Simihi

Natively known as: simihi /siˈmihi/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ga ku misi shawu ku ʻina ga suna ku sapa tabi li hingi
Pronunciation: /ga ku ˈmisi ˈʃawu ku ˈʔina ga ˈsuna ku ˈsapa ˈtabi ɺi ˈhiŋi/
Simihi word order: and he stood holding hat his and turned his face wet to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g h j k m n p s t w ŋ ɲ ɺ ɾ ʃ ʔ ʧ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b	t d			k g	ʔ
Affricate			ʧ
Fricative		s	ʃ			h
Approximant				j
Tap		ɾ
Lateral flap		ɺ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a i u

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low	a

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
j	y
ŋ	ng
ɲ	ny
ɾ	r
ɺ	l
ʃ	sh
ʧ	ch

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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: prepositions ?

Nouns

Singular	No affix dinyu /ˈdiɲu/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate last part of last syllable dinyuu /diˈɲuu/ dogs

Articles

Definite	ha /ha/ the
Indefinite	ni /ni/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

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

1st singular	chi /ʧi/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ʻu /ʔu/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	ku /ku/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	ya /ja/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural inclusive	gi /gi/ we (including you), us (including you), ours (including you)
1st plural exclusive	u /u/ we (excluding you), us (excluding you), ours (excluding you)
2nd plural	ka /ka/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	du /du/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	chi /ʧi/ my
2nd singular	ʻu /ʔu/ your
3rd singular masc	ku /ku/ his
3rd singular fem	ya /ja/ her
1st plural inclusive	gi /gi/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	u /u/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	ka /ka/ your (pl)
3rd plural	du /du/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix winga /ˈwiŋa/ learn
Past	Prefix ju- yuwinga /juˈwiŋa/ learned
Remote past	Prefix gu- guwinga /guˈwiŋa/ learned (long ago)

Simihi uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ka - ka winga /ka ˈwiŋa/ 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.
Simihi uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix nu- nuwinga /nuˈwiŋa/ have learned

Numbers

Simihi has a base-10 number system:
1 - ha
2 - ku
3 - ka
4 - ra
5 - ta
6 - si
7 - cha
8 - yamuhi
9 - nga
10 - muka
100 - runapa
1000 - suya

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ki-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ɾu-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ŋi-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix da-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ʔi-
Noun to verb = Prefix sa-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix nu-
Tending to = Prefix gi-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ʔa-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix mi-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix sa-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ha-
Diminutive = Prefix ta-
Augmentative = Prefix ɾi-

Dictionary

3028 Words.