Metin

General information
Metin is a language spoken by about 57 trillion people in the Metin nation and in the surrounding Daiwe. Metin is a koine rather than a native language, it was spoken in its true form about 50 millenia ago at the founding of Metin nation, since then, it has split into many daughter languages, which use old Metin as a language of common communication.

Vowels
Phonemes with * are marginal

''Letters in parantheses are romanizations. Sequences of sounds that could be confused for digraphs are seperated by a dash ( sx, /ʃ/ vs. s-x, /sx/).''

Note on romanization
Ambiguous digraphs are split up by a dash when the word is to be read with the two letters pronounced as separate phonemes

gadha: /gadha/

gad-ha: /gaðha/ The following consonants have differing romanizations depending on whether or not they are syllable initial or final

/θ/: tj at beginning of syllables, t at the end.

tján: /θán/, ket: /keθ/

/ð/: dj at beginning of syllables, d at the end.

djęę: /ðæ:/, uud: /u:ð/

/j/: y at beginning of syllables, j at the end. (syllable final /j/ sounds more similar to /ʝ/

yį́ns: /jɨ́ns/, daj: /daʝ

/ɣ/: gj at beginning of syllables, g at the end.

gjáiɬ: /ɣáiɬ/, meeg: /me:ɣ/.

Consonants
Lateral sounds are pronounced by putting the tip of your tongue at the base of your bottom teeth. Then, bend the rest of your tongue upwards until the center of your tongue is pressed against the base of the top teeth. Then, make a plosive, nasal, fricative, or lateral with your tongue in this position. You should sound like you have a lisp.

Plosive consonants and fricatives make a three-way distinction, voiceless, voiced, and breathy. v~w is considered an approximant, although it surfaces as the voiced bilabial fricative v before or after labial vowels. All fricatives, even aspirated ones, may occur at the end of syllables. There is no breathy Gh, nor are there p or b sounds (except in rare circumstances). The only consonant clusters in the Metin language are affricates and l clusters, such as kl, tl, dl, and dlh. l clusters may be voiceless, voiced or breathy. There are also x clusters, px, tx, tx', and Tx, there are only 4, and they are always voiceless.

Nasals are  only distinguished from each other in the onset of a syllable, at the end of a syllable, they become the archiphoneme m*, which represents a nasal which agrees with the following consonant in place of articulation. If followed by a vowel, m* becomes, /m/.

Approximants can also carry no secondary articulations. There is also an archiphoneme for syllable final approximants, that is l*. l* becomes ł before voiceless non-retroflex consonants, r before retroflex consonants, vowels, and voiced consonants, and l before voiced palatal and dental consonants.

Vowels
Vowels are divided into two groups, normal and lateral.

A normal vowel has the tongue held straight during production. They cannot occur after a lateral or retroflex consonant.They are divided int three groups. The first group is the fronted vowels, or palatals, which are are i, e and ę. The neutral mid vowels are į, ą, and a. . The final group is the back vowels, or labial vowels, u, o and ǫ.

A lateral vowel is produced with the tip of the tongue at the base of the teeth and the rest of the tongue bent upwards. Frontness and backness are not distinguished, only openness and labialness. There are only two pure lateral vowels, unlabialized iy and labialized uy, the other lateral vowels are diphthongs with iy and uy, aay is a diphthong of aa and iy, oy is a diphthong of o and uy.

Phonotactics
A syllable may optionally have an onset with any one consonant or the permitted consonant clusters (listed in consonants section). The nucleus must consist of a vowel or sequence of vowels (vowels do not diphthongize, rather a sequence of vowels is pronounced with each vowel distinct.) The (optional) coda may be any fricative (including h and other breathy fricatives, which may be prenasalized.

Examples of permitted syllables

v

ú, uu, e, į

cv

kiá, mái, klǫ, déé

cvc

kiis, naɬ, meZ

cvcc

maanh, kuíny, plóóns, dant, yǫ́ng

Nouns
Metin nouns are head initial. They decline for 4 core cases and take a wide variety of disjunct suffixes.

Absolutive form
All nouns in Metin must be placed into an absolutive form when heading a noun phrase. The absolutive is marked by a multitude of prefixes, which vary based on the semantics of the prefixed noun.

Suffix morphology
There are 4 classes of productive suffixes in Metin

1: Vocal suffixes that start with a vowel, such as all of the posessive suffixes, like -oh, my (alienable)

2: Nasal suffixes that start with an m, like -mi (with)

3: Voiced suffixes that start with a voiced consonant, like -já (and)

Simple nouns do not interact with these suffixes at all and add them directly to the stem. These nouns always end in a single consonant. Many of these nouns descend from Old Saras nouns that ended in a Cį sequence, a consonant with schwa

This class includes nouns such as

chaguł: covering, coat, skin

chagułoh: my covering | chagułmi: with a covering | chagułjá: and a covering

sxutl'ans: a lake

sxutl'ansoh: my lake | sxutl'ansmi: with a lake | sxutl'ansjá: and a lake

Final cluster nouns usually end in a consonant cluster followed almost always an untoned į in isolation, though some end on other short untoned vowels. The į is deleted before vocal suffixes, otherwise, the suffixes are added directly. These nouns always have multisyllabic stems.

kácmį: a skirt

kácmoh: my skirt | kácmįmi: with a skirt | kácmįjá: and a skirt

Fortifying nouns end in a consonant which changes form before certain suffixes, typically becoming an affricate before vocal suffixes. Most nouns that end in -s, -l, -sx, -zx, -sh, -z̨, and -c are Fortiying''. ''-dj and -tj fortifying nouns are uncommon.

S fortifying nouns fortify s to ts before vocal suffixes

mhas: a lid

mhatsoh: my lid | mhasmi: with a lid | mhasjá: and a lid

Tj fortifying nouns fortify tj to t before vocal suffixes (uncommon)

Dj fortifying nouns fortify dj to d before vocal suffixes (rare)

chatǫǫd: solid

chatǫǫdoh: my solid | chatǫǫdmi: with a solid | chatǫǫd-já: and a solid

L fortifying nouns fortify l to tl before vocal suffixes

Sx fortifying nouns fortify sx to cx before vocal suffixes

Zx fortifying nouns fortify zx to jx before vocal suffixes

Sh fortifying nouns fortify  sh to ch before vocal suffixes

Z̨ fortifying nouns fortify z̨ to j̨ before vocal suffixes

Gj fortifying nouns fortify gj to g before vocal suffixes. They also nasalise to ngj before nasal suffixes.

sxumaag: a pool

sxumaagoh: my pool | sxumaangmi: with a pool | sxumaag-já: and a pool

Verbs
Metin is a polysynthetic, VSO language with most grammatical information indicated on the verb. The various prefixes which conjoin with the stem of a Metin verb can be divided into two major classes: conjunct and disjunct.

Conjuct prefixes include subject, object, and mode prefixes, and lie closest to the verb stem. Several, but not all tense and mood markers also are indicated by conjuct prefixes. The morphological interactions of conjunct prefixes are quite complex, and are indicated in great part by paradigms in this grammar. Conjunct prefixes have a very strict order. Many conjunct prefixes have alternate forms depending on whether they are proceded by disjunct prefixes or left naked. Conjunct prefixes are a closed class, new morphemes are never added to this class

Disjunct prefixes lie before the conjunct prefixes. The morphophonological interactions between them are much simpler. There is more flexibility in the order in which they can be placed. Disjunct prefixes include: evidentials, adverbs, incorporated nouns, and some tense, aspect, and mood markers

Evidential Prefixes
The evidential prefixes are required to indicate where the speaker got the information in their sentence from. The only times when the evidential prefix is omitted is when the subject is first person or the statement is a question. They are always come first, forming outermost layer of disjunct prefixes, and have different forms depending on whether or not they are followed by another disjunct prefix or directly by a conjuct prefix. They can also exist as independent words in copulative clauses. Negativity is also marked with evidential prefixes.

Object prefixes
''Normal and fortified forms are separated by a dash. Short prefix forms that occur after other prefixes are listed below the freestanding ones.''

Moods
The moods of Metin verbs are divided into two major classes: realis and ''irrealis. Realis moods indicate things which have already happened, irrealis'' moods indicate potentials, conditionals, and hypotheticals. Realis and Irrealis moods use different verb stems

Indicative mood
Used to indicate things which have or may have happened in the present or past. Realis

Volitional mood
Used to indicate actions which the subject desires to do.

Modes
The mode of a Metin verb indicates its transitivity. There are 5 modes, marked by conjunct prefixes which have complex morphophonological interactions with the subject prefixes.

e mode: used for transitive verbs, some types of reflexive verbs

a mode: used for intransitive verbs, some types of reflexive verbs

0 mode: usually intransitive verbs, some transitive verbs. This mode is indicated by the lack of a mode marker

n mode: used for bitransitive verbs

uu mode: used for intransitive verbs of the stative aspect. Defective across many moods.

Aspects

The following aspects exist in Metin. They are indicated by a combination of conjunct prefixes, disjunct prefixes, and stem changes.

Continuative aspect
The continuative aspect is used for continuing actions, both in the present and in the past. For stative verbs, it indicates sustained change, as in "It's been getting cold" or "She's been getting better". It indicates that an action is currently being finished, as in "They're getting dressed", "She's running up the stairs", or "It's falling". It can be used in the past tense when in a secondary clause, as in "While she was getting better I left" or "He ran as she ran".

Formation of the continuative
Prefixes are listed in order of: after conjunct prefix,  in isolation,  after consonant prefix

Stative aspect
The momentous prefixes are used with momentous, repetitive, and seriative verbs.

Imperfect aspect
The imperfect aspect is fairly limited in use. It is used only for actions which are literally incomplete. Examples would include "She ate" (and there's still food on the table), "I went to Mixtl'an" (But did not make it all the way). In secondary clauses, it is used to imply that one action prevented the completion of the other, for example "He barged in while I was eating and told me the news." (implication is that the subject stopped eating and started doing something else in response to this). When used with stative verbs, it implies that the transformation did not go to completion, for example "It melted" (some ice is still left) or "It burned." (but it's still fairly intact). Speakers often use it to soften statements, for example, putting the sentence "I overcooked it" in the imperfect would imply that you only overcooked it a little and it is still fairly edible.

Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect is used for completed actions and as a generic past marker for verbal action that don't have much in the way of an internal structure time, for example "It fell down". "I bought groceries" would be normally translated with the perfect, unless the subject did not buy all the groceries." When used with stative verbs, it implies a complete transformation, e.g., "It melted" (all the way), "It burned" (to ashes).

Incohative aspect
The incohative aspect is used to indicate actions which have just begun, as in "It started to rain", "The wheel started to turn". The incohative stem is often similar or identical to the momentous stem.

Arrestive aspect
The arrestive aspect is used for actions which have ceased, as in "It stopped raining" or "The wheel stopped turning". It almost always uses the same stem as the incohative stem, along with the disjunct prefix łǫ-

Habitual aspect
The habitual aspect is used for actions in which the subject persists and repetitive actions, for example "He kept on going despite the rain", "These things keep happening", "They're still at the park", "We must go on".

Specific uses of the habitual The prefix tso-, which means that the subject maintains the action of the verb, requires the habitual verb stem

tsoyǫǫzhés  oajhueng eegun: The scientists maintain a vaccuum in the chamber with a vaccum pump. (notice the use of hés, the habitual stem of hiz: to keep empty)

tsotlį́hį́abhén eeynh tsimetxǫ : The rob ot keeps up its disguise as a human.

t'áhá- is used for highly regular actions, like clock ticking or hearts beating.

t'áháaleel ooji eeqabhuayyen tsootiys: Water dripped into the little girl's hands.



One prefix that uses the repetitive is '''mó-. '''It is used with -a-, -e-, and -n- verbs and implies that the subject is keeping itself or the object in the state it is in actively. It is used with the Repetitive form of the Dhatu. It's meaning is similar to tso-, but it implies that the action is distributed over several instances rather than maintained continuously. Examples

Infinite aspect
The infinite aspect is used for actions which have no conclusion, such as "They toil", "We play", "It flows". It is similar to the stative aspect, but not identical. Only a handful of verbs have a distinct infinite stem. It uses the continuous subject prefixes.

Stative aspect
The stative aspect is used for verbs of state, such as "It is red", "This place is busy", "she's angry". It has its own unique mode, the -uu mode, unlike all other aspects, which can have the other 4 modes. The uu mode is defective across several of the moods.

Semelfactive aspect
The semelfactive aspect is used for distributed actions, such as "I poured water into every cup", "We went to 3 cities" (not in succesion), "I checked every pocket".

Conative aspect
The conative aspect is used for actions attempted but not succesfully preformed. "The beast lept" in the conative would imply the beast tensed its muscles to leap but did not move.

Momentous aspect
The momentous aspect is a very common aspect used to describe actions which take place in one discrete act. For example "I pick it up", "It falls", and "I tear it" would all be in the momentous aspect. It usually contrasts with the continuative aspect, contrasting verbs such as "to break" with "to wear down", "to attach" with "to meld together", "to fall" with "to  lower down". When used with stative verbs it emphasizes a sudden change in state, the sentence "It heated up" in the momentous would imply it heated up rapidle and suddenly.

Continuous aspect
The continuous aspect is used for actions which take place over a period of time, such as "We build it up", "The wind wears it down", "We fill it with water". When contrasted with the momentous aspect it usually implies the ongoing action will happen with interruption or will take quite a long time, "I fill the cup with water" would usually be in the momentous but "I fill the pool with water" would usually be in the continuous, unless the pool was filled suddenly by opening a floodgate or something similar.

Recursive aspect
The recursive aspect is used for actions which are undone at a later time. The verb "to go" in the recursive means "to go and come back", the verb "To fill" in the recursive means to fill up and dump out somewhere else.