Me'-rü'-ba̠n scratchpad

[Shemtov]

Me'-rü'-ba̠n [me˥˧ ɽyˀ˦ pã˨] is a language spoken in the city state of Mai'-rü', northwest of the Empire of The Bard-Emperors, which is part of the League of Mayk City States, consisting of a few dozen cities, which are united in common defense against the Empire of The Bard-Emperors, which is in a perpetual state of religious war with the League (though oddly the Empire's semisyllabary comes from a common source as the Mayk Logo-semisyllabary. They have been able to survive due to being in the Mountains, a terrain which the the Empire of The Bard-Emperors' army is not used to fighting in.
Phonemic inventory:
/p pʰ t̪ t̪ʰ ʈ ʈʰ k kʰ / <b p d t dr tr g k>
/m n̪ ɳ ŋ/ <m n nr ng>
/ɸ s̪ ʂ x/ <f s sr h>
/ɬ/ <l>
/ɽ/ <r>
/j w/ <y w>

/i y ɯ u/ <i ü ǔ u>
/e ø o/ <e ö o/
/ʌ/ <ǒ>
/a/ <a>

/˦ ˨/ V V̠

Finals:
There are three "finals" based on Proto-Mayk's finals (/t̪̚ ʈ̚ k̚ q̚ n̪ ɳ ŋ ɴ ɹ̪ ɽ ʀ/), and thus in my romanazation are represented by attaching a consonant to the end of the CV syllable.
-': The Glottal final: Stød on most vowels, except for high tone /e ø o ʌ/, which are pronounced with a ˥˧ tone.
-n: Nasal final: Nasalazation of vowel
-r: Length final: Lengthening of vowel

[Shemtov]

Nouns are mostly monosyllabic
Plurals:
Only human nouns form plurals. They reduplicate, without the final, in a low tone, if the noun is high tone:
Mǒ' /mʌˀ˦/"preist" Mǒ̠mǒ' /mʌ˨mʌˀ˦/ "preists"

Case:
The language is ergative:
Declension of Mǒ' /mʌˀ˦/"preist
Absolutive: Mǒ'
Ergative Mǒ'da
Genitive: Mǒ'yir
Dative-Lative: Mǒ'tro̠n
Instrumental-Locative: Mǒ'wi
Ablative: Mǒ'sǔ̠'

Some nouns with back vowels form their ergative by fronting- /a/ is a back vowel and it goes to /e/.
Kur "wasp"" Kür "wasp.ERG"
La̠ "Enemy" Le̠ "enemy.ERG"
But:
Bo' "messanger" Bo'da "messanger.ERG"

[Shemtov]

Verbs have two stems: Non-Past and Past
There are four ways to form a past tense stem from a non-past:
Aspirating an unaspirate stop; this also changes /ɽ/ to /ɬ/:
Dikǒn "to come" Tikǒn "to have come"
Pogir "to laugh" Pokir "to have laughed"
Midü̠r "To eat" Mitü̠r "to have ate"
Resran "to love" Lesran "to have loved"

Tone change::
Gifö' "to sing" Gi̠fö' "to have sung"

Vowel change:
Yamun "to die" Yamün "to have died

Suppletion:
Bisa' "to have sex" Bi̠lör "To have had sex"

[Shemtov]

Intransitive utterances:
Me'-rü'-ba̠n is verb final.Verbs take Aspect-Mood postpositions. These are most common ones:
Ǔr-Habitual
Bi̠'-Momentative
Srö'-Inceptive
Ǔn-Terminative
Nre'-Serielative
Fu̠n-Conative

Mǒ' pogir
"The priest is laughing"

Mǒ' pogir ǔn
"The priest is finishing laughing"

The past tense root is marked for perfective, and thus can take an imperfective postposition Le̠r. Thus we have the opposition:
Mǒ' pokir
"The priest has laughed"

Mǒ' pokir le̠r
"The priest laughed"

Mǒ' pokir ǔn
"The priest has finished laughing"

Mǒ' pokir le̠r ǔn
"The priest finished laughing"

[Shemtov]

Modal particles part I
The language is sensitive to epistemic modality.
Unmarked is Witness modality, including nonvisual.
The following are the most common epistemic modal particles
Nrö'- inferential/assumed
Li̠- reported #1 (heard directly)
Drǔ̠r- reported #2 (heard secondhand)

Mǒ' pokir le̠r nrö'
"It seems the priest laughed"

Mǒ' pokir le̠r li̠
"I have been told that the priest laughed"

Mǒ' pokir le̠r drǔr
"It's been said that the priest laughed"

[Shemtov]

Common other moods that do not need other clauses:
Nescesitive-abilitive: Gu̠
In reported speech, Nescesitive meaning is not used, thus, while "Mǒ' pokir le̠r gu̠ nrö'" can be translated as "It seems the priest should have laugh" or "It seems the priest could have laughed" "Mǒ' pokir le̠r gu̠ li̠" can only be translated as "I've been told the priest could have laughed"

Obligative: Tran

Optative: Su' Usually, this expresses wishes
Mǒ' pogir su'
"May the priest laugh"

With the assumptive, it can be used as a future:
Mǒ' pogir su' nrö'
"The priest will laugh"

With reported speech, it can be a Nescesitive:
Mǒ' pogir su' li̠
"I've been told the priest should laugh"