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 t d c k g kʷ/ <p t d ch c g cu>

-Nasals /m n ŋʷ/ <m n ŋ ŋu>

-Fricatives /β θ s sʷ ç xʷ h/ <v th s su hy hu h>

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

Vowels

/i e a o i: e: a: o:/ <i e a o ī ē ā ō>

Syllable Structure

The basic syllable structure in Sarim is (C)V(C), with the caveat that only /m n ŋ t th s h r l i u/ may occur word-finally.

Morphophonological processes

A number of word-internal clusters do not occur, having been lost in earlier sound changes. Note that the processes described here apply to roots aswell:

- |n| assimilates to the point of articulation of a following consonant, and sequences of */nr nl/ become /rr ll/: */np/ > /mp/, */nr/ > /rr/.

- |k| becomes /ŋ/ before /ŋ ŋʷ/. Similarly, |p| becomes /m/ before another /m/.

- |t d| are lost before a second stop, with the lengthening of the previous vowel (if short), except before nasals and /r l/, where they act like |n| : */tk/ > /:k/, */tŋ/ > /ŋŋ/, */dl/ > /ll/

- |h| is lost following a second consonant: */mh/ > /mm/

- Clusters of one of /p t k kʷ/ + /s/ become /s/ + /p t k kʷ/: */ks/ > /sk/.

- Consonants following word-final labio-velars are lost: */kʷr/ > /kʷ/.

- Only /m n ŋ ŋʷ r l s/ can be geminated. With other consonants, no gemination occurs, e.g */dd/ > /d/.

- |j| is lost immediately following /c ç/. Sequences of |tj/kj dj/gj sj/θj/hj| become /c j ç/, respectively.

- Two adjacent short vowels of the same quality become a single long vowel. If a long vowel is adjacent to a short vowel of the same quality, an epenthetic /j/ is insterted between the two vowels: */a.a/ > /a:/ */e:.e/ > /e:je/

Allophony

-/r/ is realised as a tap [ɾ] before a vowel but [ɻ] before a consonant or word-finally.

-/c/ is realised as either palatal affricates [cç] or[ʨ], or even the postalveolar affricate [ʧ] especially among younger speakers.

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

-/o/ is realised as [ʊ]or [u] word finally ,and /o:/ is often realised [u:], especially amongst younger speakers.

-/a a:/ are realised [ɐ ɐ:] in unstressed syllables.

Stress

Stress in Sarim is non-phonemic ,always falling on the penultimate syllable of a word, unless a vowel penultimate syllable is short andin an adjacent syllable is long, in which case the stress shifts to the long vowel. If both adjacent vowels are long then the leftmost long vowel receives tress. Monosyllabic lexical words are stressed, but grammatical particles are not.

Nominal Morphology

Sarim nouns are declined for three cases: absolutive, ergative, and oblique; two numbers, singular and plural; as well as for absolute and construct states. Nouns can be one of any five 'conjugations' depending on the final consonant of the stem. The first conjugation consists of stems ending in a single consonant, the second of those ending in a short vowel, the third of those ending in a long vowel, the fourth of those ending in two consonants, the the fifth of stems ending in -n. Sarim grammarians, when providing the citation of a noun, tend to give the absolute and construct absolutive singulars of the noun, and we will do the same here.