Morphology
Morphological typology
Mundeze is an agglutinating language in the sense that it has invariable morphemes with a precise meaning, which can clump together in a regular way to a radical to create words.
However, almost all morphemes have a meaning when they are isolated, so that it is almost possible to use Mundeze as an isolating language, if we consider the grammatical endings as part of the radical.
“My son is growing up a lot” :
mea ide gualtisi (mea ide ko-altisi, My son much-grows) = ide a me guo isi alta (Son of me much become tall)
Compound
In Mundeze, we can easily create new words by combining roots, using juxtaposition. The root is the part of a word that precedes the grammatical ending. For example, in buke (book) the root is buk-, and the -e is the grammatical ending that indicates a noun.
Mundeze is a head-final language, which means that the complements precede its head. That applies to the words order at the sentence level, but also to word composition (for compound words using more than one lexeme).
Examples
From anar.e (group) and of.e (work), we can create:
anarofe (anar–of.e) = group work
ofanare (of–anar.e) = working group
Anaptyxis
We can add an epenthetic (written) ‑O‑ or (unwritten) /ə/ – schwa – in the case of we cannot pronounce a consonant cluster (in particular due to a word compound), but the stress can never be on it. Examples: demokrate (democracy), sub/ə/bode (underground).
The epenthesis is optional and therefore depends on the difficulty that the speaker will feel to pronounce fluently the combination of letters created by the fusion of root words.
Affixes
Here is a list of roots commonly used as affixes. Prefixes are modifiers, and suffixes are modificands (main root):
Prefixes
| Prefix | Meaning | Example |
| ba– | Male | te (human) ➜ bate (man) |
| de– | Opposite | fisa (easy) ➜ defisa (difficult) |
| dis– | Separation, scattering ; dis- | davi (give) ➜ disdavi (distribute, give out) |
| dur– | Continual action | dansi (dance) ➜ durdansi (dance on, keep on dancing) |
| eks– | Ex-, former | game (husband, wife) ➜ eksgame (ex-husband, ex-wife) |
| gam– | Relation by marriage, -in-law | pe (parent) ➜ gampe (parent-in-law) |
| gu– | Augmentative (very) | bona (good) ➜ gubona (excellent, great) |
| hu– | Pejorative, substandard degree | kwale (horse) ➜ hukwale (nag) |
| ko– | Reciprocity; inter- | peli (speak) ➜ kopeli (converse) |
| ma– | Female | kwale (horse) ➜ makwale (mare) |
| nal– | Trans-; across, beyond | iti (go) ➜ naliti (cross) |
| per– | Through, across | iti (go) ➜ periti (go through) |
| pos– | Post-; after, behind | die (day) ➜ posdie (next day, following day) |
| pre– | Pre-, fore- ; previous, front | ablo (ability) ➜ preablo (predisposition, talent) |
| re– | Again, repetition | yugi (play) ➜ reyugi (replay) |
| ri– | Reverse, backward; retro- | iti (go) ➜ riiti (return) |
| sam– | Same; co- | meni (think) ➜ sammeni (to agree) |
| su– | Reflexivity | morife (murder) ➜ sumorife (suicide) |
| tci– | Diminutive | site (city) ➜ tcisite (town) |
| uper– | Beyond, over, bypass | iti (go) ➜ uperiti (go beyond, pass) |
| wan– | Wrong, erroneous; mis- | mentcese (understanding) ➜ wanmentcese (misunderstanding) |
| za– | Genderqueer | te (human) ➜ zate (genderqueer) |
Suffixes
| Suffix | Meaning | Example |
| –abl– | Ability | pagi (pay) ➜ pagabla (solvent) |
| –ad– | Manner, way | kitci (write) ➜ kitcade (handwriting) |
| –an– | Person; member |
partite (political party) ➜ partitane (partisan) |
| –at– | Action; -ing | meni (think) ➜ menate (reflection) |
| –ar– | Collective, group | obe (tree) ➜ obare (forest, wood) |
| –arkan– | Leader, chief, boss | site (city) ➜ sitarkane (mayor) |
| –ebl– | Possible; -able | mentcesi (understand) ➜ mentcesebla (understandable) |
| –en– | Place | guli (drink) ➜ gulene (bar, pub) |
| –er– | Container; herbaceous from which comes such flower or fruit |
ace (ash) ➜ acere (ashtray) |
| –es– | Beginning of an action; start to + infinitive, become + adjective |
avi (have) ➜ avesi (get) |
| –et– | Quality, state | doste (friend) ➜ dostete (friendship) |
| –ey– | (Concrete) thing, product | nyami (eat) ➜ nyameye (food) |
| –ibl– | Worth | vermeni (believe) ➜ vermenibla (credible) |
| –id– | Cub, born of | myawe (cat) ➜ myawide (kitten) |
| –if– | Causative, factitive; to cause, to make X |
warma (hot) ➜ warmifi (heat) |
| –il– | Instrument, means | yugi (play) ➜ yugile (toy) |
| –ir– | Machine, device, apparatus | fufe (wind) ➜ fufire (fan) |
| –is– | Decausative; become/get/be + passive |
api (open) ➜ apisi (be opened) |
| –ism– | Doctrine | senarke (anarchy) ➜ senarkisme (anarchism) |
| –iv– | Inclination | fobi (fear, be afraid) ➜ fobiva (fearful) |
| –om– | Quantity | luce (light) ➜ lucome (luminosity) |
| –os– | Moment, time | nera (near) ➜ neroso (soon) |
| –un– | unit, fraction, particle | neve (snow) ➜ nevune (snowflake) |
| –up– | Multiple | ter (three) ➜ terupe (triple) |
| –us– | Full of; -ful | nube (cloud) ➜ nubusa (cloudy) |
Don’t you have a suffix -ist- ?
senarkiste! lol
Yes, -ismane.
senarkismane 😄
“tci– Diminutive site (city) ➜ tcisite (town)”
Really?
🙁
I would say:
“tci– Diminutive site (city,town) ➜ tcisite (village)”
🙂
Well, a town is smaller than a city, and village is sele, therefore I find it accurate
–abl– Ability pagi (pay) ➜ pagabla (solvent)
–ebl– Possible; -able mentcesi (understand) ➜ mentcesebla (understandable)
–ibl– Worth vermeni (believe) ➜ vermenibla (credible)
The nuance between these three roots is difficult to me. Wouldn’t the context be enough with only one root, like in Esperanto?
At the very least, I can consider merging -ebl- and -ibl-.
Their meaning is indeed very close in some cases. On the other hand, it’s impossible to merge -abl- (which has an active meaning) and -ebl- or -ibl- (which have a passive meaning), they are much too different.
For example:
wabla = who is able to see = sighted (opposite of blind)
webla = that you can see = visible.
wibla = that is worthy seeing = sightworthy, picturesque
As for the -ebl- and -ibl-, I think that the context can indeed help to distinguish the two meanings.
nyamebla = that you can eat, it’s possible to eat (even a poisonous food is “nyamebla“, since it is physically possible to eat it).
nyamibla = that is worth eating, edible (poisonous food is not edible).
Having said that, I remind you that these words are not suffixes, but real roots that also exist in their own.
I can consider removing -ibl- and merge it into -ebl-, but we’ll still need a word to translate “worthy”, right?
i find the 4 meanings useful.
1. capable of
2. possible
3. active dignity
4. passive dignity
active and passive dignity? Could you elaborate? I don’t see what it could be