Seuna word shape

Consonants

The full consonant inventory is;-

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	b p	d t			g k
Fricatives	f		s			h
Affricates				j c
Nasals	m	n
Lateral			l
Flap			r
Semivowels	w			y

Initial consonant clusters

The single consonants and consonant combinations given below are allowed to start a word. There are 37 (45₈) of them.

@ is a glottal stop. When a vowel begins a word, a glottal stop is inserted immediately in front of that vowel. This also ties in with the writing system. In the writing system (inspired by Tibetan) the vowels are written over the consonants that they follow. When a vowel comes initially it need a sort of place-holder to support it.

@
m	my
y
j			jw
f	fy	fl
b	by	bl	bw
g		gl	gw
d			dw
l
c			cw
s		sl	sw
k	ky	kl	kw
p	py	pl
t			tw
w
n	ny
h

z is an allophone of s ... when inside a word and before a voiced consonant.

ʃ is also an allophone of s ... when before the front vowels i, e, ia.

ŋ is an allophone of n ... when followed by k or g.

The post-alveolar affricates are represented here by c and j, are the initial sounds of "Charlie" and "Jimmy" respectively. .

The consonant r is exceptional in that it only occurs in suffixes attached to active verbs.

Vowels

There are five simple vowels in Seuna ... i, e, a, o and u.

For diphthongs we have the four closing diphthongs ai, au, oi, eu, and the two opening diphthongs ia, and ua.

Mid consonant clusters

The single consonants and consonant combinations given below are allowed word internally. There are 60 (74₈) of them.

zm zy sf zb zg zd zl sk sp st zw zn sh (13)

lm ly lj lf lb lg ld lc ls lk lp lt lw ln lh (15)

nm ny nj nf mb ŋg nd nl nc ns ŋk mp nt mw nh (15)

@

m

y

j

f

b

g

d

l

c

s

k

p

t

w

n

h

zm

zy

sf

zb

zg

zd

zl

sk

sp

st

zw

zn

sh

@

m

y

j

f

b

g

d

l

c

s

k

p

t

w

n

h

@

m

y

j

f

b

g

d

l

c

s

k

p

t

w

n

h

Final vowels

All eleven vowels/diphthongs can occur finally.

Tail consonants

Two consonants are allowed to come word finally. They are n and s.

Word ordering

Words are initially sorted according to the initial consonant. So words are first ordered in this sequence;-

@, m, y, j, f, b, g, d, l, c, s, k, p, t, w, n, h

Then words are ordered according to the second component of the initial cluster. So, for example, words beginning with b are ordered b, by, bl, bw.

Then they are ordered according to the vowel. This order is;- au, o, oi, i, ia, a, ua, u, eu, e, ai.

Then the are ordered according to the mid-cluster. So, for example, words having a b in the mid-cluster are ordered b, zb, lb, mb.

Lastly the order is;- words ending in a vowel, words ending in n, words ending in s. The two end consonants are nearly always used for grammatical tags, and so there are hardly any such words listed in a dictionary.

Index

1. Introduction to Seuna
2. Seuna : Chapter 1
3. Seuna word shape
4. The script of Seuna
5. Seuna sentence structure
6. Seuna pronouns
7. Seuna nouns
8. Seuna verbs (1)
9. Seuna adjectives
10. Seuna demonstratives
11. Seuna verbs (2)
12. Asking a question in Seuna
13. Seuna relative clauses
14. Seuna verbs (3)
15. Methods for deriving words in Seuna
16. List of all Seuna derivational affixes
17. Numbers in Seuna
18. Naming people in Seuna
19. The Seuna calendar
20. Seuna units