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The Bitha overview

From:Larry Schelin <lschelin@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 29, 1999, 17:05
        Hello again

            Here's what I've completed on my language, Bitha, so far.
Any comments/suggestions would be helpful, this is the first conlang
I've ever shown to anyone :)

            Bilabal        Dental       Alvelor            Velar
Ulvular    Glottal
Stop         b                 -              d                   k
g             -               ' (?)
Nasal       m                 -               -                  ng
(N)        -              -
Frictive     v        th (T) dh(D)     sh(S) zh(Z)     H (x) h(G)
Affricate            ts (t_s) dz(d_z)      j(d_j)
Trill
r                                    gh(R)
Approx.  w
Semivowels                                    y(j)


Vowels

        i uu(y)        EH(u") u
            e
              a OO(9)    ah(A)


Words are one of the following patterns

CV
CVCV
VCV
CVV
VVCV
CVVCV
VCVV


Nouns
There are a number of prepositional suffixes that can be attached to the
nouns

to -tsah
at -dzi
on -rai
under -yuu
near -ghai
over -HEH
inside -sEH
to the left -yah
to the right -jah
in -yi
toward -zu
away -zi

Several examples

near the ball (isha)
ishaghai

at home (itsira)
itsradzi

Verbs
The infinitive of the verb doesn't change in most cases. The two tense
markers gain all the tense/aspect/mood markers. Here are the basic
variations, before prefixes/infixes/suffixes are added:

mi    present
ngi   present (negative)
gi    present (yes/no question)
bi    present (negative yes/no question)
vi    present (question)
Hi   present (negative question)

vidh present tense

vith past tense (basic past, can be any time in the past, no specific
moment)
bith         (one minute ago)
dith         (one hour ago)
ngith        (yesterday)
tsith         (one week ago)
jith           (one month ago)
gith          (one year ago)

vish future tense (can be any time in the future, no specific moment)
bish        (one minute from now)
dish        (one hour from now)
ngish       (one day from now)
tsish        (one week from now)
jish         (one month from now)
gish         (one year from now)



I m+(infix)+i
Continous            -ik-
Finished               -ish-
Not started          -its-
About to              -ith-
Need to               -aH-
Must                    -uh-
Absolutly have to -ugh-
Able                    -air-
Not able              -iar-
Willing                 -agh-
Not Willing          -igh-

II v+(infix)+dh(th, sh, etc...)
Accidentally      -ija-
Purposfully        -ira-
Repeatly           -atsi-
Once                -itsa-
Definatly true    -edzi-
Probably true    -adzi-
Probably false   -eshi-
Definatly false   -ashi-

III (prefix) + mi
Emphasis          Any pronoun
Reflexive                 ju-
A little bit "trickle"   jia-
Some "flow"            za-
A lot "gush"             tse-
A whole lot "flood"  gu-

Grammar

Bitha is a SOV language, with a great deal of agglutination. Sentences
are of the pattern:

(Noun-subject) mi (Verb) (Noun- Indirect object) vidh (Noun- direct
object)

Indirect objects go between the tense markers (after the verb), direct
objects go after the tense markers.

Some examples

I see you (pl.)
Ju mi eri vidh vithu.

You went home last night.(and are home now)
Bu mishi baidi ngith.

He threw me the ball.
Ngu mi ghethi  isha vith judzi.

                                                    Joe