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:

Consonant phonemes in Amisheg

		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/, ly /ʎ/

/mj pj pʰj lj/ are allowed before vowels.

Vowels

Amisheg has only 4 vowel qualities, although there is phonemic vowel length and nasality.

Amisheg oral vowels

	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 and dental consonants; u uu ų ųų are fronted after palatal consonants.

Morphophonology

Initial alternations

Initials may change with different "ablaut grades" of the nucleus vowel of the stem.

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.

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.