Suwaash

Suwaazh is a conlang inspired by similarities between Sino-Tibetan (especially Rgyalrongic) and Athabaskan. It is an isolate within a large language family which includes monosyllabic tonal languages and Athabaskan-style polysynthetic languages. Suwaazh is the lingua franca of modern Sngeaf.

Todo

• myąą 'cat; meow'

Vocabulary

Suwaazh is about as purist as German or Finnish, but it has some loans from Anbirese.

Phonology

The following describes Amisheg (Standard Sowaazh) phonology.

Consonants

Amisheg has a large consonant inventory of 32 consonants:

Consonant phonemes in Amisheg

		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/	h, x /x~h/
	lenis		z /z̪/	zh /ʐ/	zy /ʑ/	gh /ɣ/
Approximant		w /w/	l /l/		y /j/, ly /ʎ/

/mj pj pʰj/ are allowed before vowels.

Vowels

Amisheg has only 4 vowel qualities, although there is phonemic vowel length and nasality.

Amisheg oral vowels

	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 to [ɨ] (with the appropriate length and nasality) after retroflex and dental consonants n l d t t' j c c' s z jh ch ch' sh zh; u uu ų ųų are fronted to [u̟] after palatal consonants ny ly jy cy cy' zy y.

Morphophonology

Root ablaut

Ablaut and initial alternations are the main morphophonological processes that occur on the root.

Initial alternations

Initials may change with different "ablaut grades" of the nucleus vowel of the stem.

2-way alternating roots:

• b p m -> by py my
• d t t' n l -> jy cy cy' ny ly
• g k k' x gh -> jh ch ch' sh zh (at least in some roots?)
• j c c' s z -> jy cy cy' sy zy
• ɂ w -> y y

3-way alternating roots

• j c c' s z ~ jh ch ch' sh zh ~ jy cy cy' sy zy

Unexpectedly unalternating roots

• Unalternating jh series roots
• Unalternating g series roots
• unalternating zy roots

Sandhi

In Suwaazh, sandhi occurs at morpheme boundaries within a word. Sandhi is applied after root ablaut and somewhat unpredictable prefix palatalizations are applied.

Dialects

Different nonstandard dialects shift the sibilant system in different ways:

• merging sh zh jh ch ch' with s z j c c' (cf. Polish mazurzenie)
• merging sh zh jh ch ch' with sy zy jy cy cy' (cf. Polish jabłonkowanie)
• merging sy zy jy cy cy' with s z j c c' (cf. Polish kaszubienie)
• shifting sh zh jh ch ch' into velars /x ɣ kx kxʰ kxʼ/ or uvulars /χ ʁ qχ qχʰ qχʼ/

Grammar

Suwaazh grammar is inspired by similarities between Sino-Tibetan and Navajo grammar. Like both Rgyalrongic and Athabaskan, Suwaazh is head-final and has polypersonal marking, but it is not nearly as polysynthetic as either group.

Postpositions

Postpositions inflect like nouns in that they take personal affixes.

• dative -ash: węęhash 'for the world/Earth'; nash 'for me'

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.

Possible initials are:

• all single consonants
• ⟨my by py⟩

Final consonants are restricted to ⟨b d z~s zh~sh zy~sy g ɂ h l n⟩; the -n final may not follow a nasal vowel.