Miwonša

Miwonša

Miwonša [mi’wɔ̃:ʃä] is a constructed language (conlang) developed by a German language enthusiast with an academic background in linguistics. It is a self-classified artistic language (artlang), created primarily as a personal project for creative expression and linguistic exploration. Miwonša is not intended for practical use or international communication, but rather as a naturalistic conlang that aims to resemble a plausible human language.

Background and Purpose

The development of Miwonša began in 2011 as a private hobby during the creator's time as a linguistics student. The language was not designed for use in a fictional world, nor with the goal of being particularly easy or difficult to learn. Instead, it was intended to be internally coherent, typologically naturalistic, and aesthetically appealing.

While Miwonša does not imitate any specific natural language, it draws inspiration from a variety of typological features found in less commonly studied languages outside Western and Central Europe. These include elements from Slavic languages, Turkish, and indigenous languages of the Americas and Asia. The goal was to avoid Eurocentric patterns and to explore structures that are naturalistic, but less familiar to speakers of languages such as English, German, or French.

Typological Profile

Miwonša is an a priori language and functions as a language isolate, though it incorporates a small number of loanwords. Its phonology includes features such as nasal vowels, ejectives, and a variety of sibilants and affricates, inspired in part by languages like Polish, Quechua, and Lakhota.

The language distinguishes two grammatical genders (masculine and feminine), singular and plural number, and five declension classes. Nouns and pronouns are inflected for four grammatical cases, and the language does not use articles. Demonstratives and possessives are realized as infixes placed between the noun stem and the case ending. The declension classes are based partly on the final vowel of the noun and show some semantic tendencies, such as associations with animacy or gender. While much simpler than Bantu noun class systems, the Miwonšan system still represents a basic form of noun classification.

Adjectives usually follow the noun and agree in number and declension class. In oblique cases, the case ending appears only on the adjective, not the noun. This results in a mixed marking system with both head-marking and dependent-marking traits. The case morphemes in these contexts act more like syntactic clitics than regular suffixes.

Verb morphology in Miwonša is relatively complex. Verbs may agree with both subject and direct object, although person marking can be omitted in certain contexts. The language features three tenses (past, present, future) and two aspects (perfective and imperfective), as well as optional markers for reflexive, reciprocal, passive, and impersonal voice. Non-finite forms such as infinitives, gerunds, and supines are also present.

The language allows flexible word order, with both SVO and SOV being common. Word order can reflect information structure: SOV often places the object in a backgrounded or known position, while SVO tends to introduce it as new or focused information. Miwonša generally follows a topic–comment (theme–rheme) structure, with a preference for placing new or important information toward the end of the clause.

Writing Systems

Miwonša is typically written using the Latin alphabet, which consists of 27 letters:

A B C Č D – E F G H I – J K L M N – O P R S Š – T U V W Y – Z Ž

The letters q and x are not used; in borrowed words, they are usually replaced with kw and ks. The letters b, d, g, and v are also limited to loanwords. Native Miwonšan words never begin with the letter j, so J is not used as an initial capital. When words are written entirely in uppercase, J may appear as part of a borrowed or adapted form. For pronunciation support, stressed vowels may be marked with acute accents (á, é, í, ó, ú), though these are not part of the official orthography.

In addition to the Latin alphabet, Miwonša has a native script called Tarul, which functions similarly to the Korean Hangul system. Each Tarul character represents a full syllable but is constructed from smaller components that represent individual sounds. Due to the language’s allowance for complex syllable structures (e.g., CCCVNC), the Tarul script is significantly more intricate than Hangul. As such, it is not used for everyday writing, but rather in artistic or ceremonial contexts such as signage, tattoos, or fictional documents.

Miwonša written in Tarul.

Sample text

Original text: The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other. Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him; and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak. And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

Text in Miwonša (Latin Alphabet): Lanjul, lanjul pašoi čhayačan swonsa ya spira yošna pra sjašai, čwo uyak chasnul, nač kjačwoyan wa manti cušni thuyanzit. Čhu khayanjat, stai ului yusjao chasnul, šul phašao kjačwani aklašiwa mantiwhi. Spira khuyašit ti hašno cam pašli, nak ti hašnul khuyašiwan, ti pjučul kjačwan wa manti matsastat. Canha spira yošna muyačit. Prašul swonsa toyančit zjaliskiwhi cušni, wanjo kjačwan manti počno ayaklašit. Čunhul spira yošna yakwan acanti, stai swonsa uyak čhayaslit chasnul.

IPA transcription: /ˈlaɲul, ˈlaɲul paˈʂɔɪ̯ ˈt͡ʂʼajat͡ʂã ˈswɔ̃sa ja ˈspira jɔʂˈna pra ˈsjaʂaɪ̯, t͡ʂwɔ uˈjak ˈt͡ɕʼasnul, nat͡ʂ ˈkjat͡ʂwɔjã wa ˈmãt͡ɕi t͡ɕuʂˈni tʼujãˈzit. t͡ʂu ˈkʼajaɲat, staɪ̯ ˈuluɪ̯ juˈsjaʊ̯ ˈt͡ɕʼasnul, ʂul phaˈʂaʊ̯ kjaˈt͡ʂwani aklaˈʂiwa mãˈt͡ɕiwi. ˈspira kʼujaˈʂit t͡ɕi ˈhaʂnɔ t͡ɕam paˈʂli, nak t͡ɕi ˈhaʂnul kʼuˈjaʂiwã, ˈt͡ɕi ˈpjut͡ʂul kjaˈt͡ʂwã wa ˈmãt͡ɕi ˈmatsastat. ˈt͡ɕãha ˈspira jɔʂˈna mujaˈt͡ʂit. ˈpraʂul ˈswɔ̃sa tɔjãˈt͡ʂit zjalisˈkiwi t͡ɕuʂˈni, ˈwaɲɔ kjaˈt͡ʂwan ˈmãt͡ɕi ˈpɔt͡ʂnɔ ajaklaˈʂit. ˈt͡ʂũhul ˈspira jɔʂˈna jaˈkwã aˈt͡ɕãt͡ɕi, staɪ̯ ˈswɔ̃sa uˈjak t͡ʂʼajasˈlit ˈt͡ɕʼasnul./

Glossing:

First sentence in Tarul (Conscript):

PHONOLOGY

Consonants

Miwonša has 27 consonant phonemes and 18 vowel phonemes (5 oral vowels, 5 nasal vowels, 8 diphthongs). The sounds [b, d, g, ŋ, v, x, dʐ, dʑ] are allophones of other phonemes or occur exclusively in loanwords from natlangs, respectively.

Comments:

1: These sounds occur only in loanwords and can be replaced by their voiceless counterparts in casual speech.

2: Automatically inserted between a nasal vowel and a velar consonant, not phonemic

3. Can be pronounced as labialized post-alveolar sounds as in German or as retroflex sounds as in Polish or Mandarin Chinese (free variation)

4. These sounds are in fact alveolo-palatal and not palatal

5. Only in dialects: Realization of „k“ in coda positions (especially before nasal consonants)

6. Only in dialects: [ɬ] can be replaced by [ɕ]

7. Only in loanwords from natlangs in the letter combination <di> as in <dilema> (dilemma), pronunciation [dʑilɛma]

8. The consonant clusters <pl> and <kl> are pronounced as [pɬ] and [kɬ]. If <l> appears in the end of a syllable, it is pronounced as <ɬ> if the next vowel is a voiceless stop. For instance, „klapsi“ (crazy) is pronounced as [kɬapsi], not as [klapsi]. Furthermore, „walpi“ (snail) is pronounced as [waɬpi], not as [walpi]. However, the onset rule is not applied when /p/ or /k/ are preceded by /s/ or /ʂ/. For instance, „šklami“ (saliva) is pronounced as [ʂklami], not as [ʂkɬami].

Vowels

1: These sounds as close-mid vowels [e ẽ eɪ̯ eʊ̯ o õ oɪ̯ ou̯] in some positions, especially near palatal consonants (free variation). However, the difference is not phonemic. 

2: Some speakers may pronounce the low vowels as back vowels: [ɑ ɑ̃ ɑɪ̯ ɑʊ̯] (free variation)

3: A frequent mistake by people who try to pronounce my conlang: <an> is a central vowel and more similar to Portuguese „ã“ (as in „manhã“) than to French „an“ (as in „dans“), unless you pronounce all low vowels as back vowels.To put it bluntly: The letter combination „an“  is usually not pronounced as in French.

4. In stressed positions, nasal vowels tend to be slightly longer than oral vowels. However, length is not a distinctive feature in Miwonša. The lengthening just occurs to highlight the nasal quality of the vowels. Between a nasal vowel and a stop or affricate, you need to insert a nasal consonant. The nasal consonant always has the same place of articulation as the following consonant (nasal assimilation): wanpja (answer) – [wãmpja]; antso (something) – [ãntsɔ]; wanca (girl) – [wãɲtɕa]; žanka (text) – [ʐãŋka]

Syllable Structure in Miwonša:

Syllables in Miwonša can have the following structures:

(S)C(G)V(V) --- (S)C(G)V(N) --- (S)C(G)V(C)

Onsets can consist of up to three consonants. Codas can only consist of one consonant. Coda consonants cannot appear after nasal vowels or diphthongs (exception: some syllables end in -ans or -anš)

C = Consonant; G = Glide /l, r, j, w/; S = sibilant /s, ʂ/; V = Vowel; VV = Diphtong; VN = Nasal vowel

Consonant clusters in the onset

The following chart shows how each consonant cluster in the onset is spelt. In general, onsets can consist of up to three consonants. All consonant clusters in grey can only appear in loanwords.

1. In loanwords, <ti> and <sti> are always pronounced as /tɕ/ and /stɕ/, respectively:                         „tigro“ (tiger) [tɕigrɔ], „stigma“ (stigma) [stɕikma]

2. As mentioned before, [di] is always pronounced as [dʑ].

3. <pl> and <kl> are pronounced as [pɬ] and [kɬ].

4. Some phonemes are spelled differently before the vowels <i, iu, in> than before the other vowels. In particular, <ti, thi, di, hi> are always pronounced [tɕi, tɕʼi, dʑi, ɕi]:                                         tiwa (hate) - [tɕiwa]; anhi (here) – [ãɕi]

5. The phoneme /j/ is spelled [y], if it is the only consonant in the onset, and <j> if it is a part of a consonant cluster. The different spellings help to prevent mispronunciations after nasal vowels:             kanja (raft) – [kaɲa]; kanya (far away) – [kãja]

6. Aside from all the consonant clusters mentioned before, there can be even more consonant clusters in loanwoards from natlangs. One example is the Miwonšan word for Albania, which is „Ščiperia“. (The onset cluster „šč“ is only found in loanwords).

Coda consonants

A syllable in „native“ Miwonšan words can only end in six sounds: /p, t, k, tʂ, s, ʂ, l/. However, loanwords can have other coda consonants like /r/ or /m/ or /n/. For instance, the Miwonšan word for „Portugal“ is „Portugal“ [pɔrtugal].

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.

Phonological restrictions

The consonant [w] can never appear before <u, ui, un>. The consonants [t, d, h, j, nj, lj, tsj] can never appear before <i, iw, in>. The letter combinations <ti, di, hi> are pronounced as [tɕi, dʑi, ɕi]. The grapheme combination <ji> is impossible in „native“ Miwonšan words.

Orthography (Summary)

The Latin alphabet of Miwonša contains 27 letters. The letters Q and X are almost never used except in words of foreign origin (for example names): A B C Č D - E F G H I - J K L M N - O P R S Š - T U V W Y - Z Ž

The following chart contains a summary of how to pronounce each letter and each digraph. Letters in yellow appear only in loanwords from natlangs:

NOUNS

The four declensions

In Miwonša, all native nouns either end in "-a", "-i", "-o" or a consonant. They can be grouped into four declensions ("a"-declension; "i"-declension; "o"-declension; "n"-declension). There are four cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative) and two numbers (singular, plural). All declensions have two or more sub-types. Nouns that belong to the a- and i- declension are feminine, nouns that belong to the o- and n-declension are masculine. Another feature of nouns in Miwonša is that nouns can contain possessive markers and determiners. All in all, there are 8 interfixes:

{uš} - this that

Interfix	Function	Interfix	Function
{uš}	this/ that (determiner)	{iwh}	"his/her" (3SG.POSS)
{uy}	any/ some (determiner)	{aim}	"our" (1PL.POSS)
{iwm}	"my" (1SG.POSS)	{aiš}	"your" (2PL.POSS)
{iwš}	"your" (2SG.POSS)	{aiw}	"their" (3PL.POSS)

The general morpheme order is:

{stem}+{possessive or determiner}+{case/number}

Notes: <> = letters/ {} = morphemes

The "a" declension

In the "a" declension, all nouns are feminine. There are three subtypes. The A1 declension is the standard declension. The "A2" declension contains all nouns with a stem ending in <c. j, w, z>. The "A3" declension contains all nouns ending in <r>. Click on the table to enlarge it:

Additional Comments:

1: In the A2 declension, the suffixes {i, iš} get lowered to {e, eš} in the nominative, accusative and dative plural, respectively.

2: [r] is always palatalized to [ž] before {i, iš}

3: Nouns that belong to the a-declension are usually stressed on the penultimate syllable. However, if the noun contains an interfix, you always stress the vowel of the interfix, thus the stress shifts to the next syllable: káika => kaikúša.

4: After the interfix {uš}, you do not need to lower {i, iš} to {e, eš}, because the vowel of the prefix is no longer preceded by a palatal consonant or <w>. Compare: mace (mothers) vs. macuši (these mothers), not macuše. Please note as well, that the interfixes {uš} and {uy} are replaced by {oš} and <oy> after a stem ending in <w> because <w> cannot appear before <u> due to phonotactical restraints:                                                                                                   siwa - water (stem: siw-) => siwoša - this water/ siwoya - any water 

5: Before the interfixes {uš} and {uy}, [r] does not need to be palatalized anymore. Compare: tara (day) - taži (days) - taruši (these days), not tažuši

6: After the interfix {uy}, the suffixes {i, iš} are always lowered to {e, eš}.

7: In the A2 declension there is a morpho-pohonological alternation before the interfixes {iwm, iwš, iwh}: If a stem ends in <pj, c, kj, fj, sj, zj, hj, tsj, lj, mj, nj>, the final letter is changed to <p, t, k, f, f, s, z, h, ts, l, m, n>. Examples: wanca (girl) vs. wantiwma (my girl) - kholja (ring) vs. kholiwma (my ring), wonsja (victory) - wonsiwma (my victory)

8: In the A3 declension, a final [r] turns into [ž] before the interfixes {iwm, iwš, iwh}.

9: The interfix <iwh> is pronounced [iw] before the suffixes {i, iš}. Therefore, the "h" is silent: kaikiwhi - his cats (pronunciation: [kai'kiwi], not [kai'kiwɕi]

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 <eš> in the plural. Final <r>s of noun stems are palatalized:

Example nouns of the "o" class (an., type 1): wonco (child), škunlo (thief) → wonti (children), škunli (thieves)

Example nouns of the "o" class (an., type 2): anro (father) → anži (fathers)

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):

Example nouns of the "i" class (no alternation): raiči (opinion) → raiča (opinions)

Example nouns of the "i" class (alternation): kaipi (mountain) → kaipja (mountains)

The "n" declension

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

VERBS

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

Furthermore, there are five voices (genus verbi), two aspects, at least five tenses, three grammatical moods and both subject and object agreement:

Verb morphology

	Categories
Genus Verbi	Active (1), Passive (2), Reflexive (3), Reciprocal (4), Impersonal (5)
Aspect	Imperfective (1), Perfective (2)
Tense	Present (1), Past (2), Future (3), Present Perfect (4), Past Perfect (3)
Mood	Indicative (1), Subjunctive (2), Imperative (3)
Agreement	Nominative (1), Accusative (2)

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:

Seven-Slot Model

Slot 7	Slot 6	Slot  5	Slot 4	Slot 3	Slot 2	Slot 1
(Stem)	Interfix	Tenses	STEM	Subject Agreement	Object Agreement; Voice	Mood,  Verb Type

The Seven-Slot Model

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

SLOT 7	SLOT 6	SLOT 5	SLOT 4	SLOT 3	SLOT 2	SLOT 1
STEM 2	-i- E	-ya-/-wa- PAST/IRR	STEM 1	-im- 1SG.NOM	-im- 1SG.ACC	-an IPFV.IND
				-iš- 2SG.NOM	-iš- 2SG.ACC	-at/-Ø PFV
Used abbreviations: E - epenthetic morpheme GER - gerund IMP - imperative IND - indicative INF - infinitive INTR - intransitive IPFV - imperfective IPRS - impersonal IRR - irrealis PAST - past tense PFV - perfective PTCP - participle REFL - reflexive RECP - reciprocal SBJV - subjunctive SUP - supine				-iw-/-it 3SG.NOM	-iw-/-it 3SG.ACC	-ai SBJV
				-am- 1PL.NOM	-am- 1PL.ACC	-u IMP
				-aš- 2PL.NOM	-aš- 2PL.ACC	-a INF
				-aw-/-at 3PL.NOM	-aw-/-at 3PL.ACC	-anš PTCP
				-Ø- 3.NOM	-Ø- INTR	-anti SUP
					-ar- PASS	-aza GER.NOM
					-ast- REFL	-azai GER.ACC
					-alw- RECP	-azak GER.GEN
					-asj- IPRS	-azaš GER.DAT

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!

The copula "kwa"