Bresano

Bresano ([bɹəˈsɑːnoʊ], [bɹɨˈsænoʊ], natively [brɛˈsano]) is a language descended from Wilaysenas. It is spoken just south of the Mugua Peninsula in the Mesoborean Sea where Mulesuax, its sister language, is spoken. Its descendents are Mɨluð and Mwise.

Phonology
Bresano has a relatively simple phonology apart from its inclusion of θ. All words are always stressed on the penultimate syllable, except for monosyllables, which might be stressed or unstressed.

Consonants
The phonemes  ɸ ,  θ, h and r do not occur word initially. The phoneme b only occurs word initially.

Vowels
Often /ɛ ɔ/ become [e o] word finally.

Phonotactics
Bresano has a simple syllable structure: C(R)V, where R is r, although in at least one dialect there is evidence that the three nasals could also fill this spot. Any vowel might begin a word initially.

Accent
Bresano has a weak pitch accent. This pitch is always on the penultimate syllable, and comes in the two varieties of high and low. High accents are much more common. In words where the stress is on the same syllable as the original word in Wilaysenas, then the syllable has a high pitch. If the stress shifted in any way from Wilaysenas to Bresano, then that syllable receives a low pitch, marked with a grave accent. Often a slight increase in volume and length of the stressed syllable accompanies the change in pitch.

An example is the 2nd person singular pronoun, èko, which comes from the Wilaysenas igaya, which was stressed on the second syllable. In the transition from Wilaysenas to Bresano the last syllable was dropped and so stress shifted to the first syllable, resulting in low pitch. The possessive ekòthe receives low pitch through analogy.

The pitch accent had stabilised by the middle period of Bresano's history. Before this, when the stress shifted at all it would change the stress from grave to acute and acute to grave. After derivation and inflection became much more common, the pitch stabilised and so any derived word carried the same pitch as its root. Traces of the old system are left in pairs such as amoma/àmo - leaf.

Writing System
The small amounts of Bresano writings that have been found have been written in a semi-abjad, with only the accented vowel written. The pitch accent is marked and the r that comes directly after a consonant is written with a diacritic. So the word Bresano would be written b'-s-á-n and could well be confused with any word that has a similar consonant structure. It is written right to left in horizontal lines.

There were differing systems when it came to transcribing a word with a stress shift through inflection or derivation. Some simply wrote the derived word as if it were a normal word e.g. èko è-k ~ ekòthe k-ò-th, while others wrote it as if the stress shift did not take place e.g. èko è-k ~ ekòthe è-k-th.

Most texts are bookkeeping records of grain or goats and sheep. There are a few historical records as well, detailing lists of names or important events.

Grammar
Bresano is an agglutinating language, that takes a mixture of prefixes and suffixes. There is also a mixture of prepositions and postpositions. The normal word order is VSO.

Verbs
Verbs inflect for perfect, imperfect and habitual aspect, as well as future and non-future tense.

Nouns
Nouns inflect for plurality, definiteness and case. There are two numbers, singular pi- and plural, tu-, although the noun can also be left unmarked which leaves the number unspecified. The number prefix is obligatory when a quantifier or numeral is used to modify the noun. There is definite and indefinite, but only one marker, ka-/-ha-. This marker marks the indefinite in all cases except the accusative, where it marks the definite.

The five cases are nominative, accusative, dative, genitive and an oblique case which is unmarked. The nominative is marked by bo-, the accusative na-, the dative ki-, the genitive na-/-r- (which is thought to be related to the 'l' inserted in Mulesuax compounds).

Pronouns

 * bane 1sg, possessive bathe
 * èko 2sg, possessive ekòthe
 * á 3sg, possessive èthe
 * tovane 1pl, possessive tovathe
 * ekone 2pl, possesssive ekothe
 * tá 3pl, possessive tathe

Samples
Coming soon!

Lexicon
Numerals: bí, àthe, hema, enga, gemo, dó, uru, kàsu, kó, noma


 * ngathagengu - left-handed
 * gasomi - priest
 * murume - luck, fortune
 * nehàsi - lungs, breath
 * bòka - soil, earth
 * odose - people

Descendents
Bresano has only a few descendents. By the time of late Bresano, only two divergent dialects remained.

One dialect, more to the north, was distinguished by its loss of final vowels, loss of the accent system, the emergence of retroflex consonants and the change from /r/ to /l/ in most dialects. The language descended from this dialect is Mɨluð. It has two main dialects as a group of speakers migrated north to the Mugua Peninsula.

The other was marked by the reduction of unstressed vowels, merger of /b/ and /β/ and epenthesis of /r/ with a following vowel and the emergence of /l w j/ as separate phonemes. This southern dialect descended into Mwise. Mwise has a few distinct dialects as well, although the biggest difference come in spelling.