Sarim

Sarim (Sarim: Abar Sarim) is one of the most widely spoken of the Ke:tic languages.

Phonology

Consonants

NB: Sarim has possibly one of the most boring phonologies in the history of conlanging.

-Plosives /p b t d k g/ <p b t d k g>

-Nasals /m n/ <m n>

-Fricatives /f v θ s x/ <f v th s h>

-Rhotic/Approximants: /r ɫ j/ <r l y>

Vowels

/i e a o u/ <i e a o u>

Syllable Structure

The basic syllable structure in Sarim is (C)(C)V(V)(C), with the monovocalic nucleus being the only compulsory component, with the following caveats:

No nucleus with two vowels of the same quality occurs.

Coda consonants only occur word finally, and then can only be one of /t k θ s x r j m n/.

Word-initial clusters to not occur. Word-internally, clusters are organised into several series:

-the h series: /xp xt xk/ -the s series: /sp st sk sn sm/ -the n series: /nt nd nk ng nv ns nθ nm nn/ -the m series: /mp mt md mk mg ms mθ mr mm mn/ -the stop series: /ps ts ks/ - the r series: /rt rd rk rg rr/

Allophony

-/r/ is realised as an approximant [ɻ] before a vowel or word-finally, but [ɦ] before another consonangt.

- The voiceless stops are often realised as lightly aspirated.

- /n/ is realised at the same point of articulation as a following consonant: /nk/ = [ŋg]

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

-All vowels are pronounced lax: [ɪ ɛ ɐ ɔ ʊ] when not part of a two-vowel nucleus.

Stress

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

Morphophonological Processes

-If two vowels of the same quality would occur within the same nucleus, the second is lost.

-In word-final position, /p b t d/ merge to /t/; /g f v x/ merge to /x/, and /ɫ/ merges with /r/.

-If a plosive would be followed by a nasal, that plosive becomes a nasal. /p b/ become /m/; and /t d k g/, /n/. /f θ/ deriving from older */pʰ tʰ/, behave in the same way.

- Any sequence of */kt gd/ or */tk dg/ becomes /θ/.

-If two /r/'s would appear adjacent to the same nucleus, the second dissimilates to /t/. Similarly, with two /θ/'s the second also dissimilates to /t/. Note that this rule also applies to instances of /θ/ from former velar + alveolar clusters.

Nominal Morphology

Sarim nouns are one of two genders, animate and inanimate. To a great extent, the two categories are semantic: people, animals, deities and spirits, celestial bodies, and certain body parts(notably the hand, tongue, eyes, liver, and heart) are animate, and all other nouns are inanimate. Nouns are declined for singular and plural numbers, and absolutive, ergative and oblique cases. However, in inanimate nouns the ergative and oblique have collapsed into a single case. In this outline the citation form will be the noun stem. Sarim grammarians prefer to give the absolutive singular and plural, however.

Animate Nouns

Where two forms divided by a slash are given, the first is used after stems ending in a consonant, the second after stems ending in a vowel.

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	-0(-a*)	-o/-n
Ergative	-a/-n	-on/-ma
Oblique	-e/-0	-(a*)me

• -a is an epenthetic vowel, used after a noun stem ending in two consonants, e.g. int- "the Sun", absolutive singular inta.

yat- - farmer kari- - man noht- - fish

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	yat, kari, nohta	yato, karin, nohto
Ergative	yata, karin, nohta	yaton, karima, nohton
Oblique	yate, kari, nohte	yanme, karime, nohtame

Inanimate Nouns

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	-0{-a*)	-ar/-r
Erg/Obl	-i/-ya	-ai/-ri

sed- fort, village; tengu- tree, bush; emr- house.

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	set, tengu, emra	sedar, tengur, emrat
Erg/Obl	sedi, tenguya, emri	sedai, tenguri, emrai

Anaphora

The Sarim Personal Pronouns are as follows:

First Person

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	nan	nemi
Ergative	nei	nemei
Oblique	nama	nemei

Second Person

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	ath	ethei
Ergative	thayei	etheyei
Oblique	atha	etheya

Third Person Animate

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	un	'inni
Ergative	unna	innin
Oblique	unne	inni

Third Person Inanimate

	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	is	iyar
Erg/Obl	ihi	iyai

Deictic Anaphora

Sarim shows three-way split in deixis: this (near the speaker) ri; that (near the listener) ma; and that (at a third point) mu. However, note that ma and mu collapse, to m- in many forms in the table of correlatives

Sarim Table of Corrlatives

	Which?	This	That	Some	Every	No
Person (AS)	thi	ri	ma/mu	yalli	yatar	bani
Thing (OS)	thuyu	ri	ma/mu	is li	is tar	banuyu
Place	nama	mai	amma	mane li	mane tar	bama
Time	nadu	diyi	dutum	dutu li	dutar	bodu
Means	neis	eiri	eiso	eis li	eis tar	bayeis
Reason	nekun	kuri	kumu	kun li	kun tar	bokun