M1 Language Grammar

Introduction

M1 is a musical language invented by Thomas Heller. Its name M1 is simply an abbreviation for Musical language 1.

M1 is based on existing musical compositions made by various different composers and musicians. For copyright reasons, full audio recordings are sadly not available here. English glosses for the songs are given in UPPER CASE, and if JavaScript is enabled, a link to a recording on the YouTube Music platform appears next to them.

In the examples given below, the quarter rest (or crotchet rest) symbol is used to depict a pause in speech. It is displayed as follows on your system: 𝄽

Phonology

There are basically three ways how M1 can be "spoken":

• Using the human body only: songs are sung, hummed, whistled etc.
• With the help of musical instruments, synthesizers, and similar devices
• Playback of audio recordings

As long as a tune is distinctly recognizable, the different methods of performing are considered allophonic.

Especially since not all speakers are trained music professionals, slight variations in pitch or tempo are typical when M1 is "spoken" naturally, i.e. without using recordings. These variations are negligible when it comes to the intelligibility of M1, as long as a performance remains distinguishable from other songs in the M1 lexicon.

As an utterance in M1 is a sequence of musical notes, a single musical note could be considered a phoneme when taking into account its duration and relative pitch.

Morphology

A song is a word.

M1 is pretty much an isolating language – its root "words" (songs) do not experience any kind of inflection. (That is, the notes of a song never change.)

Parts of speech

Words (songs) belong to one of the following classes:

• nouns
• verbs
• adjectives
• adverbs
• pronouns:
  • personal pronouns
  • demonstrative pronouns
  • interrogative pronouns
  • relative pronouns
• conjunctions
• quantifiers
• particles
• interjections

Number

By default, nouns are understood to be in singular form.

To indicate plurality of unspecified amount, the quantifier SOME is placed before a noun, for example:

Furthermore, there are seven more quantifiers (eight in total) that can be placed before nouns:

Translation	Song
some	SOME
few	FEW
many	MANY
more	MORE
less	LESS
only	ONLY
all, every	ALL
any	ANY

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns are:

Translation	Person	Number	Song
I	First	Singular	I
you (sg.)	Second	Singular	YOU
he/she/it	Third	Singular	IT

To form the plural, the quantifier SOME is placed before the personal pronoun:

Translation	Person	Number	Song
we	First	Plural	SOME I
you (pl.)	Second	Plural	SOME YOU
they	Third	Plural	SOME IT

In addition, the particle SELF can be placed after a personal pronoun to turn it into a reflexive pronoun.

Example:

Demonstrative pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns are:

Translation	Distance	Number	Song
this	proximal	Singular	THIS
that	distal	Singular	THAT

To form the plural, the quantifier SOME is placed before the demonstrative pronoun:

Translation	Distance	Number	Song
these	proximal	Plural	SOME THIS
those	distal	Plural	SOME THAT

Possessive pronouns

Possession is indicated by using possessive pronouns before a noun phrase:

Possessive pronouns are formed by placing the possessive particle MONEY before the personal pronoun.

Example:

Verb tense

By default, statements are understood to be in present tense.

To change tense, a tense particle is placed before a verb:

Tense	Song
past	PAST
present	(default, no particle required)
future	FUTURE

Examples:

Negation

To negate a statement, the negation particle NOT is placed before a verb, for example:

The negation particle can also be placed before adjectives to refer to the opposite meaning.

Prepositions

Serveral preposition can be used with noun phrases:

Preposition	Song
after	AFTER
against	AGAINST
around	AROUND
at, on, on top of	AT
before, in front of	BEFORE
behind	BEHIND
down, under, below	DOWN
far from	FAR
for	FOR
inside	INSIDE
near	NEAR
out of, from inside of	OUT
over, above	OVER
to	TO
until	UNTIL
up, upwards	UP
with, using	WITH
without	WITHOUT

Modality

The following modal particles can occur before the verb:

Modality	Song
ability	CAN
permission	LET
obligation	MUST
deduction	DEDUCTIVELY

Examples:

Comparative and Superlative

The quantifiers MORE and LESS can also be used before adjectives, and additionally MOST and LEAST.

Example:

Also, the conjunction LIKE can be used for comparison.

For example:

Numerals

The following numerals can be used as quantifiers before nouns as well:

Digit	Song
1	ONE
2	TWO
3	THREE
4	FOUR
5	FIVE
6	SIX
7	SEVEN
8	EIGHT
9	NINE
0	ZERO

Numbers 10 and greater are formed by concatenating digits, for example "forty-two" is FOUR TWO

The number 1,000 (one thousand) can be abbreviated using THOUSAND. If it is preceeded by other digits, its value is multiplied by one thousand, so THREE TWO THOUSAND would be the number 32,000 (thirty-two thousand).

If a specific numeral is placed before a noun, the plural quantifier SOME is not required.

Noun compounds

Multiple nouns can be concatenated to form noun compounds.

Example:

Syntax

Word order

The basic word order is SVO (subject–verb–object).

Adjectives come before nouns, for example:

Adverbs come before verbs, for example:

Copula

The copula verb BE can be used to express identity, membership, or property:

Conjunctions

Phrases can be connected using the following conjunctions:

• "and": AND
• "or": OR
• "but", "in contrast": BUT
• "thus", "therefore": THUS

Questions

Yes-no questions

Yes-no questions are formed by placing the interrogative particle CONFUSION in front of the sentence.

Example:

Other questions

Most other questions related to noun phrases are formed using the interrogative particle WHAT:

When forming such content questions, word order remains unchanged.

Another interrogative particle that can be placed in front of nouns is WHOSE to ask for possession.

In addition, if you want to ask for quantity ("how much?"/"how many?"), you can place the interrogative particle HOWMUCH before the noun.

Examples:

Questions that relate to a statement as a whole are formed with interrogative particles that are placed in front of the sentence (like the interrogative particle CONFUSION):

• To ask for reason, cause, or purpose ("why?"), the interrogative particle WHY is placed in front of the sentence.
• To ask for time ("when?"), the interrogative particle WHEN is placed in front of the sentence.
• To ask for manner ("how?"), the interrogative particle HOW is placed in front of the sentence.

Examples:

Commands

The imperative is formed by dropping the subject and placing the verb DO in front of the sentence instead, for example:

Relative clauses

Relative clauses are circumfixed by the relative particle WHO, and follow the noun they modify.

Example:

Literal spelling

Because there are no letters in the usual sense in M1, the following system can be used to spell names from the Latin alphabet.

Spelled words are circumfixed by the LITERAL particle, and are spelled according to the following table:

Letter	Song
A	AIR
B	BICYCLE
C	COTTON
D	DO
E	EARTH
F	FLY
G	GOOD
H	HEAVEN
I	IMAGINE
J	JUMP
K	KINGDOM
L	LEVEL
M	MATERIAL
N	NEXT
O	ONLY
P	PURE
Q	Q
R	RADIO
S	SURF
T	THUS
U	UNCHAIN
V	VIDEO
W	WHEN
X	X
Y	YELLOW
Z	ZOMBIE

Example:

Pragmatics

General notes on dialogue

To communicate in M1, the speaker sings/hums/whistles the corresponding songs or plays/transfers recordings for/to the listener, with short pauses between sentences, which allow the other speaker take their turn.

Songs are not necessarily performed from the beginning; instead, performance is usually limited to iconic excerpts.

The performance is stopped as soon as the listener clearly recognizes each song, indicated by non-verbal communication if possible. If a song is not recognized on first try, the speaker repeats the song until it is recognized.

Meeting other people

To say hello in M1, you can use the greeting HELLO, and GOODBYE to say goodbye.

Figurative speech

Naturally, the vocabulary of M1 is kind of limited by the list of available songs. Speakers are encouraged to use vocabulary figuratively and creatively to get their point across.

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Copyright © 2021 by Thomas Heller [ˈtoːmas ˈhɛlɐ]