Suwáá

Suwáá (Suwáá tahyeq) is a language isolate of Hmøøh, spoken on the island country and archipelago of Suwáábyíq. It is mainly inspired aesthetically by Burmese, Japanese, Navajo, and Ancient Greek, and its grammar is meant to be "Navajo-lite" (agglutinative, strongly prefixing, strongly head-final, and head-marking, though not fully polysynthetic; noun incorporation is limited to certain formal styles).

The Suwáá dialect continuum is not known to be related to any other Hmøøhian language, but some have proposed a relation to the Quame languages based on lexical coincidences.

Lexicon

• Nyu-Mɛ Kɛ́q: inventor of Kite guitar-type guitars
• su- = frozen derivation
• wáá = person
• khywen = house
• weé = name
• maa = tree
• yań = water
• lwɛ = to do, to make
• mɔ́ = blood
• zoo = to look
• mé = to be (copula)
  • Upwe namé. 'I am a boy.'
  • Suwáá imé. 'He is a Suwáá.'
• ze = to eat
• zé = to stack

Phonology

Initials

Suwáá has a large number of initials; however, prefixes do not allow aspirated or voiced initials.

• Historical velar stops: k kh g ŋ ky khy gy ŋy kw khw gw ŋw kyw khyw gyw ŋyw /k kʰ g ŋ tɕ tɕʰ dʑ ɲ kw kʰw ŋw tɕɥ tɕʰɥ dʑɥ ɲɥ/
• Historical alveolar stops: t th d n s sh z ny tw thw dw nw sw shw zw nyw /t tʰ d n s sʰ z ɲ tw tʰw dw nw sw sʰw zw ɲɥ/
• Historical labial stops: p ph b m py phy by my pw phw bw mw /p pʰ b m pj pʰj bj mj pw pʰw bw mw/
• y r w h ry hy rw hw ryw yw hyw /j r w h rj ɕ rw hw lɥ ɥ ɕɥ/

Usually, /r/ is realized much like Standard Japanese r; it is [l] before /i j/.

Rimes

• Monomoraic: i e ɛ a ɔ o u n /i e ɛ a ɔ o u ɯ̃/
• Bimoraic, but q cannot bear tone: iq eq ɛq aq ɔq oq uq /ɪʔ eɪ̯ʔ aɪ̯ʔ aʔ aʊ̯ʔ oʊ̯ʔ ʊʔ/
• Bimoraic, both morae tone-bearing: ii ee ɛɛ aa ɔɔ oo uu in en ɛn an ɔn on un /iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː ɪɰ̃ eɪ̯ɰ̃ aɪ̯ɰ̃ aɰ̃ aʊ̯ɰ̃ oʊ̯ɰ̃ uɰ̃/

/ʔ/ is realized as gemination before obstruents; /ɯ̃ ɰ̃/ are realized as homorganic nasals before nasal and stop initials.

Tone

High (acute) and low (unmarked)

Morphology

Nouns

Suwáá nouns are often, though not always, monosyllabic, like mɔ́ 'blood'. Here is an example of a noun inflected for possession:

• namɔ́ = my blood
• himɔ́ = thy blood
• tamɔ́ = his/her/their blood (proximate, like Navajo bi-)
• wamɔ́ = his/her/their blood (obviative‚ like Navajo yi-)
• amɔ́ = one's blood
• kyamɔ́ = our (exc.) blood
• yemɔ́ = our (inc.) blood
• erimɔ́ = your (pl.) blood

Possession is indicated by using the appropriate possessive form after the possessor: Eqsiq tamɔ́ (E. 3-blood) 'Eqsiq's blood'.

Verbs

Suwáá verb roots are always monosyllabic.

Syntax

Obviation

Like Navajo, Suwáá shows various levels of animacy in its grammar, with certain nouns taking specific verb forms according to their rank in this animacy hierarchy. For instance, Suwáá nouns can be ranked by animacy on a continuum from most animate (a human or lightning) to least animate (an abstraction):

humans > infants/big animals > midsize animals > small animals > insects > natural forces > inanimate objects/plants > abstractions

Generally, the most animate noun in a sentence must occur first while the noun with lesser animacy occurs second. If both nouns are equal in animacy, then either noun can occur in the first position. So, both example sentences (1) and (2) are correct. The n- prefix on the verb indicates that the 1st noun is the subject and i- indicates that the 2nd noun is the subject.

Upwe unɛń nzoo. (1)

boy girl OBV-look

'The boy is looking at the girl.'

Upwe unɛń izoo. (2)

boy girl PROX-look

'The girl is being looked at by the boy.'

But example sentence (3) sounds wrong to most Suwáá speakers because the less animate noun occurs before the more animate noun:

*Hipyii unɛń hyenkywáq.

bird girl PST-OBV-peck

'The bird pecked the girl.'

To express this idea requires that the more animate noun occur first, as in sentence (4):

Unɛń hipyii hyeekywáq.

girl bird PST-PROX-peck

'The girl was pecked by the bird.'

Vocabulary

Purist