Mpunäti

Natively known as: mpunät /ˈmpunət/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
nut pïk teeny bäk e mpusnee nut klonme e mdügyee miny mi dyelem
Pronunciation: /nut pɪk teːɲ bək ɛ ˈmpusneː nut ˈklɔnmɛ ɛ ˈmdʊgjeː miɲ mi ˈdjɛlɛm/
Mpunäti word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d g j k l m n p s t w wː ɲ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m	n		ɲ
Stop	p b	t d			k g
Affricate			ʧ
Fricative		s
Approximant				j
Lateral approximant		l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w wː

Vowel inventory: /eː i oː u ɑ ɔ ə ɛ ɪ ʊ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Low			ɑ

Syllable structure: (C)(C)V(C)
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable
Word initial consonants: b, d, dj, g, k, kl, ks, l, m, mb, md, mj, ml, mp, n, p, s, sn, t, w, wː, ɲ, ɲj, ʧ, ʧl, ʧt
Mid-word consonants: b, bj, d, dm, dw, dɲ, g, gd, gj, gl, gm, gn, gs, j, jb, jd, jg, jk, jm, js, k, kb, kd, km, ks, kt, kʧ, l, lb, lg, lm, ln, lp, lt, lw, m, mg, mn, ms, mw, mɲ, n, ng, nl, nm, nn, np, ns, nw, nʧ, p, pj, pk, pn, pp, ps, pt, pʧ, s, sb, sg, sk, sn, t, tb, td, tj, tl, tp, ts, tt, tw, tɲ, w, wb, wd, wl, wm, wt, ww, wː, ɲ, ɲb, ɲj, ɲl, ɲt, ɲɲ, ʧ, ʧg, ʧm, ʧɲ
Word final consonants: d, k, m, s, t, w, wː, ɲ, ʧ


Phonological changes (in order of application):

• k → ∅ / V_V

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɑ	a
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
ə	ä
ɪ	ï
ʊ	ü
j	y
ɲ	ny
ʧ	ch
V₁ː	V₁V₁
C₁ː	C₁C₁

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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

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix bï /bɪ/ man	No affix ka /kɑ/ woman
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɲ- Else: Prefix ɲɔ- nyobï /ˈɲɔbɪ/ men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -oːk kak /kɑk/ women

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	myü /mjʊ/ the	nyi /ɲi/ a
Plural	chï /ʧɪ/ the	but /but/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

1st singular	mya /mjɑ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	doo /doː/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	pïk /pɪk/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	chla /ʧlɑ/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	bä /bə/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	le /lɛ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	gu /gu/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	klee /kleː/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	wiw /wiw/ my
2nd singular	dyek /djɛk/ your
3rd singular masc	e /ɛ/ his
3rd singular fem	ksä /ksə/ her
1st plural	klo /klɔ/ our
2nd plural	dood /doːd/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	mdïch /mdɪʧ/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	snoo /snoː/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present	No affix dinät /ˈdinət/ learn
Past	Suffix -eː dinätee /ˈdinəteː/ learned
Remote past	If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wi- widinät /ˈwidinət/ learned (long ago)

Mpunäti uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɲi - nyi dinät /ɲi ˈdinət/ will learn

Progressive aspect


The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.


Mpunäti uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Prefix ɪ- ïdinät /ˈɪdinət/ 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).


Mpunäti uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: snoːk - snook dinät /snoːk ˈdinət/ learns

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.


Mpunäti uses the word for ‘already’ mbony for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Mpunäti has a base-10 number system:


1 - pu
2 - mya
3 - nyu
4 - doony
5 - wweww
6 - gu
7 - mo
8 - nuk
9 - mlees
10 - se
11 - sepu “ten-one”
100 - pu nïwte “one hundred”
101 - pu nïwte nut pu “one hundred and one”
200 - mya nïwte
1000 - pu chlüny “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ɔ
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ɑk
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -wː
Else: Suffix -uwː
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -i
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ
Else: Suffix -iɲ
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix l-
Else: Prefix lɛ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ɪk
Tending to = Suffix -ɔ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ɑ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ɔ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k
Else: Suffix -ɛk
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ
Else: Suffix -iɲ
Diminutive = Suffix -ɛ
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix b-
Else: Prefix bə-