Shum

Shum
llhau syuun
Created by	Praimhín
Setting	Verse:Tricin
Language family	Hlou-Shum Shum

Shum (shoom; native name llhau syuun) is a Hlou-Shum language inspired by Marathi, Hmong and one of Inthar's old sketches, Reber Wiebian.

Phonology

Initials

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Retroflex Lateral	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless stop	p /p/		tt /t̪/		t /ʈ/	tl /ʈᶩ/	c /c/	k /k/
Aspirated stop	ph /pʰ/		tth /t̪ʰ/		th /ʈʰ/	tlh /ʈᶩʰ/	ch /cʰ/	kh /kʰ/
Voiced stop	b /b/		dd /d̪/		d /ɖ/	dl /ɖᶩ/	j /ɟ/	g /ɡ/
Murmured stop	bh /bʰ/		ddh /d̪ʰ/		dh /ɖʰ/	dlh /ɖᶩʰ/	jh /ɟʰ/	gh /ɡʰ/
Nasal	m /m/		nn /n̪/		n /ɳ/	nl /ɳᶩ/	nj /ɲ/
Murmured nasal	mh /mʰ/		nnh /n̪ʰ/		nh /ɳʰ/	nlh /ɳᶩʰ/	njh /ɲʰ/
Fricative			ss /s/		s /ʂ/		sy /ç~ɕ/		h /h/
Approximant		v /ʋ/		ll /l/		l /ɺ̢/	y /j/
Murmured approximant		vh /ʋʰ/		llh /lʰ/		lh /ɺ̢ʰ/
Trill				r /r/

Rimes

• aʔ iʔ uʔ ahᵃ ihⁱ uhᵘ with a mid (33) tone (spelled at it ut ah ih uh)
• aʔ iʔ uʔ ahᵃ ihⁱ uhᵘ with a low (22) tone (spelled att itt utt aha ihi uhu)

• a: e: i: o: u: ai au am~ã: em~ẽ: im~ĩ: om~õ: um~ũ: (spelled a e i o u ai au aa ee ii oo uu) with mid (33), low (21), rising (25), falling (41), dipping (313 with creaky voice on the 1), and high dipping tone (434) tones; the tone letters are as follows:

Tone	Mid	Low	Rising	Falling	Dipping	High dipping
Spelling		n	b	d	j	s

Morphology

Shum is completely isolating and head-initial.

• tlan (I), mhais (boat) ⇒ mhais tlan (my boat)
• ruub (eye), be (water) ⇒ be ruub (tears)

Pronouns

Shum pronouns are based on rank, not person or gender. (tlan is used only in textbooks)

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

• nlhaha 'fire'
• be 'water'
• tlan 'I'
• mhais 'boat'