Shum

Shumian (native name ṣùm lhau) is a monosyllabic language inspired by Marathi, Hmoob and IlL's Reber Wiebian.

Phonology

Initials

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Voiceless stop	p /p/		t /t̪/		ṭ /ʈ/	c /c/	k /k/
Aspirated stop	ph /pʰ/		th /t̪ʰ/		ṭh /ʈʰ/	ch /cʰ/	kh /kʰ/
Voiced stop	b /b/		d /d̪/		ḍ /ɖ/	j /ɟ/	g /ɡ/
Murmured stop	bh /bʰ/		dh /d̪ʰ/		ḍʰ /ɖʰ/	jh /ɟʰ/	gh /ɡʰ/
Nasal	m /m/		n /n̪/		ṇ /ɳ/	ñ /ɲ/
Murmured nasal	mh /mʰ/		nh /n̪ʰ/		ṇh /ɳʰ/	ñh /ɲʰ/
Fricative			s /s/		ṣ /ʂ/	ś /ç~ɕ/		h /h/
Approximant		v /ʋ/				y /j/
Murmured approximant		vh /ʋʰ/
Lateral			l /l/		ḷ /ɺ̢/
Murmured lateral			lh /lʰ/		ḷh /ɺ̢ʰ/
Laterally released nasal					ṇḷ /ɳᶩ/
Murmured laterally released nasal					ṇḷh /ɳᶩʰ/
Trill				r /r/

Rimes

• aʔ iʔ uʔ ahᵃ ihⁱ uhᵘ with mid (33) and low (22) tones (spelled a i u aḥ iḥ uḥ)
• a: e: i: o: u: ai au am~ã: im~ĩ: um~ũ: with mid (33), low (21), rising (25), falling (41), dipping (313 with creaky voice on the 1), and high dipping tone (434) tones (spelled ā e ī o ū ai au aṁ iṁ uṁ)

Tones

Tone	Mid	Low	Rising	Falling	Dipping	High dipping
Spelling	a	à	á	â	ä	ǎ

Old Shumian

Old Shumian had a much simpler sound system, with fewer consonants and no tones.

Morphology

Shumian is mostly isolating. There's one exception though, which is that the first consonant of the possessor in a genitive phrase is aspirated (unless it's /r/, /j/, or a fricative).

• ṇā̀ (I), mäi (boat) ⇒ ṇā̀ mhäi (my boat)
• rúm (eye), be (water) ⇒ rúm bhe (tears)

It derives from the genitive suffix *-s in Old Shumian. These phrases in Old Shumian would be:

• nrao (I), mati (boat) ⇒ nraos mati (my boat)
• rump (eye), bel (water) ⇒ rumps bel (tears)

Numbers

Number	Shumian
0	dó
1	lê
2	bàḥ
3	vûṁ
4	pai
5	śaṁ
6	śū̂
7	ñai
8	rìṁ
9	ḍiḥ
10	kū
11	nā̌
12	ū
144	vī̈
1728	dâu

Syntax

Shumian is consistently head-final.

Lexicon

ṇḷàḥ ← *ngraskh 'fire'