This is a daughter language of Bonobo, a language I designed to use the apostrophe as a voicer/unvoicer that people found really annoying and only used O. Hey, I was new. I also wrote a little background for it so you can see where it changed and how. It isn't a long read, and I hope you enjoy!

High Bonobo was created in a slightly mountainous region when a group of people called the Bonobo met a stranger who called himself Stew. Bonobo had one letter, O, which was kept isolated into High Bonobo. The upper class refused to attempt to say the new letter U, but the laymen used it as a way to show their pride, and mixed it thoroughly into their language. Fed up with this tomfoolery and mockery of their language, the upper class left their rude comrades for a better life in a newly discovered rainforest. Living a life of simplicity rather than the hubbub of their old land, where they were constantly building or worshipping gods, they spent time lying around in the lap of luxury, and soon grew very lazy. Several consonants were erased completely from the language, along with two verb tenses and the complete gender system. The path blazed by the original settlers of this new town, called Bocodolo, was forgotten as the people of Bonobo eventually got tired of trying to attack or trade with the lazy Bocodoloans and just kept to themselves. The people of Bocodolo did not try to keep ties with their old kinsmen, and 40 years later, the last person said to have known the sacred path said that she had forgotten it. There is an extremely detailed history of the Bocodoloans as there wasn’t much to do so everything was recorded—how often somebody used the bathroom was a matter of utmost importance to them.

High Bonobo

O—o as in rope

B

C

K—/q/ in IPA

D

F

L

M

N

Z

W

Nouns

Nouns in High Bonobo are either singular or plural, and include a subject-object system. Singular nouns are unmarked, and plural ones have a prefix po-. Subjects are unmarked, and objects end with –on. Word order is relatively fluid, but generally SOV is used.

Verbs

Verbs in High Bonobo come in three tenses: perfect (past), present, and future. There are two person forms: 1st and a 2nd/3rd. The stem of the verb is the infinitive.

Present: -od

Perfect: -oz

Future: -ol

1st person: -ol

2nd/3rd person: -omo

“The bees will see you!”

Pokobo zon bocdolomo! (The bees/you/will see)

Pronouns are normal nouns, lo for 1st singular, zo for 2nd singular, and fodo for 3rd singular.

“A cow walked here.”

Nobozo colon ombolozomo. (A cow/here/walked)

The indefinite article is a prefix, with a singular and plural form. Singular is no-, plural is nono-.

“He was stupid.”

Olo ozozomo doldo. (He/was/stupid)

Why is that verb in the middle of the sentence? It’s the verb oz, to be. It breaks the pattern and goes between the subject and the predicate nominative. If you try

“Those rocks were crushed.”

Olzocomo ozco-zomolozomo (Those rocks/—/crushed)

The passive voice is formed with ozco, with no meaning in English.

“You and he are nice.”

Zo cokolo ozodomo ponoz. (You/ and he/are/nice) Three new lessons here, so listen up. The word for “and” is a prefix co-, which is added to the second word. If you wanted to say “and cow”, you’d simply say cobozo and be on your way. For “and he”, however, you’d say coolo. How do you deal with this? Throw in K, to make it cokolo. Occasionally you’ll hear a slightly higher O, so cólo, where ó has a slightly higher pitch than the other O.