Thusm

Natively known as: thūsm /θuːsm/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... rā yim tīw qih saḩ sāw rā qī saḩ liyy lā ḩā’ al[alt] Pronunciation: /raː jim tiːw qih saħ saːw raː qiː saħ lijj laː ħaːʔ al/ Thūsmish word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f h j k l m n q r s t w x z ð ħ ɣ ʃ ʔ ʤ θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar
Nasal	m			n
Stop	b			t d
Affricate					ʤ
Fricative		f	θ ð	s z	ʃ
Approximant
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

↓Manner/Place→	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal
Stop		k	q		ʔ
Affricate
Fricative		x ɣ		ħ	h
Approximant	j
Trill
Lateral approximant

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aː i iː u uː

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable Word initial consonants: b d f h j k l m n q r s t w x z ð ħ ɣ ʃ ʔ ʤ θ Mid-word consonants: b bb d dd f h j jj k kr l ll lʔ m mm n nd nt nð q qq r rb rr s t tl tʤ w ww x ð ħ ɣ ʃ ʔ ʤ θ Word final consonants: b d f fl h jj k l ll m n q r rd s sm t w zʔ ħ ʔ
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	’
θ	th
ʤ	j
x	kh
ð	dh
ʃ	sh
sˤ	ş
dˤ	ḑ
tˤ	ţ
ʕ	ʻ
ɣ	gh
ħ	ḩ
aː	ā
iː	ī
uː	ū
j	y

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun. Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Singular	No affix nud /nud/ dog
Plural	Prefix xa- khanud /xaˈnud/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	ma /ma/ the	tī /tiː/ a
Plural	ra /ra/ the	ḩāz’ /ħaːzʔ/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

1st singular	su /su/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	sā /saː/ you, yours
3rd singular	yim /jim/ he, she, him, her, his, hers, it, its
1st plural inclusive	iq /iq/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	’i /ʔi/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	sham /ʃam/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ka /ka/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	mil /mil/ my
2nd singular	i /i/ your
3rd singular	saḩ /saħ/ his, her, its
1st plural inclusive	tha /θa/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ū /uː/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	kā /kaː/ your (pl)
3rd plural	urd /urd/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix buyy /bujj/ learn
Past	Prefix ħiː- ḩībuyy /ħiːˈbujj/ learned
Remote past	If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix liː- lībuyy /liːˈbujj/ learned (long ago)
Future	Prefix uː- ūbuyy /uːˈbujj/ will learn

Numbers

Thūsmish has a base-20 number system:
1 - ghū 2 - hāh 3 - ’u 4 - ull 5 - fī 6 - kayy 7 - sasm 8 - buf 9 - li 10 - muki 11 - nāh 12 - ūru 13 - ’untāk 14 - thurād 15 - lafūn 16 - khal 17 - bir 18 - dārbī 19 - līdī 20 - mūdi 21 - ghū rā mūdi “one and twenty” 400 - ghū mu’i “one fourhundred” 401 - ghū mu’i ghū “one fourhundred one” 800 - hāh mu’i “two fourhundred” 8000 - ghū hud “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix aː- Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʔ- Else: Prefix ʔi- Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix i- Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix buː- Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɣ- Else: Prefix ɣaː- Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix la- Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix q- Else: Prefix qaː- Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix di- Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʔ- Else: Prefix ʔaː- Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ha- One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix hu- Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix daː- Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix q- Else: Prefix qaː- Augmentative = Prefix ɣi-

Dictionary

4557 Words.