User:MIGUELbM/Muna v2.8

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive		p		t			k
Nasal		m		n			ŋ
Fricative	Spirant	β	ɸ	ð	θ		ɣ	h
	Silibant			s
Liquid	Flap			ɾ
	Approx.			l
Glide	Approx.					j	w

Vowels

	Front	Back
	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a	ɒ

Diphthongs

	i	u
a	ai
e	ei
ɒ		ɒu
o		ou

Phonotactics

Syllable (σ)
Onset (ω)		Rime (ρ)
Initial (ι)	Medial (μ)	Nucleus (ν)	Coda (κ)
Consonant	Semivowel Liquid Plosive /s/	Vowel Diphthong	Nasal Liquid Fricative Liquid + fricative Liquid + nasal

Initial (ι)

• Initials are optional word-initially and mandatory elsewhere
• Can’t have the same manner of articulation as a preceding coda

Medial (μ)

• Medials re optional
• Liquids are only allowed after stops or fricatives
• /s/ Is only allowed after nasals or liquids
• /s/ is forbidden on a first syllable or after a syllable with coda

Nucleus (ν)

• Nuclei are mandatory
• Diphthongs are not allowed after a semivowel

Coda (κ)

• Codas are optional
• Nasals must have the same place of articulation as the following obstruent
• Liquid + fricative are only allowed word-finally
• Liquid + nasal are only allowed word-finally

Stress

Stress is placed on the first syllable of words that start with an onset or monosyllabic words and in the second syllable of words with two or more syllables that start with a vowel.

Allophony

• Spirants and plosives with the same place of articulation merge and become geminated voiced plosives

[βp] → [bː]

• Spirants undergo fortition, becoming voiced plosives, when adjacent to plosives with a different place of articulation or nasals

[ðn] → [dn]

[tɣ] → [tg]

• A voiced spirant is added between a nasal and the alveolar flap, corresponding to the same place of articulation as the nasal

[nɾ] → [nðɾ]

• The velar spirant merges with the preceding vowel into a voiceless vowel before a consonant

[ehn] → [e̥n]

• The alveolar voiced spirant undergoes fortition before the lateral fricative and...
• The lateral fricative becomes a lateral release after an alveolar plosive

[ðl] → [dl] → [dˡ]

• The alveolar and velar nasals merge with the palatal glide to form a palatal nasal

[nj] → [ɲ]

• The alveolar sibilant merges with the palatal glide into a voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant

[sj] → [ʃ]

• The velar spirant and the palatal glide merge into a voiceless palatal-velar fricative

[hj] → [ɧ]

• The velar spirant and the labiovelar glide merge into a voiceless labiovelar approximant

[hw] → [ʍ]

• The labiovelar glide turns into labialization after a voiced velar plosive or spirant

[ɣw] → [ɣʷ]

• The palatal glide becomes a voiced palatal fricative word-initially

[∅j] → [ʝ]

• The labiovelar glide becomes a labiodental approximant word-initially

[∅w] → [ʋ]

Ortography

Romanization

• t → t
• k → k
• m → m
• n → n
• ŋ → ŋ
• β → b
• ɸ → f
• ð → d
• θ → þ
• ɣ → g
• h → h
• s → s
• ɾ → r
• l → l
• j → j
• w → w
• a → a
• e → e
• i → i
• ɒ → ø
• o → o
• u → u

Verbs

Dependency structure

Adverb	Tense	Modifier	Verb
			Root	Aspect

Modifier

A modifier is a word, often an adposition, which modifies the meaning of the verb. Direction of the verb can be marked by an adposition and a locative case marking the corresponding noun.

1s.nom 1s.gen home.loc from walk.impv → "I'm walking from my home"

Tense

Muna does not inflect its verbs for tense, instead, speakers can use a time word or adverb for this purpose.

Aspect

Muna has five aspect suffixes and one unmarked aspect:

Perfective

The perfective aspect indicates an event viewed in its entirety, without reference to its temporal structure during its occurrence. The perfective aspect in muna can also act as gnomic depending on the sentence itself.

Imperfective

The imperfective is unmarked and indicates an action which is ongoing, evolving and/or habitual.

Ingressive

The ingressive aspect marks the beginning of a new action or the acquisition of a state (I'm beginning to eat, I'm starting to become fat).

Pausative

The pausative marks the stopping of an action without it being completed or carried out thoroughly (atelic construction), depending on context it can imply that the action will be finished in the future.

Resumptive

Marks the continuation of an unfinished or unfinishable action.

Egressive

The egressive case marks the stopping of an action, but unlike the pausative, it implies the completion of the action (telic construction).

Mood

Mood, like tense, is indicated by a dependent adverb.

Nouns

Dependency structure

Genitive	Determiner	Quantifier	Adjective	Noun
				Root	Case	Number

Case

Muna has six grammatical cases

• Nominative
  -a, -e, -i, -ai, -ei

The nominative case marks the agent or voluntary experiencer of the action, it is also the citation form.

• Absolutive
  -ɒ, -o, -u, -ɒu, -ou

The absolutive case marks the patient or involuntary experiencer of the action.

• Dative
  -ana, -ena, -ina, -aina, -eina

The dative case marks the indirect object, often the recipient or beneficiary of the action

• Genitive
  -asi, -esi, -isi, -aisi, -eisi

The genitive marks indicates ownership of or relation with something

• Locative
  -ɒro, -oro, -uro, -ɒuro, -ouro

The locative indicates a location for the action (whether it is origin, destination, means or other depends on the verb)

• Instrumental
  -ɒle, -ole, -ule, -ɒule, -oule

The instrumental marks a tool or person with which the action was carried out

Number

Muna distinguishes five different numbers, two for count nouns and three for mass nouns

Count nouns

• Singular
  -∅

Single instance (pen)

• Plural
  -r, -ar

Multiple instances (pens)

Mass nouns

• Singulative
  -h, -ah

Single unit of the instance (a drop of water)

• Mass
  -∅

Single instance (water)

• Plurative
  -r, -ar

Multiple instances (waters)

Genders

• Feminine
  -a, -ɒ, -ai, -ɒu

Words whose stem ends with an open vowel or a diphthong with one

• Masculine
  -e, -o, -ei, -ou

Words whose stem ends with a mid vowel or a diphthong with one

• Neuter
  -i, -u

Words whose stem ends with a close vowel

Syntax

In all cases the agent comes before the object as both can take either the absolutive or nominative cases depending on the particular situation. The verb comes last in all non-interrogative constructions.

Passive

Passive Subject + (Oblique) + Verb

Anti-Passive

Active Subject + (Oblique) + Verb

Standard

Active Agent + Passive Object + (Oblique) + Verb

Involuntary action

Passive Agent + Passive Object + (Oblique) + Verb

Assisted action

Active Agent + Active Object + (Oblique) + Verb

Interrogative

Verb + ... + (Oblique)

Muna Versions

Current version is v2.8, other versions hosted on Linguifex are below

• Muna v21