Memuan [MMN]
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Registered by
[Deactivated User] on 16 October 2015
Language type
A priori
Species
Human/humanoid
About Memuan
Memuan is a language with ergative-absolutive alignment and a limited phonology.
- Moderate influence is drawn from Maori, Hawaiian, Mandarin and
- Primary word order is SVO, while VSO is used in some subordinate clauses.
- The language is moderately pro-drop, requiring pronouns only in stative contexts and subordinate clauses.
- Verbs are moderately agglutinative, taking various affixes for valency and tense (past/non-past)
- No gender or marked number on nouns, although there possessive pronouns do inflect for plurality.
- There are no true adjectives. Adjectives behave and decline like verbs.
- Verbs follow hierarchical agreement in transitive clauses depending on the person of the agent and the patient.
- There is a rich array of aspect and mood particles that conveys extra meaning in the verbs.
Sample of Memuan[view] Penca sa e woa uzu ikonua mzeo wohikana a yowaaki mikai. Hiyuzi ke'uzu yewizsayi n hea'o e n yahawi, hu sina woa waina ihuo po onye a meyanni neo.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[view all texts]
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[view all texts]
Sound samples in Memuan
Some sound samples of Memuan. Maximum of 6 shown. Click the links to see the full texts.
O oyisu apu nihaala, kema micim'i sina yealo hu n hiya a csilo.
Sorry I'm late, I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life.
Sorry I'm late, I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life.
Mzeo peen ziyanuuna sa n Mekeoyi iihuaye keo. N'izeaacokia huahai.
The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.
The last Metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace.
Nsa eha n penca mki luokunuu hecu'em hiim n csilo sa apu.
This is the person who understands life better than I do.
This is the person who understands life better than I do.
Msa eha ozsai mki hiim zopianuu upi.
It is a good day to die.
It is a good day to die.
M neawum hawuawin keo n'iceoli.
M'iceolim hawuawin keo n neawu
The bird saw the fish. The fish saw the bird.
The bird saw the fish. The fish saw the bird.
No hi heke mue, apu hi weoka mue samme
You say potato; I say vodka.
You say potato; I say vodka.
Language family relationships
[view] Pukai (Pukai)Closed syllables become nasal vowels. Lowering of [a] and [o]. Nasal consonant followed by glottal stop becomes pharyngealized consonant. Varying terminology and significant loans form Semasa Nieren.
Phonology
Consonants | Bilabial | Labio- dental | Alveolar | Post- Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||
Nasal | m [m̩]1 [mʰ]2 | n [n̩]3 [nʰ]4 | ||||||||||||
Plosive | p | k | ʔ5 | |||||||||||
Fricative | [v]6 | s | z | [ʃ]7 | [ç]8 | h | ||||||||
Affricate | t͡s | d͡z | t͡ʃ | |||||||||||
Lateral approximant | (l)9 | |||||||||||||
Approximant | ʋ | j | ||||||||||||
Flap | ɾ |
- allophone of /m/
- allophone of /m/
- allophone of /n/
- allophone of /n/
- intervocalic, word-final, or post-nasal
- before /i/, allophone of /ʋ/
- allophone of /t͡ʃ/
- allophone of /h/
- loan words only
Vowels | Front | Central | Back | |||
Close | i | u | ||||
Close-mid | e | [o]1 | ||||
Mid | [ə]2 | |||||
Open-mid | ɔ | |||||
Open | ä |
Polyphthongs | äi | iä | uä | eä | uɔ | ue | eɔ |
- only in open syllables, allophone of /eɔ/
- preceding nasal consonant, allophone of /e/
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Memuan. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
MemuanOrthography | |||||||||
'/ʔ/1 | Aa/ä/ | Cc/t͡ʃ/ | CS cs/t͡s/ | Ee/e/ | Hh/h/, [ç] | Ii/i/ | Kk/k/ | Ll/ɾ/, /l/2 | Mm/m/ |
Nn/n/ | Oo/ɔ/ | Pp/p/ | Ss/s/ | Uu/u/ | Ww/ʋ/, [v]3 | Yy/j/ | Zz/z/ | ZS zs/d͡z/ | |
✖ Unknown alphabetical order |
- intervocalic, word-final, or post-nasal
- loan words only, loan words only
- before /i/
Latest 8 related articles listed below.
Negation
Peek into the quirks of Memuan negation
23-Feb-16 02:19Topic and Focus 21-Feb-16 22:53
Adjectives 18-Feb-16 00:43
Hierarchical agreement
Funky preverbal particles
17-Feb-16 01:40