Sarim

Sarim is an isolating-fusional, strongly head-initial ergative absolutive language of the Ke:tic language family.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/Affricate	p /p/ b /b/	t /t/ d /d/	ts /ʦ/		k /k/ g
Fricative			s /s/			h /h/
Nasal	m /m/		n /n/	ny /ɲ/
Liquid			r /ɾ/ l /l/	y /j/	w /w/

Vowels

Sarim distinguishes 7 vowels: /i e a o ɤ u ɯ/ , and dipthongs /ai au ei ou ɤi ɤɯ/ <ai au ei ou eoi eou>

Syllable Structure

Sarim has a (C)(C)V(C) syllable structure. Onset clusters are made up of one of /m n p t k b d g s/ + /r/. Word-internally, only /n/ can occur in coda position. Word-finally, any consonant can occur.

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.

- /g/ often lenites to [ɣ].

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

- The vowels are realised as lax [ɪ ɛ ɐ ɒ ʌ ʊ] except when word-final, where they are pronounced closer to their cardinal values. The diphthongs are also realised close to their cardinal values.