Miwonša

Miwonša [mi’wɔ̃:ʃä] is an a priori conlang, which I have been developping since 2011. It is a personal language and besides that not yet connected to a conworld, although it cannot be excluded that the conlang may be linked to a fictional world in the future. Furthermore, Miwonša was designed to be as naturalistic and suitable for everyday communication as possible. Therefore the grammar is neither very simplistic nor complex, but comparable to the average complexity of European languages. One unique feature of Miwonša is that it can be written with two writing systems. The first one is a modified version of the Latin alphabet, which includes some diacritics.. The other alphabet resembles Hangeul in that strokes representing sounds are put together so that they form blocks. Each simple block represents one closed or open syllable (maximal complexity: CCCVC). Since all blocks for open syllables are symmetrical, you can form ligatures by combining the left half of the first block with the right half of the second block so that it is possible to display a CCCV.CCCV structure with only one ligature.

Consonants
Comments:

-         /c ; c‘/ → [t͡ɕ ; t͡ɕ ']/ _[i ; ĩ ; iʊ̯; w]

-         /ɬ/ can be replaced by /ɕ/ (free variation)

-         In some dialects, /k/ can be pronounced as [x] in the syllable coda.

-         [ŋ] is inserted between two words, when the first word ends in a nasal vowel and when the second begins with a vowel

-         The sounds /b ; d; g; d͡ʒ ; v/ only occur in loanwords from natlangs. However, they can be replaced with their voiceless counterparts /p ; t ; k ; t͡ʃ ; f/.

-         The sounds /sʲ ; zʲ ; ʎ/ are in free variation with the consonant clusters [sj ; zj ; lj].



ORTHOGRAPHY
Modern Miwonša uses the Latin alphabet. There are 27 letters. The letters and  are not used. There are three letters with diacritics (<č>, <š>, <ž>). Digraphs and trigraphs are not counted as separate letters.

Modern Miwonša uses the Latin alphabet. There are 27 letters. The letters and  are not used. There are three letters with diacritics (<č>, <š>, <ž>). Digraphs and trigraphs are not counted as separate letters. *             The letters  only occur in loanwords.

**          The letter  is pronounced as [dʒ]  or  [tʃ] in loanwords and as [j] in consonant clusters of native words.

***          and  can be pronounced as [kl ; pl] or [kɬ ; pɬ] (free variation).

Phonotactics:
Syllables in Miwonša can have up to 3 consonants in the onset and only one consonant in the coda. Syllables do not end in a consonant if the nucleus is a diphthong. After nasals, only and <š> can appear in the coda. *              Consonants in brackets only appear in loanwords.

Stress
Miwonša is a non-tonal language with lexical stress. There are different rules concerning where to put the stress depending on the part of speech and the grammatical form of the word.

Dialects
Miwonša is not yet connected to a fictional world, nevertheless it has been designed as a pluricentric language with multiple dialects. Furthermore there are many allophones in free variation, but some pronunciations are considered to be more standard than the other alternative. In the central dialect, which is considered to be the most neutral one,  is always pronounced as [k],  as [ɬ],  as [ɬw],  and  as [pl] and [kl],  as <ʍ>,  and  as [sj] and [zj] and  as [lj].

Example sentence:
Tahonti kišanwe piši ya milwa žuk skuni ya piskwai nanstwaran. Uiku piro aš tunšwaš ya thažansaš kwan, wanjo kwaikan yonžalwanti žuk khonswai paiwašizjak.

[ta.ˈhɔ̃.t͡ɕi ki.ʃã.ˈwɛ ˈpi.ʃi ja ˈmi.ɬwa ʒuk ˈsku.ni ja ˈpis.kwaɪ̯ ˈnãs.twa.ˌrã. uɪ̯.ˈku ˈpi.rɔ aʃ ˈtũ.ʃwaʃ ja tʼa.ˈʒã.saʃ kwã, ˈwa.ɲɔ kwaɪ.ˈkã ˌjɔ̃.ʒa.ˈɬwã.t͡ɕi ʒuk ˈkʼɔ̃.swaɪ̯ ˌpai.wa.ˈʃi.zjak]

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Final comments:
Since I have already had the pleasure of hearing people trying to pronounce my conlang, I would like to point out that <an> is not pronounced as In French. While <an> is a back vowel in French [ɑ̃], it is much more fronted in Miwonša. Therefore it should be pronounced as a pure nasal “a” sound with no tendency to “o”.

Furthermore I would like to mention that the postalveolar sounds /ʃ ;  ʒ ; tʃ/ are rather pronounced like the postalveolars which are present in German or Polish. The English sounds <sh>, <ch> and “zh” (as in “vision”) are often much softer than <š>, <č> and <ž> in Miwonša.

The four declensions
In Miwonša, all native nouns either end in "-a", "-i", "-o" or "-n". They can be grouped into four declensions. There are four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative) and two numbers (singular, plural). All declensions have two or more sub-types.

The "a" declension
In the "a" declension, the last consonant is decisive for the choice of the correct suffix in the nominative, accusative and dative plural. If a stem of a noun ends in c, j, y or w, the plural suffixes are <e> and <eš>, All other stems require the suffixes i and iš''. Final r is always palatalized to ž in the nominative, accusative and dative plural: ''

Example nouns of the "a" class (type 1): tahonta (person), hanza (dog)  → tahonti (humans), hanzi (dogs) 

Example nouns of the "a" class (type 2): wanca (girl), siwa (water)  →  wance (girls), siwe (waters) 

<i> Example nouns of the "a" class (type 3): tara (day), lura (night)  → taži (days), luži (nights) </i>

The "o" declension
While the declension in the singular is equal for all nouns of the "o" declension, there are two sets of plural suffixes for animated and inanimated nouns. Animated nouns ending in <j> or <y> take the suffixes <e>, <ek> and <e š> in the plural. Final <r>s of noun stems are palatalized:

<p style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;">Example nouns of the "o" class (an., type 1): wonco (child), škunlo (thief)  → wonti (children),  škunli  (thieves) 

<p style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;">Example nouns of the "o" class (an., type 2): anro (father)  → an ži (fathers)

<p style="font-size:13px;">Example nouns of the "o" class (inanimated): žanjo (eye)  →  žanja (eyes)

The "i" declension
All nouns of the "i" declension require the same suffixes in the singular and plural. The only irregularity is the "i"-alternation (see section about phonology):

<p style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;">Example nouns of the "i" class (no alternation): raiči   (opinion)  →   raiča  (opinions) 

<p style="font-size:13px;">Example nouns of the "i" class (alternation): kaipi (mountain)  →  kaipja (mountains)

<p style="font-size:13px;">

The "n" declension
With very few exceptions, native nouns of the "n"-class are very regular:

<p style="font-size:13px;">

Overview: Verb morphology in Miwonša
Although the verb morphology is out and away the most complex part of Miwonšan grammar, it is not as complicated as one might assume at first glance. There are, however, some features which make it hard and easy at the same time: On the one hand Miwonšan verbs have an immense amount of of grammatical categories and affixes, which is the cause of extremly high morpheme/word ratios and very long words. On the other hand there is only one single and very regular conjugation, very little allomorphy and very strict rules concerning where to place which affix. This leads to the conclusion that it is much more reasonable and economical to obtain an idea of the structure of Miwonšan verbs by taking a look at the whole morphological scheme.

First of all it is important to know that there are three main verb types:

(1) Standard Verbs (containing Modal Verbs); (2) Adjectival Verbs; (3) Copula Verbs

All three types can appear as finite and as infinite verb forms. There are several types of infinite verb forms:

(1) Infintives, (2) Adverbial Participles, (3) Adjectival Participles, (4) Gerunds, (5) Supines, (6) Gerundives

<p style="margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;">Furthermore, there are five voices (genus verbi), two aspects, at least five tenses, three grammatical moods and both subject and object agreement: Of course, not all combinations of grammatical categories are possible. Nevertheless there is a fixed sequence of affixes which serves as a basis for a model with which it is possible to describe the verb morphology quite accurately:

The Seven-Slot Model
The following table contains an overview of all used morphemes and their position in the verb:

Slot 1: Aspect and Mood
In Miwonša, there are several types of infinite verb forms:

Infinitives:

(1) Yežiman lufiwa. - I want to sleep.

Gerunds (can be declined):

(2) Lufjanza nanhwo saipiran. - Sleeping often is healthy.

Supines

(3) Munsišanje čwonai čwonjan zužanti aš tonšuloš žwena Miwonšak. - The students read the book to learn more of the Miwonšan language.

Gerundives

(4) Munsišanje zužanti kwan aš tonšuloš žwena Miwonšak. - The students must know more about the Miwonšan language.

Participles

(5) Žai rumiwku hanzi lufjanši! - Do not wake up sleeping dogs!