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

Phonotactics and Stress

Syllable Shape

The maximum syllable shape of Makari is pretty strict, and the language prioritises open syllables : CV(C) word-finally and CV/VC anywhere else

Stress

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

Grammar

Nouns

Cases

Nouns in Makari are inflected using 7 cases :

Nominative

The nominative case in Makari is used to mark the subject of a sentence, or to mark both the subject and the predicate in copular sentences.

Genitive

The genitive case is used for alienable possession, and is used as the agent of verbs of experience.

For example: «Ćirát anícaúra» means "I am cold", and here, «ćirát» is the genitive form of «će»

Dative

The dative case is used to mark the indirect object of a sentence, the direct object of verbs of possession, is used with «já» to indicate inalienable possession and helps to convey the role of the lative case.

Accusative

The accusative case is used to indicate the direct object of a verb. It derived from the merging between the Accusative and the Partitive, loaned from the Kinavel case system

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