Miani
Timothy Usher, Santa Fe Institute
Situation
[under construction]
… Tamakot (…) …
Dialects
Two dialects of Miani are distinguished as follows (May and Loeweke 1982: 4-5):
Miani
Coastal Miani
Inland Miani
It is not clear from the information available to use which villages belong to the Coastal Dialect, which is said to be small, or how the dialects differ besides in their realization of palatal non-stop /j/ (below.)
Sources
[under construction]
…
Phonology
May and Loeweke (1982: 3, 15-18, ibid., May 1994) give 12 consonants and 5 vowels for Maiani as follows:
| m | n̪ | ||
| p | t̪ | s̪ | k |
| b | d̪ | g | |
| β | r | ʑ |
| i | u | |
| e | o | |
| a |
Word-finally, voiceless stops /p t̪ k/ are realized as aspirated [pʰ t̪ʰ kʰ].
Root-final fronted apical voiceless stop /t̪/ becomes /s̪/ when followed by a suffix which begins with a front vowel /i e/.
Bilabial voiced fricative /β/, systemically equivalent to non-stop /w/, is realized as [β] word-finally, when followed by front vowels /i e/, and when following /i e/ or lowe central /a/ and followed central /a/, and as [w] when followed by rounded vowels /u o/ or following /o u/ and followed by /a/.
There is no phonemic lateral non-stop /l/ as is found in Maiani.
Rhotic apical non-stop /r/ is realized as a flap [ɾ] when occuring between vowels at the onset of an unstressed syllable; elsewhere it is a trill [r].
In the small coastal dialect, the voiced fricative /ʑ/, which is systemically equivalent to palatal non-stop /j/, is realized instead as a fronted apical voiced stop [d̪] or as a lateral [l].
There are no consonant clusters.
Vowel sequences are intepreted as sequences rather than as diphthongs. The folowing sequences have been found:
| i | u | e | o | a | |
| i | — | — | ie | io | ia |
| u | ui | — | ue | uo | ua |
| e | — | eu | — | eo | ea |
| o | oi | — | — | — | oa |
| a | ai | au | ae | ao | — |
The three vowel sequences /iai, /uai/ and /uae/ are also found.
Stress is constrastive and most commonly falls on the second syllable..
Pronouns
Loeweke and May (1982: 8-17, 38-40) give pronouns for Miani in eleven case forms, the bases of which can be divided into three sets as follows:
| I | IIa | IIb | |
| 1 sg. | ʑo(-) | ʑi- | ʑe-ˈ |
| 2 sg. | n̪o(-) | n̪i- | n̪e-ˈ |
| 3 sg. | o(-) | Ø-; o-; u- | Ø-ˈ |
| 1 pl. | ʑi(-) | ʑi- | ˈʑe- |
| 2 pl. | n̪i(-) | n̪i- | ˈn̪e- |
| 3 pl. | wi(-) | wi- | ˈe- |
(Analysis ours.)
Case forms based upon set I free pronouns are as follows::
| nominative | alienable | “self” | “only” | “too” | |
| 1 sg. | ʑo | ʑo-n̪o | ʑo-n̪or-a | ʑo-ʑa | ʑo-bu |
| 2 sg. | n̪o | n̪o-n̪o | n̪o-n̪or-a | n̪o-ʑa | n̪o-bu |
| 3 sg. | o | o-n̪o | o-n̪or-a | o-iʑa | o-bu |
| 1 pl. | ʑi | ʑi-n̪o | ʑi-n̪or-a | ʑi-ʑa | ʑi-bu |
| 2 pl. | n̪i | n̪i-n̪o | n̪i-n̪or-a | n̪i-ʑa | n̪i-bu |
| 3 pl. | wi ~ i | wi-n̪o | wi-n̪or-a | wi-ʑa | wi-bu |
Case forms based upon set IIa bound pronouns are as follows:
| inalienable | reflexive | alienable | “motion” | |
| 1 sg. | ʑV- | ʑi-mi | ʑi-s̪i | ʑi-s̪ip |
| 2 sg. | n̪V- | n̪i-mi | n̪i-s̪i | n̪i-s̪ip |
| 3 sg. | Ø- | o-mi | u-s̪i | o-s̪ip |
| 1 pl. | ʑi- | ʑi-ʑi-mi | ʑi-ʑi–s̪i | ʑi-ʑi-s̪ip |
| 2 pl. | n̪i- | n̪i-n̪i-mi | n̪i-n̪i-s̪i | n̪i-n̪i-s̪ip |
| 3 pl. | i- | wi-i-mi | wi-i-s̪i | wi-i-s̪ip |
Besides set IIb prefixed objects, there is one case form which appears, perhaps only superficially, to be basd upon them as follows:
| object | locative | |
| 1 sg. | ʑe-ˈ | ʑu-βas̪i |
| 2 sg. | n̪e-ˈ | n̪u-βas̪i |
| 3 sg. | Ø-ˈ | Ø-βas̪i |
| 1 pl. | ˈʑe- | ʑe-βas̪i |
| 2 pl. | ˈn̪e- | n̪e-βas̪i |
| 3 pl. | ˈe- | o-βas̪i |
Verbal morphology
Loeweke and May (1982: 35-46) give subject-marked desinenences for Miani in six tense paradigms as follows:
| past | past habitual | future | future habitual | present | imperative | |
| 1 sg. | -a-mo | -gis̪i-rar-a-mo | -emo | -gis̪-emo | -eg-emo | — |
| 2 sg. | -a-Ø | -gis̪i-rar-a-Ø | -ia | -gis̪-ia | -ig-ia | -oβ |
| 3 sg. | -a-n̪ | -gis̪i-rar-a-n̪ | -ea | -gis̪-ea | -eg-ea | — |
| 1 pl. | -a-mi | -gis̪i-rar-a-mi | -imi | -gis̪-imi | -ig-imi | — |
| 2 pl. | -a-me | -gis̪i-rar-a-me | -eme | -gis̪-eme | -eg-eme | -eβen̪ ~ -en̪ |
| 3 pl. | -a-mod̪ | -gis̪i-rar-o-mod̪ | -emod̪ | -gis̪-emod̪ | -eg-emod̪ | — |
In addition to these, an element /-g-/ precedes the past tense suffixes to indicate the counterfactual meaning “should have;” however full paradigms for this tense/mood are not given.