Sajtu

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
mun tswu son tsoyt myuyy pakets mun son wems fyu shmiu tswi nü
Pronunciation: /muɲ ʦwu soɲ ʦojt mjujj ˈpakets muɲ soɲ wems fju ˈʃmiu ʦwi ɲʉ/
Sajtu word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: f j k m p s t w ɲ ʃ ʔ ʦ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m				ɲ
Stop	p		t			k	ʔ
Affricate			ʦ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ
Approximant					j

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ʉ

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

Syllable structure: (C)(C)V(C)(C)
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: f fj j km ks m mj p s sf sm t tj w ɲ ʃ ʃm ʦ ʦw
Mid-word consonants: f ff fp fw j jf jj jm jt jɲ k kj km m mj mm mp mt mw mʃ mʦ p pj pp pt pʃ s sf sj sm sw sʔ t tj tm tt tɲ tʔ tʦ w wk wp wt ww wʃ ɲ ɲj ɲʃ ʃ ʃk ʃp ʃt ʔ ʦ ʦs ʦt ʦw
Word final consonants: f jj jk js jt jʔ ks ms mt p pʃ s sʦ t ts tʃ w ɲ ʦ
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
ʉ	ü
j	y
ɲ	n
ʃ	sh
ʦ	ts

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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 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.

	Singular	Plural
Ergative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -is shmomsis /ˈʃmomsis/ dog (doing the verb to something)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ts Else: Suffix -ets shmomsets /ʃmomˈsets/ dogs (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	Suffix -e shmomse /ʃmomˈse/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ks Else: Suffix -aks shmomsaks /ʃmomˈsaks/ dogs (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	Prefix o- oshmoms /oʃˈmoms/ dogʼs	Prefix je- yeshmoms /ˈjeʃmoms/ dogsʼ

Articles

Sajtu has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive
1st singular	ni /ɲi/ I	mo /mo/ me, I	sfotsh /sfotʃ/ mine
2nd singular	smo /smo/ you	tsayy /ʦajj/ you	o /o/ yours
3rd singular masc	tswu /ʦwu/ he, it	shmup /ʃmup/ him, it	iyʻ /ijʔ/ his, its
3rd singular fem	myayt /mjajt/ she, it	teyt /tejt/ her, it	tsüyt /ʦʉjt/ hers, its
1st plural inclusive	e /e/ we (including you)	yu /ju/ us, we (including you)	pas /pas/ ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	smü /smʉ/ we (excluding you)	shun /ʃuɲ/ us, we (excluding you)	mu /mu/ ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	moms /moms/ you all	fi /fi/ you all	tswa /ʦwa/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	su /su/ they	to /to/ them, they	nüys /ɲʉjs/ theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	no /ɲo/ my
2nd singular	u /u/ your
3rd singular masc	son /soɲ/ his
3rd singular fem	fo /fo/ her
1st plural inclusive	wa /wa/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	fü /fʉ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ksu /ksu/ your (pl)
3rd plural	yüyʻ /jʉjʔ/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past	Future
1st singular	Prefix e- emyutsh /eˈmjutʃ/ (I) learn	Suffix -ʉ myutshü /mjutˈʃʉ/ (I) learned	Suffix -uw myutshuw /ˈmjutʃuw/ (I) learned (long ago)	Suffix -at myutshat /ˈmjutʃat/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Suffix -u myutshu /mjutˈʃu/ (you) learn	Suffix -ʉp myutshüp /ˈmjutʃʉp/ (you) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -sʦ Else: Suffix -isʦ myutshists /ˈmjutʃisʦ/ (you) learned (long ago)	Suffix -e myutshe /ˈmjutʃe/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʦ Else: Suffix -ʉʦ myutshüts /mjutˈʃʉʦ/ (he/she/it) learns	Suffix -uʦ myutshuts /ˈmjutʃuʦ/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix u- umyutsh /ˈumjutʃ/ (he/she/it) learned (long ago)	Suffix -ojt myutshoyt /ˈmjutʃojt/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural inclusive	Suffix -us myutshus /mjutˈʃus/ (we) learn (including you)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -jk Else: Suffix -ujk myutshuyk /mjutˈʃujk/ (we) learned (including you)	If starts with vowel: Prefix km- Else: Prefix kma- kmamyutsh /ˈkmamjutʃ/ (we) learned (including you) (long ago)	Suffix -ʉks myutshüks /ˈmjutʃʉks/ (we) will learn (including you)
1st plural exclusive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -mt Else: Suffix -amt myutshamt /mjutˈʃamt/ (we) learn (excluding you)	Suffix -atʃ myutshatsh /ˈmjutʃatʃ/ (we) learned (excluding you)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ Else: Suffix -uɲ myutshun /mjutˈʃuɲ/ (we) learned (excluding you) (long ago)	Suffix -of myutshof /ˈmjutʃof/ (we) will learn (excluding you)
2nd plural	Suffix -a myutsha /mjutˈʃa/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix pe- pemyutsh /ˈpemjutʃ/ (you all) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -jt Else: Suffix -ʉjt myutshüyt /ˈmjutʃʉjt/ (you all) learned (long ago)	Suffix -uf myutshuf /ˈmjutʃuf/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -it myutshit /ˈmjutʃit/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -f Else: Suffix -ef myutshef /ˈmjutʃef/ (they) learned	Prefix ʉ- ümyutsh /ˈʉmjutʃ/ (they) learned (long ago)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -up myutshup /ˈmjutʃup/ (they) will learn

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.
Sajtu uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -u myutshu /ˈmjutʃu/ have learned

Numbers

Saytuian has a base-10 number system:
1 - myüpsh
2 - no
3 - smü
4 - wu
5 - mye
6 - fyi
7 - fya
8 - ksewef
9 - myaf
10 - sho
11 - shomyüpsh “ten-one”
100 - myüpsh üw “one hundred”
101 - myüpsh üw mun myüpsh “one hundred and one”
200 - no üw
1000 - myüpsh tyi “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -u
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ams
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -uw
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ks
Else: Suffix -uks
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -isʦ
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -ut
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ
Else: Suffix -ʉɲ
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -mt
Else: Suffix -umt
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -jʔ
Else: Suffix -ejʔ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ms
Else: Suffix -ims
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -ut
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -js
Else: Suffix -ijs
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix w-
Else: Prefix wa-
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t
Else: Suffix -ut