User:Meuser2/Storage/Mattish

General information
Mattish is the native language of the Matte, a group of around 12000 spread across 7 cities, though also populating the rural regions surrounding them. They are a subgroup of the more general Arix, a people numbering around 20000 spread throughout Northern and Central Akizreth. The language is not solely used by them, however; it is the lingua franca of Akizreth. Though Toki Pona has been adopted for informal communication between those not sharing a native language, a severely deprived vocabulary means that it is useless for more complex activities. Mattish is thus stable in most areas of modern-day life.

This is the formal version of the language; the informal version, barely comprehensible to even a native speaker of the formal language, will be coming. Note that the definition of flexional as a type is that used here.

Consonants
Where multiple allophones are presented, the primary one is in boldface.

Other allophone types
[ɹ] has a number of allophones. Both [r] and [l] are common allophones. Another allophone, [ʁ], is slightly more complex in usage. While never contrastive, it is never interchanged with [ɹ] by native speakers. An example of its use is ʁʲan 'population (number thereof)'. θ and l act towards s and r like ʁ to r. The intervocalic consonant clusters /sh/ and /nh/ are often pronounced [sʰ] and [nʰ], respectively.

Vowels
E has an allophone ø, though this is used only in the neuter plain suffix, pronounced -øn in many words. -en is not misunderstood, however.

Diphthongs
Mattish does permit a small number of diphthongs. They are as follows: Ua~oa cannot appear following j or a palatalised cosonant.

Script
The Mattish write using a script known as Sarin akai, 'red letters'. The name is due to the common practice of writing with blood, sourced using a blood scythe from animals. It is (mostly) an alphabet, possessing one letter for each vowel and consonant (covering both palatalised and non-palatalised). The vowels which can follow a palatalised consonant have a special form used in the case in which they do so.

Phonotactics
Mattish has two series of consonants. The first are the non-palatals. These can precede any vowel. However, any consonant except j and w can be palatalised. Palatalised consonants and j can only preced a, o, and u. Syllables are always of the form (C)V(n, s), where C is any consonant at all and V is a vowel that can follow it. Stress is always on the last syllable of the root. Note that a consonant following n is automatically voiced.

Allophones of Palatalised Consonants
Some consonants have separate allophones for their palatalised forms (i.e. allophones which are not simply palatalised versions of allophones of the plain consonant). Below is presented the IPA table again, but this time for palatalised consonants: The primary allophone is always the plain consonant's primary allophone palatalised (or the closest to that possible). ɹʲ merges with j in some dialects.

Intervocalic Fricativisation
Mattish, like Spanish, reduces voiced consonants to fricatives intervocalically. Note that this does not occur with voiceless consonants. It does, however, also occur with palatalised voiced consonants (once again, not voiceless). IPA demonstrations in the dictionary show this in practice (will add some examples here eventually).

Nouns/Pronouns
Nouns pattern as follows: Case-Gender& Number-Root-Suffix. All except root are dealt with below.

Case
Case prefixes are as follows:

0=absolutative w=essive k=instrumental sj=dative/benefactive h=ablative b=locative n=perlative z=intrative/apudessive

A vocative is also present for a handful of nouns: it is marked with the nominative prefix and root change. Thus, -sare- 'God' has the vocative -sore- 'O God'.

Gender& Number
Mattish has three genders: common, neuter, and non-singularisable (the last gender states the default number of elements in the group using number marked on the noun, singular being a noncount noun; the number of groups is marked with counters). It also has a singular, dual and plural. The prefixes are as follows:

Suffix
When two suffixes are placed together with a slash in the following table, the first is for common nouns, the second everything else. Suffixes are as follows:

-0/-en= plain

-e= interrogative (i.e. which.....)

-as/-o= my

-es/-on= your

-a= this/that

-en deserves special mention. Most native speakers pronounce it -en in some words, -øn in others. The prononounciation is remarkably consistent between speakers pronouncing the same root, but which roots use -en and which -øn seem not to show any consistent pattern. The root is marked with the pronounciation of its suffix in the lexicon.

Adjectives
Adjectives pattern as follows: Case-Gender& Number-Root-Suffix. Note that for the first two, the same entries are used as for the argument of the adjective. Suffixes are the only things which need to be covered then, and are as follows:

-i= present affirmative

-u= present negative

-o= past affirmative

-a= past negative

That covers attributive adjectives. Predicate adjectives pattern slightly differently. They do not take prefixes, and take only two suffixes: -an for the positive and -en for the negative. Normal verbal suffixes are then applied to this 'root' (see below)

Note that while there are adjective roots, noun and verb roots can also be inserted. Verb roots create participles, and noun roots create a phrase meaning "that is.....".

Verbs
Verbs pattern so: Root-Infix-Person& Tense-Mood. Each item is covered below:

Infix
There are 4 infixes known so far: -0- is the plain, -uk- is the plain interrogative, -eb- is the infinitive, and -ta- is the desired (i.e. want to.....).

Mood
The default is to have no suffix. The compulsory action takes -te, the subjunctive -sja, the optative -jo, the permissive -re, and the imprecative -kjo.

Person& Tense
There are two things to note before suffixes are presented. Firstly, there are no inflections for number. Secondly, there is a second set of suffixes for use in questions. These do not include a first person; in the event one simply must inquire about oneself, the interrogative particle is used (see below). The suffixes are as follows: Note that there are some irregular verbs which undergo root changes in the past. These are not enormously common, the spread of Mattish having led to simplification of many irregularities, but a handful persist in everyday speech. Another group cling on to survival in formal writing. Finally, a few notes about verbs. The infinitive is used as a gerund.The person inflection on a verb with the infix -ta- is for the desirer, not the subject. There is also a special verb, -0- 'be/do/go'. It takes the infix -w- rather than -uk-. The supine e.g. 'I walked to punch him', is translated as follows (using the same example): 'I walked because I wanted to punch him'. The volitional is thus used with the reason verb, which is then placed into a reason clause. The result verb is the main verb. A literal translation of the English would be understood, though it is advised that one use the standard form.

Also, do not confuse yourself: although Mattish has ergative-absolutative alignment, the verb always agrees with the nominative.

Pronouns
Mattish pronouns decline exactly like normal nouns (though they must change root according to number). This is due to historical causes (they were once nouns), but it does not cause too much difficulty having longer roots; they are used only when context and the verb fail to make it clear which is meant.

On more specific matters, the plural root is used with the dual and plural, and the singular elsewhere. The 1st and 2nd person pronouns are always common (except in certain poetic uses). The 3rd person pronouns are the same gender as that to which they refer.

Counters
Counters pattern Root-Gender& Number of noun. Gender is simply the gender of the noun. Note that number represents the number of groups/units for non-singularisable nouns, and is the same otherwise. The combined gender and number suffix is the corresponding nominal prefix. Some common roots are as follows:

har- |genitive

sjit-   |flat thing

minj- |large thing

Syntax
No restrictions on absolutative-verb-ergative order exist, and it is best to check the sentence order preferred in your region of study. Adjectives and counters come next to their noun, either behind or in front; however, numbers come in between the counter and the noun, and if the location of an adjective causes two conflicting readings to exist, the one with the adjective behind is default. Verbs (excluding predicate adjectives) are proceeded by the particle non to negate, and in order to form the interrogative of a non-plain verb, the particle ne follows (person suffixes revert back to statement forms). Note that the 'ergative' is marked with the instrumental. In order to form the comparative, one uses the augmentative prefix mej-/mei- on he adjective, while the smaller is put in the dative. The superlative omits the dative. In order to form 'less than' statements, use dew-/deu- instead of mej-/mei-. Adverbs are literally identical to adjectives, though obviously 'noun' must be replaced by 'verb' in the description of their functioning.

Subordinate Clauses
A relative clause will be of the form [arguments] [verb], and is placed where an adjective goes. No relative pronoun is used; context reveals whether a location, time or prperty is under discussion. The verb must be a participle. Sometimes, however, a verb will not be present in the relative clause. Such clauses are called clauses of number. They use a counter instead of a verb, and their 'argument' must always be a quantifier. Exception: the counter 'har-' takes any noun except numbers, the noun being the owner of the phrase's head (i.e. X Y har- means Y's X). It is sometimes used with numbers as a generic counter, though this is never considered proper usage.

Semi-dependent clauses (e.g. if X, because X, despite X) function slightly differently. They contain a conjunction, which comes at the front of the phrase, and use a finite verb form.

Vocabulary
Find a dictionary here.