Dawn Moniqan

Natively known as: Mʌnikæn /ˈmʌnikæn/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... au no tre caibo arda papimop au hos u tre pabo momu ua Pronunciation: /au no tre ʧaiˈbo arˈda paˈpimop au hos u tre paˈbo moˈmu uˈa/ Moniqan word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /b d f h j k l m n p r s t w ŋ ɡ ɲ ʤ ʧ/  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b		t d			k ɡ
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f	s				h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

    Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

    Vowel inventory: /a ai au e i o u/   Diphthongs: ai, au  

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

    Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable Word initial consonants: b, d, fr, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, pl, pr, r, s, sh, st, t, tr, w, ɡ, ɡr, ɲ, ʤ, ʧ Mid-word consonants: b, bʤ, d, f, h, hk, j, k, kh, kk, ks, kt, kɲ, l, lk, m, mb, ml, mp, n, nd, nk, ns, nt, ntr, nɲ, nʤ, nʧ, p, pk, pt, r, rb, rd, rh, rk, rl, rm, rn, rp, rs, rt, rɡ, rʤ, rʧ, s, sk, st, str, t, tk, w, ŋ, ŋh, ŋk, ŋl, ŋs, ŋɡ, ɡ, ɲ, ʤ, ʧ Word final consonants: b, h, k, l, ll, m, n, nd, nt, p, r, rd, s, t, w, ŋ   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• e → i / _{nk,ŋ}

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
ŋ	ng
ɡ	g
ɲ	ny
ʤ	j
ʧ	c

   

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Grammar

  Main word order: Subject-Oblique-Object-Verb. "Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Mary with a key the door opened. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun. Adposition: postpositions  

Nouns

  Nouns have four cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.

Nominative	No affix tuyu /tuˈju/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -a tuyua /tuˈjua/ (verb done to) doɡ
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ul tuyul /tuˈjul/ doɡʼs
Dative	Prefix no- notuyu /noˈtuju/ to (the/a) doɡ

   

Singular	No affix tuyu /tuˈju/ doɡ
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -up tuyup /tuˈjup/ doɡs

   

Articles

  Moniqan has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.  

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	sta /sta/ I	o /o/ me	au /au/ mine	mi /mi/ to me
2nd singular	pa /pa/ you (masc)	ong /oŋ/ you	nu /nu/ yours	mul /mul/ to you
3rd singular masc	no /no/ he, it	mer /mer/ him, it	tre /tre/ his, its	mo /mo/ to him, at it
3rd singular fem	ma /ma/ she, it	ni /ni/ her, it	jo /ʤo/ hers, its	us /us/ to her, at it
1st plural inclusive	ci /ʧi/ we (including you)	meb /meb/ us (including you)	wa /wa/ ours (including you)	na /na/ to us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	mab /mab/ we (excluding you)	al /al/ us (excluding you)	i /i/ ours (excluding you)	ne /ne/ to us (excluding you)
2nd plural	a /a/ you all	me /me/ you all	ah /ah/ yours (pl)	nau /nau/ to you all
3rd plural	bu /bu/ they	mau /mau/ them	nye /ɲe/ theirs	tup /tup/ to them

   

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	au /au/ my
2nd singular	nu /nu/ your
3rd singular masc	tre /tre/ his
3rd singular fem	jo /ʤo/ her
1st plural inclusive	wa /wa/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	i /i/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ah /ah/ your (pl)
3rd plural	nye /ɲe/ their

   

Verbs

 

Present	No affix aiba /aiˈba/ learn
Past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -ap aibap /aiˈbap/ learned
Remote past	Prefix i- iaiba /iˈaiba/ learned (lonɡ aɡo)

    Moniqan uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: mo - mo aiba /mo aiˈba/ will learn

   

Perfect aspect

  The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.   Moniqan uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix a- aaiba /aˈaiba/ have learned

   

Numbers

  Moniqan has a base-10 number system:   1 - aik 2 - nau 3 - mi 4 - pap 5 - mu 6 - koh 7 - shaiyont 8 - mib 9 - wa 10 - gul 11 - gul au aik “ten and one” 100 - aik sada “one hundred” 101 - aik sada au aik “one hundred and one” 200 - nau sada 1000 - aik ab “one thousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Prefix a- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix jau- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ai- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix ji- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mo- Noun → verb (to create [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix je- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix ne- Verb → adjective (likely to do [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pa- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix u- Verb → noun that verb physically produces (e.g. build → building) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dau- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix u- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix ne- Diminutive = Prefix a- Augmentative = Prefix i-