Míbvui

General information
Míbvui is the official language of Milibaut, a small country of about 5 million people. It is part of the Camithic ( Míbvui: Camíthíc) language family, and part of the Míbvui sub family. It is the most direct descendant of Proto-Camithic, and therefore remains most of its inflections and has a some what similar vocabulary (aséte > sté, "I", zumia > suma, "human"). It is mostly fusional, though some remnants of the agglutinative tendencies of proto-Camithic can be seen.

This page is still in the process of being tweaked.

Consonants
Notes

1. When /ɹ/ ends the stem of a word, the last vowel sound is placed after it

2. /i/ and /ɪ/ may not follow or precede /ç/

Vowels
Míbvui's two major diphthongs, /aɪ/ and /jɔɪ/ are represented as single letters. /i/ forms digraphs with every vowel except itself and /ɪ/

/i/ + another vowel = /ij+another vowel/, though /j/ is barely pronounced and pronounced very quickly.

Alphabet
The actual alphabet of Míbvui is a script that can not be typed. The following is a transcription called the Trate transcription. Míbvui is phonetic, every letter (except ) is pronounced.

Changes with 
Placing  next to certain vowels changes their sound.  was chosen in this transcription because it is the closest to the letter in the native script that causes these sound changes. These sound changes must be memorized.  always affects the vowel that precedes it. An easy way to remember these changes is if the letter has a diacritic, remove it. If it doesn't have a diacritic, add it. The only slightly "irregular" one is a --> î/î --> a

Stress
In words that end with vowels, stress is usually placed on the last vowel. However, if the letter before the last vowel is also vowel, then stress is placed on the second to last vowel. If a word ends with a consonant, stress is placed on the first vowel, unless a word is more than 4 syllables long. Then stress is placed on the 2nd vowel.

Syllable
(C)(C)V(C)(C)

/h/, /j/, /ç/, and /ʎ/ may not end a syllable or a word

Nouns and Pronouns
Nouns in Míbvui decline for number, case, formality, and gender. Nouns can be singluar or plural. Some nouns are always singular and some nouns are always plural. These must be memorized.

There are four types of formality, vulgar (vômore), informal (bejo more), formal (more), and high formal (îlt more). Some nouns are inherently vulgar or high formal. Examples of vulgar nouns are slave, disease, war, anytime of violence, and any noun relating to religion. Examples of high formal nouns are monarch, palace, teacher, president, and every element/compound name. These nouns must be memorized. It is easy to spot these nouns as they will not have a declension for formality. All other nouns can be formal or informal. A change in formality can change the meaning of the noun, for example sumatas (house) > sumates (mansion). The dictionary form of all nouns is the nominative singular case and informal. Therfore, nouns that are informal do not need to be marked as such.

There are 3 genders in Míbvui, masculine, feminine, and neuter. While gender can be irregular, there are a few rules. Most nouns that do not relate to life are neuter. Nouns that relate to life are masculine or feminine. Generally, masculine nouns end in -ot, -at, -od, -an, and -isht; neuter nouns end in a vowel, -am, -as, -eb, -evan, -ícha, -ém, -id, and -íd; and nouns that end in -ít, -et, and -osh are feminine.

Nouns decline for the nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, and allative cases. When using the genitive case, the "possessor" noun is declined in the genitive case, and the "possessed" noun is declined only for formality, which must agree with the noun in the genitive case. The accusative case is also used to express purpose (it is done for this noun).

Inflections are divided into 5 patterns based on the last vowel of the word, not the last letter. All declensions consist of two "parts:" the inflection for number/case and the inflection for formality.

Declension I
This declension is for nouns whose last letter is a or e

Number/Case Formality

Declension II
Declension II is for nouns whose last vowel is o, ó, or u

Number/Case Formality

Declension III
Declension III is for nouns whose last vowel is i, í, or î

Number/case Formality

Declension IV
Declension IV is for nouns that end in ú and é Formality

Declension V
Declension V is for nouns that end in a vowel Formality 1 The marked singular nominative is used in two circumstances. The first circumstance is with a form of the imperative (which is now outdated, but used in formal settings). The other is in VOS sentences or for emphasis in VSO sentences.

Derivational Morphology for Nouns
Like in other languages, there are some nouns that are based on their respective verbs (like to direct vs. direction). The process to create a noun from a verb from a noun or vice versa is quite simple, it merely requires memorizing a set of endings. It is important to note that not all nouns follow this pattern. (Comple thares - to beat with vazer a beating).

Pronouns
Míbvui has 30 personal pronouns (not including declensions) in 3 persons, 3 genders, and 2 formalities. Vulgar and Informal nouns use informal pronouns, formal and high formal nouns use formal pronouns. All formal pronouns are capitalized. Note that Míbvui uses the geniitve case (stéso, vemes, Vémes, etc.) for possession, not separate pronouns.

Personal Pronouns

Masculine Pronouns: Feminine Pronouns: Neuter Pronouns: Formality can be used in 2 ways. It must agree in formality with the noun it is replacing. However, if it is replacing a person (you, he, she, etc.), formality can be used to show the speaker's feeling towards that person. The table below lists what these feelings are. It also follows rules when addressing people. Unlike regular nouns, the formality of a pronoun cannot be altered. Outside of these rules, the speaker is free to use any pronoun to address someone/in reference to somone. As a general rule of thumb, formal pronouns indicate respect and esteem, while informal pronouns indicate an informal relationship and/or disdain/dislike.

Interrogative Pronouns

There are 6 forms of interrogative pronouns in Míbvui, person (who), thing (what), reason (why), method (how), place (where), and time (when)

Declensions

Pronouns decline for all of the cases that other nouns do + a reflexive case. There are two different declension patterns, one for pronouns that end in consonants and one for pronouns that end in vowels.

Verbs
Verbs in Míbvui conjugate for 3 persons (1st, 2nd, and 3rd). They conjugate for 2 formalities. Vulgar nouns take informal verb conjugations and high formal nouns take formal verb conjugations. There are 4 tenses, present, past, past imperfect, and future; 2 aspects: simple (also continous) and perfect; and 5 moods: indicative, subjunctive (I), optative (sometimes called subjunctive II), conditional, and imperative.

Verbs can take four endings, -as, -es, -rs, and -so. -as and -es verbs share a conjugation pattern and -rs and -so verbs share a conjugation pattern

Míbvui forms the perfect aspect by using a participle + an ending. Because the endings are the same, there are different participles for each mood/tense. Note, the adjective form of a verb is formed using the indicative present participle

While masculine pronouns will be used throughout this section, the conjugations are the same for every gender.

Míbvui has one coupla, ses. Like many languages, it is completely irregular.

Object pronouns in Míbvui are always placed immediately after the verb in the order, reflexive, direct, indirect. As a hold-over from inflections in Proto-Camithic (Mib. Camíthíc), the stem of a verb changes whenever there is an object pronoun, place and "x" after the first vowel of the verb. It's pronunciation changes in accordance with the rules above.

Participles for -as/-es verbs.

Participles for -rs/-so verbs.

Perfect tense endings

These verbs do not have a stem based on the stem of another verb. Note that in this tense -ras/-res verbs have the stem change r --> s.

-as/-es verbs -rs/-so verbs

Indicative Mood
The indicative mood is used for facts and actions that the speaker is certain will occur. While this is the first mood taught in school, it is not used for as many things as the indicative is in English.

All tenses outside of the present tense base their stems on one of the stems of the present tense. This means that if the verb is irregular in the form of the present tense, it is also irregular in the tense that uses that stem.

Indicative - Present (Nidô Reyap)

-as/-es verbs (example: shonas - to sing) -rs/-so verbs (example: vamérs - to dance) Indicative - Simple Past (Preterite - Nidô Suple Pés)

The simple past is for actions that have been completed in the pased or actions that occured continusously in the past, but ended. It is based on the 1st person singular (sté) stem of the indicative present.

-as/-es verbs -rs/-so verbs Indicative - Imperfect (Nidô Méfi Pés)

The imperfect is used for descriptions, repreated actions, and actions that were ongoing in the past when something else ocurred. It is based on the 2nd singular formal stem (Vém) of the present.

-as/-es verbs -rs/-so verbs Indicative Future (Nidô Tural)

The future tense is used for actions the speaker is almost certain will occur in the near future. It is based on the 3rd formal singlar person (Vím) stem of the present.

-as/-es verbs -rs/so verbs

Subjunctive and Optative Moods
The Subjunctive and Optative moods are very closely linked in Míbvui, so while they have separate verb conjugations, it is best to refer to them together. Unlike in English, the Subjunctive is used extremely frequently.

The subjunctive mood is used for doubt, speculation, sarcasm, the remove past, the remote future, reported speech, beliefs, impersonal expressions, and statements of curse, among other things. Míbvui makes extensive use of the subjunctive outside of clauses/phrases, which can be confusing to a.

The optative mood is used for hopes, wishes, desires, longings, statements of blessing, and to express what should have, could have, or would have happened.

Their uses, along with the uses of the Indicative, are listed below Ten expressions for both the Subjunctive and Optative have been provided below (there are more than a hundred phrases that require the use of the subjunctive and almost 30 that require the use of the optative) An example of an impersonal expression: E morez i'vaméla Sémam (It's important that you dance for her). There are 4 tense in the subjunctive, present, past, past imperfect, and future. The present, past, and future tenses are used to represent time, the past imperfect is ued in if ("ét") clauses.

Subjunctive Present (Milô Reyap)

This is the base form of the subjunctive verb. All other subjunctive forms are based on the present stem of the subjunctive.

-as/-es verbs -rs/-so verbs Subjunctive Preterite (Milô Suple Pés)

This is the least common form of the subjuctive. It is normally used when discussing events that ocurred in the remote past or when discusing first person narratives.

It is based on on the 1st person singular stem of the present tense

-as/-es verbs -rs/-so verbs Subjunctive Imperfect (Milô Méfi Pes)

This is derived from the the Vém stem of the subjunctive present. Unlike the indicative imperfect, the subjunctive imperfect is only used in if (ét) clauses

-as/-es verbs -rs/-so verbs

Irregular verbs
There are two main sets of irregular verbs: -ras/-res verbs and -(consonant)so verbs. In -ras/-res verbs, the rule is usually quite simple, r --> z in all conjugations (except the perfect tenses). Notable exceptions to this rule are côzares (to shoot) which has no stem change and thulîras (to dream) in which r --> v. 

The rules for -consonant(so) verbs are more complex, because the stem change varies depending on the verb and the mood/tense. The simple case of these are -tso verbs e.g. dítso (to fall), in which t --> ta in all moods/tenses. The exception to this rule are -rso verbs, which have no stem change.

In addition to these two irregular patterns, there is the irregular coupla, ses, and other irregular verbs which just need to be memorized. No verb (except ses) has irregular endings, it is just the stems that are irregular.

Verb Particles
In addition to conjugations, Míbvui has particles that can be placed immediately after the verb to provide other information. These can

Reflexivity
Some verbs chang meaning when they become reflexive. Compare muréso, (to sleep) with muxréso rísu (to lie down). When conjugating the reflexive verb, make sure the reflexive pronoun agrees with the verb (i.e. miuxrén stésu, miuxrést vema, miuxrésam Véma, etc).

Syntax
Míbvui maintains a very strict V1 word order, meaning the verb must always be the first word in the sentence. Míbvui can then be VSO or VOS, depending on the speaker. While in early Míbvui, VOS was more common, modern Míbvui more commonly uses VSO. If a speaker wishes to use VOS, the subject must be explicitly marked, even in the singular form.

VSO: Shoxnam on hôm Simas

Shoxn-am on hôm Sim-as

Sings-3SG.PRS.IND the man she-DAT

The man sings to her

VOS: Shoxnam Simas on hômi

Shoxn-am Sim-as on hôm-i

Sings-3SG.PRS.IND she-DAT the man-NOM.SING

The man sings to her

The prepositional phrase or subordinate clause always appears last in the sentence (or main clause it goes with).

In complex or compound sentences, the conjunction attatches to the main verb. This is usually the fist vowel, unless the verb also starts with a vowel, in which case it is the first vowel and first consonant

Ex. Vamén e'shona

Vamé-n e-shon-a

Dance-1SG.PRS.IND and-sing-1SG.PRS.IND

I dance and sing

Interrogative sentences
The V1 word order is also found in question, where the verb is placed before the interrogative pronoun

Ex. Shoxnam ¿Ce Simas?

Shoxn-am ¿Ce Sim-as?

Sing-3SG.PRS.IND What her-DAT

What does he sing to her?

Imperative sentences
Imperative sentences are always VSO.

Shoxnoña on hôm Simas

Shoxn-oña on hôm Sim-as

Sing-3SG.PRS.IMP the man her-DAT

The man must sing to her.