Verse:Mwail/Ryooteq

Ryooteq is highly diglossic; this page describes the modern "High Sjowaázh" register. For the other varieties, see the subpages devoted to individual varieties.

Verse:Mwail/Ryooteq/Classical

Verse:Mwail/Ryooteq/'Onáp'aañ

Verse:Mwail/Ryooteq/Jighoózii

Verse:Mwail/Ryooteq/Cyamányeh

Mwail/Ryooteq/Wordlist

Mwail/Ryooteq/Swadesh list

Mwail/Ryooteq
Sjowaázh éñsheg
Pronunciation	[/stsʊwɑ̌ːʐ̊ ɛ́ⁿʂˑɛk/]
Created by	IlL
Setting	Tricin
Language family	Sjowaazhic

Mwail/Ryooteq (English: soo-WAHZH; High Sj. Sjowaázh éñ·sheg /stsʊwɑ̌ːʐ̊ ɛ́ⁿʂˑɛk/, lit. 'Sjowaázh its-language') is the dominant language in Sjowaázh eñZóol in Verse:Tricin/Txapoalli. It is a polysynthetic, fusional language with a complex verbal morphology. It is primarily inspired by Navajo, Polish, and Ancient Greek.

Mwail/Ryooteq belongs to a single dialect continuum and is otherwise an isolate, though some speculate that Mwail/Ryooteq is related to the Quame languages.

Until recently Sjowaázh was highly diglossic, and still is to some extent. Sjowaázh varieties differ mainly in vocabulary and morphology (much of it is the usage and choice of affixes) and secondarily in accent. High Sjowaázh, which is heavily influenced by Classical Sjowaázh, is regarded as the "proper language" and is often used in literature, public announcements and by the upper classes, while the lower orders speak less conservative varieties and sociolects which are sometimes mutually unintelligible. The diglossia is also influenced by gender: women, particularly in urban areas, are more likely than other groups to use forms and accents closer to High Sjowaázh and are less likely to use strongly marked forms. Since the 1340s (fT), a greater permissiveness towards regional and "nonstandard" varieties of Sjowaázh has taken hold in education; however, due to greater travel and the mass media, marked features in Sjowaázh varieties have also begun to disappear.

Todo

• Wackernagel, "magna cum laude" order
• Head-marking
• Badly irregular ablaut like Navajo
• Should be different from Navajo and Roshterian but still polysynthetic
• Numbers: chiíñ, shjhed, naájy, hoók', daáb, k'al, ghoól, lagh, k'ijh, lóoh (change some of these numbers)
• Some Quame-ish words:
  • kadízh 'flower'
  • k'ijh '9'
  • bíne' 'water'
  • chiíñ '1'
• Use the ejectiveHmoob phonology?
• Pluractional prefix
• Should Modern High Sjowaázh be different from Classical Sjowaázh?
• expressive/discourse verb forms, not using them will make you sound stilted (High Sjowaázh has less of these, except in poetic Classical/High Sjowaázh)

Gibberish

Yooñsyekh jyiid biʔiñch'aañ loot' shcheeg, zhoʔkyoo woʔzaagiyeʔ ʔookasdin.

Nyeech’ shaasyodz k’iilyañzhaag bishchezyagi lowaʔazyiin ch’aayekoot’ shiilyohookhin. (LLLLSLLSSSSSSLLSLLSLL)

Looʔsyah cy’asde bishooladeeñt’ zhewot’igii ʔaañsyok’ jighoodziiñ zhjhedaal. (LLLSSLSLSSSLLLSLLSL)

Phonology

Consonants

Mwail/Ryooteq has a large consonant inventory:

Consonant phonemes in Mwail/Ryooteq

		Labial	Dental	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m /m/	n /n/			ny /ɲ/
Plosive	tenuis	b /p/	d /t/			gy /c/	g /k/	' /ʔ/
	aspirated	p /pʰ/	t /tʰ/			ky /cʰ/	k /kʰ/
	ejective		t' /tʼ/			ky' /cʼ/	k' /kʼ/
Fricative	lenis		z /z̊/	zh /ʐ̊/	zy /ʑ̊/		gh /ɣ̊/
	fortis		s /sˑ/	sh /ʂˑ/	sy /ɕˑ/		kh /xˑ/	h /h/
Affricate	tenuis		j /ts/	jh /tʂ/	jy /tɕ/
	aspirated		c /tsʰ/	ch /tʂʰ/	cy /tɕʰ/
	ejective		c' /tsʼ/	ch' /tʂʼ/	cy' /tɕʼ/
Approximant			l /l/		ly /ʎ/	y /j/	w /w/

All consonants are long, compared to English: with plain stops the hold is longer, with aspirated stops the aspiration is longer, and with affricates the frication is longer. The voice onset time of the aspirated and ejective stops is twice as long as that found in most other languages.

Stops and affricates

All stops and affricates, except for the bilabial and glottal, have a three-way laryngeal contrast between unaspirated, aspirated, and ejective. The labials /p, pʰ, m/ are found mainly in grammatical affixes and loanwords. Most of the contrasts in the inventory lie within coronal territory at the alveolar and palatoalveolar places of articulation.

The aspirated stops /tʰ, kʰ/ (orthographic ⟨t⟩, ⟨k⟩) are typically aspirated with velar frication [tx, kx] (they are phonetically affricates — homorganic in the case of [kx], heterorganic in the case of [tx]). The acoustic difference between an affricate and a stop + fricative consonant cluster is the rate of increase in the amplitude of the frication noise (i.e. the rise time); affricates have a short rise time, consonant clusters have a longer rise time between the stop and fricative. There is variation within Mwail/Ryooteq, however, in this respect: some speakers lack strong velar frication having instead a period of aspiration.

Similarly the unaspirated velar /k/ (orthographic ⟨g⟩) is realized as with optional voiced velar frication following the stop burst: [k] ~ [kɣ].

While the aspiration of stops is markedly long compared to most other languages, the aspiration of the affricates is quite short: the main feature distinguishing /ts/, /tʂ/ and /tɕ/ from /tsʰ/, /tɬʰ/, /tʂʰ/ and /tɕʰ/ is that the frication is half again as long in the latter: [tsʰˑ], [tʂʰˑ], [tɕʰˑ]. The ejectives /ts'/, /tʂ'/, /tɕ'/, on the other hand, have short frication, presumably due to the lack of pulmonic airflow. There is a period of near silence before the glottalized onset of the vowel.

Fricatives

Mwail/Ryooteq fricatives are noisier than the fricatives that occur in English.

Mwail/Ryooteq also does not have consistent phonetic voicing in the "voiced" fricative members: /z, ʐ, ʑ, ɣ/ may be partially devoiced during the constriction. In stem-initial position, /ʐ/ has a slight tendency to be voiceless near the offset, /z/ and /ʑ/ are often mostly voiceless with phonetic voicing only at the onset, /ɣ/ is also only partially voiced with voicing at onset. A more consistent acoustic correlate of the "voicing" is the duration of the consonant: "voiceless" consonants have longer durations than "voiced" consonants.

Glottal(ized) consonants

Consonants involving a glottal closure — the glottal stop, ejective stops, and the glottalized sonorants — may have optional creaky voice on voiced sounds adjacent to the glottal gesture. Glottal stops may also be realized entirely as creaky voice instead of single glottal closure.

Vowels

Mwail/Ryooteq has only 4 vowel qualities, although there is phonemic vowel length and nasalization.

Mwail/Ryooteq oral vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i /ɪ/	ii /iː/			o /ʊ/	oo /uː/
Mid	e /ɛ/	ee /ɛː/
Open					a /ɑ/	aa /ɑː/

Mwail/Ryooteq nasal vowels

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	iñ /ĩ/	iiñ /ĩː/
Mid	eñ /ɛ̃/	eeñ /ɛ̃ː/			oñ /õ/	ooñ /õː/
Open					añ /ɑ̃/	aañ /ɑ̃ː/

Pitch accent

Standard High Mwail/Ryooteq has a pitch accent system - every word will have at least one high pitched mora but may have more than one, especially in longer words. A mora with high pitch is marked with an acute accent.

Other Sjowaázh lects have different tonal systems. For example, in the Cyamányeh topolect, has a simple pitch accent system like that of Ancient Greek – namely, only one mora per word receives high pitch.

Morphology

NB. Superscript ^L = lenition of the following consonant, ^N = eclipsis, ^D = following consonant is dageshed.

Pronouns

Possessive prefixes

• kha-: 1st person prefix
• eñ- or éñ-: 3rd person prefix

Verbs

Netagin verbs, perhaps similarly to those of Biblical Hebrew, mark aspect and person, but not tense. (Netagin, rather unusually, renders tense as proclitics on NPs instead.) Non-concatenative morphology figures prominently in conjugation for valence and TAM, much like in Semitic and Proto-Indo-European. However, unlike in Semitic languages verbs can also be derived via derivational "mishqalim" patterns (with a lot of overlap with nominal patterns), so there is not as much skew towards being noun-heavy as in Semitic.

Primary stems

For inflectional paradigms, please see Netagin/Primary stem conjugation.

The primary stems inflect with heavy use of transfixes. Comprising about 500 verbs, this class is the counterpart to strong verbs in Germanic. There are up to 4 primary patterns or "binyanim" that a root may take in Netagin:

• In the Intransitive paradigm are verbs denoting intransitive actions ("come"), as well as stative verbs ("be cold"). It is often considered the most basic form. The difference between adjectives and stative verbs is roughly equivalent to the ser-estar distinction.
• The Transitive paradigm contains most monotransitive verbs, ("eat") including causativizations of Intransitive verbs ("make happy"). Can also have a telic (desired outcome was reached) meaning.
• The Reflexive pattern consists of verbs denote reflexive/reciprocal action ("get dressed", "kiss each other"), or change of state ("thicken").
• The Causative pattern contains causatives of transitive verbs ("feed") (and of some Intransitives and Reflexives). Causatives of statives in the imperfective aspect may denote active maintenance of a state (as opposed to changing a state in the perfective aspect).

Note that there is no passive in Netagin - this function is mainly served by zeroth person in transitive verbs or with Reflexive verbs, or simply topicalization of the patient.

	Perfective	Imperfective	Participle	Action noun
Intransitive	C1aC2aC3	C1iC2C2aC3	C1óC2éC3	C1C2íC3N
Transitive	C1C2óC3	C1aC2C2í1C3	meC1aC2C2íC3	C1aC2C2íC3áˀN
Reflexive	ˀiC1C2é1C3	niC1C2é1C3	miNC1úC2áC3	ˀaC1C2óC3athN
Causative	ˀaC1C2aC3	NC1éC2aC3	maC1C2áC3	ˀaC1C2úC3áˀN

¹ Attenuates to a before a stressed suffix beginning with a consonant.

Suffixes beginning with a vowel cause the vowel between C₂ and C₃ to be elided.

The infinitive (inf) is formed by leniting the first letter of the bare stem of the verb, or if said first letter is a guttural or n, adding fa-.

The participle is an agent noun or an adjective. Adverbializing it yields manner of action "as if to X".

The action noun (axn) or gerund is used in action noun constructions, which are of the form SUBJECT-gen AXN OBJECT-acc. It is of importance in forming relative clauses, for Netagin does not have a relativizer.

בֶּן אָתַןּ גְדִיב כַּ֬וֵּה וַּתַּתֵּ֬לַם.

Ben ˀáthann ghedhíbh gcaféh fatedtélamh.

FUT=1PC.GEN drink.AXN.SG.DIR coffee.SG.DIR INV-(1,3)-awaken/CAUS.IPFV

Our drinking coffee will keep us alert.

Derived stems

The derived conjugation generates the bulk of new verbs in Netagin. The inflection, incorporating various concatenative formatives from the primary inflection, is almost entirely linear.

	Perfective	Imperfective	Participle	Action noun
Intransitive	ˀe[STEM]	[STEM]	miN[STEM]	ˀa[STEM]íthN
Transitive	ˀa[STEM]	ˀiN[STEM]	mə[STEM]	[STEM]íyáˀN

The infinitive is formed in the same manner as for the primary stems.

Patterns

Many (nowadays, most) derived verb patterns are verbalized noun patterns.

Affixes

Unipersonal (suffix) conjugation

The suffix conjugation is used for inherently intransitive (unaccusative) or reflexive verbs, and imperatives. Unipersonal verbs are negated in the optative/imperative by núr^N.

Unipersonal verb structure

0	1	2
Stem/Voice/Aspect	Personal suffix	Imperative or Polarity/Focus

In the indicative the personal suffixes represent the subject; in the imperative they indicate the object.

Unipersonal suffixes
Person	Singular	Paucal	Plural
0	-c[h]1áˀ
1	-d(i)/-gh(i)1/-t[h]1í3	-t[h]1ú	-t[h]1áˀ
2	-ann	-nú	-náˀ
3	-(a)2/-í3	-ú	-áˀ

The 0th, 1st and 2nd person forms are penultimately stressed; the 3rd person forms are ultimately stressed.

¹After vowels or mh.
²As indicative subject; not expressed without another suffix
³As imperative object.

Slot 2 suffixes
Netagin	Gloss
-n	Imperative (imp)
-chú	Affirmative focus (aff.foc)
-hí	Negative (neg)
-náˀ/-cháˀ*	Negative focus (neg.foc)

*In second person forms.

Bipersonal (prefix) conjugation

The prefix conjugation is used for non-imperative transitive verbs (verbs that can take an agent and a patient).

Bipersonal verb structure

−2	−1	0	1	2
Inverse prefix	Bipersonal prefix	Transitive stem/Voice/Aspect	Polarity/Focus	Pluractionality suffix

Inverse prefix
Netagin	Gloss
faD-	Inverse (inv)

The inverse prefix is called fó mágham ('flipping/inverting fó') in Netagin. Note that the inverse prefix geminates/de-lenites the personal prefix consonant.

Personal prefixes
Netagin	Gloss
b-	(2,0)
c-	(1,0)
h-	(1,2)
l-	(0,3)
n-	(2,3)
t-	(1,3)
y-	(3,3)

Polarity/focus suffixes
Netagin	Gloss
-(a)	Affirmative (aff)
-cú	Affirmative focus (aff.foc)
-hí	Negative (neg)
-náˀ	Negative focus (neg.foc)

All of the above suffixes are stressed. The focused suffixes emphasize the truth value and are therefore used to answer yes/no questions.

Pluractionality suffix
Netagin	Gloss
-nn	Pluractional (plax)

The pluractionality suffix never affects the thematic vowel in irregular verbs, unlike other suffixes beginning with a consonant.

Numerals

Numerals are essentially ordinary adjectives (below 100) or nouns (for 100 and higher units). Units larger than 100 turn their heads into the genitive case.

The collective and reciprocal is archaic for numerals above 3. Numerals exceeding ten only have periphrastic distributives, collectives and reciprocals (ḥáchúbh fa-hálódh mbúrégh '11 at a time'; ˀaˁathómhath tzúbhál nḥachúbháˀ 'a group of 30'; hálódh méˀath '1/100').

Netagin numerals
	n	nth	n each/at a time	n-fold; n-ad	1/n
0	séphar	*mesáphúr	-	-	-
1	hálódh	mehálúdh	halúdhládh	halálédh	-
2	gáḥéz	megáḥúz	gaḥuzḥáz	gaḥáḥéz	géḥáz
3	tzúbhál	metzábhúl	tzebhulbál	tzebhábhél	tzibál
4	méqhátz	memháqhútz	meqhutzqátz	meqháqhétz	miqátz
5	pazzím	mepházúmh	pezumhzámh	pezázémh	pizzámh
6	ˀalbán	melábhún	lebhunbán	lebhábhén	libán
7	qátzídh	meqhátzúdh	qetzudhtzádh	qetzátzédh	qittzádh
8	cóˁáš	mecháˁúš	ceˁušˁáš	ceˁáˁéš	céˁáš
9	ripúi	merápheh	rephuipheh	rephápheh	ripeh
10	ḥachúbh	meḥáchúbh	ḥachubhcábh	ḥacháchébh	ḥicábh
11	ḥáchúbh fa-hálódh	ḥáchúbh mehálúdh	-	-	-
20	gáḥéz nḥachúbh	megháḥúz nḥachúbh	-	-	-
21	gáḥéz nḥachúbh hálódh	gáḥéz nḥachúbh mehálúdh	-	-	-
100	méˀáˀ	maˀáthí	-	-	-
1000	ˀelaph	ˀalphí	-	-	-
10^6	ˀecatomíryó, ˀecat'	-	-	-	-
10^9	disecatomíryó, disec'	-	-	-	-

Grammar

Number

As in Navajo, grammatical number is not marked on nouns, rather verbs index the number of their argument nouns.

There are three numbers: singular (sg) representing one object, paucal (pc) for a few, and plural (pl) for many. The paucal form usually denotes two to nine items, but the boundary between paucal and plural is quite fluid; a paucal could be used for a larger number for contrast with a much larger number of things. The plural number in pronouns also serves as an honorific; complementarily, using paucal pronouns where a plural is expected entails a "dishonorific", humble or pejorative meaning.

Flavoring

The so-called "flavoring" affixes may indicate the speaker's attitude or degree of surprise. Normally High Sjowaázh uses fewer flavoring affixes than do other dialects, and "degree of surprise" affixes are more commonly used than attitudinal affixes. Poetic High Sjowaázh may use archaic flavoring affixes used in Classical Sjowaázh.