Shum

Shumian (native name ṣùm lhau) is a monosyllabic 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)

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'