Savurkitai*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: SAU-SERIB
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:
DESCENDANT LANGUAGES:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: mi iim di ne ˈnema dzhʼak mi ne ˈmema ˈaʊře aaŕ ˈmenyem ṛʼuu
Pronunciation: mi iːm di ne ˈnema dʒʼak mi ne ˈmema ˈaʊɾe aːɹ ˈmeɲem ɽʼuː
Savurkitai word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b bʼ c cʰ d dʼ f g gʼ h j k kʰ l l̥ m n n̪ p pʰ q r s sʰ t tʰ tː t̪ w x z ŋ ɕ ɕʰ ɖ ɖʼ ɟ ɣ ɥ ɦ ɭ ɲ ɳ ɹ ɹ̥ ɻ ɽ ɽʼ ɾ ʂ ʂʰ ʃ ʃʰ ʈ ʈʰ ʋ ʎ ʒ ʒʼ ʔ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Alveolo-palatal	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n̪	n		ɳ		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p pʰ b bʼ		t̪	t tʰ tː d dʼ		ʈ ʈʰ ɖ ɖʼ		cʰ c ɟ	k kʰ g gʼ	q	ʔ
Fricative		f		s sʰ z	ʃ ʃʰ ʒ ʒʼ	ʂ ʂʰ	ɕ ɕʰ		x ɣ		h ɦ
Approximant		ʋ		ɹ̥ ɹ		ɻ		j
Tap				ɾ		ɽ ɽʼ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l l̥		ɭ		ʎ

Co-articulated phonemes

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

Vowel inventory: /a aɪ aʊ aː e i iː o oː u uː ɯ/
Diphthongs: aɪ, aʊ

	Front	Back
High	iː i	ɯ uː u
High-mid	e	oː o
Low	aː a

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, bʼ, d, dʒ, dʒʼ, dʼ, f, g, gʼ, j, k, kʰ, l, m, n, p, pʰ, q, r, s, t, tʃ, tʃʰ, tʰ, x, z, ɖ, ɖʼ, ɣ, ɳ, ɽ, ɽʼ, ʃ, ʈ, ʈʰ, ʋ, ʒ
Mid-word consonants: f, j, k, l, m, n, n̪, p, r, s, tːr, t̪, x, ŋ, ɕ, ɦ, ɭ, ɲ, ɳ, ɻ, ɾ, ʂ, ʈ, ʋ
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• i → o / {u,w}_
• w → b / V_V
• t → ʦ / _i
• w → b / V_V
• b → p / #_
• j → w / _o

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
aɪ	ie
aʊ	ou
ɯ	û
ɳ	ṇ
ʈ	ṭ
ʃ	sh
pʰ	ph
tʰ	th
x	kh
ɖ	ḍ
ʒ	zh
j	y
ɽ	ṛ
ʋ	v
ɲ	ny
ŋ	ng
ʂ	ṣ
c	chy
ɕ	ch
ɭ	ḷ
kʰ	ǩ
ɾ	ř
ɟ	ǰ
ɣ	ǧ
ɹ	ŕ
ɻ	r̂
ʎ	y̌
V₁ː	V₁V₁

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 nag /nag/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -uːɟ ˈnaguuǰ /ˈnaguːɟ/ (verb done to) dog

Singular

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	Suffix -i ˈpaati /ˈpaːti/ the man	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʈʂʰ Else: Suffix -iʈʂʰ tsheˈn̪uuṭṣʰ /tʃeˈn̪uːʈʂʰ/ the woman
Indefinite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -kʰ Else: Suffix -okʰ paaˈtoǩ /paːˈtokʰ/ a man	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -un ˈtshen̪uun /ˈtʃen̪uːn/ a woman

Plural

	Masculine	Feminine
Definite	Suffix -ekʰ ˈpaateǩ /ˈpaːtekʰ/ the men	Suffix -iː ˈtshen̪uuii /ˈtʃen̪uːiː/ the women
Indefinite	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -in ˈpaatin /ˈpaːtin/ some men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -iːk ˈtshen̪uuk /ˈtʃen̪uːk/ some women

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	pek /pek/ I	zhaɪm /ʒaɪm/ me
2nd singular	ḍek /ɖek/ you (masc)	uuth /uːtʰ/ you
3rd singular masc	iim /iːm/ he, it	ni /ni/ him, it
3rd singular fem	tshi /tʃi/ she, it	aa /aː/ her, it
1st plural	pi /pi/ we	qû /qɯ/ us
2nd plural	ṭe /ʈe/ you all	i /i/ you all
3rd plural masc	tii /tiː/ they (masc)	pan /pan/ them (masc)
3rd plural fem	e /e/ they (fem)	pe /pe/ them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	e /e/ my
2nd singular	iik /iːk/ your
3rd singular masc	ne /ne/ his
3rd singular fem	ruup /ruːp/ her
1st plural	tii /tiː/ our
2nd plural	mi /mi/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	ṭii /ʈiː/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ṭiiny /ʈiːɲ/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present	No affix tsheg /tʃeg/ learn
Past	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -et ˈtsheget /ˈtʃeget/ learned
Future	Suffix -uːm tsheˈguum /tʃeˈguːm/ will learn

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.
Savurkitai uses the word for ‘already’ ṭeˈmii for the perfect aspect.

Numbers

Savurkitai has a base-20 number system:
1 - u
2 - i
3 - ṇii
4 - e
5 - ṇe
6 - e
7 - soo
8 - ii
9 - meph
10 - qû
11 - ˈmiimaɪsii
12 - ˈṇiin̪aak
13 - ˈiin̪et
14 - ˈuut̪im
15 - ˈṛuumuu
16 - ˈneyip
17 - ṭiiˈnyiin
18 - ˈeneg
19 - totsʰ
20 - ˈaʊn̪ût̪eny
21 - aʊˈn̪ût̪eny mi u “twenty and one”
400 - u ˈnemii “one fourhundred”
401 - u ˈnemii u “one fourhundred one”
800 - i ˈnemii “two fourhundred”
8000 - u ˈṭema “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -iː
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tʰ Else: Suffix -iːtʰ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -oːn
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -aː
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -en
Noun to verb = Suffix -lam
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -en
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -iːp
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -iː
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ɟ Else: Suffix -eɟ
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -vasti
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -shrit
Diminutive = Suffix -ot
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -tʰ Else: Suffix -iːtʰ

Dictionary

4466 Words.