Munja'kin Grammar

Munja'kin Language Navigation: Home, Phonology, Grammar, Vocabulary, Dialogue

Munja'kin is a very analytic, strongly head-initial verb-subject-object language. Munja'kin lacks gender, number marking on nouns or any form of agreement, but it features switch-reference particles, clusivity, differential object marking and inalienable possession.

Alternations and mutations

A pervasive feature of Munja'kin's grammar is the alternation between i and a which occurs in many derivations and compounds and usually results in a turning into i:

Inju (*endʒu) → Anjuri

Hio (*heo) → Kijáhao

This phenomenon occurs because Proto-Munja'kin's vowel */e/ merged with /i/ when it was stressed and with /a/ when it was not, and stress shifts often happen when a word takes an affix (especially a suffix, as suffixation always causes stress to shift to the penultimate syllable) or forms a compound with another. However, the alternations are not always predictable even if one knows their etymology, as they do not occur in some irregular words such as hioi even though they would be expected.

Another pervasive feature is the consonant mutation caused by an, the language's most common preposition. When an precedes a word beginning with a single voiceless consonant, the consonant becomes voiced, and when it precedes a word beginning with a liquid or a sibilant, an epenthetic -d- appears between them:

Pagi → An bagi

Risa → An-d-risa

Sa'oi → An-d-za'oi

A third pervasive feature is the mutation caused by -ri, the language's most common suffix. When -ri is added to a stem ending with í (usually a former sequence *[ai] in Proto-Munja'kin), ú (usually a former *[au]) or u, the final vowel's quality does not change:

Solí → Soliri

Inju → Anjuri

If a stem ends with n, either d or g is added between it and the suffix depending on whether the stem ended with */n/ or */ŋ/ in Proto-Munja'kin (though some irregular stems like jalindri take d rather than g regardless of their etymology), and a stem-final s becomes z:

'in (*ʔen) → 'indri

Miran (*mera + *aŋ) → Marangri

Lis → Lizri

A stem-final a becomes o if it descends from a Proto-Munja'kin */a/:

Diwa (*dewa) → Davori (w always becomes v before o or u)

Every other stem-final vowel becomes u:

Koa (*koe) → Kouri

A less common mutation occurs when the suffix -n is added to a stem ending with o: though some irregular stems like kuvon do not undergo this change (however, kuvon's nominalization kuvungri does), the final o usually turns into u.

Nouns, adjectives and comparisons

Munja'kin's nouns and adjectives are invariable and are not categorized into classes. Munja'kin does not use articles, so no distinction between definite and indefinite nouns is made. Some nouns like pagi may also be used as verbs, others like juru may be used as adjectives, and adjectives may be used as stative verbs, the exact role is determined by word order, as verbs precede their arguments while adjectives follow nouns.

Ni 'ozu marí — "this good world."

Marí ni 'ozu — "this world is good"

Comparisons are made using the preposition puli, meaning "against":

'ozu marí puli ni 'ozu — "a world better than this world"

Numbers may be used as nouns or adjectives. Any verb can also be used as an agent noun, for instance, pagískua means both "trespass" and "trespasser".

Compounds and reduplication

Several types of compounds are attested, whose meanings are sometimes not obvious from their parts:

Noun + noun: mun (group) + cha'kin (soil) → Munja'kin (the Munja'kin people)

Verb + verb: pagi (move) + skua (smudge) → pagískua (trespass)

Reduplication is used for some derivations, the resulting words' meanings are lexically determined:

Full: hio (language) → haohio (voice)

Partial: pagi (move) → papagi (take a step)

Some roots are no longer used alone and only appear in reduplications, for instance *nau is found in nunu but not on its own.

Pronouns

Plain pronouns		Singular	Plural
First Person	Inclusive	tun	hin
	Exclusive		tunga
Second Person		si'o	si'ka
Third Person		lia	li'ka

Munja'kin's pronouns distinguish clusivity, hin is used when the speaker talks about themself and the addressee, while tunga is used otherwise:

Litú niu hin — "we live here" (you and I)

Litú niu tunga — "we live here" (not you)

They also have a possessive form, which is used as a verb to express predicative possession, directly after nouns to express alienable or superior attributive possession, and after the preposition an to express inalienable or inferior attributive possession:

Toni ni — "this is mine"

Tata toni — "my father"

Uli an doni — "my face" (toni mutates into doni after an)

The possessive forms are obtained by adding the suffix -i to the plain forms but often have different stems due to vowel alternations and coalescences, and lia has the irregular possessive form li:

Possessive pronouns		Singular	Plural
First Person	Inclusive	toni	hini
	Exclusive		tungí
Second Person		sa'oi	sa'kí
Third Person		li	li'kí

Reflexive pronouns are formed with the particle vu, an and the possessive pronouns:

Hi kijáhao vu an-d-za'oi! — "declare yourself!"

Determiners

Munja'kin's determiners have a three-way distance contrast, ni is proximal, ki is medial and kika, which was originally a reduplication of ki, is distal:

Ni dizu — "this man" (near the speaker)

Ki dizu — "that man" (near the hearer)

Kika dizu — "that man over there" (away from both the speaker and the hearer)

Determiners precede nouns or may be used alone as demonstrative pronouns.

Munja'kin also has a honorific determiner hi, which precedes names and may serve as a vocative marker:

Hi Ojo! — "O Ojo!"

Adverbs

Munja'kin's adverbs are often identical to adjectives and usually follow verbs directly:

Tani a'a — "a near day"

Hi pas a'a! — "stay near!"

Alternatively, one may use the preposition ki with a noun to form an adverbial construction, for instance, mon ki vunduri means "to choose right", literally "to choose with correctness".

Prepositions

Munja'kin's prepositions generally originate from verbs.

Hi and pa

Munja'kin has differential object marking: the preposition hi precedes displaced direct object proper nouns or pronouns while pa precedes displaced direct object non-proper nouns. When objects directly follow verbs (when the subject is implied by lanú, for instance), they do not take a preposition:

Lon tun hi Ojo — "I see Ojo"

Lon tun hi lia — "I see him"

Lon tun pa dizu — "I see the man"

Lon tun pa dizu lanú ris lia — "I see the man and hear him"

Possession

Two prepositions may express possession in Munja'kin: an is used for inanimate inalienable possessions (such as body parts) and animate inferior possessions (such as offspring), while pa is conversely used for inanimate alienable possessions and animate superior possessions (such as parents).

Boku an Ojo — "Ojo's son"

Tata pa Ojo — "Ojo's father"

Other common prepositions

Angu	about
Ki	with
Puli	against
Von	as for

Coordination and switch-reference

Munja'kin has two ways to coordinate verb phrases, both of them usually translate as "and" or just a comma:

La appears phrase-initially when the phrase's subject is different from the previous one's, it may be used in both declarative sentences and commands:

Vundu tun la niro si'o — "I am right and you are wrong"

Mia ua tun, la hi tanú tun! — "I have fallen, help me!"

Lanú appears instead when the phrase's subject is the same as the previous one's and does not need to be repeated, it does not appear in commands:

Solí tun lanú minda — "I am happy and I smile"

Hi solí hi minda! — "be happy and smile!"

The preposition ki, meaning "with", also serves as "and", but is only used with noun phrases:

Solí Ojo ki Nahara — "Ojo and Nahara are happy"

Monala serves as "or" and follows the noun phrases or verb phrases it conjoins:

Von zali suchi an-d-za'oi, lia boku risa monala? — "Is your new child a boy or a girl?"

When it conjoins verb phrases, la and lanú are also used:

Vundu tun lanú niro monala? — "Am I right or wrong?"

Vundu tun la vundu si'o monala? — "Am I right or are you right?"

Verbs

Munja'kin's verbs do not inflect. Tense, aspect, mood and polarity are conveyed by particles, which directly precede the verbs, or by auxiliaries, which precede the verbs and whose subjects also precede the verbs.

Munja'kin does not have a copula, it uses stative verbs or zero-copula constructions:

Lia nurischi — "he is a young adult" (literally "he young adult")

Verb particles

These particles directly precede verbs.

Hi turns a sentence into a command and is combined with the negative auxiliary inju to form the prohibitive hinju:

Hi pagi! — "move!"

Hinju pagi! — "do not move!"

Verbs occurring without a particle carry a generic aspect, while mia expresses the perfect aspect:

Pagi tun — "I move"

Mia pagi tun — "I moved"

Ga expresses the conditional or potential mood:

Ga pagi tun — "I might move"

Auxiliaries

Auxiliaries precede main verbs, but the main verbs' subjects directly follow auxiliaries.

Inju expresses negation:

Inju tun pagi — "I do not move"

Momon expresses attempts:

Momon tun pagi — "I try to move"

Ambro expresses ability:

Ambro tun pagi — "I can move"

Verb derivation

Most Munja'kin verbs may be nominalized with the suffix -ri. The resulting nouns express concepts, processes or instances.

Lon (see) → londri (sight)

A rarer nominalization suffix is -i:

Hio (speak) → hioi (word)

Verbs may be made causative or permissive with the prefix liz-, which becomes li- before consonants:

Miran (for something to stop) → limiran (stop something, let something stop)

Verbs may also be made passive with the prefix u-, which becomes wa- before r, v- before u and o, and w- before i and a:

Bio (waste) → ubio (be wasted)

The suffix -n makes verbs terminative, some roots no longer occur without it:

Kuvo (stand) → kuvon (stand up)

Jila (root not used on its own having to do with birth) → jilan (be born)

Syntax

Word order

Munja'kin is usually a verb-subject-object language, however, sentences containing an auxiliary verb use the order auxiliary-subject-verb-object:

Tanú (V) tun (S) hi si'o (O) — "I (S) help (V) you (O)"

Ambro (A) tun (S) tanú (V) si'o (O) — "I (S) can (A) help (V) you (O)"

Agents of passive verbs are introduced by the preposition an:

Bio (V) niruri (S) pa kou (O) — "mistakes (S) waste (V) time (O)"

Ubio (V) kou (S) — "time (S) is wasted (V)"

Ubio (V) kou (S) an niruri (A) — "time (S) is wasted (V) by mistakes (A)"

Relative clauses

An serves as a relativizer and is followed by a verb's nominalized form, relative clauses follow their head nouns, are VSO like the main clauses and use resumptive pronouns to relativize objects and obliques:

Chala (S) an (R) tanuri (V) si'o (O) — "the person (S) who (R) helps (V) you (O)"

Chala (O) an (R) tanuri (V) si'o (S) hi lia (O) — "the person (O) whom (R) you (S) help (V)" (literally "the person whom you help them")

Questions

Polar questions are only marked by intonation in Munja'kin, it has no question particle or change in word order:

Ambro tun tanú si'o — "I can help you"

Ambro tun tanú si'o? — "can I help you?"

Interrogative words are fronted in content questions:

Hibí si'o? — "Who are you?"