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BELTER GRAMMAR: Copulas, Genitives, & Possessives; or “Of being, and being of”

Oye, xunyamwala!

Today we’re tackling two related subjects in how sentences in Belter are constructed. Understanding copulas & genitive/possessive word order in Belter will give students a stronger feel for the language, and how to construct sentences on your own.

COPULAS

A copula is a linking word, usually a form of the verb “to be”. Is, are, was, were, are examples of copulas in English.

Lang belta does not employ a general copula.

Mi da rowmwala, “I (am) the bartender”

Da weltewala xush, “The welder (is) happy/The happy welder”. Can contextually be either

Da Dzhimi ando du rowmwala, “Jimmy (is) bartending”. Lit. “The Jimmy [ongoing aspect] do/make bartender”.

Da Dhzimi ta ando du rowmwala, “Jimmy (was) bartending.” Lit: “The Jimmy [past tense] [ongoing aspect] do/make bartender.”

What Belter does have is the locative copula bi, which is used to indicate where something “is located”.

Milowda bi xom; to na. “We are home; you aren’t” Lit: “Us is (loc) home; you no.”

Da rowmwala bi da kapawu. “The bartender is aboard the ship.” Lit. “The bartender is (loc) the ship”.

Da voyu ta bi Sirish. “The thug was on Ceres”. Lit: “The thug [past tense] is (loc) Ceres”

Serí sésata gonya bi deya. “Three sisters will be there”. Lit: “Three sister [future tense] is (loc) there.”

Kepelésh bi xashiting mi? “Where is my bong/weed pipe/dab rig?” Lit: “What-place is (loc) cannabis/hazard-thing me?”

Possessive/Genitive Construction & Noun Phrases

Belter uses word order to demonstrate a possessive/genitive relationship between a “head noun” and “dependent” nouns/adjectives.

“Possessive” and “genitive” are related concepts which are often used interchangeably in English.

“Possessive” means a relationship of owership by the head noun of dependent. eg John’s books. John owns the books, and/or is the author.

“Genitive” means a relationship that is close/descriptive. Children’s books are not books owned/written by children, but for them..

Belter constructs “noun phrases” which consist of the “head” noun and modifiers The noun phrase as a whole then acts as the subject/object of the sentence.

Determiner/quantifiers/articles come before the word they modify, dependent nouns/adjectives come after the word they modify. The ultimate posessor goes at the end of the noun phrase.

The syntax of Belter noun phrases is:

Determiners/Quantifiers : Head noun : Dependent Nouns/Adjectives : Possesor

mo wang sodzha belta xush. “One more happy Belter soldier”. Lit: more one soldier Belter happy

wa túngeting tubik. “a very big gun” Lit: “A gun too-big”

koyo mi, “my weasel” Lit: weasel (of) me.

tu koyo kemang?, “whose two weasels?” Lit “two weasel (of) who?”

Imbobo rowm, “pub, bar”, aka “rum hole”. Lit: hole (of) rum

ora xush belta imalowda , “their Belter happy hour”. Lit: hour happy Belter (of) them

walowda buk rowmwala OPA ofisha, “a few official OPA Bartender’s manuals”. Lit: some book bartender OPA official

One can also mark the head noun and all the dependents in the noun phrase with the definite article da, indicating they are all part of the same single noun phrase. This pattern is taken from Arabic.

Note that the possessor, while part of the noun phrase, does not get the definite article unless the possessor is also a proper name. Pronouns never get the definite article, people’s names always do.

Sowng da inya, “Sun (is) the inner”. Lit: sun the inner. In this example, because the subject “sowng” does not have the definite article, “da inya” is not part of the subject noun phrase, and is instead the object.

da sowng inya, “the inner’s sun OR the sun (is an) inner”, Lit: the sun inner

da sowng da inya, “the inner sun”, Lit: the sun the inner

da got da tiki da volkang, “The tiki god of the volcano” Lit: The god the tiki the volcano.

da got da ret da tiki da volkang da Dzhimi, “Jimmy’s red tiki god of the volcano”, Lit: the god the tiki the volcano the Jimmy

Da ora da xush da belta da kong. “The next Belter happy hour.” Lit: The hour the happy the belter the next

Da buk da rowmwala da OPA da ofisha, “The official OPA bartender manual” Lit: The book the bartender the OPA the official

Da shapu da Mila “Miller’s hat” Lit: The hat the Miller

In addition, one can make even more complex noun phrases by introducing a subordinate clause via a relative pronoun

Da kasinyo da OPA delowda ta leta-go kowl pish mi. “The OPA casinos which took all my chips” Lit: The casino the OPA those-which [past tense] take-away all chip me

Da shapu da Mila deting kopeng im ta gif fo im “Miller’s hat which his freind gave him” Lit: The hat the Miller which friend him [past tense] give to him

For more on relative pronouns and their use, see “Understanding This, That, Who, Which, What, & The Thing Over Yonder in Lang Belta”

The complexity of Belter noun phrases is why pronouns can be used as a parenthetical to restate/clarify the subject before moving on to the verb.

Fo keng to im gut “Nice to meet you” Lit: To be acquainted with you it (is) good

The intersection of noun phrase syntax and lack of general copula is (IMO) one of the lynchpin features of Belter grammar. Belter grammar being strongly Sub-Verb-Obj, so being able to identify where the subject ends is crucial if there is no copula.

As always, Nick Farmer is the final authority on all things lang belta. His opinion is definitive.

Fing ematim! (“Until soon!”)

[pensatingbik]

Dewe imim shɒxa lang belta ere Sirish (“How Belter is spoken on Ceres

Here’s a fun fact that I was recently reminded of [we’re studying the Ceres dialect of Belter.

London, Canada, Australia, Texas, Ireland, Scotland, Northumbria, They’re all speaking English, they can all communicate amongst each other.

And sometimes they do look at each other and say “Keting da xelep deting to bera finyish showxa?” [what the hell did you just say?]

[One of my favorite Scandi-cop TV series has a Danish cop talking to a bunch of Swedes, who all have a glazed, confused look in there eyes. The Dane pauses… “Let me start again, but slower.”

Something like that. 😉

And no, so far Nick hasn’t fleshed out the other dialects of Belter. But they exist.

Dédawang xélixup! [That’s excellent] Especially as I’m extra nerdy for the alternhative orthographies

[pensatingbik]

What Is a "Creole Language" (and what is it not)?

When the authors talk about "Belter Creole", what are do they mean? What is a "creole language" and why is it particularly appropriate that by the time of the The Expanse, a creole has settled as the stable lingua franca of The Belt?

Unpacking Creole Languages: a 4-part series

Creoles and their speakers have a history colonialism, racism, and exploitation, and the scholarship around them until quite recently has reflected this experience. And because they are considered somehow inherently deficient, attempts to educate children who are native speakers of a creole language in their native language are considered ill-advised, impossible, and can face outright resistance.

Ty Franck has mentioned being inspired by Sabir, a pidgen used for hundreds of years in the Mediterranean by sailors and traders, when he envisioned the "Belter Creole" for the books. The Belter Creole from the books is more of word salad used for flavoring, not an actual languauge. This is because Ty & Daniel are storytellers, not linguists.

So when the show hired linguist Nick Farmer to create a "Belter Creole" for the series... he went deep. The result is Lang Belta, an English-based creole with 30+ other languages contributing.

Creoles are not broken/degenerate versions of their mother languages, primal expressions of the language instinct, or pidgens which children have imposed syntax on.

Creoles are the human language process happening. It happens in a bit of a pressure cooker because of comparative isolation mixed with heavy language contact. But they are not some exotic things somehow essentially unlike the languages spoken by those in power.

On Ceres, the subway car announcements I've heard have been in English or Hindi. Never in lang belta. Why? Because Ceres is there for the benefit of the inners. Milowda na anyimal means "We are not animals". Only people being treated as animals develop catchphrases like that.

Understanding how the Belter language relates to the past and present of creole languages' experience of power dynamics, racism, and exploitation gives us a lot of insight into the experience of Beltalowda as a projected future of humans exploiting humans.

And if "Unpacking" whet your appetite for more about creoles, I'd recommend "Creole Exceptionalism and the (Mis)Education of the Creole Speaker" by Michel DeGraff of MIT. The article goes into more detail academically while still being accessible reading. There's also a good bit of Kreyol/French comparison as exemplar of the relationship between daughter and mother languages, which is enlightening for student of lang belta. Pwof. Michel Degraff helped Nick understand creoles so that he could go on and create one for the show.

Du feri da Belte! Wang ámolof, wang manting!

("Free the Belt! One love, one humanity!")

[pensatingbik]

Learning Lang Belta: The Basics List

Oye, xunyamwala!

This is going to serve as a go-to link to pull together links to the various lang belta learning resources I recommend to people. It'll be updated as new resources become available.

Entry Level:

The Lang Belta Memrise Course. Where everyone should begin their studies. Learn your essential phrases and vocabulary here. By the folks who brought you The Expanse Cocktails.

Lang Belta Cheat Sheet by @ItReachesOut. Original debut: Worldcon 75

Da Tékidok Da Lang Da Belta Da Lexica ("Lexica's Belter Vocabulary Spreadsheet"). This is as close to a dictionary as we currently have. Everything is sourced either to something Nick Farmer has tweeted, or confirmed via his Patreon. NOTE: the sheet “Eyepatch & Cork” is valid LB entries that Pirate made that still needs Lexica to go over it and verify the formatting. before moving to the main “Words” sheet. Yes; that is a “Dirty Rotten Shoundrels” reference.

Moving Beyond the Basics:

BELTER GRAMMAR: Tense & Aspect. Tense is about place in time (past, presesnt, future). Aspect is about relation to the low of time (ongoing, habitual, or completed actions).

BELTER GRAMMAR: Mood. Mood describes the speaker's attitude towards what they are saying. Ideas like "must", "should" "would", etc.

BELTER GRAMMAR: This, That, & Which; Interrogatives, Relatives, etc English is very casual about how one deplys words like "this", "that", "which", "who", etc. Belter is much more specific in how one says things. The interrogative such as "which(?)" are not only different from the relative "which…", there can be different words depending on number and proximity, as well as what the subject is (thing, person, time, place…)

BELTER GRAMMAR: Of Being, and Being Of: Copulas, POssessives, and Genitives (NEW 4/2020)

Written Belter: An Alternative Orthography: Why does Pirate often write the digraph "ow" as "ɒ"?

Fo finyish vedi ɒta xunyamwala (“To find other students of lang belta”):

r/LangBelta

Sharing with the Class: Questions and answers to/from Nick Farmer’s Patreon.

The Expanse Discord: Lang Belta channel

The Paine x MacTane Lang Belta Class Convention Scedule (COMING SOON): Introduction To Lang Belta taught by some of the earliest students.

Lang Belta as a Creole Conlang

Unpacking Creole Languages: a 4-part series.

Creole Exceptionalism and the Mis-Education of the Creole Speaker:

Pwof. Michel DeGraff is an MIT Linguistics Professor and creolist who helped Nick Farmer get his head wrapped around creole languages so that he could create a creole conlang.

“Unpacking” heavily cites DeGraff, and is very much an introduction to his (and related sxholars’) ideas around creole linguistics and sociology. “Mis-Education” is by DeGraff and while it’s not obtuse, but it is dense. But Pirate & Lexica Have found the comparisons of Kreyol and French very illuminating when thinking about how Belter works.

These two articles above are for people who want to know more about creole languages and the history of racism/colonialism around them, as well as get an idea of what Nick was going for when he designed lang belta.

More about Belter:

Ars Technica interviews the Creater of Belter Creole from “The Expanse”

Deciper Sci-Fi Podcast ep. 46: Language & The Expanse (w/ guest host Nick Farmer)

Nick Farmer (Lang Belta) & David J Peterson (Dothraki, Valyrian, Trigedasleng) in conversation: “The Art Of Language Invention”. Stay all the way to the end of the Q&A. Yes, Pirate manipulated his place in line so he was last Q. Yes, Pirate’s Belter was once that jankety. So keep practicing!

Nick Farmer on Geek News Radio (NEW JAN 2020)

Q&A With Nick Farmer (NEW JAN 2020)

A Silicon Valley Linguist (NEW JAN 2020)

The Belter Bartender Playlist: videos in & about Lang Belta

Nick Farmer’s Conlang Patreon. Got questions about Lang Belta (or language in general)? Wanna request new Belter words that we don’t already have? Join up, and drink from the source.

[pensatingbik]

“Kewe mi sensa ere da ting deting mi ando showxa?” Mood markers in Lang Belta

Oye, xunyamwala!

The title of this article means “How do I feel about what I am saying?” because we’re going to discuss grammatical mood in Lang Belta.

And that’s what mood does, it describes the speaker’s attitude regarding what they are saying. This includes describing sentiments like “must”, “should”, “ought to”, “would”, “possibly”, “counterfactually” and others.

Previously we’ve discussed tense and aspect in detail as part of Tense-Aspect-Mood Grammar, and how Lang Belta has markers for each.

To briefly recap using showxa:

Unmarked verbs are present tense. Mi showxa. “I speak.”

Ta is the past tense marker. Mi ta showxa. “I spoke.”

Gonya is the future tense marker. Mi gonya showxa. “I will speak.”

Ando is the continuous aspect marker. Mi ando showxa. “I am speaking.”

Tili is the habitual aspect marker. Mi tili showxa. “I regularly speak.”

Finyish is the perfective aspect marker. Mi finyish showxa. “I have spoken/I had spoken.” (contextual)

Grammar in Belter is strictly subject-verb-object, and there is no passive construction; one uses the indefinite 3rd person plural imim as subject instead. “They/It” (unspecified) did/said it.

ENGLISH: “Sins were comitted”.

BELTER: Imim ta du papeka. (“They committed sins.”)

ENGLISH: “Things happened.”

BELTER: Imim ta du ting. (“It did things”)

Sentences in Lang Belta can have 1 tense (place in time) and 1 aspect (relationship to the flow of time), but multiple moods.

So, mood markers.

English uses modal verbs for words like “can” and “should”. Unlike in English, Belter mood markers are not verbs themselves, but auxiliary modifiers to a verb, just like tense and aspect markers. There still needs to be a verb for the mood marker to modify, (even if it’s the silent copula.

As far as the way mood markers in Belter behave, Nick gave the following answer regarding the mood marker fosho to a question on his Patreon:

“fosho always denotes the speaker’s belief, and modifies a verb, but it can move to emphasise the word after fosho”.

This is, I believe, an important indicator how how mood markers work in general in LB. The balance of this article will assume that this is the case (unless/until corrected by Nick).

The mood markers that Nick has mentioned publicly are:

Fosho (belief): Mi fosho ta vedi im. “I saw it (and I believe that I am right).” Fosho mi ta vedi im. “I (and not someone else) saw it.”

Fosho fosho (confidently held belief): Mi fosho fosho ta vedi im. “I saw it (and I have no doubts whatsoever).” Fosho Fosho mi ta vedi im. = “I absolutely was the one who saw it.”

NOTE: Mi pensa is both “I think” as well as “I believe”. Mi ando pensa ere is “I am thinking about”, which is how Belter describes having thoughts, contemplation.

Mogut fo (should, ought to): Mi mogut fo showxa. “I should speak.” Mogut fo mi fo showxa. “I (rather than someone else) should speak.”

Mowsh (must, have to): To mowsh showxa. “You must speak (rather than keep silent).” Mowsh to showxa. “You (rather than somebody else) must speak.“

Deng fo (would): Mi deng fo showxa, amash mi nasunte. “I would speak, but I am unwell.”

Kang (capability): Mi kang showxa. “I can speak".

Mebi (subjunctive):

To quote Nick again:

“Let’s just say that if you ever studied a Romance language and the subjunctive tripped you up, mood in #LangBelta might be a challenge”

Nick goes on in that twitter thread to give several examples of using mebi in a sentence that seem a bit confusing. But if we understand what the subjunctive mood does, and combine that with understanding of how mood markers move around a sentence explained above, how the sentences work in Belter become much clearer.

The subjunctive is an “irrealis mood”; it describes that things that are, in some sense, “unreal”; things which have not happened, things which might yet happen, counterfactuals, conditionals, things other than which the speaker knows to be “real”.

NOTE: while mebi has an etymological root in the English word “maybe”, they are not the same and mebi is used differently.

Let’s look at the examples Nick gave. In each of the following sentences, mebi

A: modifies the verb showxa (“to say”) and

B: moves around so that the word(s) following mebi are “subjunctive”, i.e. “irrealis”.

Im showxa ‘ya’”. “He says ‘yes’”

Im kang showxa ‘ya’”. “He can say ‘yes’” (is capable of)

Im mebi showxa “ya”. “He might say ‘yes’ (it is possible)”

Im mebi kang showxa “ya”. “He might be capable of saying ‘yes’”

Im mebi mebi showxa ‘ya’”. It’s possible (though unlikely) that he says ‘yes’”.

Fairly straightforward, right? But it can be subtle.

Mi pensa im ta showxa “ya” = I think he said “yes”

Mi pensa im mebi ta showxa “ya” = I think he said “yes” (but I’m not certain)

Mi pensa im ta showxa mebi “ya” = I think he said yes (but maybe he said something else)

Mi pensa mebi im ta showxa “ya” = I think it was him who said yes (but maybe it was someone else)

One thing I’ve noted is that Nick has never tweeted a sentence with the word sili (“if”) without also using mebi. Which leads me to suspect that “if” statements in lang belta might necessarily be subjunctive:

Sili im mebi kom, deng showxa mi = If he comes, then tell me. (Here the if/when he’s coming is the “irrealis” as it may it may not come to pass.)

Mi du mowteng du walowda walowda fosh wowk sili mi mebi gonya du wang wit da OPA, “I must do a lot of practice if I am possibly going to join the OPA.”

Ere Sirish na desh zakong, bera zakomang. To na sasa natim sili imim mebi kom fo leta-go to fongi fode, “On Ceres there are no laws, only cops. You don’t never know if someone will possibly come to take you away.”

Mi Fosho Fosho du mowteng vedi S4! Mi mebi gonya decho sili mi mebi na vedi im ematim! Oso, mogut fo to du wang wit milowda ere da channel da Discord da Expanse.

(“I absolutely need to see s4! I might die if I don’t see it soon! Also, you should join us on the Expanse Discord Channel.”)

[pensatingbik]

Written Belter: Alternate Orthography

Oye, xúnyamwala! With upwards of 30 languages contributing to its evolution, one neat factor about Belter is that there is no official orthography, and it can be written in almost any alphabet. The show uses the Roman alphabet for the most part.

Here’s a Twitter thread from Nick Farmer (creator of lang belta):

“Belter doesn't have a standard orthography. It's reasonable to assume that in different parts of the Belt, it is written in the script most familiar to those speakers. Many Belters are trilingual+. Belter, English, and whatever their grandparents spoke. So, you could write Belter in the Roman alphabet, or Cyrillic, Greek, Devanagari, Katakana, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, Hangul, Cherokee, whatever you'd like.”

“But while language is a natural and spontaneous product of human interaction, writing systems are not. They are consciously developed and purposely spread through education, and there's no practical reason to mix them, while there are several reasons not to. That said, there are always exceptions (looking at you, Japanese) and there ARE cases of individual symbols being created or adapted in a writing system when used with a new language, for sounds that didn't exist in the original language.”

“But Belter phonology, like the phonologies of many creoles, is relatively simple and regular compared to many other languages. Creoles tend to what the languages coming into contact have in common, abandoning the more unusual features. So, not much need for unusual symbols.”

“The only sound that can't be represented by the Roman alphabet with one character is the vowel "ow." On Twitter I've used the digraph, but sometimes on the show you'll see the symbol "ɒ," borrowed from the international phonetic alphabet.”

Recently @Melanyabelta pointed out some other characters one can use to spice up written Belter, reduce digraphs, and still stay pretty readable without having to learn an entire new alphabet.

The first two characters below are from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which the show already uses. The other three are consonants with an accent called a “háček”, and replaces the “h” in sh, ch, and dzh. This accent shows up in modern Baltic alphabets like Slovene & Gajica, which are themselves elaborations on the Roman alphabet better suited to the particular language being written.

ow: ɒ ng: ŋ (“n” + the tail from “g”) sh: š ch: č dzh: dž

Note: Belter is pronounced with the stress on the penultimate syllable. Accents over a vowel indicate stress on a different syllable. Here’s what Belter looks like written this way:

Kéradžaŋ na deš namaŋ ere da imbobo da rɒm? Kepeléš kɒl kopeŋ mi imalɒda ta go?  

Kemaŋ ta leta-go šetéxetiŋ mi? Du mɒteŋ da tiŋ de fo wɒk.  

Tenye wa češ gut!  

Detiŋ to kaŋ du fo du mi xuš im pašaŋ foŋ.  

Pašaŋ to, džemaŋ nakaŋipensa! To kɒltim ando du ručirɒnya. Setóp da kaka de!  

Da šeŋ im da kori da kapawu xiya im mebi na séfesɒŋ. Amaš milɒda finyiš du šeru so… šukumi. Sili mebi milɒda na dečo fore detim milɒda kom-go ere Siriš, FOSHO FOSHO gonya du im gut.  

Imim ando du wɒk milɒda asilik tɒču; xídawaŋ na kaŋ xalte legawu!  

Na deš zakoŋ ere Siriš, bera zákomaŋ.

♬Da maliwala da beratna mi im voyu ere Siriš; im xalte wit ubiča, im keŋ da we da šetexetiŋ.♬

Bosmaŋ OPA ere Palaš unte Iapetus imalɒda ta ékepeš xop detiŋ imim kaŋ avita da wɒ, unte da OPA ofiša na ere pati ere da kombat.

Ye páxari ere Siriš šɒxa da OPA mebi gonya gif xep fo da pati im mebi gonya du loš ere da wɒ, nalik da pólisi da tadisoŋ fo condenašaŋ eka.

One reason I really like this orthography is (as Nick has pointed out in conversation) SF/F authors are notorious for being haphazard and casual with diacritical marks and accents when naming characters o]r writing in a conlang for their story. Many do it seemingly at random, for decorative purposes and without thought as to what pronunciations the diacriticals are supposed to be representing.

This set of characters is really close already to how modern Slavic languages are spelled, and it’s pronounced as it’s written without ambiguity. Belters have better things for the children to do than memorize archaic etymologies for spelling bees.

As Nick has mentioned above, spoken languages processes are natural and evolutionary, but writing systems are chosen. It was mentioned on r/TheExpanse that one could introduce Cyrillic characters to reduce digraphs, but that would mean choosing to mix Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. As Nick said, there are practical reasons not to mix writing systems.

And bonus points: The Expanse escape room had Belter graffiti that used alternate spellings that were not chosen for use on the show, but which I take to mean some Belters somewhere spell sefoka as s’foka and belowt as b’lowt.

And I dig that a lot.

More bonus points: the show’s art department came up with their own monograph for “ow”. So that’s two different spellings of “ow” on protest signs on Ceres, the biggest station in the Belt. Well done.

[pensatingbik]

Understanding This, That, Who, Which, What, & The Thing Over Yonder in Lang Belta

Oye, xunyamwala!

One of the confusing aspects of studying lang belta is words like “The”, “This”, “That”, “Who”, “Why”, “When”, “How”, “Which”, etc. English is often very loose in how, when, and where these words are deployed.

Belter is a little more specific in the way one says things, and it can get confusing which word to choose (and when), especially when the choices appear similar. This article will attempt to offer some illumination on the subject.

NOTE: Due to recent Q&As with Nick Farmer via Patreon, certain usages which we thought were how_ lang belta_ worked have turned out not to be. In particular xídawang and dédawang. They are both relative (which will be explained below), but we have treated them generally as if they were not.

The information in this document is as up to date as as I can make it as of publish date. If we learn something different in the future, I’ll update this and mark the updates.

As always, Nick is the final word on how the language works. Milowda du amolof to, bosmang belta!

—

Da is the definite article “The”:

Da ting, “the thing” 

Da mang, “the person”

Da we, “the way/route”

“Da” is also used with word order to show complex levels of possession/of-ness

Da got da tiki da volkang, “The tiki god of the volcano”

Da koyo da beláng da beratna mi, “My brother's white weasel”

People’s proper names also get the definite article, like in Greek and Catalan:

Da Bomi

Da Naomi

Da Diogo

Pronouns never get the direct article. “Sésata mi”, _never “_sésata da mi”.

Wa is the indefinite article “a”, although it also functions as “some-” when used as prefix.

Wa ting gut!

“A good thing!” [colloquially, Congratulations!]

Mi fosho ta du im wapelésh ere da imbobo.

[I {confident-belief-mood-marker} {past-tense} do/make it someplace in the hole.]

I’m sure I put it somewhere in the apartment.

Wamang fosho gonya showxa im.

[Someone {confident-belief-mood-marker} {future-tense} say/speak her.]

I’m sure someone will tell her.

“Here” is xiya. “There” is deya.

“This” is constructed via da X xiya, “the X here”.

For a non-specific “this”, da ting xiya:

Da ting xiya gut. This is good.

One can also insert a specific subject for “X”:

Da kapawu xiya nagut. This ship is no good.

“That” in Belter takes two forms depending on proximity. Da X de is “that” indicating X is close by. Da X dedeya indicates an X which is more distant.

Da kapawu de mogut. That ship is better.

Da kapawu dedeya xélixup. That ship yonder is excellent.

Da diye xiya (“This day”) is “today”. Da diye de (“That day”) is either “yesterday” or “tomorrow”. The context of the conversation will indicate which one the speaker means. Da diye dedeya indicates a day further off than yesterday or tomorrow.

So far, so good.

Next, interrogatives. Interrogatives ask questions, and begin with_ Ke_-:

Ketim [“When?”]

Ketim milowda gonya et? When will we eat?

Kemang [“Who?”]

Kemang ta du da fut? Who made the food?

Kepelésh [“Where?”]

Kepelésh milowda gonya et? Where will we eat?

Keting [“What?”]

Keting milowda gonya et? What will we eat?

Kewe [“How?”]

Kewe milowda gonya et? How will we eat?

Kéweting [“What kind/type?”]

Kéweting fut milowda gonya et? What kind of food will we eat?

Kéradzhang [Why? For what reason?]

Kéradzhang milowda gonya et da ting de? Why are we going to eat that?

_ _

Kédawang [“Which?”]

Kédawang koyo? Which weasel?

Kelowda [How many/much?]

Kelowda koyo to tenye? How many weasels (do) you have?

Kelowda fo burito unte ɒkwa kaka? How much for (a) burrito & coffee?

Note that the interrogative marker ke can also be added by itself to transform a statement into a yes/no question.

Im bi xiya. She is here.

Im bi xiya ke? Is she here?

To ask “Whose X?”, one uses word order to indicate possession.

Kapawu kemang da ting de?

[Ship (of) who (is) that?]

Whose ship is that?

Relative pronouns and adverbs get confusing; Many xunyamwala trip up over which form to use, da ting or deting, etc. Luckily, they’re not hard to grasp once you get the hang of it.

Let’s first look at what relatives do grammatically in English, then at how they are used in Belter (an English-based creole language).

The function of relatives is to introduce a dependent clause, most often (but not necessarily) by linking the clause to a noun or pronoun subject the way a conjunction does. The relative in each of the following phrases will be in bold.

The time when I went to Phoebe

The Belters who built the station

The place where we first met

The way that the crew was poisoned

The reason why everyone is screaming

The thing that will kill me

In the above phrases, the dependent clauses to the right are linked to subject on the left via the relative in the middle.

In English, the relative is sometimes optional, and one still has grammatically valid English without it. Examples:

The time I went to Phoebe

The place we first met

The way the crew was poisoned

The reason everyone is screaming

In Belter, if one is going to have a dependent clause, one must introduce it with a relative pronoun or adverb. In Belter, the phrases above lacking a relative word would be ungrammatical.

Every interrogative in Belter has a matching relative (with a couple having two matching relatives). As Belter interrogatives all begin with ke-, Belter relatives (with a couple of exceptions) begin with de-:

Detim [“the time when…”]

Desh tim detim mang im mowsh leva sif xox.

[There is time** the time when** person she must lift self up.]

There is a time when a person must stand up.

_ _

Demang [“the person(s) who…”]

Mi finyish shetexe da mang demang ta du xite sésata mi.

[I {perfective-mood-marker} stab/cut the person the person(s) who {past-tense} do/make strike sister me.]

I have stabbed the person who hit my sister.

_ _

Dépelesh [“the place where…”] _ _

To wanya go dépelesh kowmang sasa nem to.

[You want go** the place where** everyone know name you.]

You want to go where everybody knows your name.

_ _

Deting [“that/which”] _ _

Desh buk ere Erosh deting mi wanya.

[There is book on Eros the thing that me want.]

There is a book on Eros that I want.

_ _

Dewe [“the way that…”]

Mi na sasa dewe imalowda ta du im.

[Me {negative-marker} know the way that they {past-tense} do it.]

I don’t know how they did it.

_ _

Déradzhang [“the reason why…”]

Mi sasa déradzhang Erosh det.

I know the reason why Eros (is) dead.

Da Diogo im gúfovedi, déradzhang kɒmang du ámolof im.

[The Diogo he good-for-look-at,** the reason why** everyone do/make love him.]

Diogo is handsome, therefore everybody loves him.

NOTE: Déradzhang is not “because”, that’s fo.

The following four relatives all indicate proximity (close or far), as well as singular/plural, and include the two relatives that begin with xi- rather than de-:

Xídawang [“This one which…”]

HOLDING UP A BEER Xídawang da biya mi.

[This one which (is) the beer me.]

This is my beer.

_ _

Dédawang [“That one which…”]

POINTING TO A HALF-EMPTY, ROOM-TEMPERATURE BEER ON THE TABLE Dédawang da biya to.

[That one which the beer you.]

That’s your beer.

_ _

Xilowda [“These which…” “this many…”]

HOLDING UP 6-PACK Xilowda biya mi.

[These which beer me.]

These are my beers.

_ _

Delowda [“Those which...” “that many which..”]

POINTING AT EMPTY BOTTLES LITTERING THE GODDAMN APARTMENT Delowda ta biya mi, dzhemang! Keting sabakawala deting imim ta du xiya?

[Those which {past-tense} beer me, crooked-dick! What thing whoremonger the thing which {non-specific they}{past tense} do/make here?]

Those were my beers, asshole! What the fuck happened here?

As we have seen elsewhere in lang belta, one can drop the subject when the context makes it clear. Similarly, one can drop the subject and begin a sentence with a relative, with it’s trailing clause referencing the dropped subject.

Dewe da livit da Belta.

[The way that (is) the life the Belter]

Such (is) the Belter Life.

_ _

Dewe da we!

[The way that (is) the way!]

That’s how it’s done! (“Way to go!”, “Congratulations!”)

_ _

Dédawang mi du nem belta.

[That thing which I do/make name Belter.]

That’s what I call Belter.

_ _

Kowltim vedi fong bap unte kuwang.** Dépelesh** imim ge to.

[Always see/look from door and corner. The place where {nonspecific-they} get you.]

Always watch the doors and corners**. That’s** where they get you.

_** **_

Detim to ta ando du pirata, mi ta ando pashang beratna to.

[The time when you {past-tense} {ongoing-aspect-marker} do/make pirate, I {past-tense} {ongoing-aspect-marker} mount brother you.]

While you were pirating, I was fucking your brother.

_ _

Deting gonya gut im detim desh rowm wamotim.

[The thing that {future-tense} good it the time when there is rum again.]

What will be good is when there is rum again.

I hope this clears some things up. If you haven’t already, come join us on the Expanse Discord channel under #LangBelta and learn some Belter, maybe practice what you've gotten so far. Check out my “Belter Bartender” videos. See how many mistakes you can pick up. ;-)

And if you really want to drink from the source, consider joining Nick Farmer’s Patreon. (https://www.patreon.com/Nfarmer/overview).

Nick is the linguist behind lang belta, and an all around awesome guy to know. Supporters get to ask him language/grammar questions, request new Belter vocabulary, and help support the creator of this awesome conlang. There is a Questions to Nick Farmer google doc where those of us on the Discord share our answers with the class.

And remember: Orbit Books doesn’t seem to think there is enough of a market for an OFFICIAL lang belta textbook. They don’t think there are enough fans out there will to support the show (even if they don’t learn how to speak) by paying for merch.

After #SaveTheExpanse and the RPG kickstarter, I think we can convince them otherwise, keyá?

Wang manting, wang ámolof!

[pensatingbik]

Ever wonder what Belter Punk sounded like?

[pensatingbik]

A Belter poem by Nick Farmer.

[pensatingbik]

The Key to Survival, In Space

From Sapiens: The Key to Survival, In Space

To make it in space we will need to cooperate and pledge to help one another. The survival of a stranger will mean the survival of the species. Our fellow space dwellers, whether on the moon or Mars, will live with the constant threat of emergencies and disasters. They may need to evacuate unsuitable spacecraft or homes and may find themselves suddenly without power, food, water, or communications. We must be ready to take in anyone who needs our help as if they were our own family. Success in space for humanity will require a code of conduct that says any stranger in need is always welcome, and that we will always help them.

[pensatingbik]

Yáterash, náterash, & sepíng: the Belter vocabulary of gravity

(NOTE: Words in lang belta (Belter) are pronounced with stress on the penultimate syllable. An accent on a vowel indicates that stress falls on that syllable in a particular word.)

Oye, kopeng!

One of the characteristic experiences of da livit da belta (Belter life) is birth and childhood in low- and zero-G. It affects Belter physiology, to the point that they can’t stand up or breathe properly at Earth’s gravity (1G). They require steroids and growth hormones to develop properly, even by Belter standards. It’s made clear that the more prejudiced among inner planet folk believe that “Belters aren’t even human anymore.” This is why one of the Belter slogans is Milowda na anyimal!, “We are not animals”. (Note: Belter does not add an -s to indicate plural; it’s implied by context, in this case milowda, “we, us”. Mi na anyimal is “I am not an animal”.)

Inner planet folk talk about “gravity” because it is a constant force all their lives. Most Earthers never get even as far as Luna, so zero-G is a purely theoretical concept for them. The culture’s largely unchanging experience of gravity is reflected in that there is one word for it.

In the Belt, gravity comes with an on/off switch as well as a volume knob. Shipboard experience of gravity varies from floating in zero-G to G forces strong enough to kill the crew, depending on how hard the drive is burning. Different space stations will have different gravities depending on how big they are and how fast they are spinning. None will be at a full G.

The multiple words Belters use to describe their cultural experience of gravity reflects this lived reality.

One way to mimic gravity is through rotation; on a rotating space station “down” is the direction of the centripetal force. The word for this kind of gravity is sepíng, “spin".

One artifact of spin gravity is the Coriolis effect. Close to the core, the station is spinning so quickly in such a tight arc that if you drop something, although it’s pulled in straight line towards the floor, by the time it hits the floor the floor (and the room above it) has moved; rather than fall straight down, it will look like it’s falling in a spiraling curve. The further away from the core, the longer the arc of travel, and the less Coriolis one experiences.

Watch Miller pour liquids. In the governor’s office, he pours water into a glass and it falls in a straight line. That means they’re pretty close to the outside skin of Ceres, because there is no visible distortion to the water stream. When Miller is going through Julie’s dating profile to find the data-broker, he pours a brown spirit off to the side of the cup, and it pours in an arced stream, implying that he’s someplace towards the core where the Coriolis is much stronger.

Similarly, when he’s interviewing Gia the prostitute after her client gets murdered, he shares a glass of something, probably with the excuse of helping her calm her nerves. We don’t see Gia drink, but when it cuts back to Miller, rather than “raise a glass” in a toast, he swings the cup in front of him in a flat circle before taking a sip. The Rosse Buurt district is coreward, and maybe that’s a Belter way of toasting the other person while close to the core without flinging the drink out of the glass.

Another example of sepíng is when Naomi is guiding everyone through the Eros service tunnels. At one point, she drops a pinch of dust in front of her and looks at how it corkscrews to the floor. That gives her an orientation and lets her know what direction she wants to go. (GIF via @CarlBrwn)

The other way Humanity mimics gravity in space is linear acceleration. The Epstein drive is hyper efficient, doesn’t require the ejection of reaction mass, and can accelerate a ship far faster than a human could ever tolerate, drugs or no. Epstein drive ships in The Expanse are built like a skyscraper, floors stacked on top of each others, with the engine in the basement. As long as the ship is actively accelerating nose first or decelerating engines first, the crew experience gravity.

A point-to-point trip would involve accelerating to half-way, cutting the drive, “flipping” the ship using “teakettle” thrusters (water-ejecting maneuvering thrusters). Once the ship is repositioned and flying engines-first, one fires up the drive again and decelerates towards the final destination.

The nouns for the on/off state of ship-based gravity in Belter experience are yáterash (“under thrust”) [literally “yes thrust”] and náterash (“thrusters are off”) [literally “no thrust”].

The belter word for “to jump” is du push. Because in zero-G, that’s essentially what a jump is. And if you think it through, belters probably think of jumping with their hands. Jump in terms of a leap is salta.

Kaka felota means “floating shit”. It’s what happens when the toilet backs up during náterash, and is also used where an Earther might say “bullshit”, and probably how they express general displeasure. We don’t know if Nick has given us the straight up verb “to float” (or if he has, we haven’t captured it in the tékidoc yet), but it’ll probably end up being similar to felota.

No doubt there are other gravity-related words regarding navigation. Owbit is the Belter word for “orbit”. We know “slingshot club” is an extreme sport among Belters, but we don’t have the Belter for it yet. So keep your eyes peeled for more physics vocab. As always, Nick Farmer is the final arbiter of all things lang belta. Follow his twitter if you haven’t already.

Du féri da Belte!

Da Pirata & Da Lexica

EDIT 3/11/2018:

Nick Farmer wrote a Belter poem, which contains the line:

Imim mebi du mi unte du to fong materi, / Amash bera tenye terásh xiya ere da nax

”You and I may have been made from matter, / But we only have thrust here in the night”

In the twitter-thread, Nick elaborates:

[Térash] literally means thrust, poetically can be broader, like power. The way to think about that couplet is that we are made of matter, matter, has mass, mass has gravitational force, but in the Belt, gravity as we think of it is insignificant. And you can think of gravity as drawing things together... like how people want to be together.

But in the Belt, we don’t have that. Only thrust, which is artificial. But at the same time it’s something that WE produce actively, not passively. So, to be together, as we were meant to be as material beings, we have to do work when surrounded by this vast emptiness.

[pensatingbik]

In this video, linguists Nick Farmer (creator of lang belta) and David J. Peterson (creator of Trigadasleng [The 100], Dothraki, & Valyrian [Game of Thrones]) in conversation about language, constructed langauges, television, and stuff.

At ~43:25, in response to a question regarding a surprising experience in the real world with their languages, Nick responds “When I go into a bar, and the bartender starts speaking to me in Belter, and I have this realization that there’s somebody who speaks my language way better than I do.”

Heh. To any extent that’s true, it’s probably bc I don’t have to sort through 30 languages rattling around in my noggin to get to the Belter. ;-)

At 1:06:50, I actually get to ask a couple of questions in Belter, and give a brief recruiting speech for the OPA. Yes, I start off by saying goodbye, and it’s really jankety “Beltlish”. But practice makes perfect.

Du ferí da Belte!

-Pirata

[pensatingbik]

"Why are there rats in space?"

Anywhere humans are shipping cargo, you’re gonna get rats.

Related: “That rat was a star.”

[pensatingbik]

Grammatical Aspect in Lang Belta

Aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event, or state, denoted by a verb, extends over time… distinctions can be made, for example, to distinguish states and ongoing actions (continuous and progressive aspects) from repetitive actions (habitual aspect).

-Wikipedia, "Grammatical Aspect"

Oye, xunyamwala!

So far, Nick Farmer (@NFarmerlinguist) has made public 3 aspect markers in Belta:

ando (continuous aspect)

tili (habitual aspect)

finyish (perfective aspect)

NOTE: "Ta" in Belta is not an aspect, but the past tense indicator. "Gonya" indicates future tense. "Im" is him/her/it based on context.

"Ando" is used to denote an action/state that is ongoing. Akin to the "-ing" suffix in English.

Mi vedi fo im. "I look for him/her/it."

Mi ando vedi fo im. "I am looking for h/h/i"

Mi ta vedi fo im. "I looked for h/h/i"

Mi ta ando vedi fo im. "I was looking for h/h/i."

Mi gonya ando vedi fo im. "I will be looking for h/h/i."

"Tili" is used to denote habitual states/actions.

Mi du adewu. "I sing"

Mi tili du adewu."I habitually/regularly sing."

Mi ta du adewu. "I sang."

Mi ta tili du adewu. "I sang regularly."

Mi gonya tili du adewu. "I'm going to sing regularly."

Xétamang tili du xeta. "Haters gonna hate." (Lit. "Haters habitually hate")

The habitual aspect is also used to denote ownership in Belta. The formation is "tili + tenye (to have)". To own something in Belta is to be in the habit of having it.

Mi tenye kapawu. "I have a ship."

Mi tili tenye kapawu. "I own a ship."

"Finyish" is the perfective marker, indicating completion of an action. Its use is similar to (but not quite the same as) the past participle of a verb.

Im bek. It breaks.

Im ando bek. "It is breaking."

Im finyish bek. "It's broken", "it has broken" (Contextual)

Im ta finyish bek. "It had broken." (Past tense)

Mi finyish vedi im. "I have seen him", or "I found him", (contextual).

(This one is the trickiest for me to deploy properly)

I think that's what's appeared in public so far. Don't think I missed any.

Of course, Nick Farmer is the final arbiter of what is/isn't proper Lang Belta. This is what I've pulled together from Twitter, and my wife & I hanging out with the guy over beers ("Hydrating" as Drummer puts it.) Consider anything Nick chooses to publicly contradict about anything here to be definitive. (NOTE: Apparently I got it right. Yay, me.

Hopefully the studio Alcon Entertainment & SyFy will publish an official guide soon. Send them a polite tweet/email about how much you love The Expanse, want it renewed, and want to buy official merch like an official guide to Belta.

Kids, be careful of linguists; once you start chatting with them it moves to having cocktails and beer with them, and suddenly you're down the linguistics rabbit hole and can distinguish between a voice and unvoiced glottal fricative, and start reading about grammar so you can compose a Reddit like this.

Du ferí da Belte!

-Pirate

(NOTE: Originally published here: https://www.reddit.com/r/LangBelta/comments/5witnh/grammatical_aspect_lang_belta_as_far_as_i_can/)

[pensatingbik]

Why we go with show Belta not book Belta

[description: screenshot of a tweet by Daniel Abraham, half of the “James S.A. Corey” writing team behind The Expanse, reading as follows]

12:47 PM - 10 Jan 2016 @AbrahamHanover  @Nfarmerlinguist @agentsarah6 Don't build Belter creole from the books.  Hang with this guy.

Lang Belta fong da show im gut; fong da buk, im nagut.