Bofobundan language

The Bofobundan language (بفبلالا bofolala) is the main, historical language of the country called Bofobundah. It uses a writing system adapted from the Parsan.

Distribution

Besides the Bofobundan homeland, countries with Bofobundan-speaking populations include the following (in descending order of number-of-speakers):

• Template:West Commonia
• Ardisphere
• Template:Commonia
• ... more

Phonology

File:Bo vowel.svg

Vowels

Bofobundan has six distinct vowels, divided into 3 "lax" vowels and 3 "tense" vowels. The vowel chart at right shows IPA and standard Parsan representation - note that the three "lax" vowels, [ɛ], [e] and [o] are normally not written, since they are represented using the Parsan diacritics zabar, zir and pesh.

Writing System

Modern Bofobundan universally uses an adaptation of Parsan, with special diacritics (not normally written but used in instruction) adopted for the tones. The Parsan alphabet is as follows.

#	Name	Conventional Romanization	IPA	Contextual forms
				Final	Medial	Initial	Isolated
1	Hamza	ʾ	[ʔ]	ـئ ـأ ـؤ	ـئـ	ئـ	ء أ
2	ʾalef	a	[a]	ـا		آ / ا
3	be	b	[b]	ـب	ـبـ	ﺑ	ب
4	pe	p	[p]	ـپ	ـپـ	ﭘ	پ
5	te	t	[t]	ـت	ـتـ	ﺗ	ﺕ
6	se	s	[s]	ـث	ـثـ	ﺛ	ﺙ
7	jim	j	[d͡ʒ]	ﺞ	ـجـ	ﺟ	ﺝ
8	che	ch	[t͡ʃ]	ﭻ	ـچـ	ﭼ	ﭺ
9	hhe	hh	[h]	ﺢ	ـحـ	ﺣ	ﺡ
10	khe	kh	[x]	ﺦ	ـخـ	ﺧ	ﺥ
11	dal	d	[d]	ـد		ﺩ
12	xal	x	[z]	ـذ		ﺫ
13	re	r	[ɾ]	ـر		ﺭ
14	ze	z	[z]	ـز		ﺯ
15	zhe	zh	[ʒ]	ـژ		ژ
16	sin	s	[s]	ـس	ـسـ	ﺳ	ﺱ
17	shin	sh	[ʃ]	ـش	ـشـ	ﺷ	ﺵ
18	ssad	ss	[s]	ـص	ـصـ	ﺻ	ﺹ
19	zzad	zz	[z]	ـض	ـضـ	ﺿ	ﺽ
20	tta	tt	[t]	ـط	ـطـ	ﻃ	ﻁ
21	xxa	xx	[z]	ـظ	ـظـ	ﻇ	ﻅ
22	ʿeyn	ʿ	[ʔ]	ـع	ـعـ	ﻋ	ﻉ
23	gheyn	gh	[ɣ] / [ɢ]	ـغ	ـغـ	ﻏ	ﻍ
24	fe	f	[f]	ـف	ـفـ	ﻓ	ﻑ
25	qaf	q	[ŋ] / [ɣ]	ـق	ـقـ	ﻗ	ﻕ
26	kaf	k	[k]	ـک	ـکـ	کـ	ک
27	gaf	g	[ɡ]	ـگ	ـگـ	ﮔ	گ
28	lam	l	[l]	ـل	ـلـ	ﻟ	ﻝ
29	mim	m	[m]	ـم	ـمـ	ﻣ	ﻡ
30	nun	n	[n]	ـن	ـنـ	ﻧ	ﻥ
31	waw	u	[u]	ـو		و
32	he(-dochesh)	h	[h]	ـه	ـهـ	هـ	ﻩ
33	ye	y	[j] / [i]	ﯽ	ـیـ	ﻳ	ﻯ

Most consonants have values similar to Parsan, although Bofobundan has a smaller consonant inventory so many Parsan sounds are merged, but Parsan spellings are retained for borrowings and by tradition. Thus Parsan letter ﺽ (zad) has the same value, IPA [z], as the letter ﺯ (ze), although in original Parsan they are distinct sounds. The one exception to the sounds being more or less similar to Parsan is the letter ﻕ (qaf), which was borrowed to represent the sound [ŋ], which didn't exist in Parsan, while the original sound represented by ﻕ does not exist in Bofobundan. It is sometimes difficult to remember this for Parsan speakers learning Bofobundan, and it also has resulted in the unusual romanization "q" for the sound [ŋ], thus the Bofobundan form of casual address, مِق [mɛŋ] is Romanized "meq."

Grammar

One of the most notable features of Bofobundan grammar is the lack of a copula or "be-verb" in day-to-day use. There are some verbs in the literary language that are used in stative meanings (e.g. وافا wafa "to exist"), but these words are not widely used. Instead, for stative and copular meanings, Bofobundan employs the preterite of a major class of verbs of motion and transformation. Thus to say "I am happy" what is really said is "I went happy". This has then generalized across the grammar such that the preterite and "double-preterite" tenses are often reserved for this kind of stative meaning, while the perfect and pluperfect end up being used in the more typical past-tense meanings.