Saxuma

Saxuma
Sasciuma
Pronunciation	[ˈsá.ɕy.ma]
Created by	Anisette Biscotti
Date	2024
Native to	Sasajos (autonomous zone of Italian Republic)
Native speakers	~9000
Language family	Isolate Saxuma
Early form	Saras Wima

Saxuma /ˈsaʃɨmə/ (Saxuma: [ˈsá.ɕy.ma]), also romanized Sasciuma and historically known as Saras Wima ['sʌ.r̥as wi'ma], is a language isolate spoken by approximately 9000 speakers on the Mediterranean island of Sasajos, and an autonomous zone of Italy. It is notable for its split ergative alignment, highly irregular construct declensions, and dynamic semantic gender.

Almost all residents of Sasajos speak Italian, as well as Greek and English, but there is a strong movement to protect the cultural heritage of the language, with poetry, novels, and music produced in Saxuma, as well as dubbings of many foreign movies and television shows into the language.

The folk history of the language states that it was a constructed language developed by the original inhabitants of Sasajos - members of a cruise ship that crashed on the island and decided to settle there. Most scholars find this history preposterous, but it is still taught in schools on Sasajos and considered official history by the municipal government.

On a meta-level, this language was created by Anisette Biscotti in 2024, with the original intention of exploring concepts of gender and sexuality. While it has become something of its own beast, still most translations into the language are texts dealing with gender, desire, and romance.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant inventory (Marina et. al, 2013)

	Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless	Voiced	Voiceless
Nasals	m		n		ɲ
Plosives	p	b	t	d	c		k	g	ʔ
Fricatives	ɸ~ɸʷ	v⁓β	s⁓t͡s	z⁓d͡z	ç ɕ	ʑ⁓d͡ʑ	x⁓h
Liquids			r̥	l		ʎ
Glides	(ʍ)	w				j

• /n/ is realized as [ɲ] when adjacent to any palatal consonant, and as [ŋ] when preceding a velar plosive.
• Voiceless plosives are typically unaspirated, but are usually aspirated word-finally.
• All plosives are realized as [ʔ] when immediately followed by another plosive or a nasal of the same place of articulation.
• /s/, /z/, and /ʑ/ may be realized as their associated affricates when not preceded by a vowel, but this is not obligatory.
• /v/ may be realized as [β] intervocalically, but this is not obligatory.
• /x/ is mostly realized as /h/ when preceding a non-front vowel.
• The sequences /tj/ and /kj/ are realized as [c], /dj/ and /gj/ as [d͡ʑ], /sj/ as [ɕ], /zj/ as [ʑ], and /xj/ as [ç].
• When adjacent to any palatal consonant, /l/ may be realized as [ʎ] or [j]
• Many speakers — especially younger ones — sonorize plosives when followed by a long vowel or diphthong carrying a high tone (see Pitch Accent below). For example, dēka > nēka, tobyá > tomyá, pyunam > byunam.
• Sometimes, in particularly casual speech, unstressed, final /s/ and /ɕ/ are debuccalized to [h].

An alternate analysis of the consonants of Saxuma is proposed by some linguists, such as that by Varda below.

Consonant inventory (Varda et. al, 2022)

		Labial	Alveolar		Velar		Glottal
		plain	plain	palatal	plain	palatal	plain
Nasals		m	n	ɲ	(ŋ)
Plosives	voiceless	p	t	ʨ	k	(c)	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	ʥ	g	(ʥ)
Fricatives	voiceless	ɸʷ⁓hʷ	s⁓ʦ, r̥	ɕ	x	ç	(h)
	voiced	β	z⁓ʣ	ʑ⁓ʥ
Approximants		w	l	ʎ		j

Vowels

Vowel Inventory

	Front	Back
High	i iː (y)	u uː
Mid	ɛ~e eː	o oː
Low	aː a~ɑ

Diphthongs	Front-initial	Back-initial
	ja~i̯a, ju~i̯u, jo~i̯o	aj~ai, oj~oi, ɑw~ɑo

• Both long vowels and diphthongs may be pronounced instead as two vowels in hiatus. This is particularly common in song and when unstressed.
  • Front-initial diphthongs must be pronounced as beginning with [i̯] rather than [j] when following /hʷ/, /w/, /r/, and /l/. For example, /wyu/ is pronounced [wi̯u].
  • Back-initial diphthongs are usually pronounced as two vowels in hiatus when followed by a consonant in the coda. For example, /kayx/ is usually pronounced as [kaiɕ].
• In moderately fast speech, /ay/ and /aw/ are frequently monophthoingized to [eː] and [oː] respectively, and may also be shortened. Potential palatalization from the /ay/ is generally retained.
• Short /e/ is typically pronounced [e] when word-final and [ɛ] elsewhere.
• Short /a/ is typically pronounced as [a] when stressed or word-final, and [ɑ] elsewhere.
• /i/ and /u/ are lowered to /e/ and /o/ respectively when followed by /ʔ/
• Unstressed short /u/ is often realized as [y] when following any palatal consonants besides /j/

Phonotactics

The maximal syllable structure of Saxuma is (C)V(C). All voiceless phonemes besides /x/, /hʷ/, and /ʔ/ are allowed in codas, as are /n/ and /m/. Voiced plosives and fricatives may appear in codas, but not word-finally.

/j/ is elided following any other palatal consonant.

Adjacent vowels epenthesize a semivowel - /j/ if the former vowel is /e/ or /i/, /w/ if /u/ or /o/. If the former vowel is /a/, then the latter vowel is used to determine the epenthesized semivowel in the same way.

The following consonant sequences are allowed between syllables. Any not listed is not allowed in any consonant sequences, or is not allowed in its given category.

Permissible coda-onset sequences

		Following Onset
p	t	k	b	d	g	m	n	ɸ	v	s	z	ɕ	ʑ	r	l	w	j
Preceding Coda	p	[ʔp]	[ʔt]	[ʔk]	[ʔb]	[ʔd]	[ʔg]	[ʔm]	[pn]	[pɸ]	No	No	No	No	No	No	[pl]	[pw]	[pj]
	t	[ʔp]	[ʔt]	[ʔk]	[ʔb]	[ʔd]	[ʔg]	[tm]	[ʔn]	[tɸ]	No	No	No	No	No	No	[ʔl]	[tw]	[c]
	k	[ʔp]	[ʔt]	[ʔk]	[ʔb]	[ʔd]	[ʔg]	[km]	[kn]	[kɸ]	No	No	No	No	No	No	[kl]	[kw]	[c]
	b	[ʔp]	[ʔt]	[ʔk]	[ʔb]	[ʔd]	[ʔg]	[ʔm]	[bn]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	[ʔl]	[bw]	[bj]
	d	[ʔp]	[ʔt]	[ʔk]	[ʔb]	[ʔd]	[ʔg]	[dm]	[ʔn]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	[ʔl]	[dw]	[d͡ʑ]
	g	[ʔp]	[ʔt]	[ʔk]	[ʔb]	[ʔd]	[ʔg]	[gm]	[gn]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	[ʔl]	[gw]	[d͡ʑ]
	m	[mp]	[mt]	[mk]	[mb]	[mp]	[mg]	[mm]	[mn]	[mɸ]	[mv]	[mt͡s]	[md͡z]	[mɕ]	[md͡ʑ]	[mbr]	[ml]	[mw]	[mj]
	n	No	[nt]	[ŋk]	[mb]	[nd]	[ŋg]	[mm]	[mn]	[mɸ]	[mv]	[nt͡s]	[nd͡z]	[ɲɕ]	[ɲd͡ʑ]	[nr]	[nl]	[nw]	[ɲ]
	s	[sp]	[st]	[sk]	[sb]	[sd]	[sg]	[sm]	[sn]	[sɸ]	No	No	No	No	No	[sr]	No	[sw]	[ɕ]
	z	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	[zw]	[ʑ]
	ɕ	[ɕp]	[ɕt]	[ɕk]	[ɕb]	[ɕd]	[ɕg]	[ɕm]	[ɕɲ]	[ɕɸ]	[ɕv]	[ɕɕ]	[ɕʑ]	[ɕɕ]	[ɕʑ]	No	No	[ɕw]	[ɕ]
	ʑ	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	[ʑw]	[ʑ]
	x	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	[ɸ]	[ç]
	r	No	No	No	No	No	No	[rn]	[rm]	[rɸ]	[rv]	No	No	No	No	No	No	[rw]	[rj]

Pitch Accent

Stress is contrastive in Saxuma. Historically, different parts of speech were produced from the same stem by varying the stress (with verbs having ultimate stress and nouns and adjectives initial), and stress was reinforced by a system of vowel reduction. For example, kubá [kɔˈba] ("to drink") vs. kúba [ˈko.bʌ] ("beverage"). These kinds of verb-noun pairs still exist in modern Saxuma, such as kalán 'to cry' vs. kálan 'tears', but many of them have been made less direct due to sound changes. For example, 'to drink' is now kobá and beverage is now kō.

Additionally, in place of the stress and vowel reduction system, modern Saxuma uses pitch accent. There are three pitch levels, and all syllables are by default mid tone.

• Almost all monosyllabic words retain their mid tone pitch. For example, kan [ˈkan] ("cold"). This is also true of monosyllabic words with long vowels and diphthongs, such as baw [ˈbɑo] ("sheep"). Some monosyllabic content words, such as u ("of") are stressless, and bear a low tone.
• If a short vowel is accented, it bears a high tone, e.g. émin [ɛ́.min] ("lips"). If it is non-initial and preceded by a short vowel, the preceding syllable bears a low tone. For example, xeyáyem [ɕɛ̀ˈjá.jem] ("friction") and zigará [zi.gɑ̀ˈrá] ("protector").
• If stressed or directly preceding a stressed syllable, long vowels and diphthongs receive contour tones. For stressed vowels, this is a peaking contour of tone MHM, e.g. enâ [ɛ̀ˈna᷈ː] ("passion"). When directly preceding a stressed syllable, the long vowel bears a falling contour ML, e.g. bābá [bâːˈbá] ("various").
  • When long vowels are pronounced as identical vowels in hiatus, each vowel carries its own tone. If stressed, they follow the pattern of HM. If preceding a stressed syllable, then ML. Using the examples above, enâ would be pronounced as [ɛ̀ˈnáˌa] and bābá as [ba.àˈbá].

Ablauts

There are two ablauts that appear through a number of Saxuma inflections.

The w-ablaut is the more common of the two, appearing in a number of verbal conjugations and in many nouns construct form. It performs the following vowel transformations:

• a → aw, or → o if word-final and unstressed
• i → yu
• e → yo
• u → ū
• o → ō

The y-ablaut primarily only appears in the -JA verbal conjugation. It performs the following transformations:

• a → ay
• i → ī
• e → ē
• u, o → oy

Orthography

Romanization

Saxuma Romanization

Romanization	a	b	c	d	dy	e	f	g	gy	h	hy	i	j	k	ky	l	ly	m	n	ny	o	p	q	r	s	sy	t	ty	u	v	w	x	y	z	zy
IPA	a	b	c	d	d͡ʑ	ɛ	ɸ	g	d͡ʑ	x	ç	i	ʑ	k	c	l	ʎ	m	n	ɲ	o	p	ʔ	r̥	s	ɕ	t	c	u	v	w	ɕ	j	z	ʑ

• Accented short vowels are indicated with an acute accent, unaccented long vowels with a macron, and accented long vowels with a carat. Accents are often not indicated outside of dictionaries and other linguistic texts, except when disambiguation is considered necessary.
  • In texts with accents marked, if a word has no accent, it can be assumed to have ultimate stress if it is a verb, and initial stress otherwise. For example, leyo ("world") is equivalent to léyo, and mabu ("to learn") is equivalent to mabú
• Vowels placed before ⟨q⟩ represent their etymological pronunciation, not necessarily their current realization. Thus, niqí is pronounced as [nɛˈʔi].

Morphology

Nominal Morphology

Case

Nominals - including nouns, pronouns, and adjectives - in Saxuma take one of five cases. For nouns and adjectives, only the construct case requires any declension — all others use the base form along with a preposition or particle. Pronouns, however, have irregular declensions for all five cases.

• The direct case is the plain form of a nominal. It is used by default in any context where another marking is not required.
• The absolutive case marks the sole argument of intransitive verbs, and the patient of transitive verbs (see Syntax). It is marked in non-pronouns by placing the particle ka after the noun phrase.
• The genitive and construct cases are closely related. The genitive marks the possessor in a genitive phrase, and the construct the possessed. For the most part, the genitive is only used by pronouns, in which instances the possessed noun simply uses the direct form.

"biga ome"

foot I.gen

my foot

In most other situations, the construct case is used exclusively. The construct forms of singular nominals is highly irregular, and must be learned individually, though some trends exist, such as many construct cases suffixing -u, -o, -yu, -vu, or -su, or performing w-ablaut on the final vowel. Plural nominals formed by suffixing -sí replace it with -xú, and those ending with -míx or -kóm form it by additionally suffixing -u.

"bigaw huk"

foot.cons chicken

the chicken's foot

Any adjectives modifying a construct noun also take the construct case.

"bigaw savu huk"

foot.cons left.cons chicken

the chicken's left foot

However, the construct case may be omitted and the preposition u ("of") may be used instead in cases where it would aid in clarity, particularly when there is nested possession.

"huko vivyu injeni" → "huk u vivyu injeni"

chicken.cons child.cons farmer → chicken of child.cons farmer

the farmer's child's chicken → the chicken of the farmer's child

• The dative-superessive case is used both to mark the oblique argument of verbs, as well as to convey the motion of coming upon or landing on the motion's target, but not other forms of motion (which usually use the preposition eke ("towards"). Outside of pronouns, this is marked with the preposition ba ("upon").

Number

Number is not required to be marked, but plurality can be explicitly indicated with the suffix -sí (or -xú in the construct form). Words ending in a nasal instead suffix -zí/jú, and those ending in any other consonant delete that final consonant before appending -sí/-xú.

The dual can be indicated by suffixing -míx (construct -míxu) to any nominal, including pronouns. -míx is attached to the plural forms of non-gendered pronouns, and the singular form of gendered pronouns.

Pronouns

Saxuma pronouns

	1st Person				2nd Person		3rd Person		Gendered
	singular	plural			singular	plural	singular	plural	lunar		solar
		generic	inclusive	exclusive					singular	plural	singular	plural
Direct	me	ma	mazén	mawís	zu	ter	dē	ca	le	lele	in	igin
Absolutive	mek	maká			zuká	terak	dēka	daqá	lek	eleká	inka	ginka
Genitive	omé	wimá			unú	usér	urê	urá	olé	olelé	ohín	ohigín
Construct	myo	maw			zū	tero	desu	caw	leyu	lelyo	inu	ginu
Dative-Superessive	bome	bemá			bay	batér	bade	bacá	bose	baselé	bagín	baynin

• mazén and mawís do not decline, and instead use prepositions and particles to mark nouns like true nominals.
• The gendered pronouns do not have a fixed person. In narrative contexts, they generally function as third person, but in conversation they can also be used for first or second person, similar to East Asian kinship terms.

Gender morphology

See: Gender

The lunar suffix is -(i)lé, epenthesizing -i- whenever a noun ends in a consonant that is not permitted before /l/ (see Phonotactics). The solar suffix is -(g/k)ín, epenthesizing -k- whenever a noun ends in any vowel, and replacing final -n- and -m- with -g-.

Some nouns bear the agentivizing prefixes lo-/lew- and in(w)-, which function similarly to Latinate "-tor" and "-trix" in conveying gender, with the neutral agentivizer being zi-.

Verb Morphology

Conjugation

There are eleven verb classes in modern Saxuma, most of which can be immediately determined by looking at the word itself, though some must be learned.

• The regular conjugation includes all verbs not outlined below, and all end in short, monophthong vowels. It is divided into strong and weak conjugations, the strong being any that end in -e, -o, or -CCV, and the weak those that end in a single consonant followed by -a, -i, or -u.
• The -SA conjugation includes all verbs that would be a regular weak conjugation, but the consonant before -a, -i, or -u is -s-, -x-, or -r-.
• The -FA conjugation includes all verbs that would be a regular weak conjugation, but the consonant before -a, -i, or -u is -f- or -h-.
• The -JA conjugation includes all verbs that would be a regular weak conjugation, but the consonant before -a, -i, or -u is -j- or -z-.
• The -LA conjugation includes all verbs that would be a regular weak conjugation, but the consonant before -a, -i, or -u is -l- or -v-.
• The -N conjugation includes all verbs ending in -n or -m.
• The -S conjugation includes all verbs ending in -s, -x, or -r.
• The -T conjugation includes all verbs ending in -k, -t, or -p, and some ending in long -ē.
• The -H conjugation includes most, but not all, verbs ending in a long vowel.
• The -W conjugation includes all verbs ending in -aw.
• The -Y conjugation includes all of verbs ending in -ay and -oy.

Besides the stem, there are seven primary verb forms expressed through suffixes: the negative, causative, inchoative, prospective, perfective, habitual, and attributive forms. For more detail on them, see Saxuma/Verb Conjugation. For a summary of how the different endings conjugate for the different verb classes, see the table below.

Verb conjugations by class and inflection

Class		Example Stem	Negative -NA	Causative -BI	Inchoative -WAY	Prospective -KUN	Perfective -W	Habitual -AX	Attributive -LA
Regular	Strong	lesó	lesoná	lesobí	lesowáy	lesokún	lesô	lesowáx	lesolá
	Weak	sigú	signá	sigbí	sigwáy	sigkún	sigû	sigwáx	siglá
-SA		exí	exná	exbí	exfáy	eqún	exyú	exyáx	yosá
-FA		safá	sawná	sawbí	sawfáy	sawqún	safáw	safáx	sawsá
-JA		mujú	moyná	moybí	mujwáy	moykún	mujû	mujwáx	moylá
-LA		ralí	rawná	rawbí	rawáy	rawkún	ralyú	ralyáx	ralá
-N		ekán	ekanná	ekanbí	ekanwáy	ekankún	ekánla	ekanáx	ekanlá
-S		sarás	sarasná	sarasbí	sarasfáy	saraqún	saráwsa	sarasáx	sarawsá
-T		enák	enawná	enacú	enasfáy	enaqún	enatáw	enatáx	enaxá
-H		oxâ	oxāná	oxābí	oxafáy	oxaqún	oxáwsa	oxaháx	oxawsá
-W		law	lawná	lawbí	lawáy	lawkún	lála	laláx	lalá
-Y		way	wayná	waybí	waywáy	waykún	wayú	wayáx	waylá

Evidentiality

In Saxuma, evidentiality can be expressed through verbal prefixes. Their morphology is much simpler than the various ending forms, and act with no regard to the verb class of the stem.

• Unmarked evidentiality indicates something that the speaker feels they can reasonably report as true, with no particular implication one way or another. It is also used for stating things considered to be general truths or common sense.
• Inferential information that seems to be the case based on some evidence, but which the speaker is not necessarily certain of, is expressed by the prefix kan- on all verbs.

  torá → kantorá

  exí → kanexí

  gir → kangír

• Hearsay, information that the speaker has learned from another person but which they do not necessarily personally vouch for, is expressed by the prefix la- before r- and l-initial verbs, lex- before other consonant-initial verbs, and lar- before vowel-initial verbs.

  torá → lextorá

  ryu → laryú

  lesó → lalesó

  uzá → laruzá

• Definitive information that the speaker wants to emphasize that they know for certain to be factual is expressed with the prefix tom- on verbs beginning with consonants, tam- on verbs beginning with round vowels, and tamw- on verbs beginning with other vowels.

  torá → tomtorá

  ōná → tamōná

  exí → tamwexí

• Intuitive information is that which the speaker believes or feels confidently, but based primarily on instinctual leanings rather than any clear evidence or reasoning. It is indicated with the prefix eny- before vowel-initial verbs, nye- before initial labial consonants or /r/, and en- before initial palatal consonants. Before other consonants, the prefix en- is used, and also a palatalizing mutation occurs on the initial vowel.

  bulíx → nyebulíx

  ryu → nyeryú

  exí → enyexí

  yos → enyós

  torá → entyorá

  gir → engyír

  liré → enlyiré

  hanú → enhyanú

Imperative and Hortative

The imperative is formed simply using the stem form of a verb, optionally followed by zu/ter/[name] ya!. The hortative - indicating meanings such as "let us X," "may X happen," etc., is formed by moving the stress to the initial syllable, and elongating the vowel it falls on. Diphthongs elongate the first vowel only. This leads to some verbs seeing no real change.

lesó → lêso

nar → nār

law → lâwo

xō → xō

Syntax

Saxuma sentence order is primarily aligned along ergative-absolutive distinctions, so below, instead of S and O for subject and object, we will use E to mark the ergative argument and A to mark the absolutive argument.

The basic unmarked sentence structure of Saxuma is (E)VA for transitive statements. In this unmarked structure, the absolutive case is not explicitly marked, and instead the direct case form of the A is used. Word order is flexible though, allowing for AV, AVE, VAE, and AEV orderings. Generally, any ordering in which A appears before V requires that the A be explicitly marked with the absolutive case. It is also frequently used with VAE to clearly mark the boundary of the A and E, but it is not strictly required. However, intransitive sentences where the A has a particularly agentic semantic role, is a pronoun, or is a name, can also omit the absolutive marking.

There is no copula, and so copular phrases function similar to VA/AV statements, where the V is replaced with the predicate noun or adjective. These follow the same rules of absolutive marking as sentences with intransitive verbs.

Determiners precede the nouns that they modify, and adjectives and prepositional phrases follow them. Adverbs may be placed anywhere in the sentence, with a preference towards placing them at the beginning or adjacent to the verb. Adverbs modifying adjectives are placed before the adjective.

Sample Texts

See also: Saxuma/Texts

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

English	Saxuma	IPA	Gloss
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.	Damáx zénu hip úmano vin gíjo i alá díni i rus nay.	dɑ̀ˈmáɕ ˈd͡zɛ́.nu ˈxipʰ ˈú.mɑ.no βin ˈgí.ʑo i ɑ̀ˈlá ˈdí.ni i ˈr̥uh ˈnaj	are-born.hab all.cons person human as free and have.attr dignity and right equal.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.	Aw bacá románu i korásu êma, i sū sirú bacakóm to korásu yúnem.	ˈɑw bɑ̀ˈcá r̥òˈmá.nu i kòˈrá.su ˈe᷉ː.ma ǀ i ˈsuː sìˈr̥ú bɑ.càˈkóm to kòˈrá.su jú.nɛm	have 3p.dat reason.cons and heart.cons ethics, and should behave 3p.dat-ref with heart.cons fraternity.

See Also

• Category:Saxuma words