Suwaash

Revision as of 21:19, 27 August 2024 by IlL (talk | contribs)

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.

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/

/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 consonants; u uu ų ųų are fronted after palatal consonants.

Grammar

Suwaazh grammar is inspired by similarities between Sino-Tibetan and Navajo grammar. Like Navajo, Suwaazh is head-final and head-marking, but it is not nearly as polysynthetic.

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 j z~s jh zh~sh jy zy~sy g ɂ h l n; the -n final may not follow a nasal vowel.

Personal affixes

Tense marking

Verbal nouns