The Language of Spew

Natively known as: speun /speˈun/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
zi chyobzis ochy yeab duq zi qůz bif yeab tipf t͡hum wam
Pronunciation: /zi cobˈzis oc jea̯b duq zi qyz bif jea̯b tipf t͡hum wam/
Spew word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c c͡h d f f͡f j k l m n p q r s s͡t t t͡h v w x z

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	c	k	q
Fricative		f v	s z		x
Approximant				j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a aa̯ e ea̯ ee̯ i ii̯ o oo̯ u uu̯ y
Diphthongs: aa̯ ea̯ ee̯ ii̯ oo̯ uu̯

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)(C)
Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
y	ů
c	chy
j	y
x	kh
◌̯

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix iq /iq/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -iq iqiq /iˈqiq/ (verb done to) dog

Articles

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’!

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Spew uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Numbers

Spew has a base-10 number system:
1 - ma
2 - yi
3 - qor
4 - wit
5 - chyů
6 - fů
7 - um
8 - fe
9 - a
10 - wa
11 - wa zi ma “ten and one”
100 - uchysib “hundred”
101 - uchysib zi ma “hundred and one”
200 - yi uchysib
1000 - zot͡h “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -o
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -u
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -i
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r
Else: Suffix -ar
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -g
Else: Suffix -ug
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h͡m
Else: Suffix -ee̯h͡m
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h͡d
Else: Suffix -ih͡d
Tending to = Suffix -i
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -o
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w
Else: Suffix -iw
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -q
Else: Suffix -ee̯q
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -if
Diminutive = Suffix -ay̯t
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -ay̯f

Dictionary

297 Words.