Emmherel

LANGUAGE FAMILY: RUHANDIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 20K / #81
SPOKEN IN: Relig - 20K
Language known natively known as Miibaan, after the tribe that speaks it.
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: kmo geeg ryiil dreech sa tsuj kmo dfee sa ksupya dliisdu a sab
Pronunciation: kmo ɣeːɣ rjiːl dreːʧ sa tsuʤ kmo dfeː sa ˈksupja ˈdliːsdu a sab

Miibaan word order: and stood he holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f h j k l m p r s t v w z ɣ ʔ ʤ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m
Stop	p b		t d			k	ʔ
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z			ɣ	h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a aː e eː i iː o oː u uː/

	Front	Back
High	i iː	uː u
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	aː a

Syllable structure: (C)(C)V(C)
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, bj, df, dl, dr, dv, f, fl, fp, fr, h, k, km, kr, ks, kv, l, m, mb, p, pf, ps, rj, s, sk, sm, sp, st, t, tm, ts, tv, vj, w, z, zj, zm, zr, ɣ, ɣl, ʤ, ʤd, ʤj, ʧ, ʧh, ʧt
Mid-word consonants: b, bb, bd, bm, br, bw, bʤ, d, dd, df, dl, dt, dv, dw, f, fd, ff, fh, fk, fm, fp, fw, fɣ, h, hk, hl, hr, hv, j, jb, jk, jt, jz, jʔ, k, kb, kh, kk, kl, kw, kz, l, lh, lj, lk, ls, lt, lv, lw, lz, lɣ, lʧ, m, mb, mh, mj, mk, mp, ms, mt, mʔ, mʤ, mʧ, p, pj, pk, pl, pm, pp, ps, pv, pz, pʧ, r, rf, rk, rm, rs, s, sd, sh, sl, ss, sv, sw, sz, t, tb, td, th, tj, tk, tm, tp, tr, ts, tt, tv, tz, tʧ, v, vb, vd, vj, vm, w, wk, wl, ws, ww, wʤ, z, zj, zk, zp, zw, ɣ, ɣm, ʔ, ʔd, ʤ, ʤr, ʤt, ʧ, ʧk, ʧm
Word final consonants: b, d, f, k, l, m, p, r, t, v, w, z, ɣ, ʤ, ʧ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• j → ʤ / #_
• v → w / #_
• v → p / _s
• h → ∅ / V_
• a → o / _r
• t → tɬ / _{a,u}

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
j	y
ʧ	ch
ʤ	j
ɣ	g
V₁ː	V₁V₁

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have five 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 recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.

Nominative	No affix gluvbet /ˈɣluvbet/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix tsu- tsugluvbet /tsuˈɣluvbet/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix sk- Else: Prefix skiː- skiigluvbet /skiːˈɣluvbet/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ts- Else: Prefix tsu- tsugluvbet /tsuˈɣluvbet/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʤj- Else: Prefix ʤje- jyegluvbet /ʤjeˈɣluvbet/ near/at/by (the/a) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix jyeszu /ˈʤjeszu/ man	No affix fpit /fpit/ woman
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɣ- Else: Prefix ɣoː- goojyeszu /ɣoːˈʤjeszu/ men	Prefix bjo- byofpit /ˈbjofpit/ women

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	eb /eb/ the	a /a/ a
Plural	hem /hem/ the	sma /sma/ some

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	pfiib /pfiːb/ I	tuu /tuː/ me	i /i/ mine	bu /bu/ to me	kraa /kraː/ at me
2nd singular	zyoo /zjoː/ you (masc)	psa /psa/ you	byo /bjo/ yours	paa /paː/ to you	uf /uf/ at you
3rd singular masc	ryiil /rjiːl/ he, it	jye /ʤje/ him, it	skaa /skaː/ his, its	jyech /ʤjeʧ/ to him, at it	ryiif /rjiːf/ at him, at it
3rd singular fem	aa /aː/ she, it	waa /waː/ her, it	buz /buz/ hers, its	iich /iːʧ/ to her, at it	foo /foː/ at her, at it
1st plural	kiij /kiːʤ/ we	jyej /ʤjeʤ/ us	fpi /fpi/ ours	he /he/ to us	kii /kiː/ at us
2nd plural	geeg /ɣeːɣ/ you all	glo /ɣlo/ you all	gluw /ɣluw/ yours (pl)	dreel /dreːl/ to you all	dvi /dvi/ at you all
3rd plural masc	kruud /kruːd/ they (masc)	zra /zra/ them (masc)	miif /miːf/ theirs (masc)	su /su/ to them (masc)	sma /sma/ at them (masc)
3rd plural fem	chhoo /ʧhoː/ they (fem)	ji /ʤi/ them (fem)	ksa /ksa/ theirs (fem)	ryaa /rjaː/ to them (fem)	tsa /tsa/ at them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	kvoo /kvoː/ my
2nd singular	jyeb /ʤjeb/ your
3rd singular masc	sa /sa/ his
3rd singular fem	geeg /ɣeːɣ/ her
1st plural	dree /dreː/ our
2nd plural	glo /ɣlo/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	zra /zra/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	o /o/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present	Prefix fre- frekiizye /freˈkiːzje/ learn
Past	No affix kiizye /ˈkiːzje/ learned
Remote past	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧh- Else: Prefix ʧhoː- chhookiizye /ʧhoːˈkiːzje/ learned (long ago)

Miibaan uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: vju - vyu kiizye /vju ˈkiːzje/ will learn

Progressive aspect
The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Miibaan uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: paː - paa kiizye /paː ˈkiːzje/ 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).
Miibaan uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: i - i kiizye /i ˈkiːzje/ 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.
Miibaan uses the word for ‘finish’ lim for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Miibaan has a base-10 number system:
1 - ksuf
2 - chhoo
3 - jye
4 - ksa
5 - gee
6 - gloz
7 - choj
8 - goow
9 - jyersi
10 - skaa
11 - skaaksuf “ten-one”
100 - ksuf paav “one hundred”
101 - ksuf paav kmo ksuf “one hundred and one”
200 - chhoo paav
1000 - ksuf kveeb “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ta-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ʧe-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix miː-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ʧe-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix a-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix df- Else: Prefix dfeː-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix st- Else: Prefix sto-
Tending to = Prefix mbe-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix sa-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix a-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix fr- Else: Prefix fre-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix za-
Diminutive = Prefix uː- Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix zj- Else: Prefix zjoː-

Dictionary

4468 Words.