Minhast: Difference between revisions

|fam2          = Minhaic

The following chart contains the consonants in the Minhast phonology.  Common dialectal variants are marked with an asterisk (*):

The Seal Speaker, Wolf Speaker, Horse Speaker and Gull Speaker dialects have either acquired or developed /ɣ/ or [ɣ].  The origin of this phone in the Seal Speaker dialect is unknown, and occurs in only a handful of words, nevertheless it is phonetically distinct.  Again, a possible Centrail Siberian Yup'ik source has been hypothesized.  In the Horse Speaker dialect,the phone [ɣ] occurs as a result of assimilation of /r/ → /x/; however the phone has not acquired phonemic status.  In the Gull Speaker dialect, /ɣ/ evolved as a merger of /rg/ and /gy/ and has become a distinct phoneme.  A notable example is ''Anyāğ'' for the Stone Speaker city Āhan Yarg, but it is also noticeable in words originally beginning with V-rg- sequences, e.g. ''irgum''  → ''ğum'' "nail" (c.f. Salmon Speaker ''argunni'' "nail").

Otherwise, the phone is treated by the other dialects as an allophone of /h/, and occurs frequently under predictable phonotactic rules, such as when /h/ geminates, e.g. ''saħħat'' "sharp-edged object", or certain sequences resulting from morphological alternations, as in ''-hyi-'' where the /ħ/ surfaces and geminates, and also triggers the glide /j/ to change to /i:/, e.g. ''wandiraħħīlabu'' ("She began to cry, and still is"), '''not''' ''wandiraħyilabu'.

The Hangul and Hanzi scripts predominate in government and commercial correspondence with Minhay's traditional trade partners, the Kingdom of Goguryeo and the Ming Empire.  Hanzi is used with other East Asian countries that also use the script for commerce and international correspondence.  Hangul, also widely used in East Asia, is employed by the Minhast for trade and diplomatic purposes.

The Gull Speakers are the principal group that use these East Asian scripts, as they achieved dominance in international commerce amongst all the other Minhast groups.  Mandarin and Korean, and to a lesser extent, Japanese, are both widely taught in Gull Speaker schools as a second language, especially in the Gull Speaker prefectural capital Kissamut.  The Salmon Speakers are the second group that use the Hanzi and Hangul systems most often; the scripts are used almost exclusively with their Ainu neighbours, who use the Japanese ''kana'' script, which is virtually unknown to the Minhast; the disastrous Tokugawa Wars, which led to the defeat, occupation, and annexation of over 90% of Honshu and significant swaths of Kyushu by the Goguryeo-Ainu alliance, cut off Minhay from Japan.  The isolation of Japan by Goguryeo's effective blockade prevented the importation of the Japanese scripts into Minhay

|  lēde-

|  lea

|  lē- <br/> ley-

|  -lea

|  waššī  

|  wašt(e)

|  waššim

|  =waš

|  =wašt(e)

|  kiryit

|  kirte

|  kiryit min

|  =kirit

|  =kiryit

| eyhal

| tāral

| kāmul/aššakl

| kāmuš/aššakš

|  kammak

| kammakian                

Note the upper bound is "tenth" ''(erritt)'', not "twentieth", the expected form given Minhast's vegisemal system; instead, this set demonstrates a decimal pattern.  The secondary fractions bear no resemblance to their primary counterparts, having originated from different roots.  Additionally, the verbal forms display some irregularity, as in ''kammak<span style="font-weight:bold;color:blue;text-decoration:underline">i</span>an'' vs the expected ''kammakan'', ''hadde<span style="font-weight:bold;color:blue;text-decoration:underline">ħ</span>ħan'' instead of the expected ''haddehan'', and ''<span style="font-weight:bold;color:blue;text-decoration:underline">irt</span>an'' instead of the expected ''errittan''.

Interrogative verbs can either be zero-valent (i.e. an Impersonal Verb), as in ''"Innearaš?" >> *inea-ar-an=š'' [what.happened-PAST-INTRANS=IRREAL] ("What happened?"),  univalent, e.g. ''"Nassuriattaharaš?" >> *nassuriat-tah-ar-an=š'' [what.did.do-2S.ABS-PAST=IRREAL] ("What did you do?"), or even divalent, i.e. transitive,  e.g. ''"Išpinassuriattaharuš?" >> *šp-nassuriat-tah-u=š'' [CAUS-what.did.do-2S.ERG+3MS.ABS-TRANS=IRREAL] ("What did you make him do?).  Interrogative Verbs can be inflected for tense, aspect, person-number (for univalent verbs), and in some cases, theme, as illustrated in the last example.

This slot contain numerous affixes that serve myriad functions, not just conveying mood and aspect, but also encoding manner and other adverbial semantic information.  The table below lists the most common affixes, but there are close to four hundred other affixes not listed here that may occur in this slot, such as the affix ''-xp-'' (to enjoy), -''ruxt-'' (to like), -''kašk-'' (do well, c.f. ''kaškakan'' to do something skillfully, perform skillfully), -''yunn-'' (to fall short, fail, c.f. ''yurunan'')  etc.

| supposed to, expect to; <br/> to wait for

# The Desiderative II affix evolved from the fusion of the Desiderative I affix with the Causative during the Late Classical Minhast period or shortly after, when the Desiderative and the Causative were regularly combined to express different-subject "to want" structures; c.f. Classical Minhast ''Šakišpikallutekarunuš'' "I wanted to cause him to eat" for "I want him to eat".

| to become; to be (renders a detransitived verb into the passive voice)

| When used with stative verbs, this affix takes on the meaning "to become". <br/><br/>The form ''-sax-'' is used when followed by a stop.  Voiced stops become devoiced.  In some dialects this form is used whenever followed by any consonant.

| -šupn-

| Often found in combination with the verb root ''kifrak'' (to be the color of) + NI, meaning "to be x-colored", e.g. ''šupnikifrakteslakmahan'' (to be algae-colored); also appears in complex verbs signifying "to play", "to pretend", etc  

| -šmuxt-

The Preverb 4 affixes are restricted to this position in the verb template.  Other than the Verb Core, the only affixes that can follow this slot are the Applicative affixes, located in the Preverb 4 slot.  Additionally, the Preverb 4 affixes usually do not occur together; when they do, the resulting verb implies a sense of sloppiness on the part of the Agent.

| -dut-

-utt-

| -l-

|phrase = Tenkūr wandiraħħīlabu <!-- **Yes, notice that /ħ/ here is a phoneme, not an allophone, despite compensatory lengthening; this is true for both Upper Minhast and MSM -->

| morphemes = tenkūr wa=ind-raħy-l-ab-u  

|phrase = Tenkūr waxtixriraħħītallabu. <!-- ** Yes, notice that /ħ/ here is a phoneme, not an allophone, despite compensatory lengthening; this is true for both Upper Minhast and MSM -->

| morphemes = tenkūr wa=xt-xr-raħy-tar-l-ab-u

The Participial slot is a small segment of the verb template, consisting of only one affix, ''-x-''.  Past literature on the language variously placed them in the Tense-Aspect slot, whilst others placed in the Transitivity.  Current practice is to place it in its own slot, as the affix can co-occur with the affixes of either slot yet does not semantically correspond to either.  Its uses vary, sometimes forming an embedded clause of a causal sentence, e.g. ''Ikna<u>k</u>araxan išpisaxtikarallaru'' "My departure saddened her/By departing, I saddened her", a temporal subordinator, e.g. ''Redaktān iknatahara<u>x</u>an išpiharsummektarundurkilmakš!'' "When you went with that man you shamed us all/In going out with that man you shamed us all!", and occasionally in Modern Standard Minhast but more often in Lower Minhast, it may convey concurrent actions, i.e. circumstantial clauses, e.g. ''Luktarabampi, išpisaxtikurgadešlekarba<u>x</u>an'' "He was cooking while I concentrated on my studies" (lit. "He was cooking in the time I was causing myself to become strong in mind")<ref>Notice that the Participial affix allows breaking the S/O pivot, as demonstrated in the two preceding examples.</ref>.  It is often used in conjunction with the Habitual affix ''-asum-'' and nominalizer ''=naft'' to derive professions, as in ''asumišpinakkallutixnaft'' "chef, cook" (lit. "one who habitually causes others to eat for their benefit").

|  The archaic form ''-un-'' is often seen in Salmon Speaker and Wolf Speaker speech, and frequently in Horse Speaker poetry.  <br/><br/>The allomorph ''-ū-'' occurs when the verb root ends with an ''-i-'', e.g. ''išpikaggi-'' (to hang on a wall or pole).  The allomorph originally occurred only when there were no intervening affixes, i.e. the final vowel of the verb root immediately preceded  ''-ū-'', but now it occurs even if other affixes intervene between the root's final vowel and the transitivizer, e.g. ''išpinikaggi-sikyalar-''<u>'''ū'''</u>, "He hangs up a painting/photo for him".

| English translation: "in order to".  The Irrealis ''-š'' may cliticize to this affix under certain conditions, such as for non-past tenses, hypothetical statements, counterfactuals, and any other situation where the verb marked by ''=nimmā'' was not realized. <br/><br/>The allomorph ''-pannamā'' is a portmanteau of the Antipassive with the Purposive, ''-pi'' + ''-nimmā''.  Similarly, the form ''-pannamāš-'' is a fusion of the Antipassive, Purposive, and Irrealis markers,  ''-pi'' + ''-mā'' + ''-nimmā-'' + ''-š''.  However, if any of the Evidentials, Miratives, Deictics, or Imperatives appear, the portmanteau cannot be used, as the Antipassive marker must appear immediately before the Intransitive suffix.

*Location: Verb root + ''-kia(n)/-tappe'' (from ''kian''/''tappe'' "place"), e.g. ''kirinkian'' (lit. "speak-place", i.e. "auditorium"). <ref>In the Gull Speaker dialect, Locative nouns are derived by adding the suffix ''-ru'' which elides with any preceding consonant and triggers gemination, e.g. ''kirir<u>ru</u>''. The Gull Speaker ''-ru'' is not derived from Type I incorporation but is instead a bonafide affix that may have come from a substratum language.</ref>

*The Gull Speaker dialect, ''-ru'', derives locative nouns from verbs.  This suffix is the hallmark of the dialect, although the suffix has appeared in the City Speaker dialect, and its use appears to be increasing.  (See earlier discussion on Type I verb-noun derivational compounding).

*One major derivational affix that is associated with nouns is the suffix ''-ast'', which forms demonyms.  Ironically, the word ''Minhast'' was not derived from this affix; it was derived from Proto-Minhast ''Nēn u θyatsə'' or ''Nēn u θyats'', which means "The True People Who Use the Spear" (c.f. Nankôre ''nan'' "human", Nahónda ''non, nahón'' "the People").

* ''-m/n'': derives locative nouns, e.g. ''aldu-<u>m</u>'' "school" (from ''aldu'' "learn" + ''-m'') and sometimes verbal nouns.  Survives with some frequency in some Salmon Speaker toponyms and a few rare instances in the Horse Speaker dialect;

* ''-pa'': a deverbal that tends to denote abstract activities requiring several actors, e.g. ''nuyye-'' (to form an alliance), ''nuyye-pa'' (politics)

 

Note that the Interjective forms are derived from different roots.  The particle ''ne'' often follows them to provide additional reinforcement, e.g. ''Eyha ne''.  In some dialects, ''ne'' cliticizes to the Interjective form, accompanied with gemination, e.g. ''Eyhanne''.

# damikmān

| Often translated as "behold", or "thus", this particle also functions similar to the verbal affix ''-mā'' general subordinator to connect sequential clauses.  However, unlike ''-mā'', the Absolutive argument in the ''wahēk'' clause need not be correferential to that of its matrix clause; in fact, correference between the Absolutive in the ''wahēk'' clause is dispreferred.  More often then not, it allows the S/O pivot to be broken and the core arguments change syntactic roles, i.e. the Absolutive argument becomes the Ergative or an oblique argument, and any Ergative argument assumes Absolutive status.  The ''wahēk'' argument is also often used to introduce new topics. <br/>

''Wēš'' cannot be bound by the ''wa''- Construction.  In terms of syntax, its position is quite free as ''sukkādi'' and has the same scopal qualities. ''Wēš'' is often translated as "well then", "come on", "therefore", or sometimes "we'll see".  In some cases it appears to be mild hortative particle, but more often it seems to be an acknowledge that the topic of discussion remains unresolved, inevitable, or to indicate even resignation.  This might explain why it is often translated as a conjunction by native speakers:

Minhast is an SOV language, but within a clause, constituent order is quite free, although there are certain trends as well as restrictions.  One noticeable trend is that core NPs and the verbs they serve as arguments tend to be adjacent to each other. Oblique arguments tend to be placed before the core NPs, so that unmarked word order is XSOV (where X stands for the OBL argument).  This observation can be verified statistically by reviewing of the corpus of texts and spoken speech, and this observation holds for almost 60%, close to one standard deviation of all text and recorded speech sampled. XOSV order is the second most common arrangement found, accounting for close to 30% of all observations.  Since the Ergative argument in transient clauses are highly salient, the XOSV order defocusses the Ergative (Agent) argument and emphasizes the Absolutive (Patient) argument.  SOXV and SXOV orders are regarded as unusual, and OSXV and OXSV orders tend to make speakers from the more conservative dialects in Upper Minhay cringe, although they will concede that those arrangements are grammatical.  These arrangements account for the remaining 10% of observations.

| morphemes = Alan wassaki-km-an-aft, Ru'awwam-kan suttu wa=nt-silap-mmak-km-nes-an-kilwaš=š

| gloss = PN fell.dead.to.the.ground-3P.ABS-INTR-NMLZ and CONN=INTENS-ride-ASSOC-3P.ABS-FUT-INTR-MIR=IRREAL

! Gentilic NPs

| NP=GENT + min + NP

|phrase = sayyeltent

| IPA = /saj:ɛl'ɛnt/

| morphemes = sayyet-len=de

For non-coreferent arguments as the O-argument, the other dialects nominalize the non-focus clause (the clause containing the secondary core argument of the entire discourse unit⁷) embedded in the matrix clause, which corresponds to focus clause.  The verb of the non-focus clause must also be transitivized by the Comitative Applicative ''-ngar-''.  Other valence operations, such as NI and AF take place as necessary to maintain the S/O pivot which corresponds to the focus clause.

}}  

 

 

* ''Hambak(ka)tāħ!'' It's none of your business! (City Speaker slang, contraction of ''Hambin bak wattāħ'')

* ''Lātimbān?'' You can't make up your mind, can you? (City Speaker slang, contraction of ''Ēlā hatā' min ādan''

# Mattim šūmī min kirim šarraktī, irriyērum kastarmaharaban.

# Wahēk, redad wayyaħna min ambunistikī yalkikmiraban, Šinarkī takušš naħkisaššiatikkenaru, sappu.

# Indikirišmattararannamā: "Iggar išpisaxtakyatapirmannēruš."  Mattim iggar, hambin banak. Mattim issik, hambin nayyapi.

# Indikirišmattararannamā: "Hawassabummurratħakaš, šuxtānaran tuyye amandimahampinaft hawassaptirħakuš.  Hintirissakšarmakkakannimmāš šarratim suharaktikī tandikaħsaħptarikmaš."

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

*[https://soundcloud.com/nickcamporillo/a-mothers-tale?in=nickcamporillo/sets/minhast-songs Menā' min Darattillide "A Mother's Tale"]