Menakan language
Menakan | |
---|---|
Menskans | |
Native to | Menako Islands |
Region | Menako Islands |
Native speakers | ca. 1 million |
Veterran
| |
Official status | |
Official language in | Menako Islands |
Regulated by | Ministry for Cultural Preservation |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mnk |
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 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
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 |
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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 |
Orthography
Menakan is written using the Hellonian runic alphabet.
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 | bad [bɑð̠] | |
ᚦᚾ/dn | [ð̠n] | bidner [biːð̠nər] "invite" |
ᚠ/f | [f] | fot [fɔt] "foot" |
ᚷ/g | in most cases | grot [grɔt] "big" |
before t or s or before a pause: | 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
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takk [tɑk] "thanks" |
at end of word
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sätt [sɛθ̠] "seated" | |
ᛏᚾ/tn | [θ̠] | sältna [sɛːlθ̠na] "salted" |
U/v | [v] | varer [vaːrər] "to be" |