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.

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 alongside subordinate clauses. In this same vein Mor'osi is a pro-drop language, and any assumed element 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, to indicate possession 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	To-tok 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.
i et	by	Yū i et kar-sam sū yom.	evening by he HON SUB read	He will read by evening.
dal	through, while, throughout, as	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.
on us	about	Ma on us kar-sam sū yom.	horse about he HON SUB read	He reads about horses.
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?
ye	[Emphatic]	Kar-sam sū yom ye?	he HON SUB read EMP	He really reads.
he	[Energetic]	Kar-sam sū yom he!	he HON SUB read ENE	He certainly reads!
se	[Polite]	Kar-sam sū yom se.	he HON SUB read POL	He reads.
za	[Impolite]	Kar-sam sū yom za!	he HON SUB read IMP	He reads!

Postpositional phrases

Postpositional phrases can be used in Mor'osi to indicate the location of objects in space or time with greater precision than with the particles et, i, e and dal.

position	English	phrase	gloss	translation
ū	up, top	Koh on ū et	box 's top at	On [top of] the box
shīm	down, bottom	Koh on shīm et	box 's bottom at	Under the box
dom	middle	Koh on dom et	box 's middle at	In[side of] the box

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 indicating reduplication.

example	gloss	translation	reduplication example	reduplication gloss	reduplication translation
Mar sū da.	tree SUB big	The tree is big.	Mar sū da da	tree SUB big big	The tree is very big.
Sēv-cham sū dan.	I HON SUB talk	I talk.	Sēv Sēv-cham sū dan.	I I HON SUB talk	We talk.
Sēv-cham sū dan.	I HON SUB talk	I talk.	Sēv-cham sū dan dan.	I HON SUB talk talk	I am talking.