Si-Sau

LANGUAGE FAMILY: SAU-SERIB
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 5.7 / #8
SPOKEN IN: Sau-Hezib - 3.5M / Del - 1.5M / Mador - 700K
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: mi mizùmo sa zùʻa ti muho mi zoʻùlu ti yitùṣo oke yu yiki
Pronunciation: mi miˈzɨmo sa ˈzɨʔa ti ˈmuho mi zoˈʔɨlu ti jiˈtɨʂo ˈoke ju ˈjiki

Si-Sau word order: and stood he holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f h j k l m p s t v z ɣ ʂ ʐ ʔ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m
Stop	p b		t d				k	ʔ
Affricate			ʦ ʣ	ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z		ʂ ʐ		ɣ	h
Approximant						j
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u ɨ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
High-mid	e		o
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)V
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, f, h, j, k, l, m, p, s, t, v, z, ʂ, ʐ, ʣ, ʤ, ʦ, ʧ
Mid-word consonants: b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, p, s, t, v, z, ɣ, ʂ, ʐ, ʔ, ʣ, ʤ, ʦ, ʧ
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• e → o / K_
• e → ɛ / _v
• a → e / _#
• l → ɫ / V_V
• z → r / V_V

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʣ	dz
ʦ	ts
ʔ	ʻ
ɨ	ù
ɣ	g
ʧ	ch
j	y
ʂ	ṣ
ʐ	ẓ
ʤ	j

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have four cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.

Nominative	No affix mutsu /ˈmuʦu/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -hu mutsuhu /muˈʦuhu/ (verb done to) doɡ
Genitive	Suffix -ʤi mutsuji /muˈʦuʤi/ doɡʼs
Dative	Suffix -po mutsupo /muˈʦupo/ to (the/a) doɡ

Singular	No affix mutsu /ˈmuʦu/ doɡ
Plural	Suffix -di mutsudi /muˈʦudi/ doɡs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	u /u/ the	pa /pa/ a
Plural	ti /ti/ the	pu /pu/ some

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	ze /ze/ I	zù /zɨ/ me	zo /zo/ mine	mi /mi/ to me
2nd singular	yi /ji/ you (masc)	o /o/ you	bo /bo/ yours	fo /fo/ to you
3rd singular masc	sa /sa/ he, it	chi /ʧi/ him, it	ti /ti/ his, its	ho /ho/ to him, at it
3rd singular fem	pu /pu/ she, it	ha /ha/ her, it	dza /ʣa/ hers, its	ẓù /ʐɨ/ to her, at it
1st plural	i /i/ we	ba /ba/ us	a /a/ ours	tsu /ʦu/ to us
2nd plural	ù /ɨ/ you all	dzo /ʣo/ you all	fe /fe/ yours (pl)	pi /pi/ to you all
3rd plural	mu /mu/ they	ẓe /ʐe/ them	tsa /ʦa/ theirs	vo /vo/ to them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	zo /zo/ my
2nd singular	bo /bo/ your
3rd singular masc	ti /ti/ his
3rd singular fem	dza /ʣa/ her
1st plural	a /a/ our
2nd plural	fe /fe/ your (pl)
3rd plural	tsa /ʦa/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix udzo /ˈuʣo/ learn
Past	Suffix -ʔi udzoʻi /uˈʣoʔi/ learned
Future	Suffix -fa udzofa /uˈʣofa/ 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).
Si-Sau uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Suffix -be udzobe /uˈʣobe/ learns/is learninɡ

Numbers

Si-Sau has a base-10 number system:
1 - fo
2 - tù
3 - sa
4 - itso
5 - so
6 - zomùle
7 - ide
8 - uza
9 - seṣi
10 - ẓe
11 - ẓefo “ten-one”
100 - fo icho “one hundred”
101 - fo icho mi fo “one hundred and one”
200 - tù icho
1000 - fo ṣelo “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ku
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -me
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ʤɨ
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ʔu
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ʦe
Noun to verb = Suffix -ʔi
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -ka
Tending to = Suffix -ta
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -to
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ʣi
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ʤɨ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ʧa
Diminutive = Suffix -ʣi
Augmentative = Suffix -lo

Dictionary

4400 Words.