Sarim

Sarim (Sarim: Sarim vār) is a language spoken by most of the population of Sarimis, as well as several its satellite nations.

Phonology

Consonants

-Plosives /p t c k kʷ/ <p t ch c cu>

-Nasals /m n/ <m n>

-Fricatives /v θ s h xʷ/ <v th s h hu>

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

Vowels

/i e a o i e a o/ <i e a o ī ē ā ō>

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:

The only geminate consonants that can occur are /m: n: s: j: r: l:/.

/h/ and /xʷ/ do not occur after after other consonants.

Labio-velar consonants do not occur before other consonants, nor do they occur word-finally.

/np/ does not occur, having merged with /mp/ at an earlier stage.

Allophony

-/r/ is realised as an approximant [ɻ] before a vowel or word-finally, but [ɮ] before a consonant.

-/h/ is often realised [x] before a consonant.

- All stops are voiceless and unaspirated, except immediately following a voiceless consonant, where they tend to become voiced.

- /n/ is realised at the same point of articulation as a following consonant: /nk/ = [ŋg]

-/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].

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

-Long /o:/ tends to be realised as [u:], especially in open syllables and word-finally. Other long vowels tend to be pronounced close to their cardinal values.

Stress

Stress in Sarim is non-phonemic ,always falling on the antepenultimate syllable of a word with more than three syllables, and the first syllable of bisyllabic words. 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.