Pahu

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ERELIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 1M / #33
SPOKEN IN: Qa - 1M
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: a˥ mā˥sr xe˥qcau xe˥yhum šu˥ mā˥trhum a˥ re˥ ma˥sma˥vau mā˥sr ʾa˥rn va˥ndcau žlo˥hum
Pronunciation: æ˥ mɒː˥sr xe˥ɣˈcau xe˥jˈhum ʃuː˥ ˈmɒː˥trhum æ˥ re˥ ˈmæ˥smæ˥ˌvau mɒː˥sr ʔæ˥rn ˈvæ˥ndcau ˈʒlo˥hum

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

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f h j k l m n p q r s t v x z ɡ ɣ ʃ ʒ ʔ ʤ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d			k ɡ	q	ʔ
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	s z	ʃ ʒ		x ɣ		h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: /e iː o uː æ ɒː/
Tones: ˥

	Front	Back
High	iː	uː
High-mid	e	o
Near-low	æ
Low		ɒː

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, ɡ, ɡr, ɣ, ʃ, ʒ, ʒl, ʒm, ʔ, ʤ, ʧ
Mid-word consonants: b, br, d, dm, dr, dx, dʤ, f, ff, fh, ft, fɣ, h, hd, hl, hm, hr, ht, j, jd, k, l, lb, lm, lʔ, m, mb, mh, mk, ml, mr, mt, mtʃ, n, nb, nd, nh, nj, ns, nt, nɡ, nɣ, nʔ, nʤ, p, q, qd, qt, r, rb, rd, rh, rk, rm, rn, rs, rt, rz, rɡ, rʃ, rʔ, rʤ, s, sj, sl, sm, sp, sr, st, stɡ, sv, sx, sʤ, t, tʃ, v, vz, x, xs, xt, xtʃ, z, zh, zɡ, ɡ, ɣ, ɣj, ʃ, ʃh, ʃk, ʃt, ʃv, ʃɣ, ʒ, ʒt, ʔ, ʔd, ʔm, ʔn, ʔr, ʔz, ʤ
Word final consonants: b, bz, d, f, ft, h, hr, j, jr, k, l, m, mr, mʔ, n, nd, nɡ, p, q, qt, r, rb, rd, rk, rm, rn, rs, rɡ, s, sr, st, t, tr, tʃ, v, vr, vʔ, x, xt, z, zv, ɡ, ɣ, ʃ, ʃm, ʃq, ʃt, ʔ, ʔd, ʔr, ʤ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• j → ʤ / _E
• h → w / #_
• n → ∅ / _s
• l → n / #_VN

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʾ
ɡ	g
ʤ	j
ʧ	č
ʒ	ž
ʃ	š
ɣ	q
æ	a
ɒː	ā
uː	u
iː	i
j	y
ʤ	̈
ɣ	̧
ʃ	́

Grammar

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

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	Prefix ɒː˥- ā˥gre˥vau /ˈɒː˥ɡre˥ˌvau/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb to somethinɡ)
Absolutive	No affix gre˥vau /ˈɡre˥vau/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb, but not to somethinɡ)

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix le˥xcau /ˈle˥xcau/ man	No affix si˥vau /siː˥ˈvau/ woman
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix diː˥- di˥le˥xcau /diː˥ˈle˥xcaˌu/ men	Prefix o˥- o˥si˥vau /ˈo˥siː˥ˌvau/ women

Articles

Definite	ʾa˥ /ʔæ˥/ the
Indefinite	tā˥ /tɒː˥/ a, some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	va˥ /væ˥/ I	zā˥ /zɒː˥/ me, I
2nd singular	qa˥s /qæ˥s/ you	pu˥t /puː˥t/ you
3rd singular masc	šu˥ /ʃuː˥/ he, it	bo˥ /bo˥/ him, it
3rd singular fem	di˥ /diː˥/ she, it	re˥b /re˥b/ her, it
1st plural inclusive	ko˥tš /ko˥tʃ/ we (including you)	ma˥ /mæ˥/ us, we (including you)
1st plural exclusive	bo˥mr /bo˥mr/ we (excluding you)	nā˥ /nɒː˥/ us, we (excluding you)
2nd plural	ʾa˥ /ʔæ˥/ you all	ha˥ /hæ˥/ you all
3rd plural masc	ga˥m /ɡæ˥m/ they (masc)	a˥ /æ˥/ them (masc), they (masc)
3rd plural fem	ta˥tr /tæ˥tr/ they (fem)	xā˥rb /xɒː˥rb/ them (fem), they (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ta˥ /tæ˥/ my
2nd singular	ri˥ /riː˥/ your
3rd singular masc	mā˥sr /mɒː˥sr/ his
3rd singular fem	si˥ /siː˥/ her
1st plural inclusive	čā˥m /ʧɒː˥m/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	nā˥ /nɒː˥/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	za˥t /zæ˥t/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	ko˥ /ko˥/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	yu˥ /juː˥/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Masculine	Feminine
Present	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʔ- Else: Prefix ʔæ˥- ʾa˥žmu˥lhum /ʔæ˥ʒˈmuː˥lhum/	If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix hɒː˥- hā˥žmu˥lhum /ˈhɒː˥ʒmuː˥lhum/
Past	Prefix nɒː˥- nā˥žmu˥lhum /ˈnɒː˥ʒmuː˥lhum/	If starts with vowel: Prefix ɡ- Else: Prefix ɡæ˥- ga˥žmu˥lhum /ɡæ˥ʒˈmuː˥lhum/
Remote past	Prefix væ˥- va˥žmu˥lhum /væ˥ʒˈmuː˥lhum/	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix diː˥- di˥žmu˥lhum /ˈdiː˥ʒmuː˥lhum/
Future	Prefix ʔæ˥- ʾa˥žmu˥lhum /ˈʔæ˥ʒmuː˥lhum/	Prefix mɒː˥- mā˥žmu˥lhum /ˈmɒː˥ʒmuː˥lhum/

Progressive aspect
The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Pahu uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Prefix uː˥- u˥žmu˥lhum /ˈuː˥ʒmuː˥lhum/ is learninɡ

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).
Pahu uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

Prefix ɒː˥- ā˥žmu˥lhum /ˈɒː˥ʒmuː˥lhum/ learns

Numbers

Pahu has a base-20 number system:
1 - ʾu˥d
2 - šo˥rn
3 - mā˥y
4 - si˥
5 - ma˥nd
6 - xā˥ndo˥
7 - a˥
8 - ba˥š
9 - čā˥m
10 - xe˥
11 - yo˥mʾ
12 - žmu˥k
13 - mā˥t
14 - va˥zv
15 - šo˥mla˥
16 - a˥p
17 - le˥s
18 - de˥q
19 - tā˥r
20 - nā˥nd
21 - nā˥nd a˥ ʾu˥d “twenty and one”
400 - ki˥z “fourhundred”
401 - ki˥z a˥ ʾu˥d “fourhundred and one”
800 - šo˥rn ki˥z “two fourhundred”
8000 - ʾu˥dya˥rb “eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix siː˥-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix e˥-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix r- Else: Prefix re˥-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nɒː˥-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix juː˥-
Noun to verb = Prefix ʔæ˥-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʃ- Else: Prefix ʃo˥-
Tending to = Prefix bæ˥-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix f- Else: Prefix fe˥-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bo˥-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix xɒː˥-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ɒː˥-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix ne˥-
Augmentative = Prefix æ˥-

Dictionary

4450 Words.