Shum

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

Introduction

Phonology

Orthography

Initials

Bilabial Labiodental Dental Alveolar Retroflex Palatal Velar Glottal
Voiceless stop p /p/ t /t̪/ /ʈ/ c /c/ k /k/
Aspirated stop ph /pʰ/ th /t̪ʰ/ ṭh /ʈʰ/ ch /cʰ/ kh /kʰ/
Voiced stop b /b/ d /d̪/ /ɖ/ j /ɟ/ g /ɡ/
Murmured stop bh /bʰ/ dh /d̪ʰ/ ḍʰ /ɖʰ/ jh /ɟʰ/ gh /ɡʰ/
Nasal m /m/ n /n̪/ /ɳ/ ñ /ɲ/
Murmured nasal mh /mʰ/ nh /n̪ʰ/ ṇh /ɳʰ/ ñh /ɲʰ/
Fricative s /s/ /ʂ/ ś /ç~ɕ/ h /h/
Approximant v /ʋ/ y /j/
Murmured approximant vh /ʋʰ/
Lateral l /l/ /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. The phonotactics though were more complicated; Old Shumian words could begin with up to three consecutive consonants.

Prosody

Stress

Intonation

Phonotactics

Morphophonology

Morphology

Shumian is completely isolating and head-final.

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

Remnants of Old Shumian morphology

Some nouns derive from Old Shumian patientives marked with the prefix s- (mercilessly stolen from Lushootseed):

ḍū̌ 'sing' (from *druku) -> ḍhū̌ (from *sdruku)

Numbers

Number Shumian
0
1
2 bhàḥ
3 vûṁ
4 pai
5 śaṁ
6 śū̂
7 nhai
8 rìṁ
9 lhiḥ
10
11 nā̌
12 ū
144 vī̈
1728 dhâu

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.

Constituent order

Noun phrase

Verb phrase

Sentence phrase

Dependent clauses

Lexicon

ṇḷhàḥ ← *sŋrasx 'fire'

Other resources