Suwaash
Suwaazh is a conlang inspired by similarities between Sino-Tibetan (especially Rgyalrongic) and Navajo. It is an isolate within a large language family which includes monosyllabic tonal languages and Athabaskan-style polysynthetic languages. Suwaazh is the lingua franca of modern Sngeaf.
Todo
- myąą 'cat; meow'
Vocabulary
Suwaazh is about as purist as German or Finnish, but it has some loans from Anbirese.
Phonology
The following describes Amisheg (Standard Sowaazh) phonology.
Consonants
Amisheg has a large consonant inventory of 33 consonants:
| Labial | Dental | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n̪/ | ny /ɲ/ | ||||
| Stop | tenuis | b /p/ | d /t̪/ | g /k/ | ɂ /ʔ/ | ||
| aspirated | p /pʰ/ | t /t̪ʰ/ | k /kʰ/ | ||||
| ejective | t' /t̪ʼ/ | k' /kʼ/ | |||||
| Affricate | tenuis | j /t̪s̪/ | jh /tʂ/ | jy /tɕ/ | |||
| aspirated | c /t̪s̪ʰ/ | ch /tʂʰ/ | cy /tɕʰ/ | ||||
| ejective | c' /t̪s̪ʼ/ | ch' /tʂʼ/ | cy' /tɕʼ/ | ||||
| Fricative | fortis | s /s̪/ | sh /ʂ/ | sy /ɕ/ | kh /x/ | h /h/ | |
| lenis | z /z̪/ | zh /ʐ/ | zy /ʑ/ | gh /ɣ/ | |||
| Approximant | w /w/ | l /l/ | y /j/ | ||||
/mj pj pʰj lj/ are allowed before vowels.
Vowels
Amisheg has only 4 vowel qualities, although there is phonemic vowel length and nasality.
| Front | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| Close | i, į | ii, įį | u, ų | uu, ųų |
| Open | e, ę | ee, ęę | a, ą | aa, ąą |
The vowels i ii į įį are centralized after retroflex consonants; u uu ų ųų are fronted after palatal consonants.
Morphophonology
Initial alternations
2-way alternating roots:
- b p m -> by py my
- d t t' n l -> jy cy cy' ny ly
- g k k' kh gh -> jh ch ch' sh zh (at least in some roots?)
- j c c' s z -> jy cy cy' sy zy
Some 3-way alternating roots
- j c c' s z ~ jh ch ch' sh zh ~ jy cy cy' sy zy
Unexpectedly unalternating roots
- Unalternating jh series roots
- Unalternating g series roots
- unalternating zy roots
Dialects
Different nonstandard dialects shift the sibilant system in different ways:
- merging sh zh jh ch ch' with s z j c c' (cf. Polish mazurzenie)
- merging sh zh jh ch ch' with sy zy jy cy cy' (cf. Polish jabłonkowanie)
- merging sy zy jy cy cy' with s z j c c' (cf. Polish kaszubienie)
- shifting sh zh jh ch ch' into velars /x ɣ kx kxʰ kxʼ/ or uvulars /χ ʁ qχ qχʰ qχʼ/
Grammar
Suwaazh grammar is inspired by similarities between Sino-Tibetan and Navajo grammar. Like both Rgyalrongic and Navajo, Suwaazh is head-final and head-marking, but it is not nearly as polysynthetic as Navajo.
Nouns
Possessive affixes
Plurals
Postpositions
Postpositions inflect like nouns in that they take personal affixes.
- dative -ash: węęhash 'for the world/Earth'; nash 'for me'
Verbs
The verb is the only obligatory component of a Suwaazh clause. Adjectives are also verbs.
The root
A Suwaazh verb root consists of an obligatory initial, a vowel which may ablaut, and an optional final.
Possible initials are:
- all single consonants
- ⟨my by py⟩
Final consonants are restricted to ⟨b d z~s zh~sh zy~sy g ɂ h l n⟩; the -n final may not follow a nasal vowel.