User:Mbartelsm/Muna
Typological sketch
[edit]Mostly isolating language with an active-stative fluid-S alignment and a dominant SOV word order with postpositions and preceding genitives.
Phonology
[edit]Inventory
[edit]Labial | Alveolar | Velar | Glottal | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | g | ||
Nasal | m | n | ||||||
Flap / tap | ɾ | |||||||
Fricative | f | s | x | |||||
Approximant | ʋ | l | h |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | ɨ | u |
Mid | e | o | |
Low | a |
Phonotactics
[edit]Syllables are minimally V and maximally CrVVK
Syllable | |||
---|---|---|---|
Onset | Medial | Nucleus | Coda |
(C) | (r) | V (V) | (K) |
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|
|
|
- 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
[edit]It has a pitch-accent system that is mostly used to differentiate verbs from non-verbs.
Closed word classes
[edit]Open word classes
[edit]Nouns
[edit]...Genitives | Noun | Case particle | |
---|---|---|---|
Stem | Case | ||
|
Noun classes
[edit]The classification system can be divided into two kinds: absolute and relative. The absolute classes are defined by animacy and deal with non-person things. The relative classes are defined by social status and position and deal with people.
Kind | Class | Definition |
---|---|---|
Relative | 1c | Familiar: friends, family and oneself in informal settings |
1b | Friendly: coworkers, acquaintances and oneself in formal settings | |
1a | Formal: people you've just met or haven't met yet and oneself in extremely formal settings | |
2 | Derogatory: insulting or derogatory when used for people | |
Absolute | Animate: animals and naturally moving things like fire, water, machines, computers | |
3 | Inanimate: objects which aren't supposed to move, including living things like plants | |
4 | Miscellaneous: abstract and invisible concepts as well as anything that doesn't fit elsewhere |
Verbs
[edit]...Arguments | Verb | Coverbs... | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Stem | Tense | Agreement | ||
|
|
Verbs agree with their agent (monovalent) or subject (multivalent) in noun class
Tense
[edit]There are two grammatical tenses that verbs inflect for: non-past and past
Other tenses can be expressed through serial verb constructions
Register
[edit]Register is divided in two parts, the register for the setting and the register for the addressee. The register for the setting somewhat follows this table:
Register | Speaker | Listener | |
---|---|---|---|
Formal | Supra-formal | Generic noun (1a) | Title |
Formal | Zeroth person (1b) | ||
Infra-formal | Honorific (+ name) | ||
Regular | Supra-regular | First person (1c) | |
Regular | Name | ||
Informal | Informal |
The register for the addressee depends on the familiarity with them, which is reflected on the verb agreement as per their classification into the noun classes.