Ijwit*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: RUHANDIC
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:
DESCENDANT LANGUAGES:

---

"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: a aː dɛ pe̽dsʰ ʁaɲ ʁayaɲ a dɛ ʂümæm de̽p piːgiːd ma mɛp
Pronunciation: a aː tɛ pe̽tsʰ ʁaɲ ʁaˈjaɲ a tɛ ˈʂumæm te̽p ˈpiːgiːt ma mɛp
Ijwit word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b c cʰ f g h j k kʰ l l̥ m n p pʰ q r s sʰ t tʰ v w x ŋ ɕ ɕʰ ɟ ɥ ɬ ɮ ɲ ɹ ɹ̥ ʁ ʂ ʂʰ ʃ ʈ ʈʰ ʎ ʐ ʔ ʦ ʦʰ ʧ ʧʰ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n				ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p pʰ b		t tʰ		ʈʰ ʈ		cʰ c ɟ	k kʰ g	q	ʔ
Affricate			ʦ ʦʰ	ʧ ʧʰ
Fricative		f v	s sʰ	ʃ	ʂ ʂʰ ʐ	ɕʰ ɕ		x	ʁ	h
Approximant			ɹ̥ ɹ				j
Trill			r
Lateral fricative			ɬ ɮ
Lateral approximant			l l̥				ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-palatal	Labial-velar
Approximant	ɥ	w

Vowel inventory: /a aː e̽ iː u uː æ ɛ ʊ̠/

	Front	Back
High	iː	u uː
High-mid	e̽
Low-mid	ɛ
Near-low	æ
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: g, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, s, t, v, ŋ, ɟ, ɬ, ʁ, ʂ, ʐ
Mid-word consonants: ff, g, gs, gt, gts, gtʰ, gɮ, gʃ, gʧ, j, m, mg, mn, ms, mt, mʧ, mʧɮ, n, ng, ns, nt, nts, nx, nʦʰ, r, rg, rs, rsg, rt, rtɮ, rtʰ, rw, rx, rɮ, rʃ, rʦʰ, rʧʰ, s, sg, sn, sr, ss, stʰ, sɮ, t, tg, tn, tr, tw, tɮ, tʰ, tʰg, tʰɮ, w, ws, wtʰ, wx, wɮ, wʃ, wʦʰ, wʧʰɮ, x, xg, xn, xt, xɮ, ɮ, ɮb, ɮg, ɮs, ɮt, ɮtw, ɮtʰ, ɮtʰg, ɮtʰtʰ, ɮx, ɮɮ, ɮʦʰ, ɮʧ, ɮʧʰɮ, ʃ, ʦ, ʦr, ʦʰ, ʦʰs, ʧ, ʧʰ, ʧʰs
Word final consonants: c, cʰ, g, h, j, k, kʰ, l, l̥, m, n, p, pʰ, s, t, ts, tsʰ, tɕ, tɕʰ, tʰ, w, ɕ, ɟ, ɥ, ɲ, ɹ, ɹ̥, ʂ, ʈ, ʈʂ, ʈʂʰ, ʈʰ, ʎ, ʔ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• u → i / _j
• [+nasal] → n / _#
• [+nasal] → m / _#
• ja → aː / C_
• g → k / ŋ_#
• t → ɾ / _a
• j → r / V_V
• r → rː / _[+nasal]
• w → ∅ / _w

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
w	b
t	d / !_ʰ
tʰ	t
ʧʰ	ch
ʧ	ch
ʦʰ	c
ʦ	c
kʰ	k
ɮ	l
ʃ	sh
ɔ	o
ɵ	ö
pʰ	p
u	ü
ʊ	u
j	y
ʲ	∅

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 three 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).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Ergative	Prefix iː- iːvap /ˈiːvapʰ/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix vap /vapʰ/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	Prefix niː- niːvap /ˈniːvapʰ/ dogʼs

Singular	No affix vap /vapʰ/ dog
Plural	Prefix ʁu- ʁüvap /ˈʁuvapʰ/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	an /an/ the	sa /sa/ a
Plural	naː /naː/ the	am /am/ some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive
1st singular	ŋɛɲ /ŋɛɲ/ I	ʁü /ʁu/ me, I	væʈʂʰ /væʈʂʰ/ mine
2nd singular	pæ /pæ/ you	ʂü /ʂu/ you	pe̽ʔ /pe̽ʔ/ yours
3rd singular masc	aː /aː/ he, it	ɬaːt /ɬaːtʰ/ him, it	dɛ /tɛ/ his, its
3rd singular fem	ʁam /ʁam/ she, it	paː /paː/ her, it	pu̠m /pʊ̠m/ hers, its
1st plural	miːl̥ /miːl̥/ we	pu̠p /pʊ̠pʰ/ us, we	dæ /tæ/ ours
2nd plural	de̽b /te̽w/ you all	qaːm /qaːm/ you all	iː /iː/ yours (pl)
3rd plural	maː /maː/ they	a /a/ them, they	sap /sapʰ/ theirs

Possessive determiners

1st singular	væʈʂʰ /væʈʂʰ/ my
2nd singular	pe̽ʔ /pe̽ʔ/ your
3rd singular masc	dɛ /tɛ/ his
3rd singular fem	pu̠m /pʊ̠m/ her
1st plural	dæ /tæ/ our
2nd plural	iː /iː/ your (pl)
3rd plural	sap /sapʰ/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past	Remote past	Future
1st singular	Prefix pa- pape̽ʎ /paˈpe̽ʎ/ (I) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nu- nüpe̽ʎ /ˈnupe̽ʎ/ (I) learned	Prefix ma- mape̽ʎ /maˈpe̽ʎ/ (I) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mu- müpe̽ʎ /ˈmupe̽ʎ/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Prefix aː- aːpe̽ʎ /ˈaːpe̽ʎ/ (you) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix me̽- me̽pe̽ʎ /ˈme̽pe̽ʎ/ (you) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix niː- niːpe̽ʎ /ˈniːpe̽ʎ/ (you) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɬ- Else: Prefix ɬaː- ɬaːpe̽ʎ /ˈɬaːpe̽ʎ/ (you) will learn
3rd singular	Prefix pu- püpe̽ʎ /ˈpupe̽ʎ/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix piː- piːpe̽ʎ /ˈpiːpe̽ʎ/ (he/she/it) learned	Prefix pɛ- pɛpe̽ʎ /pɛˈpe̽ʎ/ (he/she/it) learned (long ago)	Prefix qaː- qaːpe̽ʎ /ˈqaːpe̽ʎ/ (he/she/it) will learn
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix p- Else: Prefix paː- paːpe̽ʎ /paːˈpe̽ʎ/ (we) learn	Prefix a- ape̽ʎ /aˈpe̽ʎ/ (we) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix va- vape̽ʎ /ˈvape̽ʎ/ (we) learned (long ago)	Prefix ʁa- ʁape̽ʎ /ˈʁape̽ʎ/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix e̽- e̽pe̽ʎ /ˈe̽pe̽ʎ/ (you all) learn	Prefix iː- iːpe̽ʎ /iːˈpe̽ʎ/ (you all) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix mʊ̠- mu̠pe̽ʎ /ˈmʊ̠pe̽ʎ/ (you all) learned (long ago)	Prefix nu- nüpe̽ʎ /ˈnupe̽ʎ/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural	Prefix u- üpe̽ʎ /ˈupe̽ʎ/ (they) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix maː- maːpe̽ʎ /ˈmaːpe̽ʎ/ (they) learned	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nuː- nüːpe̽ʎ /ˈnuːpe̽ʎ/ (they) learned (long ago)	If starts with vowel: Prefix m- Else: Prefix ma- mape̽ʎ /ˈmape̽ʎ/ (they) 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).
Ijwit uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: u - ü pe̽ʎ /u pe̽ʎ/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Ijwit has a base-10 number system:
1 - sa
2 - mu̠n
3 - qaːɕ
4 - maː
5 - maː
6 - müːn
7 - de̽nag
8 - ma
9 - qaː
10 - paː
11 - paːsa “ten-one”
100 - sa vüːp “one hundred”
101 - sa vüːp a sa “one hundred and one”
200 - mu̠n vüːp
1000 - sa qaːniːn “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix a-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -uu
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -eek
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -sak
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʁ- Else: Prefix ʁa-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ke̽-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -taki
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʂ- Else: Prefix ʂu-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʐ- Else: Prefix ʐiː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix uː-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -tikku
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix v- Else: Prefix væ-
Diminutive = Prefix u-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix tɛ-

Dictionary

4421 Words.