Old Akath, Yoyeyam

Natively known as: yoyeyam /joˈʤejæm/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... a ki sore kope ki komi a rip ki čā kapem mesor e[alt] Pronunciation: /æ kiː ˈsore ˈkope kiː ˈkomiː æ riːp kiː ʧɒː ˈkæpem ˈmesor e/ Yoyeyamish word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet the wind to[/alt]

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v x z ɣ ʃ ʒ ʔ ʤ ʧ

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

Vowel inventory: e iː o uː æ ɒː

	Front	Back
High	iː	uː
High-mid	e	o
Near-low	æ
Low		ɒː

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable Word initial consonants: b d f g gr h j k l m n p q r s t v x z ɣ ʃ ʒ ʒl ʒm ʔ ʤ ʧ Mid-word consonants: b br d dm dr dx dʤ f ff fh ft fɣ g h hd hl hm hr ht j jd k l lb lm lʔ m mb mh mk ml mr mt mtʃ n nb nd ng nh nj ns nt nɣ nʔ nʤ p q qd qt r rb rd rg rh rk rm rn rs rt rz rʃ rʔ rʤ s sj sl sm sp sr st stg sv sx sʤ t tʃ v vz x xs xt xtʃ z zg zh ɣ ɣj ʃ ʃh ʃk ʃt ʃv ʃɣ ʒ ʒt ʔ ʔd ʔm ʔn ʔr ʔz ʤ Word final consonants: b bz d f ft g h hr j jr k l m mr mʔ n nd ng p q qt r rb rd rg rk rm rn rs s sr st t tr tʃ v vr vʔ x xt z zv ɣ ʃ ʃm ʃq ʃt ʔ ʔd ʔr ʤ
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʾ
ʤ	j
ʧ	č
ʒ	ž
ʃ	š
ɣ	q
æ	a
ɒː	ā
uː	u
iː	i
j	y

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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 after the noun. Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

Singular	Suffix -uː ābu /ˈɒːbuː/ dog
Plural	No affix āb /ɒːb/ dogs

Articles

Definite	bem /bem/ the
Indefinite	peʾ /peʔ/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	ye /je/ I	nā /nɒː/ me
2nd singular	ol /ol/ you	ke /ke/ you
3rd singular masc	ki /kiː/ he, it	pa /pæ/ him, it
3rd singular fem	mit /miːt/ she, it	kem /kem/ her, it
1st plural inclusive	ab /æb/ we (including you)	ku /kuː/ us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ma /mæ/ we (excluding you)	yey /jej/ us (excluding you)
2nd plural	o /o/ you all	tu /tuː/ you all
3rd plural	mi /miː/ they	u /uː/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ye /je/ my
2nd singular	ol /ol/ your
3rd singular masc	ki /kiː/ his
3rd singular fem	mit /miːt/ her
1st plural inclusive	ab /æb/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ma /mæ/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	o /o/ your (pl)
3rd plural	mi /miː/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -iːm hānim /ˈhɒːniːm/ (I) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -z Else: Suffix -æz hānaz /ˈhɒːnæz/ (I) learned
2nd singular	Suffix -e hāne /ˈhɒːne/ (you) learn	Suffix -ep hānep /ˈhɒːnep/ (you) learned
3rd singular	Suffix -æm hānam /ˈhɒːnæm/ (he/she/it) learns	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nd Else: Suffix -ond hānond /ˈhɒːnond/ (he/she/it) learned
1st plural inclusive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ok hānok /ˈhɒːnok/ (we) learn (including you)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em hānem /ˈhɒːnem/ (we) learned (including you)
1st plural exclusive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -j Else: Suffix -ej hāney /ˈhɒːnej/ (we) learn (excluding you)	If ends with vowel: Suffix -j Else: Suffix -iːj hāniy /ˈhɒːniːj/ (we) learned (excluding you)
2nd plural	Suffix -ɒːp hānāp /ˈhɒːnɒːp/ (you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -os hānos /ˈhɒːnos/ (you all) learned
3rd plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -j Else: Suffix -uːj hānuy /ˈhɒːnuːj/ (they) learn	Suffix -iː hāni /ˈhɒːniː/ (they) learned

Yoyeyamish uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: o - o hān /o hɒːn/ will learn

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.
Yoyeyamish uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -iːm hānim /ˈhɒːniːm/ have learned

Numbers

Yoyeyamish has a base-10 number system:
1 - o 2 - pāp 3 - oy 4 - kok 5 - beno 6 - an 7 - katok 8 - āni 9 - makeʾd 10 - pub 11 - pub a o “ten and one” 100 - o ezo “one hundred” 101 - o ezo o “one hundred one” 200 - pāp ezo 1000 - o nono “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ɒːj Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -om Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -ɒːp Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -om Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ok Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ok Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -om Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -æ Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -æqt One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -em Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -uːm Diminutive = Suffix -em Augmentative = Suffix -ɒː

Dictionary

4581 Words.