Close Tense
1st person: mute ato / mútet atori / mutéti atorii / mutéget atoga / mutégeti atogai
2nd person close: mutéta et, imat, dedet, imatet / muténeta etei, imatei, dedetei, imatetei / mutetáneta etui, imatui, dedetui, imatetui
2nd person distant: mutétama adet, dedadet, adematet / mutenétama adetei, dedadetei, adematetei / mutetanétama adetui, dedadetui / adematetui
mute·t
muteta·tané·tama
(the root ‘ma’ in intimate and deferential pronouns reflects an idea of care/regard)
3rd person animate: múto taorit, taorat, taorant / mutóta taoritei, taoratei, taorantei / muténta taoritui, taoratui, taorantui
3rd person inanimate: mutan tatonat / mutata tatonatei / mutanta tatonatui
Banua – to speak; stem – banu-
banute ato / banutet atori / banuteti atorii / banuteget atoga / banutegeti atogai
banutetama adet, dedadet, adematet / banutenetama adatei, dedadetei, adematetei / banutetanetama adetui, dedadetui, adematetui
banuto taorit, taorat, taorant / tanutota taoritei, taoratei, taorantei / banutenta taoritui, taoratui, taorantui
Banutan tatonat / banutata tatonatei / banutanta tatonatui
Nouns
nua – people
banu – tongue
muta – food
‘Your people’ in the deferential familiar singular: imatétela nua
Pronunciation
Words are often pronounced on the…
- first syllable in two-syllable words
- penultimate or first syllable in three-syllable words
- antepenultimate syllable if there are four or more syllables.
The stress pattern is… similar to that of Hungarian in some respects? Perhaps? Banuala strongly resists stressing words on the final syllable.
Poetic metre prefers anapaests? How should Banuala poetry scan? (acute accents are to indicate stress; Banuala doesn’t typically use diacritical marks)
Pronouns
Banuala requires that pronouns be directly used in a sentence even though verbs inflect for person and gender. This is because information about the referent or listener is reflected in the pronoun but not necessarily the verb.
Nominative
First-person:
- ato (singular),
- atori (dual inclusive),
- atorii (dual exclusive),
- atoga (plural inclusive) and
- atogai (plural exclusive)
Second-person:
- et (neutral close singular)
- imat (intimate singular) – used between parents and children, siblings and similar-aged cousins, and extremely close friends.
- imátet (deferential familiar singular) – typically used with second-degree older relatives, like grandparents, aunts, uncles or older cousins
- dédet (contemptuous close singular) – used for people like ex-friends and estranged family members
- ádet (neutral distant singular) – used when meeting someone for the first time; a very safe pronoun to use
- adematet – deferential distant similar
- dedadet – contemptuous distant singular
- étei (neutral close dual)
- ímai (intimate dual)
- imátetei – deferential familiar dual
- adematetei – deferential distant dual
- dedétei (contemptuous close dual)
- adétei (neutral distant dual)
- dedádetei (contemptuous distant dual)
- étui (neutral close plural)
- imui (intimate plural; the ‘a’ in the root was swallowed over time)
- imatetui – deferential familiar plural
- adematetui – deferential distant plural
- dedetui (contemptuous close plural)
- adetui (neutral distant plural; pronounced ‘atui’ in fast speech)
- dedadetui (contemptuous distant plural; sometimes pronounced ‘datui’ in fast speech)
Third-person:
Third-person pronouns inflect for gender, number, case and animacy. A deferential or contemptuous prefix can also be added, but this is considered a modifier, not a noun class.
Feminine singular: taorit
Masculine singular: taorat
Neuter animate singular: taorant
Inanimate singular: tatonat
F2: taoritei
M2: taoratei
N2: taorantei
I2: tatonatei
FPL: taoritui
MPL: taoratui
NPL: taorantui
IPL: tatonatui
Masculine dual
Neuter animate dual
Inanimate dual
Feminine plural
Masculine plural
Neuter plural
Inanimate plural
Genitive
Generally, –la is added to make genitives and possessive pronouns. If a first- or second- person pronoun ends in a consonant, an ‘e’ is added to the suffix to prevent consonant clusters that aren’t allowed in Banuala. Third-person pronouns drop the -t instead.
1st person: atola / atorila (atoriila) / atogala (atogaila)
2nd person
Close neutral: etela / eteila / etuila
Distant neutral: adetela / adeteila / adetuila
imatetela, etc.
third-person:
singular: taorila, taorala, taoranela, tatonala (the final -t is dropped from third-person singular pronouns in the genitive)
dual:
plural:
Accusative
Dative
Instrumental
Auxiliary verbs – does Banuala have a copula, modal etc?
Common word-building affixes
Swearwords
torumpa (n, v) – shit, excrement