Sivor

LANGUAGE FAMILY: SINNUTIAN
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 1.6M / #27
SPOKEN IN: Mersi - 1.6M
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: dyː̀ ktaɪ̋ lmɵ̏ ɵ̏l voyː̋ voɪ̀mbaɪ̏ dyː̀ mpeː̋ flə̏ lmɵ̏ ʊ̀byì ə̋ vobaʊ̋
Pronunciation: ɗyː̀ ktaɪ̋ lmɵ̏ ɵ̏l ˈvoyː̋ voˈɪ̀mbaɪ̏ ɗyː̀ mpeː̋ flə̏ lmɵ̏ ˈʊ̀bjì ə̋ ˈvoɓaʊ̋

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

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f g h j k kʷ l m n p r s t v w z ð ŋ ɓ ɗ ɠ ɣ ɲ ɾ ʃ ʄ ʤ ʧ θ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	p b			t d			k kʷ g
Implosive	ɓ			ɗ		ʄ	ɠ
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ ð	s z	ʃ		ɣ	h
Approximant						j
Tap				ɾ
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a aɪ aʊ aː e eː i ie iː o oː u uː y yː æy øi øː œ ɐ ɔ ɔʏ ə ɛ ɛː ɪ ɵ ʊ ʏ/
Diphthongs: aɪ, aʊ, ie, æy, øi, ɔʏ
Tones: ̀ ̋ ̏

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː i yː y		uː u
Near-high	ɪ ʏ		ʊ
High-mid	eː e øː	ɵ	oː o
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ ɛː œ		ɔ
Near-low		ɐ
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: f, ff, fl, fs, h, j, k, ks, kt, kw, l, lf, lm, m, mb, mj, mk, ml, mp, mr, mt, mv, mw, mz, mʧ, n, nd, nk, ns, nz, nʤ, nʧ, p, r, rn, rð, s, sk, sl, st, t, tw, v, vj, w, z, zw, ð, ŋg, ŋgw, ɓ, ɓl, ɓw, ɓɗ, ɗ, ɠ, ɣ, ɲ, ɲw, ʃ, ʄ, ʧ, ʧw, θ
Mid-word consonants: b, bj, d, g, gj, h, hj, j, k, kj, m, mb, mj, mp, n, nj, ns, nt, nw, nɾ, p, pj, s, t, w, z, ŋg, ɾ, ɾj
Word final consonants: b, br, d, f, fl, fr, g, gl, gr, h, k, kl, kr, kʷ, l, m, n, p, pl, pr, r, s, sk, sp, st, t, tr, w
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• ʧ → i / C_
• z → h / V_a
• w → b / #_
• s → h / #_
• u → o / _Ca
• b → ∅ / V_V
• s → h / V_V

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɛ	e
ɔ	o
ɲ	ny
ɓ	b
j	y
ʄ	j
ɗ	d
ɠ	g
ð	dh
θ	th
ŋg	ng
ŋ	ng'
ʃ	sh
ɣ	gh
x	kh
ʧ	ch
nʤ	nj

Grammar

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

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 eː̀- eː̀shȁ /ˈeːʃȁ/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix shȁ /ʃȁ/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)

Singular	No affix shȁ /ʃȁ/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ð- Else: Prefix ðoː̏- dhoː̏shȁ /ˈðoːʃȁ/ dogs

Articles

Definite	ry̏br /ry̏br/ the
Indefinite	kɵ̏ /kɵ̏/ a, some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	kə̀ /kə̀/ I	fly̋fl /fly̋fl/ me, I
2nd singular	kɵ̋ /kɵ̋/ you	mʏ̏pr /mʏ̏pr/ you
3rd singular masc	ktaɪ̋ /ktaɪ̋/ he, it	geː̏ /ɠeː̏/ him, it
3rd singular fem	a̋ /a̋/ she, it	òk /ɔ̀k/ her, it
1st plural inclusive	sha̋ /ʃa̋/ we (including you)	fæy̋ /fæy̋/ us, we (including you)
1st plural exclusive	bwő /ɓwő/ we (excluding you)	lè /lɛ̀/ us, we (excluding you)
2nd plural	he̋ /hɛ̋/ you all	nʏ̀p /nʏ̀p/ you all
3rd plural	nuː̋ /nuː̋/ they	ndə̀ /ndə̀/ them, they

Possessive determiners

1st singular	vyɪ̀pl /vjɪ̀pl/ my
2nd singular	ka̋ /ka̋/ your
3rd singular masc	lmɵ̏ /lmɵ̏/ his
3rd singular fem	wòsp /wɔ̀sp/ her
1st plural inclusive	vaʊ̀ /vaʊ̀/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ȅ /ɛ̏/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	kɵ̀ /kɵ̀/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ɵ̋ /ɵ̋/ their

Verbs

Future

If starts with vowel: Prefix mj- Else: Prefix mjaɪ̋- myaɪ̋voksàd /mjaɪˈvoksàd/ will learn

Sivor uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: leː̋gr - leː̋gr voksàd /leː̋gr ˈvoksàd/ learned

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

Progressive

If starts with vowel: Prefix ŋg- Else: Prefix ŋgɛ̋- nge̋voksàd /ŋgɛ̋ˈvoksàd/ 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).
Sivor uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

If starts with vowel: Prefix ŋg- Else: Prefix ŋgaɪ̀- ngaɪ̀voksàd /ŋgaɪˈvoksàd/ learns

Numbers

Sivor has a base-10 number system:
1 - leː̀n
2 - mbȁ
3 - styː̋
4 - lȅ
5 - thɵ̏kʷ
6 - sà
7 - tő
8 - thɵ̀sk
9 - nyː̀
10 - jòst
11 - jòst dyː̀ leː̀n “ten and one”
100 - leː̀n hè “one hundred”
101 - leː̀n hè leː̀n “one hundred one”
200 - mbȁ hè
1000 - leː̀n nyweː̀ “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix naʊ̀-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ʧ- Else: Prefix ʧaɪ̀-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix ə̀-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix aɪ̀-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ə̋-
Noun to verb = Prefix ɪ̀-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ɣɔʏ̏-
Tending to = Prefix a̋-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix sà-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix støː̀-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ȁ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix a̋-
Diminutive = Prefix ə̏-
Augmentative = Prefix aː̀-

Dictionary

4430 Words.