Meó language

The Meó language is a language spoken within the nation of Meó as well as within its former colonies and throughout the Malaeze Sea. It is the official language of the Meó Amalgamate. It has millions of speakers. It is ultimately derived from Ancient Meó

Phonology

Consonants

PULMONIC	Bilabial	Alveolar/Dental	Palatal/Post-alveolar	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m mʲ	n nʲ	ɳ ɳʲ	ŋ ŋʲ
Voiceless Stops	p pʲ	t tʲ	tʂ tɕ	k kʲ	(q)
Aspirated Stops	pʰ pʰʲ	tʰ tʰʲ	tʂʰ tɕʰ	kʰ kʰʲ
Voiced Stops	b bʲ	d dʲ	dʐ dʑ	g gʲ
Voiced Continuants	β βʲ	l lʲ	ʐ zʲ
Voiceless Continuant	(ʍ~ɸ) (ʍʲ~ɸʲ)	(ɬ) (ɬʲ)	ʂ sʲ	x ç
Tap or Trill		ɾ ɾʲ

Many consonants have a high degree of allophony; The nasals /ɳ ɳʲ/ <ṇ ṇy> have the intervocalic allophones of [ɻ̃ ɻ̃ʲ~j̃] respectively in fast speech, making the preceding vowel nasal. They also have these allophones at the end of a syllable, but may also delete, leaving the preceding vowel nasal (and occasionally also rhoticised in some accents, though this is considered nonstandard), i.e. /aɳ/ -> /ã~ã˞/ /aɳʲ/ -> /ãj̃~ã˞j̃/

The voiced continuants tend to be closer to approximants, and the voiceless continuants closer to fricatives. /ʐ/ varies between [ʐ~ɻ̝~ɻ] with [ɻ̝] (a non-sibilant fricative) being considered the most correct. Q /q/ is additionally present in loanwords, and may be an allophone of /k/ before back vowels for some speakers.

PULMONIC	Bilabial	Alveolar/Dental	Palatal/Post-alveolar	Velar
Nasal	m my	n ny	ṇ ṇy	ṅ ṅy
Voiceless Stops	p py	t ty	ch chy	k ky
Aspirated Stops	ph phy	th thy	chh chhy	kh khy
Voiced Stops	b by	d dy	j jy	g gy
Voiced Continuants	v vy	l ly	z zy	(y)
Voiceless Continuant	(hv) (hvy)	(hl) (hly)	s sy	h hy
Tap or Trill		r ry

Palatalised consonants are written Cy, or C' at the end of words - mya, am'.

Sandhi

Meó consonants have two forms of sandhi, lenition and fortification. They are important as they occur primarily (almost exclusively) in the conjugation of verbs, the passive (lenition) and third person (fortification) affecting the final consonant of the verb stem. All verb stems historically ending in consonants in Proto-Meó-Hsuqliht, but a few have been lost leading to vowel-ending stems - providing conjugations that rely on changing the tones instead. These are represented primarily by ʔ. The letter ø is used to signify the placement of the floating tone. ɣ is a historic consonant that has underwent numerous sound changes resulting in irregular vowel-ending verb conjugations. Superscripts represent environment specific changes. All vowels that follow in verb conjugations are palatal (ya, yu, yo, e, i).

Consonant	Lenition	Fortification
m	ø̂hm	mp
n	ø̂hn	nt
ṇ	ø̂hṇ	ṇch
ṅ	ø̂hṅ	ṅk
p	ph	pp
t	th	tt
ch	chh	cch
k	kh	kk
b	v	p
d	l/z*	t
j	y	ch
g	u,ov/ah/i,ey	k
v	ø̂hv	up
l	ø̂hl	lt
z	s	st
y	ø̂hy	ich
r	ø̂hr	rt
s	sh	ss
h	ø̂h	ø̂
ʔ	ǿh	ǿ
ɣ	h	i,eik/aak/u,ouk

• z derived from historic ɖʱ -> ɻ which avoided the alveolar-retroflex merger

Vowels

Vowels	Front	Mid	Back
Close		ɨ	u
Mid		ɘ	o
Open		a

/ɘ, o/ reduce to /ɨ, u/ in unstressed syllables

/ɘ/ is written -e, /ɨ/ as y (ÿ if adjacent to another vowel, or to distinguish from the palatalising y; ty /tɨ/, tÿa /tɨa/, tya /tʲæ/. This is not necessary with i and e as they imply /ʲ/, that is yi and ye represent /ɨji/ and /ɨje/ respectively, not /ʲi/ and /ʲe/). /a/, /o/, and /u/ are written a, o, and u

Vowels Palatal	Front	Mid	Back
Close	ʲi	ʲʉ
Mid	ʲe	ʲɵ
Open		ʲæ

/ʲi/ and /ʲe/ are written i and e, /ʲʉ/, /ʲɵ/, /ʲæ/ as yu, yo, ya.

Only palatal vowels may follow palatal consonants, and only plain vowels may follow plain consonants. Therefore /mʲʉ/ and /mu/ are allowed but */mʉ/ and */mʲu/ are not.

Tone

Meó has five tones;

• Low - mè
• Mid/default - me
• High - mé
• Rising - mě
• Falling - mê

Vocabulary

Most vocabulary derives from the Proto-Meo-Hsuqliht Language, though much of the vocabulary traces its origin to the Fertile Tongue, especially words related to the ocean, and later through Classical Htaevic influence much of the sophisticated vocabulary of Meó comes from languages derived from the fertile tongue (cf. English and French/Latin).

Meó Word	Meó Meaning	Classical Htaevic Root
vtyou	ocean	btyuw
tyuzyouṇ	bay	tsëwzyuwm
tyu	beach creek	tyuë
vaṇ	island	ramë
kouṅk	riptide	kuwnkë
sauvelin	sand	sawrelën
hvaul	beach sand	hrawlë
hlyul	reef	hliwlë
toza	lagoon (rarely; bay)	tozaë
kya	region	khya
hzyan	canal	hzyanë
vzelyu	to pray	wzeliw
vzelyuhachyan	Wzeliwhacan shrine	wzeliwhacan
hachyan	(Htaevic) shrine	hacan
byunt	person	biwmtë
thaun	to ignite	tghawn
hvazú	vapour	hrazu
luvemá	fuel	luremaa
vlahot	measuring stick	rlahotë
lintouṅ	tree	lmtuwng
huboyuzna	matchstick	hëwboiwnzlë
tuvyu	sacred flame	tëwriw
samou(ɣ)	to disconnect	samuwyë
hyaṇvaṅ	fertile	ccëmfrang

• note <r> in Classical Htaevic is /ʋ/