The Language of Himinsor - Bûrsûsan

Natively known as: Bûrsûsan
...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
yê yâ heem sa t͡sʰǔǔ yidyû yê ǔǔt t͡sʰǔǔ lir kêê chii letii
Pronunciation: /jɛ jəː heːm sa t͡sʰyː ˈjidjʌ jɛ yːt t͡sʰyː liɾ kɛː t͡ɕiː ˈletiː/
Bûrsûsian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d d͡z d͡ʑ g h j k kʰ l m n p pʰ s t tʰ t͡s t͡sʰ t͡ɕ t͡ɕʰ w ŋ ɕ ɾ ʤ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n				ŋ
Stop	p pʰ b	t tʰ d				k kʰ g
Affricate			ʤ
Fricative		s		ɕ			h
Approximant					j
Tap		ɾ
Lateral approximant		l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː y yː ø øː əː ɛ ɛː ɯ ɯː ɰi ʌ
Diphthongs: ɰi

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː y yː		ɯ ɯː u uː
High-mid	e eː ø øː		o oː
Mid		əː
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː		ʌ
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	ê
əː	â
ʌ	û
y	ǔ
ɯ	ů
d͡z	dz
j	y
ʤ	j
kʰ	kh
pʰ	ph
tʰ	th
t͡ɕ	ch
ŋ	ng
ɕ	sh
ɾ	r
d͡ʑ	j̀
Vː	VV

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Singular	No affix nûch /nʌt͡ɕ/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate first part of first syllable nûnûch /ˈnʌnʌt͡ɕ/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	yǔk /jyk/ the	sheek /ɕeːk/ a
Plural	yǔǔ /jyː/ the	taa /taː/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	oo /oː/ I	j̀êw /d͡ʑɛw/ me
2nd singular	dzêê /d͡zɛː/ you	j̀esh /d͡ʑeɕ/ you
3rd singular masc	yâ /jəː/ he, it	pø /pø/ him, it
3rd singular fem	søø /søː/ she, it	thû /tʰʌ/ her, it
1st plural	baash /baːɕ/ we	gii /giː/ us
2nd plural	bê /bɛ/ you all	taap /taːp/ you all
3rd plural	kel /kel/ they	tee /teː/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	kǔǔ /kyː/ my
2nd singular	chʰam /t͡ɕʰam/ your
3rd singular masc	t͡sʰǔǔ /t͡sʰyː/ his
3rd singular fem	tǔǔw /tyːw/ her
1st plural	thů /tʰɯ/ our
2nd plural	hit͡sʰ /hit͡sʰ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	tůph /tɯpʰ/ their

Verbs

	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
Present	Suffix -a pûa /ˈpʌa/ (I/we) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -ap pûp /pʌp/ (you/you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -əːk pûk /pʌk/ (he/she/it/they) learn
Past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -øːw pûw /pʌw/ (I/we) learned	Suffix -iː pûii /ˈpʌiː/ (you/you all) learned	Suffix -eː pûee /ˈpʌeː/ (he/she/it/they) learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -aːk pûk /pʌk/ (I/we) learned (long ago)	Suffix -ut pûut /ˈpʌut/ (you/you all) learned (long ago)	Suffix -ø pûø /ˈpʌø/ (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)
Future	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t͡sʰ Else: Suffix -at͡sʰ pût͡sʰ /pʌt͡sʰ/ (I/we) will learn	Suffix -aː pûaa /ˈpʌaː/ (you/you all) will learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ik pûk /pʌk/ (he/she/it/they) will learn

Numbers

Bûrsûsan has a base-10 number system:
1 - pǔǔ
2 - pa
3 -pê
4 - phɰidtir
5 - aa
6 - kê
7 - kø
8 - shee
9 - shaa
10 - nǔyu
11 - nǔyupǔǔ “ten-one”
100 - nach “hundred”
101 - nach pǔǔ “hundred one”
200 - pu nach
1000 - j̀u “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ok
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -aːm
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ak
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -i
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t͡s
Else: Suffix -uːt͡s
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -os
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t͡s
Else: Suffix -ot͡s
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w
Else: Suffix -əːw
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -oːt
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -yɕ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɾ
Else: Suffix -ɯɾ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -u
Diminutive = Suffix -a
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w
Else: Suffix -ɯw

Dictionary

4354 Words.