Mendian

Phonology
/p b t d k ɡ q/ /f v s z ʃ ʒ x (ħ)/  /m n ŋ/  /(pf) ts dz tʃ dʒ kx/ <(pf) ts/c dz tš/č dž kh> /w r l j/

/i i: u u: e e: ø ø: ɜ ɜ: o o: æ æ: a a: ɒ ɒ:/ 

Mendian also features a stress contrast: each stressed word has one syllable that bears stress. In short vowels, this is indicated with an acute accent, for example <á>, while in long vowels it is marked with a circumflex, for example <â>. Stress is phonemic but not fixed: it is mobile in some words.

There operate two types of vowel harmony in Mendian; one that applies to <ę ę̄> and one that applies to . The first sound change, otherwise termed harmonisation, is that of <ę ę̄> shifting to  when either the syllable before or after it contains a long front vowel. The second change, u-umlaut, is of  shifting to <ǫ ǭ> when the next syllable contains . The circumstances of umlaut get more complicated when <ā> rarely shifts when the next syllable contains a. The umlaut becomes optional if between the two vowels there is more than a single consonant.

Nouns
Nouns in Mendian can be either singular or plural and can have one of five cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and vocative. Some nouns preserve an archaic dual. All Mendian nouns have one of four innate genders: masculine, feminine, ignic and neuter. Nouns can either be hard or soft based on the malleability of the stem. They can also be strong or weak based on whether they form the plural with ablaut or by suffix. Most nouns are hard and weak, with the exception of ignic nouns which are most commonly soft.

Mendian nouns are cited in the nominative and genitive singular; additional irregularities are indicated when present. Gender is always cited alongside the translation.

Hard Nouns
Hard Mendian nouns are those with an immutable consonant component of the stem. It has a large amount of weak nouns and a smaller amount of strong nouns. There are a few common patterns for all genders and a handful of exceptional patterns for feminine and ignic nouns. The most common category of hard nouns are the weak a-stem nouns. They come in three varieties: long-stem (when the stem is monosyllabic with a long vowel), short-stem (when the stem is monosyllabic but with a short vowel) and polysyllabic.

An example of a short-stem noun is <ǿva, ǿvas> (finger, nt.) - it is stem-stressed, with stress relocation in the vocative.

Another example of a short-stem noun is <ęká, ękás> (colour, f.) - it is ending-stressed, with fixed stress on the suffixes.

There also exists a small amount of mobile-stress nouns where they are stem-stressed in the nominative and accusative, but ending-stressed in other cases. An example of a mobile-stress short-stem noun is <ánta, antás> (hair follicle, f.):

Long-stem nouns are usually also stem-stressed; an example stem-stressed long-stem noun is <ûska, ûskas> (grain of rice, nt.):

Three long-stem nouns are also ending-stressed; they have a moderately different declension from the generalised long-stem pattern. They are <ǭrká, ǭrkás> (swordfish, masc.), <ījjá, ījjás> (funnel, fem.) and <āwá, āwás> (trout, masc.) and they otherwise do not fit into the declension pattern. An example declension is given with <ījjá>:

Polysyllabic a-stem nouns are never ending-stressed; they can either have a fixed or a mobile stress. Fixed-stress a-stems can have stress on any of the syllables of the stem (usually the penultimate or antepenultimate) while mobile-stress nouns are always stressed on the antepenultimate in the nominative and accusative and otherwise on the penultimate. An example of a fixed-stress polysyllabic noun is <īráka, īrákas> (eyebrow, fem.):

An example of a mobile-stress polysyllabic noun is <étija, etíjas> (canine tooth, masc.):