/m n ŋ β ð ɣ p t k t͡s t͡ɕ s ɕ l r j/

/a e i o u/, with marginal /ə/.

16 / 6 = 2.67

Voicing is not phonemic in either stops or fricatives; in particular, /β ð ɣ/ are always voiced, while /p t t͡s s t͡ɕ ɕ k/ are always voiceless.

The language lacks /b d g/.

An older form of the language had [ɬʲ], written <lj>. In the modern form of the language is simply pronounced /j/, leaving /l/ as the only lateral and /l r/ as the liquids.

Because nasal vowels are non-contrastive phonemically does not mean they are absent phonetically. The language appears to be slowly moving towards developing a phonemic nasality contrast. These include:

• /a u/ + cluster of nasal and stop, or /a u/ + word-final nasal (esp. in the suffix /-on/), having optional release as [ã ũ]
• /eŋ/ word-finally in isolation being released as [ẽ]
• /o/ + cluster of nasal and stop, or /o/ + word-final nasal (esp. in the suffix /-on/), being released variously as [ɔ̃] or [õ]

So far, /i/ has mostly resisted this trend toward nasal allophony.

Some dialects may use /ø/ and /y/, which ostensibly arise from vocalization of a /l/ in coda-position (e.g. /tyle/ for standard /tilːe/, written <tille> "red".)

The language exhibits the capability to have more than one consonant in coda position in a syllable. These combinations include nasal + obstruent or liquid + nasal clusters. They occur word-finally somewhat rarely.

Stress is based on syllable weight (more specifically, presence of a coda consonant).

In word roots, the CVC syllable closest to the end of a word (i.e., right-most CVC syllable) attracts stress. In root words without a CVC syllable, stress is placed on the first CV syllable. The scope of stress placement does not depend on the hypothetical length of the root word.

When a root word takes suffixes, the scope refuses to leave the root word until there are two or more suffixes comprising two or more distinct syllables after the root word. At this point, the scope increases to the entire word inclusive of suffixes before reapplying the same rules to apply stress.

In words whose stress falls on a CVC syllable, secondary stress regularly falls on every odd syllable to the left. In words whose stress falls on a CV syllable, secondary stress regularly falls on every odd syllable to the right.

Despite their presence, consonants /m β p/ have restricted distributions at the ends of syllables, and it appears that Missa is gradually taking steps to eliminate bilabial consonants in this position:

• /m/ before certain obstruents tends to drop in favor of allophonic vowel nasalization. This is common before /p/, not uncommon before /β/, and rare or possibly dialect-restricted before /s ɕ/ in root words (this process is more common before all sounds allowed to follow /m/ when that sound is part of a suffix). This phonetic process is also attested word-finally, although never in words comprising a single syllable.
• /β/ cannot occur at the ends of words or before a voiceless obstruent in an adjoining syllable if it occurs in coda position in the middle of a word.
• /p/ has been losing ground word-finally, tending to vocalize to an unstressed, super-short /u/ in coda clusters (e.g. /alp/ [ˈa.lu̯]). In other positions, it seems to either be unaffected, be unreleased, or change to [u̯] depending on whether or not it ends a stressed syllable, and marginally on dialect and on individual preference.

The language has /ð/. It cannot occur word-finally, and is always voiced.

Most suffixes represent one morpheme and attach to the ends of the words. Because phonological processes may occur when suffixes are present (e.g. obstruent voicing, nasal infixation or sibilant assimilation), these are generally seen as concatenating, making single words.

Almost every suffix codes for a different formative (each suffix is its own morpheme), both in noun cases and in verbal TAM markers. A possible exception, depending on the analysis of the phenomenon, occurs in some historically new nominal cases, which arose from marking a noun already in the inessive or essive cases with the dative or ablative case markers, creating what are roughly illative, elative, translative and exessive cases.

Missa verbs may exhibit the following verb inflections:

• TAM marking
• Agreement in gender and number marking with the subject (number for all persons, gender only for third person non-inanimate referents)
• Realis vs. irrealis
• Polarity
• Illocution
• Voice (passive vs. active)
• Transitivity (in verbs which are not inherently transitive/intransitive)
• Reciprocity/reflexiveness
• Deixis (dialectal and normally frowned upon, but still found)
• Direction (in verbs of movement)

A Missa verb generally agrees with the person and number of the subject of its clause when that subject is a pronoun other than the epicene (3rd person inanimate, singular or plural). When the subject of the clause is not a pronoun, Missa verbs show no verbal marking of arguments in the clause.

Most possessive noun-phrases are dependent-marking (marking the possessor), using what is essentially a possessive clitic. However, there are two suffixes which allow for head-marking; these are possessive suffixes for the 1st and 2nd person singular, and only occur when the head is inalienably possessed.

Possessive noun phrases are dependent-marking; clauses are mostly zero-marking.

While one could argue that there is syncretism in the 3rd person inanimate marking of verbs (both are -0 regardless of number), this is more easily seen as a phenomenon outside of verbal person/number syncretism (namely, if there is no person marking on a verb or that marking is -0, then a verb does not agree for number either, regardless of whether the arguments are pronominal or not).

Gender is only distinguished in animate nouns, overwhelmingly in human arguments; and only obligatorily when a 3rd person singular pronoun marking gender is an argument (which is commonly replaceable by the 3rd person epicene pronoun, which marks no gender, an inanimate argument, or gender not relevant).

The gender of the third person pronoun(s) are sex-based (masculine (human), feminine (human), other). There is no other obligatory marking for gender in Missa.

Nouns have no obligatory gender, nor do the majority of pronouns.

There is a suffix marking plural (base realization /-sa/) on both nouns and pronouns. This suffix may change the stem of some nouns due to assimilation or historical devoicing; after vowels, a process of voicing and then rhotacism occurred, leaving /-ra/.

When the proximal <ses> or distal <des> are pronominal, they must obligatorily take a nominalizing suffix (historically /0/; while this remains, it is not seen as correct as the general nominal suffixes <on> or <eń>), creating a word which then takes suffixes like a normal noun. When the two are adnominal, they become suffixes.

Indefinite pronouns are the same as generic nouns and are distinguished by context alone.

A general intensifier is <k(e)>, which may in some dialects directly follow a verb stem to give the verb itself intensive meaning. There are no independent reflexive pronouns in Missa; instead, clausal intensity can be reflected in the presence of subject pronouns for most pronouns. Missa is otherwise a pro-drop language.

While cases can assimilate or cause assimilation in final consonants of the nouns to which they attach, the literal suffixes themselves do not change based on an intrinsic definition or classification of any noun (including pronouns).

While the comitative uses the suffix <saj>, the instrumental uses the suffix <ne>. The instrumental, however, is conflated with the essive case.

The ordinal suffix for all numbers is -tu: mej-tu 'first', skensillup-tu 'sixty-fourth'.

Note only the first and second person singular have pronominal possessive affixes (/in/ in the first person singular, and /is/ in the 2nd person singular). All other possessive constructions are formed by dependent-marking by a clitic in strict possessor-possessed order.

There are two different suffixes, both used in common speech, to make an adjective a noun (e.g. "The green one"):

1. The suffix -eń. This suffix is relatively new and is literally taken from the word 'thing'. In English, 'malkeń' would translate more to 'the green thing' than 'the green one', but it can be used for either due to the alternate meaning of the suffix below.
2. The suffix -on. This suffix is very productive, and is the standard maker of nouns from other roots. In Enlgish, 'malk-on' would translate to either 'the green one' (between several options) or 'the color green'.

SV is prevalent in standard clauses, in non-emphatic constructions:

talśon tal-se

[book read-PASS]

"The book is read."

However, with pronouns, a suffix is added and the independent pronoun is dropped, leading to what is arguably VS order:

as-se-j-o

[see-PASS-0-2sg]

"You're seen."

In almost all emphatic constructions, however, <de> (the epicene pronoun) replaces the pre-verbal argument slot, and the noun itself is postponed after the verb, usually with a demonstrative suffix.

de tal-se talśon-des

[it read-PASS book-that]

"The BOOK is read." (Literally, "It is read, that book."

This is distinguished from "That book is read", a standard clause which retains rigid SV word order:

talśon-des tal-se book-THAT read-PAS

"That book is read."

The standard word order in general clauses is OSV.

The particle representing a question, <dej> /ði/, acts more as a suffix than as a particle; nothing can come between it and the verb, and furthermore the morpheme changes to <tej> /ti/ after an obstruent.

While initial interrogative phrases are more common than non-initial ones, initial position is not obligatory in Missa.

Śadejn Napoleon étta?

Napoleon śadejn étta?

Both phrases mean "Where did Napoleon die?"

Missa exhibits a zero marking in the 3rd person when the 3rd person subject of the verb is not of masculine or feminine gender (normally referring to all life forms, but increasingly only regarding human referents of known gender), which includes the vast majority of nouns in the language. This is not restricted to the singular; 0 marking occurs for both singular and plural number.

The distinction between these two options in a Missa purpose clause comes down to person marking on the verb inside the purpose clause, which is optional:

ki-ra śen-lin ak-le sók-ot uk-é

[egg-PL eat-GER.LOC 3sg.-POSS house-DAT go-1sg.]

"I'm going to his house to eat eggs"

ki-ra śen-é-lin ak-le sók-ot uk-é

[egg-PL eat-1sg-GER.LOC 3sg-POSS house-DAT go-1sg.]

"I'm going to his house to eat eggs"

Both phrases are equivalent.

Both are permissible, but balanced reason clauses are slightly preferred.

Balanced clauses are used to reflect direct quotations, while deranked clauses are used to make indirect quotations:

vé nukénot uklin istak

[1sg home-1sg-DAT go-0-GER.LOC say-PERF-3sg.m.]

"He said I want(ed) to go home"

nukénot ukélin istak

[home-1sg-DAT go-1sg-GER.LOC say-PERF-3sg.m.]

"He said, 'I want to go home'"

The modern language does not abide to paradigmatic m-T pronouns; in addition, one would be obligated to stretch the current limit of what constitutes a language with m-T pronouns in order to allow Missa to be described as one.

-1st person /βi/, with a bilabial fricative (as opposed to /m/, the sample found in all of the world's languages with m-T pronouns, although WALS gives leeway to other possible bilabial sounds) -2nd person /o/, coming from a historical older /o:s/, with an alveolar fricative.

The word for 'tea' is endemic to Missa, and results from the initial wave of vocabulary generation when the language was still better classified as a code or cipher of English.

Latin alphabet in current use. The following letters are used:

a á b c ć d e é ė g i í j k l m n ń o ó p r s ś t u ú v y

Unless otherwise marked below, all letters are said like their IPA equivalent.

• All vowels with acute accents, save 'é', are read like their non accented counterparts (e.g., it is not indicative of any vowel length or quality distinction or stress marking).
• <b v> both are read as /β/. A change similar to that in Spanish occured, where all of [w b v] collapsed into a single phoneme.
• <c> is read as /t͡s/ before back vowels and as /t͡ɕ/ before front vowels. <ć> is read as /t͡ɕ/ in all positions.
• <é> is read as /i/ in all positions.
• <ė> and <y> were originally read as /ə/ in all positions. Currently, /ə/ is losing ground to /a/, and a merger is occurring.
• <g> always represents /ɣ/; however, it has an allophone [ʝ] before front vowels.
• <ń> is read as /ŋ/ in all positions.
• <ś> is a phoneme distinct from /s/ whose precise articulation is not yet fully understood. While on this page this sound has been marked as /ɕ/, it is more than likely that it is in fact [s̠] (a retracted alveolar sibilant) or similar.

There have been several thoughts about a special alphabet made for Missa, but no one idea has gained momentum.