Mor'osi Language
Mor'osi (Mor'osvur, IPA: [moɺ.osβʊɺ] is the primary language of the nation of Mor'os, spoken by an overwhelming 94% of the population.
Contents
[hide]Phonology
Consonants
Bilabial | Alveolar | Lateral alveolar |
Alveolo- palatal |
Palatal | Velar | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasals | m | n | ŋ | |||
Plosives | p b | t d | k g | |||
Fricatives | ɸ β | s z | ɕ ʑ | x | ||
Affricates | tɬ | tɕ dʑ | ||||
Approximants | l̥ l | j̥ j | ɰ | |||
Flaps | ɺ |
Vowels
Front | Near- front |
Near- back |
Back | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɯ | ||
Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | ||
Close-mid | e | o | ||
Open-mid | ɛ | |||
Open | a |
Grammar
Mor'osi displays close to no inflection, relying instead heavily on context and particle words to convey meaning. In this same vein Mor'osi is a pro-drop language, and any assumed element with the exception of the verb can be dropped from the sentence.
Particles
Particles in Mor'osi serve both to mark the role of a noun within a sentence and as postpositions, identicical to prepostitions in function but placed after the word which they modify, and to form certain grammatical moods.
particle | translation | example | gloss | full translation |
---|---|---|---|---|
sū | [Subject] | Kar-sam sū yom. | he HON SUB read | He reads. |
dī | [Object] | Hon dī kar-sam sū yom. | book OBJ he HON SUB read | He reads the book. |
wo | [Subject, subordinate complement clause] |
Sēv-cham wo yom on hon dī kar-sam sū yom. |
I HON SUB read 's book OBJ he HON SUB read |
He reads the book that I read. |
ha | [Object, subordinate complement clause] |
Hon ha yom dī kar-sam sū ab. |
book OBJ read OBJ he HON SUB can |
He can read the book. |
et | at, in, on, by | Uch et kar-sam sū yom. | Home at he HON SUB read | He reads at home. |
i | to, until | Totok i kar-sam sū yom. | ten time until he HON SUB read | He reads until 10 o'clock. |
e | from, out of | Nan-tok e kar-sam sū yom. | seven time from he HON SUB read | He reads from 7 o'clock. |
dal | through, while | Yor dal kar-sam sū yom. | night through he HON SUB read | He reads through the night. |
us | with, by | Ong us kar-sam sū yom. | eye with he HON SUB read | He reads with his eyes. |
on | 's, of | Ausil-sam on hon dī kar-sam sū yom. |
Ausil HON 's book he HON SUB read | He reads Ausil's book. |
dē | for | Kal-sam dē kar-sam sū yom. | she HON for he HON SUB read | He reads for her. |
īn | [Interrogative] | Kar-sam sū yom īn? | he HON SUB read INT | Does he read? |
Syntax and Topic-prominence
There is not set syntax ruling Mor'osi syntax. Instead, Mor'osi is a topic-prominence language in which the the subject, object, verb other element that the speaker wishes to place emphasis on is placed at the onset of the sentence. Often this is used to introduce new information, or to draw attention to a certain point.
Reduplication
Reduplication, the process or repeating a word, is a common feature of Mor'osi. Reduplication serves three purposes: emphasis or augmentation of the reduplicated morpheme, the pluralization of certain nouns and pronouns, and the indication of the progressive or imperfect aspect. The phenomenon occurs frequently enough that in Mor'osi orthography a special character, a simple dash, exists for the purpose of indication reduplication.