Suwaash
In Sngeaf, Suwaazh is a conlang inspired by similarities between Sino-Tibetan (especially Rgyalrongic) and Navajo. It belongs to a large language family which includes monosyllabic tonal languages and Athabaskan-style polysynthetic languages. Suwaazh is the lingua franca of modern Sngeaf.
Vocabulary
Sngeaf is about as purist as German or Finnish, but it has some loans from Naeng, Netagin, and Anbirese. Most loans are nouns, as nouns are the only open class.
Phonology
The following describes Amisheg (Standard Sowaazh) phonology.
Consonants
Amisheg has a large consonant inventory of 33 consonants:
| Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n̪/ | ny /ɲ/ | ||||
| Stop | tenuis | b /p/ | d /t̪/ | g /k/ | ɂ /ʔ/ | ||
| aspirated | p /pʰ/ | t /t̪ʰ/ | k /kʰ/ | ||||
| ejective | t' /t̪ʼ/ | k' /kʼ/ | |||||
| Affricate | tenuis | j /t̪s̪/ | jh /tʂ/ | jy /tɕ/ | |||
| aspirated | c /t̪s̪ʰ/ | ch /tʂʰ/ | cy /tɕʰ/ | ||||
| ejective | c' /t̪s̪ʼ/ | ch' /tʂʼ/ | cy' /tɕʼ/ | ||||
| Fricative | fortis | s /s̪/ | sh /ʂ/ | sy /ɕ/ | kh /x/ | h /h/ | |
| lenis | z /s̪/ | zh /ʐ/ | zy /ʑ/ | gh /ɣ/ | |||
| Approximant | w /w/ | l /l/ | y /j/ | ||||
/mj pj pʰj lj/ are allowed before vowels.
Notes
All consonants in Amisheg are long, compared to English and other Sowaazh dialects: with plain stops the hold is longer, with aspirated stops the aspiration is longer, and with affricates the frication is longer. The voice onset time of the aspirated and ejective stops is twice as long as that found in most other languages.
Vowels
Amisheg has only 4 vowel qualities, although there is phonemic vowel length and nasality.
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i, į | ii, įį | u, ų | uu, ųų |
| Open | e, ę | ee, ęę | a, ą | aa, ąą |
The vowels i ii į įį are centralized after retroflex consonants; u uu ų ųų are fronted after palatal consonants.
Grammar
Suwaazh grammar is inspired by similarities between Sino-Tibetan and Navajo grammar. Like Navajo, Suwaazh is head-final and head-marking, but it is not nearly as polysynthetic.
Verbs
The verb is the only obligatory component of a Suwaazh clause. Adjectives are also verbs.
The root
A Suwaazh verb root consists of an obligatory initial, a vowel which may ablaut, and an optional final. The only "forbidden" initial is ⟨y⟩, which is an alternant of ⟨ɂ⟩. Final consonants are restricted to ⟨b d j z~s jh zh~sh jy zy~sy g ɂ h l n⟩; the -n final may not follow a nasal vowel.