Mikharish (Mi - kha - rish)

Natively known as: mikhar miːxaːr /miːxaːr/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
tu shad ghu qitjtju haqa qa tu ghu rud buhu kuki qu thi tuː ʃad ɣuː qiːtˤtˤu ħaːqa qa tuː ɣuː rud buħuː kuki qu θiː
Pronunciation: /tuː ʃad ɣuː qiːtˤtˤu ħaːqa qa tuː ɣuː rud buħuː kuki qu θiː/
Mikharish word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d dˤ f h j k l m n q r s sˤ t tˤ w x z ð ðˤ ħ ɣ ʃ ʔ ʕ ʤ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Stop	b			t tˤ d dˤ			k	q		ʔ
Affricate					ʤ
Fricative		f	θ ð ðˤ	s sˤ z	ʃ		x ɣ		ħ ʕ	h
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	i iː	u uː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: No stress ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	’
θ	th
j	y
ʤ	j
x	kh
ð	dh
ʃ	sh
sˤ	sj
dˤ	dj
tˤ	tj
ʕ	'
ɣ	gh
ħ	h
aː	a
iː	i
uː	u

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have six cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	No affix sjur sˤuːr /sˤuːr/ dog (when doing the verb)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ud sjurud sˤuːrud /sˤuːrud/ dogs (when doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -a sjura sˤuːra /sˤuːra/ (verb done to) dog	Suffix -u sjuru sˤuːru /sˤuːru/ (verb done to) dogs
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -iːn sjurin sˤuːriːn /sˤuːriːn/ dogʼs	Suffix -ar sjurar sˤuːrar /sˤuːrar/ dogsʼ
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ll Else: Suffix -all sjurall sˤuːrall /sˤuːrall/ to (the/a) dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -uːd sjurud sˤuːruːd /sˤuːruːd/ to (the/some) dogs
Locative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -in sjurin sˤuːrin /sˤuːrin/ near/at/by (the/a) dog	Suffix -aːll sjurall sˤuːraːll /sˤuːraːll/ near/at/by (the/some) dogs
Ablative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -aːd sjurad sˤuːraːd /sˤuːraːd/ from (the/a) dog	If ends with vowel: Suffix -q Else: Suffix -iːq sjuriq sˤuːriːq /sˤuːriːq/ from (the/some) dogs

Articles

Definite	hab hab /hab/ the
Indefinite	tha θa /θa/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	a a /a/ I	ka kaː /kaː/ me	bih biːh /biːh/ mine	kha xa /xa/ to me	iz’ izʔ /izʔ/ at me	khi xi /xi/ from me
2nd singular	bill bill /bill/ you	dha ða /ða/ you	ir ir /ir/ yours	mall mall /mall/ to you	u u /u/ at you	ill iːll /iːll/ from you
3rd singular masc	shad ʃad /ʃad/ he, it	lu luː /luː/ him, it	mi miː /miː/ his, its	ki kiː /kiː/ to him, at it	nu nu /nu/ at him, at it	qa qa /qa/ from him, from it
3rd singular fem	thi θi /θi/ she, it	ju ʤuː /ʤuː/ her, it	nasm nasm /nasm/ hers, its	suf suːf /suːf/ to her, at it	i iː /iː/ at her, at it	sa sa /sa/ from her, from it
1st plural	all all /all/ we	had haːd /haːd/ us	lafl lafl /lafl/ ours	mi mi /mi/ to us	tji tˤi /tˤi/ at us	shardj ʃaːrdˤ /ʃaːrdˤ/ from us
2nd plural	hud ħuːd /ħuːd/ you all	zu zu /zu/ you all	tjun tˤun /tˤun/ yours (pl)	nab naːb /naːb/ to you all	mu mu /mu/ at you all	a aː /aː/ from you all
3rd plural	du du /du/ they	'aq ʕaq /ʕaq/ them	u uː /uː/ theirs	ghu ɣu /ɣu/ to them	dhu ðu /ðu/ at them	dji dˤi /dˤi/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ba ba /ba/ my
2nd singular	’usm ʔusm /ʔusm/ your
3rd singular masc	ghu ɣuː /ɣuː/ his
3rd singular fem	su suː /suː/ her
1st plural	a a /a/ our
2nd plural	qi qi /qi/ your (pl)
3rd plural	’ur ʔur /ʔur/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past	Future
1st singular	Suffix -aːʕ uwa' uːwaːʕ /uːwaːʕ/ (I) learn	Suffix -aː uwa uːwaː /uːwaː/ (I) learned	Suffix -ib uwib uːwib /uːwib/ (I) learned (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -iːm uwim uːwiːm /uːwiːm/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Suffix -un uwun uːwun /uːwun/ (you) learn	Suffix -ar uwar uːwar /uːwar/ (you) learned	Suffix -ud uwud uːwud /uːwud/ (you) learned (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -ab uwab uːwab /uːwab/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -ib uwib uːwib /uːwib/ (he/she/it) learns	Suffix -a uwa uːwa /uːwa/ (he/she/it) learned	Suffix -iːl uwil uːwiːl /uːwiːl/ (he/she/it) learned (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -fa Else: Suffix -aːfa uwafa uːwaːfa /uːwaːfa/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	Suffix -am uwam uːwam /uːwam/ (we) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -jja Else: Suffix -ajja uwayya uːwajja /uːwajja/ (we) learned	Suffix -uf uwuf uːwuf /uːwuf/ (we) learned (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ud uwud uːwud /uːwud/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -diː Else: Suffix -udiː uwudi uːwudiː /uːwudiː/ (you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ad uwad uːwad /uːwad/ (you all) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -wwiː Else: Suffix -uːwwiː uwuwwi uːwuːwwiː /uːwuːwwiː/ (you all) learned (long ago)	Suffix -aːʔ uwa’ uːwaːʔ /uːwaːʔ/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -tˤ Else: Suffix -itˤ uwitj uːwitˤ /uːwitˤ/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -iːd uwid uːwiːd /uːwiːd/ (they) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -uːb uwub uːwuːb /uːwuːb/ (they) learned (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -wuː Else: Suffix -awuː uwawu uːwawuː /uːwawuː/ (they) will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Mikharish uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

If ends with vowel: Suffix -ll Else: Suffix -all uwall uːwall /uːwall/ is learning

Habitual aspect

The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Mikharish uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: ħiʕ - hi' uw ħiʕ uːw /ħiʕ uːw/ learns

Numbers

Mikharish has a base-10 number system:
1 - ji ʤiː
2 - sjiyy sˤiːjj
3 - nir niːr
4 - qib qib
5 - kat kat
6 - qan qan
7 - di diː
8 - huq ħuq
9 - u uː
10 - mantam mantam
100 - bu buː
1000 - tut tuːt

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -i
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -u
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ħ
Else: Suffix -uːħ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -aːs
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -suː
Else: Suffix -iːsuː
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tˤ
Else: Suffix -aːtˤ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -an
Tending to = Suffix -an
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n
Else: Suffix -uːn
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -iː
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -aː
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r
Else: Suffix -aːr
Diminutive = Suffix -ull
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʕu
Else: Suffix -aːʕu
Opposite = Suffix -aː
Of place = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w
Else: Suffix -aw
Possessive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s
Else: Suffix -is

Geographical Distribution

Mikharish is used by the Shafih tribes of the Western Shifting Plain, those that have to interact with the Easterners of Diyu. It is the most used language in the Easterlands, as well as much of the Easternmost parts of Akronis. Its usage was bolstered by it becoming the main language of the Eastern Hannau 'Ih.

Origins

Mikharish is several languages compacted into one. It originated as a trading language built form the most used languages of the Shafih, and evolved to incorporate several aspects of Irakan and the other languages spoken in the East of Akronis. It approached something like its modern form with its adoption by the Hannau 'Ih, though it was only a regional language, never used across the entire Empire.

Dictionary

3083 Words.