Maiadosi*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: SAU-SERIB
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:
DESCENDANT LANGUAGES:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: əch ahɽɛ̈ʈe ko ahʈym ø̃ bəb nəch ahpẽm ø̃ enøib mədsʰɪ nɛs
Pronunciation: nəʧʰ ahˈɽɛ̈ʈe ko ˈahʈym ø̃ bəwʲ nəʧʰ ˈahpẽm ø̃ ˈenøiw ˈmətsʰɪ nɛs
Maiadosi word order: and stood he holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b c cʰ f g h j k kʰ l l̥ m n nʲ p pʰ r s sʰ t tʰ w wʲ x xʲ ɕ ɕʰ ɟ ɥ ɮ ɮʲ ɲ ɹ ɹ̥ ʂ ʂʰ ʃ ʈ ʈʰ ʎ ʔ ʦ ʦʰ ʧ ʧʰ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n nʲ				ɲ
Stop	pʰ p b		t tʰ		ʈʰ ʈ		cʰ c ɟ	kʰ k g	ʔ
Affricate			ʦ ʦʰ	ʧ ʧʰ
Fricative		f	s sʰ	ʃ	ʂʰ ʂ	ɕʰ ɕ		x xʲ	h
Approximant			ɹ̥ ɹ				j
Trill			r
Lateral fricative			ɮ ɮʲ
Lateral approximant			l̥ l				ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-palatal	Labial-velar
Approximant	ɥ	w wʲ

Vowel inventory: /aː eː iː oː uː ɔː ə ɛː ɪ ʊ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː		uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	eː		oː
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛː		ɔː
Low	aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, bɮ, f, g, j, kʰ, kʰtʰ, m, n, ntʰ, nʲ, r, s, t, tʰ, x, ʃ, ʦ, ʦʰ, ʧ, ʧʰ
Mid-word consonants: c, cʰ, g, h, j, k, kʰ, l, l̥, m, n, p, pʰ, s, t, ts, tsʰ, tɕ, tɕʰ, tʰ, w, ɕ, ɟ, ɥ, ɲ, ɹ, ɹ̥, ʂ, ʈ, ʈʂ, ʈʂʰ, ʈʰ, ʎ, ʔ
Word final consonants: b, g, gtʰ, gʃ, gʦʰ, gʧ, gʧʰ, kʰ, kʰtʰ, m, mʧ, n, r, rt, rtʰ, rʧʰ, s, stʰ, t, tʰ, w, wʧʰ, wʲ, x, xʲ, ɮ, ɮs, ɮtʰ, ɮʧ, ɮʲ, ʃ, ʦʰ, ʧ, ʧʰ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• ʧ → ʦ / _[+front]
• w → ∅ / _o

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
w	b
t	d / !_ʰ
tʰ	t
ʧʰ	ch
ʧ	ch
ʦʰ	c
ʦ	c
kʰ	k
ɮ	l
ʃ	sh
ɔ	o
ɵ	ö
pʰ	p
u	ü
ʊ	u
j	y
ʲ	∅

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 after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɳ- Else: Prefix ɳe- ɳeɳøib /ɳeˈɳøiw/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -øin
Plural	Prefix e- eɳøib /ˈeɳøiw/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -ẽm

Accusative

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -øim ɳøibøim /ɳøˈiwøim/	Suffix -ɛ̈
Plural	Prefix y- yɳøib /ˈyɳøiw/	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix my-

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	des /tes/ I	ɳyt /ɳytʰ/ me
2nd singular	dʼĩ /dʼĩ/ you (masc)	my /my/ you
3rd singular masc	ko /ko/ he, it	ne /ne/ him, it
3rd singular fem	ʒɛb /ʒɛb/ she, it	pĩm /pĩm/ her, it
1st plural	me /me/ we	e /e/ us
2nd plural	ʈyd /ʈyt/ you all	by /by/ you all
3rd plural	ü /u/ they	pɛl /pɛɮʲ/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	mɛ̈m /mɛ̈m/ my
2nd singular	em /em/ your
3rd singular masc	ø̃ /ø̃/ his
3rd singular fem	mo /mo/ her
1st plural	üs /us/ our
2nd plural	pɛ̈m /pɛ̈m/ your (pl)
3rd plural	mor /mor/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st person	No affix ahʈʰøin /ahˈʈʰøin/ (I/we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix me- mahʈʰøin /mahˈʈʰøin/ (I/we) learned
2nd person	Prefix sẽ- sẽahʈʰøin /sẽˌahʈʰøˈin/ (you/you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em ahʈʰøinem /ahˌʈʰøiˈnem/ (you/you all) learned
3rd person	No affix ahʈʰøin /ˈahʈʰøin/ (he/she/it/they) learn	Suffix -ẽm ahʈʰøinẽm /ˌahʈʰøˈinẽm/ (he/she/it/they) learned

Maiadosi uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: nø̃ - nø̃ ahʈʰøin /nø̃ ˈahʈʰøin/ will learn

Imperfective aspect
The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Maiadosi uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Prefix ny- nyahʈʰøin /nyˌahʈʰøˈin/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Maiadosi has a base-10 number system:
1 - rə
2 - mem
3 - ɛ̈b
4 - ʈym
5 - ned
6 - nỹ
7 - yiː
8 - øi
9 - nə
10 - ny
11 - ny nəch rə “ten and one”
100 - dshɛ̈m “hundred”
101 - dshɛ̈m rə “hundred one”
200 - mem dshɛ̈m
1000 - yus “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -e
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -ø̃w
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix miu-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix kỹ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -i
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -wʲ Else: Suffix -uwʲ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix u-
Tending to = Prefix tʃɛ̈-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -i
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ĩ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -øiw
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix tʃu-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix tʃ- Else: Prefix tʃu-
Augmentative = Prefix øi-

Dictionary

5103 Words.