βαραβαρα is an engineered constructed language. It is engineered because my degree technically falls under the university's engineering department. As a longtime fan of conlangs, there is still yet to be one that I truly love. The only rational course of action is to make my own, using only ideas that spark joy, as Marie Kondo would say.
παλὶῐανμίνκντάλω I can eat glass, it does not hurt me.
There are two goals I want this language to achieve, which at first glance may seem contradictory, and at further glances continue to seem that way.
It should be concise, in that you should be able to say a lot with a little. I have heaps of respect for Ithkuil, but it makes you think really hard about what exactly it is you want to communicate. Thinking has been the single most disastrous invention in human history; you should do as little of it as possible. This language should be more oriented toward the everyday and mundane. Also, having lots and lots of sounds is cheating, because I said so.
It should also be unambiguous, for shits and giggles. Any stream of phonemes should correspond to a single interpretation. Simply being concise would be too easy: let's say fuk is a word that stands in for any entity in the universe, and yu could refer to any predicate. Assuming a subject-verb word order, fuk yu characterizes every single sentence you could ever think of. Hooray, only two syllables! I think you'll agree that things are more interesting with the constraint.
It will be described below in a three-act structure: sounds, syntax, and semantics.
There are 17 consonants and 5 vowels. Spaces are a written invention—when speaking, there is a continuous stream of sounds. Important for an unambiguous language is identifying which sounds belong to which words. This is controlled by the 4 tones, so by 'tradition', sentences are written without spaces.
| labial | laminal | apical | dorsal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | μ /m/ | ν /n/ | ||
| fortis | π /p/ | τ /t/ | κ /k/ | |
| lenis | β /b/ | δ /d/ | ζ /dz/ | γ /ɡ/ |
| fricative | φ /f/ | θ /θ/ | σ /s/ | χ /h/ |
| sonorant | ῠ /ʋ/ | λ /l/ | ρ /r/ | ῐ /j/ |
Morphemes are of the form C or CVC. For final consonants (which includes singletons), /b d ɡ/ are equivalent to /ʋ r j/, respectively. Only when both after a vowel and before a consonant are they realized as sonorants—stops otherwise. Regardless of the previous statement, /d/ always becomes /r/ before /s/.
| front | central | back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| high | ι, ί, ὶ, ῖ /i/ | ᾰ /ə/ | υ, ύ, ὺ, ῦ /u/ |
| mid | ε, έ, η, ή /e/ | ο, ό, ω, ώ /o/ | |
| low | α, ά, ὰ, ᾶ /a/ | ||
| closed | open | |
|---|---|---|
| smooth | ◌ /˧/ | ◌̀ /˩/ |
| rough | ◌́ /˥/ | ◌̃ /˥˩/ or /˩˥/ |
A closed tone indicates the following consonant belongs to that vowel's morpheme (σεν), and the open tone not (ση-ν). A smooth tone indicates the consonant preceding the next vowel belongs to that morpheme (η-να), and the rough tone not (ή-ν-α).
Since final /ʋ r j/ can never appear before a vowel, when it does, we can consider it a part of the medial H in CHVC. So, something like ᾶ-ρ-ῐ-α will instead be bracketed as ᾶ-ρῐα.
Also exploiting this fact, μάῐ-α (which is typically forbidden) can be a shortcut for the hiatus-filled μα-ι-α. The morpheme ι will be used quite a bit, as you'll see...
A part of speech is any word(s) that behave in the same way; they can be interchanged and the sentence will stay grammatical (even if it doesn't make sense). Other than a couple specialized particles, here are the main few you will encounter:
| part | role | English examples |
|---|---|---|
| \(X\) (pronoun) | refers to particular things in the world | you; the cats; a big house; every old person; London |
| \(N\) (noun) | describes a general kind of thing | cat; big house; old person; huge, scary monster that roars |
| \(Det\) (determiner) | specifies exactly which things | the; a(n); these; each; no; that; some |
| \(V_0\) (sentence) | a complete thought | you live in a big house in London |
| \(V_1\) (predicate) | says something about a thing | red; sleeps; eats a delicious meal; thinks cats are cute |
| \(V_2\) (relation) | relates a thing to another | brings; wants to touch; is smaller than; denies the thought of |
| \(A\) (adverb) | specifies how something happens | quickly; with ease; not; at the store; must |
| \(P\) (postposition) | relates a thing to a happening | at; for; through; according to; under the influence of |
| \(T\) (transitivizer) | makes a predicate a relation | em- in embetter; -ize in equalize; -ify in simplify |
| \(D\) (detransitivizer) | makes a relation a predicate | -en in eaten (passive) |
| \(C\) (conjunction) | relates a happening to another | and; after; if; yet; neither [...] nor in neither black nor white |
We'll now build the syntax up from scratch, meeting every part of speech along the way. Generally, it can be described as having object-verb-subject (OVS), noun-adjective, and verb-adverb order.
\( V_0 \to V_1 \ X \) — a predicate with a pronoun (its subject) is a sentence.
| άν | ω |
|---|---|
| be | 1 |
| I am | |
\( V_1 \to X \ V_2 \) — a pronoun (the object) with a relation is a predicate.
| ὰν | κόδ | ω |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | see | 1 |
| I see it | ||
\( X \to N \ [Det] \) — a noun with or without a determiner is a pronoun. Without, the exact reference is vague and determined by context.
| ζω | χάρ | ῖσ | ερ |
|---|---|---|---|
| animal | every | have | person |
| [the/a] person has every animal | |||
\( N \to N \ V_1 \) — a noun with a predicate is a noun, modifying it.
| ίγ | έρ | ιγ |
|---|---|---|
| good | person | good |
| a good person is good | ||
\( V_1 \to V_1 \ A \) — likewise, a predicate with an adverb is a predicate.
| ζω | κόδ | έγ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|
| animal | see | NEG | 1 |
| I don't see an animal | |||
\( A \to X \ P \) — a pronoun with a postposition is an adverb.
| ὰν | τα | ή | δ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | give | 2 | DAT | 1 |
| I give it to you | ||||
\( V_2 \to V_1 \ T \) — a predicate with a transitivizer is a relation. Here, νη (want) takes an predicate like to be good and transforms it into something like to want [object] to be good; a happening is desired, not a concrete thing.
| ζω | ιῐ | νη | ω |
|---|---|---|---|
| animal | good | want | 1 |
| I want the animal to be good | |||
\( V_1 \to D \ V_2 \) — a detransitivizer with a relation is a predicate. It may look like it behaves like an object, but note that they're not interchangeable with other pronouns; ισ can never appear as the subject of a predicate.
| ισ | κορ | ζω |
|---|---|---|
| RECP | see | animal |
| animals see each other | ||
\( N \to V_1 \ Inf \) — the infinitive particle n allows you to talk about an instance or the result of an event, as if it were a noun.
| ίῐ | ζω | ὶσ | ν |
|---|---|---|---|
| good | animal | have | INF |
| possession of animals is good | |||
\( X \to Det \ Inf \) — it can also form a pronoun from just a determiner, quantifying the most general kind of thing.
| χαρ | ν | κόδ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|
| every | INF | see | 1 |
| I see everything | |||
\( A \to Inf \ T \) — a purely syntactic convenience that avoids repetition if the thing wanting and the participant of what is wanted are the same.
| ιῐ | ν | νη | ω |
|---|---|---|---|
| good | ν | want | 1 |
| I want to be good | |||
\( V_1 \to X \ Rel \ V_2 \) — the relative particle ι lets you bind a relation to its subject first, instead of its object. Here, η-ι transforms the relation see into the predicate is what you see.
| ιῐ | ζω | η | ι | κορ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| good | animal | 2 | REL | see |
| the animal that you see (lit. seen-by-you animal) is good | ||||
Later, you'll find it to be the most complicated word in the language, but its primary use is to mark relative clauses (as is its namesake). As a consequence of its definition, it serves as the passive voice when the predicate of a sentence.
| η | ὶ | κορ | ζω |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | REL | see | animal |
| the animal is seen by you | |||
\( N \to Rel \ P \) — another use is generalizing words like place/where and cause/why for any postposition. For λ (at), the noun ὶ-λ describes a prototypical 'at-ness'—the relative particle being used for this since it relates to the 'subject' of a postposition.
| ὶ | λ | κόδ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|
| REL | LOC | see | 1 |
| I see the place | |||
\( X \to X \ Rel \ V_1 \) — yet ANOTHER use is modifying a noun non-restrictively, simply attaching additional qualities to it instead of being a defining, identifying property of that thing.
| ζό | ῐ | ıj | κόδ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| animal | REL | good | see | 1 |
| I see the animal, that is good | ||||
| (not I see the good animal) | ||||
\( P \to Rel \ T \) — transitivizers introduce a new argument to a verb, in this sense, they resemble the function of postpositions; the relative particle can make them actual postpositions. (Note that this asserts the happening in addition to modifying it.)
| ίγ | ω | ι | νη | ζω |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| good | 1 | REL | want | animal |
| the animal is good (and I want it that way) | ||||
\( N \to V_1 \ Rel \ Inf \) — a way of turning predicates into nouns without needing to modify an existing one as an adjective. It's like the relative particle in that it's related to the subject of the verb and like the infinitive particle in that it nominalizes them, or something...
| ίγ | ὶ | ν | κόδ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| good | REL | INF | see | 1 |
| I see good things | ||||
\( V_1 \to \ Rel \ A \) — a way of turning adverbs into verbs without needing to modify an existing one. Just roll with it.
| ι | ῦ | λ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|
| REL | AP | LOC | 1 |
| I am there | |||
\( V_0 \to [V_1/V_2] \ [X] \mid A \) — for the sake of pragmatics, you can leave most parts of a sentence out if you want to.
| ιῐ | κ |
|---|---|
| animal | NEG |
| [it's] not good | |
\( C \to P \ Conj \) — a postposition with the conjunctive particle ῠη is a conjunction.
| ιῐ | τ | ῠη | έσ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| good | COM | CONJ | be | 1 |
| I exist and am good | ||||
Nouns (and detransitivizers) have a 'distributive' effect when conjoined. The exact unfolding of conjunctions when multiple are used will be explained later.
| ζω | ερ | τ | ῠη | κόρ | η |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| animal | person | COM | CONJ | see | 2 |
| you see an animal and see a person | |||||
We now have to modify every rule to include conjunctions:
\[ V_0 \to [\{V_1 \ C\} \ V_1] \ [\{X \ C\} \ X] \]
\[ X \to X \ \{X \ C\} \ Rel \ V_1 \ \{V_1 \ C\} \]
\[ N \to N \ \{V_1 \ C\} \ V_1 \]
\[ N \to V_1 \ \{V_1 \ C\} \ Inf \]
\[ V_1 \to V_1 \ \{V_1 \ C\} \ A \]
\[ V_1 \to (NP \ \{NP \ C\} \ [Rel]) / (D \ \{D \ C\}) \ V_2 \]
\[ V_2 \to V_1 \ \{V_1 \ C\} \ T \]
\[ A \to NP \ \{NP \ C\} \ P \]
You have learned the entirety of the language's syntax! No edge cases, no exceptions. You will win a million denominations of the currency of your choice if you can find a syntactically ambiguous sentence. Now, all that's left is to learn more words, including an in-depth look at what the words you already know really mean.
A grammatical case tells you how a noun participates in the event of the verb. There are six, all (but one) being postpositions, and they are all intentionally vague to be able to accomodate lots of possible uses.
| word | case | role of complement |
|---|---|---|
| s (of; 's) | genitive | associated with, possessing, or comprising |
| d (to; toward) | dative | recipient, destination, or result |
| l (at; in; on) | locative | location or vicinity |
| b (from; because) | ablative | source, origin, or cause |
| t (with; by) | instrumental-comitative | by what means or along with whom |
| m (for; so) | benefactive-final | for whose benefit or what purpose |
The genitive primarily modifies nouns instead of verbs. With its complement, it must act as a predicate, thus itself a relation \(V_2\) unlike the others.
You may be wondering about ὶς (have) since its tone implies being not one morpheme (↑). In fact, it's been the genitive case with the relative particle this entire time, and will now be glossed as such! An excerise for the reader is to think about under what surroundings it can't be treated the same as a relation. Yes, you have homework.
A clause is a subject and predicate. That may sound like a sentence, but usually, we use clauses as nouns to talk about the event happening itself. The infinitive particle was introduced for this purpose, but its subject was left implicit. We can say that when modifying an infinitive with the genitive, the possessor is always taken to specifcally mean the subject of the predicate.
| ιῐ | ζω | ῖ | σ | ν | ω | ς |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| good | animal | REL | GEN | INF | 1 | GEN |
| my possession of animals is good | ||||||
| it's good that I have animals | ||||||
Useful when paired with correlatives.
| ῖ | λ | ὺ | ῐή | ν | σ | ω | ς |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| REL | LOC | AP | eat | INF | GEN | 1 | GEN |
| place where I eat | |||||||
| my place of eating | |||||||
If the phonology implies a morpheme has multiple syllables, which is impossible, it's taken as a name. Names are simply determiners.
| ὶ | λύρ | αμερικᾶ | β | ω |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| REL | land | America | ABL | 1 |
| I am from [the land named] America | ||||
The toneless /ə/ can be used to make names conform to phonotactics. Since it has no tone, it cannot be the final syllable of a name.
| γᾰλόρῐᾶ | ν | χ | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gloria | INF | COP | 3 | |
| [They] are [the one named] Gloria. | ||||
The standard way to express the way in which something happens is with the infinitive and instrumental-comitative. If you do something utilizing or along with joy, you happily do it.
| κόδ | ίῐ | ν | τ | ω |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| see | good | INF | INS | 1 |
| I see well | ||||
When the last tone is smooth, it's a normal declarative sentence: the thing I'm saying is a description of the world. Otherwise, something else happens depending on the part of speech. Sentences become commands: do something to make my description true.
| ώ | σ | ᾶν |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GEN | 3 |
| give it to me! | ||
| make it so that it's mine! | ||
Predicates, relations, and adverbs are still commands with implicit subjects, objects, and events.
| ῖ | κ |
|---|---|
| REL | NEG |
| don't! | |
| make it not so! | |
When just a noun, it's a question asking about the thing.
| ῖ | λ | ή | ς |
|---|---|---|---|
| REL | LOC | 2 | GEN |
| where are you? | |||
| [what of] your location? | |||
This can form yes/no questions with a clause in most contexts.
| ιῐ | ν | ζώ | ς | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| good | INF | animal | GEN | ||
| is the animal good? | |||||
| [what of] the animal's goodness? | |||||
An utterance is a sequence of sentences separated by spaces (actual pauses, usually equivalent to commas) that relate to each other in some way determined by context. It is the main unit of information, equivalent to sentences in other languages. In this utterance, the topic is pets, and the intonation/expression in which the speaker says οζπ implies they are making a contrast (but, however).
| κυν | σάσ-άμ-ω | οζπ. |
|---|---|---|
| dog | hair-love-1 | smelly-CMPR |
| [as for] dogs, i love [their] fur, [but they're] stinkier [than others] | ||
Even when an idea can be expressed with a single sentence-word, perhaps even more precisely, it may seem too formal or rigid. It is entirely possible to say I love animals and people, but...
| ζω | ερ | άμ! |
|---|---|---|
| animal | person | love |
| animals, people, [i] love [them both]! | ||
Note that in practice, there is no spacing or punctuation between morphemes in the same sentence. Prior to this section, all examples have been singular sentence-words.
It's easy to imagine that peoples, lands, and languages come in neat triples. Unfortunately, if you happen to exist in the actual universe, this is not the case. There is no one true name for anything in this world. You can call anything, well, anything you want. However, if someone from X country tells you to not use a particular name for their country, you should probably listen, not because they're objectively correct, but out of decency. Yes, you're likely going to need to learn multiple ways of referring to things. How tragic.