 | We're back! Sorry, bad combo of sickness, funeral and a month-long trip abroad. The site is back now.  Χρυσοφύλαξ 00:44, 12 March 2025 (UTC) |
Minurese
 | Learn more This article is a construction site. This project is currently undergoing significant construction and/or revamp. By all means, take a look around, thank you. |
| Minurese | |
|---|---|
| minūrikit | |
 | |
| Pronunciation | [miˈnuːɾiki̥t] |
| Created by | Jukethatbox |
| Date | 2025 |
| Setting | Radael |
| Native to | Minūrun |
| Ethnicity | Minurese people |
| Native speakers | 12,117,078 (400 BH) |
Upé-Ontic(?)
| |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Minūrun |
Minurese(minūrikit, Minurese:[miˈnuːɾiki̥t]) is an Ontic language spoken by the Minurese people(minūripiḷ) of Minūrun. Spoken by around 12,117,078 people natively in Minūrun(around 33% of the population), Minurese is the second most spoken language there by native speakers after Logun and an official language of the multi-ethnic country. As an Ontic language, it is related to the neighbouring language of Ingdikh; many Minurese people migrate to Ingdikh at some point in their lives for work thanks to this close relationship. It has also been suggested that the Ontic languages, including Minurese, may be related to the Upé languages which include Logun and Teš.
As a second language, Minurese is by far the most popular second language in Minūrun; this is mostly due to the domination of Minurese people in Minūrun administration. This has, however, also led to deep ethnic tensions, in particular with the Logun people, who make up a slim majority of the population; it has also led to the marginalisation of other languages and peoples, in particular the indigenous Gomin, Vekanda, Ndigi and Ojan.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | pulmonic | p | t tː | k | |||
| aspirated | pʰ | (cʰ) | kʰ | ||||
| Fricative | (ɸ) | s sː | h | ||||
| Tap | ɾ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n nː | ɳ | ŋ | |||
| Lateral | l | ɭ | (ʎ) | ||||
| Semivowel | w | j | |||||
/ɸ/ is an unstressed intervocalic allophone of /pʰ/. /cʰ/ is an allophone of /kʰ/ before /i iː/. /ʎ/ is a coda allophone for /l/. /t k/ are often lightly palatalised before /i iː/; these are generally unmarked even in IPA, though if needed these are represented as /t̟ k̟/.
Geminated consonants /tː sː nː/ are phonemic and are not derived from similar consonants on syllable boundaries; /tː sː/ are probably derived from earlier aspirated */tʰ sʰ/ while /nː/ is probably derived from earlier /ŋ͡m/, which still appears in some dialects.
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i iː | u uː | |
| Close-mid | e eː | ɘ ɘː | o oː |
| Open | a aː |
/i e ɘ/ are devoiced when unstressed and surrounded by voiceless obstruents, as in ītis [ˈiːti̥s] or fosyk [ˈpʰosɘ̥k].
Long vowels are never devoiced and are typically always stressed; in the case of two long vowels, as in nānō [ˈnaːnoː] the first long vowel is stressed.
Grammar
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns come in pronominal, inflected and possessive forms. Pronominal forms are used when it is used independently as a subject or object, such as mā ke ō "me and you". Inflected forms are used in verb conjugation, as in manisi ke oyutim "I speak and you listen to me". Possessive forms are used to show possession, as in mela nottu i ola nottu "my son is your son".
| Pronoun | Inflection | Possessive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1S | mā | -m(a)- | mela |
| 2S | ō | -o- | ola |
| 3S | tī | -my- | ñala |
| 1PL | yā | -ya- | yala |
| 3PL | ni | -ni- | eni |
Demonstrative
Minurese only has two demonstrative pronouns, which are taken from personal pronouns; these are singular ti and plural nī. Proximity is not marked, though generally their use implies a distal proximity; hence their common translation as "that" and "those" respectively.
They are placed prepositionally.
Verbs
Conjugation
Minurese verbs are conjugated in the order of subject, verb, tense, mood, aspect and object. Subject and object are inflected in the same way; see § Personal pronouns.
Tense
Minurese only has two morphological tenses, similarly to English; these tenses are past and non-past. Only past is shown by an affix; said affix is -nu-.
Mood
Grammatical mood, unlike aspect, must agree with tense(unless imperative or jussive). Mood affixes tend to have long vowels to distinguish them from other areas of the verb.
| Indicative | Conditional | Potential | Optative | Imperative[a] | Jussive[a] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-past | - | -mē- | -dō- | -tū- | -ke | -lō |
| Past | -nu-[b] | -mū- | -dē- | -tō- | - | |
Aspect
There are three aspects in Minurese: simple, progressive and habitual. Simple is unmarked, while progressive and habitual are marked by affixes -ko- and -le-.
Simple-progressive distinction only occurs in the non-past tense, while habitual occurs in both tenses.
Copula
The Minurese existential verb and copula is i; it is not conjugated whatsoever unless it is used in a reflexive verb.
Reflexives
Reflexive verbs are optional and formed with a prepositional copula, while the verb itself stops conjugating on object. For example, "he washes" is mysiti, while "he washes himself" can be written as mysitimy (lit. "he washes him") or as i mysiti tī. When conjugated on tense, the copula takes tense infix postpositionally, as in i nu mysiti tī "he washed himself."
Nouns
Case
Minurese case markings depend on the noun number and whether the noun ends in a short, long vowel or consonant.
| Short vowel | Long vowel | Consonant | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | sing. | pl. | |
| Nominative | ||||||