Sheshahahn*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: RUHANDIC
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: grø̃ʈ stʌʈʰ gri dø̃d sʌn hɔtʃʰ grø̃ʈ nyɔ dø̃d mirnɑ yid ỹ prø̃sɛ
Pronunciation: grø̃ʈ stʌʈʰ gri dø̃d sʌn hɔtʃʰ grø̃ʈ ɲɔ dø̃d ˈmirnɑ jid ỹ ˈprø̃sɛ
Sheshahahn word order: and stood holding his hat he and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b bʼ d dʼ f g gʼ h j k kʰ l m n p pʰ q r s t tʰ w x z ŋ ɖ ɖʼ ɣ ɲ ɳ ɽ ɽʼ ʃ ʃʰ ʈ ʈʰ ʋ ʒ ʒʼ ʤ ʧ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n		ɳ	ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p pʰ b bʼ		t tʰ d dʼ		ʈ ʈʰ ɖ ɖʼ		k kʰ g gʼ	q
Affricate				ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f	s z	ʃ ʃʰ ʒ ʒʼ			x ɣ		h
Approximant		ʋ				j
Tap					ɽ ɽʼ
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u ỹ ø̃ ɑ ɔ ɛ ʌ/

	Front	Back
High	i ỹ	u
High-mid	e ø̃	o
Low-mid	ɛ	ʌ ɔ
Low	a	ɑ

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, d, fr, g, gr, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, pl, pr, r, s, sh, st, t, tr, w, ɲ, ʤ, ʧ
Mid-word consonants: b, bʤ, bʼ, d, dʒ, dʒʼ, dʼ, f, g, gʼ, j, k, kh, kk, ks, kt, kʰ, l, lk, m, n, p, pʰ, q, r, rd, rg, rh, rk, rl, rm, rn, rp, rs, rʤ, s, sk, st, str, t, tk, tʃ, tʃʰ, tʰ, x, z, ŋh, ɖ, ɖʼ, ɣ, ɳ, ɽ, ɽʼ, ʃ, ʈ, ʈʰ, ʋ, ʒ
Word final consonants: b, d, k, kʰ, m, n, p, pʰ, q, t, tʃ, tʃʰ, tʰ, ɳ, ʈ, ʈʰ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• h → ∅ / V_V

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʧ	c
ŋ	ng
j	y
ʤ	j
ɲ	ny

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have six 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.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nominative	No affix nyɔtʰ /ɲɔtʰ/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix pl- Else: Prefix plo- plonyɔtʰ /ploˈɲɔtʰ/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix gỹ- gỹnyɔtʰ /gỹˈɲɔtʰ/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ- Else: Prefix ʧɑ- cɑnyɔtʰ /ʧɑˈɲɔtʰ/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix st- Else: Prefix stʌ- stʌnyɔtʰ /ˈstʌɲɔtʰ/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wɔ- wɔnyɔtʰ /ˈwɔɲɔtʰ/ from (the/a) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix trɛɳ /trɛɳ/ man	No affix prø̃rno /ˈprø̃rno/ woman
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wɔ- wɔtrɛɳ /ˈwɔtrɛɳ/ men	If starts with vowel: Prefix fr- Else: Prefix fre- freprø̃rno /ˈfreprø̃rno/ women

Articles

Definite	trɑtʃ /trɑtʃ/ the
Indefinite	etʃʰ /etʃʰ/ a, some

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	ret /ret/ I	dum /dum/ me	cɑtʃ /ʧɑtʃ/ mine	plo /plo/ to me	eq /eq/ at me	plỹn /plỹn/ from me
2nd singular	wa /wa/ you (masc)	ka /ka/ you	cʌ /ʧʌ/ yours	u /u/ to you	tỹkʰ /tỹkʰ/ at you	wem /wem/ from you
3rd singular masc	hɔtʃʰ /hɔtʃʰ/ he, it	pro /pro/ him, it	hɔn /hɔn/ his, its	shɛ /shɛ/ to him, at it	shɑk /shɑk/ at him, at it	stɑ /stɑ/ from him, from it
3rd singular fem	gri /gri/ she, it	plot /plot/ her, it	nyʌ /ɲʌ/ hers, its	trỹ /trỹ/ to her, at it	jø̃ /ʤø̃/ at her, at it	ɛ /ɛ/ from her, from it
1st plural inclusive	trɛ /trɛ/ we (including you)	prø̃pʰ /prø̃pʰ/ us (including you)	ỹt /ỹt/ ours (including you)	red /red/ to us (including you)	prø̃ /prø̃/ at us (including you)	gỹ /gỹ/ from us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	pɛ /pɛ/ we (excluding you)	etʃʰ /etʃʰ/ us (excluding you)	cɑt /ʧɑt/ ours (excluding you)	a /a/ to us (excluding you)	kem /kem/ at us (excluding you)	freb /freb/ from us (excluding you)
2nd plural	o /o/ you all	fra /fra/ you all	shỹtʃʰ /shỹtʃʰ/ yours (pl)	hɔd /hɔd/ to you all	trɑtʰ /trɑtʰ/ at you all	yi /ji/ from you all
3rd plural masc	nɛɳ /nɛɳ/ they (masc)	i /i/ them (masc)	yepʰ /jepʰ/ theirs (masc)	ki /ki/ to them (masc)	gru /gru/ at them (masc)	ekʰ /ekʰ/ from them (masc)
3rd plural fem	bu /bu/ they (fem)	yuʈʰ /juʈʰ/ them (fem)	shỹd /shỹd/ theirs (fem)	retʃ /retʃ/ to them (fem)	ju /ʤu/ at them (fem)	juʈ /ʤuʈ/ from them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	bu /bu/ my
2nd singular	trỹ /trỹ/ your
3rd singular masc	dø̃d /dø̃d/ his
3rd singular fem	gri /gri/ her
1st plural inclusive	pɑkʰ /pɑkʰ/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	shỹd /shỹd/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	bum /bum/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	lɛ /lɛ/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ma /ma/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present	No affix jun /ʤun/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix sh- Else: Prefix shỹ- shỹjun /ˈshỹʤun/ learned
Remote past	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ki- kijun /kiˈʤun/ learned (long ago)

Sheshahahn uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: grud - grud jun /grud ʤun/ will learn

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: ha - ha jun /ha ʤun/ 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).
Sheshahahn uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: tø̃ - tø̃ jun /tø̃ ʤun/ learns

Numbers

Sheshahahn has a base-10 number system:
1 - ø̃ɳ
2 - ploʈ
3 - sɔd
4 - sɔfø̃
5 - wɔɣi
6 - gɛm
7 - grikʰ
8 - ø̃
9 - ma
10 - pru
11 - ø̃ɳ grø̃ʈ pru “one and ten”
100 - ø̃ɳ stɑʃo “one hundred”
101 - ø̃ɳ stɑʃo ø̃ɳ “one hundred one”
200 - ploʈ stɑʃo
1000 - ø̃ɳ nɑ “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix ɔ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix o-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ɛ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix j- Else: Prefix ji-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix tr- Else: Prefix trɛ-
Noun to verb = Prefix ɑ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix re- Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix fr- Else: Prefix fra-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ʧʌ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix gỹ-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix pr- Else: Prefix pru-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ- Else: Prefix ʧɑ-
Diminutive = Prefix ɔ-
Augmentative = Prefix a-

Dictionary

4486 Words.