A Guide to Furbish (+Dictionary)
hi! if you're familiar with furbies you probably know the very short conlang (a sketch fictlang in particular) furbish! furbish is the language furbies speak before you "teach" them english by taking care of them. i will only be covering the '98 language, as the 2005 and 2010 language updates break some of the language rules the '98 version sets up, and I don't want to deal with that atm.
Phonology
Consonants
| bilabial | alveolar | velar | glottal | labial-velar | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nasal | m (/m/) | n (/n/) | ||||
| stop | b (/b/) | t (/t), d (/d/) | k (/k/) | |||
| fricative | wh (/hw/ or /h/) | |||||
| approximate | l /l/ | w (/w/) | ||||
furbish has 9 consonants, with one digraph (wh) counting as a consonant for simplicity's sake. these consonants are /m/, /n/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/, /hw/ or /h/, /l/, and /w/.
Vowels
| front | back | |
|---|---|---|
| close | e/ee (/i/) | oo/u/o (/u/) |
| mid | ay (/eɪ/) | o/oh (/o/) |
| open | ye (/aɪ/) | ah (/ɑ/) |
furbish has 6 vowels (including 2 dipthongs): (/i/), (/u/), (/eɪ/), (/o/), (/aɪ/), and (/ɑ/).
Syllables
| -ah | -ay | -e/-ee | -o/-oh | -oo/-u/-o | -ye | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | ah | ay | e | oh | u | |
| b- | bah | bee | boh | boo | bye | |
| d- | dah | day | doh | doo | ||
| k- | kah | kay | koh | koo | ||
| l- | lah | lee | loh | loo | ||
| m- | may | mee | moh | |||
| n- | nah | nee | noo | nye | ||
| t- | tah | toh | tye | |||
| w- | wah | way | ||||
| wh- | who |
syllables are made up of vowels and consonants, shown in this chart. There are a total of 35 syllables in furbish.
Morphology
to make a word, syllables are put together using dashes, though some words are syllables on their own. additionally, new words can be created by putting a dash in between two existing words; like "ay-ay-lee-koo" (listen), a compound of "ay-ay" (look) and "lee-koo" (sound).
Grammar/Syntax
furbish seems to work almost the same as english grammar-wise, with a few differences. like many languages, it follows the subject–verb–object word order. for example, "i love you" would be "kah may-may u-nye". verbs have no conjugations and there are no tenses in furbish, along with there being no distinction between a singular and plural noun. most adjectives and nouns in furbish also work as verbs, and a word/phrase equivalent of "to be" does not exist. verbs have no conjugation, and adverbs go in front of the verb. it has two final particles, "doo" as a way to express that a question is being asked (similar to "ka" in japanese) and "wah" as a way to express excitement. both can also be used as interjections.
Proposals (Non-Canon)
i have a few proposals to make furbish a fuller language. for starters, making more syllable combinations for coining new words. secondly, a furby alphabet. each letter would represent a furbish syllable. another thing is filler words. i believe "ah" would be a great filler word, as furbies tend to say it a lot while being played with. i also suggest "doo", which could work as the furbish speaker questioning what they should say. finally, i've come up with a canon name for furbish in furbish. "kah-lee-koo", a compound of "kah" (me) and "lee-koo" (sound). roughly translated it means "my sound".
Dictionary
| furbish | english | part of speech | generation introduced |
|---|---|---|---|
| ay-ay | look/see | noun | '98 |
| ay-ay-lee-koo | listen (look-sound) | noun, verb | '98 |
| ah-may | pet | verb | '98 |
| ah-loh | light | noun, verb | '98 |
| ah-loh-may-lah | cloud (light-hug) | noun | '98 |
| boh-bay | worried/worry | verb | '98 |
| boo | no/not | determiner, adverb | '98 |
| dah | big | noun, verb | '98 |
| dah-ah-loh | sun (big-light) | noun | '98 |
| doo? | what?/question | interjection, final particle | '98 |
| doo-ay | fun | noun | '98 |
| doo-moh | please | adverb | '98 |
| e-day | good | adjective | '98 |
| e-tah | yes | determiner | '98 |
| kah | me/i | pronoun (first person) | '98 |
| koh-koh | again | adverb | '98 |
| koo-doh | health | noun | '98 |
| lee-koo | sound | noun | '98 |
| loo-loo | joke | noun | '98 |
| may-bee | maybe | adverb | '98 |
| may-may | love | noun, verb | '98 |
| may-lah | hug | noun, verb | '98 |
| may-tah | kiss | noun, verb | '98 |
| mee-mee | very | adjective | '98 |
| nah-bah | down | noun, adverb | '98 |
| nee-tye | tickle | noun, verb | '98 |
| noo-loo | happy | adjectve | '98 |
| o-kay | okay/ok | interjection | '98 |
| oh-too-mah | ask | verb | '98 |
| toh-dye | done | adjective | '98 |
| toh-loo | like | verb | '98 |
| u-nye | you | pronoun (second person) | '98 |
| u-tye | up | noun, adverb | '98 |
| wah | yeah!/exclamation | interjection, final particle | '98 |
| way-loh | sleep | noun, verb | '98 |
| way-loh | sing | noun, verb | '98 |
| who-bye | hide | verb | '98 |