Yassucan*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ISHADIC   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: kʰo bɔ hanaa̯k bɔ nɛq hakak kʰo bɔ eshua̯ aa̯qq hat͡sɔb akh le   Pronunciation: kʰo bɔ ˈhanaa̯k bɔ nɛq ˈhakak kʰo bɔ eˈʃua̯ aa̯qq ˈhat͡sɔb ax le   Yassucan word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /b d dˤ f h j k kʰ l m n pʰ q r s sˤ t tʰ tˤ t͡s t͡sʰ w x ð ðˤ ħ ŋ ɣ ɾ ʃ ʔ ʕ ʤ θ/  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Stop	pʰ b			t tʰ tˤ d dˤ			k kʰ	q		ʔ
Affricate					ʤ
Fricative		f	θ ð ðˤ	s sˤ	ʃ		x ɣ		ħ ʕ	h
Approximant						j
Tap				ɾ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: /a aa̯ ae̯ e ia̯ o u ua̯ ue̯ ɔ ɛ/   Diphthongs: aa̯, ae̯, ia̯, ua̯, ue̯  

	Front	Back
High		u
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

  Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, h, j, k, kʰ, l, m, n, pʰ, s, t, tʰ, t͡s, t͡sʰ, x, ŋ, ɾ, ʃ, ʔ
Mid-word consonants: b, h, j, k, kʰ, l, m, n, pʰ, s, t, tʰ, t͡s, t͡sʰ, x, ŋ, ɾ, ʃ, ʔ
Word final consonants: N/A   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• n → ŋ / _#
• w → ∅ / V_V
• h → ∅ / V_

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	’
θ	th
ʤ	j
x	kh
ð	dh
ʃ	sh
sˤ	ş
dˤ	ḑ
tˤ	ţ
ʕ	ʻ
ɣ	gh
ħ	ḩ
aː	ā
iː	ī
uː	ū
j	y

 

Grammar

  Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase).
"Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Mary the door opened with a key.
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).

Ergative	Prefix ia̯- ia̯lumɛ /ia̯ˈlumɛ/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix lumɛ /ˈlumɛ/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)

   

Singular	No affix lumɛ /luˈmɛ/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ðˤ Else: Suffix -ɔðˤ lumɛdhˤ /luˈmɛðˤ/ dogs

 

Articles

 

Definite	ue̯h /ue̯h/ the
Indefinite	sho /ʃo/ a, some

 

Pronouns

 

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	a /a/ I	esh /eʃ/ me, I
2nd singular	ue̯dhˤ /ue̯ðˤ/ you	soʻl /soʕl/ you
3rd singular masc	bɔ /bɔ/ he, it	mo /mo/ him, it
3rd singular fem	aa̯ /aa̯/ she, it	uş /usˤ/ her, it
1st plural	lur /lur/ we	t͡sʰia̯yy /t͡sʰia̯jj/ us, we
2nd plural	e /e/ you all	lu /lu/ you all
3rd plural	ua̯ /ua̯/ they	ɾa /ɾa/ them, they

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	a /a/ my
2nd singular	ue̯dhˤ /ue̯ðˤ/ your
3rd singular masc	bɔ /bɔ/ his
3rd singular fem	aa̯ /aa̯/ her
1st plural	lur /lur/ our
2nd plural	e /e/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ua̯ /ua̯/ their

 

Verbs

  Yassucan uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: t͡sɔ - t͡sɔ hat͡sʰae̯ /t͡sɔ ˈhat͡sʰae̯/ learned

  Yassucan uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ua̯ - ua̯ hat͡sʰae̯ /ua̯ hat͡sʰˈae̯/ will learn

 

Numbers

  Yassucan has a base-20 number system:   1 - tia̯ḑ
2 - ɛ
3 - lo
4 - hae̯
5 - kadhˤ
6 - ɾa
7 - kant
8 - yia̯bɛqq
9 - ’aa̯
10 - ŋae̯
11 - moʻl
12 - maww
13 - khɛrr
14 - kʰoḩ
15 - ɔtʰua̯she
16 - t͡saa̯dh
17 - kʰotl
18 - kʰuŋaţ
19 - tʰue̯kʰaa̯
20 - kʰuhat
21 - kʰuhattia̯ḑ “twenty-one”
400 - bɛma “fourhundred”
401 - bɛma tia̯ḑ “fourhundred one”
800 - ɛ bɛma “two fourhundred”
8000 - aa̯’ “eightthousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix t͡s- Else: Prefix t͡saa̯-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix hue̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix tia̯-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix jia̯-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix ma-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix ma-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix jia̯-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix l- Else: Prefix le-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʔ- Else: Prefix ʔaa̯-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɾ- Else: Prefix ɾa-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix u-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ae̯-
Diminutive = Prefix so-
Augmentative = Prefix a-