Hibuese: Difference between revisions

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|name = Hibuese

|nativename = Zyange Hibu

|pronunciation = [ˈʒaŋe ˈɦibu]

|pronunciation = ˈʒaŋe ˈɦibu

|region = Hibu

|ethnicity = Hibuese

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It is a right-branching, strongly isolating language, notable for its largely oligoanalytic lexicon, its complete lack of verbs other than the non-inflecting copula '''''i''''', and the lack of any contrastive voicing, with all phonemes except /h/ being voiced.

The lexicon is made up entirely of around 190 syllabic roots with a single basic meaning and these are combined in various ways to make more precise meanings. For example, the root '''''zwa''''' has the core meaning of 'water' but may, when qualified by other roots, refer to other liquids. '''''Ni''''' means, as its central meaning, 'air' or 'gas' but may also mean 'quality' or 'characteristic' (much as the word 'air'does in English as in 'an air of superiority') or simply anything that is invisible. Together these roots may be combined to form '''''zwani''''' 'rain' (a type of water defined by something to do with air, namely that it falls from it) or '''''nizwa''''' 'cloud, fog, mist' (a type of air defined by something to do with water, namely that it is filled with it).

The lexicon is made up entirely of around 190 syllabic roots with a single basic meaning and these are combined in various ways to make more precise meanings.

== Name ==

''Hibuese'' is derived from the name of the island ~~''Hibu''~~, which is itself simply a compound formed from ''hi'' 'this' or 'that' plus ''bu'' 'land' or 'soil'.

''Hibuese'' is derived from the name of the Hibu island group, which is itself simply a compound formed from ''hi'' 'this' or 'that' plus ''bu'' 'land' or 'soil'.

== History ==

Until about half way through the 19th century, any attempt at contact with the Hibuese people resulted in violence and death. Even in the face of invading European sailors armed with muskets, the Hibuese habit of living well back from the shore, approaching stealthily in the night and picking off intruders with poison darts ensured that any intruding force retreated after some time. Through the 19th and into the 20th century, a steady stream of Christian missionaries headed to the islands and never left, presumably being killed by the Hibuese. The Hibuese have consequently proved extraordinarily resistant to the Christianisation that has befallen the majority of other cultural groups in the vicinity, holding on to their traditional belief system. Nevertheless, it was Christian missionaries who eventually, in the 1920s, created the orthography in the Roman alphabet that would then find widespread use among the population. The native system of approximately 180 hieroglyphs remains, to this day, restricted to use by ceremonial initiates. In spite of their restricted use, the hieroglyphs are regarded as a sacred and unchangeable cultural inheritance from the first Hibuese and any language which does not conform to the hieroglyphs is rejected by the Hibese Language Council ('Ndyomwa Zyange Hibu') as non-Hibu and therefore not allowed in media or in school. Subsequently, instead of loanwords, the Hibuese language is replete with a plethora of neologisms formed out of the original units of language.

== Phonology ==

=== Consonants ===

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==Word classes==

===Nouns===

Nouns in Hibuese are entirely uninflected and have only one form each, with no changes for number (plural or singular) or, with few exceptions, case. They may comprise a single monosyllabic root or be a compound of two or more noun roots together.

Nouns in Hibuese are entirely uninflected and have only one form each, with no changes for number (plural or singular) or, with few exceptions, case. They may comprise a single monosyllabic root or be a compound of two or more noun roots together. For example, the root '''''zwa''''' has the core meaning of 'water' but may, when qualified by other roots, refer to other liquids. '''''Ni''''' means, as its central meaning, 'air' or 'gas' but may also mean 'quality' or 'characteristic' (much as the word 'air'does in English as in 'an air of superiority') or simply anything that is invisible. Together these roots may be combined to form '''''zwani''''' 'rain' (a type of water defined by something to do with air, namely that it falls from it) or '''''nizwa''''' 'cloud, fog, mist' (a type of air defined by something to do with water, namely that it is filled with it).

Nouns make up the equivalent of most other parts of speech found in other languages. For example, instead of a class of verbs, Hibuese uses agent nouns with a copula particle. Thus, instead of saying "I '''write''' a book" with verb equivalent to 'write', the equivalent sentence is syntactically equivalent to the sentence "I '''am a writer of''' a book." Words such as "writer" or "one who knows" are glossed here as "write.AG" and "know.AG", with "AG" standing for "agent". The equivalent of adjectives are glossed with "E" standing for "entity", for example "small.E" is the gloss for a noun meaning "small entity" (i.e. small person or thing).

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====Demonstratives====

The deictic noun ''hi'' is an all purpose demonstrative which indicate neither distance nor number, thus equivalent to both 'this' and 'that' as well as 'these' and 'those'.

Optionally, three levels of distance associated with the three grammatical persons may be distinguished.

* '''''hina''''' = 'this', near to the speaker [proximal / first person]

* '''''hiwa''''' = 'that', near to the listener [medial / second person]

* '''''hide''''' = 'that', away from speaker and listener [distal / third person]

These three levels of distance are also indicated in nouns indicating entities in a particular location ...

* '''''luna''''' = entity which is 'here', in a place near to the speaker [proximal / first person]

* '''''luwa''''' = entity which is 'there', in a place near to the listener [medial / second person]

* '''''lude''''' = entity which is 'there', in a place away from speaker and listener [distal / third person]

... as well as in nouns indicating motion towards and away from locations.

* '''''zona''''' = entity which moves 'here', towards a place near to the speaker [proximal / first person]

* '''''zowa''''' = entity which moves 'there', towards a place near to the listener [medial / second person]

* '''''zode''''' = entity which moves 'there', towards a place away from speaker and listener [distal / third person]

* '''''byena''''' = entity which moves 'from here', away from a place near to the speaker [proximal / first person]

* '''''byewa''''' = entity which moves 'from there', away from a place near to the listener [medial / second person]

* '''''byede''''' = entity which moves 'from there', away from a place away from speaker and listener [distal / third person]

Due to the nominal nature of all of these words, there is a need to briefly distinguish the deictic ''hi-'' series from the locative ''lu-'' series. The former series 'points' towards a specific referent, often accompanied by physical pointing. The latter series does not and may indicate any entity in the specified location.

: '''''Hina i zwida.'''''

: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)

|hi-na i zwida

|DEM.E-1S COP important.E

|This (by me) is important.}}

: '''''Luna i zwida.'''''

: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)

|lu-na i zwida

|located.E-1S COP important.E

|Something here (by me) is important.}}

When referring to the something that is close to both speaker and listener (such as a house that both are inside), politeness generally dictates that the second person is used as the reference point. Using oneself as the reference point (replacing ''hiwa'' in the following example with ''hina'') indicates that the speaker considers him or herself of a higher rank than the listener.

: '''''Hiwa mba i ba bazili.'''''

: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)

|hi-wa mba i ba bazili

|DEM.E-2S house COP extreme.E old.E

|This house (by me) is very old.}}

===Particles===

===Interjections===

==Syntax==

===Noun Phrases (NP)===

[[File:Hibuese_NP.png|400px|thumb|right|The structure of noun phrases in Hibuese]]A '''Noun Phrase''' (NP) in Hibuese consists minimally of a single '''Noun''' (N). The head noun may optionally be followed by a single adjacent modifier (consisting of a Noun Phrase (NP), a Prepositional Phrase (PP) or a Complementiser Phrase (CP)) and/or one or more situational modifiers (consisting of a Situational Phrase (SitP)). There may only be one adjacent modifier per noun phrase, but a single noun is capable of controling multiple situational modifiers. Because an adjacent modifier may consist of a noun phrase, recursion may result in a long, uninterrupted sequence of nouns.

For example, in the following noun phrase, the highest level head noun is '''''bahe''''', with each subsequent noun being the adjacent modifier of the noun to its left.

: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)

|'''bahe''' '''zobye''' '''mbada''' '''mwada'''

|obligated.E visit.A large.house chief

|“one who needs to visit the palace”}}

===Prepositional Phrases (PP)===

[[File:Hibuese_PP.png|200px|thumb|right|The structure of noun phrases in Hibuese]]A prepositional phrase in Hibuese consists of a preposition (P) followed by a complement Noun Phrase (NP) or Complementiser Phrase (CP).

There are only two true prepositions in Hibuese: the genitive preposition ''ya'', which roughly means "of", and the equative/attributive preposition ''ye'', roughly meaning "which is". The preposition ''ya'' forms many contractions with nouns as well as with the complementiser ''yu''.

: '''''ya de ngo ye luwa'''''

:→ '''''zyi ngo ye luwa'''''

: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)

|ya de ngo ye lu-wa

|GEN DEF.SG person ATTR located.E-2S

|of the person who is here}}

===Predicate Phrases (PredP)===

===Complementiser Phrases (CP)===

===Topic Phrases (TopP)===

===Questioning (Interrogative) Phrases (QP)===

===Situational Phrases (SitP)===

(OLD...)

==Noun Phrases==

===Modifiers===

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:{|

|-

| colspan="8" | '''''No u na i dyo zyi va nggu wo!'''''

| colspan="9" | '''''No u na i dyo zyi va nggu wo!'''''

|-

|no || u || na || i || dyo || zyi || va || nggu

|no || u || na || i || dyo || zyi || va || nggu || wo

|-

| give.AG || ADJN || 1s || COP || acquire.AG || GEN.DEF.E || everything || money ||

| give.AG || ADJN || 1s || COP || acquire.AG || GEN.DEF.E || everything || money || GEN.2S

|-

| colspan="8" | ''You will give me all of your money!''

| colspan="9" | ''You will give me all of your money!''

|-

| colspan="8" | Lit: ''Person who gives me all of the money!''

| colspan="9" | Lit: ''Person who gives me all of the money!''

|}

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===Names===

===Numerals===

[[Category:Languages]]

[[Category:Conlangs]]

[[Category:A priori]]

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 |name          = Hibuese
 |nativename       = Zyange Hibu
-|pronunciation = [ˈʒaŋe ˈɦibu]
+|pronunciation = ˈʒaŋe ˈɦibu
 |region        = Hibu
 |ethnicity     = Hibuese
@@ Line 18: / Line 18: @@
 It is a right-branching, strongly isolating language, notable for its largely oligoanalytic lexicon, its complete lack of verbs other than the non-inflecting copula '''''i''''', and the lack of any contrastive voicing, with all phonemes except /h/ being voiced.
-The lexicon is made up entirely of around 190 syllabic roots with a single basic meaning and these are combined in various ways to make more precise meanings. For example, the root '''''zwa''''' has the core meaning of 'water' but may, when qualified by other roots, refer to other liquids. '''''Ni''''' means, as its central meaning, 'air' or 'gas' but may also mean 'quality' or 'characteristic' (much as the word 'air'does in English as in 'an air of superiority') or simply anything that is invisible. Together these roots may be combined to form '''''zwani''''' 'rain' (a type of water defined by something to do with air, namely that it falls from it) or '''''nizwa''''' 'cloud, fog, mist' (a type of air defined by something to do with water, namely that it is filled with it).
+The lexicon is made up entirely of around 190 syllabic roots with a single basic meaning and these are combined in various ways to make more precise meanings.
 == Name ==
-''Hibuese'' is derived from the name of the island ''Hibu'', which is itself simply a compound formed from ''hi'' 'this' or 'that' plus ''bu'' 'land' or 'soil'.
+''Hibuese'' is derived from the name of the Hibu island group, which is itself simply a compound formed from ''hi'' 'this' or 'that' plus ''bu'' 'land' or 'soil'.
+== History ==
+Until about half way through the 19th century, any attempt at contact with the Hibuese people resulted in violence and death. Even in the face of invading European sailors armed with muskets, the Hibuese habit of living well back from the shore, approaching stealthily in the night and picking off intruders with poison darts ensured that any intruding force retreated after some time. Through the 19th and into the 20th century, a steady stream of Christian missionaries headed to the islands and never left, presumably being killed by the Hibuese. The Hibuese have consequently proved extraordinarily resistant to the Christianisation that has befallen the majority of other cultural groups in the vicinity, holding on to their traditional belief system. Nevertheless, it was Christian missionaries who eventually, in the 1920s, created the orthography in the Roman alphabet that would then find widespread use among the population. The native system of approximately 180 hieroglyphs remains, to this day, restricted to use by ceremonial initiates. In spite of their restricted use, the hieroglyphs are regarded as a sacred and unchangeable cultural inheritance from the first Hibuese and any language which does not conform to the hieroglyphs is rejected by the Hibese Language Council ('Ndyomwa Zyange Hibu') as non-Hibu and therefore not allowed in media or in school. Subsequently, instead of loanwords, the Hibuese language is replete with a plethora of neologisms formed out of the original units of language.
 == Phonology ==
 === Consonants ===
@@ Line 84: / Line 86: @@
 ==Word classes==
 ===Nouns===
-Nouns in Hibuese are entirely uninflected and have only one form each, with no changes for number (plural or singular) or, with few exceptions, case. They may comprise a single monosyllabic root or be a compound of two or more noun roots together.
+Nouns in Hibuese are entirely uninflected and have only one form each, with no changes for number (plural or singular) or, with few exceptions, case. They may comprise a single monosyllabic root or be a compound of two or more noun roots together. For example, the root '''''zwa''''' has the core meaning of 'water' but may, when qualified by other roots, refer to other liquids. '''''Ni''''' means, as its central meaning, 'air' or 'gas' but may also mean 'quality' or 'characteristic' (much as the word 'air'does in English as in 'an air of superiority') or simply anything that is invisible. Together these roots may be combined to form '''''zwani''''' 'rain' (a type of water defined by something to do with air, namely that it falls from it) or '''''nizwa''''' 'cloud, fog, mist' (a type of air defined by something to do with water, namely that it is filled with it).
 Nouns make up the equivalent of most other parts of speech found in other languages. For example, instead of a class of verbs, Hibuese uses agent nouns with a copula particle. Thus, instead of saying "I '''write''' a book" with verb equivalent to 'write', the equivalent sentence is syntactically equivalent to the sentence "I '''am a writer of''' a book." Words such as "writer" or "one who knows" are glossed here as "write.<small>AG</small>" and "know.<small>AG</small>", with "<small>AG</small>" standing for "agent". The equivalent of adjectives are glossed with "<small>E</small>" standing for "entity", for example "small.<small>E</small>" is the gloss for a noun meaning "small entity" (i.e. small person or thing).
@@ Line 489: / Line 491: @@
 ====Demonstratives====
+The deictic noun ''hi'' is an all purpose demonstrative which indicate neither distance nor number, thus equivalent to both 'this' and 'that' as well as 'these' and 'those'.
+Optionally, three levels of distance associated with the three grammatical persons may be distinguished.
+* '''''hina''''' = 'this', near to the speaker [proximal / first person]
+* '''''hiwa''''' = 'that', near to the listener [medial / second person]
+* '''''hide''''' = 'that', away from speaker and listener [distal / third person]
+These three levels of distance are also indicated in nouns indicating entities in a particular location ...
+* '''''luna''''' = entity which is 'here', in a place near to the speaker [proximal / first person]
+* '''''luwa''''' = entity which is 'there', in a place near to the listener [medial / second person]
+* '''''lude''''' = entity which is 'there', in a place away from speaker and listener [distal / third person]
+... as well as in nouns indicating motion towards and away from locations.
+* '''''zona''''' = entity which moves 'here', towards a place near to the speaker [proximal / first person]
+* '''''zowa''''' = entity which moves 'there', towards a place near to the listener [medial / second person]
+* '''''zode''''' = entity which moves 'there', towards a place away from speaker and listener [distal / third person]
+* '''''byena''''' = entity which moves 'from here', away from a place near to the speaker [proximal / first person]
+* '''''byewa''''' = entity which moves 'from there', away from a place near to the listener [medial / second person]
+* '''''byede''''' = entity which moves 'from there', away from a place away from speaker and listener [distal / third person]
+Due to the nominal nature of all of these words, there is a need to briefly distinguish the deictic ''hi-'' series from the locative ''lu-'' series. The former series 'points' towards a specific referent, often accompanied by physical pointing. The latter series does not and may indicate any entity in the specified location.
+: '''''<span style="color:blue">Hina</span> i zwida.'''''
+: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)
+|hi-na i zwida
+|DEM.E-1S COP important.E
+|This (by me) is important.}}
+: '''''<span style="color:blue">Luna</span> i zwida.'''''
+: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)
+|lu-na i zwida
+|located.E-1S COP important.E
+|Something here (by me) is important.}}
+When referring to the something that is close to both speaker and listener (such as a house that both are inside), politeness generally dictates that the second person is used as the reference point. Using oneself as the reference point (replacing ''hiwa'' in the following example with ''hina'') indicates that the speaker considers him or herself of a higher rank than the listener.
+: '''''<span style="color:blue">Hiwa</span> mba i ba bazili.'''''
+: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)
+|hi-wa mba i ba bazili
+|DEM.E-2S house COP extreme.E old.E
+|This house (by me) is very old.}}
 ===Particles===
 ===Interjections===
+==Syntax==
+===Noun Phrases (NP)===
+[[File:Hibuese_NP.png|400px|thumb|right|The structure of noun phrases in Hibuese]]A '''Noun Phrase''' (NP) in Hibuese consists minimally of a single '''Noun''' (N). The head noun may optionally be followed by a single adjacent modifier (consisting of a Noun Phrase (NP), a Prepositional Phrase (PP) or a Complementiser Phrase (CP)) and/or one or more situational modifiers (consisting of a Situational Phrase (SitP)). There may only be one adjacent modifier per noun phrase, but a single noun is capable of controling multiple situational modifiers. Because an adjacent modifier may consist of a noun phrase, recursion may result in a long, uninterrupted sequence of nouns.
+For example, in the following noun phrase, the highest level head noun is '''''bahe''''', with each subsequent noun being the adjacent modifier of the noun to its left.
+: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)
+|'''bahe''' '''zobye''' '''mbada''' '''mwada'''
+|obligated.E visit.A large.house chief
+|“one who needs to visit the palace”}}
+===Prepositional Phrases (PP)===
+[[File:Hibuese_PP.png|200px|thumb|right|The structure of noun phrases in Hibuese]]A prepositional phrase in Hibuese consists of a preposition (P) followed by a complement Noun Phrase (NP) or Complementiser Phrase (CP).
+There are only two true prepositions in Hibuese: the genitive preposition ''ya'', which roughly means "of", and the equative/attributive preposition ''ye'', roughly meaning "which is". The preposition ''ya'' forms many contractions with nouns as well as with the complementiser ''yu''.
+: '''''<span style="color:blue">ya de</span> ngo <span style="color:blue">ye</span> luwa'''''
+:→ '''''<span style="color:blue">zyi</span> ngo <span style="color:blue">ye</span> luwa'''''
+: {{interlinear|abbreviations=E:entity (thing or person that is ...); A:agent (thing or person that does ...)
+|ya de ngo ye lu-wa
+|GEN DEF.SG person ATTR located.E-2S
+|of the person who is here}}
+===Predicate Phrases (PredP)===
+===Complementiser Phrases (CP)===
+===Topic Phrases (TopP)===
+===Questioning (Interrogative) Phrases (QP)===
+===Situational Phrases (SitP)===
+(OLD...)
 ==Noun Phrases==
 ===Modifiers===
@@ Line 597: / Line 675: @@
 :{|
 |-
-| colspan="8" | '''''No u na i dyo zyi va nggu wo!'''''
+| colspan="9" | '''''No u na i dyo zyi va nggu wo!'''''
 |-
-|no || u || na || i || dyo || zyi || va || nggu
+|no || u || na || i || dyo || zyi || va || nggu || wo
 |-
-| give.<small>AG</small> || <small>ADJN</small> || 1s || <small>COP</small> || acquire.<small>AG</small> || <small>GEN</small>.<small>DEF</small>.<small>E</small> || everything || money ||
+| give.<small>AG</small> || <small>ADJN</small> || 1s || <small>COP</small> || acquire.<small>AG</small> || <small>GEN</small>.<small>DEF</small>.<small>E</small> || everything || money || <small>GEN</small>.2S
 |-
-| colspan="8" | ''You will give me all of your money!''
+| colspan="9" | ''You will give me all of your money!''
 |-
-| colspan="8" | Lit: ''Person who gives me all of the money!''
+| colspan="9" | Lit: ''Person who gives me all of the money!''
 |}
@@ Line 851: / Line 929: @@
 ===Names===
 ===Numerals===
+[[Category:Languages]]
+[[Category:Conlangs]]
+[[Category:A priori]]