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'''Sarim''' (sarim: Sarim Sôvat) is a language spoken in Sarim Ari, a nation on the continent of Yandras. It is a largely isolating, head-final language, displaying traits of ergative morphosyntactic alignment.
'''Sarim''' (Sarim: '''sarimengo''' 'our language', '''sarime Kansū''' 'Language of Kansu') is one of the larger languages of the Ke:tic family. It is a strongly head-initial, largely agglutinating ergative language.  


== Phonology ==
===Phoneme Inventory===
{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
|-
|
|'''Labial'''
|'''Dental'''
|'''Alveolar'''
|'''Palatal'''
|'''Velar'''
|'''Glottal'''
|-
|'''Plosive/Affricate'''
|'''b''' /p/ '''p''' /pʰ/
|'''d''' /t/ '''t''' /tʰ/
|
|
|'''g''' /k/ '''k''' /kʰ/
|-
|'''Fricative'''
|
|'''th''' /θ/
|'''s''' /s/
|'''hy''' /ç/
|
|'''h''' /h/
|-
|'''Nasal'''
|'''m''' /m/
|
|'''n''' /n/
|'''ny''' /ɲ/
|'''ŋ''' /ŋ/
|
|-
|'''Liquid'''
|
|
|'''r''' /ɾ/ '''l''' /l/
|'''y''' /j/
|'''w''' /w/
|
|}
'''Vowels'''
<table><tr><td>'''i''' /i/ '''ī''' /i:/ </td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>'''u''' /u/ '''ū''' /u:/</td></tr>
<tr><td>'''e''' /ɛ/ '''ē''' /e:/ </td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>'''o''' /ɒ/ '''ō'''/o:/</td></tr> 
<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td>'''a''' /ɐ/ '''ā''' /ɐ:/</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></table>
Sarim also has the dipthongs '''ai au ei eu oi ou''' /ai au ei eu oi ou/, all falling.
===Syllable Structure===
Sarim has a (C)(C)V(C) syllable structure. Onset clusters are made up of one of /p t k pʰ tʰ kʰ θ s h/ + /r/. Only /p t k m n θ s h l/ can occur in coda position. Note that word-internally coda /θ/ merges with /s/. Note that long vowels do not occur in long syllables.
===Allophony===
- /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 as the following consonant. (Note that /ŋ/ is written as '''n''' before a velar consonant, since ambiguity is not an issue).
- Coda stops are realised as unreleased.
- /k kʰ/ may be realised as [ʧ ʧʰ] before front vowels.
- /h/ often strengthens to [x] between vowels.
- /r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] word-initially and in onset clusters, and as an approximant [ɻ] between vowels.
- Unstressed short /i ɐ u/ are realised as [ɪ ə ʊ].
===Stress and Prosody===


Sarim is a mora-timed language: syllables take up a certain amount of time based on their nucleus. Open syllables with a short vowel take up one mora; closed syllables with a short vowel, and open syllables with a long vowel or diphthong, take up two morae, whilst closed syllables with a diphthong take up three morae.


== Phonology ==
Stress falls on the syllable containing the antepenultimate mora, or leftmost mora in words with less than three morae.
 
 
== Nominal Morphology ==
 
Sarim nouns are marked for Absolutive and Oblique cases, as well as singular and plural number. The unmarked form of the noun is the absolutive singular: '''yad''' - man, '''kare''' - sorghum '''ari''' - town, '''nasu''' - child, '''sau''' - dog, '''prasnā''' - number.


Sarim has a fairly simple phonology; it distinguishes 14 consonants and 9 vowels, as detailed below:
===The Plural===


'''Consonants''':
The plural is marked with '''-ma''': '''yadma, arima, nasuma, sauma, prasnā'''.  The oblique plural is marked irregularly by '''-mē'''.


* '''Labial''': /p b m f v/ <p b m f v>
Plural marking is mandatory with animate nouns; with inanimate nouns marking plurality is option, and inanimate nouns are never marked as plural if followed by a number or an adjective marking number such as '''hou''' - many.
* '''Alveolar''': /t d n θ s z r l/ <t d n th s z r l>
* '''Palatal''': /ɟ j/ <j y>
*'''Velar''': /k g x/ <k g h>


'''Vowels''':
===Absolutive Case===


* /i y e ø ɛ æ ɑ ɔ o/
The absolutive case is the unmarked form of the noun. The absolutive marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the patient of a transitive verb. It is also used with certain prepositions, as noted in the syntax section.
* <i u ê eu e a â o ô


* /ai au/
===Oblique Case===
* <ai ao>


'''Allophony'''
The underlying marker of the Oblique case is *'''-i''', which manifests itself in several ways:


-The fricative /θ/ is realised as interdental in all environments.
- After a monosyllabic word ending in a vowel, and after long vowels, it is marked with -yi: '''sauyi''' - dog-OBL; '''prasnāyi''' - number-OBL.


-The consonants /t d n l/ are realised as dental unless adjacent to one of /s z/, which are always alveolar (and laminal).
- Nouns ending in short '''a, e''' or '''o''' lose the final vowel and add -i: '''kari''' - sorghum-OBL


-/ɟ/ may be realised as affricated, either as [ɟʝ] or [dʑ].
- Nouns ending in a consonant add -i: '''yadi''' - man-OBL


-/j/ is realised as the voiced alveolar fricative [ʝ] word-initially.
- Final -u and -i become -ī: '''arī''' - man-OBL;; '''nasī''' child-OBL


-In closed syllables, /e o/ and /ɛ ɔ/ merge to /ɔ ɔ/, represented orthographically as <e o>.
The oblique is used with the majority of Sarim's prepositions. Its other main use is to mark the agent of transitive verbs in most circumstances. However, in the follow circumstances the agent of a transitive verb is marked as absolutive, primarily:


-/o/ may raise to /u/ word-finally or when stressed in an open syllable.
- If the agent is indefinite: '''kithīne sau arimē''' ''see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR-OBL'' 'the men saw the dog', but: '''kithīne sau arima''' ''see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR'' '(some) men saw the dog'.  


''More work needs to be done here, but I don't like Phonologies''
- If the agent is nullar in number: '''makithīne sau ari mau''' ''NEG-see-IMPF-TRANS dog-0 man-0 NEG''  'no men saw the dog'.


'''Phonotactics'''
- If the agent is significantly more animate than the patient: '''ramnagin kare ari''' ''harvest-PERF-TRANS sorghum-0 man-0'' 'the man harvested the sorghum', but '''nawēne hrath arī''' ''love-IMPF-TRANS woman-0 man-ERG'' 'the man loves the woman'.


A Sarim syllable consists of an onset, a nucleus, and a coda. Of these elements, only the nucleus is compulsory.
===Possession Marking===


-The onset may consist of any single consonant, or a cluster of any of /n l r/ + /j/, /k g x s/ + /v/, or /p b f t d T s k g x/ + /r/.
Sarim has a range of possessive suffixes, from previously cliticised pronouns. Vowels in brackets are used if the clitics follow a consonants, whilst the third person possessive marker has three allomorphs: it lengthens final short vowels, is '''-a''' after consonants, and '''-ya''' after long vowels and dipthongs. Long vowels before '''-n''' and '''-th''' become short.  


-The nucleus consists of any single permissible vowel or diphthong.
{|
| | Singular || Plural
|-
||1st Person || '''-(e)n''' ||'''-(e)ngo
|-
||2nd Person ||'''-(e)th''' ||'''-(e)sgo'''
|-
||3rd Person ||'''-(y)a/:''' ||'''-(y)a/:'''
|}


-The coda is limited, and may only consist of any one of /m n t k T s x r l/.
The possessive suffixes follow case and plural marking:


'''hrathen''' 'my wife'
'''nasumango''' 'our children'
'''karē''' 'his sorghum'
'''ti saumeth''' 'from your dogs (OBL)'


'''Stress and Pitch Accent'''


-Stress in Sarim is not phonemic, and is always on the antepenultimate syllable, unless a syllable neighbouring the the antepenultimate has one of /ai e A o au/ as the nucleus, in which case hte stress shifts there.
==Verbal Morphology==


-The pitch accent is more complex. For this purpose, syllables can be considered either monomoraic, dimoraic, or trimoraic:
The citation form of Sarim verbs is the root, which may end in a vowel, a consonant, or a permissible medial cluster: '''kithi-''' 'look at, see'; '''edn-''' 'go'; '''aut-''' 'eat', '''mo-''' 'break'.  
Monomoraic syllables consist of an open syllable with one of /i y ɛ æ ɔ/ as the nucleus.
Dimoraic syllables consist of  closed syllables with one of /i y ɛ æ ɔ/ as the nucleus, or open syllables with one of /ai e A o au/ as the nucleus.
Trimoraic syllables consist of closed syllables with one of /ai A au/ as the nucleus.


Pitch accent is always on the penultimate mora.
===The Infinitive===


Stress is realised as a raise in volume and lengthening of the vowel. Pitch accent is realised as a lowering of the tone of the vowel. Pitch accent and stress may occur on the same syllable, or be split across different syllables.
The infinitive is the only non-finite form a Sarim verb has. The infinitive always ends in '''-ni''', and has three allomorphs:


-After a monosyllabic root ending in a vowel, -'''yini''': '''moyini''' - to break.


'''Elision'''
- After a consonant, '''-ini''': '''autini''' - to eat; '''ednini''' - to go.


Elision is a Sandhi feature very common in Sarim, and occurs when two vowels are neighbouring across a word boundary,
- After a vowel, '''-ni''': '''kithini''' - to look at, to see.
e.g. '''ti omi'' ''that (he) see(s)''. If the two vowels are the same quality, they are realised together as a long vowel. If the two vowels are of different quality and either the first or last element is one of unstressed /e i/ or /o y/, then these are realised as [j] and [w] respectively, so /ti Omi/ is realised as [tjOmi]. If neither of these conditions is fulfilled, and one of the words involved is a grammatical particle, that particle looses its vowel, which orthographically is represented by replacing the vowel grapheme with an apostrophe. If the two words are lexical words, and removing the final vowel of the first one would not create an illegal consonant cluster, it may be dropped, indicated orthographically by replacing the vowel with an apostrophe. If none of these conditions are met, no change is made.




===Voice===


== Syntax ==
As well as the unmarked active voice, Sarim has antipassive and a reflexive voices marked on the verb. Voice marking always immediately follows the verb stem.


'''Theta-roles in Sarim'''
- The '''antipassive''' is marked by '''-ū'''', which displaces any stem-final short vowel. Monosyllabic stems ending in a vowel and stems ending in diphthongs or long vowels have '''-yū''' instead: '''kithū-''' 'see something', '''ednū-''' - make someone go, '''autū-''' 'eat something, '''moyū''' 'break something'.


Sarim shows Ergative alignment. This means that Sarim treats the sole argument of an intransitive verb (S) and the patient of a transitive verb (P) the same, and marks the agent of a transitive verb (A) differently.  
- The '''reflexive''' is marked by '''-(a)s-''', with an epenthetic '''-a-''' only occuring if the stem ends in a cluster or a consonant that does not occur in coda position: '''kithis-''' 'see oneself', '''ednas-''' 'go', '''autas-''' 'eat oneself', '''mos-''' 'break oneself'.  


Sarim ditransitive verbs show dative alignment; the theme (what is given) is marked as absolutive, whilst the receiver is marked as Dative.
Because verbs marked for a voice other than active can take the infinitive too (e.g. '''kithūni''' - to see something), it has been argued that voice is really more of a feature of derivational morphology.  


'''Basic Word Order'''


Sarim's basic word order is '''Object-Verb-Agent''', or OVA:
===Aspect===


'''Bâru haik'';
Sarim verbs are marked for three aspects: perfective, imperfective, and habitual.
* water boil
* The water is boiling


'''Bâru haik dun'''
- The imperfective is marked by '''-a'''. Stem final short vowels are lengthened, and the imperfective is zero-marked after stems ending in a long vowel or diphthong: '''kithī''' 'it is seen'; '''edna''' 'it goes'; '''auta''' 'it is eaten'; '''mō''' 'it breaks'.
* water boil man
* The man is boiling the water


Oblique arguments are placed after A:
- The perfective is marked by '''-(i)gi''': '''kithigi''' 'it was looked at'; '''ednigi''' 'it went'; '''autigi''' 'all of it is eaten'; '''mogi''' 'it broke completely'.


'''Bâru haik dun oje ye'''
- The habitual
* water boil man day LOC
* The man is boiling the water today


'''Bâru datsa dun feyar si'''
[[Category: Conlangs]]
* water give man woman DAT
* the many gave the water to the woman

Latest revision as of 14:24, 17 July 2011

Sarim (Sarim: sarimengo 'our language', sarime Kansū 'Language of Kansu') is one of the larger languages of the Ke:tic family. It is a strongly head-initial, largely agglutinating ergative language.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive/Affricate b /p/ p /pʰ/ d /t/ t /tʰ/ g /k/ k /kʰ/
Fricative th /θ/ s /s/ hy /ç/ h /h/
Nasal m /m/ n /n/ ny /ɲ/ ŋ /ŋ/
Liquid r /ɾ/ l /l/ y /j/ w /w/


Vowels

i /i/ ī /i:/ u /u/ ū /u:/
e /ɛ/ ē /e:/ o /ɒ/ ō/o:/
a /ɐ/ ā /ɐ:/

Sarim also has the dipthongs ai au ei eu oi ou /ai au ei eu oi ou/, all falling.

Syllable Structure

Sarim has a (C)(C)V(C) syllable structure. Onset clusters are made up of one of /p t k pʰ tʰ kʰ θ s h/ + /r/. Only /p t k m n θ s h l/ can occur in coda position. Note that word-internally coda /θ/ merges with /s/. Note that long vowels do not occur in long syllables.

Allophony

- /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 as the following consonant. (Note that /ŋ/ is written as n before a velar consonant, since ambiguity is not an issue).

- Coda stops are realised as unreleased.

- /k kʰ/ may be realised as [ʧ ʧʰ] before front vowels.

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

- /r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] word-initially and in onset clusters, and as an approximant [ɻ] between vowels.

- Unstressed short /i ɐ u/ are realised as [ɪ ə ʊ].

Stress and Prosody

Sarim is a mora-timed language: syllables take up a certain amount of time based on their nucleus. Open syllables with a short vowel take up one mora; closed syllables with a short vowel, and open syllables with a long vowel or diphthong, take up two morae, whilst closed syllables with a diphthong take up three morae.

Stress falls on the syllable containing the antepenultimate mora, or leftmost mora in words with less than three morae.


Nominal Morphology

Sarim nouns are marked for Absolutive and Oblique cases, as well as singular and plural number. The unmarked form of the noun is the absolutive singular: yad - man, kare - sorghum ari - town, nasu - child, sau - dog, prasnā - number.

The Plural

The plural is marked with -ma: yadma, arima, nasuma, sauma, prasnā. The oblique plural is marked irregularly by -mē.

Plural marking is mandatory with animate nouns; with inanimate nouns marking plurality is option, and inanimate nouns are never marked as plural if followed by a number or an adjective marking number such as hou - many.

Absolutive Case

The absolutive case is the unmarked form of the noun. The absolutive marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the patient of a transitive verb. It is also used with certain prepositions, as noted in the syntax section.

Oblique Case

The underlying marker of the Oblique case is *-i, which manifests itself in several ways:

- After a monosyllabic word ending in a vowel, and after long vowels, it is marked with -yi: sauyi - dog-OBL; prasnāyi - number-OBL.

- Nouns ending in short a, e or o lose the final vowel and add -i: kari - sorghum-OBL

- Nouns ending in a consonant add -i: yadi - man-OBL

- Final -u and -i become -ī: arī - man-OBL;; nasī child-OBL

The oblique is used with the majority of Sarim's prepositions. Its other main use is to mark the agent of transitive verbs in most circumstances. However, in the follow circumstances the agent of a transitive verb is marked as absolutive, primarily:

- If the agent is indefinite: kithīne sau arimē see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR-OBL 'the men saw the dog', but: kithīne sau arima see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR '(some) men saw the dog'.

- If the agent is nullar in number: makithīne sau ari mau NEG-see-IMPF-TRANS dog-0 man-0 NEG 'no men saw the dog'.

- If the agent is significantly more animate than the patient: ramnagin kare ari harvest-PERF-TRANS sorghum-0 man-0 'the man harvested the sorghum', but nawēne hrath arī love-IMPF-TRANS woman-0 man-ERG 'the man loves the woman'.

Possession Marking

Sarim has a range of possessive suffixes, from previously cliticised pronouns. Vowels in brackets are used if the clitics follow a consonants, whilst the third person possessive marker has three allomorphs: it lengthens final short vowels, is -a after consonants, and -ya after long vowels and dipthongs. Long vowels before -n and -th become short.

Singular Plural
1st Person -(e)n -(e)ngo
2nd Person -(e)th -(e)sgo
3rd Person -(y)a/: -(y)a/:

The possessive suffixes follow case and plural marking:

hrathen 'my wife' nasumango 'our children' karē 'his sorghum' ti saumeth 'from your dogs (OBL)'


Verbal Morphology

The citation form of Sarim verbs is the root, which may end in a vowel, a consonant, or a permissible medial cluster: kithi- 'look at, see'; edn- 'go'; aut- 'eat', mo- 'break'.

The Infinitive

The infinitive is the only non-finite form a Sarim verb has. The infinitive always ends in -ni, and has three allomorphs:

-After a monosyllabic root ending in a vowel, -yini: moyini - to break.

- After a consonant, -ini: autini - to eat; ednini - to go.

- After a vowel, -ni: kithini - to look at, to see.


Voice

As well as the unmarked active voice, Sarim has antipassive and a reflexive voices marked on the verb. Voice marking always immediately follows the verb stem.

- The antipassive is marked by -ū', which displaces any stem-final short vowel. Monosyllabic stems ending in a vowel and stems ending in diphthongs or long vowels have -yū instead: kithū- 'see something', ednū- - make someone go, autū- 'eat something, moyū 'break something'.

- The reflexive is marked by -(a)s-, with an epenthetic -a- only occuring if the stem ends in a cluster or a consonant that does not occur in coda position: kithis- 'see oneself', ednas- 'go', autas- 'eat oneself', mos- 'break oneself'.

Because verbs marked for a voice other than active can take the infinitive too (e.g. kithūni - to see something), it has been argued that voice is really more of a feature of derivational morphology.


Aspect

Sarim verbs are marked for three aspects: perfective, imperfective, and habitual.

- The imperfective is marked by -a. Stem final short vowels are lengthened, and the imperfective is zero-marked after stems ending in a long vowel or diphthong: kithī 'it is seen'; edna 'it goes'; auta 'it is eaten'; mō 'it breaks'.

- The perfective is marked by -(i)gi: kithigi 'it was looked at'; ednigi 'it went'; autigi 'all of it is eaten'; mogi 'it broke completely'.

- The habitual

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