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.

Lexical Categories

Borrowing and Lexical Selection

family

Because of the ubiquity of a bilabial plosive and nasal being used for "father" and "mother" words respectively, the words used in Miyu sound, and look very familiar and possibly derived from any one of numerous languages. However, this section will explain how the Miyu words came to be, and indicate that all other words are gender neutral, unless modified by the gender affixes.

• apa - father; man; husband (-pa masculine gender)

Mandarin: 爸 /pa˥˩/

Arabic: أب /ʔab/

Spanish: padre /ˈpadɾe/

English: papa /ˈpɑː.pə/

Hindi: पिता /pɪ.t̪ɑː/

• uma - mother; woman; wife (-ma feminine gender)

Mandarin: 媽 /ma˥/

Arabic: أم /ʔumm/

Spanish: madre /ˈma.ð̞ɾe/

English: mama /ˈmɑmə/

Hindi: माता /mɑː.t̪ɑː/

Syntax

Classical Arabic is primarily VSO, but MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) tends to be SVO, favoring full agreement over partial. Chinese is classified as an SVO language. Transitive verbs precede their objects in typical simple clauses, while the subject precedes the verb. Spanish unmarked word order for affirmative declarative sentences is SVO; however, as in other Romance languages, in practice, word order is mostly variable. English word order is almost exclusively SVO. Hindi is primarily an SOV language.

Based on the above information about the main source languages for Miyu, it is primarily an SVO (subject-verb-object) language. Modifiers generally follow what they modify, as do prepositional phrases and subordinate clauses.

Predication

Miyu uses a copula before nouns (or noun-like constructions/concepts) in predications, like wa kan apa “I am a man”, but typically not before verbal constructions, including attributive verbs (i.e. adjectives). So, a sentence like wa kan pali “I am happy” would be grammatically incorrect but saying wa pali “I happy” is correct. Attributive verbs can be used as auxiliary verbs, or adverbs, such as wa pali ta “I am very happy”.

Verbs

Copula

The Miyu copular verb is kana. This is the equivalent of English "to be" and all its forms—"am", "is", "are", "was", "were", etc. However, kana is normally only used when its complement is a noun or noun phrase. As noted above, predicate adjectives function as (attributive) verbs themselves, as does the locative preposition yu, so in sentences where the predicate is an adjectival or locative phrase, kana is not required.

Questions

The interrogative particle ma is used in conjunction with various nouns, adverbs, and adjectives to form specific questions.

non-polar questions

• ma - what; which
• ma ko - who, whom
• ma ko yo - whose, of whom
• ma an - when

• ma loka - where
• ma moto - how
• ma laka - how much, how many
• ma sapa - why

polar questions

Any statement can become a polar question by adding the interrogative particle ma at the end of the sentence.

• wa wite le kasa

1S see PST house

I saw the house.

• ni wite le kasa ma

2S see PST house Q

Did you see the house?

Number

Miyu	number	English	Miyu	number	English
sunya	0	zero	na	7	seven
wa	1	one	pa	8	eight
li	2	two	nun	9	nine
san	3	three	ye	10	ten
si	4	four	aku	100	(one) hundred
pen	5	five	mila	1000	(one) thousand
we	6	six