Menakan language

Revision as of 21:20, 10 March 2020 by Pokemarick (talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Menakan
Menskans
Native toMenako Islands
RegionMenako Islands
Native speakers
ca. 1 million
Veterran
  • Vismaric
    • East Vismaric
      • Menako-Feinan
        • Menakan
Official status
Official language in
Flag of the Menako Islands.svg Menako Islands
Regulated byMinistry for Cultural Preservation
Language codes
ISO 639-3mnk

Menakan (Menskans) is an East Vismaric language spoken mainly and orginating from the Menako Islands. Currently there are around 1 million native speakers of Menakan, almost all of them situated on the Menako Islands themselves. It is sometimes spoken as a second language, with currently there being 300.000 second language speakers. It is most closely related to Feinan and Vistrasjorder, spoken in Norsund.

Due to the language being spoken in an important trading hub for the Hellonian Realm, it has adopted elements from both Hellonian and German. Due to its late standardization and status as a relatively simple language for communication, it is one of the least inflective language in the Vismaric languages. Menakan only has one common gender and officially only has two cases - nominative and genitive (expect for pronouns which are also inflected in the object form). Menakan has two grammatical numbers – plural and singular. Adjectives are only inflected when used with a linking verb for number, otherwise all adjectives are standardly inflected with the suffix -na. The definiteness of nouns is marked primarily through suffixes, complemented with separate definite and indefinite articles. Verbs are entirely regular and are only inflected based on tense.

History

Phonology

Consonant phonemes
Labial Dental/
Alveolar
Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop p b t d k ɡ
Continuant sibilant s
non-sibilant f v θ (ð) j h
Lateral l   ʎ
Trill r
Short/lax vowels
Front
unr.
Front
rnd.
Central Back
Close ɪ ʏ
Mid ɛ ə ɔ
Open ɑ
 
Long/tense vowels
Front
unr.
Front
rnd.
Back
Close i ~ y ~ u ~
Close-mid øː
Open-mid (ɛː) (œː) (ɔː)
Open

Grammar

Nouns in Menakan are only inflected for in number, as there is only a common gender in Menakan. Nouns are inflected with a suffix if definitive and gain a indefinite article if not. This results in a system where the word fis ("fish") can have the following forms:

Singular Plural
Indefinite form fis fisar
Definite form fisen fisarn

The definite singular form of a noun is created by adding the suffix -en or -n if ending in a vowel. The definite articles den (singular) and de (plural) is used for variations to the definitiveness of a noun. It can double as a demonstrative pronoun or demonstrative determiner when used with adverbs such as här ("here") or där ("there") to form dennär ("this"), dehär ("these"), dendär ("that"), and deddär ("those"). For example, dennär fisen means "that fish" and refers to a specific fish; den fisen is less definite and means "that fish" in a more abstract sense, such as that set of fish; while fisen means "the fish".

Adjectives are inflected in three declensions – indefinite, definite and plural. The indefinite version of the adjective is seen as the base adjective. It can be modified to the definite version by adding the suffix -na or -a if ending on a vowel. This same declension is used for the plural form; en skön stul, sköna stolen, sköna stolar, sköna stolarn.

Singular Plural
Person Nominative Objective Possessive: com./neut./pl. Person Nominative Objective Possessive: com./neut./pl.
1st ek mi min 1st vi ons ons
2nd tu ti tin 2nd
je ji jens
3rd masculine han hunum hans 3rd di dän din
3rd feminine su si sin

Orthography

Menakan is written using the Hellonian runic alphabet.

Consonants
Grapheme Phonetic realization (IPA) Examples
ᛒ/b [b] unaspirated Voiced bilabial stop bok [buk] "book"
ᚦ/d [t] unaspirated voiceless dental stop duk [duk] "towel"
at end of a word
[ð̠] voiced alveolar non-sibilant fricative
bad [bɑð̠]
ᚦᚦ/dd [ð̠] deddär [dɛð̠ɛːr] "those"
ᚦᚾ/dn [ð̠n] bidner [biːð̠nər] "invite"
ᚠ/f [f] fot [fɔt] "foot"
ᚷ/g in most cases
[g] Voiced velar stop
grot [grɔt] "big"
before t or s or before a pause:
[x] voiceless velar fricative
Magt [mɑxt] "power"
ᚻ/h [h] voiceless glottal fricative har [haːr] "hair"
J/j [j] ja [jaː] "yes"
ᛕ/k [k] ok [ɔk] "and"
ᛚ/l [l] län [lɛːn] "land"
ᛗ/m [m] mamma [mamːa] "mum"
ᚾ/n [n] nam [naːm] "name"
ᛝ/ŋ [ŋ] kring [kriŋ] "circle"
ᛝᛕ/ŋk [ŋk] drunk [dryːŋk] "drink"
ᛈ/p [p] par [paːr] "pair"
ᚱ/r [r] (voiced alveolar trill or tap) rik [riːk] "realm"
ᛋ/s [s] sos [sɔs] "sauce"
ᛏ/t in most cases
[t]
takk [tɑk] "thanks"
at end of word
[θ̠]
sätt [sɛθ̠] "seated"
ᛏᛏ/tt [θ̠] atta [aːθ̠a] "eight"
ᛏᚾ/tn [θ̠n] sältna [sɛːlθ̠na] "salted"
U/v [v] varer [vaːrər] "to be"