Friday, January 4, 2013

Amerysk Word of the Day: Byan

Byan

English: to be
German: sein
Dutch: zijn
Swedish: vara
Danish: være
Norwegian: være
Yiddish: sein
French: être
Spanish: estar
Esperanto: esti

The verb 'to be' is the most commonly used in Germanic languages, and is normally an irregular verb. Amerysk originally had an irregular verb for 'to be', but most of the forms of the verb have been lost. Therefore we needed a replacement, and I felt there was no need to make it an irregular verb. Byan is the infinitive form of the verb--- the form one finds in dictionaries. It's also the present tense form. In pronouncing byan remember that y is pronounced like 'ee' in 'eel'--- a long e vowel sound. (-an is the normal Amerysk verb ending.)

Past tense of all Amerysk verbs is formed with the help-word or
hae and the prefix ge-. The ge- is omitted for verbs that begin with ge- or be-.  So, 
gebyan means 'was' or 'were'. The æ or ae sound is a long a sound like the 'ay' in 'day'.

Future tense uses the help-word sje. Sj is pronounced like English 'sh', and 'e' is the short e sound in 'bet'. Sje byan means 'shall be' or 'will be'.

Ik byan.
Thu hæ byan. or Thu hae byan.
Hy sje byan.

English:
I am.
Thou wert (were)
He shall be.

German:
Ich bin.
Du warst.
Er wird sein.

Esperanto:
Mi estas.
Ci estis. or Vi estis.
Li estos.




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