Cyclopean

Natively known as: Sheyomba /ʃɛˈjɔmbɒ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... qhwu la lo nku la awen qhwu ndang la tsusa ngec shegugh cack Pronunciation: /ǃʰwu lɒ lɔ ŋku lɒ ˈɒwɛn ǃʰwu ndɒnɡ lɒ ˈʦʼusɒ nɡɛǀ ˈʃɛɡuɡh ǀɒǀk/ Sheyomban word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b bʼ d f h j k kʰ l m n p pʰ r s t tʰ v w z ŋ ǀ ǀʰ ǂ ǂʰ ǃ ǃʰ ɡ ɦ ɬ ɮ ɲ ʃ ʤ ʦʼ ʧʼ ᵑǀ ᵑǀʼ ᵑǂʼ ᵑǃ ᵑǃʼ ᶢǀʼ ᶢǃʼ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	pʰ p b bʼ			tʰ t d			k kʰ ɡ
Affricate				ʦʼ	ʧʼ ʤ
Fricative		f v		s z	ʃ			h ɦ
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral fricative				ɬ ɮ
Lateral approximant				l
Click			ǀ ᵑǀ ǀʰ ᶢǀʼ ᵑǀʼ	ǃʰ ǃ ᵑǃʼ ᵑǃ ᶢǃʼ		ǂ ǂʰ ᵑǂʼ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /i u ɒ ɔ ɛ/

	Front	Back
High	i	u
Low-mid	ɛ	ɔ
Low		ɒ

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: No fixed stress Word initial consonants: b, bj, bʼ, d, f, h, j, k, kw, kʰ, kʰw, l, lw, m, mb, mf, mkʰ, ml, mn, mp, ms, mz, mɬ, mɮ, mɲ, n, nd, nt, nz, nǂ, nɡ, nɬ, nɮ, p, pl, pʰ, s, t, tʰ, v, w, z, zw, ŋk, ǀ, ǀʰ, ǂ, ǂʰ, ǃ, ǃʰ, ǃʰw, ɡ, ɦ, ɬ, ɲ, ɲʤ, ʃ, ʤ, ʦʼ, ʧʼ, ᵑǀ, ᵑǀw, ᵑǃʼ, ᶢǀʼw Mid-word consonants: b, bʼ, d, dw, f, h, hw, j, k, ks, kw, kʰ, kʰw, l, lw, m, mb, mbʼ, mf, mh, mk, mkʰ, ml, mn, mnd, mntw, mnɡ, mp, mpʰ, ms, mtʰ, mv, mz, mǀ, mǃ, mɡ, mɡw, mɬ, mɮ, mɲ, mʃ, n, nd, ndz, ns, nstr, nt, ntf, ntw, nw, nz, nǂ, nɡ, nɡw, nɬ, nɮ, nʦʼ, p, pl, pʰ, r, s, sw, t, tf, tʰ, tʰr, tʰw, v, w, z, zw, ŋk, ŋkw, ǀ, ǀtr, ǀʰ, ǀʰw, ǂ, ǃ, ǃʰ, ǃʰw, ɡ, ɦ, ɬ, ɬw, ɮ, ɲ, ɲʤ, ɲʤw, ɲʧʼ, ʃ, ʤ, ʦʼ, ʧʼ, ᵑǀ, ᵑǀw, ᵑǀʼ, ᵑǂʼ, ᵑǃ, ᵑǃʼ, ᶢǀʼ, ᶢǀʼw, ᶢǃʼ Word final consonants: f, ff, j, l, ll, n, nt, nɡ, p, r, ss, st, t, wn, ǀ, ǀk, ɡh
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• l → ɫ / V_V
• N → w / S_S
• {p,t,k} → [+voice] / V_r
• b → v / V_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɡ	g
bʱ	bh
ᵑǀʱ	ngc
ᵑǃʱ	ngq
ᵑǂʱ	ngx
ɲʧʼ	ntsh
ʧʼ	tsh
ᶢǃʱ	gq
ᶢǂʱ	gx
ᶢǀʱ	gc
ᵑǂ	nx
ǂʰ	xh
ᵑǃ	nq
kʰ	kh
ǃʰ	qh
ǃ	q
ǂ	x
ŋk	nk
ᵑǀ	nc
ǀʰ	ch
ǀ	c
ɮ	dl
j	y
ɲʤ	nj
ʤ	j
ɲ	ny
ɦ	hh
ɬ	hl
pʰ	ph
ʃ	sh
tʰ	th
ʦʼ	ts
ɒ	a
ɛ	e
ɔ	o

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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 before the noun. Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

Singular

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ɛl kwentel /kwɛnˈtɛl/ the man	Suffix -i xekai /ˈǂɛkɒi/ the woman
Indefinite	Suffix -ɛɡh kwentegh /ˈkwɛntɛɡh/ a man	If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -ɔnt xekant /ˈǂɛkɒnt/ a woman

Plural

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	Suffix -u kwentu /ˈkwɛntu/ the men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ǀ Else: Suffix -ɛǀ xekac /ˈǂɛkɒǀ/ the women
Indefinite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɒn kwentan /kwɛnˈtɒn/ some men	Suffix -ɒl xekaal /ˈǂɛkɒɒl/ some women

Articles

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

Pronouns

1st singular	khwup /kʰwup/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	zwi /zwi/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	la /lɒ/ he, him, his, it, its
3rd singular fem	nge /nɡɛ/ she, her, hers, it, its
1st plural	phi /pʰi/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	kwen /kwɛn/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	mlan /mlɒn/ they (masc), them (masc), theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	ngi /nɡi/ they (fem), them (fem), theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	khwup /kʰwup/ my
2nd singular	zwi /zwi/ your
3rd singular masc	la /lɒ/ his
3rd singular fem	nge /nɡɛ/ her
1st plural	phi /pʰi/ our
2nd plural	kwen /kwɛn/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	mlan /mlɒn/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ngi /nɡi/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present	No affix lwue /ˈlwuɛ/ learn
Past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ss Else: Suffix -ɔss lwuess /ˈlwuɛss/ learned
Remote past	Suffix -ɛ lwuee /ˈlwuɛɛ/ learned (lonɡ aɡo)
Future	Suffix -iǀ lwueic /lwuˈɛiǀ/ 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).
Sheyomban uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Suffix -iǀ lwueic /ˈlwuɛiǀ/ learns/is learninɡ

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.
Sheyomban uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -ɔnt lwuent /ˈlwuɛnt/ have learned

Numbers

Sheyomban has a base-10 number system:
1 - bull 2 - mdla 3 - ndla 4 - xet 5 - zwi 6 - nhlire 7 - ka 8 - zwick 9 - nge 10 - mkha 11 - bull qhwu mkha “one and ten” 100 - mfor “hundred” 101 - mfor bull “hundred one” 200 - mdla mfor 1000 - byeck “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ǀ Else: Suffix -ɛǀ Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɒn Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ɒj Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -wn Else: Suffix -ɛwn Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -uj Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nt Else: Suffix -ɔnt Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɛn Tending to = Suffix -i Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -i Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -ɒn One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɡh Else: Suffix -uɡh Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ɔr Diminutive = Suffix -ɔ Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɡh Else: Suffix -uɡh

Dictionary

4414 Words.

Root Languages

• Jotun

Spoken by

• Bolus