Sarim

Sarim (Sarim: Sarim bār) is a language spoken by most of the population of Sarimis, as well as several its satellite nations. It is a largely isolating, accusative, head-final language of the Kambaic language family.

Phonology

Consonants

-Plosives /p t d c k/ <p t ť k>

-Nasals /m n/ <m n>

-Fricatives /f v θ s h/ <f v th s h>

-Rhotic/Approximants: /r l j/ <r l y>

Vowels

- Monophthongs: /i e a o u/ <i e a o u>

- Diphthongs: /iu ei eu ai au oi ou ui/

Note that all diphthongs are falling.

Syllable Structure

The basic syllable structure in Sarim is (C)V(C), with the vowel nucleus being the only compulsory component, with the following caveats:

Any consonant can occur word initially, as well as the following clusters can occur word finally: /sp sm st sn sc sk hp ht hc hk/

The following clusters can occur word-medially /mp mm mt mc mn mk ms nt nn nc nk nf ns nθ sp sm st sn sc sk hp ht hc hk rp rt rc rk rn rm/

Word finally, only /t n θ s h/ may occur.

Allophony

-/r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] before a vowel but [ɣ] before a consonant or word-finally.

-/c/ is realised as either palatal affricates [cç] or[ʨ], or even the postalveolar affricate [ʧ] especially among younger speakers.

-Before /s/, nasals tend to be realised as a sequence nasal+voiceless stop, e.g. /ms/ = [mps].

-Vowels tend to be realised as lax [ɪ ɛ ɐ ɔ ʊ] in all positions except word finally.

-Word-finally, the low vowels /a o/ are realised as [ɐ].

Stress

Stress in Sarim is non-phonemic ,always falling on the penultimate syllable of a word. Monosyllabic lexical words are stressed, but grammatical particles are not.

Nominal Morphology

Sarim nouns are declined for three cases: absolutive, ergative, and oblique; two numbers, singular and plural; as well as for absolute and construct states. Nouns can be one of any five 'conjugations' depending on the final consonant of the stem. The first conjugation consists of stems ending in a single consonant, the second of those ending in a short vowel, the third of those ending in a long vowel, the fourth of those ending in two consonants, the the fifth of stems ending in -n. Sarim grammarians, when providing the citation of a noun, tend to give the absolute and construct absolutive singulars of the noun, and we will do the same here.