Mabri

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

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.

	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

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 tʃĩ 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.

Word Formation

Nominalization

from the subject

Examples:

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

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

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

from the object

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)

from the verb

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

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

lyeme, lyere, lyelyu (seer, thinker, something similar)

kime, kire, kilyu* (something seen, idea, something similar)

• kilyu is synonymous to lyelyu