Mabri

Writing System

The writing system of mabri is logosyllabic (i. e., it is both logographic and syllabic). Each syllable represents a distinct morpheme and is uniquely written with a grapheme.

Sounds

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

This is the consonantal system of Mabri using symbols from IPA. They are generally transcribed as pronounced. When the transcription differs, the written form is shown in <angle brackets>.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Labiovelar	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Plosive	p b			t d			k g
Affricate					ʧ <ch> ʤ <dj>
Fricative		f v		s z	ʃ <sh> ʒ <j>			h
Approximant			w			j <y>
Tap				ɾ <r>
Lat. Approx.				l

Vowels

Mabri has five phonemic vowels, transcribed as a, e, i, o, and u. In an unstressed position, their phonetic realizations are respectively /ɐ e i o u/. When stressed, at the end of verbs, they are nasalized: /ɐ̃ ẽ ĩ õ ũ/. When stressed, elsewhere, they are pronounced as follows: /a ɛ e i ɔ u/.

Transcription	Stressed (non-V)	Unstressed	Stressed (V)
a	a	ɐ	ɐ̃
e	ɛ	e	ẽ
i	i	i	ĩ
o	ɔ	o	õ
u	u	u	ũ

Phonotactics

The syllable structure in Mabri is (C)(C)V. Syllables have phonemically no coda, although a written "n" appears at the end of verbs. This final "n" indicates that the previous vowel is nasal and is not always pronounced. An epenthetic [m], [n], [ɱ] or [ŋ] will appear, however, if the next word begins with b/p, d/t/z/s/dj/ch/j/sh, v/f and g/k, respectively.

Examples:

Kaze chin ha. /'kaze mẽ ha/

Mu men taze. /'kaze mẽn 'taze/

Mya kon frugyo. /mja kõɱ 'fɾugjo/

Fa gran bla. /fa gɾɐ̃m bla/

Ladjo yan kachi. /'ladʒo jɐ̃ŋ 'katʃi/

Word Stress

Monosyllabic prepositions, such as ga and po, are unstressed. Their pronunciations are therefore /gɐ/ and /po/ (and not /ga/ or /pɔ/).

All the other monosyllabic words are stressed: ka, lo, ban, de (/ka/, /lɔ/, /bɐ̃/, /dɛ/).

Disyllabic verbs are stressed on the last syllable: lachin, kyofan, broton (/lɐ'tʃĩ/, /kjo'fɐ̃/, /bɾo'tõ/).

All the other disyllabic words are stressed on the first syllable: lachi, kyofa, broto (/'latʃi/, /'kjɔfɐ/, /'bɾɔto/).

That includes disyllabic prepositions: pochi, gale, polye (/'pɔtʃi/, /'gale/, /'pɔlje/).

Larger words (hyphenated words) are multiply stressed, each part according to the rules above.

Morphology

Words in Mabri can be roughly divided in 4 main groups: verbs, nouns, adjectives and prepositions. Each morpheme is further classified according to its "inherent" (prefixless) nominalization in relation to the verb: subjective, D. objective, I. objective and verbal morphemes.

Subjective morphemes

Examples:

bro, to, mu (friend, male, city)

bron, ton, mun (is a friend, is male, is an animal)

chabro, chato, chamu (friendship, maleness, animal nature)

Direct-objective morphemes

Examples:

ko, ha, je (food, house, clothing)

kon, han, jen (eats, dwells, wears)

chako, chaha, chaje (ingestion, inhabitation, wearing)

lyeko, lyeha, lyeje (eater, dweller, wearer)

Verbal morphemes

Examples: me, re, lyu (vision, thinking, similarity)

men, ren, lyun (sees, thinks, is similar)

lyeme, lyere (seer, thinker)

kime, kire, kiryu (something seen, idea, something similar)