Süyshen

Natively known as: süyshe /ˈsɯjʃe/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
do be luf tugbë losh gel do luf bawm mawsfi suyyüli sawp këg
Pronunciation: /do be luf ˈtugbɛ loʃ gel do luf bɔm ˈmɔsfi ˈsujjɯli sɔp kɛg/
Süyshen word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f g h j k l m p s t ʃ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Fricative		f	s	ʃ			h
Approximant					j
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u ɔ ɛ ɯ/

	Front	Back
High	i	ɯ u
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)V(C)
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, d, f, g, k, l, m, s, t, ʃ
Mid-word consonants: b, bb, bd, bj, bl, d, db, df, dg, dt, f, ff, fg, fh, fm, ft, g, gb, gf, gj, gk, gl, gm, gʃ, h, hb, hk, ht, j, jg, jj, jm, js, jʃ, k, kd, kf, kl, km, ks, kʃ, l, lb, lf, lh, lk, ll, lm, lp, ls, lt, m, mb, mf, mg, mh, mk, mm, mʃ, p, pj, pp, ps, pt, pʃ, s, sb, sf, sh, st, t, tb, td, th, tj, tk, tl, tm, tt, ʃ, ʃj, ʃk, ʃp, ʃs, ʃt
Word final consonants: b, f, g, h, k, l, m, p, s, t, ʃ


Phonological changes (in order of application):

• k → ∅ / V_V
• i → o / _m
• s → x / _l
• e → i / _(C)i
• k → g / _#

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɔ	aw
ɛ	ë
ɯ	ü
j	y
ʃ	sh

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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 six 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.
• Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Ergative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -eg fepawg /feˈpɔg/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix fepaw /feˈpɔ/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	Suffix -ok fepawok /feˈpɔok/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ɛk fepawk /ˈfepɔk/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	Suffix -i fepawi /ˈfepɔi/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bi- bifepaw /ˈbifepɔ/ from (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix fepaw /ˈfepɔ/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ- Else: Prefix ʃa- shafepaw /ˈʃafepɔ/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	bi /bi/ the	kë /kɛ/ a
Plural	awl /ɔl/ the	shük /ʃɯk/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	shë /ʃɛ/ I	ë /ɛ/ me, I	at /at/ mine	sül /sɯl/ to me	bëb /bɛb/ at me	tüg /tɯg/ from me
2nd singular	dub /dub/ you	ma /ma/ you	su /su/ yours	e /e/ to you	tüf /tɯf/ at you	düsh /dɯʃ/ from you
3rd singular masc	be /be/ he, it	fe /fe/ him, it	luf /luf/ his, its	lüb /lɯb/ to him, at it	awk /ɔk/ at him, at it	fet /fet/ from him, from it
3rd singular fem	më /mɛ/ she, it	kë /kɛ/ her, it	dug /dug/ hers, its	ge /ge/ to her, at it	ka /ka/ at her, at it	shag /ʃag/ from her, from it
1st plural inclusive	lo /lo/ we (including you)	sha /ʃa/ us, we (including you)	fef /fef/ ours (including you)	me /me/ to us (including you)	bi /bi/ at us (including you)	get /get/ from us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	a /a/ we (excluding you)	muh /muh/ us, we (excluding you)	awp /ɔp/ ours (excluding you)	mes /mes/ to us (excluding you)	suk /suk/ at us (excluding you)	shüg /ʃɯg/ from us (excluding you)
2nd plural	sa /sa/ you all	süb /sɯb/ you all	li /li/ yours (pl)	gë /gɛ/ to you all	bes /bes/ at you all	baw /bɔ/ from you all
3rd plural	awl /ɔl/ they	mi /mi/ them, they	ta /ta/ theirs	kaw /kɔ/ to them	süm /sɯm/ at them	fig /fig/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	at /at/ my
2nd singular	su /su/ your
3rd singular masc	luf /luf/ his
3rd singular fem	dug /dug/ her
1st plural inclusive	fef /fef/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	awp /ɔp/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	li /li/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ta /ta/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past
1st person	Suffix -a duysesa /dujˈsesa/ (I/we) learn	No affix duyses /dujˈses/ (I/we) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -f Else: Suffix -ef duysesef /ˈdujsesef/ (I/we) learned (long ago)
2nd person	Prefix a- aduyses /aˈdujses/ (you/you all) learn	No affix duyses /dujˈses/ (you/you all) learned	Suffix -ɛ duysesë /dujˈsesɛ/ (you/you all) learned (long ago)
3rd person	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʃ Else: Suffix -ɯʃ duysesüsh /ˈdujsesɯʃ/ (he/she/it/they) learn	No affix duyses /ˈdujses/ (he/she/it/they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mi- miduyses /ˈmidujses/ (he/she/it/they) learned (long ago)

Süyshen uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: do - do duyses /do dujˈses/ 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).


Süyshen uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Suffix -a duysesa /dujˈsesa/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Süyshen has a base-10 number system:


1 - e
2 - so
3 - ag
4 - gësh
5 - tuf
6 - ma
7 - dühkaf
8 - mawshte
9 - shë
10 - gë
11 - gë do e “ten and one”
100 - e gëm “one hundred”
101 - e gëm e “one hundred one”
200 - so gëm
1000 - e dumme “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix a-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ba-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix a-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix i-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix kɛ-
Noun to verb = Prefix a-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mo-
Tending to = Prefix ɛ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ta-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix gɔ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix l-
Else: Prefix li-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g-
Else: Prefix gɛ-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sɯ-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix sɯ-