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.
- 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 (gi) see-IMPF-TRANS DOG-0 MAN-PLUR (some) '(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: audan kare ari eat-IMPF-TRANS sorghum-0 man-0 'the man ate the sorghum', but audan sau arī eat-IMPF-TRANS dog man-ERG 'the man ate the dog'.
