Saxuma

Introduction

Saxuma ([sɑ.ɕu̠ˈmā], also romanized Sasiouma, historically known as Saras Wima ['sʌ.r̥as wi'ma]) is a language isolate spoken by approximately 5000 speakers on the Mediterranean island of Sasaois. It is notable for its split ergative alignment, flexible word order, and dynamic semantic gender.

Almost all residents of Sasaios speak Greek and English, but there is a strong movement to protect the cultural heritage of the language, with poetry, novels, and music produced in Saxuma, as well as dubbings of many foreign movies and television into the language.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant Inventory

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals		m	n	(ɲ)	(ŋ)
Plosives	Voiceless	p	t	c	k	<q> ʔ
	Voiced	b	d	(ɟ)	g
Fricatives	Voiceless	<ff> (ɸ)	s⁓t͡s	<x> ɕ	<h> x⁓h	<f> hʷ
	Voiced	v⁓β	z⁓d͡z	<j> ʑ⁓d͡ʑ
Approximants and Trill	Voiceless	(ʍ)	r̥
	Voiced	w	l	<y> j

• /n/ is realized as [ɲ] when adjacent to any palatal consonant, and as [ŋ] when preceding a velar plosive.
• Voiceless plosives are typically unaspirated, but are usually aspirated word-finally.
• All plosives are realized as [ʔ] when immediately followed by another plosive or a nasal of the same place of articulation.
• /ɸ/ appears only in loanwords, and may be instead pronounced as [hʷ]
• /s/, /z/, and /ʑ/ may be realized as their associated affricates when not intervocalic, but this is not obligatory.
• /hʷ/ may be realized as [ʍ] and /v/ as [β] intervocalically, but this is not obligatory.
• /x/ is mostly realized as /h/ when preceding a non-front vowel.
• The sequences /tj/ and /kj/ are realized as [c], /dj/ and /gj/ as [ɟ], /sj/ and /xj/ as [ɕ], and /zj/ as [ʑ].

Vowels

Vowel Inventory

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Mid	ɛ~e eː	o oː
Low	aː	a~ɑ
Diphthongs	<ay> ai, <oy> oi, <ew> eo, <aw> ɑo

• Stressed short vowels are indicated by an acute accent, unstressed long vowels are indicated by a macron, and stressed long vowels are indicated by a carat. Both long vowels and diphthongs may be pronounced instead as two vowels in hiatus. This is particularly common in song and when unstressed.
• Short /e/ is typically pronounced [e] when word-final and [ɛ] elsewhere.
• Short /a/ is typically pronounced as [a] when stressed and word-final, and [ɑ] elsewhere.

Phonotactics

The maximal syllable structure of Saxuma is (C)(j)V(C). Only voiceless obstruents and nasals are allowed in codas, with the exception of /hw/, which does not.

Adjacent vowels epenthesize a semivowel - /j/ if the former vowel is /e/ or /i/, /w/ if /u/ or /o/. If the former vowel is /a/, then the latter vowel is used to determine the epenthesized semivowel in the same way.

The sequence /nn/ is allowed. One survey of speakers indicated that /mm/, /ss/, /zz/, /ɕɕ/, and /ʑʑ/ are all considered phonotactically licit, but no actual occurrences of any of these are attested, except across word boundaries. Identical plosives in sequence will have the former plosive morph to a glottal stop, e.g. */tt/ > [ʔt].

Pitch Accent

Stress is contrastive in Saxuma. Historically, different parts of speech were produced from the same stem by varying the stress (with verbs having ultimate stress and nouns and adjectives initial), and stress was reinforced by a system of vowel reduction. For example, kobá [kɔˈba] 'to drink' vs. kóba [ˈko.bʌ] 'beverage'. These kinds of verb-noun pairs still exist in modern Saxuma, such as kalán 'to cry' vs. kálan 'tears', but many of them have been made less direct due to sound changes. For example, while 'to drink' is still kobá, 'beverage' is now kō.

Additionally, in place of the stress and vowel reduction system, modern Saxuma uses pitch accent. There are three pitch levels, and all syllables are by default mid tone.

• Monosyllabic words retain their mid tone pitch. For example, 'cold' kan [kan]. This is also true of monosyllabic words with long vowels and diphthongs, such as 'sheep' bō [boː] and 'why' gay [gai].
• If a short vowel is accented, it bears a high tone, e.g. 'lips' émin [ˈɛ̄.min]. If it is non-initial and preceded by a short vowel, the preceding syllable bears a low tone. For example, 'friction' xeyáyem [ɕɛ̠ˈjā.jem] and 'protector' zigará [zi.gɑ̠ˈrā].
• If stressed or directly preceding a stressed syllable, long vowels and diphthongs receive contour tones. For stressed vowels, this is a peaking contour of tone MHM, e.g. 'passion' enâ [ɛ̠ˈnâː]. When directly preceding a stressed syllable, the long vowel bears a falling contour ML, e.g. 'various' mābá [màːˈbā].
  • When long vowels are pronounced as identical vowels in hiatus, the first vowel is pronounced as mid, and then the second is high if the syllable is stressed, and low if it precedes the stress. Using the examples above, enâ would be pronounced as [ɛ̠ˈnaˌā] and mābá as [ma.a̠ˈbā].

Other resources

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