Osav*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: SINNUTIAN   PERIOD OF USE:   SCRIPT USED:   PARENT LANGUAGE:   DESCENDANT LANGUAGES:  

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  "...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."   Translation: kä go nå äg vä ätik kä kimäs vä likäm myda sä mög   Pronunciation: kɛ gʊ noː ɛj vɛ ˈɛtiːk kɛ ˈkɪmɛs vɛ ˈlɪkɛm ˈmʏda sɛ møːj   Osav word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /b d f g h j k kʰ l m n nː p pʰ r s t tʰ v w x z ŋ ɥ ɾ ʂ ʂʰ ʈ ʐ ʦ ʦʰ ʨ ʨʰ/  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n nː				ŋ
Stop	p pʰ b		t tʰ d	ʈ			k kʰ g
Affricate			ʦ ʦʰ		ʨʰ ʨ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʂ ʂʰ ʐ			x	h
Approximant						j
Tap			ɾ
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-palatal	Labial-velar
Approximant	ɥ	w

  Vowel inventory: /a eː iː oː uː yː øː œ ɑː ɔ ɛ ɛː ɪ ɵ ʉː ʊ ʏ/  

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː yː	ʉː	uː
Near-high	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
High-mid	eː øː	ɵ	oː
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː œ		ɔ
Low	a		ɑː

  Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable
Word initial consonants: b, d, f, ft, g, gs, j, jf, k, kk, ks, kt, l, ld, ll, lm, lp, ls, lt, lv, m, mn, mt, n, nd, ns, nt, nːsk, p, pp, pt, r, rd, rj, rk, rl, rmt, rn, rr, rs, rt, s, sst, st, t, tt, v, ŋ, ŋkt, ŋn, ŋs, ŋt
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: f, fw, j, k, kw, kʰ, kʰw, l, lj, lw, m, mj, n, nj, p, pj, pw, pʰ, pʰj, s, sw, t, tj, tw, tʰ, tʰj, tʰw, w, x, xj, xw, ɥ, ʂ, ʂw, ʈʂ, ʈʂw, ʈʂʰ, ʈʂʰw, ʐ, ʐw, ʦ, ʦw, ʦʰ, ʦʰw, ʨ, ʨj, ʨw, ʨʰ, ʨʰj, ʨʰw   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• f → m / _n
• f → v / V_V
• z → d / V_
• s → z / V_V
• n → l / #_
• p → f / V_
• l → n / #_VC
• j → ð / V_V
• ɛ → ia / #(C)_

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛː	ä
ɛ	ä
øː	ö
œ	ö
oː	å
ɔ	o
yː	y
ʏ	y
ʉː	u
ɵ	u
ʊ	o
uː	o
iː	i
ɪ	i
eː	e
ɑː	a
ŋn	gn
ŋ	ng
ɕ	k
ɧ	sj
j	g / _#
kk	ck
C₁C₁	C₁ / _j

 

Grammar

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

Nouns

 

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix sazå /ˈsazoː/ man	No affix jöm /jøːm/ woman
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -oːm sazåm /ˈsazoːm/ men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -x Else: Suffix -ax jömax /ˈjøːmax/ women

 

Articles

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

Pronouns

 

1st singular	jo /jʊ/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ma /ma/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	go /gʊ/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	moʦ /muːʦ/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural inclusive	ga /gɑː/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	a /a/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	mä /mɛ/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	mi /miː/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	muʨʰ /mɵʨʰ/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	ma /ma/ my
2nd singular	sa /sa/ your
3rd singular masc	vä /vɛ/ his
3rd singular fem	da /da/ her
1st plural inclusive	o /ɔ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	rsut /rsɵt/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	mö /møː/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	ja /ja/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	nö /nœ/ their (fem)

 

Verbs

 

	Present	Past
Masculine	Suffix -a koxa /ˈkɔxa/	Suffix -ɛ koxä /ˈkɔxɛ/
Feminine	If ends with vowel: Suffix -j Else: Suffix -œj koxög /ˈkɔxœj/	Prefix a- akox /ˈakɔx/

  Osav uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ŋa - nga kox /ŋa kɔx/ will learn

  Progressive aspect   The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.   Osav uses an affix for progressive:  

Progressive

Suffix -eːw koxew /ˈkɔxeːw/ 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).   Osav uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -ɪw koxiw /ˈkɔxɪw/ learns

 

Numbers

  Osav has a base-20 number system:   1 - ä
2 - img
3 - bo
4 - kå
5 - å
6 - ka
7 - må
8 - fawä
9 - manä
10 - jök
11 - jawag
12 - iɾa
13 - rdikʰ
14 - atal
15 - pimok
16 - nunjon
17 - ngaxw
18 - väx
] 19 - ttif
20 - käpäp
21 - ä kä käpäp “one and twenty”
400 - ä gök “one fourhundred”
401 - ä gök ä “one fourhundred one”
800 - img gök “two fourhundred”
8000 - ä momå “one eightthousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = Suffix -a
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ɛw
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -ʏw
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -a
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ŋ- Else: Prefix ŋʏ-
Noun to verb [br= If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -iːt
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -eː
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -am
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ma-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ɛk[br One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ŋʉː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ɔʂw
Diminutive = Suffix -ɪ
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ɔk