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 b t d ⁿd ɟ k g/ <p b t d nd j k g

-Nasals /m n ŋ/ <m n ŋ>

-Fricatives /ɸ v s ɕ h/ <ph v s x h>

-Rhotic/Approximants: /r l j/ <r l y>

Vowels

- Short /i a u ai au iu ia ui ua/ <i a u ai au iu ui ia ua

- Long <nowiki> /iː aː uː aːi aːu iːu iːa uːi uːa/ <ī ā ū āu āi īu īa ūi ūa> /nowiki>

All diphthongs are falling.

Syllable Structure

The basic syllable structure in Sarim is (C)V(C), with the follwing caveats:

- /ɟ/ does not occur in codas

- In clusters where it is the initial element, /n/ assimilates to the point of articulation of the following consonant.

- Clusters of two plosives except for /kt gd/ do not occur.

- Clusters involving two stops, or a stop and a fricative, must agree in voicing. Clusters such as */sd gɕ/ do not therefore occur.

- Word-finally, only /m t d ⁿd s r l ŋ/ occur.

Allophony

-/r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] before a vowel and word-finally, but [ɦ] before a consonant.

-/ɟ/ is realised as either palatal affricate [ɟʝ] or postalveolar affricate [dʑ], especially among younger speakers.

-Before /s/, nasals tend to be realised as a sequence nasal+voiceless stop, e.g. /ms/ = [mps].

-Short vowels and diphthongs /i a u ai au/ tend to become lax [ɪ ɐ ʊ ɐɪ ɐʊ], espcially 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