Mirmio
Mirmio [mʲiɽ˨˦˨.mʲi͡o], also spelled Midmio or Mîdmio, is an artistic language.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Guttural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain | Labialized | Plain | Labialized | ||||||
| Nasal | mʲ | n̼ | ɲ | ||||||
| Stop | Aspirated | pʲʰ | kʷʰ | ||||||
| Tenuis | Median | pʲ | t͡ɕ | t͡σ̠ | kʲ | kʷ | ʔ | ||
| Lateral | t͡ɬ | t͡ɬʷ | |||||||
| Fricative | Median | θ̼ ð̼ | ç | x | χ | ||||
| Lateral | ɬ | ɬʷ | |||||||
| Approximant | Median | ɥ | ɹʲ | j | ɰ | w | |||
| Lateral | lʲ | ||||||||
| Flap | ɽ | ||||||||
ɽ > ⁿɾ̼ / V_V
t͡ɬ t͡ɬʷ t͡σ̠ t͡ɕ > t͡l̥ t͡l̥ʷ d͡ƍ₋ d͡ʑ / #_ !”_
t͡ɬ t͡ɬʷ t͡σ̠ t͡ɕ > t͡ɬʰ t͡ɬʷʰ t͡σ̠ʰ t͡ɕʰ / ”_ !#_
/kʷʰ/ and /kʷ/ do not appear before front vowels.
| IPA | /mʲ/ | /n̼/ | /ɲ/ | /pʲʰ/ | /kʷʰ/ | /pʲ/ | /t͡ɕ/ | /t͡σ̠/ | /kʲ/ | /kʷ/ | /ʔ/ | /t͡ɬ/ | /t͡ɬʷ/ | /θ̼/ | /ð̼/ | /ç/ | /x/ | /χ/ | /ɬ/ | /ɬʷ/ | /ɥ/ | /ɹʲ/ | /j/ | /ɰ/ | /w/ | /lʲ/ | /ɽ/ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romanization | m | n | ń | p | kv | b | c | cv | k | gv | q | tz | tzv | f | z | ç | h | x | s | sv | yv | r | y | g | w | l | d |
| IPA | [t͡ɕʰ] | [t͡σ̠ʰ] | [t͡ɬʰ] | [t͡ɬʷʰ] | [ⁿɾ̼] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Romanization | ch | chv | ts | tsv | nd | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| IPA | [d͡ʑ] | [d͡ƍ₋] | [tˡ] | [tˡʷ] | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Romanization | j | jv | tl | tlv |
Vowels
| –RTR | +RTR | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | |||||
| Oral | Nasal | Oral | Nasal | Oral | Nasal | ||
| Close | i | ĩ | ᵿ | ᵿ̃ | ʊ | ʊ̃ | ʊ̙ |
| Mid | e | ẽ | ɜ | ɜ̃ | o | õ | o̙ |
| Open | æ | æ̃ | æ̙ | ||||
/o̙/ and its tonal counterparts are phonetically [ɔ̙̈].
Any two vowels can form a diphthong as long as they are both oral or both nasal.
Nasal vowel harmony occurs regresssively. +RTR vowels are opaque oral vowels. There is no tie to the presence or absence of nasal consonants.
| Toneless | IPA | /i/ | /ĩ/ | /ᵿ/ | /ᵿ̃/ | /ʊ/ | /ʊ̃/ | /ʊ̙/ | /e/ | /ẽ/ | /ɜ/ | /ɜ̃/ | /o/ | /õ/ | /o̙/ | /æ/ | /æ̃/ | /æ̙/ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romanization | i | ĩ | ü | ū | u | ũ | ų | e | ẽ | ä | ā | o | õ | ǫ | a | ã | ą | |
| Tonal | IPA | /i/ | /ĩ/ | /ᵿ/ | /ᵿ̃/ | /ʊ/ | /ʊ̃/ | /ʊ̙/ | /e/ | /ẽ/ | /ɜ/ | /ɜ̃/ | /o/ | /õ/ | /o̙/ | /æ/ | /æ̃/ | /æ̙/ |
| Romanization | i | iĩ | uü | uū | u | uũ | uų | e | eẽ | aä | aā | o | oõ | oǫ | a | aã | aą |
Tones
There are four phonemic tones: rising (á), falling (à), dipping (ǎ), and peaking (â), but there is also tonelessness (a). Long vowels cannot have tone. Coda sonorants can receive tone, but not if the nucleus does not have a tone. If one coda sonorant has tone, all of that syllable's coda sonorants must also have tone. Diphthongs can receive the same tones as monophthongs. One syllable cannot have more than two tonal morae.
Syllables and Morae
The language uses morae and syllables. One vowel in a nucleus counts as one mora. Onset consonants count as 0 morae. Each coda consonant counts as one mora. Sonorants that follow an obstruent in intrasyllabic clusters are allophonically preceded by an extra-short vowel. If necessary, syllable breaks are romanized with an apostrophe (').
Syntax
There are 6 word orders used for different relationships between a verb and its arguments
Parts of Speech
Mirmio has only three parts of speech: nouns and verbs.
Underlyingly, there are no words that can function as adjectives, adverbs, or adpositions. Rather, Mirmio uses relative clauses to convey lexical modification. This may result in only a singular modifier word if A-V word order for the relative clause is used, creating the appearance of a modifier. Similarly, relative clauses with V-A-A or A-V-A structures can give the appearance of a preposition or postposition.
Subordinate Clauses
Mirmio primarily distinguishes content and relative clauses through morphology, as both can have the same rules and variabiltiy found in main clause syntax.
Content Clauses
Mirmio can replace
Lexicon
kọ̀u [kʲɔ̙͡u̯˥˩] (dog)
mîd [mʲiɽ˨˦˨] (cat)
mio [mʲi͡o] (speak)
nǫh [n̼õx] (want)