Mehafuian

Natively known as: mehafu /mɨhɑˈfu/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
bo a babe nong reng nano bo maha reng khe ahling ntsox motso
Pronunciation: /bʉ ɑ bɑˈbɨ nʉŋ ʁɨŋ nɑˈnʉ bʉ mɑˈhɑ ʁɨŋ kʰɨ ɑˈɬiŋ ntsʼʉx mʉtˈsʼʉ/
Mehafuian word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b c d f h kʰ kʼ l m n pʰ pʼ s sʰ sʼ t tʰ tʼ t͡ɬʰ w x ŋ ǃ ɬ ɬʼ ɲ ʁ ʃ ʒ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	b pʰ pʼ		t tʼ tʰ d		c	kʼ kʰ
Fricative		f	s sʼ sʰ	ʒ ʃ		x	ʁ	h
Lateral affricate			t͡ɬʰ
Lateral fricative			ɬʼ ɬ
Lateral approximant			l
Click			ǃ

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: i u ɑ ɨ ʉ  

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ ʉ	u
Low			ɑ

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
t͡ɬʰ	tlh
tsʰ	tsh
tɬʼ	tl
ɬ	hl
kʰ	kh
ŋ	ng
ɲ	ny
pʰ	ph
ʃ	sh
tʰ	th
tsʼ	ts
ɑ	a
ɨ	e
j	y
ʒ	j
kʼ	k
ʉ	o
pʼ	p
ǃ	q
ʁ	r
tʼ	t

 

---

Grammar

  Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?  

Nouns

  Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: nɨŋ - neng nto /nɨŋ ntʼʉ/ dogs

 

Articles

  Mehafuian has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.
 

Pronouns

 

1st singular	long /lʉŋ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ko /kʼʉ/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	a /ɑ/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	fi /fi/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	no /nʉ/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	la /lɑ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ang /ɑŋ/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	kang /kʼɑŋ/ my
2nd singular	ko /kʼʉ/ your
3rd singular masc	reng /ʁɨŋ/ his
3rd singular fem	heng /hɨŋ/ her
1st plural	le /lɨ/ our
2nd plural	ntlang /ntɬʼɑŋ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	e /ɨ/ their

 

Verbs

 

Present	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʉtʼ- Else: Prefix ʉtʼɑ- otantseng /ʉtʼɑntˈsʼɨŋ/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɨl- Else: Prefix ɨli- elintseng /ɨlintˈsʼɨŋ/ learned

  Mehafuian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɑ - a ntseng /ɑ ntsʼɨŋ/ will learn

 

Numbers

  Mehafuian has a base-12 number system:   1 - lo
2 - tsang
3 - a
4 - keng
5 - hong
6 - jolang
7 - eng
8 - ja
9 - cho
10 - hele
11 - mmang
12 - hu
144 - lu
1728 - lineng
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɑtsʼ-
Else: Prefix ɑtsʼɑ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix f-
Else: Prefix fɑ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʒ-
Else: Prefix ʒɑ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ɨ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix kʼɑ-
Noun to verb = Prefix i-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ʉ-
Tending to = Prefix hʉ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix mmɨ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nʉ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix bɨ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix pʼɨ-
Diminutive = Prefix ɨ-
Augmentative = Prefix kʼɨ-