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:

	Labial	Coronal	Guttural
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p, b	t, d	k, g
Fricative	f	s	h
Approximant	w	l	y

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:

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

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.

Word	Meaning	Word	Meaning	Word	Meaning	Word	Meaning	Word	Meaning
A	(p) emotion, stress	E	(p) and	I	(p) 's (possessive), turns particles into nouns	O	honor, honorable	U	(p) or (exclusive or)
AN	one, first	EN	(p) ends a subclause, can be left out at the end of a sentence	IN	inside, contents, be inside	ON	concept, used to produce abstract nouns that can be arbitrarily defined	UN	anti, opposite
BA	must, required, duty, necessary	BE	fire	BI	big, bigness, grow	BO	male	BU	sleep, rest, restful
BAN	(p) subject marker	BEN	good, improve, goodness	BIN	beauty, beautiful, beautify	BON	bottom, tail, buttock	BUN	round, ball, to become round
DA	(p) starts a subclause	DE	many, plural	DI	tooth, chew	DO	(p) object marker	DU	two, second
DAN	danger	DEN	chest, breast	DIN	new, new thing	DON	house, building, build	DUN	earth, soil
FA	(p) verb marker	FE	(p) of (possessive)	FI	(p) infinitive marker	FO	foot, leg, walk	FU	front, protrude
FAN	(p) from (source)	FEN	four, fourth	FIN	end, complete, succeed	FON	force, forceful	FUN	food, eat, drink
GA	(p) for, in order to (purpose, intention)	GE	electricity, shock	GI	female	GO	movement, move	GU	(p) to, towards (destination)
GAN	past, previous, leave behind	GEN	give, gift	GIN	feel, feeling, sensitive	GON	[undocumented]	GUN	organ
HA	happiness, enjoy, happy	HE	air, sky, fly	HI	sun, day	HO	hope	HU	(p) if...then (consequence, implication)
HAN	part	HEN	animal, beast	HIN	back, recede	HON	joint, join, connect, corner, connected	HUN	hair, fur, to grow hair
KA	three, third	KE	rock	KI	thought, think	KO	color	KU	sharp, edge, point
KAN	be able to, possibility	KEN	know, understand	KIN	kindness, agreeableness	KON	outside, container, contain	KUN	stomach, digest
LA	all, everything	LE	life, health	LI	(p) because (cause, reason)	LO	(p) at (location)	LU	light
LAN	tongue, speak, say, talk	LEN	receive, get	LIN	text, read, write	LON	long, string, rope, lengthen	LUN	weird, oddity, act silly
MA	one of many	ME	meat	MI	water, wet, spray	MO	nose, smell	MU	bad, worsen, badness
MAN	name	MEN	machine, compute, solve	MIN	continue, progress	MON	money	MUN	moon, month
PA	parent	PE	play, playful	PI	five, fifth	PO	flat, flatten	PU	waste, trash, dirty, to make/become more filthy
PAN	plant	PEN	left	PIN	pain, hurt, painful	PON	person	PUN	result, punish, reward
SA	shadow	SE	see, look, watch, eye			SO	no, nothing (negative existential)	SU	self
SAN	some, something	SEN	thing			SON	hear, ear	SUN	sit, stand, lie, seat
TA	this (near speaker)	TE	hand/arm, hold			TO	that (near listener)	TU	that (far away)
TAN	head, raise, top, up	TEN	(p) at (time)			TON	other, another, change	TUN	tool, use
WA	what, which (interrogative)	WE	(p) via, using (method)	WI	future, next, become
WAN	want, desire	WEN	work	WIN	right
YA	(p) as for, when it comes to (topic)					YO	greeting, greet	YU	year
YAN	any, anything					YON	young	YUN	fruit, vegetable, birth (v)

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." The phrase "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 no 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 not a problem because of context clues, 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 bit 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."