Swuntsim
Swuntsim | |
---|---|
təSfətsiv | |
Pronunciation | [/təsfətsiv/] |
Created by | IlL |
Setting | Verse:Tricin |
Tsimulh
| |
Sfətsiv (natively təSfətsiv /təsfətsiv/) is a modern Tsimulh language. It is the vernacular language of the Sfətsiv people.
It's inspired by Lushootseed and Welsh.
Todo
pluralization - mess it up
- utcütsi (7) or cütsi (8, pl) = 'shell'
- Scütsi (Class 4 - collectives and augmentatives) = personal name, meaning 'patient, enduring'
Diachronical sketch
- m n > v dh
- sn > zd
- b d > b d
- g > gh > compensatory lengthening
Getting the aesthetic
- q qʷ > ŋ ŋʷ > n m
- gʷ > w when not word initial.
- sb sd > zv zd
- xʷ > f
- ʔC > C: (geminate)
- /ʔb ʔd/ > /b d/
- Zəpətj ʔusansj ʔəsoməv tüdjonf = the living fish swims in water
- σüches = mother; toches = father
- tüdjo = water
- dbic = house
- σüʔən, tolitj = woman, man
- Lə-toches bicf = My father is at home.
- üvC > uuC
Orthography
Sfətsiv is usually written in the Sfətsiv alphabet. It's occasionally transcribed into Windermere, Talmic or Clofabic scripts.
Phonology
Consonants
Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Laryngeal | Glottal | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
central | lateral | plain | lab'zed | ||||||
Nasal | m m | n n | |||||||
Stop | tenuis | p p | t t | c k | cw kʷ | ʔ ʔ | |||
voiced | b b | d d | g g | gw gʷ | |||||
Fricative | voiceless | f f | s s | σ ɬ | sj ʃ | ch χ | chw χʷ | h h | |
voiced | v v | dh ð z z |
zj ʒ | ||||||
Affricate | tenuis | ts ts | ξ tɬ | tj tʃ | |||||
voiced | dj dʒ | ||||||||
Approximant | (r r) | y j | w w | (l ɴ̆) |
gw, chw become g, ch before rounded vowels /y u o/.
r, l are used in loanwords.
Geminates are allowed and are rendered by doubling (for digraphs, doubling the first consonant)
Vowels
i ü u e ə o a /i y u e ə o a/ + long vowels
Stress
???
Grammar
Modern Sfətsiv is SVO.
Modern Sfətsiv has lost the Proto-Tsimulh noun class system, which was still active in Sacred Sfətsiv. Pronouns and verbs only agree in animacy and number.
Nouns
The genitive is marked with -s or -əs: stsaσ 'a forest or similar collection' > stsaσəs 'of a forest'
-s- is often inserted between nouns in compounds.
Nouns with unmarked plurals and marked singulars are common. The singulative is marked with gü- in this case.
Expected noun class reflexes:
- ʔə-, pl. tsə- = humans, spirits
- bu-, pl. də- = animals and other things that move on their own
- p-, pl. əpi- = plants and mushrooms; things that grow
- s-, pl. yüsj-/yüs-/yü- = collections or large things
- üt-, pl. pσə- = roughly round, compact objects
- va-, pl. əwə- = long objects; tools, instruments, devices
- tj-, pl. abi- = places, locations, slots
- gü-, pl. 0- or dh- = various... including fluids (powder, water, liquids, fire, light, waves, wind, ...)
- σi-, pl. chwi- = time periods; events; things that are temporary (e.g. ice)
- t-, ti- = abstractions, manner, way, infinitives, verbal nouns (Class 10+11)
- bda- = -ness, -hood (Class 12)
Verbs
Concord
The animate subject affix is ʔə- in the singular and tsə- in the plural. Verbs with inanimate subjects do not have any subject affix.
Personal affixes:
- 1sg cwə-
- 2sg fə-
- 1pl gwə-
- 2pl tsü-