Batu language

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## Batu*Batućhe juchai*

Image of where the Batu language is spoken. In light blue is where it has had a historical presence or is spoken as a minority language.

### National Language

Batu Khaganates, Vulperium, Eldham Trade Company

The **Batu language**, referred to as **Batućhe juchai** in Batu, is a language spoken popularly in Northwestern Serrona. It has been a major or first language in the Batu Khaganates, Nova Azcoria, Shakumagu, Pergamos, Potusville, the Federation of Southern Stars, and other nations and cities in the region.

It is most closely related to the Eldurlac language and is a member of the Serronan language family alongside Lo'Oi, Mari, and Kolsson and their numerous dialects. All documented words of Batu are compiled in the Batu language lexicon.

## Grammar

The Batu language follows a subject-verb-object sentence structure, comparable to Traveler's Tongue and the various other Serronan languages.

If a verb is followed by the word 'luej' it indicates that the verb is in future tense, while if the word "goj" follows a verb it indicates the past tense form of the verb. If not followed by either of these words, it is indicative of the present tense.

### Suffixes and prefixes

Two common prefixes that can be placed onto most nouns/subjects are the possessive and plural suffixes. The suffix "-ze" or "-e" indicates plurality. The suffix "-ćhe" or "-ećhe" indicates ownership. For example the phrase "Ben's dogs" would be translated as "Benećhe ońoze".

One common prefix is "će-" which is a negative modifier, perhaps best translated as "not". For example, If you wanted to say "I am not running!", it could be translated as "Zo ćhue ćedora!".

## Phonology

The Batu language traditionally is used with a selection of thirty one different phonemes which include eight vowel sounds and twenty three consonant sounds.

These vowels are written with five different letters, the remaining 3 sounds being written with combinations of these letters. Examples include "ai", "au", "ue".

The consonants are accordingly written with a total of 19 different letters, notably including ' which can be used to produce two different consonant sounds (/ʔ/ or /j/ depending on context). The only other character that can represent more than one sound is R/r (producing /r/ or /ɾ/ based on context). The remaining consonant sounds are produced by a combination of these letters such as "ćh" or "ch".

In Batu, as with the other languages in its family, characters with diacritics/accents are considered their own independent letter and typically produce their own unique phoneme.

Vowels
 Close-mid
 Mid
 Open

## Orthography

### Consonants

Many of the letters of the Batu alphabet produce sounds that one may expect and are standard with most Latin languages, for example ‘M/m’ produces the /m/ sound. Characters that are unique are listed here, this listing does not include vowels. See the Vowel orthography section for that.
-J/j  /ʒ/

This letter produces a kind of ‘zh’ sound, similar to words like ‘vision’ or the typical pronunciation of the letter ‘j’.

-R/r  /r, ɾ/

This letter can be pronounced in two different ways. When it is at the beginning of a word, it is pronounced as a trill/rolled sound. This can be seen in words like ‘perro’. When it is elsewhere in a word, it instead produces a simple tapped sound. This tapped version can be seen in words like ‘prato’.

-C/c  /t͡s/

This letter is pronounced as a ‘ts’ sound. This can be seen words like ‘butts’ or ‘lots’

-Ch/ch  /tʃ/

This combination of letters is pronounced like the word ‘chip’. It can also be seen in words for example like ‘caoutchouc’.

-Ć/ć  /d͡z/

This letter is pronounced in words like ‘lads’.

-Ćh/ćh  /ʃ/

This combination of letters produces what is recognized by most speakers as the ‘sh’ sound in words like ‘shit’ and ‘shame’.

-H́/h́  /x/

This letter, differentiated by ‘H/h’ with an accent, produced a ‘guttural’ sound. This can be seen in words like ‘rosa’ and in the pronunciation of words and names like ‘Michael’.

-T́/t́  /ð/

This letter differentiated by the standard ‘T/t’ with an accent, it produces a ‘th’ sound similar to words like ‘father’, where the ‘th’ sound is \*not\* voiced. The voiced ‘th’ sound seen in words like ‘think’ does not exist in Batu.

-Ń/ń  /ɲ/

This letter is what typically corresponds to the ‘ng’ sound in many languages. It is differentiated with the standard ‘N/n’ with an accent. In some orthographies, the sound is written as ‘ñ’ and in others it is written as ‘gn’. It can be seen in words like ‘oignon’ and ‘español’.

-’

This character in some loanwords may represent a glottal stop (/ʔ/) but is typically used between two vowels to indicate that both vowels are pronounced independently of one another and that they don’t transform into one sound of a diphthong. For example in the Batu word mecho’a (meaning before). In some words like ‘Ailot́e’e’, a /j/ sound is produced in between the two vowel sounds, this is the only instance where the /j/ sound is produced in Batu.

### Vowels

 A, a
 E, e
 I, i
 O, o
 U, u
 Ai, ai
 Au, au
 Ue, ue

## Vocabulary

### Man-made landscape vocabulary

* Rot́ - Origin, homeland
* Gaite - Tower
* Kudo - Village
* Moćha - City
* Keh́a'ago - Temple, church, cathedral, chapel
* Ago - House, home
* Daćheć - Market

### Natural landscape vocabulary

* Mur - Ocean, sea, passage
* Dunjo - Lake
* Raińo - River
* Ot́o - Land
* Con - Forest
* T́ok - Block
* Ćholu - Tree, shrub
* Loja - Valley
* Oćho - Hill
* Lazat - Plains, flatland

### Natural phenomena vocabulary

* So'a - Air, sky
* Ola - Water
* Aćhak - Fire, flame
* Aje - Earth, soil

### Basic verbs

* Vali - To look
* Eda - To construct, build, make
* Ćha - To walk, drift
* Dora - To run, sprint
* Pa - To want, desire
* Saućh - To find, discover
* Ge - To be, exist
* Auka - To buy, import, purchase
* Ochu - To fight
* Une'e - To learn
* Pekuno - To entertain
* Voje - To die
* Ovai - To rise
* Badun - To train
* Sace - To read, analyze
* Bej - To glow, illuminate
* Om - To swallow, compete, devour
* Ipa - To work, employ
* H́ećh - To have
* Maćh - To live
* Mai - To do
* Gebe - To adore
* Tapu - To worry, fear
* Sah́u - To travel