Bmarang

Bmarang is a group of mostly mutually-intelligible dialects spoken by bands of Bmarang people. The Bmarang people are feared as fierce warriors and noted for their height and for their art, in which their language features prominently.

Phonology
Phonology is remarkably stable across Bmarang dialects. Variation primarily comes from the pharyngeals, which are uvulars in some dialects. Katharri Bmarang lost the pharyngeals and developed sets of pharyngealized and nasalized vowels.

Consonants
/k/ followed by /ʡ/ in the next syllable assimilates to /ʡ/. /k/ and /ʡ/ must match between onset and coda: there are no kV(C)ʡ or ʡV(C)k syllables.

/ɴʕ/ is primarily realized as nasalization on the preceding vowel and may be partially or totally elided.

The laminal sets contrast only before mid vowels. Before /i e/ they are always laminopalatal and before /u o/ they are always laminodental.

The retroflex series causes retroflexion on the preceding vowel. Apicoalveolars preceding a retroflex assimilate to retroflex.

Nasals are often preploded, particularly word-initially where the allophones [ᵇm ᶢŋ] are near-universal (/ɴʕ/ does not occur word-initially).

Vowels
Orthographically, breathy vowels are represented with a diaeresis: 〈ï ü ë ə̈ ö ä〉. Long vowels are doubled.

Vowels are divided into two sets, /i u ə/ and /e o a/. A word will have vowels from either one or the other, but not both. Words containing pharyngeals require the lower set. Furthermore, mid/high vowels in adjacent syllables usually must match. The sequences i..i, u..u, e..e, and o..o are common, but i..u, u..i, e..o, and o..e are very rare. All vowels may occur long or short.

Tone
Bmarang dialects have 3 or 4 tones: high, mid, low, and falling. High tone never occurs on breathy vowels. The falling tone is not present in all dialects and has a limited distribution in those that do have it. The tone bearing unit is the mora, and long vowels may have rising and falling tones resulting from underlying H/M/L sequences.

L is realized as extra low on breathy vowels.

There is significant downstep, with the upper end of the pitch range shifting downward after every M or L. This means that consecutive M tones will not be the same level, and in fact the defining feature of H is simply that it is the same level as the preceding H or M tone. The pitch range resets on the next intonation phrase.

Word structure
Syllables are always CV(C)(C). Coda clusters occur only word-internally. Stems are of the form CV(C)(C)CVC and must begin with a peripheral consonant.

Writing and art
In spite of a strictly hunter-gatherer lifestyle, the Bmarang have a well-developed writing system—many, in fact. Each band will create its own writing system, differentiating them from their neighbors and acting as an artistic signature for that band. These are often highly elaborate, with many forms of each letter, syllable, or word. Many eschew fixed forms entirely, with each "form" consisting instead of rules that can be applied to a multitude of shapes. Color frequently serves to differentiate forms as well.

Whistled and signed registers
The Bmarang have particularly well-developed whistled and signed registers. Signed registers may vary significantly with dialect, to the point of mutual unintelligibility. The whistled register, however, is generally well-understood, based around the tones of spoken Bmarang. It may be used to communicate over very long distances.

The Bmarang people occasionally hunt by running down animals over long distances. Such runs are sacred and normal speech cannot be used while a persistence hunt is in progress.

Lexicon
Lexicon varies widely between Bmarang dialects. There is a taboo in place where once a person dies, their name and any words that sound similar are removed from the lexicon for a period of time. Often a word is borrowed from a neighboring band to replace it, or a new word is simply innovated.