Sawjewah

LANGUAGE FAMILY: RUHANDIC   # SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 165K / #55   SPOKEN IN: Msna - 150K / Jor - 15K   PERIOD OF USE:   SCRIPT USED:   PARENT LANGUAGE:  

---

  "...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."   Translation: to˦m mi˦m i˨t nu˨p mi˦m plo˨nu˦ to˦m wa˦m mi˦m ʤu˦rch pi˦p u˨ mo˦ki˨   Pronunciation: tɔ˦m mi˦m i˨t nu˨p mi˦m plɔ˨ˈnu˦ tɔ˦m wa˦m mi˦m ʤu˦rʧ pi˦p u˨ ˈmɔ˦ki˨     Sawjewah 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 l m n p r s t w x z ŋ ɣ ɲ ɾ ʤ ʧ/  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b		t d			k g
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f	s z			x ɣ	h
Approximant					j
Tap			ɾ
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: /a i u ɔ ɛ/   Tones: ˦ ˨  

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

  Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, d, fr, g, gr, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, pl, pr, r, s, sh, st, t, tr, w, ɲ, ʤ, ʧ
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: h, l, ll, m, n, nt, p, r, rʧ, sj, ss, t, ttj, w, x, ɣ   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• d → ∅ / _z

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
ɲ	ny
ɓ	b
j	y
ʄ	j
ɗ	d
ɠ	g
ð	dh
θ	th
ŋg	ng
ŋ	ng'
ʃ	sh
ɣ	gh
x	kh
ʧ	ch
nʤ	nj

 

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

 

Singular	No affix wi˦tty /wi˦ttj/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -i˦p wi˦ttyi˦p /wi˦tˈtji˦p/ dogs

 

Articles

 

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	a˨ /a˨/ the	mi˨ /mi˨/ a
Plural	se˦ /sɛ˦/ the	u˦ /u˦/ some

 

Pronouns

 

1st singular	chu˦ /ʧu˦/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	hi˨p /hi˨p/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	mi˦m /mi˦m/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	i˨m /i˨m/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	me˦ /mɛ˦/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	mi˦t /mi˦t/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	po˦m /pɔ˦m/ they, them, theirs

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	chu˦ /ʧu˦/ my
2nd singular	hi˨p /hi˨p/ your
3rd singular masc	mi˦m /mi˦m/ his
3rd singular fem	i˨m /i˨m/ her
1st plural	me˦ /mɛ˦/ our
2nd plural	mi˦t /mi˦t/ your (pl)
3rd plural	po˦m /pɔ˦m/ their

 

Verbs

  Sawjewah uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: li˦ - li˦ i˨h /li˦ i˨h/ learned

  Sawjewah uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ga˨ - ga˨ i˨h /ga˨ i˨h/ 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).   Sawjewah uses an affix for imperfective:  

Imperfective

If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -ɔ˦h i˨ho˦h /ˈi˨hɔ˦h/ learns/is learning

 

Numbers

  Sawjewah has a base-20 number system:   1 - nu˦
2 - mi˦n
3 - i˦
4 - ru˦
5 - ma˦m
6 - na˦
7 - a˦gh
8 - yu˨
9 - ya˨
10 - yi˦ku˨
11 - to˨to˨nyo˨w
12 - se˦hyo˦gye˦m
13 - po˦mi˨p
14 - a˨ki˦p
15 - wi˦mu˦gh
16 - nya˦wu˨
17 - a˦pe˨p
18 - i˦ma˨n
19 - i˨ku˨
20 - na˨ka˨w
21 - nu˦ to˦m na˨ka˨w “one and twenty”
400 - nu˦ ke˦w “one fourhundred”
401 - nu˦ ke˦w to˦m nu˦ “one fourhundred and one”
800 - mi˦n ke˦w “two fourhundred”
8000 - nu˦ ʤu˨ “one eightthousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ss Else: Suffix -ɛ˨ss
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -i˨m
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -a˦t
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -a˨nt
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -i˦m
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -u˨p
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -i˨ttj
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -a˨nt
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -i˦t
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -i˦m
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɛ˨n
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -a˦p
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -a˦p
Augmentative = Suffix -a˦rʧ