Magikoe

Magikoe [máɟìkó͜e] is a language spoken in Nguhcraft.

Phonology

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m m	n n	ɲ ny
Plosive	Aspirate		tʰ th		kʰ kh
	Tenuis	p p	t t	c ty	k k	ʔ ’
	Voiced	b b			ɡ g
Affricate			t͡s ts	t͡ʃ ch
Fricative		ɸ f				h h
Glide		w̃ w	ɾ r	j y

	Front				Back
Close	i i	iː ī			u u	uː ū	ʉi ui	uo uo
Mid	e e	ei ei			o o	oː ō	oe oe
Open	a a	aː ā	ai ai	au au

There is word-initial stress which is high tone.

/j/ is phonetically front mid [e̯]

Vːm > Ṽːʉ̃ / _%

in un en on an > ĩ(ɲ) ʉ̃(n) ẽ(j̃) ɵ̃(ŋ) ãn / _%

n ɡ e̯ > ɲ ɟ i̯ / _i

Syntax

The word order is Place-Verb-Time-Topic-Converb-CaseNoun. The topic overlaps strongly with the typical object of a sentence, as it is given much more importance than the agent in most cases outside of when the agent is being emphasized. Verbs with English translations that imply the subject's agency do not necessarily translate as giving the topic agency in the syntax of Magikoe. An example of this being the verb rewo meaning "to play music". The sentence Huru rewori ko' translates to "The dog is listening to music" even though the direct translation would say "The dog is playing music". The music is being played, but the topic is not the player of the music.

Adjectives follow nouns they modify.

Morphology

Number

Plurals are formed by adding -i after a word. The vowels /e/, /u/, and /o/ become /eː/, /ʉi/, and /oː/ instead. Plurals are placed after grammatical gender, and only on nouns.

Modifiers

Modifiers are not marked for plurality, but nouns marked as plurals may become modifiers. In those cases, they take on an additional lexical meaning rather than denoting plurality.

Adjectives are formed by adding -e after a word. The vowels /e/ and /o/ become /ei and /oi/ instead. The consonant /ʔ/ becomes /c/ instead. Coda /m n/ do not undergo allophony and instead become onset [m ɲ] to the prefix.

Gender

There are two genders, masculine and feminine, though they do not correspond to masculinity and feminity when applied to humans. They are marked on nouns, verbs, and converbs.

The first noun (topic) and second noun always have their own gender. Nouns that follow the second noun always agree with the second noun. Nouns in a clause modifying the topic agree with the gender of the topic. Nouns in a clause modifying a non-topic noun or other word agree with the opposite gender of the word they're modifying, a feature called "gender disagreement". Although adjectives are not marked for gender, adjectives are still said to agree with nouns because in clauses modifying an adjective, it's the noun's gender that is disagreed with.

On nouns modified by an adjective, the noun is suffixed by -n for the feminine and -a for the masculine. If the feminine suffix follows /n/, it becomes /no/; if it follows /m/, it replaces it and becomes /nne/; and if it follows /ʔ/, it replaces it and becomes /na/. The masculine suffix replaces preceding /ai/ and monophthongs except for /e/ and /u/. When following /a/ or /oe/, the masculine suffix becomes /ja/.

On nouns not modified by an adjective, masculine and feminine nouns are prefixed or dysfixed near the beginning of the word in the following ways:

	Word-Initial Consonant
Unmarked	/Ø/	/m/	/n/	/ɲ/	/tʰ/	/kʰ/	/p/	/t/	/c/	/k/	/ʔ/	/b/	/ɡ/	/t͡s/	/t͡ʃ/	/ɸ/	/h/	/w̃/	/ɾ/	/j/
Feminine	/m/	/b/	/ɾ/	/ɡ/	/kʰ/	/k/	/ɸ/	/tʰ/	/t͡ʃ/	/kʰ/	/h/	/w̃/	/j/	/kʰ/	/t͡ʃi/	/h/	/ɸ/	/o/	/Ø/	/ej/
Masculine	/h/	/w̃/	/t/	/t͡ʃ/	/h/	/ɡ/	/m/	/n/	/ɲ/	/ʔ/	/k/	/w̃/	/kʰ/	/tʰ/	/c/	/m/	/ʔ/	/b/	/j/	/Ø/

Verbs agree with the gender of the topic. On vebs, feminine gender is marked with the suffix -ri, which elides any preceding consonant, and the masculine gender is marked with the suffix -am which combines with word-final vowels /i e u o a/ to make /jaːm eːm oːm aːm am/.

Converbs agree with the gender of the noun following them. If there is no noun, they are not inflected for gender. The feminine gender is marked with the suffix -ya, and the masculine gender is marked with the suffix -tha.

Cases

There are no syntactic role-marking cases as these are always defined by the semantics of a verb. Cases are marked with suffixes that fuse with gender markers.

			Instrumental	Vocative	Benefactive	Allative	Translative
Basic	Singular	-Ø	-te	-(u)m	-ō	-ki	-tse
		-m	-mbe	-mon	-mō	-mbi	-mte
		-n	-nre	-non	-nō	-ngi	-nhe
		-'	-'e	-'u	-o	-'ke	-'te
	Plural	-i	-e	-yu	-yo	-i'i	-iche
		-ē	-ēi	-ēm	-ēu	-ē'	-ēhe
		-ō	-ōe	-ōm	-ōwo	-ō'	-ōfe
		-mi	-mie	-mun	-miu	-mi'	-ntse
		-ni	-nye	-nun	-nyu	-nki	-nche
		-'i	-tye	-tyun	-tyu	-'ki	-itse
Feminine	Singular	-n	-ne	-m	-mo	-ni	-chi
		-no	-no'	-nōn	-nō	-noi	-note
		-ne	-ne'	-neon	-neo	-nei	-nechi
		-na	-na'	-nam	-nau	-na'i	-nae
	Plural	-ni	-ni'	-nyum	-yō	-nī	-ithe
		-nō	-nōe	-nūm	-nōu	-nō'i	-othe
		-nē	-nēyi	-nēum	-nēo	-nē'i	-ethe
		-nai	-naye	-naun	-nayu	-nahi	-aithe
Masculine	Singular	-a	-a'	-ām	-ā	-ayi	-athe
	Plural	-ai	-ae	-aun	-ayo	-eyi	-eithe

Lexicon

Nouns

arm: matso

chest: ofu

cloud: ōfe

dawn: amwai

day: eo

dog: furu (fem: huru, furun)

dusk: 'ohoe

ear: emyi

elbow: hanro

eye: kui

face: hapi

foot: ami

hair: mochi

hand: thatsi

head: itha

hips: oetai

human: magi

knee: toko

lake: hegi

leg: awa

moon: kōm

neck: hamto

night: ie

nose: imu

page: ka'a

pen: noete

rain: imai

river: ūrei

sea: thanga

shoulder: omuo

stars: ipari

sun: heo

tongue: koe

waist: onī

Verb

come: abu (as a converb, denotes futureness or purpose)

give: ene (as a converb, denotes benefit or positivity)

have: a'ta (as a converb, denotes pastness, completion, or experience)

leave: thetso (as a converb, denotes purpose, unknown outcome or freedom)

lie down: funui (as a converb, denotes ease or willingness)

play music: rewo

see: mei

sit: ko' (as a converb, denotes presentness or focus)

speak: watsai (as a converb, denotes hearsay, hypotheticals, or concepts)

stay: khoi (as a converb, denotes simultaneity)

write: thamu