Mulesuax

Mulesuax (/ˈmuːləˌswɪks/ natively mulessuas /ˈmʷʊ̆ʉ̆ɮɛɕɯ̆ʌ̆ʂ/) was a language spoken by the Muttass People on the tip of the Mugua Peninsula on the southern shore of the Mesoborean Sea. It is descended from Wilaysenas and in turn it has many descendents. It is a sister language to Bresano.

Phonology
Every word has a strong stress on the first syllable, except for a few unstressed words such as the clitic case particles.

Consonants
The velar approximant (ɰ) is only a borderline phoneme. Phonologically, it only appears in front of the ɯ̆ʌ̆ diphthong. However as ɯ̆ʌ̆ is one of only three vowels that can exist at the beginning of words, some scholars posit it's existence as a distinct approximant to simplify the syllable structure. The voiced palatal fricative is in a similar situation. Some dialects have an /h/ as well, as a reflex of Wilaysenas /p/, which otherwise disappeared.

One may see one other main transliteration scheme: /ʂ/ is transcribed as sh (except finally, where one may also see an x used - this is where the common name comes from) and /s/ as s. One might also see mw and bw instead of m and b.

Vowels
Diphthongs:
 * ĭə̆ 
 * ĕŏ 
 * ɯ̆ʌ̆ 
 * ʊ̆ʉ̆

Phonotactics
Syllable structure is strictly C(L)V, where L is /ɮ/, or /ʂ/ after g, k or k', although word-final syllable structure is C(L)V(C)(C). Final consonant clusters follow the sonority hierarchy: the allowable final consonant clusters are /mʂ ŋʂ mt mk ŋt ŋk ʂt ʂk/ . Any consonant other than the two ejectives, tt and kk, and the lateral fricative, l, can be syllable final.

Also, the only place that /s/ and /ʂ/ are actually in a phonemic distribution is alone in the word coda after vowels other than i, e and u. Intervocalically there is only /s/ and in clusters there is always /ʂ/. In most dialects, after i, e and u both of these phonemes become [ɕ].

The only vowels that can start a word are ia, ua and u (written wu). These are often realised with a preceding approximant, however as these are the only places they occur (other than w) they aren't considered phonemes. The consonant w can start a syllable but not a word (except before u) which is why it is treated differently to the other approximants. Many speakers will also add an approximant after a word ending in a vowel utterance-finally or in careful speech.

Allophones
The cluster gs, depending on dialect, and the clusters position in a word, is variously realised as [ɣʂ gʐ ɣʐ kʂ xʂ ʐ], in some places merging with ks.

Often d lenits intervocalically to a voiced dental fricative and g fortifies to a voiced plosive utterance-initially.

After a syllable containing i, e or u, /s/ and /ʂ/ both become [ɕ]. So the proper name of the language would be spelt mulessuas and pronounced [mʷʊ̆ʉ̆ɮɛɕɯ̆ʌ̆ʂ]. The clusters ks, kks and gs often also palatalise after i, e or u, so ks might be pronounced /kɕ/, /cɕ/, /cç/ or /tɕ/.

The lateral  ɮ  often becomes voiceless following voiceless stops.

Grammar
Mulesuax is a lightly agglutinating, head-initial, analytic language. It's normal sentence order is VSO, although it often expresses topic fronting. It is heavily prefixing and preposing; the difference between prefixes and prepositions is that prefixes shift the stress of the word forward. There are only two suffixes, one a nominal diminutive and another a verbal honorific. It also has an infix used in compounds.

Verbs
Verbs in Mulesuax distinguish two tenses, future and non-future, and two aspects, perfect and non-perfect. The non-perfect aspect often takes on an imperfective meaning. These are marked by prefixes on the first verb in the sentence. The non-perfect marker is ia-/-la-, the future marker beo-. An example is uanh banh mo gua - I have had land; uanh beolabang mo gua - I will have land.

There are several auxiliary verbs. The auxiliary takes inflection over the main verb. The mediopassive is formed using ba, a form of the verb banh, have. This is much more widely used than in English, and often takes on a reciprocal sense. It is required to make a transitive verb intransitive. When used transitively, it denotes the agent as also the benefactor of the action.

The present copula, used only to join nouns and indicate location or time, is ua for singular and dua for plural. It is the only verb to inflect for plurality and the only one that has an inherent non-perfect meaning. It is identical to the third person pronouns. To attribute an adjective to the subject, the verb banh, to have, is used.

To negate a verb, the word sses (hmmm, not sure about this one...) is used. The interesting thing is that it acts like an auxiliary verb and precedes the main verb, stealing its inflection.

When speaking to a chief, elder or shaman, an honorific suffix is usually added to every verb. In most dialects this was a -k.

Nouns
Nouns take a prefix for plural. This plural marker is usually dropped if any other quantifier is modifying the noun. Nouns also inflect for possession, as Mulesuax is head-marking. In the main dialect, the plural prefix was only dropped in the quantifier preceded it directly, and in such cases was always dropped. Conversely, and also the reason why some scholars call it the quantifying prefix, the pural prefix was used after the numeral one. In the main dialect, there is only a single plural prefix for all words: do- e.g.

Possession is head-marking, that is, the possessed noun takes the modification. An example of this is kksums tia dogua - the shaman's lands, lit. shaman his-lands. In this case, nouns may be double marked for plural: dokksums dua gua - the shamans' land.

Diminutive forms are usually made by adding the -t suffix to a noun. If the word already ends in a single t then it is replaced by the syllable -tta. If the word already ends in two consonants, usually the second consonant is replaced, but sometimes a sort of internal reduplication takes place, and this is fossilised in some forms such as beoliakiamt- a favor, from beoliamk - aid.

Pronouns

 * uanh - first person singular, (formal possessive uak, informal uadawak)
 * ge - second person singular, (formal possessive gewek, informal gedawak)
 * ua - third person singular, possessive tia
 * dawanh - first person plural, possessive dawak
 * iak - second person plural, possessive iage(k)
 * dua - third person plural, possessive dua

When in subject position, the case particle is usually omitted. The first and second person pronouns are often put in front of the verb in simple sentences, except when there is an auxiliary, in which case it comes directly before the main verb.

Particles
Instead of case, nouns are marked by particles. These are never stressed. They can be used with adjectives or even verbs to nominalise them. In the case of verbs this is usually equivalent to a gerundive. The main particles are: There were three additional particles that have been attested but tend to be assimilated by dili for the first two and a prepositional phrase using lik for the last one.
 * ba marks the subject of an active transitive verb;
 * mo marks the direct object of an active or mediopassive verb;
 * um marks the benefactor of an active transitive verb, and often is the indirect object (it always comes after the direct object) and it is usually also the subject of a mediopassive verb;
 * lik marks the indirect object when it comes before the direct object;
 * dili marks the topic when it isn't grammatically part of the sentence;
 * la marks a direct object when topic-fronted.
 * uaba marks a subject when topic-fronted;
 * ga marks the agent of a mediopassive intransitive verb.

Prepositions
There are no postpositions in Mulesuax, only prepositions. All prepositions dictate a case particle marker which is nearly always mo or lik. Some might take multiple cases and subtly change meaning depending on which case is used.

Adjectives
Adjectives always follow the noun they modify. When placed directly after a case particle it nominalises. Because of this, and the fact that most nouns can be placed directly after a noun to modify it, the distinction between nouns and adjectives is very blurry.

Adverbs
Adverbs always precede the verb or adjective they modify.

Compounding
The first word of a compound takes the infix -l- after the first consonant. The word class is usually determined by the first word, although occasionally a word may take on a completely different word class.

Derivation
There is a limited amount of derivation. A lot of phrases which would be derived in other languages are formed in other ways, but especially through the compounding detailed above.

Dependent Clauses
There are a few ways to form dependent clauses.

Questions
There are only a few ways to form questions in Mulesuax. These are mostly done with the addition of question words; often the only marker was intonation. This is sometimes shown in writing but not often.

Lexicon
Most of the words come straight from Wilaysenas, as the Muttass people had only limited contact with other peoples, including the Bresano people. However most sound changes obscure the connection between Mulesuax and its ancestor and sister languages. An example of this obscurity is the fact that [ˈɮɛɕɯ̆ʌ̆ʂ] is cognate with [bɾɛˈsano].


 * lessuas - speech, language


 * gua - land


 * ttass - people


 * tuakkenhs - left (not right)


 * kksums - shaman


 * beoliamk - help, aid


 * liksia - respect, honour


 * ku - cloak


 * banh - to have, be


 * kku - to do, make

Descendents
Mulesuax had many descendents, but these can be grouped into a few groups:
 * Insular Mulesuax, characterised by its isolation from other Mulesuax languages. There is a slight substrate from the previous residents of the island that were otherwise assimilated into the Muttass population. This is most obvious in the personal pronouns.
 * Southern Mulesuax, characterised by its contact with Bresano and the Lesan Languages, and its subsequent loss of ejectives.
 * Peninsular Mulesuax, also called Western Mulesuax as this is the most widespread branch that spread east along almost the entire coast of the Mesoborean sea. It is characterised by its uvular consonants and retention of ejectives.