Pyëmfian

Natively known as: pyëmf /pjɛmf/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
stya psa psa kstiyfi foyt nawyy stya tsësp ak psa tyawyk fyik snawskt
Pronunciation: /stja psa psa ˈkstijfi fojt nɔjj stja ʦɛsp ak psa tjɔjk fjik snɔskt/
Pyëmfian word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: f j k m n p s t x ʔ ʦ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p		t		k	ʔ
Affricate			ʦ
Fricative		f	s		x
Approximant				j

Vowel inventory: a e i o u ɔ ɛ

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
ɔ	aw
ɛ	ë
j	y
x	kh
ʦ	ts

---

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:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).

Ergative	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix to- totmawf /ˈtotmɔf/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix tmawf /tmɔf/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)

Articles

Definite	kawk /kɔk/ the
Indefinite	kstë /kstɛ/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’
• 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

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	spë /spɛ/ I	pu /pu/ me, I
2nd singular	pyask /pjask/ you	nisks /nisks/ you
3rd singular	psa /psa/ he, she, it	poyy /pojj/ him, her, it, he, she
1st plural	sta /sta/ we	spyosts /spjosts/ us, we
2nd plural	faw /fɔ/ you all	a /a/ you all
3rd plural	spekhts /spexts/ they	fyafts /fjafts/ them, they

Possessive determiners

1st singular	spë /spɛ/ my
2nd singular	pyask /pjask/ your
3rd singular	psa /psa/ his, her, its
1st plural	sta /sta/ our
2nd plural	faw /fɔ/ your (pl)
3rd plural	spekhts /spexts/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	Prefix u- utmawn /ˈutmɔn/ (I) learn	Prefix i- itmawn /ˈitmɔn/ (I) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix sp- Else: Prefix spa- spatmawn /ˈspatmɔn/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix km- Else: Prefix kma- kmatmawn /ˈkmatmɔn/ (you) learn	Prefix spjo- spyotmawn /ˈspjotmɔn/ (you) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix pj- Else: Prefix pju- pyutmawn /ˈpjutmɔn/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Prefix pu- putmawn /ˈputmɔn/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix a- atmawn /ˈatmɔn/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix ɛ- ëtmawn /ˈɛtmɔn/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	Prefix stɔ- stawtmawn /ˈstɔtmɔn/ (we) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix tj- Else: Prefix tji- tyitmawn /ˈtjitmɔn/ (we) learned	Prefix su- sutmawn /ˈsutmɔn/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix ɔ- awtmawn /ˈɔtmɔn/ (you all) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix kst- Else: Prefix ksta- kstatmawn /ˈkstatmɔn/ (you all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix st- Else: Prefix sti- stitmawn /ˈstitmɔn/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Prefix ʦo- tsotmawn /ˈʦotmɔn/ (they) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix tj- Else: Prefix tja- tyatmawn /ˈtjatmɔn/ (they) learned	Prefix pjɔ- pyawtmawn /ˈpjɔtmɔn/ (they) will learn

Numbers

Pyëmfian has a base-20 number system:
1 - nufts
2 - paw
3 - nask
4 - kiyy
5 - nye
6 - khuts
7 - spaw
8 - taw
9 - pyo
10 - tmupaw
11 - ikyin
12 - tmisk
13 - spyawk
14 - ksanna
15 - kawf
16 - fisʻawm
17 - tots
18 - feyyaf
19 - spyats
20 - pyawfkheʻ
(Four) hundred - fyëttsa
(Eight) thousand - fë

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix fi-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix tj-
Else: Prefix tjɔ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix snu-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix spj-
Else: Prefix spja-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix i-
Noun to verb = Prefix pɛ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pɔ-
Tending to = Prefix xa-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix sn-
Else: Prefix sne-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s-
Else: Prefix si-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix tm-
Else: Prefix tmɔ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pɛ-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix pj-
Else: Prefix pjo-
Augmentative = Prefix snu-

Dictionary

3040 Words.