Chwi

LANGUAGE FAMILY: TYRILAN   # SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 100K / #60   SPOKEN IN: Beribon (North) - 100K   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: u nba kaqs notokh talh luks u hoa ta kaqs pua ɲerh ɣalh   Pronunciation: u mba kaqs ˈmotokh talh luks u ˈhoa ta kaqs ˈpua ɲerh ɣalh     Chwi word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w z ð ŋ ɓ ɗ ɠ ɣ ɲ ɾ ʃ ʄ ʤ ʧ θ/  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b			t d		c	k g	q
Implosive	ɓ			ɗ		ʄ	ɠ
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ		ɣ		h
Approximant						j
Tap				ɾ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: /a e i o u/  

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

  Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: f, h, j, k, kr, kw, l, m, mb, mbw, mf, mk, ml, mp, mpj, mr, ms, mst, mt, mv, mw, mz, mɠ, mɲ, mʃ, mʄ, mʧ, n, nd, nn, nz, nʤ, nʧ, p, pr, pw, q, r, s, sw, t, tr, v, vj, w, z, ð, ŋg, ɓ, ɓl, ɓw, ɗ, ɠ, ɣ, ɲ, ɲw, ʃ, ʄ, ʧ, θ
Mid-word consonants: b, bj, d, g, gj, h, hj, j, k, kj, m, mb, mj, mp, n, nj, ns, nt, nw, nɾ, p, pj, s, t, w, z, ŋg, ɾ, ɾj
Word final consonants: ch, dh, gh, kh, ks, lh, mm, n, nm, nn, ph, qs, rh, sm, ss, th, wh   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• θ → n / #_
• w → j / _i
• k → g / _(V)r
• k → j / _s#
• k → g / _{w,j}
• o → ɔ / _[+nasal]
• k → ç / _#

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ŋ	n
m	n
j	y
ɾ	r

 

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 two 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).

  Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: mi - ni pupuwh /mi ˈpupuwh/ dogs

   

	Masculine	Feminine
Ergative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -dh Else: Suffix -udh vyodh /vjodh/	Suffix -iwh saiwh /ˈsaiwh/
Absolutive	No affix vyo /vjo/	No affix sa /sa/

 

Articles

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

Pronouns

 

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	ʧi /ʧi/ I	ni /ni/ me, I
2nd singular	kith /kith/ you	zass /zass/ you
3rd singular masc	nba /mba/ he, it	nu /mu/ him, it
3rd singular fem	ni /mi/ she, it	ʧiph /ʧiph/ her, it
1st plural	ɗuth /ɗuth/ we	ɓa /ɓa/ us, we
2nd plural	u /u/ you all	a /a/ you all
3rd plural masc	ʃiks /ʃiks/ they (masc)	kann /kann/ them (masc), they (masc)
3rd plural fem	ʃi /ʃi/ they (fem)	pugh /pugh/ them (fem), they (fem)

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	nin /nin/ my
2nd singular	kuth /kuth/ your
3rd singular masc	kaqs /kaqs/ his
3rd singular fem	ni /ni/ her
1st plural	nin /min/ our
2nd plural	u /u/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	pulh /pulh/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	yo /jo/ their (fem)

 

Verbs

 

Present	No affix luth /luth/ learn
Past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -gh Else: Suffix -ugh luthugh /ˈluthugh/ learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -wh Else: Suffix -uwh luthuwh /ˈluthuwh/ learned (long ago)
Future	If ends with vowel: Suffix -qs Else: Suffix -eqs lutheqs /ˈlutheqs/ will learn

  Progressive aspect   The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.   Chwi uses a standalone particle word for progressive:  

Progressive

Particle before the verb: lun - lun luth /lun luth/ is learning

  Habitual aspect   The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).   Chwi uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: mi - ni luth /mi luth/ learns

 

Numbers

  Chwi has a base-10 number system:   1 - nʧo
2 - ɲegh
3 - nneth
4 - ʧi
5 - no
6 - ninn
7 - ath
8 - niwh
9 - iwh
10 - ɓa
11 - ɓa u nʧo “ten and one”
100 - nona “hundred”
101 - nona nʧo “hundred one”
200 - ɲegh nona
1000 - niqs “thousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -i
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix i-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -an
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ- Else: Prefix ʧi
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -gh Else: Suffix -agh
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -wh Else: Suffix -ewh
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -a
Tending to = Suffix -igh
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix u-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -kh Else: Suffix -ukh
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix mu-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ss Else: Suffix -uss
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -th Else: Suffix -ath
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -dh Else: Suffix -adh