Makari

Makari
Macári
Pronunciation	[macçɐ:ri]
Created by	Aenil
Date	2024
Native to	Lincai (Lićaí)
Language family	Language isolate Makari
Early form	Proto-Kinavel
Writing system	Latin

Makari (autoglossonym: Macári, Makari : /macçɐ:ri/) is a language spoken in the province of Lincai (Makari : Lićaí /liçaɪ:/). After the Kinavel language was brought to Lincai, the language underwent a small number of phonological changes, like the loss of the uvular sounds, and a fricatization of the plosives, that gave a fully-fledged affricate set, replacing the old Kinavel plosive set

Etymology

The language name is derived from the Proto-Kinavel word *n¹qarí /ɳ̩qerɪː/ meaning "language, speech", which gave the Kinavel word nŭkeri /nuˑkeri/ meaning "communication"

Orthography

Alphabet

The Makari alphabet is composed of 24 letters (20 "base letters" and 4 "diacritic letters") :

Makari alphabet (in order)
Letter	Aa	Áá	Cc	Ćć	Ee	Pp	Ff	Hh	Ii	Íí	Jj	Kk	Xx	Ll	Mm	Nn	Qq	Oo	Rr	Tt	Ss	Uu	Úú	Vv
IPA	ä	ɐ	cç	ç	ə	pɸ	ɸ	h	i	ɪ	j	kx	x	l	m	n	ŋ	ɒ	r	ts	s	u	ʊ	w

Phoneme type

During the rest of the article, and especially in grammar, the letters C, V and M will be referring to different type of phonemes. Here's a table of correspondence :

Letter	Description
C	All consonants
V	Non-diacritical vowels
M	Diacritical vowels

Phonology

Consonants

	Labials	Alveolars	Palatals/ Velars	Glottals
Nasal	m	n	ŋ
Affricate	pɸ	ts	cç, kx
Fricative	ɸ	s	ç, x	h
Approximant	(w)	l	j, w
Trill		r

Notes :

• /cç/ and /ç/ are pronounced /tʃ/ and /ʃ/ by some speakers
• /kx/ and /x/ are pronounced /qχ/ and /χ/ after back vowels
• Although the traditional pronounciation of <w> is /ʋ/, almost all speakers have shifted to /w/ or /β/

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i, ɪː	u, ʊː
Mid	ə, ɐː
Open	ä	ɒ

Notes:

• /ɪː/ and /ʊː/ are often realized as /i:/ and /u:/ in stressed syllables
• /ə/ can be lengthened if it is the first component of a diphthong
• /ɒ/ is raised to /ɔ/ by some speakers

Morphophonology

Apophony

As we will talk about later, verbs in Makari have 2 stems, the "normal" stem and the "apophonic" stem. The apophonic stem, as its name implies, is a verbal stem where apophony occured on the two last syllables (apophony is stopped by stress). To know how to deduce that stem, here is a table of vowel alternation :

Vowel alternation

Initial	After apophony
a	áu
e	i
i	ío
o	ú
u	o
á, í, ú	a, i, u

Phonotactics and Stress

Syllable Shape

The maximum syllable shape of Makari is pretty strict, as it is (C)V(C)

Stress

Stress falls on the third-to-last syllable (or first syllable is the word has less than three syllables). For example, "tocája" is pronounced /ˈtɒcçɐjä/

Grammar

Nouns

Cases

Nouns in Makari are inflected using 7 cases :

Makari case system

Case	Usage
Nominative	Subject of a verb (+ predicate)
Genitive	Alienable possession, subject of verbs of experience
Dative	Indirect object, direct object of verbs of possession, inalienable possession (with «já»), lative case
Accusative	Direct object
Locative	Position in space, movement away from, derivation method
Vocative	Apostrophe
Prepositional	Objects of prepositions

Numbers

In Makari, nouns are inflected using two numbers (or three depending on when the word was loaned) :

• Singular
• Paucal (Merged with the plural)
• Plural

Paradigms

Declension of ári (V class)
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ári
Genitive	árin	árí
Dative	árári	áriqa
Accusative	árić
Locative	áli	álitía
Vocative	árin
Prepositional	áliná	álili

Declension of toká (M class)
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	toká
Genitive	tokán	toka
Dative	totoká	tokáqa
Accusative	tokáć
Locative	tocá	tocátía
Vocative	tokán
Prepositional	tocáno	tocácá

Declension of akan (C class)
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	akan
Genitive	akanin	akán
Dative	akakan	akana
Accusative	akaneć
Locative	akat	akatía
Vocative	aka
Prepositional	akata	akatan

Verbs

Verbs in Makari have 2 different stems : the "normal" stem and the "apophonic" stem (see Makari#Apophony for the stem rules). The apophonic stem is used for the perfect tense, and for the conditional. There are 13 main tenses and 4 compound tenses, 4 moods and 3 numbers

Verbs are highly regular, expect for 4 verbs : the copula «ne», the locative copula «ita» , the possessive auxiliary «ru» and the negative auxiliary «á»