Miih

[Xing]

This kind of an old conlang of mine, that has gone through a series of changes and adaptations. The name - which usually has been something with "mi***", stems from the fact that I originally intended it to be a minimalistic conlang. Yes, I have gone through the various stages of conlanging, and tried to create all the cliches - a nounless lang, a tricon lang, etc.

Phonology

The phoneme inventory is quite limited (as with most of my conlangs...), but I have tried to squeeze in one or a few 'unusual' features.

Vowels

/i u a/ <i u a>1

Consonants

/p t t͡ʃ k m n v l r ħ/ <p t c k m n v l r h>1

The syllable structure is (C)V(C).
The following consonants may be codas: /t n l r h/, with /t n/ assimilating to the POA of a following onset consonant.
/i u/ has a more open realisation before /ħ/ - roughly [ɛ ɔ].
Adjacent vowels may - at least on an underlying level - be analysed as belonging to different syllables. In rapid speech, however, this may not be obvious. (Combinations of a+i or a+u etc. might sound as phonetic diphthongs.)
I'm not sure about the stress yet - the distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables will in any case be very slight. We could say that stress falls (very lightly) on the first syllable in a word - but this might be subject to change.

The name of the language is pronounced /mi.iħ/ [miɛħ].

1 As you might recall, there has been an alternative orthography around - one based on the digits 1-9. As for now, this will not be used (since the phoneme inventory has grown a bit).

[qwed117]

Is it possible to have VCCV in the language

[Xing]

Is it possible to have VCCV in the language

Yes, with the restrictions stated.

[clawgrip]

The minimalistic phonology is nice. The simple ones with a single weird, out-of-nowhere consonant thrown in are always interesting.

[Xing]

Nouns

Nouns belong to different classes. As for now, there are seven classes - three of them are feminine, and four masculine. (The distinction between masculine and feminine nouns will show up in, for instance, the inflection of adjectives, as we will see later).

Each noun has three basic forms - singular, plural and partitive.

Feminine nouns

F1:

vihia 'river' pl. vihiaan part. vihiaa
cipiia 'princess' pl. cipiiaan part. vihiaa
karicciia '(female) singer' pl. karicciiaan part. karicciaa

F2

naru 'girl', pl. narua part. naru
kirhu 'hammer' pl. kirhua part kirhu

F3

lapu 'flag pl. laput part. lapu
kariu 'song' pl. kariut part. kariu

Masculine nouns

M1

tukuh 'king' pl. tukuha part. tukuha
irti 'path pl. irtia part. irtia

M2

nanta 'day' pl. nantan part. nanta
karicci '(male) singer)' pl. kariccin part. karicci

M3

kali 'tree' pl. kalit part. kalia
cihra 'lake' pl. cihrat part. cihraa
cupu 'bird' pl. cuput part. cupua

M4

vait 'village' pl. vaitu part. vaita
cihir 'horse' pl. cihiru part. cihira
irkat 'night' pl. irkatu irkata

Note that only F1, M3 and M4 have distinct partitive forms - for all other groups of nouns, it is identical to either the singular är the plural.

[Xing]

Adjectives

Adjectives agree in number with nouns. The masculine form is often unmarked (which usually means it ends in a consonant), while the feminine form ends in -u. The plural and partitive end in -a. We'll look at some examples:

lihu - 'house' (feminine)
palliir - 'dog' (masculine)

lihu aiatu - 'a white house'
lihu aiat - 'a white dog'

lihua aiata - 'white houses' (plural and part.)
palliira aiata - 'white dogs' (plural and part.)

paitia sahanu - 'a narrow street' (feminine)
pancir sahan - 'a narrow strait' (masculine)

paitiaan sahana - 'narrow streets' (plural)
paitiaa sahana - 'narrow street(s)' (part.)
pancira sahana - 'narrow street(s)' (plural and part.)

cihir ihlur - 'a black horse' (masc.)
cihiria ihluru - 'a black mare' (fem.)

cihiru ihlura - 'black horses' (plural)
cihiriaan ihlura - 'black mares' (plural)

cihira ihlura - 'black horse(s) (part.)
cihiriaa ihlura - 'black mare(s)' (part.)


The partitive

One use of the partitive is nominal predication.

at karicciiaa - 'she's a singer'
3f singer.FEM.PART
at karicciaa macana - 'she's a good singer'
3s singer.FEM.PART good.PART

Compare with:

at kurpucah karicciia macanu - 'she killed a good singer'
3f kill.PST singer.FEM good.FEM.SG
at kurpucah karicciaan macana - 'she killed (some) good singers'
3f kill.PST singer.FEM good.PL

[Incorruptus]

Vihia? (Pretty word, BTW...)

What's up with the /v/? The above list doesn't have it. This language is nice, with or without. Got to say, the title is a little 'meh.' (Get it? :P)

[Xing]

Vihia? (Pretty word, BTW...)

What's up with the /v/? The above list doesn't have it. This language is nice, with or without. Got to say, the title is a little 'meh.' (Get it? :P)

Oops... I have a /v/ in my notes on my computer, so it should be there. I'll update the post on phonology.

[Xing]

Verbs

The present tense and citation form of verbs often ends in -i. From this, various others forms can be made.

vali 'to walk'
vui 'to sit (down)'

naru vali 'the girl is walking'
tukuh vui 'the king is sitting down'

The past tense is formed by the suffix -ah.

naru valah 'the girl walked'
tukuh vuah 'the king sat down'

Apart from these two basic forms, various participles are frequently used.

valiin - 'is walking' (present tense active)
valaat - 'has walked' (past tense active)

The participles are inflected like adjectives.

naru valiinu 'the girl (who) is walking'
tukuh valiin 'the king (who) is walking'
tukuha valiina 'the kings (who) are walking'

naru valaatu 'the girl (who) has walked'
tukuh valaat 'the king (who) has walked'
tukuha valaata 'the kings (who) have walked'

Note the the above sentences are ambiguous between a predicative and an attributive meaning - this ambiguity they share with regular adjectives.

[zyma]

Vihia? (Pretty word, BTW...)

What's up with the /v/? The above list doesn't have it. This language is nice, with or without. Got to say, the title is a little 'meh.' (Get it? :P)

Oops... I have a /v/ in my notes on my computer, so it should be there. I'll update the post on phonology.

It's still missing from the <> "orthography brackets", just so you know.

Note the the above sentences are ambiguous between a predicative and an attributive meaning - this ambiguity they share with regular adjectives.

Cool.