Missa

Introduction

Missa is a constructed language that took approximately a year to develop. It is highly agglutinative and, throughout its development, has developed a class-based diglossia; the lower-class version is presented here. The page on this site is highly based on the Wikipedia artcle for Turkish grammar [1].

Suffixes

A suffix (é) is attached to a stem (ot). This stem may be a root (ot), or it may be further analyzable (e.g., otta(i)-). Missa suffixes, as Turkish suffixes, fall into two main types:

• constructive suffixes (mónde trel'ěnteza) which are not noun cases or verbal inflections, and
• inflexional suffixes (pelm trel'ěnteza), which (naturally) are.

Alphabet

• a b c d e é ě g i j k l m n ń o ó p r s š t u v y z '

These are as in the IPA, with the following exceptions:

• Consonant Differences : [c] represents /ts/; [ń] is a velar nesal; [š] is a devoiced postalveolar fricative; [-u-] is a labial approximant (or similar); ['] represents palatalization or /j/ after a consonant (e.g. [trel'] ~ [trelj].)
• Vowel Differences: [e] is /ɛ/, [o] is /ɔ/ (with their accented forms being /e o/, respectively), and [ě]/[y] being representative of schwa.

The differentiation in Missa being orthographic [ě] and [y] is that [y] is used in pure roots; while [ě] is used for the schwa that developed from the developmental simplification of such initial consonant clusters as [tm].

Gender

• While Missa does not have gender for common nouns, gender is distinguished in 3rd person pronouns (as in English). However, Missa has highly productive suffixes to mark specific genders, being -el (feminine) and -ék (masculine). The genderized epicine pronoun contrasts as an obviate to the (inherently privative) normally gendered third person gendered pronouns, ak (m.) and aš (f.)

Person

• (Missa has 3 persons (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), and as stated above, the 4th person in some clauses is represented by suffixing a gender-marking suffix to the epicine 3rd person pronoun.

Parts of speech

• Missa has 8 parts of speech (drepsa gellikvo "parts of talking"):

1. noun (móm "noun");
2. pronoun(móm milvo "noun of person");
3. adjective (mómzavo gapsl'on"Thing that talks about (nouns)");
4. verb (oton "action");
5. adverb ((otonsa) gapsl'on "Thing that talks about (actions))";
6. conjunction (ukliginon "Thing that makes others come together");
7. Grammatical particle (umsepl'on "The (inherently) known");
8. interjection (dóš "Shout" ).

• Missa does not inflect its adjectives or adverbs; and the majority of these are themselves derived from nouns or verbs, respectively.

• Because Missa does not use the present tense of the verb "to be", the word de "it" followed by a noun can make a complete sentence:

1. ket "dog";
2. de ket "It's a dog."

• However, in dictionaries, Missa gives two "cases" of its nouns, Nominative and Vocative; as it is the vocative that shows the true root a noun:

1. štlum "porch, patio";
2. štlubu "Porch! Patio!"

• Dictionaries give verbs in their simple root form (as the 'infinitive' is highly archaic in all variants of Missa), however, some may give the verb in "root, I (root)" form:

1. mel "(to) run";
2. mel, melé "(to) run; I run".

• As explained above, adjectives and adverbs are often formed from similar nouns and verbs, respectively:

• Adjectives are commonly formed from nouns by suffixing a former participial suffix, which with time has worn to become a simple adjective suffix for both nouns and verbs:

1. cel "Rust";
2. celle "rust-colored, rusty."

• Adverbs, however, are usually only formed from verbs or adjectives with the suffix -pte:

1. tyk "Good";
2. tykpte "well".

• Other common suffixes include -on, which creates a simple noun from a verb (or even adjective on occasion):

1. ńek "young";
2. ńekon "something or someone who/that is young".

• Missa quite often in adjectival constructions has the root adjective take the suffix -vo, which follows the noun it modifies; however, an adjective derived via -le does not take -vo and comes before the noun :

1. Dek "cat" and til "red", dek tilvo "red cat" (literally cat of red); but
2. Rénsle dek "smiling cat" (without -vo and preceding.)

• The suffix that makes an adjective or adverb (or rarely verbal transitive meaning) emphatic is -ke:

1. malk "Green";
2. malkke "very green".

Nouns

Nouns do not have inherent gender(see above, however, for genderizing suffixes), two numbers (single, plural) with the ability to suffix 2-9 for dual-nonal, and many different case suffixes (Nominative, Vocative, Genitive, Dative, Allative, Ablative, Comitative/Instrumental, etc.)

Plurality

Missa nouns have two 'normal' numbers: singular (no marking) and plural (The suffix -za). However, many nouns can take the number two through nine as a direct suffix, meaning "of a group of (NUMBER) (NOUN)", e.g. zón-di "eight mice". A noun suffixed with a number to denote a group of that amount does not take a plural suffix -za.

Numbers

• I was asked to provide a numerical system for Missa, and thus, here it is. Missa's numerical system is relatively similar to that of Chinese: it is a base ten system which constructs numbers rather efficiently, without requiring agreement with nouns in case, number, or gender:

1. ot "two" ; ontit "twenty (two-ten)" ; ottelntek "two-hundred (two-hundred)"; ottelntehontidot rolmilellesa "two hundred and twenty two princesses".

• • Note that numbers, like most nouns, tend to have different stems (but this is not always the case.)

• The numbers 0 - 10 are as follows in Missa:

1. ulas, stem ulas- "zero"
2. mej, stem mej- "one"
3. ot, stem od- "two"
4. all, stem ald- "three"
5. lum, stem luv- "four"
6. pem, stem pev- "five"
7. skes, stem skez- "six"
8. empes, stem empez- "seven"
9. di, stem di(j)- "eight"
10. mém, stem mém- "nine"
11. mit, stem mid- "ten"

• The numbers 10 - 100, by tens, are as follows in Missa:

1. mit, stem mid- "ten"
2. ontit, stem ontid- "twenty"
3. alndit, stem alndid- "thirty"
4. luvvit, stem luvvid- "fourty"
5. pevvit, stem pevvid- "fifty"
6. skensit, stem skensid- "sixty"
7. empensit, stem empensid- "seventy"
8. dimit, stem dimid- "eighty"
9. mémmit, stem mémmid- "ninety"
10. telntek, stem telnte(h)- "one hundred"