Oro Mpaa


2003 by Christian "Catharsis" Thalmann
cinga (at) gmx (dot) net


Table of Contents

1.  Foreword

2.  Phonology
2.1.  Word Structure
2.2.  Vowels and Glides
2.3.  Consonants and Clusters
2.4.  Stress
2.5.  Phrasal Sandhi
3.  Noun Phrases
3.1.  Nouns
3.2.  Pronouns
4.  Pronouns

5.  Syntax




1.    Foreword


Oro Mpaa is a mostly isolating, analytic a priori language with only few (but often irregular) inflected forms.  The phonology is not very trivial, considering that the sound of vowels changes under the influence of nearby glides, and the sound of consonant phonemes is dependant on their environment within the phrase.  

The design goals of this language project are to make experiences with a grammatical structure unlike the case-driven IE-esque ones of the languages I've created or worked with so far, as well as to achieve a good measure of both acoustical and typographical aesthetics.

As for notations, I will use "apostrophes" for English glosses, boldface for Oro Mpaa text, /slashes/ for phonemic notation and [brackets] for phonetic notation.  The latter two will make use of the X-SAMPA ASCII encoding of the International Phonetic Alphabet.




2.    Phonology


2.1.   Word Structure


A word in Oro Mpaa can be broken into syllables which contain exactly one vowel each.  The basic syllable structure is (C)(L|G)V(G)(C), where C is a consonant, L a liquid consonant, G a glide, and V a vowel.  There is only a limited number of allowed initial, medial and final consonant clusters, as detailed in chapter 2.3.  


2.2.   Vowels and Glides


At first, the vocalic inventory of Oro Mpaa may appear spartan:  There are only three vowel phonemes /a i u/ which are represented by the letters a e o; futhermore, there are two glides /j w/ which are represented by the letters i u.

The two letters e o /i u/ dissimulate into [e o] when preceded or followed by the corresponding glide i u /j w/.

If a glide precedes a vowel within its syllable (GV), it is pronounced as a glide; however, if a glide follows a vowel within its syllable (VG), it merges with the vowel into a new sound according to the following table.  Note that a combination VGV is syllabized as V-GV, thus the glide is pronounced.


GV-Combinations
 VG-Combinations
ia [ja]
 ua [wa]
 ai [E]
 au [Q]
ie [je]
 ue [wi]
 ei [e]
 eu [y] *
io [ju]
 uo [wo]
 oi [y] *
 ou [o]


It is also possible that a syllable contain a glide both before and after the vowel (GVG), under the condition that the latter two (VG) do not form the sound [y] by themselves.  In those cases, the initial glide is simply appended before the sound of the following VG-combination, e.g. iau [jQ].

Glides can toggle the palatisation of the letters t s.  In those cases, the glide is "consumed" by the consonant, and omitted from speech.  Example:  se /Si/, sa /sa/, sia /Sa/.


2.3.   Consonant Clusters


Here follows a table of the consonant phonemes of Oro Mpaa.  Notice that there is no phonemic distinction between voiced and unvoiced consonants, but many consonants have voiced and unvoiced allophones.  


Consonants
 Alveodentals
 Labials
 Velars
Stops
 t [t d]
 p [p b]
 c [k g]
Fricatives
 s [s z]
 v [f v]
 h [x h]
Nasals
 n [n]
 m [m]
 g [N]
Liquid
 l [l]
  
  
Tap/Trill
 r [4]
  
  


Not all combinations of these phonemes yield valid clusters.  The legal clusters for word-initial or word-final positions are more strictly limited than medial clusters.  The pronunciation of a cluster is given three times: [initial medial final], where applicable.  A hyphen indicates that the cluster is illegal in that position.

This table might look a bit overwhelming at first, but it's really quite regular and predictable.

The Latin transcription of some clusters might be slightly non-intuitive (e.g. nt rather than nd for [d nd -]), but keeps true to the native script of the language (which admirably represents its phoneme inventory).  The only concession made for the sake of the reader is the notation of the combinations gc [g Ng -] and gcr [- Ng4 -] as nc, ncr.


Alveodentals (Regular)
 Alveodentals (Palatized)
 Labials
 Velars
t [t d t]
 t [tS dZ S]
 p [p b p]
 c [k g k]
tt [t tt -]
 tt [tS ttS -]
 pp [p pp -]
 cc [k kk -]
s [s z s]
 s [S Z S]
 v [f v f]
 h [x h x]
ss [s ss -]
 ss [S SS -]
 vv [f ff -]
 hh [h hh -]
nt [d nd -]
 nt [dZ ndZ -]
 mp [b mb -]
 nc [g Ng -]
tr* [t4 d4 -]
  
 pr* [p4 b4 -]
 cr* [k4 g4 -]
ntr* [- nd4 -]
  
 mpr* [- mb4 -]
 ncr* [- Ng4 -]
ts [ts dz -]
 ts [tS dZ -]
  
  
nts [- ndz -]
 nts [- ndZ -]
  
  
lt [- ld -]
 lt [- ldZ -]
 lp [- lb -]
 lc [- lg -]
rt [- 4d -]
 rt [- rdZ -]
 rp [- 4b -]
 rc [- 4g -]
n [n n n]
  
 m [m m m]
 g [N N N]
nn [- nn -]
  
 mm [- mm -]
 gg [- NN -]
r [4 4 4]
  
  
  
rr* [- r -]
  
  
  
l [l l l]
  
  
  
ll [- ll -]
  
  
  


All of these clusters may be preceded by a glide.  All except for those marked with an asterisk (*) may also be followed by a glide. For example, the word artua [a4dwa] would be a valid word, but **atrua isn't.

The alveodentals are pronounced palatized if followed by e or i.  As mentioned above, the glide i is not pronounced after a palatizable consonant.  Similarly, the glide u, which prevents palatization, is not pronounced after a palatizable consonant. Examples: tata [tada], tete [tSidZi], tiatia [tSadZa], tuetue [tidi].

The voiceless velar fricative [x] has a palatal allophone [C] after i or e.  Examples:  oh [ux], ec [iC].


2.4.   Stress


Most words, especially nouns and verb forms, a stressed on the first syllable of their stem.  This means that productive affixes such as the passive voice prefix me(m)- don't change the location of the stress.

Some words, especially adverbs and irregular verb forms, can have an unexpected stress pattern.  This can be shown in Latin transcription with an acute accent (´), but remains unmarked in the native script of Oro Mpaa.


2.5.   Phrasal Sandhi


When several words form a phrase together (e.g. a predicate phrase or a prepositional phrase), some "fusing" can occur between the word borders.  In analogy to Indian languages, these phenomena are called "Sandhi".  Here follows a list of the different Sandhi processes that can occur.

Medialisation:  When one word ends on a vowel and the following one begins with a cluster (-V C-) or vice versa (-C V-), then the two words are treated as one, and the cluster becomes medial.  Example: oro ['u4u], mpaa ['baa], oro mpaa [u4um'baa]; ot [ut], aren ['a4in], ot aren [u'darin].

Nasalisation:  When one word ends on a nasal (n m g) and the next word begins with a stop (t p c) or a nasal (n m g), then the former is assimilated to the point of articulation of the latter.  Example: an [an], coa ['kua], an coa [aN'kua]; mpa [ba], an mpa [am'ba].

Condensation:  When one word ends on a nasal (n m g) and the next word begins with a single s or r, then the combination is pronounced with a voiced epenthetic stop.  The point of articulation of the stop depends on the nasal in the case of r, but is always alveodental for s.  Example: seev ['Siif] "live", an seev [an'dZiif] "he/she lives"; com [kum] "some", rae ['4ai] ", com rae [kum'b4ai].



3.    Noun Phrases


3.1.    Nouns


There is not much to say about nouns in Oro Mpaa, as they don't inflect in any way.  There are no compulsory articles and no inflections for number, so the noun ttou [to] can mean "man, a man, the man, men, the men".  This level of detail is often sufficient in speech.  Should the definiteness or number be important, it can be expressed with a pronoun or quantifier (see following chapter).

Unlike English, Oro Mpaa builds its noun phrases head-first; that is, adjectives and appositions follow the main nouns.   Example: ttou  [to] "man",  cele ['kili] "old", mpolen ['bulin] "beard", aaia ['aaja] "white", ttou cele mpolen aaia [to'gilim,buli'naaja] "the/an old man with a white beard".

There is a gender distinction in Oro Mpaa, but it strictly follows the biological gender, much as in English.  All living things with a gender are represented with the animate pronouns, while everything else is mapped onto the inanimate ones.


3.2.    Pronouns


Considering the very isolating nature of Oro Mpaa in general, the personal pronouns show a somewhat surprising number of forms that distinguish numbers and genders.

The numbers are singular, plural and categorical.  Plural is used for a specific given group or amount of things, even if it's not easily measured or counted, while categorical refers to the totalty of the things, the things in general.  For example, consider the sentence "Alligators came near the settlement yesterday.  I killed them."  In Oro Mpaa, you would use the plural pronoun on for "them", because you are talking about a specific group of alligators.  If however, you said "I hate them", meaning alligators in general rather than some particular specimens, you'd use the categorical pronoun neu.


Inflected Pronouns
 Singular
 Plural
 Categorical
1st Inclusive
 sia [Sa]
 siaum [SQm]
 neusia  ['nyZa]
1st Exclusive
 -
 sseum [Sym]
 neusse ['nySSi]
2nd Informal
 le [li]
 lom  [lum]
 neule ['nyli]
2nd Honorific
 ahan [a'han]
 ahon [a'hun]
 neuhan [ny'han]
3rd Animate
 an [an]
 om [um]
 neu [ny]
3rd Inanimate
 ei  [e]
 eh [iC]
 neh [niC]
Indefinite Animate
 can [kan]
 com [kum]
 -
Indefinite Inanimate
 cei [ke]
 ceh [kiC]
 -


The personal pronouns can be used by themselves, or as the head of a noun phrase, in which case the function can become similar to a strong definite article: ttou [to] "man", an ttou [an'to] "he, the man (litterally: he man)".  This also works well persons other than the third: Taro tuer, neusia ttou tsan neule vel. ['taru,dir ,nyZat'todzan ,nyli'vil] "We men never understand you women."

When placed after a noun, the personal pronoun can act as a possessive pronoun:  sia ttou [Zat'to] "I as a man ..."; ttou sia [to'Za] "my man".  This also works well with names: corampa ttou ['kurambat'to] "the man Kuramba", ttou laare [to'laari] "Laari's man".

The indefinite pronouns mean "a, one, someone" in the singular and "some, several" in the plural.




2003 by Christian "Catharsis" Thalmann
cinga (at) gmx (dot) net