Saturday, January 8, 2011

Balapuk word of the day: bel

bel


EN: English = mountain
EO: Esperanto = monto
DE: Deutsch = Berg
VO: Volapük = bel
KO: 한국어 = 산 (san)
JA: 日本語 = 山 (yama)
CN: 简体中文版 = 山 (shān)

EN: bel is also the Volapük word for mountain, derived from the German word Berg. Note that the 'r' in Berg is replaced by 'l'. This was done often in the original form of Volapük, not so much in the modern form.

In Balapook 'r' is always replaced by 'l' because I really hate the letter 'r'.
Also because in some Asian languages, the distinction between 'r' and 'l' is less strong--- in Korean both are represented by the same alphabet letter. (Yes, Korean has an alphabet--- it only looks like Chinese characters.)

Balapook, like Volapük and Esperanto, uses affixes (prefixes and suffixes) to form words from the basic roots. This means it is easier to learn the vocabulary.

The official affix list of Balapook is not yet finished. But here are some examples, using affixes likely to be on the final list, of words that can be made from 'bel'.

belik = EN: mountainous (adjective) = EO: monta = DE: bergig
beliko = EN: mountainously (adverb) = EO: monte
belel = EN: mountaineer, mountain climber = EO: montano, montogrimpisto = DE: Bergsteiger
belan = EN: mountain dweller, mountain man = EO: montano = DE: Bergbewohner
lebel = EN: large mountain = EO: montego = grosses Berg
smabel = EN: small mountain = EO: malgranda monto = DE: kleines Berg
belil = EN: hill = EO: monteto = DE: Hügel

No comments:

Post a Comment