Mauri (maˈʊɹi)

Natively known as: maʊɹi /maˈʊɹi/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
i mvi ndigh i meho te i i kwo thuzi swo zo ta
Pronunciation: /i mvi ndiɣ i ˈmɛhɔ tɛ i i kwɔ ˈθuzi swɔ zɔ ta/
Mauri word order: and he stood hat his holding and his face wet turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x z ð ŋ ɓ ɗ ɠ ɣ ɲ ʃ ʄ ʤ ʧ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k g	q
Implosive	ɓ			ɗ		ʄ	ɠ
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ		x ɣ		h
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a i u ɔ ɛ

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
ɲ	ny
ɓ	b
j	y
ʄ	j
ɗ	d
ð	dh
θ	th
ŋg	ng
ŋ	ng'
ɠ	g
ʃ	sh
ɣ	gh
x	kh
ʧ	ch
nʤ	nj

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Grammar

Main word order: Object Subject Verb (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into The door Mary opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned after 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 goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nominative	No affix fih /fih/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɣ- Else: Prefix ɣa- ghafih /ˈɣafih/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ- Else: Prefix ʧu- chufih /ˈʧufih/ dogʼs
Dative	Prefix sɔ- sofih /ˈsɔfih/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix mz- Else: Prefix mzu- mzufih /ˈmzufih/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	Prefix ɓlɛ- blefih /ˈɓlɛfih/ from (the/a) dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix fih /fih/ the dog	Prefix i- ifih /ˈifih/ the dogs
Indefinite	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɣ- Else: Prefix ɣi- ghifih /ˈɣifih/ a dog	Prefix ʃi- shifih /ˈʃifih/ some dogs

Articles

Mauri encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	che /ʧɛ/ I	ill /ill/ you	mvi /mvi/ he, she, it	mbo /mbɔ/ we	mwi /mwi/ you all	za /za/ they
Accusative	sa /sa/ me	e /ɛ/ you	a /a/ him, her, it	mpyu /mpju/ us	chu /ʧu/ you all	ot /ɔt/ them
Genitive	vyi /vji/ mine	yo /jɔ/ yours	mcho /mʧɔ/ his, hers, its	mchu /mʧu/ ours	fe /fɛ/ yours (pl)	mvin /mvin/ theirs
Dative	bwi /ɓwi/ to me	mju /mʄu/ to you	nu /nu/ to him, her, it	o /ɔ/ to us	mgo /mɠɔ/ to you all	he /hɛ/ to them
Locative	mto /mtɔ/ at me	hirch /hirʧ/ at you	she /ʃɛ/ at him, her, it	lo /lɔ/ at us	mi /mi/ at you all	ferch /fɛrʧ/ at them
Ablative	to /tɔ/ from me	ku /ku/ from you	fi /fi/ from him, her, it	mtu /mtu/ from us	wa /wa/ from you all	ma /ma/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	thi /θi/ my
2nd singular	chi /ʧi/ your
3rd singular	i /i/ his, her, its
1st plural	sant /sant/ our
2nd plural	ma /ma/ your (pl)
3rd plural	fant /fant/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past	Future
1st singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix va- vasol /ˈvasɔl/ (I) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix z- Else: Prefix za- zasol /ˈzasɔl/ (I) learned	Prefix ɔ- osol /ˈɔsɔl/ (I) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix vu- vusol /ˈvusɔl/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Prefix mʧɔ- mchosol /ˈmʧɔsɔl/ (you) learn	Prefix ɛ- esol /ˈɛsɔl/ (you) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ki- kisol /ˈkisɔl/ (you) learned (long ago)	Prefix θa- thasol /ˈθasɔl/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Prefix nnɔ- nnosol /ˈnnɔsɔl/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix ti- tisol /ˈtisɔl/ (he/she/it) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix mb- Else: Prefix mbu- mbusol /ˈmbusɔl/ (he/she/it) learned (long ago)	Prefix mpu- mpusol /ˈmpusɔl/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	Prefix nʧɔ- nchosol /ˈnʧɔsɔl/ (we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix mz- Else: Prefix mza- mzasol /ˈmzasɔl/ (we) learned	Prefix qi- qisol /ˈqisɔl/ (we) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɲ- Else: Prefix ɲa- nyasol /ˈɲasɔl/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix hi- hisol /ˈhisɔl/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix hu- husol /ˈhusɔl/ (you all) learned	Prefix u- usol /ˈusɔl/ (you all) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix lɔ- losol /ˈlɔsɔl/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Prefix ʧɔ- chosol /ˈʧɔsɔl/ (they) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix mɲ- Else: Prefix mɲa- mnyasol /ˈmɲasɔl/ (they) learned	Prefix a- asol /ˈasɔl/ (they) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix hi- hisol /ˈhisɔl/ (they) will learn

Numbers

Mauri has a base-10 number system:
1 - ur
2 - swam
3 - vet
4 - mnyu
5 - mju
6 - nywamaw
7 - sise
8 - ko
9 - netty
10 - ma
100 - msaw
1000 - ku

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix mʃ-
Else: Prefix mʃɛ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix mp-
Else: Prefix mpa-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix vja-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix θ-
Else: Prefix θi-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix i-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix mv-
Else: Prefix mvɔ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ʄa-
Tending to = Prefix kwa-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ-
Else: Prefix ʃi-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
Else: Prefix tɔ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix a-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix u-
Diminutive = Prefix a-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sa-

Dictionary

3087 Words.

Spoken by

• Mauri

Common Female Names

Ana, Ena, Ona, Una, Matis, Metis, Mutis, Asta, Ysta, Osta, Nephios, Nephep, Nephri, Monios, Monpa, Monthys

Common Male Names

Apep, Eros, Hanub, Haten, Asirios, Nebthys, Mauthys, Monher, Khanu, Bastet