Mishtoch

Phonology
The Latin transliteration of Mishtoch uses an alphabet of 16 letters: Aa [ɑ, a], Chch [x], Dd [d], Ee [e, ɛ], Hh[h], Ii [i, ɪ], Kk [k], Ll [l], Mm [m], Nn [n], Oo [ɔ, o], Pp [p], Rr [r], Ss [s], Shsh [ʃ], Tt [t], Uu [u, ʊ], Yy [j]. All letters are generally pronounced the same way regardless of their placement. The letter "i" tends to form diphthongs [aɪ], [eɪ], [oɪ] and [uɪ] when it follows another vowel; other vowels are pronounced separately from each other.

Phonotactics
Mishtoch syllables have one of the following structures: CV or CVF. Here C stands for a consonant and V for vowel. F inidcates a final consonant.

Mishtoch consonants are divided into three groups. Ch and Sh can only appear as final letters in a syllable. R and T can occupy both final and initial positions, while K, H, D, L, P, S and Y can only occur as initial consonants.

Agreement
Mishtoch verbs, adjectives and adverbs agree with thei main word in the following way

- -

Here the is the first root consonant of the word this grammatical form describes. Verbs agree with subjects, and adjectives and adverbs agree with the words they describe. The agreement consonant can be omitted when there is no main word to agree with (e.g. after a model verb).

The grammatical form indicator is "a" for adjectives, and "i" for adverbs. Present-tense verbs also use "a" as the form indicator. Perfective verbs use "o", and the near-future verbs use "e". Conditional verbs are indicated by using "ia" and subjunctive uses "io".

Mishtoch verbs also agree with thier objects:

- -

The agreement consonant here is, again, the first root consonant of the object. The grammatical form indicator for objects is "u". Transitive verbs for which the object is not indicated, and reflexive verbs can drop the agreement consonant, leaving only the "u" ending.

Finally, the nouns or verbs that have a genitive form attached to them agree with the attached genitive, using the same pattern:

- -

Here the agreement consonant is the first consonant of the genitive. The grammatical form indicator in this case is "o".

For example:

As a general rule, Mishtoch is a head-first, SVO language. However, the agreement scheme allows for a great variability of the word order in a sentence.

Here are several Mishtoch examples:

Tochtamiro
"Tochtamiro" literally means "fast speech". This is a Mishtoch term for making two reductions:

- dropping a syllable in the beginning of a word if, because of the agreement rules, it repeats the last syllable of the previous word; and

- dropping the final -u in transitive verbs, if the object follows them directly, thus leaving only the doubled consinant.

For example, instead of saying Ma mami "I go", one usually says Ma-mi. Instead of saying Ma mayuhu ha "I have a house", one says Ma-yu-hha, and so forth.

Sentence structure
The variable order of words in a Mishtoch sentence can be used to emphasize different parts of it. E.g.: ''Mochto ta motut-mma tilu-rrarsose! ''"Your brother hit me with a stick!" can be changed to Motut-mma tilu-rrarsose mochto ta "I was beaten with a stick by your brother", or Tilu-rrarsose mochto ta motut-mma "Your brother used a stick to hit me", and so forth.

To turn a sentence into an interrogative one, you only need to change the intonation, e.g. Ma-yummomalo "I am happy" -- Ta-yummomalo? "Are you happy?"