Minhast: Difference between revisions

|familycolor  = panlaffic

|fam1          = Nahenic

|nation        = Minhastim Karak

|scripts        = * [[wikipedia:Abugida|Native Abugida (Širkattarnaft)]]

The language is divided into two major branches, Upper Minhast and Lower Minhast, each of which is divided into several smaller dialects, such as the Salmon Speaker variant of the Upper Minhast dialect, and the Osprey Speaker variant of the Lower Minhast dialect.  The subject of Minhast dialectology has sparked much research and controversy; more details on the research of dialectology may be found in [[Minhast/Dialectology|Minhast Dialectology]]

For these reasons, Minhast had long been classified as a language isolate.  However, in a breakthrough study by Ming Wei and Jaeng Tae-Moon at the Department of Linguistics in Beijing Imperial University discovered shared features between Minhast, the Northwest Pacific language [[Nankôre]], and the Native American language [[Nahónda]], the latter two languages also having been classified as language isolates.  These languages have thus been grouped together into a language family called Nahenic, from the reconstructed form ''*nāhen'', meaning "people". Fossilized verbalizer morphemes affixed to body parts, the relatively intact preservation of the form of the Causative affix and its relative position in each language's verbal template, and cognate sets and sound change correspondences demonstrated these far-flung languages as having a common ancestry.  A major impediment to discovering Minhast's relationship to other languages was hampered by the paucity of literature on Nankôre; it was through the extensive documentation of this language by Brian Mills, from the Department of Indian Anthropology and Linguistics at the University of North Carolina that provided the material needed to link Minhast with Nankôre and Nahónda. Dialectal analysis conducted by Napayshni Tashunka of the University of the Lakota Nation has further contributed to the reconstruction of the Nahenic language family, particularly with data gathered from the Stone Speaker dialect, a divergent dialect which he argues should be classified as a separate language under a larger grouping, the Minhastic branch.

=== Phonemic Inventory ===

<div style="text-align: center;">

</div>

{{Minhast_Vowels_IPA}}

<br/>

Vowel length in Minhast is distinctive.  Devoiced vowels occur as allophones frequently, based on regular phonotactic rules:

<li>Minhast has a strong tendency to form intermedial clusters, providing that Rules #1-#3 are observed. If necessary, an epenthetic vowel may be added before or after the syllable to create these syllabic patterns, e.g. ''uš<span style="text-decoration:underline;color:blue;font-weight:bold">u</span>ntahu'' "You hit it." vs. ''ušnu'' "He hit it." (from the verb root ''ušn-'' "to hit").</li>  

{{Minhast_Phonotactics_Template}}

</li>

</li>

{| class="bluetable lightbluebg mw-collapsible mw-collapsible"

! Initial Pattern

! Final Contraction

==== Hanzi and Hangul Scripts ====

==== Ammerkast Script ====

! Type I

|gāl

|

-gal-

|horse

|-  

! rowspan="3"| Type II  

|marua

|

-mar-

|-  

|yarea

|  

-yar-

|-

|simmia

|

-simm-

|-

!  3rd Feminine Sg.

|-

!  3rd Neuter Animate Sg.

! colspan="2" | Independent

! rowspan="2"|  Attributive

! rowspan="2"| Comments

|-  

|-

!  Proximal

|  sapte

|  sapim, sap min

|  this one, near the speaker

|-

!  Medio-proximal

|  nax

|  naxtim

|  =nax

|  this/that one near the listener

|-

!  Distal

|  far from both speaker and listener

|-

!  Invisible

| n/a

|}

|-

! style="text-align:left"|  3rd Feminine Sg.

|-

! style="text-align:left"|  3rd Neuter Animate Sg.

| eyhaš

| tāraš

|-

! style="text-align:left"|  3rd Neuter Inanimate Sg.

''Menhakkem nasxēreħ inkunnuħkēmaran'' "The fourth one among them went into the forest."

{|  class="bluetable lightbluebg mw-collapsible"

|  šiktāz         

| šiktezāx           

|-  style=""

!  style="" | twelve

|  sen           

| senāx             

|-  style=""

!  style="" | thirteen

|  halk           

| halkāx             

|-  style=""

!  style="" | fourteen

|  duggalk       

| duggalxāx         

|-  style=""

!  style="" | fifteen

| šentāz           

| šentezāx           

|-  style=""

!  style="" | twenty-one

|  šentāz-u-šum   

| šentāz-u-manāx     

|-  style=""

!  style="" | twenty-two

| ----

|}

====Fractions====

|-  style=""

! style="" | half

|-  style="" style=""

!  style="" | third

== Verbs ==

Interrogative verbs are an unusual feature of the Minhast verbal system, and are rare cross-linguistically but may be found in other languages such as Takic, a North American language from the Uto-Aztecan family.  In many languages, certain interrogative words co-occur with certain verbs with high frequency.  Using English as an example, the verbs in the questions "What happened?", "Where are you going?", "Why did you do it?" illustrate that certain verbs, when they take a WH-word as an argument, have a statistically higher probability of picking one or two WH-words above others.  In Minhast, the Interrogative Verbs serve as a shortcut, precluding the need for constructing a whole interrogative sentence with at least two constituents, the WH-word and the verb it is serving as an argument to.

Where person-number marking is allowed, both second and third person singular/plural marking predominate; first person marking is infrequent.  Many of these verbs appear to have a default tense, usually in the past but sometimes in the future, even though the verb has no explicit tense marking, e.g. ''maymaštahaš'' seems to have a default past tense even though the past tense affix ''-ar-'' does not appear; however if the past tense affix appears, the verb remains well-formed.  Present tense meaning, if intended, is usually recoverable from context or discourse.

==== Phenomenological Verbs ====

=== Verb Template ===

The Minhast verb is divided into three major segments: the Preverb, the Verb Core, and the Terminatives.  Each of these segments are divided into smaller sections or "slots", as they are termed in Minhastic linguistic literature.

==== Preverb 1 Scalar Operator Affixes ====

| ta- <br/> ta'- <br/> t- <br/>tara-, tarra-, tabbina-

| no, not <br/><br/><br/>never, never again; not at all

|-

! Contradictory

==== Preverb 3 Mood-Aspect-Manner Affixes ====

Unlike other verb slots, where the affixes are strictly ordered in relation to each other, the affixes in the Preverb 3 slot exhibit free order, or to be more precise, they are scope-ordered. Within this slot, a given affix exhibits scope over the element immediately to its right. With few exceptions, several affixes may occur simultaneously, limited only by whether the combination "makes sense", i.e. the resulting semantic meaning is felicitous.

   

|-

! scope="col" style="width: 100px;" |Affix

! Meaning

! Expective

| -naš-

|  

|-

# As this verb form creates a transitive clause, the Controller becomes the ergative argument and the Controllee becomes the absolutive argument.

# The ''-sassi-'' allomorph surfaces when immediately followed by an affix starting with /s, ʃ/, as in the Causative ''-šp-'' affix, e.g. ''Sassišpikallutekarūš'' "I wanted to make him eat" (i.e. I wanted to feed him), or with affixes that start with a consonant cluster such as the Cessative ''-kš-'', e.g. ''Sassikšikallutekarūš'' "I wanted him to stop eating".

|-

!  Aversive

!Inchoative

| -saxt- <br/> -sax-

|-

!Simulative

| to resemble  

|-

! rowspan="3"| Qualitatives

|-

!Excessive

| very, extremely, too much

|

|-

! Habitual

|-

!Completive

| to finish

| Indicates completion

The Inverse Volitional affix interacts with the semantics of the verb root.  If a verb root semantically implies the Agent has no control over an event, or the event is by happenstance and not by deliberate intent, the Inverse Volitional derives a verb that implies the Agent has control of an event or is actively seeking to determine its outcome.  As an illustration, the verb root ''-sar-'' (to see) implies happenstance, where as the addition of the Inverse Volitional affix, yielding the form ''kaħsaran'' < ''-kah-sar-'' changes the meaning to "to look at" or even "to stare at".  In contrast, the verb root ''-misk-'' (to be ill) semantically implies lack of control.  Adding the Inverse Volitional Affix plus the Reflexive-Benefactive ''-sakšar-'' to yield the form ''kaħmisiksakšaran'' < ''-kah-misk-sakšar'' changes the meaning to "to deliberately infect oneself in order to play hooky".

{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"

==== Preverb 5 Applicative Affixes ====

Although the Applicative Affixes encode spatial or directional information like the Oblique case clitics, they do not resemble them in form.  The location and tight binding of these affixes belie their origins as the remnants of incorporated nouns from Proto-Nahenic; supporting evidence of this comes from the existence of independent cognate nouns in Nankôre, such as ''rahko'' "gift", ''macihi'' "hand", and ''nahko'' "room, enclosure", which is also cognate with the Minhast locative interrogative ''nakkī'' "where".

! Case Role

! Affix

|-

! Dative

|-

! Benefactive

| -rak-

|-

! Instrumental

| -mat-

|-

! Locative

===== Incorporated Noun =====

<!--

|-

! style="text-align:left"|  3rd Feminine Sg.

|-

! style="text-align:left"|  3rd Neuter Animate Sg.

| -nes- <br/>-ness- <br/> -ness(V)- <br/> -ne- <br/> -sn(e)-

| The ''-nes-'', ''-ness-'', and ''-ness(V)-'' forms are preferred in Modern Standard Minhast, most Upper Minhast dialects, and the Gull Speaker dialect.  These are the only forms found in Classical Minhast.  ''-nes-'' is used when immediately followed by a consonant, ''-ness-'' when followed by a vowel, and '' -ness(V)-'' when followed by a consonant cluster; the epenthentic vowel in the  ''-ness(V)-'' form usually echoes the vowel of the next syllable, e.g. ''kallutek-ness'''<u>a</u>'''-mp<u>'''a</u>'''māš iknatumanek-ness-aš'' "I will eat something and then return home."

|-

! Distal Future

{{Gloss

|IPA =  

| gloss = morning CONN=INCEP-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS

| translation = She started crying earlier this morning and hasn't stopped since (lit. This morning she begins crying still)

{{Gloss

|IPA =  

| gloss = morning CONN=INCEP-ITER-cry-DISTR-3SF-IMPF-TRANS

| translation = She has been crying on and off since this morning and hasn't stopped (lit. This morning she begins to continue to cry on and off and is still crying)

===== Participial =====

{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"

The Participial also creates deverbals, which nominalizes a verb stem.  This nominalization in turn may be incorporated into a  matrix verb.  Five requirements must be satisfied before the nominalization can be incorporated:

#All ''wa=''-binding is stripped from the nominalization;

#The affixes from the Transitivity and Terminals slots are stripped from the nominalization;

#The pronominal affixes are stripped and the nominalization inherits its polypersonal referencing from its matrix verb;

#The nominalization is inserted into the NI slot of the verb template.

===== Transitivity Affixes =====

! Detransitivizer

| -an- <br/> -ēn-<br/> -en + C <br/> -ean <br/> -ā <br/> -ē

|-

!  Transitivizer

|  -u- <br/> <br>-ū- <br/> -un-

|-

!  Antipassive

! rowspan="9" |Evidentials

! Factive

| Referred to as the Gnomic, Aorist, and Neutral in other comparative linguistics material, the term Factive is used due to the influence of Iroquoian linguistic literature, since early treatises of Minhast were conducted by experts in the Iroquoian languages, who noticed structural and typological similarities between the two otherwise different language groups.

|-

! Purposive

| -nimmā <br/>-pannamā-<br/>-pannamāš-

|-

! Quotative

| -namā

|-

<!--! Indirect Quotative

! Consequential

| -dur- <br/> -dūr-

|-

! colspan="2" |Irrealis

| -š-

| This affix marks the VP as an unrealized and/or hypothetical state or event.  It is used in  interrogatives, hortatives, and imperatives. Additionally, this affix, combined with the Consequential affix and certain sentential particles to form hypothetical and conterfactual clauses. This affix tends to elide any consonant before it; when it does, the vowel is lengthened, although this is usually not reflected in the orthography.

|-

! colspan="2" height="70" | Nominalizer

*Instrument: Verb root + ''-sesp'' (from ''sepsir'' "hand"), e.g. ''kirismesp'' (lit. "speak-hand", i.e. "phone, cellular")

*Manner: Verb root + ''-tak'' (from "style; way of doing something), e.g. ''kirimtak/kirintak'' (lit. "speak-way", i.e. "presentation", as in a business presentation/proposal; "delivery, oratory style")

===Reduplication===

*''yakyakan'' (to be stranded) < ''yakan'' (to be still, static, unmoving)

*''nurruran'' (to pour) < ''nurran'' (to spill)

*The Gerundial ''-x-'' is becoming more frequently used, particularly for forming technological terminology.

A few non-productive derivational suffixes occur occasionally in the standard language, with increasing frequency in the Upper Minhast dialects.  These affixes are considered fossilized, but Classical Minhast texts indicate they could be generated spontaneously.  The most common ones found in the standard language are:

* ''-(u)mbāt'': found mostly in collective nouns, and some abstract nouns.  These nouns come from  Salmonic dialects and Classical Minhast sources;

* ''-ummāt, -mmāt'': also found mostly in collective nouns, and some abstract nouns.  These nouns come from Horse Speaker sources and are cognate with Salmonic ''-(u)mbāt'';

* ''-pnis'': habitual activities; words containing this suffix indicate Upper Minhast origins;

* ''-niwak'': habitual activities that occur daily; sometimes indicates a profession.  Most noticeable in the term ''hupniwak'', tools associated with carrying out daily functions, e.g. a flint stone for lighting fire (this term has also become a derogatory term for the City Speakers, since they serve as "tools" for administering domestic policy);

* ''-uyyi''/''-ūy'': found mostly in abstract and some place nouns.  Derived respectively from Horse Speaker and Salmon Speaker sources, words containing these fossilized suffixes have not been adopted in great numbers into Modern Standard Minhast due to speakers from other dialects having pronunciation difficulties with the ''uy(yi)'' sequence.

<!--

These structures use an S/A pivot for the coreferrent NP of each clause, rather than the expected S/O pivot.  This is an example of split ergativity manifesting at the syntactic level in Minhast, which is otherwise very strict in maintaining ergativity at both the morphological and syntactic levels.

{| class="bluetable lightbluebg"

|-

! Type  

| wašša=

| wassaše

|-

! Invisible

|}

|  

# attim  

| attim wa=

| wattim

|  

# runa  

| runa wa=

| warruna

|  

|-

! Distal

|  

# sukku  

| sukku wa=

| wassukku

|  

|-

! Distal

| wassaħrap

|  

# perhaps later

|}

! Meaning

|-

! wahēk, wahēki

| Sequential/Topic Shifter  

The ''wahēki'' form is found only in Classical Minhast, and in Salmon Speaker, Wolf Speaker, and Horse Speaker poetry.

|-

! a, aħ

! ne, neħ

| Presentational

|-

! še, šenek

| Interruptive

|-

! anda  

| Connective

| This is actually a verbal clitic, not a particle.  It is always used in conjunction with ''kāra'' (see previous entry on ''kāra'')  

|-

! šukna

| Assertive

| This is properly an interjection and appears at the end of the sentence ''without'' a ''wa='' Connective.  When used in conjunction with a verb marked with the Irrealis, ''ka'' transforms the sentence into the Emphatic Imperative (see below).  Outside the Emphatic Imperative, this particle is otherwise rare, appearing only in Classical Minhast and some extremely conservative varieties of the Salmon Speaker dialect.  The ''ka'' particle also has variants that appear as verbal affixes, e.g. ''-ka-'',''-kka'' and ''-nka''.  These affixes are also rare, again appearing mostly in Classical Minhast and conservative Salmon Speaker subdialects.

|-

! nikā'

==== ''Wēš'' ====

{{Gloss

=== Word Order ===

What is almost inviolable,at least in multi-clausal sentences, is the position of the verb's clause-final position.  The main reason for this restriction is most likely because the verb, being extremely suffix-laden, includes clause-linking and coordinating affixes which occur in the Terminatives slot of the Minhast verb template.  Thus, the verb serves to mark clause boundaries and coordinate compound and complex sentences, hence the predominance of the verb's clause-final position.  Nevertheless, verbs do occur in non-final position under the following circumstances:

! and

| suttu/sut<br/> [NP]=s + [NP]<br/> [NP]₁=s + ...[NP]_n + suttu

|-

! but

! or

| xan<br/> xandaš

|}

|phrase =Alan wassakikmanaft, Ru'awwankan suttu wantaslapimmakikminesankilwašša

| IPA =  

| translation = Alan (and Yešker) who were slain (that day), ''together'' may they ride hard with the Black Horse!  ''("Rest in peace")''

}}

| ''tazer min erakmast &gt;&gt; tazer min erak-mass=de '' (the birds'  feathers)

|-  

| ''Canadastim rakne''&gt;&gt; kanada=ast min rakne'' (Canadian tourists)

|-  

{{Gloss

| gloss = sister-3FS.ACC+3MS.NOM=ERG

| translation = His sister

| IPA = /asunkas:asakʃarɪskɛn:ɛs:a's:ɪ'ʃtɛ/

| morphemes = asum-kar-sakšar-skem-ness=š=de

| translation = the car which they will be owning together

}}

| IPA = /asunkassakʃarɪskɛmartɛ/

| morphemes = asum-kar-sakšar-skem-ar=de

| translation = their former car, the car that had once been theirs

}}

To express the Comparative, Minhast employs a very different structure than English.  Minhast uses a two-clause construction.  The Comparee occurs in the first clause and is in the Absolutive, with the Standard expressed as an oblique Dative argument.  The verb for that clause is an intransitive attributive verb.  This verb serves as the Quality and is linked to the second clause with the General Subordinative clitic ''=mā''.  The second clause of the construction contains either the verb ''annuk-an-pi'' (to have the greater portion) or ''isp-an-pi'' (to have the lesser portion).  These are the Marker verbs, and are detransitivized with the Antipassive marker ''-pi-'' in order to match the valency of the Quality verb.   

Notice that the agreement of transitivity between both the Quality and Marker verbs follow the standard rules of creating an S/O pivot to indicate that both Standard and Quality verbs refer to the same Absolutive argument.  As far as Minhast is concerned, formation of a Comparative or Superlative phrase structure is simply another instance of valence operations that the language regularly employs.  Thus, the Minhast structure for both Comparatives and Superlatives can be compared vis-a-vis English as follows:

}}  

{{Gloss

| gloss = COM.APPL-eat-PST-IMPF-TRANS-NMLZ INVERSE.VOL-see-box-PST-IMPF-INTRANS  

| translation = While the other one ate, he watched tv. ''(lit. "The one (non-focus) who ate beside him (focus), he (focus) tv-watched.")'

===== Purposive =====

{{Gloss

|IPA =  

}}

{{Gloss

|IPA =  

}}

{{Gloss

|IPA =  

| morphemes = Sap=im duxt min nukarpi=ki ntar-sattabe-dust-mm-ar-an=š

* ''Hambin bāk wa=...'' It's none of your business (that)...

* ''Hambin bak wattāħ!'' It's none of your business!

* ''Ēlā hatā' min ādan?'' You can't make up your mind, can you? (lit. "The yes and no of which?", the rational deriving from "Yes? No? Which one?"

* ''Matti wabbakš?'' And your point is?

* ''Humme wattāħ/wattaħtem!'' Hail!!

# Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.<br/><br/>

# Wahēk,  Šuxtānim Ikkūne hārannimā, ummurrat sut tuyyēran sararampi, išpiħyimannarunaft sarmannaru.

# Wahēk,  Šuxtānim Ikkūne kirimarannamā: "Sapim redad šūmikman, šūmī min kirimaran ittaħšikman,  indikanawikmabampi, rearan markanawikminesampiš."  

# Wahēk,  Šuxtānim Ikkūnē išpiknatarkennarunimmā ummurratiyār iknikmaran.

# Attim waggabgabalaram hittinristirħaku, Šuxtānim Ikkūnē kirimseššente išpikšempiharu, šarrat min suharaktillidēran išpiknatarkennaru.

=== Sapim Tayatta ("This Poison") ===

=== Šānī min Kuhakna Annamikmanaft Laxmakkikman - "Two Cranky Old Men" ===

}}

== Addenda ==

! style="text-align:left" | OBL

| Oblique argument

|-

! style="text-align:left" | NOM

| Partitive

|-

| Reflexive

|-

=== External Websites ===

==== YouTube ====

Music Videos:

*[https://soundcloud.com/nickcamporillo/the-black-horse-carries-my-beloved-with-drum The Black Horse Carries My Beloved]

*[https://soundcloud.com/nickcamporillo/gaggadi-min-sumbatide-a-thousand-arrows Gaggādi min Sumbātide "A Thousand Arrows"]

==== Mirrors ====

The Minhast language is mirrored at these other sites