Sarim

Sarim (Sarim: Sarim Sovat) is a language spoken in the Sarmanin region in the west of Yandras.

Phonology

Sarim has a fairly simple phonology, as detailed below:

Consonants:

• labal: /p b m ɸ β/

• alveolar: /t d n s z ɬ ts) r l/ <t d n s z ł tz r l>
• Retroflex: /ʈ ɖ ɻ/
• Palatal: /j/ <y>
• velar: /k g ŋ x/ <k g ŋ h>

Vowels: /i e æ ɑ o u/ /ai au ae ao eu oi/ <ai au ae ao eu oi>

Allophony

-The voiceless stops and affricates are realised as aspirated in all positions

-The rhotic /r/ is always realised as a trill before a vowel. Before labial or alveolar consonants it is realised as a tap [ɾ]. Before retroflex and velar consonants it is realised as [ɻ].

-The alveolar stops /t d/ are realised as dental when not adjacent to another consonant.

-/j/ is realised as the voiced palatal fricative [ʝ] word-initially.

-/ɑ/ is realised as [ɒ] when adjacent to a sonorant.

-/n/ is realised as [ŋ] before a velar, or [ɲ] before a retroflex.

-The mid vowels /o e/ tend to lower to [ɔ ɛ] in closed syllables.

-Unstressed /i u/ are realised as [ɨ]

Phonotactics

Sarim syllables follow a C(j)V(C), with the caveat that only /s r l m n ŋ/ may occur in coda position, and that /j/ may not occur after a retroflex. In addition, /s/ may not occur before a retroflex, and the clusters /lr rɻ lɻ/ do not occur.

Stress

Stress in Sarim is regularly on the antepenultimate syllable in words of three or more syllables, and the penultimate syllable in disyllabic words. Monosyllabic lexical words are stressed, but grammatical words are not.

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Nominal Morphology

Sarim nouns are declined for three cases and three numbers. To show how examples of allomorphy and how the various suffixes are formed, four sample noun stems shall be used: don ; man maze; house ; Sarm; Sarim aprah; child

The Absolutive form is the same as the stem, with the exception that consonant stems ending in two consonants have an additional epenthetic /i/ inserted between the two consonants in this form, and stems ending in -h lose their final consonant: don, maze, sarim, apra.

The Oblique is identical to the Absolutive if the noun ends in a vowel or -h. Otherwise, the final vowel is lengthened.

dona, mazē, sarma,aprā

The Genitive is formed with -n if a noun ends in a vowel and -en if it ends in a consonant. -h stem nouns lose their vowel and take -n. If the last syllable of the stem contains /n/, then the genitive morpheme dissimilates to -m

donem, mazen. sarmen, apran

The plural is formed with -t for all stems, with an epenthetic -a- inserted afterconsonant stems:

donat, mazet, sarmat, 'aprahat

Before the oblique and genitive inflections, the -a of the plural morpheme is lost. -h stems lose their -h and lengthen the preceding vowel.

donta dontem; mazeta, mazeten; aprāta, aprāten

The nullar is a more recent innovation; it is formed with -(e)l after the case inflection. The nullar genitive is -nde. -h stems have a nullar objective in -:l, where -: is the lengthening of the final vowel dŭnel, dŭnăl, dŭnende; mazel, mazel, mazende; sarmel, sarmal, sarmende; apral, aprāl, aprande

Pronouns

Sarim 1P, 2P, 3P and 4P animate pronouns are inflected for nominative, accusative, oblique and genitive cases. The 3P and 4P inanimate pronouns are inflected for absolutive, oblique, and genitive cases.

1P Singular - Plural:

• NOM:na - nan
• ACC:nām - nem
• OBL:nae - nenta
• GEN:nem - neman

2P singular - plural:

• NOM:ath - āda
• ACC:enda - ādan
• OBL:ath - ādan
• GEN:atham - alyam

3P(animate) singular - plural:

• NOM:ko - kor
• ACC:kam - karon
• OBL:kor - koda
• GEN:kom - koram

4P(animate) singular - plural:

• NOM:ri - rede
• ACC:rem - riden
• OBL:ride - ridat
• GEN:rem - riyem

The third and fourth person inanimate pronouns are ka and ri respectively. They are inflected like normal nouns, with the exception that their oblique singular forms are kai and rŭ respectively.

Possessive Clitics

These appear on nouns after any case or number inflections:

1PS:-an 1PP:-ane 2PS:-alh 2PP:-eda 3PS:-a 3PP:-ar 4PS:-ar 4PP:-ara

If the noun in question ends in a vowel, the vowel of the possessive affix is elided, except for -a, which becomes -ya e.g. mazene our house, otaya his father, yatrenamane of our town.

Verbal Morphology

Compared to nouns, Sarim verbs are more richly inflected. The bare form of the verb is the stem. There are two verb classes in Sarim, stems ending in vowels, e.g. kara- use,make,do and consonant stems, e.g. sov- speak.

There is one infinite verb form in Sarim, the verbal noun. If the verbal noun morpheme appears following a consonant, it is -o. If it appears after a vowel then it has the allomorph /0/. Any potential verb form may be made into a verbal noun, e.g. mathido play-IRR-PERF-VRB.NOUN maybe having played. The possessive clitics may be used on a verbal noun construction, but not the person verbal clitics, e.g. sovon my speaking, not *sovano. The verbal noun may also receive case inflections:

• ya nidonane tos yatrena phŭrjan karyo
• at be-PERF-VRB.NOUN-GEN-1PP to town-OBL have-INC-1PS hunger
• I started to get hungry when we arrived in town

Syntax

Theta-roles in Sarim

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. However, the animate pronouns show nominative alignment, as found in English and most other European languages. Sarim is therefore a split-ergative language.

Sarim ditransitive verbs show dative alignment; the theme (what is given) is marked as absolutive, whilst the receiver is marked as Dative.

Sarim Words

The basic divide in Sarim is between lexical and grammatical words.

• Lexical words are any words referring to an object, state, or action
• Grammatical words show function or position, or modify meaning.