Marib

Marib مریب
Pronounced:	/maˈʁib/
Timeline and Universe:	Here & now
Species:	Human
Spoken:	Iran Turkey
Total speakers:	7.5 million
Writing system:	Modified Perso-Arabic script
Genealogy:	Indo-European Mariban Marib
Typology
Morphological type:	Fusional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Nominative-accusative
Basic word order:	VSO
Credits
Creator:	Colonel Cathcart
Created:	2009

Marib (مریب) is an Indo-European language spoken in northwestern Iran and southeastern Turkey. It is the last surviving member of the Mariban subfamily, once spoken across an expanse stretching from Kurdistan to the Caucasus; Marib thus constitutes an isolate within the Indo-European family.

Phonology

Phonemes & orthography

Marib is written in a modified Perso-Arabic script, which was introduced when the Seljuks took control of the Mariban states in the mid-11th century. Here, the first orthographic representation is the native orthography; the second is used for phonetic transliteration.

Consonants

Stops /p t k b d g/ <گ د ب ک ت پ>, <p t k b d g>
Affricatives /ts tʃ dz dʒ/ <ج ظ چ ط>, <ts č dz j>
Fricatives /f v s z ʃ ʒ h/ <ه ژ ش ز س و ف>, <f v s z š ž h>
Approximants /j w l ʁ/ <ر ل و ی>, <y w l r>
Nasals /m n/ <ن م>, <m n>

• /s/ has alternate realization <ص>; /h/ has alternate realization <ح>. Many words using these letters are Persian or Arabic loans; others are purely aesthetic.
  
• Marib uses the ligature <لا> for /la/; with a hamzeh above <لأ> this ligature represents /laj/.
• <ع> is often used to indicate a syllable break between vowels and particularly diphthongs, eg. /saj"i:/ <سأعی> <saii> (page-gen.pl).
• <ق غ خ> are found only in Persian and Arabic loans; they are pronounced /h k g/ and transliterated <kh q gh>.

Marib contrasts consonant length. Any consonant except /h j w ʁ/ may be geminated. Geminate consonants, which can occur medially or finally, are written with a tašdid <ّ > above.

Vowels

Marib has a simple five-vowel system, distinctive in that the mid-close vowels /e o/ have shifted to mid-open /ɛ ɔ/.

Vowels /a ɛ i ɔ u/
initial: <او او ای ا ا>, <a e i o u>
medial: <و و ی ا ا> or null, <a e i o u>
final: <و و ی ه ا>, <a e i o u>

Some eastern dialects lack /a/, featuring instead a Persian-influenced /æ ɒ/ opposition, written <آ ا> and transliterated <a â>. These dialects have generally retained the mid-close vowels /e o/.

Modern Marib does not contrast vowel length (at least not phonemically - see Prosody). Marib's Perso-Arabic orthography indicates medially only those vowels which were long in Medieval Marib (eg. MedM /ma"ɾi:b/ > ModM /ma"ʁib/ <مریب>) and in cases where vowel omission would result in a doubled consonant (eg. /tan"nɛn/ <تنّان> rather than *<تنّن>)

Diphthongs
Marib has four semivowel diphthongs:
/aj ɛj ɔj uj/ <ؤ ؤ ۀ أ>, <ay ey oy uy>
These diphthongs are written with a hamzeh <ء> above, a convention possibly derived from Persian's use of <ۀ> for /eje/.

Prosody

Phoneme length
Marib distinguishes phonemic consonant length: long (geminate) consonants are written with a tašdid above. Vowel length is a prosodic feature: if a stressed syllable is open (CV), then the vowel is pronounced long (CV:).

Timing
Marib prosody is stress-timed. Generally, stressed open syllables with a long vowel are articulated about 1.5 times longer than unstressed or closed syllables, though this varies greatly between dialects and speakers.

Stress
Stress in Marib, as in French, is dependent upon syntax and semantics. Primary stress is placed upon the last syllable of a clause or phrase determined by the speaker. Primary stress may be marked by a slight lengthening of the syllable (more distinctive if the syllable is open, as stated above) and/or a slight rising or falling tone. Secondary stress may be placed upon the last syllable of a verb, noun, or modifier, according to the speaker's semantic discretion. Pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions are never stressed except for emphasis.