Seaspeak

Natively known as: Thratun /θrɑːˈtuːn/

  ...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
jǐ staǃ staǃ thrǐ di ntomgǐǃ jǐ buytawgh dvü staǃ ʘaǐch taw zdǐ
Pronunciation: /ʤɪ stæǃ stæǃ θɹɪ diː ntɑmˈgɪǃ ʤɪ buːjˈtɔːʢ dvʊ stæǃ ʘaɪ̯ʧ tɔː zdɪ/
Seaspeak word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p s t v w z ð ŋ ǁ ǂ ǃ ɹ ʃ ʒ ʘ ʢ ʤ ʧ θ  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n			ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k g
Affricate					ʤ ʧ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʒ ʃ				h
Approximant				ɹ		j
Trill								ʢ
Lateral approximant				l
Click	ʘ			ǃ		ǂ
Lateral click				ǁ

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ iː oʊ̯ uː æ ɑ ɔɪ̯ ɔː ɛ ɜː ɤ˧˨˩ ɪ ʊ ʌ   Diphthongs: aɪ̯ aʊ̯ eɪ̯ oʊ̯ ɔɪ̯ ?  

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː		uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid			ɤ˧˨˩
Low-mid	ɛ	ɜː	ɔː ʌ
Near-low	æ
Low			ɑ

  Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ?   Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
iː	i
uː	u
æ	a
ɛ	e
ɑ	o
ɜː	ǔ
ɔː	aw
ʊ	ü
ʌ	uh
ɪ	ǐ
eɪ̯	ay
aʊ̯	ou
aɪ̯	ie
ɔɪ̯	oi
ɹ	r
θ	th
ʒ	zh
ð	dh
j	y
ʃ	sh
ŋ	ng
ʤ	j
ʧ	ch
ʢ	gh
Vː	VV
̯

 

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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 two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix pruhh /pɹʌh/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -v Else: Suffix -ɑv pruhhov /pɹʌˈhɑv/ (verb done to) dog

 

Singular	No affix pruhh /pɹʌh/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate first part of first syllable pruhpruhh /pɹʌˈpɹʌh/ dogs

 

Articles

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

Pronouns

 

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	gyɤ˧˨˩ǁ /gjɤ˧˨˩ǁ/ I	ʘe /ʘɛ/ me
2nd singular	nawt /nɔːt/ you	mboüg /mboʊ̯g/ you
3rd singular masc	staǃ /stæǃ/ he, it (masc)	fǐch /fɪʧ/ his, it (masc)
3rd singular fem	jye /ʤjɛ/ she, it (fem)	tsoz /tsɑz/ her, it (fem)
1st plural inclusive	faük /faʊ̯k/ we (including you)	bak /bæk/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	thɔǐ /thɔɪ̯/ we (excluding you)	mpa /mpæ/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	ǃǔ /ǃɜː/ you all	vnaw /vnɔː/ you all
3rd plural	znǔ /znɜː/ they	speǐ /speɪ̯/ them

 

Possessive determiners

 

	Possessive
1st singular	gyɤ˧˨˩ǁ /gjɤ˧˨˩ǁ/ my
2nd singular	nawt /nɔːt/ your
3rd singular masc	staǃ /stæǃ/ his
3rd singular fem	jye /ʤjɛ/ her
1st plural inclusive	faük /faʊ̯k/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	thɔǐ /thɔɪ̯/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ǃǔ /ǃɜː/ your (pl)
3rd plural	znǔ /znɜː/ their

 

Verbs

 

Present	No affix shpa /ʃpæ/ learn
Past	Suffix -aʊ̯θ shpaaüth /ʃpæˈaʊ̯θ/ learned
Remote past	Suffix -aʊ̯ shpaaü /ʃpæˈaʊ̯/ learned (long ago)

  Seaspeak uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: mpɑ - mpo shpa /mpɑ ʃpæ/ will learn

 

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

Suffix -ɜː shpaǔ /ʃpæˈɜː/ 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).
Seaspeak uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -ɜːs shpas /ʃpæs/ learns

 

Perfect aspect

  The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Seaspeak uses an affix for the perfect aspect:  

Perfect

Reduplicate whole word shpashpa /ʃpæʃˈpæ/ have learned

 

Numbers

  Seaspeak has a base-10 number system:   1 - pse
2 - huhgh
3 - ʘǔ
4 - tɤ˧˨˩
5 - zhüh
6 - cho
7 - gyawz
8 - ja
9 - sǔ
10 - meth
100 - ǐ
1000 - uhskah
 

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -plaʊ̯
Else: Suffix -eɪ̯plaʊ̯
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -gʤɔː
Else: Suffix -iːgʤɔː
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ɜː
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -g
Else: Suffix -iːg
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ɜːk
Noun to verb = Suffix -eɪ̯h
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ǃ
Else: Suffix -uːǃ
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h
Else: Suffix -oʊ̯h
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʢ
Else: Suffix -ɑʢ
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -uːʧ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ɜːǂ
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -pɔː
Else: Suffix -æpɔː
Diminutive = Suffix -ɔɪ̯v
Augmentative = Suffix -ɑ