Revision as of 20:32, 16 November 2009

This article discusses the language as spoken by the Matis.

Pronunciation

The Matisian language makes use of generally soft sounds. There is very little overlap between many consonants, vowels and diphthongs. In the Matisian language there are harsh sound such as the t and k, as well as reserved words that has a often negative, unpleasant or otherwise important connotation, eg. of the latter include "Kterhos", which means Fyros and is considered one of the harshest words in the Matisian language containing 3 harsh consonants.

Vowels

• a, o, i are pronounced like their counterparts in the common French tongue.
• e is pronounced as the French would pronounce é.
• u is a sound between the french u and ou.
• y can be considered both a vowel and a consonant, as a vowel it is pronounced as i.

Consonants

Note: All consonants in the Matisian language are sounded. Also, sounds not listed here are pronounced as they would be in French.

• y can be considered both vowel and a consonant, as a consonant it is pronounced like the English initial y in "you"
• ch is pronounced as tch similar to English ch, eg. cherae is pronounced tchéraé.
• sh is pronounced like the French ch.
• r is pronounced from the back of the throat, similar to French r or halfway between Spanish r and English r.
• c, k, t are hard sounds and are pronounced like one would pronounce them in French. The c and k usually denote a negative or an important notion such as in the word "necat" (end) or the honorific "-karan" (king). c when followed by and e or i is pronounced ké and ki respectively.
• rh is the harshest sound in the Matisian language and is pronounced similarly to the Spanish j and comes from the back of the throat. These sounds are rare and only appear in words with a strong negative connotation.
• Double consonants like ss lengthens the sound, double consonants are usually exceptional, like "nasse" (poison)

Common Phrases

Note: letters in brackets indicate the letter to be added for the word's feminine form.

Prefixes

• ata- : again
• mai(ae)- : good, beneficial, well
• ulca(e)- : malicious, bad

Suffixes

Honorifics

• -wivan : underling, honorific used for someone beneath your standing
• -modin : equal, honorific used for someone equal to your standing
• -kin  : lord, honorific used for someone of higher standing i.e a superior or noble
• -karan : king, reserved honorific for the Matis king

Adjectives and Passive forms

• -a  : masculine singular
• -ae : feminine singular
• -ai : plural (masculine or feminine)

Nouns

Note: matal = fight

• -e  : singular
• -ei  : plural
• -ena  : a contraction of "-e nar". Marker indicating a person performing an action, eg. matalena = the (male) warrior, one who fights
• -enae  : feminine form of -ena, the person performing the action is a female, eg. matalenae = the (female) warrior
• -enai  : plural of -ena, eg. matalenai : the warriors
• -a/ae/ai : marker, used in the passive voice, to indicate the person or object undergoing an action, eg. matala = the beaten, the fighting

Verbs

Note: mindal = love; mot = work

• -eis  : present tense and infinitive marker, eg. mindaleis = I love
• -eiti : past tense marker, eg. mindaleiti = I loved
• -ias  : future tense marker, eg. mindalias = I shall love
• -ates : imperative marker, eg. motates = work!

Important! Matisian verbs only indicate time and do NOT conjugate, meaning it does not change according to the subject performing the action. When a subject is not present the first person singular (I) is automatically the subject, or in case of the present tense form it can also have an infinitive meaning.

Articles

Notes on articles:

• There is no indefinite article, eg. "i ende" means "the heart" while "ende" can mean either just "heart" or "a heart"
• The partitive article can also be used meaning "from" or "by", eg. "tuleiti di Zora" means "I came from Zora"

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Possessive Adjectives

Note: Possessive adjectives agree with the number and gender of the noun they modify, eg. na mane e nai sanei = my food and my thoughts

Examples:

• sa nar : his homin
• sae narae : her homin

• la mindalena : your lover
• lae mindalenae : your lover

• na mindala : my darling
• nae mindalae : my darling

• na mate : my labour
• nai matei : my labours

Interrogative pronouns

• ma  : which/what?
• il  : when?
• lar  : where?
• manya : how?
• ye  : who?

Derivatives:

* By adding "nec" in front of these words the word is negated, eg. nec mane = nothing; nec ilne = never; nec yene = no-one

Demonstrative pronouns

• tana : this, that, these, those, etc

Examples:

• tana ma : "what's that?" or "what are those?" or "what are these?"
• tana ye : "who's that?" or "who's this?"

Determinatives

Other pronouns

• ena  : there
• hya  : here

Prepositions

• a  : to, at, by
• an  : towards, upwards (motion)
• apa  : against, on
• ento  : after
• epe  : before
• ilya  : with
• imi  : in, on, aboard
• ten  : for, towards

Conjunctions

• cil  : or
• e  : and
• nan  : but
• nasie : because

Adverbs

• anda(e) : far, long
• ata  : still, again, yet
• hara(e) : near, short
• Ilya  : together
• uvea  : many, much
• yale  : finally, at last
• laye  : very
• sin  : as well

Numerals

Adjectives

This section is under construction

Nouns

! These nouns are irregular
* This can also be replaced by the phrase "almeria(e) nar(ae)"

Verbs

References

Note: All sources are in French

• A guide to the Matis Vocabulary
• Pronunciation