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 kʷ/ <p t d ch c cu>

-Nasals /m n ŋʷ/ <m n ŋ ŋu>

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

-Rhotic/Approximants: /r l j w/ <r l i u>

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 caveat that only /m n ŋ t th s h r l i u/ may occur word-finally.

Morphophonological processes

A number of word-internal clusters do not occur, having been lost in earlier sound changes. Note that the processes described here apply to roots aswell:

- |n| assimilates to the point of articulation of a following consonant: */nm/ > /mm/ - |k| becomes /ŋ/ before /ŋ ŋʷ/. Similarly, |p| becomes /m/ before another /m/. - |t d| are lost before a second stop, with the lengthening of the previous vowel, except before nasals, where it acts like |n| : */tk/ > /:k/, */tŋ/ > /ŋŋ/ - |h| is lost following a second consonant: */mh/ > /mm/ - Clusters of one of /p t k kʷ/ + /s/ become /s/ + /p t k kʷ/: */ks/ > /sk/. - Consonants following word-final labio-velars are lost: */kʷr/ > /kʷ/. - Only /m n ŋ ŋʷ r l s/ can be geminated. With other consonants, no gemination occurs, e.g */dd/ > /d/.

Allophony

-/r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] before a vowel but [ɻ] 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].

-/o/ is realised as [ʊ]or [u] word finally ,and /o:/ is often realised [u:], especially amongst younger speakers.

-/a a:/ are realised [ɐ ɐ:] in unstressed syllables.

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

Being largely isolating, Sarim has very little grammatical nominal morphology (it does, however, have quite a productive derivational morphology).

Plural

The plural morpheme, which is not compulsory, is -ū. If the noun stem ends in a short vowel, this is lost, then -ū suffixed. Dipthongs and long vowels add -yū:

Dun man, dunū 'men'

Kanda land, country, kandū lands, countries

Talgū tree talgūyū trees