Standard Baphian Grammar
Written by Charli Noelle
Contents
Preface; About Baphian
1. Phonology
2. Grammar
2.1. Cases and plurality
2.1.1. Vocative
2.2. Nouns and adjectives
2.2.1. Animacy
2. Pronouns
2. Verbs
2. Tense
2. Aspects
2. Conditional
2. Voice
2. Passive
2. Reflexive
3. Syntax
3. Relative clauses
3. Numerals
3. Classifiers
4. Semantics
4. Registers
4. Standard
4. Service
4. Shopkeep
4. Religious
4. High rank
4. Formality
5. Other things and quirks
5. Writing names with the logography
5. Word building
Preface; About Baphian
Baphian is a personal conlang I have been developing consistently for at least 3 years (since 2023), and it is my most developed conlang period. It is my baby.
Baphian started as a conlang in the collaborative worldbuilding project Boryaworld, and slowly became a personal language that I use for my own purposes, mostly music (that has yet to even be released). I'm very proud of Baphian and want more people to know about the intricacies of the language. This grammar's goal is to document every little feature that baphian has to offer, because it is an incredibly colourful and in depth language and it deserves that kind of documentation.
This grammar is very conversational, because that's just my writing style and I feel like if i wrote a more formal sounding document i wouldn't like it as much honestly. (Hopefully this doesn't come to bite me in the ass and it's understandable and easy to learn Baphian with this document.)
I feel like I need to shout out some people for being patient and helping me with this language along the way for years. For starters i need to shoutout xad, because without him i genuinely don't think baphian would even be half as fleshed out as it is, it wouldn't have a font, and it wouldn't have a dictionary. Without xad's countless hours of work along side my own, this language wouldn't exist. I need to shoutout ari as well, for making Azkali, a big source of loanwords for in-boryaworld Baphian, and frankly i love her conlang Azkali a lot.
Thank you.
1. Phonology
[ ] denotes the romanization, otherwise the IPA is the romanization. () denotes what letter of the Noellastani alphabet is used.
| Labial | Coronal | Dorsal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ [ng] |
| Plosive | p b | t d | k g |
| Sibilant | s z | ɕ [sh] ʑ [zh] tɕ [c] dʑ [j] | |
| Fricative | f v | h | |
| Approximant | w | l [l, r]* | j [y] |
* [l] or [r] can be used interchangibly in the romanization
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Middle | ɛ̝ [e] | o̞ [o] |
| Open | ä [a] |
Baphian has phonemic consonant and vowel length, this is shown in both the romanization and in Baphian writing by doubling the letter that is being lengthened.
Baphian has 2 tones, high and low tone, this is also known as pitch accent. Baphian pitch accent is allophonic with stress as well, with stress being more specifically allophonic with the high pitch. In the IPA, the high pitch ([´]) follows the vowel, and with the romanization having several different ways to show pitch. The most common way is overlining the syllable that is pitched up, and that's what I'll use throughout this document, but underlining, and bolding also work where overlining isn't an option, with low pitch being left alone.
2. Grammar
Baphian grammar is agglutanitive, meaning that pieces of grammar get attached (or glued) to the end of a word, without much variation. What variation there is still holds information, specifically animacy, which I'll talk about later. Baphian grammar all things considered is very regular. Much of what this means is that the original word doesn't change at all despite new meaning being attached by the bits of grammar being attached to it. This means that you won't have to remember a lot of different forms of words, just the bit of grammar and where it goes on to the original word, most of the time just being the end of the word.
2.1. Cases and plurality
Baphian has 7 cases, nominative, accusative, dative, genetive, locative, ablative, and the vocative. All of these opporate how you'd expect them to if you know how they work for the most part, except for the vocative, which I'll explain later. I'll explain what these cases mean for those who don't know, and to be more explicit for what it means for Baphian for those who do.
The nominative is the subject of the sentence. The subject is the word doing the verb of the sentence generally. I'm using that language very delibratly, because in Baphian, the subject, and the object for that matter, isn't going to necessarily be a noun. Put a pin in that. It's never marked and is the default case for all words that can take cases
The accusative is the direct object of a sentence. The direct object is the word that the verb is being directly done to in the sentence generally.
The dative is the indirect object of the sentence. The indirect object is the word that can change what exactly it does depending on the sentence, but for the most part denotes recipients, or audiences, of the direct object. In Baphian the dative can be used for that as well as marking agents in the passive voice.
The genetive is used for words that possess something. It can not be used for an attributive, the vocative takes that use, but I'll explain that later. What this means is that the genetive only marks possession and nothing else.
The locative is used to indicate location at a place or movement towards a place. It can be translated into English as "in", "at", "on", "towards", or "into" depending on what fits better.
The ablative is used to mark movements away from something, it can be translated into English as "away from", "out of", or "from" depending on what fits better.
2.1.1. Vocative
The vocative in Baphian can seem complicated and daunting, but it honestly is pretty simple once you know how it works. The vocative has 3 use cases; as an ordinary vocative, a way to address someone or get their attention; as an attributive marker and in derivations; as a deictic marker corresponding to English "this" or "that". When used for deixis or as an attributive, the vocative can stack cases before it, following all other cases before it. By default adjectives are in the vocative in the attributive use case before the noun the modify. I explain more about how adjectives work in the next section.2.2. Nouns and adjectives
You remember that pin from later? About how the subject or object of a sentence in Baphian isn't going to necessarily be a noun? I'll explain that now. In Baphian, nouns and adjectives are treated one in the same. How do we differantiate the two? Well, usually by context and the modifying usage of the vocative that I explained earlier. To put it in another way, in Baphian, red isn't necessarily just the adjective describing something as the colour red, it's also the noun 'red one/thing'. And this brings me to a very interesting quirk of Baphian that I personally love a whole lot.
In Baphian, you can turn *any* noun into an adjective, simply by slapping the vocative to the end and putting it in front of whatever you're trying to get it to modify. For example, in Baphian there isn't a word for hairy necessarily, you can make one just by adding the vocative to the word for hair. And for adjectives to nouns, you simply do nothing! They already act as nouns whether something modifies it or not. I hope you get what I'm trying to say with this. Basically, anything can be used to describe anything. And I truly do mean that, including verbs. While verbs can't just be turned into adjectives without being turned into nouns first, which I'll explain how to later, you can use any word to describe any other word.
In Baphian, the 'hairy red (thing)' and the 'red hair' are made simply by switching the head noun around.
2.2.1. Animacy
Animacy in baphian is very important. It is the only thing that change what case endings you use for a word, and the intricacies of what is considered animate and inanimate will be explained here, as well as what endings each use.