Tsumi

Natively known as: Tsumi /ˈt̻͡s̪ɯ̟ᵝmi/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
so ka u giryu sunri kuzun so u hikya koyan nukan ru po
Pronunciation: /so ka u ˈgiɾju ˈsunɾi ˈkuzun so u ˈhikja ˈkojan ˈnukan ɾu po/
Tsumi word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g h j k m n p s t w z ŋ ɾ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Stop	p b	t d		k g
Fricative		s z			h
Approximant			j
Tap		ɾ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ŋ	n
m	n
j	y
ɾ	r

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Object (Prepositional phrase) Verb. “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary the door with a key opened.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?

Nouns

Nouns have seven cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.
• Instrumental is the use of something: man writes with (using) pen.

Nominative	No affix ninon /ˈninon/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix se- seninon /seˈninon/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix ju- yuninon /juˈninon/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix ho- honinon /hoˈninon/ to dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ku- kuninon /kuˈninon/ near/at/by dog
Ablative	If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix su- suninon /suˈninon/ from dog
Instrumental	If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix se- seninon /seˈninon/ with/using dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix ninon /ˈninon/ the dog	Prefix ga- ganinon /gaˈninon/ the dogs
Indefinite	Prefix ma- naninon /maˈninon/ a dog	If starts with vowel: Prefix ibj- Else: Prefix ibjo- ibyoninon /ˌibjoˈninon/ some dogs

Articles

Tsumi encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular masc	3rd singular fem	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Nominative	gi /gi/ I	nin /min/ you	ka /ka/ he, it (masc)	ba /ba/ she, it (fem)	a /a/ we	gin /gin/ you all	nun /nun/ they
Accusative	yu /ju/ me	bi /bi/ you	dan /dan/ his, it (masc)	ni /mi/ her, it (fem)	ki /ki/ us	e /e/ you all	wa /wa/ them
Genitive	ha /ha/ mine	nan /man/ yours	kon /kon/ his, its (masc)	o /o/ hers, its (fem)	to /to/ ours	nu /nu/ yours (pl)	kun /kun/ theirs
Dative	den /den/ to me	ke /ke/ to you	sa /sa/ to his, to it (masc)	pu /pu/ to her, to it (fem)	hon /hon/ to us	ko /ko/ to you all	nu /mu/ to them
Locative	kin /kin/ to me	kan /kan/ to you	an /an/ to his, to it (masc)	zu /zu/ to her, to it (fem)	yo /jo/ to us	i /i/ to you all	no /no/ to them
Ablative	gun /gun/ from me	rin /ɾin/ from you	ze /ze/ from his, from it (masc)	da /da/ from her, from it (fem)	pen /pen/ from us	non /non/ from you all	ron /ɾon/ from them
Instrumental	in /in/ with/using me	un /un/ with/using you	so /so/ with/using his, with/using it (masc)	son /son/ with/using her, with/using it (fem)	no /mo/ with/using us	pun /pun/ with/using you all	yon /jon/ with/using them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	ku /ku/ my
2nd singular	to /to/ your
3rd singular masc	u /u/ his
3rd singular fem	pin /pin/ her
1st plural	pan /pan/ our
2nd plural	gun /gun/ your (pl)
3rd plural	a /a/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix piku /ˈpiku/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ku- kupiku /kuˈpiku/ learned

Tsumi uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ɾun - run piku /ɾun ˈpiku/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Tsumi uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix su- supiku /suˈpiku/ learns/is learning

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.
Tsumi uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Prefix a- apiku /aˈpiku/ have learned

Numbers

Tsumi has a base-10 number system:
1 - nen
2 - ga
3 - e
4 - ku
5 - yu
6 - kupan
7 - ni
8 - ho
9 - gehyu
10 - ta
100 - enu
1000 - naka

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix nu-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix e-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix t-
Else: Prefix ta-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix o-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pu-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix w-
Else: Prefix wa-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ɾu-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix uɾj-
Else: Prefix uɾja-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ta-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j-
Else: Prefix ju-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɾ-
Else: Prefix ɾa-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ke-
Diminutive = Prefix so-
Augmentative = Prefix i-

International Phonetic Alphabet Reader

Dictionary

3075 Words.

Spoken by

• Tsumi