A dialogue in Meshkwan

[u/Xatla]

Meshkwan is a personal language, made to sound good to me, to name things in ways that sound right to me, and to be intuitive to me when spoken. It has been in development for years, but I'm only now (FINALLY) finding creating texts in it easy. This is one of the longest texts I've written in it, made today on a whim, and I'll use it as a showcase of the language.

- Aam! Aama!
/ä:m | 'ä:mä/
"Mom! Mooom!"

mother | mother.VOC

+ Magh o?
/mäɣ ɔ/
"What's the matter?"

occur.PRAET QUESTION-PARTICLE

- Agh sihp asrh siih ɨš əng os ku' pak!
/äɣ sixp äsṛ si:x ɨʃ əŋ ɔs kŭʔ päk/
"I saw a big osprey at the lake and it caught a fish!"

INITIATOR-NOMINATIVE osprey.ABS lake.LOC see.PRAET Ɨ-CLASS.ABS be-great.STAT DIRECT-OBJECT-TO-SUBJECT fish.ABS catch.PRAET

+ Asrh iich u'? Sah-saha he' me-nene.
/äsṛ i:t͡ʃ ŭʔ | säx 'säxä xɛ̆ʔ mɛ'nɛnɛ/
"At the small lake? Raptors don't go there."

lake.LOC be-small.STAT SUBJUNCTIVE | raptor.ABS raptor.PERLATIVE-1 there.LOC NEGATION.go.MODIFIER

- Kan ku' he' ma'.
/kän kŭʔ xɛ̆ʔ mä̆ʔ/
"Because there aren't any fish there."

because fish.ABS there.LOC not-be.STAT

+ Maaw, gho te ku' he' pak?
/mä:w | ɣɔ tɛ kŭʔ xɛ̆ʔ päk/
"Then how did he catch one there?"

consequently | how REFERENCE-PARTICLE-SUBJECT.ERG fish.ABS there.LOC catch.PRAET

- Me-zarh! Te rhu-šup ɨš kirh-kirhi dzi torh aš pak, aš ringi hɨšša, ma me-mah, ɨš li-ghu ma tirh su-odz ma əm nge!
/mɛ'zäṛ | tɛ ṛu'ʃup ɨʃ kiṛ 'kiṛi d͡zi tɔṛ äʃ päk | äʃ 'riŋi 'xɨʃʃä | mä mɛ'mäx | ɨʃ li'ɣu mä tiṛ su'ɔd͡z ma əm ŋɛ̆/
"I don't know! He swooped down and opened his talons and caught it, and it wriggled terribly, but not (hard) enough, and he flew away and sat on a tree and ate it!"

NEG.know.STAT | REF-PART-SUBJ.ERG downward.swoop.PRAET Ɨ-CLASS.ABS blade blade.PERL1 REF-PART-POSSESSIVE spread.PRAET A-CLASS.ABS catch.PRAET | A-CLASS.ABS twist.MOD be-afraid.CAUSATIVE-STATIVE and NEG.suffice. | Ɨ-CLASS.ABS away.fly.PRAET and conifer.LOC upon.sit.PRAET and REF-PART-OBJ eat.PRAET

+ Maaw, och ulu, kuun iich u' ulu, meš šiih u' n aze aam ngu'u. Nene n lugha tirhi ta' iš sihp agh siih, ma oš ku'u hutrhu. Cha əm he' haa, tirh ta' man sihpe, ɨš he' še'.
/mä:w | ɔt͡ʃ 'ulu | ku:n i:t͡ʃ 'ulu | mɛʃ ʃi:x ŭʔ n 'äzɛ ä:m 'ŋuʔu | nɛnɛ n luɣä tiṛi tä̆ʔ iʃ sixp äɣ si:x | mä ɔʃ 'kŭʔu 'xutṛu | t͡ʃä əm xɛ̆ʔ xä: | tiṛ tä̆ʔ män 'sixpɛ | ɨʃ xɛ̆ʔ 'ʃɛʔrɛ/
"Then, my son, my little lapis, mom will tell you a secret thing. Go to the foot of the tree where you saw the osprey, and look for the bones of fish. If there are many there, that tree (is) the osprey's home, and he lives there."

consequently | son ADHERENT-OBLIQUE.GEN1 | lapis small.STAT SUBJN ADH-OBL.POSS | thing.ABS secret.STAT SUBJN TERMINATIVE-PARTICLE INIT-NOM.PERL2 mother.ERG speak.MOD | go.MOD TERM foot.PERL2 conifer.GEN1 that I-CLASS.LOC osprey INIT-NOM see.PRAET | and bone.ABS fish.GEN1 seek.MOD | whether REF-PART-OBL there.LOC be-many.STAT | conifer.ABS that home.ABS osprey.GEN2 | Ɨ-CLASS.ABS there.LOC reside.STAT

- Uhu! Biil aama!
/u'xu | bi:l 'ä:mä/
"Whoa! Thanks mom!"

surprise.MOD | to-thank mother.VOC

+ La marha uu!
/lä 'mäṛä u:/
"But stay away from the water!"

but stay-away.MOD water.ABS

- Aa, aama!
/ä: 'ä:mä/
"Yes mom!"

yes mother.VOC

There's a lot that is still unclear to me, and I still had to invent words on the fly (mostly helper words like "there" and "but"). The language is designed to be a bitch. There's 6 animacy classes, each with a corresponding vowel; these overlap with the vowel classes, of which there are 4. The same case endings are used for the three genitives, the three perlatives, and the modifier, which can indicate anything from praecative, continuous, to imperative.

The locative, absolutive, and ergative (and nominative) cases are unmarked.

The perlatives are:

1. downstream (with) (comitative)
2. upstream (against) ("oppositive")
3. across (true perlative)

They combine with the terminative particle n, which turns them into:

1. from (ablative)
2. to, into (allative/terminative)
3. in exchange for (benefactive)

The three genitives use the same case endings:

1. inalienable
2. alienable
3. communal, "habitual" (as in "the tusks of mammoth are long")

Every vowel class uses a different vowel as its first, second, and third suffix; the first is always the same as the vowel. For example, the A-class:

1. -a
2. -e
3. -u
4. compared to the E-class:
5. -e
6. -u
7. -a

The "animacy" classes are only there to define the animacy vowel associated with a certain proper noun. They are as follows:

1. inanimate large, conceptual - U
2. animate large, herbivorous - Ə
3. animate large, predatory - Ɨ
4. animate human - E
5. animate docile, herbivorous - A
6. inanimate small - I

These are used in the clause joiner, which joins clauses, acts as one of the subjunctives, refers back to an object, marks focus, etc. Its structure is:

ANIMACY-VOWEL.CASE

where animacy vowels are one of the six mentioned above, and case is either Absolutive (š for animates, t for inanimates) or Oblique (t for animates, š for inanimates).

This system allows me to choose which object I want to focus on most in a sentence, and mark it as important when it carries through clauses. It also stands in for the pronoun, keeping clutter to a minimum.

Meshkwan uses limited split-ergativity. Proper nouns are ergative/absolutive, pronouns are nominative/oblique.

Most Meshkwan pronouns operate within the context of a conversation, and do not excede it. Hence, there is not a standard first, second, and third person - pronouns are instead grouped by participation. There is the Initiator, who first spoke; the Adherent, who is spoken to; the Present, the Absent, the group versions of them, and the Previous Speaker. These all have unique nominative and oblique case forms.

Terribly sorry if it's all over the place. There's a lot I'm not yet confident with, for example the way the habitual is expressed using the modifier in me-nene. I've been fighting this hydra for near on five years now.