Maiyal

Setting
Spoken on an island group known to speakers as kuótasékwé ("where they jut up suddenly"), comprising one main island and numerous smaller islands. The island is dominated by temperate rain forests in the west and low, heathland hills in the east, with both giving way to muskeg in the north. A spine of tall, glaciated mountains of volcanic origin line the western coast.

General Information
Maiyal is a highly agglutinative language, with much information encoded in affixes.

Maiyal possesses four grammatical numbers (nuller, singular, plural, and infinitive), four grammatical persons (first, second, third, and fourth), and two grammatical genders (concrete and abstract).

Other than the only truly irregular verb (lun, "to be") and verbs derived from it, all other verbs are regular and conjugation comes from suffixes. Verbs are conjugated to match the number and person of the subject, and according to mood, tense, and aspect.

Nouns are declined into seven cases and four numbers.

Maiyal is generally SOV, except when a direct and/or indirect object is present, in which case it is SVO. Pro-drop generally occurs with subjects in the first, second, and fourth persons.

Romanization
Maiyal is romanized using the following alphabet. Note there is no distinction between majuscule and miniscule.

a ä b d e é g h i k l hl m n o ó p r s t tl u v w x y ai au éó éu uó

Consonants
Voiced in Bold

Sounds in brackets are allophones, see notes below.

1. [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ when followed by a velar stop.

2. the voiceless lateral fricative [ɬ] is an allophone of /l̥/ occurring in the coda

3. [ʧ] is an allophone of /t/ when followed by /ɹ/

4. [ʤ] and [g͡ɣ] occur as realizations of the consonant clusters /dj/ and /gj/ respectively

Nasals, voiceless stops, fricatives, and [l] can be distinguished between short and long, but long consonants may only appear intervocalically.

Vowels
1. [ə] is an allophone of both /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ when they occur word-finally

2. [y] and [œ] occur only in the Fjordland dialect, replacing [eu] and [eo], respectively.

3. Maiyal contains following diphthongs: /ɑi/, /ɑu/, /eo/, /eu/, /uo/

Phonotactics
Maiyal’s maximal syllable structure is CCVCc, where c can only occur word-finally and only as part of the two consonant clusters allowed in that position. All consonants are allowed in the onset, and all consonants except approximates are allowed in the coda.

Stress
In Maiyal, syllables are comprised of morae— units of length which determine where stress falls.

A syllable contains at least one mora. If the syllable is a bare simple vowel, or a single consonant with a simple vowel, or is composed of a single consonant, simple vowel, and a single consonant, the syllable is monomoraic.
 * Examples: ä, ka, lén

A diphthong is bimoraic. Thus, a single diphthong or a diphthong in syllables that would otherwise be monomoraic are bimoraic.


 * Examples: ai, léun

A consonant cluster or a long consonant also adds a mora. A long consonant lengthens the preceding syllable.


 * Examples: ské, anna (first syllable is bimoraic)

A syllable containing both a diphthong and a consonant cluster and/or followed by a long consonant is trimoraic.


 * Example: skéussa (first syllable is trimoraic)

Certain word-final syllables comprised only of a monomoraic vowel are called “half-morae” and alter the stress pattern of words with four or more syllables.


 * Example: téahié

Stress falls on syllables based on a moraic hierarchy: the more morae, the higher its priority for stress.

The only other hard rule for stress in Maiyal is stress can never fall on the final syllable.

Differences in sorting out words with no clear priority stress differentiate the dialects.

Two Syllables

All dialects stress the first syllable of two syllable words, as no dialect allows final stress.

Three or more syllables

If all syllables are monomoraic (ex. alélan)

Central Dialects

Stress falls on the penultimate syllable: a - LÉ- lan

Western Dialects

Stress falls on the second syllable: a - LÉ - lan

Northern Dialects

Stress falls on the first syllable: A - lé - lan

In all dialects, if there is one syllable with more morae than the others, it receives the stress, unless that syllable is the final one.

laiwalan: LAI - wa - lan

skéussulan: SKÉU - ssu - lan

ritéukwé: ri - TÉU- kwé

If the two syllables compete for stress (i.e., are both bimoraic or trimoraic), then stress is placed were that dialect would stress an all monomoraic word. (ex. augwélan)

Central Dialects

au - GWÉ - lan

Western Dialects

au - GWÉ - lan

Northern Dialect

AU - gwé - lan

Words of four or more syllables introduce secondary stresses. These secondary stresses similarly operate along the moraic hierarchy, which falls to dialectical preference if syllables compete for stress. A caveat is that stressed syllables cannot lie next to each other.

Examples:

When a word ends with a bare vowel, that syllable is considered ‘half-moraic’, and, as a result, the penultimate syllable becomes unaccentable the way the last syllable normally is. Thus, téahié “these years” is accented [te.‘a.hi.e] in the Central and Western dialects, instead of [te.a.‘hi.e]. In the Northern dialects, it remains [‘te.a.hi.e].

Phonological Processes
While allophonic variation in Maiyal is fairly uncommon, it contains some fairly common phonological processes, especially during word formation and compounding, noun declension, and verb conjugation.

Assimilation of Nasals
When nasals are to be followed by a stop or affricate, they assimilate to the following stop’s place of articulation.

Example:

wain progressive mood + pótli I see = waimpótli I have seen

Approximate Metathesis
In Maiyal, the nonlateral approximates y [j],r [ɹ], v [ʋ], and w [w] cannot occur in coda of a syllable. They can, however, form the second part of an onset consonant cluster with many of the other consonants in Maiyal. Therefore, when a situation arises where a syllable that would end with a nonlateral approximate with the following syllable beginning with a single consonant with which the approximate may form the second part of a consonant cluster, the two sounds metathesize.

laiw tree + la = lailwa

vuyé cloud becomes vulyé in the nominative infinitive rather than vuylé

Epenthetic Reduplication of Vowels
In the majority of cases where unacceptable consonant clusters occur, an epenthetic vowel is inserted. This vowel is a reduplication of the vowel from the previous syllable.


 * éss- over- + pwuhl throw = éssépwuhl to overshoot

When the previous vowel is a diphthong, the reduplicated vowel is the the first element of the diphthong.


 * téukw bone + tauxa field = téukwétauxa graveyard

Where there isn’t a previous vowel, the first vowel of the word is reduplicated.


 * dré plant becomes drélé in the infinitive.

Mutation of /i/ and /u/
Morphemes ending with /i/ or /u/ which contain a single consonant which can form a consonant cluster with approximates undergo a mutation to either /j/ or /w/, respectively, when combined with morphemes starting with vowels.

Examples:

The mandatory prefix for verbs is normally pu-, but when combined with a verb beginning with a vowel, such as isila “to kiss,” the /u/ morphs to /w/, and the verb form is pwisila.

The dubative prefix normally is éli-, but morphs to ély- when attached to a verb starting with a vowel. Thus, isila in the dubative forms élyisila.

e & o followed by another vowel
e and o cannot be followed by another vowel. When this would occur, the e or o is deleted.

Doubled Syllable Deletion
When two identical syllables occur in a row in the CV form and the C is one that can occur doubled, the first vowel is deleted.

Example:


 * hauna “shore” + 'naril “beside, along” = haunnaril

Long Approximates
When an approximate is inserted next to another approximate, the initial of the two is generally changed to a fricative or a nasal.

Doubled approximates tend to change the first to h.

Doubled Coda Metathesis
When two syllables with the same consonant in the coda occur, -V1CV2C, and that consonant is capable of being doubled, then metathesis occurs, yielding -V1C:V2

Example:


 * axka “the earth” => axka-n-an “on the earth” becomes axkanna instead.

Gender
Nouns in Maiyal fall into one of two genders: concrete or abstract. Concrete nouns consist of things that can be experienced with any of the senses, interacted with, or otherwise experienced in the "real" world. Abstract nouns tend to describe emotions, thoughts, concepts, and other things considered to be experienced in the mind. Abstract nouns are considered uncountable, and therefore only exist in the singular, and cannot take determiners.

Number
Concrete nouns in Maiyal can exist in four numbers, the nuller, the singular, the plural, and the infinitive. The nuller is used for none of something, the singular for just one of something, the plural for a discrete quantity of something, and the infinitive for an infinite, uncountable, or uncounted quantity of something, and also the entirety of a specific quantity. While the distinction between the nuller and the other numbers is distinct, there is some leeway between the plural and the infinitive. The plural is always used when the exact number of something is known, while the infinitive is always used for all of something or for things seen as mass nouns, but for large quantities of things, it is up to the speaker to decide how countable the quantity is.

Determiners
Determiners in Maiyal are prefixes which attach to their noun.

Noun Cases
Maiyal has seven noun cases; four simple cases and three complex cases. The four simple cases are the Nominative, the Accusative, the Dative, and the Absolutive, while the three complex cases are the Genitive, the Locative, and the Essive.

Nominative
The nominative is used when a noun is the subject of a verb (with the exception of an abstract noun as the subject of an intransitive verb).

Accusative
The accusative is used when a noun is the direct object of a verb.

Dative
The dative is used when a noun is used as the indirect object of a verb.

Absolutive
The absolutive is used when an abstract noun is the subject of an intransitive sentence. Because it is only applied to abstract nouns, it only exists in the singular.

Complex Cases
The three complex cases are so called because they are composed of more than one part. Each of the three cases requires a postpositional suffix, and may optionally take positionitives, "fine-tuning" suffixes which serve to modify the postpositionals.

The Genitive indicates origin, composition, possession, and similar ideas, the Locative signifies a fixed spatial location, while the Essive indicates transition, movement, use, or temporal location.

They are all formed by suffixing, unlike the majority of the simple cases.

Each of the above cases then must take one of the following postpositional suffixes:

Verbs
Verbs in Maiyal are conjugated by prefixation for mood, tense, and aspect, and by suffixation to match their subject in person and number. There are four persons; the fully productive first, second, and third; and a fourth, used in certain impersonal expressions, whose use is limited to certain verbs.

Conjugations for Person/Number
Regular verbs fall into two categories, those ending with vowels and those ending with consonants. Each has its own set of endings.

There is only one truly irregular verb in Maiyal, lun "to be." All other irregular verbs are compound verbs containing lun.

Mood, Tense, and Aspect
Maiyal indicates mood, tense, and aspect through prefixation of the verb. There are nine moods, five tenses, and ten aspects in Maiyal. The affix in the order of the table below.

Mood

The indicative is used to report plain facts, as in English

The negative mood is used for negation.

The conditional is used when something would happen, except for a condition which prevents it from happening.

The imperative is used for issuing orders, etc., as it is in English, and in the first person singular means “i have to ____”.

The potential describes something that is possible, but hasn’t happened; akin to “could” and “to be able to” in English.

The obligatory conveys a sense of obligation about the action; akin to “should” in English.

The mandatory is similar to the obligatory but conveys a much stronger sense of obligation; akin to “must” in English.

The hypothetical is similar to the potential, but conveys a sense of doubt as to whether or not the action happened, happens, or will happen; akin to “might” in English.

The dubitative expresses the speaker’s doubt whether or not the action carried out in the verb actually happens. It is different from the hypothetical in that the speaker reports that the action actually happened, happens, or will happen, but the speaker doubts the authenticity of that information, whereas the hypothetical shows that the speaker is unsure whether it happened or not, or doesn’t have enough information or willingness to say that something actually happened or not.

Tense

The long past indicates something that happened or was happening long ago; while ordinarily anything that happened more than a week ago is expressed in the long past, it all depends on the context and timeframe.

The near past indicates something that happened or was happening not very long ago or just before the speaker speaks; as with the other tenses, the context determines just how near near is.

The present indicates something that happens or is happening at the moment the speaker speaks, or happened or will happen in a very small time frame from the present.

The near future expresses things that will happen or will be happening either immediately, or within a short timeframe, usually around a week, but it can vary.

The long future expresses things that will happen or will be happening a long time from the present; typically more than a week, but it varies with context.

Aspect

The habitual indicates things that happened, happen, or will happen frequently, regularly, or habitually. Similar to the imperfective tenses of Romance languages (such as the imparfait in French), it differs from them in that it never describes an event that was, is, or will be ongoing when something else happens; this is reserved for the continuous/progressive. It is also different in that it exists in all tenses.

The continuous/progressive describes things that were, are, or will be ongoing at the time the speaker speaks or something else happens.

The perfect is used to express something that had happened, has happened, or will have happened before the timeframe the speaker is speaking of, resulting in the state of things the speaker is describing.

The jussive expresses hope or wishful thinking; it is similar to constructions using “may” and the subjunctive in English (e.g., “May it be”), and also phrases like “i wish i could…”

The spontaneous aspect describes something that happened, happens, or will happen spontaneously, randomly, or very suddenly.

The negative perfect indicates an action that had happened, has happened, or will have happened (once or a few times), but no longer does, or is no longer relevant. When used with the habitual it means something that was habitual at one point in time no longer is.

The continuative indicates an action was, is, or will be persistent, rather than ongoing as in the continuous/progressive; it can suggest that the action failed, fails, or will fail, or has never succeeded.

The defective indicates that an action nearly succeeded, succeeds, or will succeed, but didn’t, doesn’t, or won’t, for whatever reason.

The prospective indicates that an action was, is, or will be imminent, planned, or otherwise about to happen. In the present tense, this aspect overlaps significantly with the near future indicative, and the latter is much more common in speech. However, the prospective present can be used for precision to mean an action is planned or to happen very soon, as the near future indicative doesn’t necessarily suggest imminence.

Notes

Many combinations of aspects are possible, and sometimes they have a more specialized meaning than the mere sum of their parts:

The habitual can be combined with the negative perfect to mean something akin to “for a while it is true that ____ but it no longer is,” eliminating the perfect from the negative perfect.

The continuative and defective combined mean something akin to “someone does something still but still fails at doing so”

The continuous/progressive never combines with the following: habitual, perfect, negative perfect (except in the past tense), continuative, defective.

The prospective is most often used in past tenses, since the close future tense means more or less the same thing as the prospective in the present and is much more common.

The conditional is also used with phrases introduced with “sometimes.”