Chimelbas

LANGUAGE FAMILY: SINNUTIAN
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 1.2M / #30
SPOKEN IN: Rello - 1.2M
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: á ké hì rsa̋y hai̋ híj á ɑ̃̋ˈká ka̋ hì hāmp aī ksaw̋
Pronunciation: á ké hì rsa̋j hai̋ híʤ á ɑ̃̋ˈká ka̋ hì hāmp aī ksɔ̋

Chimelbas word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f g h j k l m n p r s t w ŋ ɲ ʋ ʔ ʤ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b		t d			k g	ʔ
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f	s				h
Approximant		ʋ			j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a ae ai ao au aːi aːu e eː i iː o oi ou oː u uː y ø œ ɑ̃ ɔ ɔ̃ ɛ ɛ̃/
Diphthongs: ae, ai, ao, au, aːi, aːu, oi, ou
Tones: ̋ ́ ̄ ̀ ̏

	Front	Back
High	i iː y	u uː
High-mid	e eː ø	o oː
Low-mid	ɛ ɛ̃ œ	ɔ ɔ̃
Low	a	ɑ̃

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, d, g, h, k, ks, l, m, mb, n, nh, p, r, rh, rs, s, t, ŋ, ʋ, ʔ
Mid-word consonants: h, k, l, m, n, p, ʋ, ʔ
Word final consonants: bʤ, f, hk, j, kh, kk, kt, kɲ, lk, ml, mp, nd, nk, ns, ntr, nɲ, nʤ, nʧ, pk, pt, rb, rd, rg, rk, rl, rm, rn, rp, rt, rʤ, rʧ, sk, st, str, tk, w, ŋg, ŋh, ŋk, ŋl, ŋs, ɲ, ʤ, ʧ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• ʔ → ∅ / _C
• e → i / _{m,ŋ}

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʋ	w
ʔ	ʻ
aː	ā
eː	ē
iː	ī
oː	ō
uː	ū
ɔ	aw
ɛ	é
y	ú
ŋ	ng
j	y
ɲ	ny
ʧ	ch
ʤ	j
V₁ː	V₁V₁

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 four 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 recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.

Nominative	No affix goȍ /goː̏/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -íŋk ˈgooíngk /ˈgoːíŋk/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Suffix -ū ˈgooū /ˈgoːū/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ Else: Suffix -ȁɲ ˈgooȁny /ˈgoːȁɲ/ to (the/a) dog

	Singular	Plural
Definite	Suffix -ɑ̃̋rʤ ˈgooɑ̃̋rj /ˈgoːɑ̃̋rʤ/ the dog	Suffix -œ̋ ˈgooœ̋ /ˈgoːœ̋/ the dogs
Indefinite	No affix goȍ /goː̏/ a dog	Suffix -ɛ́ʤ ˈgooé́j /ˈgoːɛ́ʤ/ some dogs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	lai̋ /lai̋/ I	ò /ò/ me	rhœ́ /rhœ́/ mine	ká /ká/ to me
2nd singular	ka̋ /ka̋/ you (masc)	mȉ /mȉ/ you	kàngk /kàŋk/ yours	mī /mī/ to you
3rd singular	ké /ké/ he, she, it	űch /űʧ/ him, her, it	hì /hì/ his, hers, its	dúrt /dúrt/ to him, her, it
1st plural	huúngk /huː́ŋk/ we	paw̃̄ngk /pɔ̃̄ŋk/ us	maw̃̀ /mɔ̃̀/ ours	ngé̃̄ /ŋɛ̃̄/ to us
2nd plural	lá /lá/ you all	mángg /máŋg/ you all	koìtk /koìtk/ yours (pl)	mi̋ /mi̋/ to you all
3rd plural	maw̃́ /mɔ̃́/ they	me̋ /me̋/ them	geény /geː́ɲ/ theirs	maẃ /mɔ́/ to them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	rhœ́ /rhœ́/ my
2nd singular	kàngk /kàŋk/ your
3rd singular	hì /hì/ his, her, its
1st plural	maw̃̀ /mɔ̃̀/ our
2nd plural	koìtk /koìtk/ your (pl)
3rd plural	geény /geː́ɲ/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix rȁ /rȁ/ learn
Past	Suffix -ɛ̋mp rȁˈé̋mp /rȁˈɛ̋mp/ learned
Remote past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -rt Else: Suffix -aȅrt rȁrt /rȁrt/ learned (long ago)

Chimelbas uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: kámp - kámp rȁ /kámp rȁ/ will learn

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: pɔ̃̏ - paw̃̏ rȁ /pɔ̃̏ rȁ/ 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).
Chimelbas uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: dò - dò rȁ /dò rȁ/ learns

Numbers

Chimelbas has a base-10 number system:
1 - ɑ̃́ns
2 - māy
3 - e̋y
4 - mú́y
5 - pé̀y
6 - ő
7 - hø̏ny
8 - wú̏w
9 - pɑ̃̀ˈné̄
10 - ø̋hk
11 - ø̋hkɑ̃́ns “ten-one”
100 - nɑ̃̋ “hundred”
101 - nɑ̃̋ ɑ̃́ns “hundred one”
200 - māy nɑ̃̋
1000 - aw̃̀ “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʧ Else: Suffix -e̋ʧ
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -nd Else: Suffix -ɑ̃́nd
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ɔ̃̋mp
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʧ Else: Suffix -ɛ̄ʧ
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ɔ̋ŋk
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rg Else: Suffix -írg
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -pk Else: Suffix -oː̋pk
Tending to = Suffix -ìrʤ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ē
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋk Else: Suffix -īŋk
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ȅj
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -ɑ̃̀w
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɲ Else: Suffix -a̋ɲ
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -rt Else: Suffix -aːűrt

Dictionary

4428 Words.