Brexxo

==Classification and Dialects==
Brexxo is a well-known language isolate, although research is ongoing regarding possible affiliations with other languages. Despite its relatives which have been confirmed, Brexxo does have some dialectal variation of its own, in the dialect of Advenara. A member of the Bijouxi language family, it is related to Bouic and Halcyonian. Mostly spoken in the Bijoux capital of Brexxon, its namesake; this standard is the form reflected in this article unless otherwise noted. 
==Phonology==
===Consonants===
Brexxo has a fairly average-sized consonant inventory, with 19 total consonant phonemes. Its inventory is fairly standard in its contents as well, with the notable features being its series of palatalized coronals, and the phonemes which are realized in most dialects (including the standard) as affricates, of which /p͡ɸ/ and /k͡x/ are unusual.
 	Bilabial	Alveolar 	Post-alveolar	Velar
Nasal 	m 	n nʲ 	 	
Plosive 	p pʰ 	t tʰ tʲ tʲʰ	 	k kʰ
Fricative	 	s 	ʃ 	
Affricate	p͡f 	t͡s 	t͡ʃ 	k͡x
Trill 	 	r rʲ 	 	
The most salient of consonantal allophony in Brexxo is the typical intervocalic voicing of non-aspirated obstruents, including affricates; this voicing also applies in clusters with voiced consonants (i.e. sonorants). The sibilants /s/ and /ʃ/ may also voice to [z] and [ʒ], respectively, when in a coda preceding a nasal stop in the following onset. Furthermore, the liquid /rʲ/ may be realized as [j] in consonant clusters in the standard dialect, while in some non-standard dialects it may be realized as such in all positions, leaving [rʲ] and [j] to be in free variation in such dialects.
In the actual dialect of Advenara, the bilabial and velar affricates are reduced to fricatives, however this is a shift unreflected in the standard form of the language.
===Vowels===
Even more average than Edebro's consonants are its vowels, which form the common five vowel system.
 	Front	Central	Back
High	i 	 	u
Mid 	e̞ 	 	o̞
Low 	 	a 	
Despite the fairly small inventory, Brexxo vowels do not exhibit significant allophony. The mid vowels do lower, however, to [ɛ] and [ɔ] before phonetically voiced consonants (so this includes voiceless stops which have been intervocalically voiced). Additionally, non-low vowels in word-initial position receive epenthetic glides when the preceding word also ends in a vowel.
While the dialect of Advenara, and the standard form, lack diphthongs, some dialects retain diphthongs from older forms of the language. Such diphthongs include /ai/, /au/, /ei/, /ou/, /ia/ and /ua/; these have been monophthongized to /e/, /o/, /i/, /u/, /a/, and /a/, respectively, in the varieties that lack them.
===Phonotactics===
Brexxo's syllables may consist of a maximum of CCVC. Syllable onsets may consist of any lone consonant or a cluster of a plosive or nasal with a liquid. A nucleus, of course, may be any vowel.  Syllable codas in Brexxo may only be a sibilant fricative or sonorant.
===Stress===
Stress in Brexxo is contrastive, and plays a key role in distinguishing nouns from verbs. Nouns are typically marked with word-final stress, while verbs are usually marked with penultimate stress. 
==Writing System==
Letter	Mm 	Nn 	Njnj	Bb 	Pp 	Dd 	Tt 	Djdj	Tjtj 	Gg 	Kk 	BFbf
Sound 	/m/ 	/n/ 	/nʲ/	/p/	/pʰ/	/t/	/tʰ/	/tʲ/	/tʲʰ/	/k/	/kʰ/	/pɸ/
Letter	DSds	DSjdsj	GXgx	Ss 	Sjsj	Rr 	Rjrj	Aa 	Ee 	Ii 	Oo 	Uu
Sound 	/ts/	/tʃ/ 	/kx/	/s/	/ʃ/ 	/r/	/rʲ/	/a/ 	/e/ 	/i/	/o/ 	/u/
Stress may optionally be indicated with an acute on the stressed vowel; this is typically done in dictionaries, but otherwise omitted from writing. Digraphs, besides those involving <j>, ought to have both elements capitalized when capitalized, but this is often neglected.
==Grammar==
===Nouns===
Brexxo nouns are morphologically quite simple. They do not inflect for case or definiteness, although they do decline according to number. While singular nouns remain unmarked, plural nouns are marked through reduplication, of the first CV pair in consonant-initial nouns, and of the first vowel with an epenthetic glide in vowel-initial nouns. An example of both is demonstrated in the following table:
 	Singular 	Plural
flower	bfumí [p͡fʊˈmi]	bfubfumí [ˌp͡fub͡vʊˈmi]
dog 	anjásj [əˈnʲaʃ]	aanjásj [ˌəɦəˈnʲaʃ]
In front vowels, the epenthetic glide is [j]; in back vowels, it is [w]; and in the low vowel /a/, it is [ɦ] as seen above.
Nouns also do not have gender, although they do have an inherent animacy level. This animacy level is not marked explicitly on the noun itself, but will be relevant later for verbal conjugation.
===Pronouns===
Brexxo has few personal pronouns, having only true pronouns for the first and second persons. However, demonstratives can also be used in a standalone fashion that act as third person pronouns. The pronouns are presented in the table below.
 	 	Sg 	Pl
1st	1st 	da 	mes
2nd	Inf 	kas 	osi
2nd	For 	ne 	gon
3rd	AnProx 	ki 	kiki
3rd	AnDist 	dsjas	dsjadsjas
3rd	InanProx	ru 	ruru
3rd	InanDist	dsa 	dsadsa
When used as a standalone pronoun, demonstratives have an optional plural form formed via reduplication. These are typically only used when the context would otherwise leave ambiguity. Personal pronouns do not vary in form for case, and do not have distinct possessive forms. Possession by pronoun is instead constructed the same way as possession by a regular noun.
===Verbs===
In Brexxo, all clauses (with one exception, which will be covered later) require two parts to express the function of a verb: a lexical verb and an auxiliary verb.
While the lexical verb, which carries the semantic content of the action or state being described, does not inflect for any grammatical information itself, the auxiliary verb inflects for categories of transitivity, inversivity, voice, tense, and mood. The forms of auxiliary verb appear in the chart below.
 	 	copular	unergative intransitive	unaccusative intransitive	direct transitive	inverse intransitive	passive 	antipassive	proverb
affirmative	present 	o 	ni 	njre 	ma 	mre 	dsu 	ro 	pe
affirmative	past 	os 	nis 	nire 	mas 	mare 	dsus 	ros 	pes
affirmative	future 	a 	nje 	njere 	me 	mere 	dso 	ra 	pi
affirmative	pres. irrealis	osja 	nisja 	nisjre 	masja 	masjre 	dsusja 	rosja 	pesja
affirmative	past irrealis 	osasj 	nisasj 	nisasjre 	masasj 	masasjre 	dsusasj 	rosasj 	pesasj
affirmative	fut. irrealis 	asja 	njesja 	njesjre 	mesja 	mesjre 	dsosja 	rasja 	pisja
negative 	present 	on 	nin 	njren 	man 	mren 	dsun 	ron 	pen
negative 	past 	osen 	nisen 	niren 	masen 	maren 	dsusen 	rosen 	pesen
negative 	future 	an 	njen 	njeren 	men 	meren 	dson 	ran 	pin
negative 	pres. irr. 	osjan 	nisjan 	nisjren 	masjan 	masjren 	dsusjan 	rosjan 	pesjan
negative 	past irr. 	osasjen	nisasjen 	nisasjren 	masasjen 	masasjren 	dsusasjen	rosasjen 	pesasjen
negative 	fut. irr. 	asjan 	njesjan 	njesjren 	mesjan 	mesjren 	dsosjan 	rasjan 	pisjan
Lexical verbs may be either active or stative. While stative verbs will typically take the copular auxiliary, active verbs may take the intransitive, direct or inverse, and some active verbs, such as verbs of movement, may also take the copular auxiliary.
As Brexxo is a direct-inverse language, the auxiliary verb makes a distinction in inversivity in transitive clauses. The direct form of the auxiliary verb is used in clauses in which the more animate noun is taking the role of the agent, while the inverse form is used when the less animate noun is the agent. Therefore, a sentence like sjúrjo anjásj tjo mas translates to "a man saw a dog," while the same sentence but replacing mas with mare results in a translation as "a dog saw a man."
===Syntax===
Brexxo is a head-final language with a mandatory auxiliary verb. As such, its underlying default word order is SOVA (subject, object, verb, auxiliary). However, as Brexxo is topic-prominent, this is often not the order that actually surfaces. Both topic and focus are mandatory in all transitive matrix clauses, except when both arguments are pronouns, as pronouns cannot be focused. Topics are fronted to the beginning of the clause, and focuses immediately precede the auxiliary verb. The auxiliary verb always appears at the end of a clause, apart from any complementizer that may be present.
Because there is no morphological case marking on nouns, and word order is complicated by the topic-comment structure, Brexxo has no morphosyntactic case. Instead, to indicate the roles of arguments in transitive clauses, nouns are inherently ranked on an animacy hierarchy; nouns higher on the hierarchy are the agent by default. In cases where the lower animacy argument is the agent, the auxiliary verb is marked with an inverse marker, -re, which indicates that the arguments' roles are reversed. This system is known as direct-inverse alignment.
Additionally, as there is no agreement marking on verbs, Brexxo is not pro-drop; pronouns must always be explicit. Furthermore, there are no articles such as 'a' or 'the', but Brexxo does have a set of demonstratives, ru 'this (inan.)', dsa 'that (inan.)', ki 'this (anim.)', and dsjas 'that (anim.)'; which also function as the third person pronouns. These words reduplicate for plurality when functioning as pronouns, but not when determiners.
Brexxo employs serial verb constructions, often for expressions that would be conveyed in English using adverbs. In these constructions, the clause has two or more lexical verbs, but only one agent and one auxiliary verb; there may be more than one patient, however. In cases with multiple patients, patients may intercede the lexical verbs, but only one may be focused. Other uses for serial verb constructions in Brexxo are to express causally or temporally linked actions, or actions/events with more than two arguments.
Brexxo has no true adjectives, but rather stative verbs that must occur alongside the copular auxiliary o. When modifying a noun, these stative verbs occur within a relative clause. Relative clauses are constructed using a gapped construction with a relativizer particle, which appears as the clitic =m(i). Relative clauses, in accordance with head-final tendencies, precede their heads.
Brexxo indicates possession via a locative construction, and makes a distinction between alienable and inalienable possession. Alienable possession is expressed with the postposition e 'at', while inalienable possession is indicated with the postposition no 'on'. In possessive clauses, the possessor is expressed as an argument, and the possessee as an adpositional phrase, linked by the copular auxiliary o.
Simple polar questions are formed by the addition of the question particle, sje, to the end of the clause, following the auxiliary verb. Content questions are formed using interrogative pronouns, which are always placed in the focused position, preceding the auxiliary verb.
Imperatives are formed by omitting the auxiliary verb (or in other analyses, by use of a zero auxiliary), and in those cases directed towards a second person singular, the subject. In the latter cases, the lexical verb may appear alone, or followed by objects or adpositional phrases. In second person plural or first person plural imperatives, the pronoun always occurs before the verb (effectively in the topic position). 
==Lexicon==
(WORK IN PROGRESS)
Category:Languages
Category:Traveler's Era