Shum

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

Shum (shoom; native name llhau syuun) is a Hlou-Ku language inspired by Marathi, Hmong and one of IlL'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/	jn /ɲ/
Murmured nasal	mh /mʰ/		nnh /n̪ʰ/		nh /ɳʰ/	nlh /ɳᶩʰ/	jnh /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

Registers

There are two main registers of Shumian, traditionally called White (Syuun Bhaan) and Green (Syuun Dlas). The main difference is that White Shumian uses lots of loans from Rhythoed.

Morphology

Shumian is completely isolating and head-initial.

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

Pronouns

Shumian pronouns are based on rank, not person or gender. (laan 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'
• laan 'I'
• mhais 'boat'