The Edge of Doom Part 1: the Judicials Chapter 27: Appendix B: A Grammar of Bothese, a star wars fanfic

Appendix B

A Grammar of Bothese:

Preface—Bothans:

Bothans are an isolationist species of furry snouted aliens that evolved in the polar regions of Bothawui-4, a moon orbiting the gas giant Bothawui. As of 22 BBY, they primarily live on a smattering of worlds and asteroids in the Mid Rim, mostly around Bothan Space. Their fur colour varies from pale white all the way to black, with most equatorial and temperate Bothans having tan, cream-coloured, or brown fur.

The nature, biology, history and culture of Bothans is explored further in the the first appendix.

Abbreviations:

Abbreviations will be explained as they become relevant. For now, here is the abbreviations that will be used:

· DET 'Determiner/article' (e.g., 'the' or 'a' in English)

· OBJ 'object'

· SUBJ 'subject'

· DAT 'dative

· 1p 'first person' (I)

· 2p 'second person' (you)

· 3p 'third person' (s/he/it)

· pl 'plural'

· HYP 'hypothetical/polite'

· AUX 'auxiliary'

· MUSK 'musky'

· HUM 'humid'

· DAN 'dangerous'

· ABST 'abstract'

· SWE 'sweet'

· MET 'metal'

· SAL 'salty'

· Q 'question'

· RDP 'reduplicant'

· CONT 'continue'

· INV 'inverse'

· IMPR 'imperative'

· POSS 'possessed/possessive'

1. Bothese:

Bothese is a Thangan language that originated in the equatorial region of Bothawui-4, near present day Drev'shtarn. It is the last surviving Thangan language. It has been heavily-influenced by Galactic Basic since the Manda Contact Event, and Manda Corporation used Bothese and Basic as the basis for Bocce. Shkara, a Yamok language spoken by several million Bothans in the Polar regions of Bothawui-4, has also influenced Bothese and, like other Yamok languages, has some superficial similarities with Bothese (which, controversially some linguists use to propose a greater Thangan-Yamok family).

Bothese is the predominant language on Bothawui-4 and the sole native language of the Bothans on Botha'ahir, Kothliss. In Dressel, Bothese has competition with Basic and Askar Creole. Thoran, the most outlying Bothan world, has bilingual education in Bothese and Basic.

There were several hundred Bothan minority languages spoken in the polar regions of Bothawui-4. Most of them have become extinct in the last 300 years but one of them, Shkara, has several million speakers and is still the primary language on the polar fringe of the Loma continent.

Bothese and many other Bothan languages are unusual for having smell-based noun classes and growls. Fortunately for the learner of Bothese, growls in Bothese, which we will cover more in the sounds and orthography, are only used for emphasis. Some Bothan languages have phonemic growls, however.

This is akin to English/Basic which, as a human language, has tones for pragmatic contrasts (e.g., to ask a question you use rising intonation) but other human languages have phonemic tone.

Bothese is written primarily in Bothese Cyrillic and High Galactic. I have spelled Bothese words entirely in High Galactic for the majority of this guide for simplicity. For readers who wish to see what Bothese Cyrillic looks like in practice, I have spelled the greetings in both High Galactic and Bothese Cyrillic in section 1.2.

1.1 Orthography

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation: /a~æ~ɔ/

Bothan High Galactic: a

Bothan Cyrillic: а

Varies between the pronunciation of the vowel in 'hat' and the vowel in non-rhotic British English 'hard' and American English 'hod.' In Dressel, it is pronounced more like the vowel in 'court.'

IPA: /b/

б (caps Б)

Like 'b' in 'bit.'

IPA: /d/

Like 'd' in 'do.'

/e/

Somewhere between the ay in 'way,' and the e in 'bed.'

/ɸ/

Like an 'f' but only with the lips and no teeth involved.

/g/

Like 'g' in go, never like 'g' in giraffe.

/h~x/

Like the 'h' in 'hippo' in the Equatorial regions of Bothawui, as well as Dressel, Botha'ahir, Kothlis, and Thoran. It is pronounced a phlegmy velar fricative in the Polar Region of Bothawui.

/i/

Like the ey in 'key'

/k/

Like 'k' in king.

/l/

Like the 'l' in 'leer.'

/m/

Like 'm' in moon.

/n/

Like 'n' in noon.

/ɵ/

Like the ow in 'row' but much further forwards. Similar to the German vowel in schön, close to the vowel in many Basic pronunciations of 'love.'

/p/

Like 'p' in 'pit.'

/ɻ~ʐ~ɹ~ʁ/

A bit like the English r-sound, but with the tongue curled further back. Botha'ahir Bothans instead pronounce it something like the French sound at the end of garage or the sound at the start of genre—also a bit further back though with the tongue curled up. Askar Bothans pronounce r just like Galactic Basic r, and drop r after vowels. Most Polar varieties of Bothese pronounce it as a growly uvular fricative, like in French or Danish, or like some Twi'lek speakers of Galactic Basic.

/s/

Like the 's' in seep.

/ʂ/

Sort of like the 'sh' in sheep, but further back in the mouth with the tongue curled up.

/t/

Like 't' in 'tack.'

/θ/

ћ (upper case ђ)

Like the 'th' in 'thigh,' 'think', or 'ether,' never like the 'th' in 'thy,' 'the,' or 'either.'

/ʉ/

Like the oo in 'moon' but further forwards. Never like the oo in cook.

/β/

Like 'v' in 'vent,' but only with the lips, no teeth.

/w/

Like the 'w' in went.

/ja/

Simply a 'yah.'

/je/

Simply a 'yay'

/ji/

Simply a 'yee'

/jɵ/

Like 'yu,' but with the fronted u-vowel.

/j/

This letter is somewhat redundant with the set of y-letters above. However, it is used to represent /j/ at the end of words (mostly borrowings from other languages), and also /j/ in sequences that don't normally occur in Bothese such as 'yo' йо.

/z/

Like the 'z' in 'zipper.'

/ʐ/

Like the sound at the end of 'garage,' the sound in the middle of 'Asia' or the sound at the start of 'genre,' but further back with the tongue curled up.

This represents an omitted letter or syllable in nouns that are possessed e.g., shayshay 'gabi 'today's evening' where evening is normally gagabi.

/ts/~/s/

Most Bothans pronounce this identically to /s/ sound at the end of bass. Some however pronounce it as the /ts/ sound at the end of cats. This letter is very rare and is only used in Shkara loanwords.

The sounds in Bothese are fairly straightforward. Stress is non-phonemic. The stress falls on the first syllable in Spacer Bothese and many of the Polar and sub-Polar dialects of Bothawui. On Kothlis, Thoran, and the Equatorial dialects of Bothawui, it tends to be penultimate.

A few Bothese names are commonly spelled with the letter c, always representing a /k/ sound, in High Galactic. This is a matter of either personal preference or to disambiguate with Basic words spelled with k such as Itoll Oc'nel instead of Itoll Ok'nel. The word ok is pronounced very differently from how Itoll Oc'nel's name should be pronounced. In Bothese Cyrillic it would be rendered: Итол Ок'нел.

1.2 Phrases

Like most languages, Bothese has a wide array of greetings and phrases. Many Bothans use extremely enthusiastic greetings in order to draw more attention on themselves (e.g., using adjectives like 'awesome,' 'amazing,' or 'exciting' in their greetings). Here are some of the most common greetings:

Hay

Хай

Hi (borrowing from Basic)

Homela

Хомэла

Greetings (formal way of saying 'hello')

Helo

Хэло

Hello (borrowing from Basic)

Gin-mesha woks zharn dosk shayshay.

Гин-мэша ўокс жарн доск шайшай.

IMPR-have 2psg DET-OBJ good-ADJ day

Have a good day.

Gin-mesha woks zharn tolsk shayshay!

Гин-мэша ўокс жарн толск шайшай!

IMPR-have 2psg DET-OBJ awesome-ADJ day

Have an awesome day!

Gin-mesha woks zharn saygask shayshay.

Гин-мэша ўокс жарн сайгаск шайшай

IMPR-have 2psg DET-OBJ profit-ADJ day

Have a profitable day.

Gin-mesha woks zharn dosk gagabi

Гин-мэша ўокс жарн доск гагаби

IMPR-have 2psg DET-OBJ good-ADJ evening

Have a good night/evening.

Kazkaz

Казказ

Byebye

Od opash mu yov kita

Од опаш му йов кита

From again 1PPL REFL see

Till we meet again.

Pliz

Плиз

Please (borrowing from Basic)

Thikoyu

Ђикою

Thank you (borrowing from Basic)

Welkom

Ўэлком

Welcome (informal borrowing from Basic)

Noks erz kor fefela

Нокс эрз кор фэфэла

NEG be DET-SUBJ problem

No problem

Dol

Дол

Sorry

Tona zhiza do mo korn dol.

Тона жиза до мо корн дол.

Do this P 1sg-OBJ det-OBJ sorrow

I am sorry (lit it causes sorrow to me)

Tona zhiza do 'pagrum mo korn dol.

Тона жиза до 'пагрум мо корн дол.

Do this P clan det-OBJ sorrow

It brings sorrow to my entire Clan.

1.3 Pronouns

Bothese pronouns are fairly straightforward. None of them are marked for gender (e.g., no distinction between he/she/it) and they have a singular and plural form, just like in Galactic Basic.

Subject Pronouns

1p ko 'I'

2p woks you

3p zhiza he/she/it

1pl mu we

2ppl wu you (all)

3ppl zhul they

Object or Possessive Pronouns:

1p mo 'me/my'

2p ta 'you/your'

3p za 'him/her/hers/his/it/its'

1ppl usmu 'us/our'

2ppl uswu 'you (all)/your'

3ppl uszhul 'them/their'

The one difference, in comparison to Galactic Basic, is that possessive pronouns occur after the noun. Pana agkapatid mo means 'my family' with mo occurring after agkapatid.

2. Word Order:

The most common word order of Bothese is Verb Subject Object. Bothese requires determiners such as Basic/English 'the' or 'a' before names. We will go more into the determiners later in Chapter 3 'Noun Classes,' but for now, pa, korn, and yem are determiners:

(1) Verb-subject

Erz ko

Be 1sg

"I am."

(2) Verb-subject-object

Masha ko korn yovomat

Have 1sg .OBJ autograph

"I have an autograph."

Auxiliary verbs, and the word 'no' comes before the main verb. If these are used the word order is Auxiliary-Subject-Verb-Object for pronoun subjects (such as 'I' or 'you') and either Auxiliary-Subject-Verb-Object or Auxiliary-Verb-Subject-Object when the subject is a noun (such as 'spaceship' or 'fruitcake'). The word for 'yes' can come before the main verb and function like 'no.' In Spacer Bothese and Askar Creole however, it can also occur at the end of a sentence.

(3) Negation

Nokiz ko erz par yem dodom

NEG 1sg be in DET house

'I am not in the house.'

(4) Auxiliary

Ravo woks mesha korn sasak

Want 2p have DET spaceship

'You want to have the spaceship.'

Negation and affirmation come before the auxiliary:

(5) Negated Auxiliary

Nokiz woks ravo mesha korn sasak

NEG 2p want have DET spaceship

'You do not want to have the spaceship.'

Thus, to form a basic Bothese sentence, the verb comes first, followed by the subject, followed by the object or place.

Bothese has several clitics including:

· li-hypothetical/polite—used in most context where Basic speakers use 'would' 'could' instead of 'will' 'can' (e.g., 'Could I have a water?' vs 'Can I have a water?')

· ba-question—used to ask questions

· na-still

· nu-now

Prescriptively, clitics occur after the pronoun or after the verb (auxiliary or otherwise):

(6)

Ravo ko li won drugisk kaf

Like 1sg HYP second caf

'I would like a second caf.'

However, many speakers put them at the end of the sentence. Nu is commonly put at the end of the sentence by Bothese speakers of all backgrounds, and li and ba are by more lower class speakers.

(7)

Ravo woks won drugisk kaf ba?

Like 1sg second caf Q

'Do you want a second caf?'

This happens commonly enough that the learner should not worry when it happens. It is rarer in written Bothese but happens very commonly in spoken Bothese.

3. Nouns

Bothese nouns, both simple and complex, are very regular. The main area of irregularity in Bothese is in terms of noun size. Once the learner knows a noun's noun class, they will know exactly what it looks like in the plural, accusative, or dative. Simple nouns are nouns without any prefixes or suffixes. Complex nouns are either possessed by something else (which we will go into further in 3.5), or have a prefix/suffix.

The next section on reduplication is more or less not absolutely necessary to understand to learn Bothese. It is straightforward to just learn nouns as whole words, as opposed to learning the root, and then learning the rules for when roots are reduplicated, and when they aren't. Section 3.2, noun classes, is essential.

3.1 Reduplication

There are very few monosyllabic (one-syllable) nouns in Bothese. Most monosyllabic roots undergo reduplication causing the noun to be two syllables. One exception is mat, which means 'stuff/material.' Some family words such as shar 'father' are also monosyllabic.

Simply put, Bothese does not like simple nouns to be less than three syllables. If they are less than three syllables, it attempts to make them as close to three-syllables as possible without using reduplication more than once. Reduplication here means essentially 'repeating the same sequence of sounds.' Galactic Basic has reduplication of whole words, for instance, I might say "that isn't a house house, that's an apartment." Bothese normally reduplicates just the first consonant and vowel, or just the first vowel.

For an example of, Sak is a root for ship/vessel. Because it is just one syllable, it is usually Sasak (with the first consonant and vowel, sa repeated).

Bisyllabic roots also usually undergo reduplication. Thanog is the root for question and the noun meaning 'question' is thathanog with, again, the first consonant and vowel repeated (th is treated as one consonant). Voyar is the root for 'fire' which is usually vovoyar again, with the first syllable repeated.

Irregularities in this system occur with loanwords, mostly from Galactic Basic. However, a learner does not necessarily need to think about this very much. It is perfectly fine to just learn that thanoga is 'to ask a question (a verb)' and thathanog is 'question (noun)' and to just learn these as whole units without worrying about reduplication.

3.2 Noun Classes:

Bothese has seven noun classes, most based on smell. The noun classes are expressed through determiners.

Class 1 animate or inanimate; Musky smelling—pa

Musky smelling words are most mammalian land lifeforms and also many grainy plants, such as wheat, mushrooms, as well as most beans.

Nouns in this class take the determiner pa when they are the subject of a sentence:

(8)

Erz pa yuman ham

Be human here

'The human is here.'

Unlike in Galactic Basic, names usually require determiners:

(9)

Erz pa Asir ham

Be Asir here

'Asir is here'

Class 2 animate or inanimate; Humid smelling—wo

Humid smelling words are all reptiles, amphibians, aquatic life forms, and also water, rain, snow. Trees and most leafy plants (including leafy vegetables) are in this class except for trees that give off a dangerous smell.

Most other liquids are considered humid even when they also bear another smell. However, the Ocean, the Sea, and saltwater are not Class 2, but Class 4.

(10)

Erz wo Bossk ham

Be Bossk here

'Bossk is here'

Class 3 inanimate; Sweet or Sour smelling—thi

Thi is used for inanimate objects that are sweet or sour smelling. Animate objects that are sweet or sour smelling are invariably also musky or humid and get lumped in with either the humid class or the musky class. Most vegetables are in this class, as are flowers and minty clean smelling things are in the sweet category as well.

(11)

Erz-shmask thi kakar

Be-tasty cake

'The cake is tasty'

Class 4 inanimate: Earthy or salty smells—ye

This noun class is composed of salty-smelling objects and Earthy-smelling objects. Table salt, clay, soil, some non-metallic rocks belong to this class. These nouns take the determiner ye as subjects. A house constructed from bricks would normally be considered salty-smelling.

While Saltwater is considered humid smelling, the ocean and the sea are salty smelling.

(12)

Erz-tolsk ye momoshar

Be-awesome ocean

'The ocean is awesome.'

Class 5 animate or inanimate; Metal smelling—ha

Metal smelling words include blood and all metals that give a smell including copper, all types of steel, titanium, and iron. These nouns take the determiner ha. Sentient droids are also considered ha.

Most uncooked meats are in this category. Uncooked fish, however, is humid smelling. Rotting meat is painful smelling.

(13)

Erz ha D2-9X ham.

Be DET-MET D2-9X here

'D2-9x is here.'

Class 6 animate or inanimate; Painful smelling—zhar

Painful smelling words are fire, electricity, ozone, chlorine and many other ozone-smelling chemicals, petroleum, most chemicals used to power combustion engines. Poisons, manure, urine, and decayed foods are also categories as painful smelling.

Many fire or heat-related words that feel warm are also in this category including the Sun, even though they do not have a smell.

There are edible things in this category, mostly human foods and beverages introduced to Bothans in the last few centuries. These are hard alcohol, garlic, and many types of spicy food.

(14)

Erz zhar vovoyar ham

BE fire here

'Fire is here/here is on fire.'

Class 7 animate or inanimate—kor

Abstract concepts without a smell, or with a smell Bothans can smell but does not fit into the other categories take the determiner kor. These include governmental organisations, scientific theories, rainbows, moons, planets. Paper, wood, concrete, and other words are also in this category although Bothans can smell it.

Historically, this class formed out of a merger between the wooden-smelling class and the abstract class. Some other Bothan languages have a similar class but only for wooden smells.

Because the Bothan article kor sounds, to a naïve Bothan, like the start of many human planets including Coruscant, Corulag, Corellia, these planets were borrowed into Bothese as:

· Kor Asont

· Kor Ulag

· Kor Elya

3.3 Plurals

Plurals are marked on the determiners instead of a noun. To make a determiner plural, you simply stick -na onto it. To make Kor agkapatid 'the family' plural, we say korna agkapatid 'the families.' To make pa Botha 'the Bothan' plural, we say Pana Botha. In the same way, In the same way, ye dodom 'the house' is pluralised yena dodom.

There is no need to change anything with the noun like there is in Galactic Basic. Because plurals are marked on the determiners instead of the nouns, there are no irregular plurals. The only complication, like in Basic, is that some nouns do not work as plural. For instance, pa sayidath 'the bread' does not work very well *pana sayidath '*the breads' in either Bothese or Galactic Basic.

3.4 Case

Case is something that troubles many learners of foreign languages who speak Galactic Basic natively. Grammatical case explicitly marks the role of a noun or pronoun in a sentence. Basic has grammatical case with its pronouns, but, with the exception of genitive 's, lacks case elsewhere.

This is a table of how case works in Galactic Basic pronouns:

Subject/Object/Possessive/Genitive

I/me/mine

you/you/yours

he/she/it

him/her/it

his/hers/its

we/us/ours

they/them/theirs

In the sentence 'the dog bit me' the first person pronoun is me as opposed to I because it is an object of the verb. Like Galactic Basic, Bothese does this with pronouns. Unlike Galactic Basic, it also does this with all nouns. Fortunately, the case system of Bothese is highly regular.

Accusative Case:

The accusative case is used for objects and also destinations or origin points for verbs of motion.

(15)

a. Erz-dosk pa sayidath

Be-good bread

'The bread is good'

b. Agkana ko pan sayidath.

Ate 1sg -OBJ bread

'I ate the bread.'

The difference between 15a) and 15b) is that when sayidath 'bread'is the subject, it is pa sayidath, but when it is an object it is pan sayidath. This generalisation also applies to plurals:

(16)

a. Rasa hana droyd

Think -PL droid

'The droids are thinking'

b. Horseya pa Asir hanan droyd

Understand Asir -PL-OBJ droid

'Asir understands the droids.'

Destinations of verbs also accusative, at least prescriptively (some native speakers of Bothese mix up the dative and accusative here). The following sentence has two nouns marked with DET-n (as objects) because the fire is a destination that the other object was put into. It is trivial to decide whether something is a destination for a verb like pomonta 'go' but can be trickier for verbs like laga 'place/put (something).'

(17)

a. Erz zhar vovoyar ham

Be DET-DANG fire here

'There is fire here.'

b. Aglaga zhiza pan sayidath nar zharn vovoyar

Put s/he DET-OBJ bread on DET-OBJ fire

'She put the bread onto the fire.'

17b) has the destination of the putting-action as accusative because it is treated as a destination. Some native speakers of Bothese mix these things up, however, they do not mix up the general distinction between subjects and objects.

Once you know a noun's class, you know exactly what it will look like as a plural, or as an object: pa~pan, wo~won, ha~han, ye~yen, zhar~zharn, kor~korn.

Dative case:

The Bothese dative case is used for locations, instruments of actions—essentially after any preposition unless it is a destination of a verb of motion. Like the accusative case, it is highly regular.

(18) Instruments

Kana ko mid ham lolof

Eat 1sg with -DAT spoon

'I am eating with a spoon.'

The main trick to keep in mind here is that locations are dative, while destinations of verbs are accusative, even if they have the same preposition.

(19) Places

a. Pomonta ko ar yen dodom.

Go 1sg in -OBJ house

'I am going to the house'

b. Erz ko ar yem dodom

BE 1sg in -DAT

'I am in the house.'

To summarise, here is a table of all of the possibilities. The learner simply needs to know to put an -n after the determiner if it is an object, destination, or origin point, and an -m as a location or instrument of an action.

pa/pana (SUBJ) pan/panan (OBJ) pam/panam (LOC)

wo/wona (SUBJ) won/wonan (OBJ) wom/wonam (LOC)

thi/thina thin/thinan thim/thinam

ye/yena yen/yenan yem/yenam

ha/hana han/hanan ham/hanam

zhar/zharna zharn/zharnan zharm/zharnam

kor/korna korn/kornan korm/kornam

3.5 Possessed nouns

Galactic Basic marks nouns that are possessing another noun. For instance, in Han's blaster, Han is marked 's because Han possesses the blaster. Bothese does the opposite; it marks the possessed nouns.

Possessed nouns are either being possessed by a pronoun such as mo 'my' or are possessed by a noun. Bothese shows this one of two ways:

1. Deleting the first syllable and optionally dropping the determiner.

2. Optionally dropping the determiner and spelling it '

Because the first syllable of sasak 'ship' is the same as the second syllable, to show that a ship is being owned we delete the first syllable:

(20)

Erz (kor) 'sak mo ham

Be my here

'My ship is here.'

Notice how we may drop the determiner in (20) or keep it. If sasak were not possessed, kor would be mandatory in that sentence.

For nouns where the first syllable is not a reduplicated one, such as for the word sayidath 'bread,' we do nothing but still spell bread with a '.

(21)

Shina pa Zerir (pan) 'sayidath za mid yem kasanoz

Cut Zerir bread with -DAT knife

'Zerir is cutting her bread with a knife.'

In (21) it is spelled 'sayidath to show the noun is being possessed orthographically, even though 'sayidath and sayidath are pronounced exactly the same.

While possessive pronouns such as mo 'my' za 'his/hers' ta 'yours' occur after the nouns they possess, regular nouns occur before them:

(22)

a. Erz kor woworz ham

Be DET-ABS event here

'The event is here'

Erz zhar shashay 'worz ham

Be day here

'The day's event is here.'

One notable exception to this is Clan Names. In old Bothese, nouns that began with vowels did not undergo reduplication (repeating the first syllable) like they do today. To show a noun with a vowel was being possessed, the first vowel was dropped. Thus, for Bothan Clan names, the first vowel is dropped. A name like Kev Rel'skar is Kev (first name), Rel (family name) 'skar with the first syllable of clan Askar dropped. Taniar Trav'nel is Taniar (first name) Trav (family name) 'nel with the first syllable of Onel dropped.

Similarly Borsk Fey'lya is a member of Clan Alya and the first vowel is again dropped. This creates some ambiguity as members of Clan Ilya are also 'lya.

3.6 Complex Nouns

Like Galactic Basic, Bothese has ways of turning verbs into nouns. These include, for now, abstract nouns, and agentive nouns. We will cover verbs in more detail in the next chapter, but for now, I will list a few verbs for the purpose of introducing abstract nouns.

If we have a verb such as trawa sa 'feel sad for,' and want to make it into a noun describing 'sadness,' we prefix it with agka-. This can work productively with almost any verb:

Verb Noun

trawa 'sorry for' agkatraw 'sadness'

durato 'to last' agkadurat 'duration'

patida do 'be related to' agkapatid 'family'

beliya 'believe' agkabeliya 'belief'

rasa 'think' agkaras 'thought'

yekyek 'destroy' agkayekyek 'destruction'

laga 'put/place/situate' agkalag 'situation'

runterlaga 'bring back' agkarunterlag 'restoration/the act of bringing stuff back'

kita 'see' agkakit 'vision'

zega 'speak/talk' agkazeg 'speech'

Many of these nouns have forms that sound more colloquial. For instance, kikit means 'sight' and is more informal than agkakit 'vision.' These doublets exist in Galactic Basic too with many words, but there are some doublets in Bothese that do not exist in Galactic Basic. For instance, raras means 'thought' and is colloquial, but so does agkararas which is more academic thought.

Another prefix that has a similar function is ni-. This prefix is used to denote the doer of actions. If we take the verb zega 'speak' above, and want to describe someone as a speaker, then we say nizeg.

Verb Noun

beliya 'believe' nibeliya 'believer

rasa 'think' niras 'thinker

yekyek 'destroy' niyekyek 'destroyer

runterlaga 'bring back' nirunterlag 'redeemer'

kita 'see' nikit 'seer'

zega 'speak/talk' nizeg 'speaker'

A final very common affix we will cover here is the compound -mat. It was borrowed from the Basic word 'material' centuries ago and has very vague, often technical, connotations. Defamat is 'material that defames,' profamat is 'propaganda.' Very often, it is used with Basic loanwords, but there are some Bothese native words that take it too such as yovomat 'autograph' from yov 'self':

defamat 'material that defames'

profamat 'propaganda'

konekomat 'port/connection'

yovomat 'autograph'

awtomat 'automatic processes'

Most agka- and -mat complex nouns are in the kor noun class. It is kor awtomat, kor profamat, kor konekomat and so on. There are a few exceptions such as zhar agkayekyek 'the destruction' which is instead in the dangerous-smelling class of nouns.

All ni- agentive nouns are variable gender. If a thinker is Trandoshan, it is wo nirasa, but if a thinker is Bothan, it is pa nirasa, and if a thinker is a droid, ha nirasa.

3.7 Demonstratives

Bothese has two demonstratives: tag 'this' and yag 'that.' They can stand on their own and just mean 'this' or 'that'; E.g., ravo ko tag 'I like this'). When they modify a noun, they must always take a determiner. To say 'I like this thing' is:

Ravo ko korn tag mat. 'I like this thing'

Ravo ko kornan tag mat. 'I like these things' (plurals are marked on the determiner)

4. Verbs

Now that we have covered many of the nuances of nouns, including the noun classes which are essential for the learner to understand, we move on to verbs.

As may have been noticed from the examples thus far, most verbs end in -a, and, unlike Galactic Basic, they do not have agreement. Compare:

Erz—to be

erz ko

I am

erz woks

you are

erz zhiza

he/she/it is

erz mu

we are

erz wu

you are

erz zhul

they are

Even regular verbs in Galactic Basic, such as laugh have an -s conjugation for the third person; compare I graft with she laughs. Bothese does not have this complication. It is always erz no matter what pronoun the subject is.

4.1 Erz-to be

Unlike in most languages with grammatical case, the to-be verb in Bothese behaves as transitive verb when there is a noun in the predicate. In some ways, this is parallel to Galactic Basic, where sentences like 'It's me' (instead of 'it's I') occur all the time. The subject of the verb is, of course, marked as a subject rather than an object.

By 'predicate,' here I mean everything except for the subject. In a sentence like 'I am here' I is the subject, everything else is the predicate. In Bothese, when nouns are in the predicate (and aren't otherwise modified by a preposition) they are accusative:

(23)

a. Erz ko pan yuman (accusative)

be 1sg -OBJ human

'I am human.'

b. Erz zhul panan Bothask 'nizeg (accusative)

be 3ppl -PL-OBJ speaker POSS Bothese

'They are speakers of Bothese.'

c. Erz pana Botha ham' (not accusative)

be -PL Bothan here

'Bothans are here.'

d. Erz pana Botha nar korm Bothawui (not accusative)

be -PL Bothans on -DAT Bothawui

'Bothans are on Bothawui'

In 23 a) and b) above, the noun is marked accusative because it is essentially an object of be. In 23 c) and d) however, the noun is a subject of b), and korm Bothawui is dative because it is being modified by a preposition nar.

4.2 Auxiliary Verbs

Most verbs in Bothese are marked with the verbaliser -a; put simply, they end in -a: mesha 'to have,' rasa 'to think,' oksa 'to arrive,' konda 'to condition.'

Auxiliary verbs are not. Here are the auxiliary verbs of Bothese:

durho allow/permit

kat need

nodo should

mogith may/would

podo be able to

ravo like/want

syu will

The only tense formed using an auxiliary verb is future tense, and like in Galactic Basic, the use of sju 'will' to form the future is optional (e.g., in Basic, we can say "I am walking to the store tomorrow" without using will).

As in Galactic Basic, the primary function of an auxiliary verb is to modify something about an action.

Two of the auxiliary verbs in Bothese kat and ravo may have direct objects, just like in Basic:

(24)

a. Kat ko won caf.

Need 1sg -OBJ caf.

'I need a caf.'

b. Ravo ko ta

Like 1sg 2p-OBJ

'I like you.'

Most of the time however, these verbs modify other verbs, just like in Galactic Basic:

(25)

Durho ko widrasa korn mat

Should 1sg remember -OBJ thing

'I should remember the thing.'

As mentioned in the Chapter 2 (Word Order), kiz 'yes' and nokiz 'no' essentially behave like auxiliary verbs in Bothese.

(26)

Nokiz ko kat widrasa korn mat

NEG 1sg need remember -OBJ thing

'I don't need to remember that thing.'

4.2 Tense

Like Galactic Basic, Bothese marks tense. However, the primary means by which it marks tense is through prefixes (whereas Galactic Basic uses suffixes, primarily -ed).

By default, verbs without a tense prefix are in the present tense. This can be interpreted as either a progressive or as a simple present. To mark verbs for past tense, we use the prefix ag-:

(27)

a. Worza zhiza ham

Happen 3sg here

'It is happening here'

b. Ag-worza zhiza ham

PAST-happen 3sg here

'It happened here.'

Normally, when we write Bothese, we would not use a '-' for this prefix, but I am using one here just to make it easier to see. The sentence in 26b) would be written: Agworza zhiza ham.

Ag- can also be used with auxiliary verbs and the to be verb erz:

(28)

a. Agerz ko par korm Asont

PAST-be 1sg on -DAT Coruscant

'I was on Coruscant.'

b. Agkat woks kana thin shakolatzhimo

PAST-need 2sg eat -OBJ chocolate frost

'You needed to eat the chocolate frost.'

With the exception of sju 'will,' verbs themselves are not used to form tenses. E.g., there is no 'I would have been eating' in Bothese. Would is a hypothetical, expressed with the participle 'li' and the rest of that has no translation into Bothese:

(29)

Ag-mogith li ko kana…'

PAST-may HYP 1sg eat

'I might have eaten/I might have been eating/I would have eaten'

In other words, Bothese does not distinguish between might have eaten and might have been eating, although, speakers of Galactic Basic would also be hard-pressed to think of a difference between those two sentences.

4.3 Other prefixes:

Non-modal verbs can be modified for habitual actions. In Galactic Basic, we use bare verbs to express habitual actions in the present tense. The sentence 'I eat in the library' means the eating action is done frequently/all the time.

Bothese marks this through the prefix klo- and by repeating the first syllable (reduplicating it, hence RDP):

(30)

Klo-ra-rasa ko

HAB-RDP-think I

'I think/I always think.'

Bothese, like Galactic Basic, also marks continuation. Continuative verbs is a situation where an action continues from a point. In Galactic Basic, we mark this with 'keep (on) verb-ing' such as 'I keep on winning,' 'you keep bothering me.' In Bothese, as might be predicted, this is instead marked with a prefix, the prefix thay-

(31)

Thay-rasa zhiza par tag

CONT-think 3p on this

'S/he keeps thinking about this.'

The prefix ag- always stacks before other prefixes when it occurs as in 31:

(32)

Ag-klo-ra-rasa

PAST-HAB-RDP-think

'Always thought'

Ag-thay-rasa

PAST-CONT-think

'Kept on thinking'

As with ag, these prefixes are not usually spelled with a -. To spell these verbs: agklorarasa and agthayrarasa.

The final prefix we will cover is gin-. This prefix is customarily spelled gin- in Bothese orthography. This is the imperative prefix that shows an action must be done (as a command). Unlike in Galactic Basic, Bothese marks imperatives and also optionally has subject pronouns. Compare:

(33)

Gin-erz woks tham

IMPR-be 2p there

'Be there'

In Bothese, woks 'you' can be pronounced in the imperative 'Gin-erz woks tham!' but in Basic 'Be there!' the 'you' is omitted.

Gin- can essentially attach to any verb. Obviously, it cannot be used in conjunction with the past tense ag- (as in Basic, a past tense imperative is nonsense). Gin- can be stacked with thay:

(34)

Gin-thay-erz woks jov

IMPR-CONT-be 2p REFL

'Keep (on) being you'

5. Adjectives and Adverbs

Bothese adjectives fall into two basic categories: 1) colours and 2) everything else. Here we will cover both categories.

5.1 Colours

Colours form an open class in Bothese and are formed by suffixing -kul to end of a noun (if the noun has a reduplicated portion, the reduplication is omitted):

(35)

a. lilila a plum coloured berry that grows on Bothawui-4'

lilakul 'plum'

b. caf 'caf'

cafkul 'caf-brown'

c. dudub 'a deep purple-coloured bird on Bothawui-4 and Bothawui 9'

dubkul 'Byzantium (a shade of deep red purple)'

d. thuthur 'the flower of a kavris'

thurkul 'mauve (pale purple)'

e. kavris 'a type of vine common on Bothawui-4'

kavriskul 'dark green'

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this gives Bothese a very large number of colours in use. In fact, colours can be considered an open class of words in Bothese where speakers can spontaneously affix -kul to a noun to make a new colour, or even set of colours.

As is explained in the Appendix A, Bothans are tetrachromats with greater colour discrimination than humans on the violet end of the spectrum. The difference between plum and mauve, which most humans can perceive, is as different to Bothans as the distinction between green and orange for humans.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of colours:

Bothese colour Galactic Basic (Notes)

giwakul transparent (like a window)

izanakul white

niszizanakul light ultraviolet (humans cannot see this)

niszlilakul dark ultraviolet (humans cannot see this)

lilakul plum

vadikul purple

dubkul Byzantium

navikul navy blue

vakkul dark blue

gikul light blue

kavriskul dark green

drevkul green

vishkul lime green

hayumakul lemongrass yellow

shparkul blonde

voyarkul orange, red, and yellow mix (fire coloured)

yithkul orange

krisonkul crimson

vorkul blood red

pinkul pink

sharkul black

kashkul ultraviolet shade/organic stain colour (Humans can see this effect but only with technology. It essentially refers to a dark spot Bothans see when ultraviolet light is absorbed by an organic stain e.g., blood, fur, fingerprints. Humans can see a similar effect with a UV black light only the stains appear brighter instead of darker.)

As the reader might have noticed, some of these colours were borrowed from Galactic Basic, such as pinkul 'pink' and navikul 'navy blue.' These colours require the -kul suffix.

Bothese adjectives usually occur between the determiner and the noun:

(36)

Agkana wo kavriskul shalk pan sayideth

PAST-eat dark-green frog -OBJ bread

'The dark-green frog ate the bread.' (Note: frogs are humid-smelling, wo/n/m)

The most common time they do not occur between the determiner and the noun is when they are in a predicate-compound. The Bothese to-be verb erz often compounds with adjectives:

(37)

Erz-kavriskul wo shalk

Be-dark-green frog

'The shalk-frog is dark-green.'

It is also possible to use yaho 'like' with erz instead of forming predicate compound:

(38)

Erz wo shalk yaho kavriskul

Be shalk-frog like dark-green

'The shalk-frog is dark-green.'

5.2 Every other adjective

Every other adjective in Bothese ends with -sk. For instance, ibask 'different,' difikulsk 'difficult,' kizisk 'same,' odisk 'outer,' lansk 'tall.'

These adjectives follow the same rules as colours in terms of their position in a sentence:

(39)

Agkana pa lansk Botha thin aynigisk shakolatzhimo

PAST-eat tall Bothan some chocolate frost

'The tall Bothan ate some chocolate frost.'

Notice how many words, which in Basic are determiners, such as some, are instead adjectives in Bothese.

The general rule for building adjectives from nouns is to take the noun and add -sk to it if the noun ends in a vowel, or the consonants /l/, /n/, /r/, /m/. Otherwise, instead use -isk:

Noun Adjective

sasayga 'profit' saygask/sasaygask 'profitable'

Yuman 'human (noun)' Yumansk 'human (adj)'

militar 'military' militarsk 'military (adj)'

nonot 'nut' notisk/nonotisk 'nutty'

Note how in notisk we say -isk instead of -sk. From a descriptive standpoint, this is because Bothese does not allow tsk as a sound combination (specificially, Bothese prohibits that consonant cluster and other similar clusters like psk, bsk and so on).

In most dialects of Bothese, you can optionally keep or remove the reduplicant when turning a noun into an adjective. Spacer Bothans (Bothans who live in space or on one of the moons or planets that lack atmospheres) however more often use the reduplicated form. The particulars of this, and other dialectal variation, will be explored in other works.

5.3 Adverbs

Bothese does not have a separate category for adverbs. To use an adjective as an adverb, we use yaho 'like' or mid 'with' before the adjective. It can occur in a variety of places in the sentence, but never before the verb.

Now that we know the general noun classes I will just be glossing pa, wo, yen, ha, zhar, kor, as 'DET' instead of MUSK/HUM/SAL/MET/DANG/ABS (Musky/humid/salty/metal/dangerous/abstract).

(40) Adverbs can be in different positions

a. Agpomonta ko do yen dodom mid bistrosk

PAST-go 1sg to DET-OBJ house with quick

'I quickly went to the house.'

b. Thaywena ko yaho kashkul

CONT-dream 1sg like dark-stain-colour

'I keep on dreaming darkly.'

c. Agdasha yaho bistrosk pa Zerir do pan Nyir won salar

PAST-give like quick DET Zerir to DET-OBJ Nyir DET-OBJ salar-fish

'Zerir quickly gave the salar-fish to Nyir'

5.4 Comparatives and Anti-comparatives

A comparative is used to compare qualities. Galactic Basic uses the suffix -er to express these: 'three is bigger than four.' As a reader might guess, Bothese has comparatives, but unlike Galactic Basic, they are expressed through prefixes instead of suffixes.

The comparative prefix in Bothese is hi-

bistrosk 'fast' hibistrosk 'faster'

yumansk 'human' hiyumansk 'more human'

mapask 'rogue' himapask 'more rogue

drevkul 'green' hidrevkul 'greener'

Unlike Galactic Basic, Bothese has a parallel structure called an 'anti-comparative.' In Galactic Basic, we use a separate word less for this purpose e.g., 'this is less green than that.' Bothese, as the reader might have guessed, uses a prefix di-:

bistrosk 'fast' dibistrosk 'less fast

yumansk 'human' diyumansk 'less human'

mapask 'rogue' dimapask 'less rogue

drevkul 'green' didrevkul 'less green

Now we know how to express phrases like 'the house is redder' erz-hivorkul ye dodom. However, this is obviously not enough.

Just like for learners of Galactic Basic, knowing the superlative form of an adjective is not enough to use it.

There is another element that compares the two nouns, one of which is more X or less X than the other. In Bothese, the word for than is the preposition nizh. Nouns that occur after nizh are marked as objects:

(41)

a. Erz-hivorkul ye tag dodom nizh yen yag dodom

Be-COMP-red DET this house than DET-OBJ that house

'This house is redder than that house.'

b. Agroswa ko hilansk nizh ta

PAST-grow 1sg COMP-tall than

'I grew taller than you.'

c. Erz-dikashkul kor tag mat nizh korn yag mat

Be-ANTI-stain-coloured DET this thing than DET-OBJ that thing

'This thing is less coloured with shady organic stains than that thing is' (e.g., if two Bothans were comparing dirty hotel bedsheets.)

5.5 Participles

Present and Past Participles are formed the same way in Bothese that other adjectives are. The suffix -sk is simply attached to either a present tense or past tense verb:

(42) Present vs Past

a. ha pishask droyd

DET write-ADJ droid

'the writing droid'

b. korna agpishask mat

DET PAST-write-ADJ thing

'the written things'

5.6 Cardinal Numerals

When simply counting, the base-10 ordinal numerals in Bothese are as follows (Bothese used to use a base-20 counting system):

Bothese Basic

zero zero

yeda one

dawa two

ahir three

wui four

alo five

zest six

zev seven

yarol eight

yupik nine

tono ten

tono't yeda eleven

tono't dawa twelve

tono't alo thirteen

tono't wui fourteen

tono't alo fifteen

tono't zest sixteen

tono't zev seventeen

tono't yarol eighteen

tono't yupik nineteen

dawa tono twenty

dawa tono't yeda twenty-one

ahir tono't yeda thirty-one

wui tono't yeda forty-one

alo tono't alo fifty-five

yupik tono't alo ninety-five

(yeda) shenas one hundred

dawa shenas at alo tono't dawa

two-hundred fifty-two

(yeda) livo one thousand

(yeda) yuta one million

(yeda) bilyon one billion

(yeda) trilyon one trillion

As with Demonstratives, Bothese still requires determiners with numerals. Instead numerals behave like adjectives when they count things out and take regular -sk/isk:

(43)

Agkana pana yupik-isk Botha wonan tonno't yarol-sk salar

PAST-eat DET-PL nine-ADJ Bothan DET-PL-OBJ eighteen fish

'The nine Bothans ate eighteen salar fish.'

A popular indigenous Bothese way to write numbers three centuries ago was as follows:

0 М

1 Е

2 Д

3 А

4 Ў

5 Ал

6 Зт

7 Зв

8 Я

9 Ю

10 Т

11 Т'Е

12 Т'Д

20 Д'Т

30 Д'А

41 Д'Ал'Е

100 Ш

1000 Л

1,000,000 Ю

1,623,543 Ю'ЗтШ'Д'Т'АЛ'АлШ'ЎТ'А

In Modern Bothese, the last numeral would be pronounced:

Yuta at sest shenas at dawa tonno't ahir livo at alo shenas at wui tonno't ahir

Since the Manda Contact Event, Bothans most often use the system of writing numerals where zero is a placeholder. Sometimes however, for numbers less than 100, the traditional Bothan numeral system is used, especially if a Basic translation is nearby (E.g., 'Terminal 13/Тэрминал Т'А).

5.7 Ordinal numerals

As in Galactic Basic, Bothese has Ordinal Numerals. These are used for dates and also for expressing the order in things happen or are sequenced (e.g., first place, second place; the third book I read). With the exception of hawt 'first,' the Cardinal Numerals are formed with the prefix igay-

hawt first

igaydawa second

igayahir third

igaywui fourth

igayalo fifth

igayzest sixth

igayzev seventh

igayyarol eighth

igayyupik ninth

igaytono tenth

igay tono't yeda eleventh

igaymilyon millionth

igaybilyon tono't yeda billion and eleventh

As with the cardinal numerals, ordinal numerals take adjectival -sk.

(44)

a. Agkonesha zhiza yaho korn haut-isk lalag

PAST-finish 3sg like DET-OBJ first-ADJ place

'She finished in first place.'

b. Agerz kor igayahirsk detakard yag…

PAST-be DET third datacard that…

'It was the third datacard that…'

6 Other topics

This chapter covers various important topics that do not fit well into the other sections. The most important of these is how to ask questions.

6.1 Questions

As was alluded to before the clitic ba is used to turn a verb into a question. This clitic occurs after the verb unless there is a pronoun, in which case it can occur either before or after the pronoun (it does not matter either way):

(45)

a. Agkana ba woks pan sayideth

PAST-eat Q 2p DET-OBJ bread

'Did you eat the bread?'

b. Agina zhul ba thin kothtri

PAST-drink they Q DET-OBJ kothtri

'Did they drink the kothtri?' (kothtri is a spicy-sweet Bothan juice)

Like any language, Bothese also has question words. As in Galactic Basic, these verbs occur at the front of the sentence. If these words are used, ba is not used:

Zo—who/what (subject)

Zon—who/what (object)

Zom—where

Zosk—what kind

Zokul—what colour

Zovasht—when

Vi—how

Sasa—for what

Bakit—why

Bothese does not distinguish between who/what. For the most part, these question words follow the general suffixes of the Bothan case and adjective system. Zokul is 'what colour,' zosk 'what kind' both corresponding to the adjective classes. Zo is used for subjects, zon for objects, zom for locations.

(46)

a. Zon agkana woks?

What PAST-eat you

'What did you eat?'

b. Zokul erz pa Zerir

What-colour be DET Zerir

'What colour is Zerir's fur?'

c. Zo erz tham

Who/what be there

'Who/what is there?'

d. Zom erz woks

Where be you

'Where are you?'

e. Sasa seza woks ham?

For-what sit you here

'What are you sitting here for?'

Bakit 'why' and sasa 'what for' mean almost exactly the same thing most of the time. Sasa is a bit less formal than bakit but most Bothans use both question words all the time.

6.2 the Inverse Voice

Unlike Galactic Basic, Bothese lacks a passive voice. Instead, it has an inverse voice. The inverse voice accomplishes the same meaning as the passive voice (reduces the emphasis of the action on the subject and increases it on the object), but structurally, it behaves very differently.

Rather than turning the object to a subject and having the logical subject introduced with an oblique 'by' such as: the wallet (obj) was stolen (by someone (subj)), Bothese literally inverts the two constituents. The subject is still pronounced and, if the subject is not known, then it is usually replaced with uszhul 'them' or aynizon 'someone' aynimat 'something.'

As the reader might have guessed, the inverse voice is formed with a prefix on the verb um- (here I separate the prefixes with – so they are easier to see since some examples have multiple prefixes):

(47)

a. um-zega ko ta yag….

INV-say 1sg 2p-OBJ

'I am told by you that…'

b. Ag-um-ina thi kothtri pan Zerir

PAST-INV-drink DET kothtri DET-OBJ Zerir

'The kothtri was drunk by Zerir.'

c. Ag-um-ina wo tutubig korn aynimat

PAST-INV-drink DET water DET-OBJ something

'The water was drunk by something.'

As may be obvious, intransitive verbs like roswa 'grow up' cannot be inverted *umroswa because they have no object. Erz 'to be' cannot be inverted either *umerz even though the predicate of 'to be' may behave like an object.

6.3 Conjunctions

Bothese has conjunctions that function much the same as in Basic. They usually occur before any other word in the sentence:

(48)

Nokiz ko horseya, men sju ko thaymoka

NEG 1sg understand, however will 1sg CONT-learn

'I do not understand, however I will keep learning.'

(49)

Erz-kavriskul ye dodom dakril yag ag-farba pa Gavin Azi'skar za

Be-dark green DET house, because that PAST-paint DET Gavin Azi'skar 3p-OBJ

'The house is dark green because Gavin Azi'skar painted it.'

The most important conjunctions to remember are as follows:

krath but

at and

oshor or

tasha also

dakril yag because

men however

6.6 Relative Pronouns

Relative pronouns in Galactic Basic are words like who/which when they are used as a conjunction. I saw the human who went to the store.

These also exist in Bothese and they are formed quite simply. The noun-class determiner is used with the suffix -no: pano/wono/hano/yeno/zharno/thino/korno

(50)

a. agkita ko pan yuman pano agpomonta do han gegesh

PAST-see 1sg DET-obj human who PAST-go to DET-OBJ store

'I saw the human who went to the store' (a store built of metal).

b. Agkita ko won Trandoshan wono agpomonta do han gegesh

PAST-see 1sg DET-OBJ Trandoshan who PAST-go to DET-OBJ store

'I saw the Trandoshan who went to the store.'

6.7 Yov

Bothese has one additional pronoun not mentioned thus far, yov. It essentially means 'self' in the sense of 'myself,' 'yourself,' 'ourselves.'

This word occurs in a few compounds like yovomat 'autograph,' but, more importantly, it is used to form reflexives.

A few verbs in Galactic Basic are reflexive verbs. An example of this is to behave oneself. The action is reflected back to the subject which is why we call it 'reflexive.' Many reflexives in Basic and Bothese are roughly parallel, such as shnada ko jov'I wash myself,' but there are some verbs in Bothese which are not reflexive in Basic such as orda yov 'to give an order,' or raza yov 'to cut one's own hair/fur.' In a sentence, yov usually occurs directly after a subject pronoun if there is one, and directly after a verb if there is not.

(51)

Agraza yov pa Itoll 'balahi za

PAST-cut REFL DET Itoll fur 3sg

'Itoll cut his own fur.'

Agorda woks yov usmu yag…

PAST-order you RELF 1ppl-OBJ that…

'You ordered us to…"

6.8 Growls

The closest analog to growl voice in Galactic Basic is vocal fry and consonant mutations. When Bothans growl, the airstream continues without being interrupted by stops such as /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/. Vowels essentially become creaky voice with a glottal feature.

Growls in Bothese are not phonemic. They do not change the meaning of a sentence, but they do change the emphasis. In High Galactic representations of Bothese, growled vowels are spelled with tails under them:

a ą

e ę

i į

o ų

u ų

You might have noticed that o and u are spelled the same when growled. This is because Bothese collapses the distinction between o~u (in some more conservative dialects of Bothese, /o/ and /u/ are also non-phonemic when not growled).

The stops, conversely, are spelled with an h after them: p~ph, b~bh, t~th, d~dh, g~gh, and, in some dialects, k~kh. The distinction between the voiceless stops and the voiceless fricatives is essentially neutralised (e.g., t and th sound exactly the same when growled).

The voiced sequence dh sound like the Galactic Basic th in 'these,' while the voiceless th sounds like the Galactic Basic th in 'think.' The values of ph, bh, kh and gh vary a lot from dialect to dialect. This will be explored in further detail in Bothese Variants, a separate work. For now, bh may sound exactly like Bothese v, but it may also like Bothese w in some dialects. kh is only used by Spacer Bothans and gh may sound like a velar fricative [ɣ] or like a glottal fricative [ɦ].

In Bothese Cyrillic, growls are simply spelled by capitalising everything for emphasis.

Appendix

This section contains lists of important function words as well as verbs, nouns, and adjectives that have occurred in my fanfiction thus far.

A1. List of Prepositions and conjuncts:

Ar—in

At—and

Dakril yag—because (that)

Do—to/till

Gunter—up

Ham—here

Krath—but

Lunter—down

Men—however

Mezhi—across

Mid (+place) 'with'

Nomid (+place) 'without'

Od—from/out/since (+obj)

Par—on (+place)

Runter—behind

Sa—for

Tag—this

Tasha—also

Tham—there

Vor—from

Yag—that

Yaku—like

o—or

A2: Auxiliary verbs

durho—allow/permit

kat—need

nodo— should

mogith—may/would

podo—be able to

ravo—like/want

syu—will

A3 Verbs:

Anoda—change/alter

Beliya—believe

Beriga—describe

Berita—ready

Bola—hurt

Dasha—give (do+ someone)

Oddasha—receive

Durato yov—wait (reflx)

Durato—durate/last

Esal—pay

Famida—rent

Farba—paint

Fudera—eat

Fula—feel

Hita—find

Holda—cool down

Horseya—understand

Ilumineyta—illuminate

Ina—drink

Iwa—search

Ka—wear

Kana—eat

Kilala (par)—know (about)

Kita—see

Kombina mid—join

Konda—condition

Konesha—finish

Kustoya—keep/remain

Kreslit—flow

Laga—lay/place/position (something)

Lunterlaga—land

Mafa—face (verb)

Mesha—have

Moka—learn

Molanoya—swim

Oksa—arrive

Orda yov—order (reflexive)

owa—return

Pisha—write

Pomonta ar—enter

Pomonta mid—come

Pomonta—go

Produka—produce/build

Proshla—occur

Rasa par—think about

Rasa—think

Reprizena—represent

Reyho—smell

Roswa—grow up

Runterlaga—bring back

Sasal—buy

Seza—sit

Shlosa—close

Shpasa—play

Shtana—sentence (someone)

Sisa sa—halt/stop

Sunoya—hear

Tathoya—tell/call

Tola—help

Tona—do

Trefa—meet

Tshita—cheat

Verla—exclude

Vernita sa—strip (someone) of (something)

Viseya—look

Vraga—ask

Waraya—tolerate

Wena—dream (v)

Wetha—seem

Widrasa yov—remember

Widrasa—remind

Wina—win

Woga—fear

Woga jov—be afraid

Worza—happen

Yeka—kill

Zega—speak/say

Zharembarka—board

Ziga—attack (v)

Zika—save

Zoga—move

A4 Nouns:

Bothan—Bothan

Papagrum—(Bothan) clan

Kasruk—Warrior Sentry

Sayidath—bread

Wowoga—crew

Wuki—Wookiee

Yuman—human

Pagrum 'Forsh 'Yabod—Clan of the Force's Centre

Kasruk 'Sekreter (KRS)—Marshalcy Secret Service (assigned to the First Secretary but tasked with guarding the Combined Clans building and other Clan Leaders when need be)

Trandoshan—Trandoshan

Owolan—rain

Owovos—vegetable

Poteyto—potato

Hahalum—plant

Tutubig—water

Salar—salar-fish

Shalk—Shalk-frog

thi

Goyuri—luck (idiomatically used as a good type of luck)

Hini—honey

kakar—cake

Kothtri—kothri (a type of spicy sweet juice)

Shakolatzhimo—chocolate frost

Shakolat—chocolate

Dodom—house

Kakalaf—kelp

Momoshar—sea

Nisush—shelter

Nonot—nut (Dressel and Botha'ahir)

Not—nut (Bothawui, Kothlis, Thoran)

Sasad—seed

Shishiwi—seaweed

Thwelo—soil

Vavak—Ocean

droyd—droid

Endzhin—engine

Kosanoz—knife

Lolof—spoon

Pinto—metal door

Vividel—fork

Nihold—refrigerator

Vork—blood

zhar

Agkaflavakan—spicey food

Agkajovyek—suicide

Agkayekyek—destruction

Didiyer—monster

Dudunor—thunder

Falava—spice

Fefela—problem

Gegevar—weapon

Krakray—war

Shashay—day

Uwud—heat

Verzdrada—treason

Vovoyar—fire

Vovoyarsk Shashay—holiday

Yeyek—death

Zhara Yiyiz 'Dunor—Thunder of the Gods

kor

Agkakain—nutrition

Agkakita—seeing

Agkalag—situation

Agkapatid—the family (lit agka-'be related')

Agkarespons—responsibility

Agkaverla—exclusion

Agkayayaho—probability

Agkaworza—convention/happening/event

Ayabod—Core/Centre

Bebetho—life

Eyevriwis—objective

Gagabi—night

Iyitan—middle

Kakash—shade

Katalogomat—catalogue material

Kikita—sight

Kopad—towel

Myashto—city

Negotomat—diplomacy

Nenefhos—fog

Nutshent—nutrient

Nikond—air conditioner

Obayit—breakfast

Owodzhad—world

Owoks—arrival

Pendentif—dome

Roros—growth/expansion

Roym—space

Saksak—ship

Sheshenber—Rim (of a galaxy or hat)

Shpas'roym—clearance

Shtarn—Metropolis

Sosol—Solar System

Thathanog—question

Tim—team

Vuvurm—shape

Woworz—event

Yiyiz—god

Yovomat—autograph (self material)

Wothali—complement

Welomat—cure

Zozog—toy

Zozon—zone

Zomat—everything

Variable

Jonwi—honour; title for Judge

Fuful—feeling

Kadet—cadet

Kakan—food

Lider—leader

Luti—people/folk

Nivot—voter

Nizeg—speaker

Nirunterlag—redeemer

Pokadizh—room

Separatist—Separatist

Yas—truth

Yasnyene—explanation

Zaho—thing

Family terms:

Shar—father

Wor—mother

Brar—brother

Sor—sister

Brar'shar—uncle on father's side

Sor'shar—aunt on father's side

Brar'wor—uncle on mother's side

Sor'sor—aunt on mother's side

Wor'wor—grandmother on mother's side

Shar'shar—grandfather on father's side

Shar'wor—grandmother on father's side

Wor'shar—grandfather on mother's side

Papatid—relative

Dosh—child

Sordosh—niece/nephew on mother's side

Brardosh—niece/nephew on father's side

Zakon—spouse

Body Parts (variable)

Owolo—head

Shnashnawz—snout

Mamaf—face

Oroko—eye

Balahi—fur on the arms, legs, chest, back, everywhere on the body except the head, neck and shoulders (this fur only falls flat and stands on end)

Renduwi—fur on the head, neck and shoulders (this fur swirls, twirls, ripples)

Kaltis—mane

Rerek—arm

Fafawsht—hand

Nonog—leg

Nonoblaw—ankle

Vuvuz—foot

A5 Time Words:

Disay—today

Hapol—yesterday

Nogon—never

Nu—now

Opash—again

Vasht—time (Kor)

Yalom—morning

Yayalom—tomorrow

A6 Adjectives

Non-Colours:

Aglagask—positioned/oriented

Ajnigisk—some (indefinite)

Arsk—inner

Balshask—high

(Be)bethosk—alive

Bistrosk—fast

Difikulsk—difficult

Dosk—good

Fulsk—moody

Gilsk—guilty

Giwask—empty/clear/transparent

Greshitisk—wrong

Ibask—different

Kizisk—same

Kombinask—combined

Lansk—tall

Libayisk—favourite

Manazhask—managed

Mapask—rogue

Matask—materially

Militarsk—military

Notisk—emergency (Botha'ahir & Dressel)

Notisk—nutty (Bothawui, Kothlis, Thoran)

Nosk—right/correct

Odisk—outer

Ogesk—annoying

Rurzask—cunning/witty

Saygask—profitable

Shistisk—all

Shlesk—bad

Sigursk—safe

Stratizhisk—Strategic

Suprimisk—supreme

Suspisk—suspicious

Tolsk—awesome

Vathniskreal

Yizhisk—exciting

Colours:

giwakul—transparent

izanakul—white

niszizanakul—light ultraviolet

niszlilakul—dark ultraviolet

lilakul—plum

vadikul—purple

dubkul—Byzantium

navikul—navy blue

vakkul—dark blue

gikul—light blue

kavriskul—dark green

drevkul—green

vishkul—lime green

hayumakul—lemongrass yellow

shparkul—blonde

voyarkul—orange, red, and yellow mix

yithkul—orange

krisonkul—crimson

vorkul—blood red

pinkul—pink

sharkul—black

kashkul—ultraviolet shade/organic stain colour

Length—Relative Value—(Analog)

Tasasad—1/100—.2142 cm or .084 in (the length of a seed)

Harerend—1/14—1.785 cm or .703 in (half the length of a blade of fur)

Rerend—1/7—3.57 cm or 1.41 in (the length of a blade of fur)

Wayishnawz—1—21.42cm or .7 ft (the circumference of a Bothan snout)

Dawayishnawz—2—42.84 cm or 1.4 ft (the circumference of two Bothan snouts)

Wiwisyog—20—4.284 m or 4.7 yds (the distance at which a quiet whisper may be heard)

Shrayog—8,000—1.7136 km or 1.1 miles (the distance at which a yelp may be heard)