Mika for Fruitful Dialogue

Mika is a useful language for fruitful dialogue.

Mika is Crafted

Mika is an invented language, as are Esperanto and Elvish. An invented language is often called a conlang, a constructed language. Conlangers are the developers of conlangs. Mika has dreams and the developers embrace what Mika dreams.

Conlangers tend to classify conlangs into categories. One category is an experimental language where language features are tested and explored. Another is the aux language. The auxiliary language is useful to humans sometimes in specialized ways but more commonly in general ways, a language that enables communication among people of the world in a desirable way.

Mika is an auxiliary language. In development it might express itself as an experimental language, but bear this in mind: Mika is useful.

What is Mika Like?

Mika is in a dynamic and living stage. However, even now, some aspects seem to be emerging.

Is it easy to speak?

Try saying the word "mika". You probably said it correctly in Mika. It is pronounced [ˈmi.ka]. English speakers might say Mee-kah.

You just read a word and pronounced it. That is the way of Mika!

The sounds might evolve as we hear speakers from around the world pronounce Mika words during development. For many people who just want to read and write Mika, getting close is good enough.

Is it easy to hear?

Syllables are distinct as when Yogi Bear sings /ja.ba.daˈba.du/. I forced the accent onto the penultimate syllable, but I'm not really sure how Yogi says it. There are only a few sounds in Mika (maybe just 15), so your brain can focus on meaning. Hearing enables listening.

Want to hear it spoken by new Mika speakers in various languages? You can try inputting "mika" in any TTS (text-to-speech) resource that can handle the language, such as Google Translate. Or simply use the tool below. Mainland Mandarin, English, Spanish and Hindi are the most commonly spoken languages of the world.

As long as you can hear the right sounds, it might not matter. You just need to have enough gray cells left over so you can focus on understanding.

How about writing it?

One can imagine a lore of Ancient Mika with an exotic orthography, perhaps with stacked letters in syllable, the use of colors and lots of curls. The lore is unclear about where Ancient Mika came from, so it might be easy for a fantasy writer to use it. However, for today's humans, the letters and digits in Mika are quite boring. However, boring means easy to type or write by hand. One can readily send letters and digits in Morse code or extended tap code.

The scheme of writing/sending and reading/receiving is more strict than speaking and hearing.

In the Mika glyphs, the word "mika" might look like any of these:

How does the language feel?

Though Mika is useful in formal and serious communication, one should not be surprised to find a word or phrase in that language that can sound whimsical. One can be serious and one can have fun and laugh, even at the same time.

The grammar can be formal, but in some senses, grammar rules are made to be broken. Grammatical markers might be dropped when meaning is clear. Parts of speech can be forced into other roles creating a contra-positive otherworldly feeling, often for humor.

Where do Mika words come from?

Mika words are never borrowed words or loaned words. In Mika, words have their own Mika meaning, though some might suspect that many are inspired by words in other languages.

The language name Mika is completely made up. The intent was to chose a name that is easy to say world wide, far from other language names, and has no negative connotations. It needed to be strong, yet humble. The word does have meanings in other languages, meanings that might remind us of the wonder of Mika.

Mika has Dreams

Mika dreams of having some really cool features and wondrous characteristics. As the initial crafter, as I recognize those dreams, I want to embrace them and set up goals to meet them the best I can.

What are the dreams? I will share them in another post.