Sarim

Sarim is an isolating-fusional, strongly head-initial ergative absolutive language of the Ke:tic language family.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/Affricate	p /p/ b /b/	t /t/ d /d/		j /ɟ/	k /k/ g
Fricative	f /f/		s /s/ z /z/		ğ /ɣ/	h /h/
Nasal	m /m/		n /n/	ny /ɲ/	ŋ /ŋ/
Liquid	w /w/		r /ɾ/ l /l/	y /j/

Vowels

/i e a o u/ i e a o u

There are six diphthongs: /ai au ei eu oi ou/

Syllable Structure

Sarim has a (C)(l)V(m n ŋ r s) syllable structure, with the caveat that the onset clusters /rl wl jl ll ɣl ɲl/ do not occur.

Allophony

- /ɟ/ tends to be realised as an affricate [ɟʝ] or [ʥ], or even [ʤ].

- /n/ assimilates to the point of articulation of any following consonant, e.g. /np/ [mp]. Note that /m ŋ/ do not assimilate to the same point of articulation.

- /ɣ/ is very weakly articulated, coming close to [ɰ], especially between vowels.

- Conversely, /h/ often strengthens to [x] between vowels.

- The vowels are realised as lax [ɪ ɛ ɐ ɒ ʊ] except when word-final, where they are pronounced closer to their cardinal values. The diphthongs are also realised close to their cardinal values.