Sarim

Sarim (Sarim: sarimengo 'our language', sarime Kansū 'Language of Kansu') is one of the larger languages of the Ke:tic family. It is a strongly head-initial, largely agglutinating ergative language.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

	Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive/Affricate	b /p/ p /pʰ/	d /t/ t /tʰ/			g /k/ k /kʰ/
Fricative		th /θ/	s /s/	hy /ç/		h /h/
Nasal	m /m/		n /n/	ny /ɲ/	ŋ /ŋ/
Liquid			r /ɾ/ l /l/	y /j/	w /w/

Vowels

i /i/ ī /i:/					u /u/ ū /u:/
e /ɛ/ ē /e:/					o /ɒ/ ō/o:/
			a /ɐ/ ā /ɐ:/

Sarim also has the dipthongs ai au ei eu oi ou /ai au ei eu oi ou/, all falling.

Syllable Structure

Sarim has a (C)(C)V(C) syllable structure. Onset clusters are made up of one of /p t k pʰ tʰ kʰ θ s h/ + /r/. Only /p t k m n θ s h l/ can occur in coda position. Note that word-internally coda /θ/ merges with /s/. Note that long vowels do not occur in long syllables.

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 as the following consonant. (Note that /ŋ/ is written as n before a velar consonant, since ambiguity is not an issue).

- Coda stops are realised as unreleased.

- /k kʰ/ may be realised as [ʧ ʧʰ] before front vowels.

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

- /r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] word-initially and in onset clusters, and as an approximant [ɻ] between vowels.

- Unstressed short /i ɐ u/ are realised as [ɪ ə ʊ].

Stress and Prosody

Sarim is a mora-timed language: syllables take up a certain amount of time based on their nucleus. Open syllables with a short vowel take up one mora; closed syllables with a short vowel, and open syllables with a long vowel or diphthong, take up two morae, whilst closed syllables with a diphthong take up three morae.

Stress falls on the syllable containing the antepenultimate mora, or leftmost mora in words with less than three morae.

Nominal Morphology

Sarim nouns are marked for Absolutive and Oblique cases, as well as singular and plural number. The unmarked form of the noun is the absolutive singular: yad - man, kare - sorghum ari - town, nasu - child, sau - dog, prasnā - number.

The Plural

The plural is marked with -ma: yadma, arima, nasuma, sauma, prasnā. The oblique plural is marked irregularly by -mē.

Plural marking is mandatory with animate nouns; with inanimate nouns marking plurality is option, and inanimate nouns are never marked as plural if followed by a number or an adjective marking number such as hou - many.

Absolutive Case

The absolutive case is the unmarked form of the noun. The absolutive marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the patient of a transitive verb. It is also used with certain prepositions, as noted in the syntax section.

Oblique Case

The underlying marker of the Oblique case is *-i, which manifests itself in several ways:

- After a monosyllabic word ending in a vowel, and after long vowels, it is marked with -yi: sauyi - dog-OBL; prasnāyi - number-OBL.

- Nouns ending in short a, e or o lose the final vowel and add -i: kari - sorghum-OBL

- Nouns ending in a consonant add -i: yadi - man-OBL

- Final -u and -i become -ī: arī - man-OBL;; nasī child-OBL

The oblique is used with the majority of Sarim's prepositions. Its other main use is to mark the agent of transitive verbs in most circumstances. However, in the follow circumstances the agent of a transitive verb is marked as absolutive, primarily:

- If the agent is indefinite: kithīne sau arimē see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR-OBL 'the men saw the dog', but: kithīne sau arima see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR '(some) men saw the dog'.

- If the agent is nullar in number: makithīne sau ari mau NEG-see-IMPF-TRANS dog-0 man-0 NEG 'no men saw the dog'.

- If the agent is significantly more animate than the patient: ramnagin kare ari harvest-PERF-TRANS sorghum-0 man-0 'the man harvested the sorghum', but nawēne hrath arī love-IMPF-TRANS woman-0 man-ERG 'the man loves the woman'.

Possession Marking

Sarim has a range of possessive suffixes, from previously cliticised pronouns. Vowels in brackets are used if the clitics follow a consonants, whilst the third person possessive marker has three allomorphs: it lengthens final short vowels, is -a after consonants, and -ya after long vowels and dipthongs. Long vowels before -n and -th become short.

Singular	Plural
1st Person	-(e)n	-(e)ngo
2nd Person	-(e)th	-(e)sgo
3rd Person	-(y)a/:	-(y)a/:

The possessive suffixes follow case and plural marking:

hrathen 'my wife' nasumango 'our children' karē 'his sorghum' ti saumeth 'from your dogs (OBL)'

Verbal Morphology

The citation form of Sarim verbs is the root, which may end in a vowel, a consonant, or a permissible medial cluster: kithi- 'look at, see'; edn- 'go'; aut- 'eat, mo- 'break'.

The Infinitive

The infinitive is the only non-finite form a Sarim verb has. The infinitive always ends in -ni, and has three allomorphs:

-After a monosyllabic root ending in a vowel, -yini: moyini - to break.

- After a consonant, -ini: autini - to eat; ednini - to go.

- After a vowel, -ni: kithini - to look at, to see.