Manaian

Natively known as: manā /maˈɲaː/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... na di fabu ābu di shūmā na rūga di mima nuga kī digā Pronunciation: /ɲa di faˈbu aːˈbu di ʃuːˈmaː ɲa ˈruːga di miˈma ˈɲuga kiː ˈdigaː/ Manāian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind
Affixes: Derivational: ACT.OF | ADVERB | AUG | DIM | DOER | HAVING.QUALITY.OF | NOUN.TO.VERB | PLACE.OF | PRODUCT.OF | QUALITY.OF.BEING | RELATING.TO | RESULT.OF.DOING | TENDING.TO | TO.MAKE Nouns: PL:N | SG:N Verbs: FUT:V | PRS.PL:V | PRS.SG:V | PST.PL:V | PST.SG:V
Grammatical words: Pronouns: 1.PL:PRON | 1.SG:PRON | 2.PL:PRON | 2.SG:PRON | 3.PL:PRON | 3.SG:PRON Determiners: 1.PL:DET | 1.SG:DET | 2.PL:DET | 2.SG:DET | 3.PL:DET | 3.SG:DET
Spelling & Phonology
Consonant inventory: b d f g j k l m r t w ɲ ʃ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m				ɲ
Stop	b		t d			k g
Fricative		f		ʃ
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː i iː u uː

	Front	Back
High	iː i	u uː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: (C)V Stress pattern: No fixed stress Word initial consonants: b d f k m r w ɲ ʃ Mid-word consonants: b d f g j k l m r t w ɲ ʃ Word final consonants:
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• t → k / _j

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
ɲ	n
ʃ	sh
V₁ː	V₁̄

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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 before the noun. Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Singular	No affix shalishī /ʃaˈliʃiː/ dog
Plural	Prefix bi- bishalishī /ˌbiʃaˈliʃiː/ dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

1st singular	ri /ri/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	dī /diː/ you, yours
3rd singular	di /di/ he, she, him, her, his, hers, it, its
1st plural	mu /mu/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	mi /mi/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	shu /ʃu/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ri /ri/ my
2nd singular	dī /diː/ your
3rd singular	di /di/ his, her, its
1st plural	mu /mu/ our
2nd plural	mi /mi/ your (pl)
3rd plural	shu /ʃu/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
Singular	No affix ānu /aːˈɲu/ (I/you/he/she) learns	Prefix wiː- wīānu /wiːˈaːɲu/ (I/you/he/she) learned
Plural	Prefix kiː- kīānu /kiːaːˈɲu/ (we/they) learn	Prefix maː- māānu /maːˈaːɲu/ (we/they) learned

Manāian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɲaː - nā ānu /ɲaː ˈaːɲu/ will learn

Perfect aspect
The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Manāian uses the word for ‘finish’ kūdā for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Manāian has a base-20 number system:
1 - kā 2 - di 3 - wū 4 - difa 5 - shā 6 - rirī 7 - bia 8 - farā 9 - ku 10 - dū 11 - dīdu 12 - mīmā 13 - winitī 14 - ribā 15 - wakā 16 - kuma 17 - arā 18 - widinū 19 - maū 20 - nūfī 21 - nūfī na kā “twenty and one” 400 - kā nāwūku “one fourhundred” 401 - kā nāwūku na kā “one fourhundred and one” 800 - di nāwūku “two fourhundred” 8000 - kā urī “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix diː- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix mu- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix diː- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ba- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix miː- Noun to verb = Prefix ɲaː- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ka- Tending to = Prefix ku- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix miː- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix wi- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix wa- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix kiː- Diminutive = Prefix ɲaː- Augmentative = Prefix wiː-

Dictionary

2698 Words.