Qiso*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: QILDABIC
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:
DESCENDANT LANGUAGES:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: tzo mī ōn mowun kīm mutl tzo ōn tzīkʷ kʷīshūchyhu qlechyhī nokʷ tzīts
Pronunciation: /tzo miː oːn ˈmowun kiːm mutl tzo oːn tziːkʷ kʷiːˈʃuːchu ˈqlechiː nokʷ tziːts
Qiso word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /c h j k kʷ l m n p q s t w z ɬ ʃ ʔ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Stop	p	t		c	k kʷ	q	ʔ
Fricative		s z	ʃ				h
Approximant				j
Lateral fricative		ɬ
Lateral approximant		l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /e iː o oː u uː/

	Front	Back
High	iː	u uː
High-mid	e	oː o

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: ch, cz, h, hl, ht, j, k, kʷ, l, m, n, nt, p, ql, s, t, tl, ts, tz, tɬ, tʃ, w, ztl, ʃ, ʔ
Mid-word consonants: ch, cz, h, hl, ht, j, k, kw, kʷ, l, m, mp, n, nt, ntz, p, ql, s, t, tl, ts, tz, tɬ, tʃ, w, ztl, ʃ, ʔ
Word final consonants: ch, cz, h, hl, ht, j, k, kw, kʷ, l, m, mp, n, nt, ntz, p, ql, s, t, tl, ts, tz, tɬ, tʃ, w, ztl, ʃ, ʔ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• l → s / _k

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
c	chy
ʃ	sh
j	y
ɬ	sĥ
V₁ː	V₁̄

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have three cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Ergative	Suffix -o tzīntzo /ˈtziːntzo/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix tzīntz /tziːntz/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	Suffix -iːm tzīntzīm /ˈtziːntziːm/ dogʼs

Singular

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	Suffix -iː tuī /ˈtuiː/ the man	Suffix -o nōnto /noːnˈto/ the woman
Indefinite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -iːm tum /tum/ a man	Suffix -emp nōntemp /ˈnoːntemp/ a woman

Plural

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	Suffix -iːtl tuītl /ˈtuiːtl/ the men	Suffix -ohl nōntohl /ˈnoːntohl/ the women
Indefinite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -om tum /tum/ some men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ntz Else: Suffix -oːntz nōntōntz /ˈnoːntoːntz/ some women

Articles

Qiso encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive
1st singular	lo /lo/ I	ōmp /oːmp/ me, I	ōntz /oːntz/ mine
2nd singular	nō /noː/ you	mō /moː/ you	tzō /tzoː/ yours
3rd singular masc	mī /miː/ he, it	tlem /tlem/ him, it	mītl /miːtl/ his, its
3rd singular fem	tump /tump/ she, it	nī /niː/ her, it	tū /tuː/ hers, its
1st plural inclusive	tsĥo /tɬo/ we (including you)	mo /mo/ us, we (including you)	ī /iː/ ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ztlōy /ztloːj/ we (excluding you)	nehl /nehl/ us, we (excluding you)	tlī /tliː/ ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	nochyh /noch/ you all	mum /mum/ you all	tlentz /tlentz/ yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	tlū /tluː/ they (masc)	ztlōtz /ztloːtz/ them (masc), they (masc)	po /po/ theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	pō /poː/ they (fem)	mōm /moːm/ them (fem), they (fem)	tlump /tlump/ theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	nū /nuː/ my
2nd singular	tzīm /tziːm/ your
3rd singular masc	ōn /oːn/ his
3rd singular fem	hu /hu/ her
1st plural inclusive	ketz /ketz/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	mō /moː/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	kū /kuː/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	mōkw /moːkw/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	īchyh /iːch/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Masculine	Feminine
Present	Suffix -otz tlumīotz /tluˈmiːotz/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -iːt tlumīt /ˈtlumiːt/
Past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -tz Else: Suffix -uːtz tlumītz /tluˈmiːtz/	Suffix -ukw tlumīukw /tluˈmiːukw/
Future	Suffix -uːn tlumīūn /tluˈmiːuːn/	If ends with vowel: Suffix -tz Else: Suffix -iːtz tlumītz /ˈtlumiːtz/

Numbers

Qiso has a base-10 number system:
1 - chyhītz
2 - tlū
3 - tsho
4 - hlī
5 - mī
6 - mo
7 - tsho
8 - kehlu
9 - tsĥo
10 - īchyh
11 - īchyh tzo chyhītz “ten and one”
100 - mīntz “hundred”
101 - mīntz tzo chyhītz “hundred and one”
200 - tlū mīntz
1000 - tsĥōī “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -iː
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -oː
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -iːt
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -iː
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʔ Else: Suffix -oʔ
Noun to verb = Suffix -o
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -u
Tending to = Suffix -ej
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -iː
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -os
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ch Else: Suffix -och
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ch Else: Suffix -oːch
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tz Else: Suffix -etz
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -uːm

Dictionary

4441 Words.