Sośyan/Bugbear

a language spoken by most bugbears and arakockra.

Natively known as: sośya /ˈsoʃjɐ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
yā sa kri mīrērdḥī sa thea yā rē sa gacē brogli di ichino
Pronunciation: /jɑː sɐ kri miːˈreːrd̪̤iː sɐ ˈt̪ʰeɐ jɑː reː sɐ ˈgɐʧeː ˈbrogli d̪i iˈʧʰino/
Sośyan word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b b̤ d̪ d̪̤ g g̤ h j k kʰ l m n p pʰ r s t̪ t̪ʰ v w ɖ ɖ̤ ɦ ɲ ɳ ʂ ʃ ʈ ʈʰ ʤ ʧ ʧʰ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɳ	ɲ
Stop	p pʰ b̤ b		t̪ t̪ʰ d̪ d̪̤			ʈ ʈʰ ɖ̤ ɖ		k kʰ g g̤
Affricate					ʧ ʧʰ ʤ
Fricative		v		s	ʃ	ʂ			h ɦ
Approximant							j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: e eː i iː o u uː ɐ ɑː

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː i		u uː
High-mid	e eː		o
Near-low		ɐ
Low			ɑː

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
b̤	bh
d̪̤	dh
d̪	d
j	y
ʤ	j
ɖ̤	ḍh
ɖ	ḍ
g̤	gh
h	ḥ
ɦ	h
kʰ	kh
ɲ	ñ
ɳ	ṇ
pʰ	ph
ʂ	ṣ
t̪ʰ	th
t̪	t
ʃ	ś
ʧʰ	ch
ʧ	c
ʈʰ	ṭh
ʈ	ṭ
ɐ	a
ɑː	ā
iː	ī
uː	ū
eː	ē

---

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 before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

Singular	No affix lavī /ˈlɐviː/ dog
Plural	Reduplicate last part of last syllable lavīī /lɐˈviːiː/ dogs

Articles

Definite	sū /suː/ the
Indefinite	lī /liː/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Pronouns

1st singular	stē /st̪eː/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	ū /uː/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	sa /sɐ/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	ro /ro/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	yī /jiː/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	ḍḥē /ɖ̤eː/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ki /ki/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	stē /st̪eː/ my
2nd singular	ū /uː/ your
3rd singular masc	sa /sɐ/ his
3rd singular fem	ro /ro/ her
1st plural	yī /jiː/ our
2nd plural	ḍḥē /ɖ̤eː/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ki /ki/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix ḍḥī /ɖ̤iː/ learn
Past	Prefix ʤi- jiḍḥī /ˈʤiɖ̤iː/ learned
Future	Prefix kjɐ- kyaḍḥī /ˈkjɐɖ̤iː/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Sośyan uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: siː - sī ḍḥī /siː ɖ̤iː/ 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).
Sośyan uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

Prefix d̪vo- dvoḍḥī /ˈd̪voɖ̤iː/ learns

Numbers

Sośyan has a base-10 number system:
1 - hī
2 - cī
3 - ge
4 - tā
5 - yū
6 - ī
7 - bri
8 - yo
9 - phu
10 - svi
100 - śrase
1000 - phi

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix b̤u-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ʤɑː-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix liː-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ʤo-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix b̤i-
Noun to verb = Prefix sriː-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix b̤e-
Tending to = Prefix t̪uː-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix pʰɐ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix sriː-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix svɑː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ɦɑː-
Diminutive = Prefix vjiː-
Augmentative = Prefix re-

Dictionary

3007 Words.

Spoken by

• Arakocra
• Bugbear