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Chapter 1 Base-forms

The most difficult thing you will be faced with in Mila is to be able to look up words in a dictionary. Each word is based on three consonants or combinations of two or more three letter groups (for compound nouns). The grammar of the sentence is created by manipulating these three letters so a ‘word’ may have many different forms based on the grammar which affects it.

In this chapter we will talk about how words are formed and will learn to recognise the three identifying letters (or base form) from a dictionary entry.

The basic consonants that all words are based upon are: c, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s and t. If for example we consider the base form for the word yellow we have CHK (base forms are written here in capital letters to indicate this form).

From this base form we need to create a dictionary entry. Within a word we always work from left to right to form syllables. Syllables may be of the forms consonant + vowel + consonant, consonant + vowel, vowel + consonant or just a vowel. To turn CHK into a (dictionary) word, starting from the left we have ‘c’. This must then be followed by a vowel – we will indicate this with V, giving us ‘cV’ we then look to see if another consonant is available to end the syllable, which it is. Here it is ‘h’ which gives us ‘cVh’. This first syllable is thus complete. We still have ‘k’ left so we must form a second syllable. We start the syllable with ‘k’ and we must follow this by a vowel (all syllables must have a vowel) giving us ‘kV’. This time there are no further consonants available so this syllable is finished. This gives us the word ‘cVhkV’. We do not as yet know the identity of the two vowels. This however is determined by their following consonant. If the following consonant is c, j, n, r, s or t then the vowel will be ‘i’. If the following consonant is h, k, l, m or p then the vowel will be ‘u’. If however there is no following consonant then the vowel is ‘a’. So for ‘cVhkV’ the first vowel is followed by ‘h, so will be ‘u’, whereas the second vowel is not followed by a consonant so it will be ‘a’. The first syllable is always the one which is stressed in dictionary forms. This gives us our dictionary form for yellow as ‘cúhka’.

Similarly we have the base form for river is SSK. Again forming the syllables for the dictionary entry we get the form ‘sVskV’. The first vowel is followed by ‘s’ so will be ‘i’ whereas the second vowel does not have a following consonant and will thus be ‘a’ giving us the dictionary form ‘síska’.

Exercise 1

Form the dictionary entry for these words working from their given base forms:

English; Base Form; Dictionary
1 dry; KHT; _________
2 fruit ; MKH; _________
3 shore; STK; _________
4 arm ; LCT; _________

The examples we have encountered so far are straight forward, however sometimes some forms change in order to make them easier to pronounce and it is here that the forms become less recognisable. The letters are divided into voiced and voiceless sounds. The voiced letters are j, l, m, n, and r as well as the vowels. The voiceless letters are c, h, k, p, s and t. If a voiceless sound is surrounded (i.e. preceded and followed) by voiced sounds then it will become voiced. This means ‘c’ becomes ‘ɟ’, ‘k’ becomes ‘g’, ‘p’ becomes ‘b’, ‘s’ becomes ‘z’ and ‘t’ becomes ‘d’. Only ‘h’ does not change.

If therefore we consider the base form of the word for coin TTL we again start to form the syllables giving us *títla (the * indicates an incorrect form). We notice that the middle ‘t’ is surrounded by a vowel and ‘l’, both voiced sounds. We need therefore to change this sound into ‘d’ giving us the dictionary form ‘tídla’.

Exercise 2

Form the dictionary entry for these words
English; Base Form; Dictionary
1 house; LKL; _______
2 cold; PSN; _______
3 silver; KSC; _______
4 journalist; LMS; _______
5 poor; NHL; _______

Exercise 3

Work out the base form from these dictionary forms:
English; Dictionary Form; Base Form
1 image; cúpca; _______
2 to lack; hínla; _______
3 clothes; líjda; _______
4 mother; lúhma; _______
5 brass; kíɟna; _______

Unfortunately, there are a couple more changes which make the recognition of forms more difficult. If a syllable ends in ‘ul’ then the ‘l’ is dropped. If a syllable ends in ‘ir’ then the ‘r’ is dropped. So for the word man we have the base form LLR. Allocating syllables we get *lúlra, but the first syllable ends in ‘ul’ so this is simplified to ‘lúra’. If we are presented with the dictionary form ‘lúra’ and we need to find the base form, then we know that a sound is skipped, as we only have two consonants represented. If a sound is skipped then it will always be the last sound in a syllable so we can surmise that ‘lúra’ came from ‘lú___ra’ The missing letter will thus be ‘l’ giving us the base form LLR.

Similarly the base form for the word language is MRL. Syllabifying this word gives us *mírla, but the ‘ir’ will simplify to ‘i’ giving us the dictionary form ‘míla’.

For the word meal we have the base form MLC. Syllabifying this gives us *múlca. We must then remember to voice ‘c’ to ‘ɟ’ in this position giving us *múlɟa and finally we drop the ‘l’ following ‘u’ giving us ‘múɟa’

Exercise 4

Work out the dictionary forms of the following words:
English; Base Form; Dictionary
1 boat; SLK; _______
2 noise; RRR; _______
3 to become; TLR; _______
4 to shout; MRC; _______

Exercise 5

Work out the base forms of the following words:
English; Dictionary; Base Form
1 to do; húda; _______
2 boy; lída; _______
3 fat; cúɟa; _______
4 wall; kúga; _______

There is just one final change that we need to know about. If a syllable ends in a consonant and is followed by a syllable beginning with the identical consonant then this final consonant is also dropped. But note that the sound will not then be voiced if it was originally voiceless. So the word low has the base form CKK. Syllabifying gives us *cukka but the ‘kk’ is simplified to ‘k’ giving the dictionary form ‘cuka’ Because there is no voicing we know that the dropped letter cannot be ‘l’ (a base form of CLK would give us the dictionary form ‘cuga’). This unfortunately can give us the situation where two dictionary forms are identical although they have different base forms. The word door has the base form KLH which syllabified is *kulha, the ‘l’ is then dropped giving the dictionary form ‘kuha’. The word road has the base form KHH which syllabified is *kuhha, the ‘hh’ is simplified to ‘h; giving the identical dictionary form ‘kuha’. Where this is the case they will be indicated in the dictionary in the forms ‘ku(l)ha’ for door and ‘ku(h)ha’ for road.

Exercise 6

Work out the dictionary forms of the following words:
English; Base Form; Dictionary
1 hand; LTT; _______
2 moon; HKK; _______
3 blue; CHH ; _______
4 colour; CPP; _______

Answers:
Exercise 1: 1 kúhta, 2 múkha, 3 sítka, 4 lícta
Exercise 2 : 1 lúgla, 2 pízna, 3 kísca, 4 lúmza, 5 núhla
Exercise 3 : 1 CPC, 2 HNL, 3 LJT, 4 LHM, 5 KCN
Exercise 4 : 1 súga, 2 ríra (notice that the second r is the first consonant of the second syllable and not the last consonant of the first syllable so it is not further simplified), 3 túra, 4 míɟa
Exercise 5 : 1 HLT, 2 LRT, 3 CLC, 4 KLK
Exercise 6 : 1 líta, 2 húka, 3 cúha (shown as ‘cu(h)ha’ in the dictionary so we know the base form is not CLH which gives an identical dictionary form), 4 cúpa ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article

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