Miyu

Lexicon

Writing

Introduction

Miyu is an attempt to have a minimalist artlang in the spirit of Toki Pona that affords speakers more nuance, even with a reduced number of morphemes. Strict word order and and word compounding allow Miyu to be expansive and specific when necessary. Strict use of syntactic and lexical particles help to reduce sematic ambiguities.

Some key features:

• Subject-Verb-Object word order
• Highly analytical grammar
• Invariable lexemes
• Only 14 (base) sounds, 9 consonants, and 5 vowels
• Simple phonotactics, or syllable structure (C)V(N)
• Only ~1000 core morphemes
• Easy-to-follow word compounding
• Source languages are widely spoken/used

Phonology

Miyu has nine consonants (/p, t, k, s, m, n, l, j, w/) and five vowels (/a, e, i, o, u/). Stress is word final.

consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t	k
Fricative		s
Approximant	w	l	j (y)

• The plosives /p t k/ are pronounced [b d ɡ] when in an unstressed syllable.
• [s] is in free variation with z] and ʃ].
• [l] and [ɾ] are in free variation.

vowels

Vowels in stressed syllables tend to be tense, and likewise unstressed ones tend to be more lax. Thus, for example, /i/ is realized as [i] or [ɪ] in stressed and unstressed syllables, respectively. Likewise, /e/ is realized as [e] or [ɛ], and so on.

Vowels	Front	Back
Close	i~ɪ	u~ʊ
Mid	e~ɛ	o~ɔ
Open	a~ə

diphthongs

There are two diphthongs [ai̯] ai, and [au̯] au. These typically occur word-finally.

syllable structure

All syllables are of the form (C)V(N), that is, optional consonant + vowel + optional final nasal, or V, CV, VN, CVN.

syllables

Valid syllables

	-a	-ai	-au	-an	-e	-en	-i	-in	-o	-on	-u	-un
∅-	a	ai	au	an	e	en	i	in	o	on	u	un
p-	pa	pai	pau	pan	pe	pen	pi	pin	po	pon	pu	pun
t-	ta	tai	tau	tan	te	ten	ti	tin	to	ton	tu	tun
k-	ka	kai	kau	kan	ke	ken	ki	kin	ko	kon	ku	kun
m-	ma	mai	mau	man	me	men	mi	min	mo	mon	mu	mun
n-	na	nai	nau	nan	ne	nen	ni	nin	no	non	nu	nun
s-	sa	sai	sau	san	se	sen	si	sin	so	son	su	sun
l-	la	lai	lau	lan	le	len	li	lin	lo	lon	lu	lun
w-	wa	wai	–	wan	we	wen	wi	win	–	–	–	–
y-	ya	–	yau	yan	ye	yen	–	–	yo	yon	yu	yun

phonotactics

A few syllables sequences are disallowed; /ji, wu, wo/. Also, a syllable-final nasal may not occur before /m/ or /n/ in the same root.