Sylvan

Natively known as: Síd /ʃiːd̪ˠ/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... béngg mál bha clórt srag chliarian béngg font brost bha griachia chei béc Pronunciation: /bʲeːŋɡ mʲɑːɫ vʲəi kɫoːɾʲtʲ sˠɾˠaɟ ˈxɫiəɾʲiənʲ bʲeːŋɡ fˠɔnʲtʲ bʲɾʲɔʃtʲ vʲəi ˈɡɾˠiəxiə çɛ bʲeːk/ Sídian word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /bʲ bˠ c dʲ d̪ˠ fʲ fˠ h k lʲ mʲ mˠ nʲ n̪ˠ pʲ pˠ sˠ tʲ t̪ˠ vʲ vˠ x ç ŋ ɟ ɡ ɫ ɲ ɾʲ ɾˠ ʃ/  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	mˠ mʲ		n̪ˠ	nʲ		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	pˠ pʲ bˠ bʲ		t̪ˠ d̪ˠ	tʲ dʲ		c ɟ	k ɡ
Fricative		fˠ fʲ vʲ vˠ		sˠ	ʃ	ç	x	h
Tap				ɾˠ ɾʲ
Lateral approximant				lʲ

    Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Velarized alveolar
Lateral approximant	ɫ

    Vowel inventory: /a eː ia iə iː oː uə uː ɑː ɔ əi əu ɛ ɪ ʊ/   Diphthongs: ia, iə, uə, əi, əu  

	Front	Back
High	iː	uː
Near-high	ɪ	ʊ
High-mid	eː	oː
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a	ɑː

    Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable Word initial consonants: bʲ, bʲɾʲ, bˠ, bˠɾˠ, c, cɾʲ, dʲ, dʲɾʲ, d̪ˠ, fʲ, fʲɾʲ, fˠ, h, k, kɫ, kɾˠ, lʲ, mʲ, mˠ, n̪ˠ, pʲ, pˠ, sˠ, sˠk, sˠt̪ˠ, sˠɾˠ, tʲ, tʲɾʲ, t̪ˠ, t̪ˠɾˠ, vʲ, x, xɫ, ç, ɟ, ɡ, ɡɫ, ɡɾˠ, ɫ, ɾˠ, ʃ, ʃc, ʃcɾʲ Mid-word consonants: bˠ, c, dʲ, d̪ˠ, fʲ, fˠ, h, hɾˠ, k, lʲ, mʲ, mˠ, mˠpˠ, nʲ, nʲʃ, n̪ˠ, n̪ˠt̪ˠ, pˠ, sˠ, sˠk, sˠt̪ˠ, tʲ, t̪ˠ, vʲ, vˠ, x, xt̪ˠ, ŋ, ɟ, ɡ, ɡɫ, ɫ, ɫt̪ˠ, ɲ, ɾʲ, ɾˠ, ɾˠsˠ, ɾˠɫ, ʃ, ʃtʲ Word final consonants: dʲ, d̪ˠ, h, k, lʲ, mʲ, mˠ, nʲ, nʲtʲ, n̪ˠ, sˠ, sˠt̪ˠ, tʲ, vʲ, vˠ, x, xt̪ˠ, ŋɡ, ɟ, ɡ, ɫ, ɲ, ɾʲ, ɾʲtʲ, ɾˠ, ɾˠd̪ˠ, ɾˠtʲ, ɾˠt̪ˠ, ʃ, ʃtʲ   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• k → ɡ / _#

  How to read phonological rules   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ca	cea
coː	ceo
cu	ciu
kɪ	coi | cai | cui
k	c
h	th
x	ch
ç	ch
ɲ	nn
^n̪ˠ	n
nʲ	n
n̪ˠ	nn
ŋg	ng
ŋ	ng
mʲ	m
mˠ	m
pʲ	p
pˠ	p
bʲ	b
bˠ	b
lʲ	l
ɫ	l
ʃa	sea
sˠɪ	sai
sˠi	suí
sˠeː	sao
ʃɔ	seo | sio
ʃo	seo
ʃu	siu
ʃ	s
sˠ	s
tʲ	te / _{a,ɑː}
tʲ	t
tʲu	tiu
t̪ˠoː	teo
t̪ˠɛ	te
t̪ˠ	t
fˠi	faoi
fˠɪ	fui
fˠuː	fiú
fˠ	f
fʲ	f
ɡ	g
ɟ	g
ɪ	i
ɑː	á
eːɾˠ	éar
ɾˠ	r
ɾʲ	r
vˠ	bh | mh
vʲ	bh
d̪ˠ	d
dʲ	d
əi	a
eː	é
ɛ	ei
ɔ	o
oː	ó
iː	í
uː	ú
iə	ia
əu	ai
uə	ua
ʊ	u

   

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Grammar

  Main word order: Subject (Prepositional phrase) Object Verb. "Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Mary with a key the door 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 -ɔ gágo /ˈɟɑːɟɔ/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb to somethinɡ)
Absolutive	No affix gág /ɟɑːɟ/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb, but not to somethinɡ)
Genitive	Suffix -ɪɫ gágil /ˈɟɑːɟɪɫ/ doɡʼs

   

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix gág /ɟɑːɟ/ the doɡ	Suffix -əu gágai /ˈɟɑːɟəu/ the doɡs
Indefinite	Suffix -uːɡ gágúg /ˈɟɑːɟuːɡ/ a doɡ	Suffix -ia gágia /ˈɟɑːɟia/ some doɡs

   

Articles

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

Pronouns

 

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive
1st singular	áth /ɑːh/ I	gác /ɟɑːk/ me, I	mai /mˠəu/ mine
2nd singular	scriacht /ʃcɾʲiaxt̪ˠ/ you	ló /lʲoː/ you	creird /kɾˠɛɾˠd̪ˠ/ yours
3rd singular masc	mál /mʲɑːɫ/ he, it	sáth /ʃɑːh/ him, it	bha /vʲəi/ his, its
3rd singular fem	creibh /cɾʲɛvʲ/ she, it	fí /fʲiː/ her, it	lú /lʲuː/ hers, its
1st plural	na /n̪ˠəi/ we	bénn /bˠeːɲ/ us, we	got /ɡɔtʲ/ ours
2nd plural	gos /ɡɔʃ/ you all	creil /kɾˠɛlʲ/ you all	brú /bˠɾˠuː/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	bró /bˠɾˠoː/ they	thai /həu/ them, they	scra /ʃcɾʲəi/ theirs

   

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	mai /mˠəu/ my
2nd singular	creird /kɾˠɛɾˠd̪ˠ/ your
3rd singular masc	bha /vʲəi/ his
3rd singular fem	lú /lʲuː/ her
1st plural	got /ɡɔtʲ/ our
2nd plural	brú /bˠɾˠuː/ your (pl)
3rd plural	scra /ʃcɾʲəi/ their

   

Verbs

 

Present	No affix mig /mʲɪɟ/ learn
Past	Suffix -uənʲ miguan /ˈmʲɪɟuənʲ/ learned
Remote past	Suffix -ia migia /ˈmʲɪɟia/ learned (lonɡ aɡo)

    Sídian uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ʃcɾʲəi - scra mig /ʃcɾʲəi mʲɪɟ/ 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).   Sídian uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: kɫoː - cló mig /kɫoː mʲɪɟ/ learns/is learninɡ

   

Numbers

  Sídian has a base-10 number system:   1 - piabh 2 - minn 3 - cló 4 - scriad 5 - mai 6 - sri 7 - gria 8 - scriann 9 - ló 10 - chomul 11 - chomul béngg piamh “ten and one” 100 - piamh pongg “one hundred” 101 - piamh pongg béngg piabh “one hundred and one” 200 - minn pongg 1000 - piamh bés “one thousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -mˠ Else: Suffix -iəmˠ Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʃtʲ Else: Suffix -əiʃtʲ Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -əi Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -a Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɾʲtʲ Else: Suffix -ʊɾʲtʲ Noun to verb = Suffix -ʊ Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -a Tending to = Suffix -əusˠ Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d̪ˠ Else: Suffix -ɪd̪ˠ Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ɪk One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ia Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -əuɡ Diminutive = Suffix -oːʃ Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -x Else: Suffix -ɔx