Pewanai

LANGUAGE FAMILY: SINNUTIAN
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 90K / #67
SPOKEN IN: Jolim - 90K
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: quim u il mi meupriaʔ min quim mi uegem oma breh uoco ol
Pronunciation: kim u il mi ˈmœprjaʔ mɛ̃ kim mi weʒm ˈoma bʁeh ˈwoko ol

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

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f g h j k l m n p q r s t v w x z ɣ ɥ ɲ ʁ ʃ ʎ ʒ ʔ ʣ ʤ ʦ ʧ/

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

Co-articulated phonemes

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

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u y ø œ ɑ̃ ɔ ɔ̃ ɛ ɛ̃/

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, bj, bl, bw, bʁ, d, dw, dʁw, f, fl, fw, fʁ, fʁɥ, g, gl, gʁ, j, k, kl, kw, kɥ, kʁ, kʁw, l, lj, lw, lɥ, m, mj, mw, n, nw, nɥ, p, pj, pl, pw, pɥ, pʁ, s, sp, st, stʁ, sw, sɥ, t, tj, tʁ, tʁw, v, vj, vw, vʁ, w, z, ɥ, ʁ, ʁj, ʁw, ʃ, ʃw, ʒ, ʒw, ʒɥ
Mid-word consonants: b, br, d, dd, dj, dr, dʣ, dʤ, f, ff, g, j, k, kk, kkj, kkw, l, lk, ll, lm, lp, lt, ltr, lv, m, mb, mbj, mp, n, nd, ng, ngl, ngw, nj, nk, nkw, nn, ns, nsj, nt, ntr, nʤ, nʦ, nʦj, p, pp, pr, prj, r, rd, rj, rk, rm, rn, rr, rs, rt, rtʃ, rv, rʦ, s, sp, ss, st, str, t, tr, tt, ttr, tʃ, tʦ, tʦj, tʧ, v, vv, z, ɲ, ʃ, ʃʃ, ʎʎ, ʤ, ʧ
Word final consonants: b, d, f, g, gr, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, x, z, ɣ, ʃ, ʒ, ʒl, ʒm, ʔ, ʤ, ʧ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• {ɣ,ʁ} → [+stop] / #_
• t → k / _j
• wa → u / #_
• k → ç / _#
• l → ʎ / _{i,j}
• r → d / #_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
e	e*4 | er / _#
ksj	cti
ks	xe / _#
ks	x
k	que / _#
kt	ct
sk	skw
k	c / !_{i,e,ɛ}
k	qu
d	de / _#
t#	te
wi	oui
wɛ̃	oin
jɛ̃	ien
ɛ̃	in
wɑ{a,ɑ}	oi
ʒ	g / _{i,e,ɛ}
ʒm	gem
ɥ	u
y	u
j	i
ʒ	ge / _#
ʒ	j
ʃ	che / _#
ɲ	gn
∅	e / CC_#
v	ve / _#
ʃ	ch
ʁ	r | rd | rt / _#
ʁ	r
ɔ̃	on | om / _#
ɔ̃	on
ɔ	o
ɑ̃	an
ɛ	e
ø	eu
œ	eu
w	u

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix biocu /ˈbjɔku/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix tu- tubiocu /tuˈbjɔku/ (verb done to) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix po /po/ man	No affix ues /wes/ woman
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -or por /por/ men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʧ Else: Suffix -aʧ uesaʧ /ˈwesaʧ/ women

Articles

Definite	qui /ki/ the
Indefinite	me /mɛ/ a, some

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	fi /fi/ I	mi /mi/ me
2nd singular	ni /ni/ you (masc)	deuz /dœz/ you
3rd singular masc	u /u/ he, it	uer /we/ him, it
3rd singular fem	ca /ka/ she, it	qui /ki/ her, it
1st plural	in /ɛ̃/ we	mas /mas/ us
2nd plural	mu /mu/ you all	u /y/ you all
3rd plural masc	leq /lɛq/ they (masc)	uen /wɛn/ them (masc)
3rd plural fem	sap /sap/ they (fem)	mive /miv/ them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	cu /ku/ my
2nd singular	pove /pov/ your
3rd singular masc	mi /mi/ his
3rd singular fem	le /lɛ/ her
1st plural	pab /pab/ our
2nd plural	mop /mop/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	mu /mu/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	geuve /gøv/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Future
Singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ɔl lomodol /lɔˈmodɔl/ (I/you/he/she) will learn
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -j Else: Suffix -yj lomodui /lɔˈmodyj/ (we/they) will learn

Pewanai uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: ljɛ̃ - lien lomode /ljɛ̃ ˈlɔmod/ learned

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.
Pewanai uses the word for ‘already’ mes for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Pewanai has a base-20 number system:
1 - in
2 - viem
3 - u
4 - i
5 - ieumil
6 - itin
7 - ite
8 - le
9 - lien
10 - tame
11 - rannep
12 - cantoncuque
13 - oquin
14 - geus
15 - nuf
16 - capo
17 - boquin
18 - bocaq
19 - iba
20 - bodache
21 - bodache quim in “twenty and one”
400 - in ui “one fourhundred”
401 - in ui quim in “one fourhundred and one”
800 - viem ui “two fourhundred”
8000 - in vam “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -is
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix i-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -ep
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix jɛ̃-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix wɛ̃-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nɑ̃-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -is
Tending to = Prefix u-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wɛ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -ig
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -up
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ki-
Diminutive = Prefix i-
Augmentative = Prefix u-

Dictionary

4426 Words.