Names and borrowings

“Perhaps it's impossible to wear an identity without becoming what you pretend to be.”

— ender's game orson scott card

In many language courses, the first lesson teaches how one introduces one's self. This book will do something similar. This lesson will cover how names are used in Eberban, as well as the process by which foreign words are borrowed into it.

Suppose that one wants to name one's self dzu (magenta). If one merely says dzu:

One asserts that "something is magenta". That is not what one wants. The exact processes of the grammar will be covered in future chapters.

For now, pay no attention to (E-Xd) -- simply take it to be single parameter which can accept arguments.

What one wants is to say the name "Magenta", not "Something is magenta." To do this, one ought to use the particle za (of the particle family ZI).

From now on, the classes (or parts of speech) that particles belong to will be shown in parentheses. Particles of the same class have the same (or very similar) grammar and are used in similar places. The name of particle class are named by the type specimen of the class in capital letters for historical reasons.

Note for Lojban and Toaq readers: It should be noted that "place structure" in Eberban is different from the way Lojban and Toaq handle places. This is covered in more detail in tba.

The particle za has the following grammar:

za : (E-Xd) is named :

What one want, then, is za dzu.

What if one wants to use a non-Eberbanic name? Suppose one's name is "Anna Livingstone". How does one say that in Eberban? First, one should transliterate the name, obeying Eberban borrowing morphology rules. A simplified explanation is given for now.

Borrowings must start with u. For words that already start with u, add a boundary marker, making the start of the word u'u. Borrowings must end with either a vowel or n, r or l. Borrowings must use only Eberban sounds.

In this case, the transliteration is ana livinsto. In Eberban, non-native words (borrowings) must be prefixed with u, making the borrowing u'ana ulivinsto. Borrowings which are adjacent to one another are treated as being part of the same borrowing. Therefore, u'ana ulivinsto means "Anna Livingstone" rather than "Anna" and "Livingstone". While there is a mechanism for the separation of borrowings, it is covered in a later chapter.

That is not yet what one wants. All borrowings have the place structure (E-Xd) is a/some "borrowing(s)". If one wants to refer to someone named Anna Livingstone, one will have to use za again.

One should transliterate your name or moniker into Eberban, or select words from the dictionary to form one's name, if desired.

It should be noted that any foreign word can be borrowed, not just names.

Exercise 02.1: English to Eberban Transliteration

No mastery will come without work. To learn truly, follow the exercises.

Transliterate the following English words into Eberban.

Transliteration is more art than science -- so long as it resembles the original pronunciation and obeys morphological rules, it is correct. The answers are merely the canonical transliterations.

Exercise 02.2: Eberban to English Transliteration

The reason why particle families are written with capital letters is because Eberban is descended from Lojban. Lojban writes particle families in such a manner, and that is how Eberban does it as well.

Extra credit: full borrowing morphology rules