Sheechsa

Natively known as: sheechsa /ˈçøːcsɐ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
sid aÿ mdee rog aÿ ruk sid nuv aÿ cheet inad zat duuk
Pronunciation: /syd ɐʝ mdøː rog ɐʝ ruk syd nuv ɐʝ cøːt ˈynɐd zɐt duːk/
Sheechsan word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: c d f g j k m n r s t v x z ç ɟ ɲ ʝ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m		n	ɲ
Stop			t d	c ɟ	k g
Fricative		f v	s z	ç ʝ	x
Approximant				j
Trill			r

Vowel inventory: o oː u uː y yː ø øː ɐ ɐː

	Front	Central	Back
High	y yː		u uː
High-mid	ø øː		o oː
Near-low		ɐ ɐː

Syllable structure: (C)(C)V(C) ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Sound changes (in order of application):

• ɲj → j

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɐ	a
ø	e
y	i
j	y
ɟ	j
ʝ	ÿ
ɲ	ny
ç	sh
c	ch
x	kh
Vː	VV

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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: postpositions ?

Nouns

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ç Else: Suffix -uːç enychumuush /øɲˈcumuːç/ dog	Suffix -øj feey /ˈføøj/ tree
Plural	Suffix -ɐː enychumaa /øɲˈcumɐː/ dogs	Suffix -o feo /ˈføo/ trees

Articles

Definite	ya /jɐ/ the
Indefinite	nyag /njɐg/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Pronouns

1st singular	sye /sjø/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	kut /kut/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	aÿ /ɐʝ/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	av /ɐv/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	eek /øːk/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	tyu /tju/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	um /um/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	sye /sjø/ my
2nd singular	kut /kut/ your
3rd singular masc	aÿ /ɐʝ/ his
3rd singular fem	av /ɐv/ her
1st plural	eek /øːk/ our
2nd plural	tyu /tju/ your (pl)
3rd plural	um /um/ their

Verbs

Present	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -øːm zosheem /ˈzoçøːm/ learn
Past	No affix zosh /zoç/ learned
Remote past	Suffix -o zosho /ˈzoço/ learned (long ago)
Future	Suffix -y zoshi /ˈzoçy/ will learn

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).
Sheechsan uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: juv - yuv zosh /juv zoç/ learns/is learning

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Sheechsan uses the word for ‘already’ tyi for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Sheechsan has a base-10 number system:
1 - nyee
2 - ngif
3 - myaa
4 - shek
5 - yoo
6 - khva
7 - zaam
8 - tmo
9 - ukhnyaa
10 - khvu
100 - fram
1000 - yiiz

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -øːf
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -øː
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -oj
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f
Else: Suffix -øf
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 -ɲ
Else: Suffix -ɐɲ
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ɐ
Tending to = Suffix -ɐk
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -uz
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ɐ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m
Else: Suffix -um
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -j
Else: Suffix -yj
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nju
Else: Suffix -unju
Augmentative = Suffix -oːɲ

Dictionary

3029 Words.