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Babm () is an
international auxiliary language An international auxiliary language (sometimes acronymized as IAL or contracted as auxlang) is a language meant for communication between people from different nations, who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primarily a ...
created by the Japanese philosopher (), also known as Fuishiki Okamoto. Okamoto first introduced the language in his 1962 publication ''The Simplest Universal Auxiliary Language Babm''. The language did not achieve widespread adoption, even within the
constructed language A constructed language (shortened to conlang) is a language whose phonology, grammar, orthography, and vocabulary, instead of having developed natural language, naturally, are consciously devised for some purpose, which may include being devise ...
community, and currently has no known speakers. The language uses the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
as a
syllabary In the Linguistics, linguistic study of Written language, written languages, a syllabary is a set of grapheme, written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) mora (linguistics), morae which make up words. A symbol in a syllaba ...
, and possesses no
articles Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article(s) may also refer to: ...
or
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or ...
s. Each letter marks an entire
syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
rather than a single
phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
. Babm adheres to a sound-based rule set, which Okamoto delineates in his book. He explains, "Nouns are coined from three consonants and one vowel, verbs from one or two vowels between two consonants at the beginning and at the end. Adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, numerals, and propositions have respectively their own peculiar form." Babm shares with certain 17th-century constructed languages a primary emphasis on
taxonomy image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...
, aiming to establish a universally consistent nomenclature for scientific concepts, including
chemical compound A chemical compound is a chemical substance composed of many identical molecules (or molecular entities) containing atoms from more than one chemical element held together by chemical bonds. A molecule consisting of atoms of only one element ...
s. This scientific focus distinguishes Babm from languages like
Esperanto Esperanto (, ) is the world's most widely spoken Constructed language, constructed international auxiliary language. Created by L. L. Zamenhof in 1887 to be 'the International Language' (), it is intended to be a universal second language for ...
, which prioritize socio-political objectives. Nevertheless, Okamoto's 1962 treatise includes substantial discourse on world peace. The author aspired for his "simple" language to achieve universal utility and adoption.


Phonology and orthography

Every consonant in Babm must be followed by a particular short vowel, with the exception of /k/ which can be followed by any vowel. Vowels that are attached to nouns are short vowels by default, and those not attached to nouns are long, but vowel length can be modified. Because of this, words have a basic CV structure with some vowel clusters but no consonant clusters. Babm uses the Latin alphabet with 26 letters. Each letter of the alphabet represents said letter plus a short vowel. Written vowels represent long vowels. The consonant and vowel inventories are as follows (for the value of the signs, see
International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
):


Syntax

Okamoto provides limited information about the syntax, stating that "it is rather desirable that it he sentencebe free from many rules of composition." The
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...
is SVO, with
modifiers In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...
preceding the elements they modify. The language exhibits some degree of
analytic Analytic or analytical may refer to: Chemistry * Analytical chemistry, the analysis of material samples to learn their chemical composition and structure * Analytical technique, a method that is used to determine the concentration of a chemical ...
inflection In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
: In sentences with complex structures, the
subject Subject ( "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective consciousness, or ...
, the
direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
, and the
indirect object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
can be distinguished through preceding "prepositional conjunctions." There is also a set of auxiliary-like elements that Okamoto terms "executive complements," which modify the verb in various ways and may occur either as suffixes or as separate words preceding the verb.


Semantics

Okamoto's book provides a detailed dictionary, split up into a number of sections. In his text, Okamoto splits nouns up into nine sections: "Living Things", "Material Bodies", "Chemical Terms", "Expendables and Materials", "Durable Goods", "Human Body and Physiology", "Conscious Actions", "Structure of Living", and "Politics". Each of these sections is split into a number of sub-sections. The other parts of speech further split into smaller sections in the book are "Verbs", "Complements" and "Prepositional Conjunctions". Okamoto also includes a section for "Abridged Common Expressions" such as "Good evening!" and "Congratulations!"


Morphology

In order to keep the language simple, Babm does not have articles or auxiliary verbs, and avoids the inflection of a basic word.


Nouns

As a rule, 4 letters make up a noun. Nouns have an initial short-sound letter which indicates meaning, usually followed by a long-sound letter which is pronounced long and with a strong accent. The third letter is also usually short-sound, and it indicates the sort of noun divided by meaning, although it can be long-sound as well. The final letter is also short-sound, and it specifies the noun. If a noun has two long-sound letters in the middle, the first is accentuated. Proper nouns should follow these guidelines, however one long-sound or one short-sound letter may be added before or after the word. ''c, lr,'' and ''qw'' are not permitted to be noun-initial, and ''l'' and ''w'' are avoided at the end of nouns. Example nouns include (a universal language) and ("mother and father").


Verbs

Verbs have either 3 or 4 letters. They must start with a short-sound letter which indicates meaning and end with a short-sound letter. There can be one or two long-sound letters in the middle. One long-sound letter and the final short-sound letter correspond with their similar-sounding noun counterpart. On rare occasions, verbs may have three long-sound letters. The first long-sound letter and the third long-sound letter (if present) are accentually pronounced and the final short-sound letter is pronounced slightly strongly and distinctly. Example: ''bean''


Complements

Complements have less than three letters and are conducted by ''c''. The complement is an adjective when modifying a noun or pronoun and an adverb when qualifying any other word. The suffix ''-w'' may also be added to adverbs to make it clearer. They generally end with a short-sound letter. ''l'' and ''w'' are avoided at the end of complements. Example: (white)


Pronouns

Pronouns have four classes: personal pronoun, impersonal pronoun, relative pronoun, and interrogative pronoun. Personal and impersonal pronouns: Relative pronouns are based on ''lr'', and interrogative pronouns are based on ''qw.'' Both of these are used as the subject or object. The beginning short-sound letter and the first long-sound letter are accented, and other long-sound letters are pronounced somewhat strongly and distinctly with a pause.


Prepositional conjunctions

The prepositional conjunction is one letter, ''a''. It usually accompanies one or two long-sound letters before or after one short-sound letter and may be placed before any word, clause, or sentence.


Exclamations

Exclamations are two long-sounding letters and ''w'' may be added to the middle or end.


Affixes

Babm utilizes prefixes and suffixes to modify nouns, verbs, complements, and pronouns.


Examples

abm:
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation ** International Phonetic Association, the organization behind the alphabet * India pale ale, a style of beer * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA ...
:] nglish:''I am reading this book, which is very interestingly written in Babm by a predominant scholar.'' abm: PA: nglish:''Time causes youth to be old.''Okrent, 2009, op. cit. supra, p. 16.


References


Bibliography

*Okamoto, Rikichi uishiki(1962). ''Universal auxiliary language, Babm''. Tokyo: The author. uthor appears as Fuishiki Okamoto.*Okamoto, Rikichi uishiki(1964). ''Sekaigogakuron''. Tokyo: Minseikan. n Japanese.


External links


Babm: The Simplest Auxiliary Language
(excerpts from the 1962 book)

by Ray Brown
The first 25 pages of Universal Auxiliary Language Babm
{{Constructed languages Constructed languages introduced in 1962 International auxiliary languages Constructed languages Languages of Japan