mnoini

Mnoini is a fictional language and cultural concept used in speculative fiction and worldbuilding. It refers to the language spoken by the Mnoini people, a fictional coastal civilization inhabiting the Nilaya Archipelago in the southern seas. The term also denotes regional dialects and writing traditions within the same setting.

Linguistic features: Mnoini is described as an agglutinative language with SVO word order and vowel harmony. Its phoneme inventory is modest, with five vowels and consonants such as p, t, k, m, n, s, l, r. Stress is typically penultimate. Noun morphology expresses case and number with suffixes; verbs encode tense and aspect through affixes.

Writing and literature: Mnoini uses a syllabary-based script, historically carved on wood and stone and later used in manuscripts. Traditions include epic songs and maritime chronicles, transmitted orally but later transcribed in the script. The language also features honorifics and clan-affiliation markers that appear in personal names.

Origin and reception: The language was developed by worldbuilders and fantasy authors in the early 21st century as a tool for constructing a believable setting. It has since appeared in novels, role-playing games, and online communities devoted to language creation, where fans document phonology, grammar, and vocabulary. Some adaptations emphasize trade terminology and navigational terms to support worldbuilding for seafaring cultures.