Sèwsi (sɤwˈsə)

Phonology

Consonant inventory: f h s t w ç ǁ ǂ ɠ ɣ ɥ ɧ ɮ ɸ ʎ ʐ ʑ ʘ ʜ ʣ ʨ β θ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Stop				t
Implosive								ɠ
Affricate				ʣ		ʨ
Fricative	ɸ β	f	θ	s	ʐ	ʑ	ç	ɣ		h
Trill									H
Lateral fricative				ɮ
Lateral approximant							ʎ
Click	ʘ						ǂ
Lateral click				ll

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-palatal	Labial-velar	Sj-sound
Fricative			ɧ
Approximant	ɥ	w

Vowel inventory: e æ ø œ ɐ ɒ ə ɛ ɞ ɤ ɨ ɯ ɶ ʉ ʊ ʏ

	Front	Central	Back
High		ɨ ʉ	ɯ
Near-High	Y		ʊ
High-Mid	e ø		ɤ
Mid		ə
Low-Mid	ɛ œ	ɞ
Near-Low	æ	ɐ
Low	ɶ		ɒ

Morphology

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

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Nouns

Singular	No affix dzeȟ /ʣeʜ/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate the last part of the last syllable dzeȟeȟ /ʣeˈʜeʜ/ dogs

Articles

Definite	védz /βɛʣ/ the
Indefinite	to /tʊ/ a, some

Uses of definite articles 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 an indefinite article that differ from English:

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

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Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st Person	If starts with a vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix sɛ- sévòyédz /sɛβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (I/we) learn	Prefix æ- ævòyédz /æβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (I/we) learned	If starts with a vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix se- sevòyédz /seβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (I/we) will learn
2nd Person	If starts with a vowel: Prefix ʜ- Else: Prefix ʜɤ- ȟèvòyédz /ʜɤβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (you/you all) learn	If starts with a vowel: Prefix ɧ- Else: Prefix ɧæ- ɧævòyédz /ɧæβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (you/you all) learned	If starts with a vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix sʏ- sůvòyédz /sʏβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (you/you all) will learn
3rd Person	Prefix ʘʊ- ʘovòyédz /ʘʊβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (he/she/it/they) learn	Prefix ɸø- pøvòyédz /ɸøβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (he/she/it/they) learned	Prefix tæ- tævòyédz /tæβɞˈʎɛʣ/ (he/she/it/they) 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).

Imperfective

Prefix ʘœ- ʘœvòyédz /ʘœβɞˈʎɛʣ/ learns/is learning

Derivational morphology

• Adjective → adverb = If starts with a vowel: Prefix ɮ-
• Else: Prefix ɮə-
• Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ɸœ-
• Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ə-
• Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʜ-
• Else: Prefix ʜʉ-
• Noun → adjective relating to a noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix sœ-
• Noun to verb = If starts with a vowel: Prefix ǁ-
• Else: Prefix ǁɐ-
• Verb → adjective (the result of doing [verb]) = If starts with a vowel: Prefix ɮ-
• Else: Prefix ɮə-
• Tending to = Prefix ɠʉ-
• Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʘ-
• Else: Prefix ʘɐ-
• Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with a vowel: Prefix ɥ-
• Else: Prefix ɥe-
• One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix β-
• Else: Prefix βɨ-
• Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
• Else: Prefix sɨ-
• Diminutive = Prefix ɮʊ-
• Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
• Else: Prefix tɶ-

Old Canon    Lore    Ethnicities & Cultures    Languages      Sèwsi

Grandmaster SixPathsSage

Khali Crawford

   

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Syllable structure: (C)V(C) Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable

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Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɐ	a
ʊ	o
ə	i
ɛ	é
ɤ	è
ɒ	ó
ɞ	ò
ɶ	o̊
ʉ	ú
ɯ	ù
Y	ů
ɨ	í
ç	sh
ɠ	g
ɮ	zh
ɸ	p
β	v
ʎ	y
ʑ	z
ʐ	ẓ
ʣ	dz
ʨ	ch
θ	th
H	ȟ
ɣ	ǧ

Numbers Sèwsi has a base-20 number system:

1	ø
2	téth
3	ǧégú
4	ɧůʘ
5	sazh
6	ʘó
7	sæfti
8	ʘòh
9	ʘæ
10	ʘæv
11	pów
12	vèch
13	íz
14	thètfó
15	géw
16	ziɧ
17	ɥóʘ
18	gay
19	ith
20	ówæ
400	seʘ
8000	tæǁ

Dictionary

2 Words.