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Minhyan is a VSO inflexional language that grammaticalizes two aspects and seven moods in its verbal conjugation and grammaticalizes definiteness and seven cases in its noun declension, which is active-stative rather than nominative-accusative.
Infixing
Minhyan relies heavily on infixing for declining nouns, conjugating verbs and creating compound words. Infixes are placed before the final consonant cluster of a root (if any); if the word ends in a vowel, then the infix is treated as a suffix and appended.
Word
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Infix
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Infixed Example
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tas, "order"
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-he-, "tendency"
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tahes, "orderliness"
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ach, "snow"
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-ho-, "small-item"
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ahoch, "snowflake"
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neru, "sand"
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-ho-, "small-item"
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neruho, "grain of sand"
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Syntax
 Minhyan is a VSO language: the standard word order is verb first, then subject, then object. (English is a SVO language.) It is a Place Manner Time language, rather than a Time Manner Place language (see Nouns below for details).
Modifiers follow the words that they modify: nirr parr, "grass green" = "green grass". Even relative clauses follow the words they modify.
While the language defaults to VSO, any order is possible in independent clauses thanks to the declensions and conjugations.
Verbs
Minhyan verbs are not conjugated for tense (past, present, future) but for mood and aspect. While Proto-Minhyan had a rich aspect system, by the time of Minhyan this was reduced to just Perfective ("the action is completed") and Imperfective ("action is ongoing") aspects.
Mood
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Explanation
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Perfective
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Imperfective
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Indicative
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Factual
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-re-
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Negative
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Negates the verb
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-no-
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-ne-
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Optative
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Hopes or wishes the verb
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-wu-
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-we-
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Hypothetical
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Counterfactual but possible
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-pu-
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-pe-
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Conditional
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A possible condition
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-co-
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-ca-
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Dubitative
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Doubt
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-du-
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-di-
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Cohortative
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Encouraging group action
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-bu-
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-bi-
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The imperfective typically has a front vowel; the perfective typically has a back vowel.
The imperative is not expressed by a mood but by repeating the name of person being commanded in both the vocative and agentive cases using the optative mood.
Serial verbs are ambiguous and can either mean:
1. Two separate actions (e.g., speak + hear = "They speak and do not hear each other").
2. The first verb affects the second (e.g., finish + create: "They finished creating").
All verbs are regular except for the copula, turi, which preserves part of an earlier aspect system. Arguments of the copula take the dative.
Mood
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Explanation
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Perfective
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Imperfective
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Progressive
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Indicative
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Factual
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-
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turiri
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turira
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Negative
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Negates the verb
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turino
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turini
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turina
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Optative
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Hopes or wishes the verb
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turiwo
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turiwi
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turiwa
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Hypothetical
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Counterfactual but possible
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turipu
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turipi
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turipa
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Conditional
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A possible condition
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turico
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turice
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turica
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Dubitative
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Doubt
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turidu
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turide
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turida
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Cohortative
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Encouraging group action
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turibu
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turibe
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turiba
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Adverbs
Minhyan completely lacks adverbs. Decline a noun using the ablative case instead to indicate the manner of the verb.
Nouns
Minhyan does not have a nominative-accusative case system (as most Indo-European languages do) but an active-stative system: the agent of the verb is always in the agentive case and the patient of the verb is always in the patientive case. (In a nominative-accusative case system, the patient of the intransitive verb is in the nominative case.)
Minhyan nouns are declined for definiteness and for seven cases. The base form of a noun is the Definite Agentive: orean, "the eagle, the eagles", contrasted to oreahan, "an eagle, some eagles". The Minhyan declension involves incorporating infixes before the final consonant cluster (if any) of the root word.
Reflecting their evolution from the Proto-Minhyan system for marking singular and plural, the indefinite noun form is assumed singular unless otherwise marked, and the definite form is assumed plural unless otherwise marked. So orean would typically mean "the eagles" and oreahan would typically mean "an eagle".
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Indefinite
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Definite
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Agentive
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Performs the verb
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-ha-
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-
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Patientive
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Receives action of verb
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-pa-
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-po-
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Dative
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Focus or referent
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-sse-
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-ssu-
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Locative
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Location of verb
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-li-
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-lu-
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Ablative
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Manner of verb
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-we-
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-wa-
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Temporal
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Time of verb
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-ri-
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-ru-
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Vocative
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Addressee of utterence
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-ffi-
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-ffo-
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The indefinite infixes typically have front vowels, while definite infixes typically have back vowels.
Some notes on cases of special interest:
The ablative also acts as a "catch-all" case.
The temporal case is often used to specify on an as-needed basis information about the verb that other languages express in terms of tense and aspect.
The typical order of the cases in a sentence is: vocative (verb) agentive patientive dative locative ablative temporal.
Pronouns
The pronoun declension preserves Old Minhyan's singular and plural distinction.
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Singular
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Plural
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Agentive
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-ha-
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-
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Patientive
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-pa-
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-po-
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Dative
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-sse-
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-ssu-
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Locative
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-li-
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-lu-
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Ablative
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-we-
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-wa-
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Temporal
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-ri-
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-ru-
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Vocative
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-ffi-
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-ffo-
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The actual pronouns are nine separate roots that vary for status and person. The pronoun system for Minhyan is, unlike English, concerned with status rather than gender. It depends on the societal status level of the antecedant relative to the speaker: an honorific pronoun, a peer pronoun and a humble pronoun.
Person
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Gloss
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Honorific
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Peer
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Humble
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1
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"Me"
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oridben
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gara
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aru
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2
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"You"
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arnodiad
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calan
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aba
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3
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"Them"
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trenorn
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leweg
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ono
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Actual usage is too complex to be easily summarized. Traditions of Minhyan discourse require the speaker to use the appropriate status pronoun for the situation. It would be considered insulting for a king to address his page using arnodiad and considered rebellious of a minor to address a parent using calan. A king would say to his betrothed, Ama oridbehan calapan ("I love you") if she were a noble and Ama oridbehan abapa if she were a peasant. Once she was his queen, he would say, Ama oridbehan arnodiapad. (A king could say to his peasant bethrothed, Abapa ama oridbehan, "(It's) you I love", if he wanted to place more emphasis on her.)
Possessive pronouns are formed as if they were genitive adjectives. Demonstratives "this" and "that" are formed from the pronouns (think of them as meaning "this thing near me" and "that thing near you"). Thus echipal aruga means "my shirt" (or "our shirt") and echipal aru means "this shirt" (echipal aruge means "a shirt of mine").
Adjectives
Adjectives are never declined for case. However, adjectives can take three endings that must agree in definiteness or indefiniteness with the noun they modify.
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Indefinite
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Definite
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Possessive
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-ge-
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-ga-
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Comparative
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-me-
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-mo-
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Superlative
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NA
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-sso-
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Relative Clauses
The relativization infix -ba- marks the word that begins the relative clause, which continues until the first verb is encountered (it precedes any infix marking the declension or conjugation, otherwise it is the last infix in the word).
Relative clauses are typically SOV but order is flexible so long as they end with a verb.
Relative clauses cannot be nested.
Prepositions
Minhyan lacks prepositions. The case alone specifies the relation. So for something like celumb [< cemb, "window" & -lu-, definite locative] you have to use your judgment to determine if that should be translated "to the window", "out the window", "in the window", "through the window" or "at the window".
If more specifics are necessary to specify location in particular, then a preposition can be formed using the comparative.
Questions
The interrogative root ored is used to form a question. It can be declined to indicate the desired information.
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Indefinite
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Definite
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Gloss
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Agentive
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orehad
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ored
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"who, what?"
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Patientive
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orepad
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orepod
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"who, what?"
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Dative
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oressed
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oressud
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"who, what?"
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Locative
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orelid
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orelud
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"where?"
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Ablative
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orewed
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orewad
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"how?"
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Temporal
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orerid
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orerud
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"when?"
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Vocative
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oreffid
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oreffod
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"Who's there?"
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The interrogative root can be declined as an adjective as well.
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Indefinite
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Definite
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Gloss
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Possessive
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oreged
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oregad
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"whose?"
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Comparative
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oremed
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oremod
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"which is greater?"
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Superlative
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NA
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oressod
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"which is greatest?"
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Proto-Minhyan Grammar
The indefinite vs. definite declension evolved out of the singular vs. plural declension in Proto-Minhyan.
Old Minhyan's final aspect system was Perfective/Imperfective/Progressive -- it may have had as many as seven aspects, though most scholars believe it had five.
© 2004 Jeffrey Henning. All rights reserved.
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