Mirskya

Mirskya is a Slavic influenced, mixed a priori-posteriori language, by Waahlis.

Introduction
'''Дьoʙpɛɔ Иpaнсa! '- Welcome!''

This page uses IPA phonetic notation as standard.

This page uses non - standard ASII signs.

Мıpсκʀ иaɔьyκa, mırskya ȷazȷuka [mʲɨːrʲ.skʲja ˈjaːzʲ.ɯkʲja], in the latin script, more simply known by the English exonym "Mirian language", or "Mirskya". The language adheres to the family of a priori-posteriori languages, known as Neumatic languages. They all share the same basis regarding vocabulary and phonotactics, and to some extent, grammar. Mirskya is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, but will be transliterated when necessary.

Many of Mirskya's main sources of inspiration are Slavic languages, which has affected a great deal of the phonology, grammar and vocabulary. You will however find cognates to other Neumatic languages, such as Nāmaς. Examples include the completely artificial word "иaмдя" (ıamdya) - war, and the "loan-word" ɔдpava (zdrava) - health, cheers.

A number of it's characteristics are not typical for natural languages, that is, they are rare. For example:
 * The language distinguishes dynamic and stative verbs.
 * It has a transitive morphosyntactic alignment.
 * Consonant harmony, based upon voicedness.
 * Diphtongisation of stressed syllables.

Consonants
This is a table of the Mirian inventory of consonants, displayed in the International Phonetic Alphabet. The transliterations into different scripts, is found under "Orthography". The consonant inventory contains a considerable amount, though spread over few places and manners of articulation.

Please note that the all the consonants may be palatalised. Except the palatal ones.

Nota Bene

Some of the palatalised consonants, /nʲ/, /lʲ/, /kʲ/ and /gʲ/, receive palatal allophones, which are indistinguishable from their marked counterparts. The palatalisation is a consequence of consonants succeded by close vowels and diphtongs with an initial /j/, and is thus generally not marked. However, at times palatalisation occur sporadicly, thence you mark it with the Cyrillic "ь" or a Latin "ȷ" after the affected consonant.

Phonemes in brackets exist as allophones only.

Orthography
Mirskya, or мıpсκя, is a Slavic-derived language, and it would be stupid not to use a Cyrillic script. However, for the reader's comfort, I'll provide an additional transcription with all phrases. The Mirskyan Cyrillic alphabet is known by the name κypиллицɴс eжәдava (kyrıllıṡıs etsedava). The alphabet is a heavily modified Cyrillic alphabet, with many introduced letters.

Nota Bene
 * 1) The grapheme "њ" is a ligature of the letter "н" and the palatalisation marker "ь".
 * 2) The grapheme "љ" is a ligature of the letter "л" and the palatalisation marker "ь".
 * 3) May also be written "q" when in initial miniscule form.
 * 4) These are not graphemes, nor consonant clusters, but digraphs.
 * 5) These are not graphemes, nor consonant clusters, but digraphs.

Nota Bene
 * 1) These are perceived as homophones, thence, not individual letters.
 * 2) These are perceived as homophones, thence, not individual letters

Phonology
The representation of Mirskya's vowels. The vowels are the main initialisers of palatalisation, where close/open-mid front/central vowels cause palatal consonant phonemes. The vowel phonology is based upon an expanded system of vowel reduction, caused by foremost stress, but also the position in the lexeme. The reduction follows a partly regular schedule, where phonemes are gradually centred. The reduction of vowels is not orthographically marked, and the reduced vowels are considered allophones - which is marked by brackets. Mirskya distinguishes roundedness in close front and back vowels, and open-mid front vowels.

The unrounded open back vowel /ɑ/, is an allophone of /a/, when in the surroundings of /ɔ/.

The schwa /ə/, is both a reduced vowel, and an independent letter.

Cyrillic Alphabet
The Cyrillic representation of Mirskya's vowels, include a number of signs that aren't immediately intelligible to speakers with a Latin alphabet. Please note that this table is not consistent with other Slavic orthographies. Mirskya distinguishes roundedness in close front and back vowels, and open-mid front vowels, which is most often represented by a reversed letter. The letters in brackets are allophones of their original positions of pronounciation.

Latin Alphabet
The Latin orthography is more restricted regarding the number of letters. In the Latin orthography, all roundedness is marked with a dot, doesn't matter whether on the top or down below. The letters in brackets are allophones of their original positions of pronounciation.

Diphtongs
Diphtongs are an important part of Mirskya, despite the limited number, since vowels become diphongised when stressed. Also, rising diphtongs with an initial /j/ trigger palatalisation of the preceeding consonant. In Mirskya, the most common categorising is between non-allophonical - natural - diphtongs, and stressed monophtongs that become diphtongised. There are only six non-allophonical diphtongs. All the remaining vowel clusters form hiatus.

Stress
Mirskya's system of lexical stress is different to that of for example Nāmaς and English. Unlike Nāmaς', it's completely regular, however mora-based. This means that the heaviest syllables are stressed, and the if the lexeme contains several equivalent syllables, the first one is emphasised.

The morae of Mirskya are determined out of three circumstances, each of which represent one mora:
 * The existence of a syllable onset.
 * Palatalisation of the onset.
 * The existence of a syllable coda.

The existence of a syllable onset substitutes over one mora and contrasts with null onsets: However, should the a onset bepalatalised in a lexeme, it would preside over non-palatalised onsets: The existence of a syllable coda reinforces the syllable weight: The stress in Mirskya affects the vowel phonemes, both the unstressed, and the stressed ones. Should the syllable nucleus consist of a syllabic consonant, they remain unaffected.
 * vлaдʀ vladȷa - ruler, king [ˈvlaːdʲ.jɑ].
 * oгњ ognȷ - fire [ˈɔʊ̯g.ɲ̩].
 * vьәpa vȷәra - faith, religion [ˈvʲe̯ә.ra].
 * κpaɔɴт krazıt - a start [kraˈ.zʲijtʲ].

Stressed vowels
Stressed vowels in Mirskya always belong to the heaviest syllable, hence a certain weight is put upon the vowel, whereby it's diphtongised, alternatively geminated.This is an allophonical process, the cause why the resulting diphtongs aren't displayed along the ordinary ones, but also - hypothetically - should the language possess dialects, the allophones would vary greatly. I've chosen to portray the to dominant variations of pronounciation - нeмшa гvopьnemtsha gvorȷ [ˈnʲɛjm.ʈ͡ʂa gvorʲ] and veстaʀ гvopь vestar gvorȷ [vʲɛjs.tar gvorʲ].

Please note that the semivowels /j/, /w/ and /ɥ/, are estimated values for non-syllabic /i, ɨ/, /u, ɯ, ɔ/ and /i, y/ respectively.

For the sake of simplicity, only the нeмтшa dialect will be portrayed on this page.