Mor'osi Language

Mor'osi (Mor'osvur, IPA: [moɾʔozβɯɾ] is the primary language of the nation of Mor'os, spoken by an overwhelming 94% of the population.

Phonology

Both consonant length and vowel length are phonemic in Mor'osi. The vowels [i] and [ɯ] can be long within a single morpheme or between separate morphemes, while [a], [o] and [ɛ] may only be long between morphemes. Consonants are only long between morphemes, never within a single morpheme.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Lateral alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n				ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d				k g	ʔ
Fricative	ɸ β	s z		ɕ ʑ		x
Affricate			tɬ	tɕ dʑ
Approximant			l̥ l		j̊ j	ɰ
Flap		ɾ

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	ɯ
Mid	e	o
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	Nang-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.
id	with	Kal-sam id kar-sam sū yom.	she HON with he HON SUB read	He reads with her.
īn	[Interrogative]	Kar-sam sū yom īn?	he HON SUB read INT	Does he read?
bu	[Negative]	Kar-sam sū yom bu.	he HON SUB read NEG	He does not 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. There phrases consists of one of these particles, along with the possessive particle on and a locative morpheme.

location	location translation	particle	particle translation	phrase	example	gloss	translation
ū	up, top	et	at	on ū et	Koh on ū et	box 's top at	On the box
		dal	through	on ū dal	Koh on ū dal	box 's top through	Over the box
shīm	down, bottom	et	at	on shīm et	Koh on shīm et	box 's bottom at	Under the box
		dal	through	on shīm dal	Koh on shīm dal	box 's bottom through	Beneath the box
dom	middle	et	at	on dom et	Koh on dom et	box 's middle at	In the box
		i	to	on dom i	Koh on dom i	box 's middle to	Into the box
		e	from	on dom e	Koh on dom e	box 's middle from	Out off the box

Syntax and Topic-prominence

There is not set syntax ruling Mor'osi grammar. 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.

Orthography

Mor'osi uses its own native writing system, the Satzi alphabet (literally meaning "origin characters"), for the purposes of writing. The alphabet has been modified for the purpose of writing the languages of many of Mor'os's ethnic groups as well.

History

The earliest Mor'osi writing consisted of simple pictograms, pictures representing, objects and ideas, appearing on a significant and regular basis and showing the earliest signs of standardization during the Nour Period. Certain ideas and concepts though inevitably proved difficult to represent as pictures, and as a result the practice of using preexisting characters either beginning or containing the desired phonemes together to write these ideas evolved. With time the preferred method became that of an abugida, modifying a character representing a simple to illustrate idea with diacritics to alter its inherent vowel and final consonant. Eventually the diacritics used to represent these altered vowels and final consonants were for the sake of simplicity made identical to the characters, now greatly simplified over time from the original pictograms, used for initial consonants and their inherent vowel and final consonant. These diacritics subsequently became full fledged letters, the same as the characters from which they had originally been derived, and the initial characters dropped their inherent vowel and final consonant by the early Daral Period. The practice though of writing the letter for the initial consonant, vowel and final consonant of a syllable together in single unit of text persisted.

Despite a set of widely accepted conventions and practices established by trade and commerce between kingdoms during the Daral Period, there still existed significant variations between the orthographies of different regions and kingdoms. Changes in the language which the alphabet was being used to represent and different spelling reforms undertaken by kingdoms only made matters worse. The first major effort directed at standardization across the entirety of Mor'os was undertaken at the onset of the Satdai Period, with the country firmly united under the rule of Andel Dalēn. In addition to setting down rules regarding the construction of units of text, Andel also eliminated the defunct and purposeless character dhath. Dhath had originally represented the phonemes [θ] and [ð], but by the Satdai Period they had merged with the phonemes [s] and [z]. The letter ex, which represented the final consonant cluster [ks], was also eliminated, as the consonant cluster had dropped from the language.

The next significant reform or the writing system occurred during the later Ēpak Period, another time of relative peace and stability for the country. As a result of the passage of time the alphabet once again was not an ideal representation of the Mor'osi language as it stood. The character lor, which had in its weak and strong forms respectively represented the phonemes [l] and [ɺ], became the modern ro, representing [ɺ] alone, and the new character lhol derived from lor was introduced to represent [l̥] and [l] respectively in its weak and strong forms to account for the split of [l] into [l̥] and [l]. The letter hya was also dropped and replaced with yha as a result of the phoneme [ɧ]'s progression to [ç] and for aesthetic reasons.

During the Tenmas Period the letter fov, representing [ɸ] and [β], the letter ang, representing [ŋ], and the letter ya, representing [j], were gradually replaced with the modern fev,eng and yo for aesthetic reasons.

The final and most recent alteration of Mor'osi orthography occurred as part of the Shinchi Restoration. The letter wo, which represented [ɰ], was dropped in favor of using the letter ho, renamed woh, to write both [x] and [ɰ], and the letter yho representing [ç] originally but [j̊] by then was discarded, and instead yo was used to write both [j̊] and [j].

The Alphabet

name	weak	strong
a	[a]	[aː]
u	[ɯ]	[ɯː]
o	[o]
i	[i]	[iː]
ē	[ɛ]	[eː]
gek	[k]	[g]
dat	[t]	[d]
saz	[s]	[z]
zhesh	[ɕ]	[ʑ]
joch	[tɕ]	[dʑ]
woh	[x]	[ɰ]
fev	[ɸ]	[β]
peb	[p]	[b]
men	[m]	[n]
eng	[ŋ]
lhol	[l̥]	[l]
yo	[j̊]	[j]
ro	[ɺ]
tlo	[tɬ]
Archaic Letters
dhath	[θ]	[ð]
wo	[ɰ]
no	[n]
la	[l]
yha	[ç]
ax	[ks]

There are a total of 19 letters in the Satzi alphabet. Of these 19, 15 have distinct weak (Mor'osi: mel) and strong (Mor'osi: rau) forms. The weak form is represented by the character as shown in the basic alphabet. The strong form meanwhile is indicated by flipping the letter across its vertical axis for vowels or by rotating the letter 180 degrees for consonants. The notable exception to this rule is yo, which is instead flipped across its vertical axis as if it were a vowel, as the weak and strong forms would be identical if the standard representation for consonants were used. For vowels, the weak/strong distinction is a matter of vowel length; weak forms are short and strong forms are long. For consonants, whether a letter is weak or strong indicates whether the consonant is voiceless or voiced respectively, with the exception of men. For men the distinction is instead between the nasal phonemes [m] and [n]. Those letters which do not possess distinct weak and strong forms are considered weak by default.

Dialects

Mor'osi appears in a number of dialects across the nation.

Domvur

Spoken in the Capital Districts and in much of the Domlēn Region Domvur is usually regarded as the most proper rendition of Mor'osi and is the dialect which those learning the language are taught.

Nanvur

The Nanvur dialect is perhaps the most famous Mor'osi dialect other than Domvur. Spoken in the south of Mor'os, including in the major urban centers of Gamnah and Daang, the dialect is marked by nasalization, lenition, contraction and a significant degree of relaxed pronunciation which results in the "slurring" of syllables.

• The realization of [g] as [ŋ].
• The realization of [tɬ] as [ɬ].
• The realization of the diphthong [aɯ] as [aː].
  • bau, "front"
    Domvur: [baɯ]
    Nanvur: [baː]
• The realization of [ɺ] as [ɾ] before alveolar consonants.
  • martan, "wooded valley"
    Domvur: [maɺ.tan]
    Nanvur: [maɾ.tan]
• The lenition of initial [x] to [ɰ̊].
  • har, "brave"
    Domvur: [xaɺ]
    Nanvur: [ɰ̊aɺ]
• The realization of final [x] as [ʀ̊].
  • nah, "string"
    Domvur: [nax]
    Nanvur: [nãʀ̊]
• The nasalization of vowels following [n] and [ŋ].
  • na, "name"
    Domvur: [na]
    Nanvur: [nã]
• Significantly relaxed pronunciation, which takes multliple forms:
  • Any nasal followed immediately by another is realized as the first nasal with a germinate consonant length.
    • donmon, "clothing"
      Domvur: [don.mon]
      Nanvur: [do.nːõn]
  • Any fricative followed immediately by another is realized as the second fricative with a germinate consonant length.
    • azzhau, "morning light"
      Domvur: [az.ʑaɯ]
      Nanvur: [a.ʑːaː]
  • The consonants [t] and [d] followed by either [s], [z], [ɕ] or [ʑ] are realized as affricates, withing voicing determined by the initial :
    • satzhī, "first son"
      Domvur: [sat.ʑiː]
      Nanvur: [sa.tɕiː]
  • The loss of final [t] when immediately followed by another consonant other than [s], [z], [ɕ] or [ʑ].
    • katmo, "assistant teacher"
      Domvur: [kat.mo]
      Nanvur: [ka.mo]
  • The loss of [x] when immediately preceded by another consonant.
    • silhai, "forest fire"
      Domvur: [sil.xai]
      Nanvur: [si.lai]