Mawic grammar I.
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Phonology, orthography and vocabulary
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 14 Oct 2021, 16:40.
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2. Mawic grammar I.
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3. Mawic grammar II.
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4. Mawic grammar III.
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5. Mawic Grammar IV.
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6. Mawic Grammar V.
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Mawic (In
Mawic: Tle Mavan, romanized: Tle Mavan, pronunced: [ˈtlɛ ˈmavan]) is a Mawo-Calaic language native to the valley of the River Mawa. 
It was the official language of many city-states in the valley, and the lingua franca in the western parts of the Jit-sea. As a result Mawic had a deep impact on the nearby languages and cultures. For example, 60% of the vocabulary of
Early-Botiq comes from Mawic.There is a rich tradition of Mawic literature. While religious texts were written exclusively in
Ancient-Mawic, there is a wide variety of secular works in Old Mawic. The works of meþala, and isi poets were very important in the cultural life of the mawic world. The scientific writings of Berklán, Simyáj and Eydlijat of Máv were also highly influential. Scholars and priests from the Mawa valley founded schools and monasteries all around the West-Jit sea, and spread their language, culture and religion. Some of them were hired by foreigner rulers to work as private teachers.| Consonants | Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | /m/, [mʲ], [m̩] m | /n/, [n̩] n | /ɲ/ ñ | /ŋ/ ŋ | ||||||||||
| Plosive | /p/, [pʲ] p | /b/ b | /t/ t | /d/ d | /k/ k | /g/ g | ||||||||
| Fricative | /f/, [fʲ] f | /v/, [vʲ] v | /θ/, [θʲ] þ | /ð/, [ðʲ] ð | /s/ s | /z/ z | /ʃ/, [ʃʲ] ş /ʃʷ/ şw | /ʒ/ [ʒʲ] j | /x/ x | /ɣ/ ǵ | ||||
| Affricate | [t͡s] | [d͡z] | /t͡ʃ/, [t͡ʃʲ] ç, /t͡ʃʷ/ çw | /d͡ʒ/ ḑ | ||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | /l/ [lʲ] [l̩] l | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | [ʋ] | /j/ y | /w/ w | |||||||||||
| Trill | /r/, [r̩] r | |||||||||||||
| Flap | [ɾ] | |||||||||||||
| Vowels | Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | /i/ i, /i:/ í | [ɨ] | [ʉ] | /u/ u, /u:/ ú |
| Close-mid | /e:/ é | /o/ o, /o:/ ó | ||
| Mid | /ə/ ë | |||
| Open-mid | /ɛ/ e | |||
| Open | /a/ a, /a:/ á | |||
yellow= only allophones
Mawic uses a modified version of the Ejai alphabet. It has 39 letters, 9 of them (marked red) are unique to Mawic.
Consonants
| Romanization | Mm | Nn | Ññ | Ŋŋ | Pp | Bb | Ff | Vv | Þþ | Ðð | Tt | Dd | Ss | Zz |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ejai Character | Mm | Nn | Ññ | Ŋŋ | Pp | Bb | Ff | Vv | Þþ | Ðð | Tt | Dd | Ss | Zz |
| IPA | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /ŋ/ | /p/ | /b/ | /f/ | /v/ | /θ/ | /ð/ | /t/ | /d/ | /s/ | /z/ |
| Romanization | Ll | Rr | Şş | Şwşw | Çç | Çwçw | Jj | Ḑḑ | Yy | Ww | Kk | Xx | Gg | Ǵǵ |
| Ejai Character | Ll | Rr | Şş | Şwşw | Çç | Çwçw | Jj | Ḑḑ | Yy | Ww | Kk | Xx | Gg | Ǵǵ |
| IPA | /l/ | /r/ | /ʃ/ | /ʃʷ/ | /t͡ʃ/ | /t͡ʃʷ/ | /ʒ/ | /d͡ʒ/ | /j/ | /w/ | /k/ | /x/ | /ɾ/ | /ɣ/ |
Vowels
| Romanization | Aa | Áá | Ee | Éé | Ii | Íí | Oo | Óó | Uu | Úú | Ëë |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ejai Character | Aa | Áá | Ee | Éé | Ii | Íí | Oo | Óó | Uu | Úú | Ëë |
| IPA | /ˈa/ | /ˈa:/ | /ˈɛ/ | /ˈe:/ | /ˈi/ | /ˈi:/ | /ˈa/ | /ˈa:/ | /ˈu/ | /ˈu:/ | /ˈə/ |
Double consonants
| Romanization | zz | gg | dd | jj | şş | nn | mm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ejai Character | zz | gg | dd | jj | şş | nn | mm |
| IPA | /d͡z/ | /g:/ | /d:/ | /ʒ:/ | /ʃ:/ | /n:/ | /m:/ |
The spelling system of OMW is based on tradition. Spelling rules have been fossilized hundreds of years ago, and it makes learning Mawic really difficult. For example:
Krewkë (krewkë - background, preface, antecedent) is pronounced [ˈkrɨ:k], Kúmwyóg (Kúmwyóg - prostitute) is pronounced [ˈkum:ja:ɾ], Gifeyrada (gifeyrada - excitement/fetish) is pronounced [ˈgefʲe:raða] and Şyiǵgidese (şyiǵgidese - unfaithful) is pronounced [ʃʲˈɨʋ:ɛðɛsɛ].
It might seem to be a little chaotic, but there is a system behind it.
Spelling rules
- 1. Between vowels:
/j/ becomes [d͡ʒ]
/b/ becomes [v]
/w/ becomes [b]
/k/ becomes [x]
/p/ becomes [f]
/t/ becomes [θ]
/d/ becomes [ð]
/g/ becomes [ɣ]
/r/ becomes [ɾ]
Except after long vowels
- 2. /ts/ and word final /z/ after /i/ are pronounced [t͡s]
- 3. Voiced consonant becomes unvoiced after another unvoiced
- 4. Unvoiced consonant becomes voiced after another voiced
- 5. Word final /z:/ is pronounced as [d͡z]
- 6. Word final /s:/ is pronounced as [t͡s]
- 7. /w/ disappears between a nasal and any other consonants, geminating the nasal
- 8. /w/ is pronounced as [ə] between any other consonants
- 9. /m/, /n/, /l/, and /r/ become syllabic between consonants
- 10. first instance of /o/ turns into [a] if it is not stressed
- 11. /o/ turns into [a] between voiced consonants if it is not stressed
- 12. /i/ turns into [ɨ] before velar consonants
- 13. /i:/ turns into [ɨ:] before velar consonants if it is not stressed
- 14. /u/ turns into [ʉ] before velar consonants
- 15. /u:/ turns into [ʉ:] before velar consonants if it is not stressed
- 16. /ɛ/, /o/ turns into [ə] before velar fricatives
- 17. /e:/, /o:/ turns into [ə] before velar fricatives if not stressed
- 18. /ɣj/ turns into [j:]
- 19. /ɣg/ turns into [ʋ:]
- 20. /ɣ/ turns into [l] before any other consonants
- 21. Consonants palatalize if followed by a vowel and /l/ or /j/, except for /j/, which turns into [lʲ]
- 22. Short /j/ disappears and geminates short vowels after palatal consonants
- 23. /o:/, /a:/, /e:/, /i:/, /u:/ becomes short before geminated consonants
- 24. /ɛ:/ turns into [e:]
- 25. /ɛw/ and /iw/ turns into [ɨ:]
- 25. Word final /ə/ is deleted after long vowel plus a consonant
- 26. /v/ turns into [ʋ] after a consonant
- 27. /ɛə/ turns into [ə:]
- 28. /ɛ/ turns into [a] before nasal consonants preceeding [ɛ]
- 29. Plosives and alveolar fricatives turn into fricatives and alveolar affricates before palatalized /r/ and /l/
There are five common sources of Mawic words.
- 1. Native words
Ancient-Mawic is the mother language of Mawic, therefore the most common words came from there. During the historic sound changes many common words, especially short ones, became homonyms. For example the OMW word çíǵ (çíǵ) has 9 different meanings: spring (both season and water source), origin, breath, subjunctive, source, from, door, to come from somewhere, ge (ge) has 6, and ta (ta) has 5. This makes OMW very context sensitive. Native words are also very irregular.- 2.
Ejai loanwordsThe Kingdom of the Ejai was the nearest major power to the mawic city-states. They gave the alphabet and many words related to science and government, such as: axez (town square), driçi (aorta), dudhu (to remove/fire someone), taltexay (diacritic), elza (prospreity, growth), and so on.
- 3.
Early-Botiq loanwordsBotiqs lived a nomadic life in the mountains of the north. Most of the words they gave were related to nature, such as: zifod (blizzard), rilëv (hole/grave), xitliñëǵ ([sheep/goat] herder), xotl (canyon), and so on.
Giranta
UnariThe Giranta and Unari peoples were great merchants and sailors. They had colonies all around the Jit-sea. Beside the exotic goods from the other side of the world, they brought many new words related to sailing and economics, such as: vemtsen (to sail), glyat (salesman), tanþa (colony), galauló (tea), and so on.
- 5. Words of internal origin
Many new words were created in the Old Mawic period. Most of these words are combinations of old existing ones, or derived by suffixing. These new words are often used to replace the confusing old ones, with many homonyms. For example: mindaeg (out come) from: min (come) + -da (nominaliser) + eg (out), tetila (livestock, cattle, property, ect) from: teti (to have/carry) + -la (patient suffix)
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