Batu language

The Batu language (Batu: Batućhe juchai) is a language spoken popularly in Northwestern Serrona.

It is most closely related to the Eldurlac language and is a member of the Lausán language family alongside Lo'Oi, Mari, and Kolsson and their numerous dialects.

Syntax, grammar, and sentence structure
The Batu language follows a SVO (subject-verb-object) sentence structure, comparable to English and the various other Lausán 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 31 different phonemes which include 8 vowel sounds and 23 consonant sounds.

These vowels are written with 5 different letters ('characters'), the remaining 3 sounds being written with combinations of these letters (i.e: 'ai', 'au', 'ue'). See the Orthography section for further information.

The consonants are accordingly written with a total of 19 different letters ('characters'), 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 (i.e: ćh, ch). See the Orthography section for further information.

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.

Consonant orthography
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 Standard English words like ‘vision’ or the typical French 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 Spanish words like ‘perro’. When it is elsewhere in a word, it instead produces a simple tapped sound. This tapped version can be seen in Portuguese words like ‘prato’.

-C/c  /t͡s/

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

-Ch/ch  /tʃ/

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

-Ć/ć  /d͡z/

This letter is pronounced in Standard English words like ‘lads’.

-Ćh/ćh  /ʃ/

This combination of letters produces what is recognized by most English 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 Brazillian Portguese words like ‘rosa’ and in the traditional Hebrew 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 Standard English 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 Spanish orthography, the sound is written as ‘ñ’ and in French/Italian orthography it is written as ‘gn’. It can be seen in French words like ‘oignon’ and in Spanish words like ‘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.

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