Behalavian language

Behalavian (Behalavian: Бегалавскы єзык, Begalavsky jezyk) is a and is the official  of Behalavia. The language is organised as South Slavic based on its reflexes and evolution alongside Cozar Slavic and Kadolhan (See Phonology §Reflexes). The characteristic difference from Behalavian and other Southwestern Slavic languages is definiteness. It has been influenced by, Kadolhan, Vretekan, and due to geographical proximity and cultural exchange via contact and trade.

Gender
Behalavian has three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Masculine is often animate, while neuter is entirely inanimate with the exception of the t-stem (used for nouns denoting young things).

Definiteness
Behalavian nouns are divided between definite and indefinite nouns.

Number
Behalavian has three numbers: singular, dual, and plural. The dual, and not the plural, is used for nouns that are double. For example, nouns found in natural pairs, such as eyes, ears, and hands.

Cases
The nominal case category distinguishes 7 cases for nouns.

Nominative
The nominative is used for the subject of a sentence, but it is only distinguished from the accusative in animate nouns.

Vocative
The vocative is used instead of the nominative when a noun is used in isolation as an address or exclamation.

Accusative
The accusative case is used for the direct object of a sentence with transitive verbs.

Genitive
When used with nouns, the genitive frequently denotes the possessor of another noun or "the whole of which the other noun is a part", among other meanings. It is also used frequently with the numerals after five, and with certain pronouns, in the form of the partitive genitive

Locative
The locative case is used to denote the location in which something occurs. It very rarely occurs without a preceding preposition. Without a preposition, it is only used with place names, as a "locative of place". It is also used, for the "locative of time" to denote "in" a certain time.

Dative
The dative case is used for the indirect object of a sentence. In addition, it is infrequently used to denote the goal of a motion, but this is more typically shown by using the preposition ' к' followed by the dative. It is also used for verbs meaning "to seem", and "to be similar to". Additionally, it can be used with nouns and adjectives, particularly in impersonal constructions. It can also be used for a "dative of advantage", showing for whom an action was performed, and as an "ethic dative" that shows "emphasis or emotional involvement".

Instrumental
The instrumental case can show the "instrument" by which an action was performed, mark "a part of the body or state of mind accompanying the action", and denote the manner in which something was performed this is shown by using the preposition "с" followed by the instrumental. The instrumental can be used to denote measure following a comparison, how many times an action was performed with numerals, an instrumental of place showing over or through what a movement occurs, to denote the time of an action.

Prepositions
Each preposition has an assigned case. If an inflectable word follows a preposition, the word is declined in the same case as the preposition's assigned case.

Dynamic v. Static Some prepositions fall in two or more cases. The ones that fall in both the accusative and locative cases, the preposition is accusative if it is dynamic and is locative if it is static. Dynamic means that the preposition shows motion while static does not.

o-stems
Masculine nouns are divided between animate and inanimate nouns. This difference is only significant for the accusative singular. For inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the nominative singular. For animate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the genitive singular.

jo-stems
Masculine nouns are divided between animate and inanimate nouns. This difference is only significant for the accusative singular. For inanimate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the nominative singular. For animate nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the genitive singular.

a-stems
This stem is always feminine.

ja-stems
This stem is always feminine.

v-stem
-ов- interfix attached to o-stem declension. Most single syllable nouns follow this declension.

i-stem
Similar to the jo- and ja-stem nouns but with only ever the vowels і and є. Only a few words belong to this stem. r-stem

-ер- interfix attached to a-stem declension.

s-stem
-ес- interfix attached to o-/jo-stem declension.

t-stem
-ет- interfix attached to jo-stem declension. All nouns in this stem are animate, hence the accusative is always the same as the genitive.

Posessives
These all inflect as regular adjectives.

Demonstratives
Demonstratives function like articles and are declined adjectives. There are two categories: inanimate and animate; for inanimate nouns use овуї ('this') and тыї ('that). For animate nouns use сії ('this') and онуї('that'). If there is an adjective and the inanimate distal demonstrative, the adjective will take its definite form and the demonstrative will not be used, e.g. сідаїмо на староме столу 'let's sit at the old table'.

Tense
In Behalavian there are 5 tenses:


 * 1) The present tense, which considers events that are occurring.
 * 2) The perfect tense, which considers perfective events that occurred in the past.
 * 3) The imperfect tense, which considers imperfective events that occured in the past
 * 4) The pluperfect tense, which considers events that occurred before a given event already in the past. It is rare in normal use.
 * 5) The future tense, which considers events that will occur.

Mood
There are 3 verb moods:


 * 1) Indicative mood, which is used to state a fact or opinion.
 * 2) Imperative mood, which is used to give commands.
 * 3) Conditional mood, which is used to state possibilities or wishes.

Aspect
There are 2 aspects:


 * 1) Perfective verbs, which represent a completed action.
 * 2) Imperfective verbs, which represent an ongoing action.

Non-Finite
In addition, there are several non-finite forms:


 * 1) An infinitive in -ті and a supine in -т.
 * 2) Two present active participles, in -ч and in -е, indicating ongoing action.
 * 3) Two past active participles, in -л and in -(в)ші, indicating a past or completed action.
 * 4) A past passive participle in -н, indicating an action having been performed on something.

Conjugation
Only the present indicative, the imperative, imperfective indicative, and the non-finite forms are formed synthetically, by changing the form of the verb directly. All other forms are analytic, and are formed using auxiliary verbs or other additional words.

Indicative
The present tense is formed with the present tense endings. V is a placeholder for the respective interfix of the verb, e.g. місл[ ы ]тi: 1st p. sing. місл[ е ], 2nd p. sing. місл[ ы ]ш, etc. This is with the exception of certain interfixes shown in the chart below: The verb быті is declined irregularly: There exists long forms of these with an inserted є- (-ст in the 3rd p. singular.)

Conditional
The present conditional tense is formed with the conditional conjugation of быті plus the past active participle.

Imperative
The imperative tense is formed with the imperative mood endings.

Indicative
The perfect indicative tense is formed with the present conjugation of быті plus the past active participle.

Conditional
The perfect conditional tense is formed with the conditional conjugation of быті plus the past active participle of быті plus the past active participle.

Imperfect
The imperfect tense is formed by adding imperfect tense endings onto the present tense stem.

Pluperfect
The pluperfect tense is formed with the past conjugation of быті plus the past active participle.

Future
The future tense is formed with the future conjugation of быті plus the past active participle. There exists long forms of these with an inserted -де-.

Infinitive and supine
There are 2 verbal nouns: the infinitive and the supine.

The infinitive is the basic verb form found in dictionaries and ends in -ті.

The supine is formed by dropping the last -і of the infinitive. It is used after verbs that designate motion.

Present active participle
There are two present active participles, which are used with imperfective verbs. They correspond to the English participle in -ing, and indicate ongoing or current action.

Past active participle
The l-participle exists for all verbs, and is used mainly to form the past tense. Although it is adjectival, it exists only in the nominative case, and declines for gender and number (not for person). It is formed by adding -л to the infinitive stem. A fill vowel (schwa, -у-) is inserted in the masculine singular form when attached to verbs with an infinitive stem ending in a consonant.

The š-participle is an adverbial participle, and is rarely used in modern Behalavian. It denotes completed action, and is equivalent to the English construct with having + past participle. It is formed by adding -вші to the infinitive stem. The ending is only -ші if the infinitive stem ends in a consonant.

Past passive participle
This participle corresponds to the English participle in -ed or -en, and is an adjective that indicates a state of having undergone an action. It exists only for transitive verbs, and almost only if they are perfective.

Consonants
The consonant system of Behalavian has 25 phonemes.

Palatalisation
As a result of the first and the second Slavic palatalizations, velars alternate with dentals and palatals. In addition, as a result of a process usually termed iotation (or iodization), velars and dentals alternate with palatals in various inflected forms and in word formation.

Epenthesis
Iotatated labials, inserting -ль.

Vowels
The Behalavian vowel system is composed of five vowel qualities /a, e, i, o, u/. Although the difference between long and short vowels is phonemic, it is not represented in standard orthography, except in dictionaries. Unstressed vowels are shorter than the stressed ones by 30% (in the case of short vowels) and 50% (in the case of long vowels). Stressed vowels have the same articulation as long vowels and carry one of the two basic tones: rising or falling. (See Phonology §Pitch accent) /i/ only softens preceding /n/, /l/, or /r/.

Iotation
Iotified vowels are preceded by a /j/ before a vowel, at the beginning of a word, or between two vowels in the middle of a word, creating a diphthongoid. There are letters which represent iotified vowels; the same letters also palatalize preceding consonants (with or without self-iotation), which is why iotation and palatalisation are often mixed up. ⟨ї⟩ after high vowels is always iotified.

Pitch accent
Behalavian allows two tones on stressed syllables and have distinctive vowel length and so distinguish four combinations, called pitch accent: short falling ⟨è⟩, short rising ⟨é⟩, long falling ⟨ȅ⟩, and long rising ⟨ȇ⟩.

Although distinctions of pitch occur only in stressed syllables, unstressed vowels maintain a length distinction. Pretonic syllables are always short, but posttonic syllables may be either short or long. These are traditionally counted as two additional accents. In the standard language, the six accents are realised as follows:

Thus, monosyllabics generally have falling tone, and polysyllabics generally have falling or rising tone on the first syllable and rising in all the other syllables but the last one. The tonal opposition rising ~ falling is hence generally possible only in the first accented syllable of polysyllabic words, and the opposition by lengths, long ~ short, is possible in the accented syllable, as well as in the postaccented syllables (but not in a preaccented position).

Alphabet
The Behalavian Alphabet is a variation of the Cyrillic alphabet used to write the Behalavian language. It is mainly based off of the Lipnitian alphabet, although it does contains elements borrowed from that of Cestrosian. The main difference between the Behalavian alphabet and other Cyrillic alphabets is the usage of and  (Both borrowed from Cestrian ), rather than И and Й, borrowed from Cestrian, for representation of /i/ and /j/.

Punctuation
Most symbols used in punctuation was ultimately borrowed from Cestrosian, although it was inherited through Old Church Slavonic. Their names and purposes (in general) are also borrowed from their original Cestrosian derivations.