Zompist Bboard Again

This is a conlang I worked on many years ago which, after learning a lot about linguistics at University, I've was inspired to resurrect.


Romanizations are written in <a> to the right of their IPA counterparts.

Phonology

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Consonants
The Metin consonant distinguishes a great deal of coronal and back-of-the mouth consonants, but has few labials. There is only one nasal, nominally /m/ (though subject to much sandhi). Stops make a 4-way manner-of-articulation distinction, voiceless, voiced, breath, and ejective. Affricates make only 3 distinctions, lacking breathiness, and the fricatives may not be ejective.

		Labial	Dental	Lateral	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolopalatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stop	Voiceless	(/p/) <p>			/t/ <t>	/ʈ/ <th>		/c/ <c>	/k/ <k>	/q/ <q>	/ʔ/ <’>
	Voiced	(/b/) <b>			/d/ <d>	/ɖ/ <d̨>		/ɟ/ <j>	/g/ <g>
	Breathy	/bʰ/ <bh>			/dʰ/ <dh>	/ɖʰ/ <d̨h>			/gʰ/ <gh>
	Ejective				/t’/ <t’>	/ʈ’/ <th’>		/c’/ <c’>	/g’/ <g’>	/qʼ/ <q’>
	Nasal	/m/ <m>
Affricate	Voiceless			/t͡ɬ/ <tl>	/t͡s/ <ts>	/ʈʂ/ <ch>	/t͡ʃ/ <cx>
	Voiced			(/d͡l/) <dl>	(/d͡z/) <dz>	/ɖʐ/ <jh>	/d͡ʒ/ <zx>
	Ejective		/t̪͡θʼ/ <tj’>	/t͡ɬʼ/ <tl’>	/t͡s’/ <ts’>	/ʈʂ’/ <ch’>	/t͡ʃ/ <cx’>		/k͡x’/ <kx’>	/q͡χ’/ <qx’>
Fricative	Voiceless	/φ/ <f>	/θ/ <tj~t>	/ɬ/ <ł>	/s/ <s>	/ʂ/ <sh>	/ʃ/ <sx>	/ç/ <ç~c>	/x/ <x>	/χ/ <qx>	/h/ <h>
	Voiced	/β/ <w>	/ð/ <dj~d>	/ɮ/ <ɮ>	/z/ <z>	/ʐ/ <z̨>	/ʒ/ <zx>	/ʝ/ <y>	/ɣ/ <gj~g>
Approximate	Voiced		/l/ <l>
Trill	Voiced									/ʁ/ <r>

/b/, /p/, /d͡l/, and /d͡z/ are marginal phonemes, having merged with /β/, /φ/, /l/, and /z/ in most words, excepting some onomatopoieae, interjections, and loanwords.

The affricates /θ/, /ð/, /ç/and /ɣ/ are romanized in two different ways. When at syllable onsets, they are written <tj>, <dj>, <ç> and <qj>, but when they are in coda position, they are written with the abbreviated <t>, <d>, <c>,and <g>, as the stops /t/, /d/, /c/, and /g/ cannot occur in codas and thus cannot be orthographically confused with the affricates in this position.

In the romanization system, consonant clusters that could be confused with digraphs are separated with a hyphen, i.e., <atja> denotes /aθa/ whereas <at-ja> denotes /aθɟa/




Consonant Clusters
Metin has a handful of consonant clusters which occur only in syllable onsets.
They are treated in Metin phontactics as being effectively identical to the affricates.

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	Lateral	Velar
Voiceless	/k͡ɬ/ <kl>	/t͡x/ tx /p͡x/ <px> /ʈ͡x/ <thx>
Ejective	/k͡ɬ’/ kl’	/t͡x’/ tx’ /ʈ͡x’/ <thx’>

The onset cluster /px/ is the only place where the voiceless labial stop can be found in Metin outside of some onomatopoieae, interjections, or loanwords, as it lenited and merged into /φ/ in almost all other contexts.

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Vowels
Metin has a 9 vowel system, distinguishing three degrees of height and frontness/backness. Back vowels are rounded.
All Metin vowels may be short or long. A long vowel is written in the orthography doubled, i.e., /i:/ is written <ii>, /ə/ as <ąą>, etc.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	/i(:)/ i(i)	/ɨ(:)/ į(į)	/u(:)/ u(u)
Mid	/ε(:)/ e(e)	/ə(:)/ ą(ą)	/o(:)/ o(o)
(Near) Open	/æ(:)/ ę(ę)	/a(:)/ a(a)	/ɒ(:)/ ǫ(ǫ)

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Opening Diphthongs
Opening diphthongs are the most common sort of diphthong in Metin.

	/i̯/	/u̯/	/e̯/
Mid front	/i̯ε(:)/ ie(e)	/u̯e/ ue(e)	-
Mid back	/i̯o(:)/ io(o)	/u̯o/ uo(o)	-
Mid central	/i̯ə(:)/ ią(ą)	/u̯ə(:)/ uą(ą)	-
Open front	/i̯æ(:)/ ię(ę)	/u̯æ(:)/ uę(ę)	-
Open central	/i̯a(:)/ ia(a)	/u̯a(:)/ ua(a)	/ε̯a(:)/ ea(a)
Open-back	/i̯ɒ(:)/ iǫ(ǫ)	/u̯ɒ(:)/ uǫ(ǫ)	/ε̯ɒ(:)/ eǫ(ǫ)

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The closing diphthongs are far fewer in number.

Closing Diphthongs

	/i̯/	/u̯/
Mid front [/celhl]	/e(:)i̯/ e(e)i	-
Mid back	/o(:)i̯/ o(o)i	/o(:)u̯/ o(o)u
Open central	/a(:)i̯/ a(a)i	-
Open-back	-	/ɒ(:)u̯/ ǫ(ǫ)u

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Harmonic Diphthongs
The harmonic diphthongs involve no change in tongue position

	Labial-off	Labial-on
Close	/i(:)y̯/ i(i)u	/y̯i(:)/ ui(i)
Mid	/ɛ(:)œ̯/ e(e)o	/œ̯ɛ(:)/ oe(e)
Open	/æ(:)ɒ̯/ a(a)o	/ɒ̯æ(:)/ o(a)a

If an opening diphthong of the form G₁V₁ exists, and another of the form V₁G₂ exists, then generally, an opening-closing triphthong of the form G₁V₁G₂ can be expected to exist. I.e., since /i̯a/ and /u̯a/ exist, and /au̯/ and /ai̯/ exist, then all of /i̯ai̯/, /i̯au̯/, /u̯ai̯/, and /u̯au̯/ also exist. However, triphthongs are much less common than diphthongs in Metin, and not all that can logically exist might be found in a dictionary. Metin does not have harmonic triphthongs.

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Tone

Metin syllable nuclei may have low tone, high tone, rising tone, or falling tone. Short monophthongs are restricted to having the low tone or high tone, but all four tones are available to other nuclei.
In IPA transcriptions, I denote the low tone with no diacritic, e.g. /v/, the high tone with a macron, /v̄/, the rising tone with an acute accent, /v́:/, and the falling tone with a grave accent, /v̀:/.
In Metin romanization, the low tone is also denoted with no accent, i.e., <a> for /a/.
The high tone is denoted on a short vowel with an acute, i.e., <á> for /ā/. The acute is written on every vowel grapheme in long vowels, diphthongs, or triphthongs to indicate the high tone upon them, i.e., <áá> for /ā:/, íáá for /i̯ā:/, <áú> for /āu̯/, and íááú for /i̯ā:u̯/.



The rising tone is written with an acute accent on the second vowel of the the double vowel graphemes denoting a long vowel, i.e., <aá> to denote /á:/.
On opening diphthongs and triphthongs, the acute accent is instead written on the vowel grapheme demoting the offglide, i.e., <aí> for /ái̯/, <aaí> for /á:i̯/, and <iaaú> for /i̯á:u̯/.
On closing diphthongs, the acute accent is written on every vowel grapheme except the one denoting the onglide, i.e., <iá> for /i̯á/ and <iáá> for /i̯á:/.


The falling tone is written with an acute accent on the first vowel of double vowel graphemes denoting a long vowel, i.e, <áa> to denote /à:/.
On opening diphthongs and triphthongs, the acute accent is instead written on the vowel indicating the onglide, i.e., <ía> for /i̯à/, <íaa> for /i̯à:/, and <íaau> for /i̯à:u̯/. On closing diphthongs, the acute accent is written on the graphemes denoting the core vowel but not the grapheme indicating the offglide to indicate the falling tone, i.e., <áu> for /àu̯/ and <ááu> for /à:u̯/.

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Phonotactics and Syllable Structure

Metin syllables have the structure CV(N)(F), where C is any consonant or one of the 5 onset consonant clusters, V is any vowel, diphthong, or triphthong, N is the nasal (which manifests as a homorganic nasal stop or nasalization of the preceding vowel depending on the following consonant), and F is any fricative or the glottal stop, /ʔ/.

The five aforementioned onset consonant clusters are single affricate consonants from the perpsective of Metin phonotactics. Words starting with /ʔ/ are written with an initial vowel in the orthography, e.g., /ʔee/ <ee>, “thus, so”.
Metin syllables may be categorized as light, long, heavy, and long-heavy.

Uniquely, a common noun prefix, /m̩/, is a syllabic nasal. There are no other syllabic consonants.

A light syllable (which I notate as <l>) is open and has the structure CV(N), containing only a short vowel and possibly a final nasal. The final nasal is not treated as closing the syllable in Metin.

A long syllable (which I notate as <L>) is open and has the structure CV(:)(N), CGV(:)(N), CV(:)G(N), CGV(:)(N), containing any long vowel and diphthong or triphthong. Final nasals are treated similarly to offglides.

A heavy syllable (which I notate as <h>) is any syllable of the structure CV(N)C, with at least one final consonant.

A long-heavy syllable (which I notate as <H>) is any syllable that meets the definition of a long syllable but is also closed by a final consonant.

Affricates, consonant clusters, the palatal stops /c/ and /ɟ/, and any ejectives close any preceding open syllable, making a preceding light syllable heavy and a preceding long syllable long-heavy. Thus, the syllable weights of /tsitxa:/, “ABS-man”, are <HL>, as if this were being syllabified
/tsit.xa:/, not /tsi.txa:/, which would yield <lL>

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Sandhi
Final Glottal Sandhi

Glottal sandhi only occurs within a word. A coda glottal stop transforms a following voiceless fricative into its corresponding affricate, and then disappears.


This affects the following clusters:
/ʔ.sV/ -> /t͡sV/, /ʔ.ɬV/ -> /t͡ɬV/, /ʔ.ʃV/ -> /t͡ʃV/, /ʔ.ʂV/ -> /ʈ͡ʂ/

/x/ uniquely becomes /t͡x/.
/ʔ.xV/ -> /t͡x/

/ç/ becomes /c/.
/ʔ.çV/ -> /c/

/f/ is unaffected
/ʔ.fV/

A final glottal stop transforms a following voiceless affricate or stop into its corresponding ejective, and then disappears.


This affects the following stops
/ʔt/ -> /t’/, /ʔʈ/ -> /ʈ’/, /ʔc/ -> /c’/,/ʔk/ -> /k’/,/ʔq/ -> /q’/

This affects the following affricates:
/ʔt͡s’/ -> /t͡s’/, /ʔt͡ɬ/ -> /t͡ɬ’/, /ʔt͡ʃ/ -> /t͡ʃ’/, /ʔʈ͡ʂ/ -> /ʈ͡ʂ’/, /ʔk͡x/ -> /k͡x’/

/tx/ uniquely becomes /t͡x’/.
/ʔtx/ -> /t͡x’/

/px/ is unaffected, and the glottal stop is preserved.

These transformations are in something of free variation and are sometimes reversed, an open syllable followed by a consonantal cluster which could have been produced by a preglottalized fricative can be “unpacked”, regardless of the historical origin of the consonant cluster
/Vt͡sV/ <-> /VʔsV/, /Vt͡ɬV/ <-> /Vʔ.ɬV/, etc.





A final glottal stop is absorbed by a following ejective.

/ʔt’/ -> /t’/, etc.

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Final Nasal Sandhi
Nasal sandhi occurs both within words and across word boundaries in fluent speech. A final nasal disappears and nasalizes the preceding vowel before a fricative, approximant, trill or glottal stop:

/VNʔ./ -> /Ṽʔ./, /VnN./ -> /Ṽs./, /VNʁ./ -> /Ṽʁ./, /VNl./ -> /Ṽl./, etc.
If this occurs and the following consnant starts another syllable, the preceding vowel is compensatorily lengthened. This lengthening
is not reflected in the orthography.

/VN.ʔV/ -> /Ṽ:.ʔV/, /Vn.sV/ -> /Ṽ:.sV/, /VN.ʁV/ -> /Ṽ:.ʁV/, /VN.lV/ -> /Ṽ:.lV/, etc.


A final nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following stop or affricate

/Nbʰ/ -> /mbʰ/, /Nt̪͡θʼ/ -> /n̪t̪͡θʼ/, /Nt/ -> /nt/, /Nʈ/ -> /ɳʈ/, /Nc/ -> /ɲc/, /Nk/ -> /ŋk/, /Nq/ ->/ɴq/, etc.

before a pause, a final nasal becomes an alveolar nasal stop.
/VN-/ ->/Vn-/

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Final Coronal Fricative Sandhi

Coronal fricative sandhi only occurs word-internally. It is usually reflected in the orthography. It may
sometimes fail to occur, especially in loan words, proper names, or morphologically unique situations.
Any of these voiceless coronal fricatives (/θ/, /s/, /ʃ/, /ʂ/, /ç/, /ɬ/) debuccalizes to /h/ before any other coronal fricative, voiced or unvoiced.
/Vθ.sV/ -> /Vh.sV/, /Vɬ.zV/ -> /Vh.zV/, etc.



Any voiced coronal fricative (/ð/, /ɮ/, /z/, /ʐ/, /ʒ/, /ʝ/) assimilates into a following unvoiced coronal fricative, creating a mixed-voicing consonant cluster.
/Vð.sV/ -> /Vz.sV/, /Vɮ.sV/ -> /Vz.sV/, etc.

Any voiced coronal fricative (/ð/, /ɮ/, /z/, /ʐ/, /ʒ/, /ʝ/) assimilates into a following voiced coronal fricative but dissimilates in voicing, creating a mixed-voicing consonant cluster.
/Vð.zV/ -> /Vz.sV/, /Vɮ.zV/ -> /Vz.sV/, etc.


The lateral approximant /l/ velarizes to /ɫ/ when preceding or succeeding any voiceless coronal fricative or /h/. This change is not reflected in the orthograpy
/Vθ.lV/ -> /Vθ.ɫV/, /Vɬ.lV/ -> /Vɬ.ɫV/, /Vl.hV/ -> /Vɫ.hV/ etc.

Nouns

Metin nouns consist of two obligatory parts, a classifier prefix, or prenoun and a noun root. The prenoun always indicates case of the noun, and sometimes also number in a few instances. They usually indicate something about the humanity, animacy, or shape of the noun. They descend from genericized ordinary nouns and are more similar in function to numeral counters than to a Bantu-style noun class system, as they do not participate in any agreement phenomena with other aspects of the language. The root inflects for a grammatical category called “state”, as will be elaborated on later. Nouns also, if possessed, recieve a suffix marking the person and number of their possessor. Inalienably possessed nouns (usually referring to relatives or body parts) require these suffixes obligatorily.

The cases of Metin are the absolutive, dative, ablative, and locative. The absolutive is the unmarked case and is used to mark agent, patient, and possessor. The dative marks the recipient of gifts, the target of speech, the destination of motion, and beneficiaries. The ablative marks sources and causes. The locative marks location, setting, and manner.
The vocative is marked for humans by the absence of the human class prefix tsi, ordinarily present on proper names and titles. Some terms for relatives have irregular vocatives. As most terms for relatives are inalienably possessed, they will still have possessive suffixes in the vocative (typically -o, the inalienable suffix meaning “my”).

Metin nouns also inflect for four states, indefinite, definite, quantified, and incorporated. The indefinite state is generally the unmarked state, though for semantic reasons, this varies. Proper nouns like sxufuu, “the surface of the earth”, or any personal names, are always definite (though speakers may occasionally coin playful state-inflected proper nouns to communicate ideas like “Any John, Dick, or Harry could understand it”). The quantified state is used in nominal constructions which convey ideas like “every”, “none”, or “some”. It is also used when to refer to types when a speaker intends to make a type-token distinction. In a sentence like “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, an old dog would be inflected with the quantified in Metin, rather than the indefinite as in English, as it is referring to an entire type or class of entities.
The incorporated state isn’t, properly speaking, a state. Incorporated nouns occur to the left of the verb root they have been incorporated into and are unmarked for case. They can also be found to the left of noun roots when used in noun-noun compounding. Both their stems and prefixes are often phonologically reduced (the prefix is often removed entirely). Incorporated nouns have a vague relationship to the verb they are incorporated into. They can indicate a verb’s object, instrument, manner, or physical qualities of the verb’s object or even subject. Metin noun incorporation is more of a derivational than an inflectional process.
Possessed noun roots do not inflect directly for state as they do when unpossessed. Instead, state marking moves to the possessive suffixes.

State inflection almost always changes the prosodic structure (tone and syllable weights) of the stem. It can also involve euphonic changes to the vowels and consonants towards the end of the stem, or suffixation. There are a lot of patterns of state inflection, and which a given noun stem uses is only somewhat predictable.
Roots in the quantified state usually have the form ĺĺ or Ĺĺ, generated by reduplicating the core vowel of the root and applying high tone to both root and suffixed copy. A consonant will be inserted to avoid vowel hiatus if the root is of the form CV, and this consonant is not very predictable.

tsimee: “a person” -> tsimé’é, “Every person”

tsitxaa: “a man” -> tsitxáhá, “Every man”

tsibhii: “a woman” -> tsibhíyí, “Every woman”

mkaçmį: “a skirt” -> mkáçmá, “Every skirt”

mhas: “a lid” -> mhásá, “Every lid”

The indefinite and definite state inflections are much harder to summarize. It is often difficult to say, for a given noun, which stem, the indefinite state stem or definite state stem, is the basic one, and which is the derived (and often, both seem to be derived from some non-ocurring Ur-form.
Prenouns sometimes vary for number, though many referring to inanimate objects do not.

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Sample Inflections

		Indefinite	Definite	Quantified
Absolutive	Singular	tsimee “a person”	tsime’ “the person”	tsiméyé “each person”
	Plural	oamee “some people”	oame’ “the people”	oaméyé “all people”
Dative	Singular	tsueemee “to a person”	tsueeme’ “to the person”	tsueeméyé “to each person”
	Plural	koimee “to people”	koime’ “to the people”	koiméyé “to all people”
Ablative	Singular	tsuoomee “from a person”	tsuoome’ “from the person”	tsuooméyé “from each person”
	Plural	koomee “from some people”	koome’ “from the people”	kooméyé “from all people”
Locative	Singular	tsuarmee “at/like a person”	tsuarme’ “at/like the person”	tsuarméyé “at/like each person”
	Plural	koarmee “at/like some people”	koarme’ “at/like the people”	koarméyé “at/like all people”

This noun, incorporated, is usually me. An example, when me is incorporated into tiin, which means “gather, collect, pile up”, you get metiin: “form/call an assembly (lit: gather people).

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	Indefinite	Definite	Quantified
Absolutive	mciar “a plate/some plates”	mcaqx “the plate/plates”	mcárá “each plate/all plates”
Dative	inciar “to a plate”	incaqx “to the plate”	incárá “to a plate”
Ablative	oociar “from a plate”	oocaqx “from the plate”	oocárá “from a plate”
Locative	ałciar “in/like a plate”	ałcaqx “in/like the plate”	ałcárá “in/like a plate”

This noun, incorporated, is usually car. An example, when car is incorporated into dac, “set/place”, you get cardac, which, depending on the preverb can mean “set it out onto a plate” (as of arranging food), or “set the table” (as in put plates and utensils out on a dining table). cartjénh is “wash the dishes”.

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Possessed nouns (All examples absolutive)

	State	Inalienable: tsinmo: “my father”	Alienable: sxutl’anmoh: “my city”
1st person singular (1)	Definite	tsinmo	sxutl’anmoh
	Indefinite	tsimnowaa	sxutl’anmohaa
	Quantified	tsinmó’ó	sxutl’anmóhó
1st person exclusive (1p)	Definite	tsinmun	sxutl’anmil
	Indefinite	tsinmumaa	sxutl’anminlaa
	Quantified	tsinmúmú	sxutl’anmínlí
1st person inclusive (21)	Definite	tsinmunh	sxutl’anmuł
	Indefinite	tsinmunhaa	sxutl’anmunłaa
	Quantified	tsinmúnhú	sxutl’anmúnłú
2nd person (2)	Definite	tsinmą	sxutl’anmąt
	Indefinite	tsinmąyaa	sxutl’anmątjaa
	Quantified	tsinmá’á	sxutl’anmátjá
3rd person neutral (n)	Definite	tsinmi	sxutl’anme
	Indefinite	tsinmaa	sxutl’anmaah
	Quantified	tsinmí’í	sxutl’anméhé
3rd person human topical (3)	Definite	tsinme	sxutl’anmįį
	Indefinite	tsinmeyaa	sxutl’anmiaa
	Quantified	tsinmiá’á	tsimniáhá
3rd person human obviative (4)	Definite	tsinméa	suxtl’anméah
	Indefinite	tsinméayaa	sxutl’anméahaa
	Quantified	tsinméamálá	sxutl’anméahmálá
3rd person nonhuman topical (0)	Definite	eeymimiy*	sxutl’anmic
	Indefinite	eeymimijaa*	sxutl’anmicaa
	Quantified	eeymimíyí*	sxutl’anmíçí
3rd person nonhuman obviative (0’)	Definite	eeymimúy*	sxutl’anmúc
	Indefinite	eeymimújaa*	sxutl’anmúcaa
	Quantified	eeymimúyú*	sxutl’anmúçú
Human Indefinite (X)	Definite	N/A	N/A
	Indefinite	tsinmibhi	N/A
	Quantified	tsinmíbhí	N/A
Nonhuman Indefinite (X')	Definite	N/A	N/A
	Indefinite	eeyimnobho*	N/A
	Quantified	eeyimnóbhó*	N/A

*A nonhuman cannot have a human father, so the word for “sire of an animal” is substituted here.

I really liked this, and would love to see more, but I don't have much time now, so I'll only make my one small (non-linguistic) complaint:

Tsimaah wrote: ↑Thu Feb 06, 2025 10:23 pm

Consonants

I don't know if you're aware, but the block quote suppresses scroll bars being added to wide tables, so it's impossible to read the consonant table on a phone unless you quote it.

I eliminated the block quotes and replaced them with horizontal rules, thanks for letting me know about the mobile display issues. I am still figuring out how to use bbcode to format things in a satisfying manner.

Tsimaah wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 10:11 am I eliminated the block quotes and replaced them with horizontal rules, thanks for letting me know about the mobile display issues. I am still figuring out how to use bbcode to format things in a satisfying manner.

Yes, it does work now, thank you. Bbcode can be a pain, so good luck with your formatting wrangling.

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Now I have more time I would like to particularly highlight as having impressed me the nominal paradigms – there is something satisfying and Mesoamericanesque about them, but they don't feel like copies, the explained gaps in the labials, and most of all the heterogeneous affricates / consonant clusters – again, there is something satisfying about saying them.

This looks interesting and promising. Using such a large phoneme inventory always entails the risk of not actually using all of them, though.

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2025 10:26 am This looks interesting and promising. Using such a large phoneme inventory always entails the risk of not actually using all of them, though.

I have tried to use sound symbolism and various consonant-altering inflectional processes to remedy this,
though admittedly, in my vocab, there are not all that many retroflex consonants.

Verbal meaning in Metin is split across two word categories, the preverb and the verb stem. The preverb syntactically governs the sentence while the verb stem itself provides the bulk of the semantics. Verb stems have something of an adjectival, acategorical quality, and overlap substantially with noun stems.

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Preverbs

Preverbs are the core of most Metin sentences. As the name suggests, they usually occur before the verb stem they govern, however, there are several phrases which can separate two, the most common being 2nd-position particles in verb-initial sentences. They are the most heavily inflected word category in Metin. They indicate denote the subject, object, argument structure, and a variety of adverbial qualities of a verbal action.

Preverbs consist essentially of a string of bound inflectional morphemes, isolated from anything resembling resembling a stem or a root. They minimally consist of one inner prefix and one subject suffix, but can be much larger. Broadly speaking, preverbs and verbs may not be mixed and matched at will. Rather, certain combinations of preverb and verb idiomatically associate to form what is called a “verb theme”. Consider the below inflected verb themes, which all take the same inner prefix oo "from it" (given in the 1st person singular):

oow-uuh qį́tíw: “I fast”
oow-uuh tíw: “I avoid (something)”
oow-uuh titíw: “I avoid people, I am a hermit”

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Inner Prefixes

Inner prefixes are the preverb's primary tool for indicating its argument structure. The previous inner prefix oo typically governs ablative case arguments.

koo-dáánm-o oow-uuh titíw.
ABL.pl-family-my from.it-1 avoid.people
"I steer clear of my family."

Other inner prefixes work differently, and some may govern more than one case.
Strings of inner prefixes are used to describe actions or relations with more complex structure.

tli-m-oó yǫnh-lai.
out.of.it-into.it-3Pr morning-cook
"S/he makes breakfast"

Here, tli refers to the ingredients out of which breakfast was made, and m refers to the changing of one thing into another.

The presence of a verbal stem is not mandatory, preverbs can sometimes stand on their own. tlimoó, by itself, means "make (something) with it",
e.g.,

chata tli-m-óókx'úyáa?
ABS-this out.of.it-into.it-2>1p.IRR
"Could you make us something with this?"

cha-tíng tli-ghu-ii-m-ooh kęęu tsuar-Madzáanh-un.
out.of.it-image.of.it-at.a.rate-into.it-1 image.PROG LOC-empress-1p
"I am making a statue of the empress out of gold."

The verb theme "tlighumooh kaú" roughly means "I make a statue (m) (kaú, progressive inflection kęęu) in the image of (ghu) someone using a material (tli). The ii, which is the inner prefix for rates and speeds, is structurally required by the progressive inflection but isn't an essential part of the verb theme. tli governs the absolutive, in this case chatíng, "gold". ghu governs the locative, in this case tsuarMadzáanhun, "The (our) empress." ii and m are not governing anything in this particular example. If one wished to specify them, ii might govern fí', an adverb meaning "quickly" (here, it is only present because of the progressive inflection of kęęu), and m might govern the absolutive demonstrative pronoun mta, "this", if the speaker were pointing out a specific in-progress statue in front of them.

Here is a selection of common Metin inner prefixes

• ts: Physical action on a person (e.g., grabbing someone's arm, hugging them, punching them, shooting them). Governs the absolutive.
• ghu: In the image of something (making a statue of it, drawing a picture of it, imitating someone). Governs the locative
• h: Direct object which is not altered by an action, for example, setting a plate somewhere
• oo: Source (in terms of location) of an action. Also used to indicate the cause of something. Governs the ablative.
• y: Destination of motion. Governs the dative. Morphologically distinct from the y that indicates rates.
• y: At a certain rate. Mandatorily present with progressive. Governs adverbs and numerals of quantities.
• hua: Action on a surface. Governs the absolutive.
• utj(u): Action in a liquid, medium. Governs the locative or dative.
• ɮ: Entering or being inside of something. Governs the locative or dative.
• px: Used for symmetrical relationships between two people or things (such as being siblings, being friends).
• l: Used for states. Has an adjectival meaning.
• ał: Used for manner or method. Governs the locative or, often, adverbs.

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A Metin verb stem is a verbal root combined with an aspect inflection. The combination of a root with its various aspectual inflections creates a stem set. For a given stem set, it is either the Stative or Eventive aspect that will be the unmarked one. Many stem sets lack either a stative or an eventive, but some have both, such as dhuig: press.STATIVE, as in to pin down or squeeze something for an extended period of time, vs dhúg: press.EVENTIVE, which is used for actions like pressing a button.

Stative aspect

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Many stative verb stems can be used after nouns without a preverb as adjectives. Stative verbs typically use the eponymous stative ending series
on their preverbs when they are intranstive. The stative aspect is used to describe states of affairs which can go on indefinitely and have no prominent aspects of change or development to them.

l-i yoé sxu-d̨íít

li yoé sxud̨íít.

is-3 red.STATIVE ABS-sky

The sky is red.

sxu-d̨íít yoé

sxud̨íít yoé.

ABS-sky red.STATIVE

The red sky

ts-ew dhuig m-qaay-o d̨a įh-t’á ta

tsew dhuig mqaayo d̨a įht’á ta.

body-3>1 press.STATIVE ABS-hand-my left ABS-rock this

My left hand is trapped under this rock.

Eventive aspect

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Unlike the stative, eventive verb stems are almost never used like adjectives. The eventive aspect is used to describe actions with no salient structure in time.

ts-ew laj-dhuig tsi-wi-o

tsew lajdhuig tsiwio.

body-3>1 shoulder-squeeze.EVENTIVE ABS-mother-my

My mom squeezed my shoulder.

yúunh h-ąą pxįį mazx-ans tsi-nm-o dee-ye yee-hóas

yúunh hąą pxįį mazxans tsinmo deeye yeehóas?

Y/N tr-2 see.EVENTIVE outside.go-PART ABS-dad-my go.plural-3 ABS.plural-wild.animal

Did you see if dad let the animals go outside?

Perfect

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The perfect aspect implies a change of state that remains true to the present (or some other focus time, in certain constructions. It is never used for verbal actions whose effects are naturally transient. Perfect aspect inflections typically have an ú or other labial rising tone offglide infixed to the verbal root. When used in the verbal predicate, the preverb will include the inner prefix -m- (which is generally associated with transformations and creation) must be included in the preverb complex.

m-u cxiú la-caany-oh

mu cxiú lacaanyoh.

become-3 break.PERF ABS-plane-my

My plane broke down.

Many perfect stems can be used without preverbs as adjectives.

la-caany-oh cxiú

lacaanyoh cxiú

ABS-plane-my break.PERF

My broken plane

The perfect aspect can be used to indicate state transitions not just in time, but also in space.

sxii-Daiwe m-u meó

sxiiDaiwe mu meó.

LOC-Daiwe become-3 people.PERF

It gets densely populated crossing into the Daiwe. (implies that there is a sharp border with surrounding thinly settled areas)

Progressive

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The progressive aspect is intrinsically tied to rates of change, in time or space. Progressive stems typically have a long, low, fronted vowel, possibly with a palatalized final consonant. Analogously to the perfective, in predicates it is also always found with a preverb including the inner prefix -y- (often surfacing as -ii-), which also has the effect of licensing an argument of number or quantity for rate of change. The progressive is not used for atelic activities which don’t have a measurable “rate of progress”, like playing or running around or aimlessly floating, these are expressed with the stative.

fí’ áur hua-y-ii tǫǫz sxu-tl’ans

fí’ áur huayii tǫǫz sxutl’ans.

quickly concern surface-prog-3 freeze.PROG ABS-lake

The lake is freezing over quickly (and we have to act fast).

c.f. the perfective

hua-m-u ya’a tǫ́t sxu-tl’ans

huamu ya’a tǫ́t sxutl’ans.

surface-become-3 surprise frozen.PERF ABS-lake

Wow, the lake is already frozen (this early in the year)?

Progressive stems may also be used in isolation as adjectives.

y-ii-cx’iiy sxu-d̨íít yoee

yiicx’iiy sxud̨íít yoee.

become-red.PROG ABS-sky dawn.PROG

The sky is getting red as dawn approaches. (or: The dawning sky reddens.)

The progressive aspect can also be used to indicate rates of change across space instead of time.

madee-maɮ-ii çiih

madeemaɮii çiih.

to.wilderness-outside.become-3 quiet.PROG

It get quieter outside nearer to the wilderness.

Pluractional

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The pluractional indicates that a verbal action consists of multiple distinct events. It is often used with the preverb įsh to mean "whenever". It is formed in the same way as the quantified state is in nouns, by reduplicating and suffixing the root’s vowel to produce an ĺĹ or ĹĹ prosodic pattern. Both the pluractional aspect of verb roots and the quantified state of noun stems descend from what used to be the ordinary plural.

tét gámee-y-ǫǫ xúyú

tét gámeeyǫǫ xúyú.

evening homeward-move-1 walk.PLUR

I walk home every evening.

Periphrastic Compound Aspects

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Various periphrastic aspects can be expressed with the verb stem és, which means “transform” or “become”.

Here is an example of the pluractional perfect, combining the pluractional étsé of és and the perfect cx’iú, “become hot”, of cx’įį, “be hot”, meaning “each time it has gotten hot”.

įsh-maz-m-u étsé cx’iú, mu-h-ǫǫ maú mdhįįc

įshmazmu étsé cx’iú, muhǫǫ maú mdhįįc.

when-outside-become-3 become.PLUR hot.PERF, become-it-1 open.PERF window.INDEF

Whenever it gets hot, I open the windows.

Here is an example of the perfect progressive, combining the plain perfect és with the progressive qxééx, “become more angry”, of qxááqx, “be angry”, meaning “start to become more angry”.

o’oó dánmą ra-l-úą th’ú, m-ii-l-út és qxééx tsi-nm-unh

o’oó dánmą ralúą th’ú, miilút és qxééx tsinmunh.

like.you still bad-be-2.IRR lazy, become-prog-be-3>2 become angry.PROG ABS-father-our.INC

If you keep being lazy like this, dad’s gonna start getting angry with you.

And here is an example combining all three aspects, creating the pluractional perfect progressive, combining the pluractional étsé with the progressive xiis, “speed up”, of xiit, "be fast", meaning “each time he starts to speed up.”

įsh-la-m-ii-y-abhii étsé xiis, tx-ibhii dhuig, luiir én bhee-txi-y-abhii k’át

įshlamiiyabhii étsé xiis, txibhii dhuig, luiir én bheetxiyabhii k’át.

when-VEHICLE-become-prog-motion-X become.PERF fast.PROG self-X squeeze.STAT, slow.PROG but forward-self-motion-X pull.STAT

Whenever (the driver) accelerates (lit: starts speeding up), you get squished, but when they decelerate, you’re pulled forward

Metin's demonstrative system is founded upon the egocentric directions, upon which the cardinal and aeronautic directions are based.

They can be conceived of as a cube centered around a human being standing upright (HEe e, I give the first person forms, ending in -a,
meaning "above me", "below me", "to my right", "to my left", etc.)

The most basic directions are the 6 Facial directions
bha, or front, is the direction my face looks,
wua, or back, is behind my back.
ha is above the crown of my head.
fua is below my feet.
d̨a is beyond my left hand.
k'a is beyond my right hand.

Pairs of these combine to form the 12 Edge directions, and triplets to form the 8 Vertex directions, by which we can construct the entire egocentric direction cube, a diagram of which is shown below.







The 3 tables table below summarizes the above diagram in three "slices", front, center, and back.

Front slice
Front Up Right: ts'ama	Front Up: ts'a	Front Up Left: ts'ima
Front Right: bhaɮa	Front: bha	Front Left: bhiɮa
Front Down Right: yǫma	Front Down: oya	Front Down Left: yuma
Center slice
Up Right: zama	Up: ha	Up Left: zima
Right: k'a	Ego	Left: d̨a
Down Right: gjǫza	Down: fua	Down Left: gjuza
Back slice
Back Up Right: th'ama	Back Up: th'a	Back Up Left: th'ima
Back Right: thuɮa	Back: wua	Back Left: thiɮa
Back Down Right: d̨hǫma	Back Down: d̨hua	Back Down Left: d̨huma

Which natlangs have root lexemes for all of these?

The egocentric directions inflect for person to indicate whose coordinate system they are referencing
-a: 1st person
-e: 2nd person
-ii 3rd person
-imálą: 4th person
-u mu ABLATIVE-noun: relative to a specific noun


e.g.:

k'a: to my/our right
k'e: to your right
k'ii: TOPIC's (his or her or their or rarely its) right
k'imálą: SECONDARY TOPIC's (his or her or their or rarely its) right
k'u mu tsuooMaah: Tsimaah's right

mu is one of the few true prepositions in Metin. It indicates relativity or basis, and always goes with the ablative case.

These egocentric demonstratives (which are termed "directionals") can appear after nouns as adjectives.

tsime' k'a: The person to my right

sxumaag oye: The pool below and in front of you

The -ii forms also appear as preverbs to indicate the direction the subject of a verb is moving or directing their action towards.

tsii-y-aah

tsiiyaah

UP.AND.FORWARD-go-1

I ascend (as in going up a staircase, not a ladder, which would be "hiiyaah"

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Sat Feb 15, 2025 2:48 pm Which natlangs have root lexemes for all of these?

Central Alaskan Yup'ik has about the same number of core demonstratives (29), though they are arranged along different axes.

https://escholarship.org/content/qt0241 ... f?t=o8eija

Fair. And Metin is of course your conlang, and I have seen that you are into rich and complex systems (some people would say "kitchen sink"), so it is OK.

Aeronautic directions
There is something anomalous about ha: “above me”, and fua: “below me”. These directions, unlike the other four facial directions, aren’t entirely relative to the orientation of the speaker. Instead, they are pinned down by gravity. In ordinary human life, this is taken for given, but in certain contexts, such as flying a plane or when diving, pinning everything to the direction of gravity is not so helpful. For this, the Metin have a system of directions which is entirely speaker/vehicle relative, replacing the fundamental directions of ha and fua with laya: “nape-ward”, and bhutsa, “chest-ward” (unlike the case of the egocentric directions, the default posture for the aeronautic directions is something like someone swimming while doing the front stroke, with their chest facing downward and back upward. This same posture is mapped onto aircraft, with the “ceiling” being the nape and the “floor” as the chest.

Front slice
Front Up Right: lats'ama	Front Up: lats'a	Front Up Left: lats'ima
Front Right: bhaɮa	Front: bha	Front Left: bhiɮa
Front Down Right: bhutsǫma	Front Down: bhutsoya	Front Down Left: bhutsuma
Center slice
Up Right: lazama	Up: laya	Up Left: lazima
Right: k'a	Ego	Left: d̨a
Down Right: bhugjǫza	Down: bhutsa	Down Left: bhugjuza
Back slice
Back Up Right: lath'ama	Back Up: lath'a	Back Up Left: lath'ima
Back Right: thuɮa	Back: wua	Back Left: thiɮa
Back Down Right: bhud̨ǫma	Back Down: bhud̨ua	Back Down Left: bhud̨uma

Directions relative to sxuHílo (the Hilocentric directions)


SxuHílo is the great tree, several thousand miles in height, that most Metin live on the trunk of. It is bathed in the sxuD̨íít, the “sea of air”, the several million miles deep atmosphere of sxuFuu (I know this is very un-physical, I was inspired in this by the French cartoon Dragon Hunters and Cocoon from Final Fantasy XIII, among other things) . Atop sxuHílo and in its branches are the twisted and ruined cities of the oaQeó, the star people, ancestors of the oaMetin, who have in the millennia since their first settlement on sxuHílo been mutated beyond all recognition and usurped by their various creations, artificial and biological. The Metin now call them and their creations the yeeGámee, the inhumans, and the oaRamee or yeeRamee, (the latter term for them sounds more chauvinistic), the abhumans. The Metin consider it the duty of their own people and the neighboring human peoples to contain inhumanity to this region and prevent them from ever settling the surface of sxuFuu, and have been in a perpetual state of cold war with them in the millennia since their empress, tsiMádzaláanh or tsiMádzáanh (her ancient name is pronounced in many ways), first founded their nation. This tree stands over the vast expanse of sxuFuu, the globe, or “lands below”, which is populated by various human nations which are mostly under the loose hegemony of the Metin. Only a very small and scattered region of sxuFuu in the immediate vicinity of sxuHílo has been settled by humanity. Beyond it, for untold millions of miles in each direction, is an indescribably large and uncharted wilderness, populated by the yeeHóé, a collective term for all native fauna (and sometimes flora) of sxuFuu, wild, ferocious, cunning, bewilderingly diverse, and alien.

As a consequence of this unusual environment, the Metin use geographical direction terms completely unlike earthling ones. Day-to-day life for the vast majority of the population which does not ever even visit the horizontal surface of sxuHílo is instead centered around the vertical trunk upon which the Metin settlements are built.
handáa means “above” and fúudaa means “below”. These words are technically synonyms of ha and fua, but they have large-scale, geographical connotation and are used in contexts where one might be picturing cities or nations on a map, rather than being above or below in the human scale. These terms especially mean “higher up along the trunk of sxuHílo” and “lower up along the trunk of sxuHílo”, but will also be used by people flying in the sea of air to just mean “up” and “down” when speaking of distances of more than a few miles or so.
gíhiloo means “clockwise around sxuHílo”, from a perspective of looking down from above sxuHílo, and its antonym is jáhiloo. When in the capital city of sxuLú (kind of the default “mental perspective” most oaMetin have of the world), gíhiloo is a West-Southwest direction, and jáhiloo, East-Northeast.
gíhiloo is considered analogous to the egocentric “left” and jáhiloo to the egocentric “right”, as a tsiMetin will generally picture himself facing toward the surface of sxuHílo rather than facing outward from it. By analogical extension, compound cardinal directions with the “left” half of the egocentric direction chart can be constructed with the circumfix gí_iloo, and the right half with já_iloo. The correspondant of bha: “forward”, is uee, “into sxuHílo”, and the correspondant of wua, “backward”, is oaa, “outward” (this pair of words and their relatives are also used of caves and passageways). All in all, this combines to make the “Hilocentric” direction chart shown below.

Front slice
Counterclockwise Inward Up : játs'amiilo	Inward Up: ueets'ee	Clockwise Inward Up : gíts'imiilo
Clockwise Inward : jábhaɮiloo	Inward: uee	Counterclockwise Inward : gíbhiɮiloo
Counterclockwise Inward Down : játsǫmiilo	Inward Down: ueeyoee	Clockwise Inward Down : gítsumiilo
Center slice
Counterclockwise Up: jázamiilo	Up: handáa	Clockwise Up: gízimiilo
Counterclockwise: jáhiilo	Ego	Clockwise: gíhiilo
Counterclockwise Down: jágjǫziilo	Down: fúudaa	Clockwise Down: gígjuziilo
Back slice
Counterclockwise Outward Up: játh'amiilo	Outward Up: oaath'aa	Clockwise Outward Up: gíth'imiilo
Counterclockwise Outward: játhuɮiilo	Outward: oaa	Clockwise Outward: gíthiɮiilo
Counterclockwise Outward Down: jád̨hǫmiilo	Outward Down: oaad̨huaa	Clockwise Outward Down: gíd̨humiilo

Finally, there are the Fuu-centric cardinal directions, the sort that would be most familiar to an earthling. They are constructed on analogy with the Hilocentric directions (for perspective, the oaMetin dwell on their world’s Northern hemisphere).

There are gík’ens: West, ják’ens: East, eek’ens: South (sunward), and ook’ens: North (away from the sun). This coordinate system is only commonly used by oaMetin who are flying an aircraft, dwelling on the surface, or having business far away from Hílo (which is rare), and there exist no widely accepted non-jargony compound forms of these directions. There exist older words for East, West, South, and North, ghúndą, suru, yáli, and kx’usmą respectively, of far more ancient etymology, but these words are little understood except by the very eldest oaMetin.

The cardinal directions are uninflecting adverbs.

The Esoteric directions




The Esoteric, or Spiritual, or Interstellar directions are said to have guided the ancestral star people, the oaQeó, to sxuFuu, somehow locating sxuFuu in the vast void of creation, sxuMaazmayǫ. The oaMetin believe that they describe a real, spherical coordinate system of some sort, but their physical definitions have been completely and utterly forgotten. The spiritual and metaphorical definitions of these directions, however, have not.

ónbąmai: Ónbąmai points “outside”, to the wilderness, to the wild, to the undeveloped, to the animal, to the void, to the empty. It is the destiny of all people to grow and spread out to and order all that lies Ónbąmai. It is said that sxuFuu was found very very far along along the axis of Ónbąmai, which is why that world is so vast and wild. In a spherical coordinate system, it is the distance r from the center.

yáadzu: Yáadzu points “inside”, to humanity and to the human body, to the cities, to the dense and lively, to childhood, to the garden where mankind was made. It is paired with Ónbamai, forming the first, radial axis. Where Yáadzu, or r, is 0 is said to be the long lost world where the first man and woman were created.

dįhís: Dįhís points to God, selflessness, righteousness, submission, well-orderedness, and unity. It points to how mankind should be. On a spherical coordinate system, it is a θ of 0 degrees.

uhestúú: Uhestúú points away from God, to jealousy, rebellion, selfishness, chaos, and separation. It points to how mankind is tempted to be. It is paired with Dįhį́s, with which it forms an axis. On a spherical coordinate system, Uhestúú is located at a θ of 180 degrees.

laráalįs: Laráalįs points to the past, to the conventional, to the old, to the ordinary, to the familiar. It represents a φ of 0 degrees.

mugjejaa: Mugjejaa points to the future, to the unconventional, to change, to the new, to the uninvented, to the creative. It is paired with Laráalįs, with which it forms an axis. The φ axis, having 360 degrees, has no clear antipodes, rather, Mugjejaa turns into Laráalįs, and Laráalįs to Mugjejaa, representing the cyclicity of change and the progression of time. Mugjejaa is considered to be clockwise motion when looking down from the perspective of the celestial pole of Dįhís, and if it is to be located at a specific coordinate, it is at a φ of 180 degrees. Laráalįs is correspondingly counterclockwise motion.

Like the cardinal directions, the esoteric directions are uninflecting adverbs.

I have nothing specific I can say, other than wow, this is fascinating and impressive! I feel like I’ve simultaneously read a paper about an interesting obscure natlang and watched a Jodorowsky space opera.

Really interesting work and I look forward to reading / seeing more.

A small complaint: in your consonant inventory, you have /g’/ <g’> where I think you mean /k’/ <k’>.