MASOYAN

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ALABAG
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 3.45 / #15
SPOKEN IN: Masatoyahi - 1.7M / Beribon (North) - 600K / Uvan Empire - 500K / Beribon (South) - 400K / Jobaykal - 150K / Reloi - 100K
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:

---

"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: nao̯ wāi̯ kopi wāu̯pi wāi̯ nāu̯ho nao̯ kepe wāi̯ pāu̯ ʻau̯ī mao̯ nao̯ki
Pronunciation: nao̯ ʋaːi̯ ˈkopi ˈʋaːu̯pi ʋaːi̯ ˈnaːu̯ho nao̯ ˈkepe ʋaːi̯ paːu̯ ˈʔau̯iː mao̯ ˈnao̯ki

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

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /h k l m n p ʋ ʔ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p			k	ʔ
Fricative					h
Approximant		ʋ
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: /a ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ aː aːi̯ aːu̯ e eː i iː o oi̯ ou̯ oː u uː/
Diphthongs: ae̯, ai̯, ao̯, au̯, aːi̯, aːu̯, oi̯, ou̯

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: h, k, l, m, n, p, ʋ, ʔ
Mid-word consonants: h, k, l, m, n, p, ʋ, ʔ
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• a → aː / _{i,u}
• a → æ / i(C)_
• a → ∅ / _i
• a → ∅ / _u
• a → e / _m

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʋ	w
ʔ	ʻ
aː	ā
eː	ē
iː	ī
oː	ō
uː	ū

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 after the noun.
Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	Prefix mo- mohā /ˈmohaː/	Prefix kuː- kūai̯kū /kuːˈai̯kuː/
Plural	Prefix kaː- kāhā /ˈkaːhaː/	Prefix heː- hēai̯kū /heːˈai̯kuː/

Articles

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

Pronouns

1st singular	mu /mu/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	pau̯ /pau̯/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	wāi̯ /ʋaːi̯/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	loi̯ /loi̯/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	ou̯ /ou̯/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	lou̯ /lou̯/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ai̯ /ai̯/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	mu /mu/ my
2nd singular	pau̯ /pau̯/ your
3rd singular masc	wāi̯ /ʋaːi̯/ his
3rd singular fem	loi̯ /loi̯/ her
1st plural	ou̯ /ou̯/ our
2nd plural	lou̯ /lou̯/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ai̯ /ai̯/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past	Future
1st singular	Prefix pi- piāu̯ē /piˈaːu̯eː/ (I) learn	Prefix ko- koāu̯ē /koˈaːu̯eː/ (I) learned	Prefix laːu̯- lāu̯āu̯ē /laːu̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (I) learned (lonɡ aɡo)	Prefix paːu̯- pāu̯āu̯ē /paːu̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Prefix kuː- kūāu̯ē /kuːˈaːu̯eː/ (you) learn	Prefix hoː- hōāu̯ē /hoːˈaːu̯eː/ (you) learned	Prefix la- laāu̯ē /laˈaːu̯eː/ (you) learned (lonɡ aɡo)	Prefix ʋau̯- wau̯āu̯ē /ʋau̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Prefix hae̯- hae̯āu̯ē /hae̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix mi- miāu̯ē /miˈaːu̯eː/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix ne- neāu̯ē /neˈaːu̯eː/ (he/she/it) learned (lonɡ aɡo)	Prefix loi̯- loi̯āu̯ē /loi̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	Prefix miː- mīāu̯ē /miːˈaːu̯eː/ (we) learn	Prefix moi̯- moi̯āu̯ē /moi̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (we) learned	Prefix mao̯- mao̯āu̯ē /mao̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (we) learned (lonɡ aɡo)	Prefix no- noāu̯ē /noˈaːu̯eː/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix hiː- hīāu̯ē /hiːˈaːu̯eː/ (you all) learn	Prefix hao̯- hao̯āu̯ē /hao̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (you all) learned	Prefix ʋoː- wōāu̯ē /ʋoːˈaːu̯eː/ (you all) learned (lonɡ aɡo)	Prefix ʔai̯- ʻai̯āu̯ē /ʔai̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Prefix ʋae̯- wae̯āu̯ē /ʋae̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (they) learn	Prefix ʋoi̯- woi̯āu̯ē /ʋoi̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (they) learned	Prefix lao̯- lao̯āu̯ē /lao̯ˈaːu̯eː/ (they) learned (lonɡ aɡo)	Prefix huː- hūāu̯ē /huːˈaːu̯eː/ (they) 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).
Masoyan uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Prefix ko- koāu̯ē /koˈaːu̯eː/ learns/is learninɡ

Numbers

Masoyan has a base-10 number system:
1 - ko
2 - hō
3 - mu
4 - wū
5 - mī
6 - ū
7 - li
8 - hoi̯
9 - hī
10 - e
11 - ko nao̯ e “one and ten”
100 - emae̯ “hundred” 101 - emae̯ nao̯ ko “hundred and one”
200 - hō emae̯
1000 - pau̯wao̯ “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix maːu̯-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix mou̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix paːu̯-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix me-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix niː-
Noun to verb = Prefix ʋeː-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ʋeː-
Tending to = Prefix hoː-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix kuː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix na-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix hau̯-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix mao̯-
Diminutive = Prefix ʋae̯-
Augmentative = Prefix ʋuː-

Dictionary

4438 Words.