Shum

Shumian (native name ṣùṁ lhau) is a Hlou-Ku language inspired by Marathi, Hmoob and IlL's Reber Wiebian.

Phonology

Initials

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless stop	p /p/		t /t̪/		ṭ /ʈ/	c /c/	k /k/
Aspirated stop	ph /pʰ/		th /t̪ʰ/		ṭh /ʈʰ/	ch /cʰ/	kh /kʰ/
Voiced stop	b /b/		d /d̪/		ḍ /ɖ/	j /ɟ/	g /ɡ/
Murmured stop	bh /bʰ/		dh /d̪ʰ/		ḍʰ /ɖʰ/	jh /ɟʰ/	gh /ɡʰ/
Nasal	m /m/		n /n̪/		ṇ /ɳ/	ñ /ɲ/
Murmured nasal	mh /mʰ/		nh /n̪ʰ/		ṇh /ɳʰ/	ñh /ɲʰ/
Fricative			s /s/		ṣ /ʂ/	ś /ç~ɕ/		h /h/
Approximant		v /ʋ/				y /j/
Murmured approximant		vh /ʋʰ/
Lateral			l /l/		ḷ /ɺ̢/
Murmured lateral			lh /lʰ/		ḷh /ɺ̢ʰ/
Laterally released nasal					ṇḷ /ɳᶩ/
Murmured laterally released nasal					ṇḷh /ɳᶩʰ/
Trill				r /r/

Rimes

• aʔ iʔ uʔ ahᵃ ihⁱ uhᵘ with mid (33) and low (22) tones (spelled a i u aḥ iḥ uḥ)
• a: e: i: o: u: ai au am~ã: im~ĩ: um~ũ: with mid (33), low (21), rising (25), falling (41), dipping (313 with creaky voice on the 1), and high dipping tone (434) tones (spelled ā e ī o ū ai au aṁ iṁ uṁ)

Tones

Tone	Mid	Low	Rising	Falling	Dipping	High dipping
Spelling	a	à	á	â	ä	ǎ

Old Shumian

Old Shumian had a much simpler sound system, with fewer consonants and no tones. The phonotactics though were more complicated; Old Shumian words could begin with up to three consecutive consonants.

Morphology

Shumian is completely isolating and head-final.

• ṇā̀ (I), mhäi (boat) ⇒ ṇā̀ mhäi (my boat)
• rúm (eye), be (water) ⇒ rúm be (tears)

Pronouns

Shumian pronouns are based on rank, not person or gender. (ṇā̀ is used only in textbooks)

Remnants of Old Shumian morphology

Some nouns derive from Old Shumian patientives marked with the prefix s- (mercilessly stolen from Lushootseed):

ḍū̌ 'sing' (from *druku) -> ḍhū̌ (from *sdruku)

Numbers

Number	Shumian
0	dó
1	lê
2	bhàḥ
3	vûṁ
4	pai
5	śaṁ
6	śū̂
7	nhai
8	rìṁ
9	lhiḥ
10	kū
11	nā̌
12	ū
144	vī̈
1728	dhâu

Syntax

Word order is SVO; adjectives and relative clauses come before nouns; there are postpositions instead of prepositions; determiners and classifiers are placed before the noun; complementizers are head-initial.

Lexicon

ṇḷhàḥ ← *sŋrasx 'fire'