User:MIGUELbM/Muna v3.0

Introduction

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Labiodental Alveolar Velar Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive p b t d k g
Flap / tap ɾ
Fricative f s x
Approximant ʋ l h

Vowels

  Front Near- front Central Near- back Back
Close
 
i
ɨ
u
ä
  Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Phonotactics

Syllables are minimally V and maximally CrVVK

Syllable structure
Syllable
Onset Medial Nucleus Coda
(C) (r) V (V) (K)
  • Any consonant
  • /ɾ/
  • Any vowel
  • Any diphthong
  • /n/
  • /s/
  • /ɾ/
  • /l/
  • Medial /ɾ/ can only go after a voiceless consonant and reduces to [l] after a fricative.
  • Coda /n/ and /s/ assimilate by place of articulation to the following consonant
  • Intersyllabic /ɾ.ɾ/ are fortitioned into /r./

Stress

It has a pitch-accent system that is mostly used to differentiate verbs from non-verbs.

Grammar summary

Basic sentence structure is SOXV, or Subject Object Oblique Verb.

Clause types

Relative

Muna uses a VSO

Subject
[girl-agt late came-ptcp] sad
The girl [who came late] is sad.
Direct object
I gave a rose to the girl [that Kate saw].
I girl rose give
Indirect object
John knows the girl [I wrote a letter to].
john girl know
Oblique
I found the rock [which the robbers had hit John over the head with].
I rock found
Genitive
The girl [whose father died] told me she was sad.
girl I tell
Obj of Comp
The first person [I can't run faster than] will win a million dollars.
first person million dollars win

Comparative

Muna uses an exceed type of comparative, in which a verb roughly meaning 'to exceed' is used with the two compared arguments.

Reflective

Reciprocal

Syntactic and pragmatic variation

Nouns

Noun phrase

Noun case

Genitive

Verbs

Verb phrase

Verb agreement

Serial verb constructions

Tense

Aspect

Mood

Adjectives

Adverbs

Pronouns

Demonstrative

Postpositions

Particles

Numerals