Mabri

Sounds

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] and [u]. When stressed, at the end of verbs, they are nasalized: [ɐ̃], [ẽ], [ĩ], [õ] and [ũ]. When stressed, elsewhere, they are pronounced as follows: [a], [ɛ], [i], [ɔ] and [u].

Phoneme	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

Consonants

This is the consonantal system of mabri.

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Labiovelar	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Plosive	p b			t d			k g
Affricate					tx, dj
Fricative		f v		s z	x, j			h
Approximant			w			y
Tap				r
Lat. Approx.				l

Phonotactics

The syllable structure in Mabri is (C)(C)V. Syllables like a, re and pwi are valid. 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/tx/j/x, v/f and g/k, respectively.

Examples:

Kaze txin ha. ['kaze tʃĩ ha]

Mu men taze. ['kaze mẽn 'taze]

Mya kon frugyo. [mja kõɱ 'fɾugjo]

Fa gran bla. [fa gɾɐ̃m bla]

Ladjo yan katxi. ['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: latxin, kyofan, broton ([lɐ'tʃĩ], [kjo'fɐ̃], [bɾo'tõ]).

• All the other disyllabic words are stressed on the first syllable: latxi, kyofa, broto (['latʃi], ['kjɔfɐ], ['bɾɔto]).

• That includes disyllabic prepositions: potxi, gale, polye (['pɔtʃi], ['gale], ['pɔlje]).

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

Grammar

Words in Mabri can be roughly divided in 4 main groups: verbs, nouns, adjectives and prepositions.

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.

The transcription into the Latin alphabet is straightforward. The phonemes are generally transcribed as pronounced. The exceptions are <j>, <x> and <y>, which correspond to /ʒ/, /ʃ/ and /j/, respectively. The letter <r> is usually pronounced as a tap [ɾ].

Recently, the transcription system has gone through a minor reform. Former <sh> is now written <x> and former <ch> is now written <tx>.

The <n> at the end of the words marks that the previous vowel is nasal, as explained in Phonotactics.