Sarim

Sarim is a language spoken in the Sarmanin region in the west of Yandras.

Phonology

Consonants

-Plosives /p t d c k g kʷ/ <p t d ty c g cu>

-Nasals /m n ŋ ŋʷ / <m n ŋ ŋu >

-Fricatives /ɸ β θ s sʷx xʷ/ <f v th s su h hu>

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

Note that /ɸ θ x/ derive from older */p t k/, and so pattern with the stops (i.e., they can appear in onset clusters).

Vowels

/i e a o/nowiki> <nowiki> <i e a o>

Syllable Structure

The basic syllable structure in Sarim is (C)V(C); a vowel is the only compulsory element, and there are no consonant clusters word-intially or -finally. Word-finally, the only consonants that occur are /n s t r θ m ŋ w j/

Word-internally, word clusters consisting of any consonant + one of /s sʷ t d r n/, with the following caveats:

The labialised consonants /sʷ kʷ xʷ ŋʷ/ do not occur in the first element of word internal clusters.

Geminate consonants do not occur; if a morpheme or word-compounding would create a situation where two identical consonants form a cluster, this cluster simplifies to a single consonant.

As the second element of a cluster, /d/ and /t/ are only distinguished after a nasal consonant and /r/; in other situations they act as a single phoneme, realised as [d] after a voiced consonant except /l/, and [t] after a voicless consonant and /l/.

The following phoneme sequences do not occur: */nr lr rl rs θs ɸs xs θsʷ ɸsʷ xsʷ ssʷ/

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].

-Word-finally, /o/ raises to [u]. In most other situations, it is realised as [ʊ].

-When unstressed, /a e i/ are realised as [ɐ ɛ ɪ].

Stress

Stress in Sarim is non-phonemic ,always falling on the final syllable of a word. Monosyllabic lexical words are stressed, but grammatical particles are not.

Sandhi

-If two vowels are adjacent over a word boundary, an epenthetic [ʔ] is inserted: raya imne ma "that throat" [rɐ'ja ?ɪm'ne mʙ].

-If a word ends with a fricative, and the proceeding word begins in the different fricative, the coda fricative is elided: toth hayi "the child's dog " ['tʊ: 'xɐjɪ].

(More sandhi coming once I think of it :[ )

Sample Sarim Words

/'don/ ['dʊn], dun "man"

/'arkija/ [ɐɦkɪ'ja] arcīya "break"

/'himnaji/ ['xɪmnɐ'ji]hemnayi "Our sister"