Bepian (language)

The **Bepian tongue** is the language of the Bepian people, such as Skep the Bep, who live in the treacherous land of Fireland It is a very simple language, requiring only a week or so to learn. This makes it quite popular in Fireland, because it allows people to learn it before they burn to death. Its lexicon consists of 128 words, of which 20 are particles, while the other 108 are content words. All words are single syllables, and due to the phonotactics of the language, no additional syllables can be added. Therefore, no words can be added to the language.

A lot of the words are reminiscent of their English counterparts. This is because the Bepians are a subspecies of human, and so their language is based on Standard Dwaian (RP).

## Phonology and phonotactics

The Bepian phonology is exceedingly simple. All sounds in the Bepian languages are shared with at least 50% of all human languages on Earth. Its consonants in IPA are as follows:

 Fricative
 Approximant

All consonants are written as their IPA, except for [j], which is written "y".

The vowels are the highly accessible and universal 5 vowel system:

 Mid
 Open

All vowels are written as their IPA.

### Phonotactics

The basic Bepian syllable pattern is (C)V(n), that is: a consonant (optional), then a vowel, and then, the letter N (optional). The exceptions are:

1. No syllable may contain the sequences "ye", "yi", "si", "ti", "wo" or "wu". This is to make pronunciation easier.
2. No syllable can start with N. This is to make concatenated syllables unambiguous. Without this rule, "pani" could either be divided into "pa-ni" or "pan-i", but with this rule, only "pan-i" is possible.

This leaves exactly 128 possbile syllables.

## Lexicon

All 128 Bepian syllables are assigned their own meaning. 108 of them are content words, basic nuggets of meaning. The other 20 tell the reader how to combine, alter and interpret other words, so that more complex meaning can be communicated.

A meaning preceded by "(p)" means that it is a particle. Otherwise, it's a content word. Note that content words can be either nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs, depending on how they're used. This is necessary to squeeze as much using as possible from the limited vocabulary.

## Grammar

The Bepian language has the following grammatical rules:

### Combining words

When two or more content words are directly next to each other, the ones to the left modify the ones to the right. Specifically, "A B" means "B of A", and "A B C" means "(C of B) of A", etc. For example "lon yon" means "long fruit", "yon pan" means "fruit-bearing plant", and "lon yon pan" means "long, fruit-bearing plant". Note that in the last example, "long" refers to the plant. The fruit is not necessarily long.

Spacing is arbitrary and mainly comes down to what is clearest. "lon yon pan" is the same as "lon yonpan" or "lonyonpan" or "l on yonp an", etc.

### Using i

The particle "i" acts as 's does in English. It allows more freedom in the way words are combined. The rule is that "A i B i C" means "C of (B of A)", or written differently, "(A's B)'s C". Continuing from the previous example, "lonyoni pan" means "plant that bears long fruit".

It also has second function. When it directly follows another particle, it changes that particle into a word related to the function of the particle. The particle "fan" means "from", so "fani" means "source" or "origin".

### Using fe

The particle "fe" is most similar in meaning to the English word "of", as "A fe B fe C" translates directly to "A of (B of C)". It is another tool for combining words into longer terms. "plant that bears long fruit" can be written as "pan fe yon fe lon", literally meaning "plant of fruit of long".

### Using ban, do, fa, fan, ga, gu, li, lo, ten, we, and ya

These 11 particles are used for describing the roles of the phrases in one's sentences. They can be though of as case markers or prepositions. Just like prepositions, they go in front of the phrase they modify. They describe the following roles:

**Ban:** Indicates subject of the action. This is generally not necessary, because the first phrase of the sentence is presumed to be the subject, but it can be useful in more complicated grammatical constructions. A simple sentence with **ban** is "ban tapon", literally "[subject] this person", meaning "I exist". "ta pon", literally "this person" is a common way of saying "I" or "me". Since this is a little long, people often try to shorten it to "ta", meaning "this", or "su", meaning "self". Since no verb is present, the verb is presumed to be "to be".

**Do:** Marks the object or copula of the sentence. "to do ta" means "This is that." (Bepian does not have a "to be" verb, which is instead implied if there is no verb present, and no case particle is present except for **do**.)

**Fa:** Marks the verb of the sentence. "bo" means "male" while "fa bo" means "make something/oneself (more) male".

**Fan:** Indicates the source of action. Similar to English "from". "fan ta", literally meaning "from this", translates to "from here", or "hence".

**Ga:** Indicates the purpose, intention, or goal of action. Similar to English "for" or "in order to". "fa ta ga lapon", literally "[verb marker] this for all people", means "(I'm) doing this is for everyone." **Ga** is also used for the indirect object of verbs like "give" and "talk". In fact, when **ga** is used, and not verb is provided, the assumed verb often defaults to "give". Hence, "tapon do ta ga topon" means "I give this to you."

**Gu:** Indicates the destination of action. Compare English "to", "towards". "tapon gu tupon" means "I go to him." Note that the verb "to go" is implied here, because of the particles that were used. The full sentence would be "tapon fa go gu tupon"

**Li:** Indicates the cause of, or reason for action. Compare English "for", "because". "li yanto", literally "because any that", means "for any of those reasons".

**Lo:** Indicates location of action. Similar to English "at", "in", "on", etc. More specific locations are indicated with common words. "tapon lo ta" means "I am here.". "tadepon fa fun lo taponi bi don" means "We eat at my big house.", and may be abbreviated as "tade fa fun lo tai bi don". Remember, every second counts when you're in Fireland.

**Ten:** Indicates time of action. "ten wi fa he loin bi he" means "I will fly in the big sky.", which could also be written as "fa wihe lo in bi he", literally "(I) future-fly in the big sky."

**We:** Indicates medium, method, route, tool or way of action. Compare English "with", "using", "by", "via", "through". "pan fa bi we hilu" means "Plants use sunlight to grow.". Just like most other particles, **we** can be turned into a common word by being affixed with **i**. So, "topon fa ken do wei" means "Do you know the way?"

**Ya:** Indicates the topic of the sentence. In English, this might be "as for", "when it comes to" or "in the case of", but often this leads to an unnatural translation, and the sentence should be reorganized. "me do mu ya tugi", literally "When it comes to that female, meat is bad.", is more naturally translated as "She does not like meat.", "She thinks meat is bad.", or "Meat is bad for her.". The statement is inherently ambiguous, so care must be taken not to confuse.

### Using e, u and hu

**E**, **u**, and **hu** are logical connectives. They allow you to connect phrases and sentences to each other.

**E** means "and", so "tapon fa fun do me e keguni pini mi", literally "I consume meat and bone pain water." means "I eat meat and drink bone hurting juice." Note that this is a little ambiguous. Namely, the sentence can also be read as "(tapon fa fun do me) e (keguni pini mi)", which translates to "I eat meat, and bone hurting juice exists.". This is usually no a problem because of context clue, except for in longer or more technical sentences. If needed, the sentence could be disambiguated as "tapon fa fun do me e do keguni pini mi".

**U** means "either ... or ...", so "tapon fa len do hunkeyun u do hikoi lonyun" means "You either get the coconut or the banana." When you combine it with **e**, it becomes "and/or". So, "Yo, bo e u gi!" means "Hello, man and or woman!"

### Using da and en

**Da** and **en** are used to mark subclauses. **Da** starts them and **en** ends them. If **en** happens to be at the end of the whole sentence, it can be dropped. Subclauses are basically sentences, modified so they can be used as nouns.

"tapon fa son do da tubo do bin en fan taponi gipa" means "I heard that he is handsome from my mother."

"fa ho doda topon fa benfin doda fa bu (en en)" means "I hope that you succeed in sleeping."

### Using fi

Using **da** and **en** can feel a robotic at times, because they're basically parentheses. To remedy that, there's **fi**. **Fi** can be tacked to the end of a verb to create a gerund/infinitive of it. "fun", "food, to eat", becomes "funfi", "eating, to bring about eating". Thus, "funfi hen" means "the eating animal", which is quite a bit shorter and more natural than "da fa fun en hen".

You can also add objects and other roles to infinitive using a "noun + particle + i + verb + fi" construction. So, "mi doi funfi" means "eating meat", and "mon bani kenfi" means "knowing about money".

As a consequence, the last example from **da** and **en** can be shortened to: "fa ho doda topon fa benfin do bufi", or even "fa ho do bufi doi toponi benfini".

Given some liberties, the sentence could also be phrased "fa ho do toponi bui benfin", literally "(I) hope for the success of your sleep."

### Using a

**A** expresses emotion or stress regarding a part of the sentence. For example, "fa a begin do lata be" might be translated as "I *really* hate all this fire.", and "topon fa te do a ta bi bin" might be translated as "You *just* hold *such* great beauty.". Here, words like "really" and "just" are meant to capture some of that emotional affect and stress.

## Example sentences

Here are some example sentences:

**"Hey, my name is Skep, and I'm a Bep."**

"yo, taman do Sokipin e tapon do Bepon."

**"To be or not to be, that is the question."**

"Lefi u unlefi. To do ki.", meaning "Living or unliving. That is the thought."

Alternatively, "Lefi un unlefi, to do taponi kifii bani.", meaning "Living or unliving, that is the subject of my thinking."

**"Please hold on to my hand."**

"We kin, fa minte do taponi te.", meaning "With kindness, (you must) continually hold my hand."

The imperative is elided because of politeness. If you want to explicitly include it, you can do:

"We bi kin, fa bai minte do taponi te.", meaning "With great kindness, you must hold on to my hand."