Míkhan

A post-apocalyptic descendant of Mexican Spanish. Sound change and lexical shift has resulting in a language that bears little resemblance to its ancient ancestor, featuring consonant mutation, inflecting prepositions, and an unrecognizable verb system.

A Mun Dechiz
"A tear makes mud from the ash,

A flame makes sand into glass,

Fear makes nightmares out of dreams,

Pain makes the wind into screams.

For what reason do they scatter

When all left of our world is shattered?"

-Áje the Bloody

"Sinis par luz da zuloro

Arin par bij da eplusho

Séño par mez da tilonush

Aled par ghif da zulo mush.

Pále ghaso ta n-ekafan zho,

Pan mu dechiz a mun so?"

-Áje ko Zánge

The world didn't end in a bang or a cough, but with a shriek.

The collapse of human society came as hordes of interdimensional parasites called Shriekers swarmed into our world. As they leeched biolectricity from their victims and transformed them into horrific killing machines, only the brave, the ruthless, and the dangerous were able to survive.

As Mexico was overrun with vampiric predators and supernatural monsters, clans of warring raiders and pirates fought over the scraps left in the ruined cities. What civilization was left was forced brutal in its efficiency and cruel in its drive to survive.

And all the while, the Spanish we know today shifted with the people, becoming something altogether unrecognizable.

This is Míkhan, the language of ash.

Inventory
The language left over after hundreds of years of evolution and isolation is very different from the Spanish of old. It has simultaneously retained archaic elements and innovated a vast number of phonemes and features.

Consonants There is a far amount of allophonic variation among the consonants. In particular, /χ/ ranges from [x~χ] and even to [ħ] in certain dialects, and /ɣ/ follows a similar gradient as [ɣ~ʁ]. /ɾ/ can be found as a trill [r] following stressed vowels. Certain northern dialects pull the post-alveolars forward to palato-alveolars, pronouncing /ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ/ as [ɕ ʑ tɕ dʑ]. By far the most tenuous position is the alveolars, which as often as not are pronounced as dental.

Vowels

Unlike the heavily shifted consonants, the vowel inventory of Míkhan is remarkably unchanged from its Spanish roots. Only two major sound changes- the loss of diphthongs and the raising of mid vowels- occurred to affect the system. The amount of variation among vowels is fairly manageable. The pronunciation of /a/ ranges wildly, on a continuum from [æ~ɑ]. However, the most common realization is as the central low vowel [ä]. Many common single syllable particles that end in /a/ are pronounced [ə]. Mid vowels lower in closed syllables, with /e/ becoming [ɛ] and /o/ becoming [ɔ]. There are no diphthongs. Sequences of vowels + /w/ are analyzed as just that, vowel followed by approximant.

Stress

Stress is a contrastive feature in Míkhan. The vast majority of the time, the stress falls on the final syllable. In the romanization system, final stress is unwritten, and all other stress is marked by an acute accent.

The most common grammatical elements that tend to shift stress are noun plurals and the present plural 2nd person/3rd person plural, which almost always contrasts with the infinitive.

kume /ku.ˈme/- "to eat"

kúme /ˈku.me/- "you/they eat"

ñalag /ɲa.ˈlag/- "claw"

ñalága /ɲa.ˈla.ga/- "claws"

It can also act as a lexical marker.

sáwan /ˈsa.wan/- "blanket"

sawan /sa.ˈwan/- "grassland"

Phonotactics

The phonotactics of Míkhan are fairly stringent. Max syllable structure is CVC. Onset can be any consonant, except no word starts with /ɾ/. The coda can be any consonant except /l/. /h/ does not occur in clusters. Nasals assimilate in place of articulation to what follows them. Most clusters also assimilate in voicing.

a- V "the"

bo- CV "I will"

paj- CVC "father"

ghepef - CVCVC "respect"

seksho- CVCCV "chapter"

kozhjuzher- CVCCVCVC "they built"

Phonological Evolution
Over several hundred years, Spanish underwent numerous sound shifts and changes that resulted in a language that sounds very different than its ancestor. The major sound changes and their effect on the grammar and nature of Míkhan are documented here.

Note: These sound changes are not given in exact order of occurrence, and not all changes are documented, only ones majorly important to Míkhan's evolution.

Palatalization

The dental/alveolars palatalized to postalveolars in many circumstances:


 * Before semivowel /j/
 * Before /ɾ/
 * /ʝ/ shifts to /dʒ/ initially and /ʒ/ intervocalically



Labialization

When /w/ or an equivalent semivowel followed a velar or /n/, they shifted to labial sounds.


 * Before semivowel /w/
 * Before /ɾ/

This will prove important in the mutations, when a subset of labials will mutate to velar forms as the mutations overrode the labialization shift.

Spirantilization

Between vowels, obstruents were drawn out into fricatives. This was the direct cause of the Siwban mutation. It led to the development and phonemicization of several sounds, namely, /w z ɣ h/. Earlier in Míkhan's history, it produced /ð/ from /d/ and /θ/ from /t/, but these shifted to /z/ and /f/ respectively.

Nasalization

Nasals caused heaving assimilation to the sounds that followed them and the vowels that preceded them. In vowels, this nasalization prevented the later vowel raising. Among consonants, voiceless sounds were voiced, voiced stops became nasals, and voiced fricatives hardened into stops. This directly produced the Koghilan mutation.

Coda Loss

Most of the coda consonants of Spanish disappeared in one way or another. Nasalization claimed coda nasals, coda /ɾ/ would vocalize and coda /s/ debuccalized. All of these prevented the later vowel raising. Words that had such final sounds do not allow mutation nowadays. Also important is that these sounds prevented final vowel loss, resulting in much of the modern plural and verb conjugation systems.

R-shift

The trill /r/ was lost in various ways. Final /r/ left from final vowel loss remained as /ɾ/. Intervocalically, /r/ shifted to /l/. Following /n/, it became /z/. And finally, initially, /r/ became /ʁ/, then shifted to /ɣ/. This has created a two way mutation split among words beginning with /ɣ/, with those descended from /g/ not lenited and nasalizing to /ŋ/, and those descended from /r/ leniting to /l/ and nasalizing to /z/.

Vowel Raising

In non-final open syllables, /e/ rose to /i/ and /o/ rose to /u/. This basically steamrolled the already tenuous distinction between -er and -ir verbs. Final codas prevented this shift.

Monophthongization

The loss of diphthongs occured in tandem with palatalization and labialization. For most diphthongs, the semivowel was simply lost. Among falling diphthongs, /au/ remains as /aw/, /ei/ and /ai/ became /e/, /ou/ and /oi/ became /o/, and /ui/ became /u/.

Vowel Loss

Vowels disappeared in several contexts. Final vowels were the most conspicuous, destroying the Spanish gender marking and most of its verb system in its wake. Unstressed medial vowels also were liable to disappear. Among verbs, this created a class of verbs that gain internal vowels in all present tense forms except 1st person plural. And finally, many unstressed initial vowels disappeared, which resulted in the phonemicization of many fricatives.

Coda Shift

Finally, certain of the new coda phonemes were disallowed. /l/ became /w/ following vowels, which dissimilated to /v/ then /b/ following /o/ and /u/. /ɲ/ and /h/ were disallowed as final codas, changing to /ŋ/ and /s/ respectively. These all produce irregular plurals, where the singular form's final consonant changes to the disallowed variant once a vowel is suffixed.

Mutations
One of the major developments in Míkhan is the system of initial consonant mutations. Mutations like these develop when the sound changes that generally occur within a word bleed over into the words that follow them. Usually this occurs with particles, prepositions, articles, and auxiliary verbs, and in other circumstances where the modifier and word occur together often enough for such sound changes to drift past sandhi barriers. In Míkhan, mutations are used to mark varied information, including noun gender, tense, negation, possession, and and status as a prepositional object. There are two major mutations, namely Siwban (hissing) or lenition, and Koghilan (congealing) or nasalization. The closely mirror the Irish séimhiú and urú mutations, though many of the individual changes are unique.

Siwban

Siwban mutations, or lenition, developed from obstruents in intervocalic position. Consonants that undergo Siwban soften into fricatives.

Words that receive Siwban include:


 * Feminine nouns following the definite article
 * chikh "girl"
 * a shikh "the girl"
 * Adjectives following feminine nouns
 * bad "good"
 * maj wad "good mother"
 * Verbs occurring after the future particles bo, bam, and ba
 * kume "to eat"
 * bo khume ju "I will eat"
 * Verbs in the 3rd person singular after the progressive particle ta
 * gochan "finding"
 * ta ghochan ew "he is finding"
 * Singular possessed nouns following the prefixes u- (2nd and 3rd person singular) and mech- (1st person plural)
 * pir "dog"
 * u-fir "your dog"
 * Verbs following the accusative prefixes i- (2nd person plural) and a- (3rd person singular)
 * biwim "we drink"
 * a-wiwim nuzuch "we drink it"
 * Verbs following the dative prefix i- (2nd and 3rd singular)
 * tiras "you gave"
 * i-firas tez "you gave to him"
 * Verbs following all dative-accusative paired pronouns based on 2nd and 3rd person singular accusative
 * tirari "might give"
 * ila-firari zho "they might give it to me"
 * Human or animate definite direct objects (optional, marks focus)
 * ghizh "lords"
 * Ngéjo mafar lizh "The monsters massacred the lords"
 * Nouns following the prepositions par (for, specifically in the forward sense, see below), da (of, from), sikaz (at, near), and others
 * karíños "women"
 * par kharíños "for women"

Koghilan

Koghilan mutations, or nasalization, developed due to contact between coda nasals and obstruents. Kogilan causes voiceless obstruents to voice, voiced stops to transform into nasals, and voiced fricatives to harden into stops.

Words that receive Koghilan include:


 * Masculine nouns following the indefinite article
 * kis "cheese"
 * o gis "a cheese"
 * Verbs in the 2nd or 3rd person plural after the progressive particle ta
 * jewan "going"
 * La síño ñewan "The men are going"
 * Negated verbs following the negative particle nug
 * sango "I died"
 * Nug zango ju "I did not die"
 * Objects of the copula so when describing a plural subject
 * izedikh "equal"
 * So n-izedikh túzla másho "All men are equal"
 * Singular possessed nouns following the prefix i- (1st person singular)
 * totizh "bread"
 * i-dotizh "my bread"
 * Verbs following the accusative prefixes i- (1st person singular) and o- (1st person plural)
 * sawb- "Save!"
 * o-zawb- "Save us!"
 * Verbs following the dative prefixes i- (1st person singular) and o- (1st person plural)
 * jála "talks"
 * o-jála zha "She talks to us"
 * Verbs following all dative-accusative paired pronouns based on 1st person accusative
 * tiro "he gave"
 * imi-diro "he gave me to them"
 * Nouns following the prepositions e (in, on), ko (with, using), and others
 * Suchon "heaven"
 * e Zuchon "in heaven"

Mutations The reason for the two sets of mutations of gh are due to the twin evolution from Spanish g and rr. Which mutation to use must be memorized.

There are also a number of irregular mutations that apply to labials. The source of these mutations was labialized velars and /n/. Mutations had evolved before the labialization could occur, and they overrode the /w/ semivowel that causes it. These are irregular and must be memorized.

Also, a small number of words take the prefix na- in when undergoing Koghilan. This developed from the lost initial vowels of many of these words.

Orthography
Most speakers of Míkhan are illiterate. What is the point to reading when surviving is such a daily battle? As well, the language is, as most new languages are at first, generally seen as a corruption of the purer Spanish of old, a true child of the apocalypse in which it was birthed. As such, writing in Míkhan is looked down upon in favor of writing in Spanish and sometimes English in the northern regions. The writing system shown here is a romanization system, used as a tool for readers here. The only major rule to the romanization system is the placement of the accent mark. No monosyllabic word can receive the accent mark. If a multisyllabic word receives stress on the final syllable, it is unwritten. Any other stress placement is however marked with the accent mark.

Also, as a nod to its ancestor, question marks and exclamation points are reversed and doubled.

Nouns
Nouns in Míkhan bear great resemblance to the nouns of Spanish. They inflect for number and gender, albeit in a much more irregular fashion than the meticulously simple pattern of Spanish.

Gender
Míkhan has inherited the masculine and feminine genders of Spanish. The vast majority of words retain the gender of their ancestors, but shuffling has still occurred. Unlike in Spanish, one cannot easily guess the gender based on the noun itself. The simple -o/-a distinction was lost when final vowels were lost. Thus, to tell gender, one must look at plural behavior, relationship with articles, derivational suffixes, and other less-than-immediately-obvious-means.

Masculine

Noted via:


 * General plural ending -o
 * Plural adjective ending -o
 * Undergoes Koghilan after the indefinite article
 * Undergoes L-epenthesis after the definite article (if begins with vowel)
 * Agentive suffixes -ázo, -o
 * Augmentative suffix -a, -of
 * Pejorative suffix -ush
 * Abstract suffix -im
 * Process suffix -med

Feminine

Noted by:


 * General plural ending -a
 * Plural adjective ending -a
 * Undergoes Siwban after the definite article (if begins with vowel)
 * Agentive/Diminutive suffix -if
 * Augmentative/Agentive suffix -o
 * Abstract suffixes -sho/zho, -zaz
 * Locative suffix -iri
 * Objective suffix -zur

Plurals
Just like gender endings, pluralization is much more of an irregular process in Míkhan. Generally, masculine plurals end in -o and feminine plurals end in -a. However, this is only true is the noun is a regular noun that ends in a consonant. Nouns that end in vowels have many different endings, and numerous changes and shifts can be documented. Here are the most common.

Regular

Gendered

As stated, most nouns that end in consonants take the endings -o and -a for masculine and feminine respectively. Stress remains on the final syllable of the root.

Masculine:


 * cheb "day"
 * chébo "days"

Feminine:


 * totizh "bread"
 * totízha "breads"

The derivational endings -ush, -im, and -med take the masculine -o in the plural (-úsho, -ímo, -médo), and the suffixes -if and -zur take the feminine -a (-ífa, -zúra).

E-Plural

A number of other nouns take the suffix -e as plural. This is indicative of neither gender, but the noun still has an inherent gender. As above, the stress remains on the final syllable of the root. Masculine:


 * belúkh "brick"
 * belúkhe "bricks"

Feminine:


 * pew "skin"
 * péwe "skins"

The masculine augmentative suffix -of takes the E-plural (-ófe).

Non-Ending Plural

These nouns take no ending to indicate plurality. However, unlike uncountable nouns, they still encode plurality, as indicated on adjectives and articles. They can also be of either gender.

Masculine:


 * pírfu "spirit"
 * pírfu "spirits"

Feminine:


 * pañob "language"
 * pañob "languages"

The feminine suffix -zaz indicates plural with no marking.

Adding Consonant Plurals

These words are regular, but highly unpredicatable. Most of these end in vowels and fall into one of 3 main patterns.

Add -S Plural


 * karíño "woman"
 * karíños "women"

Add -N Plural


 * seksho "chapter"
 * sekshon "chapters"

The feminine derivational suffixes -o and -sho/-zho take n in the plural (-shon/-zhon).

Add -R plural

These nouns end in vowels and take -r in the plural.


 * amo "love"
 * amor "loves"

The masculine derivational suffixes -ázo and -o take r in the plural (-ázor, -or).

Consonant Shift Plurals

These words are irregular. The endings added to them are usually basic regular endings, but in adding them, the final consonant changes form. There are several common varieties.

Note: Usually, nouns derived from consonant shift nouns retain the shifted consonant in the derived form.

W-L Plural


 * khimew- "sibling"
 * khimélo- "siblings"

B-L Plural


 * abob "plant"
 * abóle "plants"

R-L Plural


 * pir "dog"
 * pílo "dogs"

B-W Plural


 * lub "wolf" (dated)
 * lúwo "wolf" (dated)

S-H Plural


 * us "eye" (dated)
 * úho -"eyes" (dated)

Ng-Ñ Plural


 * ning "boy"
 * níño "boys"

Irregular Plurals

-iri Plural

The feminine locative suffix -iri has the irregular plural -eri.


 * juriri "grave"
 * jureri "graves"

Other Irregular Plurals

Many irregular nouns are entirely unpredictable.


 * ghe "lord"
 * ghizh "lords"

Articles
The system of 8 Spanish articles has collapsed into only 4 in the time of Míkhan. Specifically, gender is no longer indicated by the article itself, but by the mutations inflicted on the modified noun. The four articles are a (definite singular), la (definite plural), o (indefinite singular), and un (indefinite plural).

The mutations caused by the articles are as follows:

As you might notice, plural nouns are not mutated. However, these nouns are generally the only ones to explicitly show the gender (via plural suffix) anyways, so the system remains largely symmetrical in that regard.

Typically, articles are used in many more circumstances than in English, similar to Spanish.

The definite article is used:


 * With definite individuals or groups (ones that are expected to be known)
 * Bizh ju a pir "I saw the dog"
 * When speaking of the noun in a general sense
 * Ta sighiz a pizhe ew da a wis "He is made of stone"
 * When speaking of abstract concepts
 * Seri bad kha a nukléwman o-nirigh. "Conscience should guide us"
 * When referring to the referent's own body parts
 * A pizif disozaz ghimuwi a uris da látim. "The disgraced prince cut off his own ear in shame"
 * When referring to institutions
 * Pan puzzafna bin, seri bad kha jéwa bu para iglish. "When temptation comes, you should go to church"
 * When referring to dates and days (equivalent to English on)
 * Ba ghughe zho a mekule "They will fight on Wednesday"

Adjectives
Adjectives follow the noun in Míkhan. They inflect almost identically to nouns, following the same patterns of inflection. However, the addition of a comparative form is a new innovation in Míkhan.

Regular

Regular forms of adjectives all occur in similar forms to nouns.

Gendered adjectives take -o in the masculine plural and -a in the feminine plural.


 * awt "big" (singular)
 * áwto "big" (masc. plural)
 * áwta "big" (fem. plural)

Non-gendered adjectives take -e in the plural.


 * bad "good" (singular)
 * báde "good" (plural)

Non-ending plurals take no agreement marking.


 * hika "fast" (singular & plural)

Adding Consonant plurals take -n, -r, and -s in the plural.


 * baslo "happy" (singular)
 * baslon "happy" (plural)

Irregular

Irregular adjectives are few and far between, but consonant shift adjectives of all the same varieties as nouns can be found.


 * char "uncivilized, barbarian" (singular)
 * chálo "uncivilized, barbarian" (plural)

A form or irregularity present in adjectives but not nouns are the Pluralless Gender adjectives, which consist of those few adjectives that take seperate forms for each gender but remain the same regardless of plurality.


 * níbo "black" (masculine)
 * níba "black" (feminine)

Only a very few are truly irregular.


 * mawbaz "bad" (singular)
 * málo "bad" (masculine plural)
 * mála "bad" (feminine plural)

Adjective Use

Adjectives used attributively generally follow the noun, except for most quantifiers and demonstrative pronouns. Adjectives that modify feminine nouns undergo lenition, but quanitifiers that precede do not.


 * o bir tod "a dead dog"
 * la chíkha gháde "the good girls"
 * túzla karíños "all women"
 * numet ghizh "many lords"
 * echakh wis "this rock"

If used predicately, adjectives occur in the "So Adjective Noun" constructions. Plural subjects cause so to cause nasalization to the adjective.


 * So ging katizh "The castle is ugly"
 * Er n-áwta la ñalága "The claws were long"

Multiple adjectives can occur both predicatively or attributively. In predicative constructions, ima "and" is used to link the adjectives.


 * Er n-áwta ima níba la ñalága "The claws were long and black"
 * So ging ima char a mash "The man is ugly and brutish"

Simple juxtaposition does the duty for multiple attributive adjectives.


 * shef pes malon ghínga "seven ugly brown fish"
 * la siñifa áwta muwáfa "the tall beautiful women"

Comparative

The Míkhan comparative form is a relatively new innovation and remains fairly regular and predictable in its use. The vast majority of comparatives are formed via the prefix ma(s)-, with stress remaining on the root. The root used will always be the singular masculine.


 * masawt "bigger"
 * mabaslo "happier"
 * maníbo "blacker"

Though a few take the prefix masa-.


 * masahika "faster"
 * masazifaz "more acceptable"

And a few of the most common adjectives have entirely irregular forms.


 * mo "better" (comparitive of bad or ben)
 * po "worse" (comparitive of mawbaz)
 * mazh "bigger" (comparitive of awt)

Comparative Use

Most of the time, the comparative functions as it would in Spanish or English. When used attributively, it follows directly after the noun.


 * O mash mo "A better man"
 * A chiwu machar "The more uncivilized tribe"

When used predicatively, use it exactly as any other predicative adjective.


 * So po i-boblem dimi "My problem is worse"
 * So hika a ghasiw, míno so masahika a gafokhulen "The gazelle is fast, but the cheetah is faster"

And contrastive statements indicate the other party using kha.


 * So masazifaz a l-efi kha a khuwadi "Death is more acceptable than cowardice"
 * Kunok ju kha so mo ju kha bu "I know I am better than you"

One can indicate the superlative of the adjective by preceding it with the definite article. The leniting effect of feminine is used in this context, as is the n-epenthesis of plural so. Predicatively, this is treated as a noun equalitative, with a "Noun so Adjective" pattern rather than the "So adjective noun" as in a positive or comparative statements.


 * I-ihif dimi so a fo "My sister is the worst"
 * Fa da Shiwaw so a maging "Fa of the north is the ugliest"
 * Eshazh ngéjo er na matod kha to biz ju "Those monsters were the deadest I've ever seen"

When used attributively, the superlative occurs before the noun, with the definite article.


 * A mamew níño bíne bíña o chiwu shar "The youngest boys hail from one of the uncivilized tribes"
 * Okh Aslan so a masawt shiwaw e n-etakh jir "South Aztlan is the biggest city in this land"