Soreb-Ket*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ISHADIC
PERIOD OF USE: 1400-900
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE: Nashwabit*
DESCENDANT LANGUAGES: Ket

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: rḑuş khmnwa ma ef lla ʻoḑ rḑuş mamab la ma sil koskyf soll
Pronunciation: rdˤusˤ xmnwa ma ef lla ʕodˤ rdˤusˤ ˈmamab la ma sil ˈkoskyf soll
Soreb-Ket word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b c d dˤ f g h j k l m n q r s sˤ t tˤ w x z ð ħ ɣ ʃ ʔ ʕ ʤ θ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Stop	b			t tˤ d dˤ		c	k g	q		ʔ
Affricate					ʤ
Fricative		f	θ ð	s sˤ z	ʃ		x ɣ		ħ ʕ	h
Approximant						j
Trill				r
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a e i o u y/

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, d, dˤ, f, fl, h, j, jj, k, l, ll, m, n, q, r, rdˤ, s, sm, sˤ, t, tˤ, w, x, z, zʔ, ð, ħ, ɣ, ʃ, ʔ, ʕ, ʤ, θ
Mid-word consonants: b, bt, c, cl, d, dd, dk, g, gs, h, l, lk, ll, m, n, nk, nt, q, qd, r, rb, rk, s, sh, shr, sk, st, wsh, x
Word final consonants: b, d, dˤ, f, fl, h, j, jj, k, l, ll, m, n, q, r, rdˤ, s, sm, sˤ, t, tˤ, w, x, z, zʔ, ð, ħ, ɣ, ʃ, ʔ, ʕ, ʤ, θ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• a → e / _m
• wi → o / C_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	’
θ	th
ʤ	j
x	kh
ð	dh
ʃ	sh
sˤ	ş
dˤ	ḑ
tˤ	ţ
ʕ	ʻ
ɣ	gh
ħ	ḩ
aː	ā
iː	ī
uː	ū
j	y

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 four 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).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.

Ergative	Suffix -e rḑuye /rdˤuˈje/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix rḑuy /rdˤuj/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -an rḑuyan /ˈrdˤujan/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ar rḑuyar /ˈrdˤujar/ to (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix rḑuy /rdˤuj/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ad rḑuyad /ˈrdˤujad/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	pra /pra/ the	qa /qa/ a
Plural	mrtwfid /mrtwfid/ the	khtug /xtug/ some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	arnf /arnf/ I	kha /xa/ me, I	sy /sy/ mine	ka /ka/ to me
2nd singular	re /re/ you	do /do/ you	mab /mab/ yours	man /man/ to you
3rd singular	khmnwa /xmnwa/ he, she, it	syr /syr/ him, her, it, he, she	ma /ma/ his, hers, its	wur /wur/ to him, her, it
1st plural	bwe /bwe/ we	nfrirs /nfrirs/ us, we	sin /sin/ ours	dha /dha/ to us
2nd plural	nba /nba/ you all	sih /sih/ you all	war /war/ yours (pl)	khwad /xwad/ to you all
3rd plural	khpri /xpri/ they	wamf /wamf/ them, they	wny /wny/ theirs	pra /pra/ to them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	sy /sy/ my
2nd singular	mab /mab/ your
3rd singular	ma /ma/ his, her, its
1st plural	sin /sin/ our
2nd plural	war /war/ your (pl)
3rd plural	wny /wny/ their

Verbs

	Singular	Plural
Present	Suffix -a ghaddea /ɣadˈdea/ (I/you/he/she) learns	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -ob ghaddeb /ɣadˈdeb/ (we/they) learn
Past	Suffix -ag ghaddeag /ˈɣaddeag/ (I/you/he/she) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -an ghadden /ˈɣadden/ (we/they) learned
Remote past	Suffix -an ghaddean /ɣadˈdean/ (I/you/he/she) learned (long ago)	Suffix -oh ghaddeoh /ˈɣaddeoh/ (we/they) learned (long ago)

Soreb-Ket uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: sne - sne ghadde /sne ˈɣadde/ will learn

Numbers

Soreb-Ket has a base-10 number system:
1 - sma
2 - ith
3 - sokh
4 - yir
5 - şuni
6 - oloy
7 - ’ai
8 - ra
9 - mana
10 - ry
20 - thiw
21 - rḑuş sma “twenty and one”
400 - sma fudi “one fourhundred”
401 - sma fudi rḑuş sma “one fourhundred and one”
800 - ith fudi “two fourhundred”
8000 - sma hafl “one eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -os
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -i
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -or
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -uh
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -a
Noun to verb = Suffix -u
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -in
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ur
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -a
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -as
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -yrs
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -yh
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -os
[bAugmentative = Suffix -id

Geographical Distribution

Tpoth

Dictionary

4461 Words.

Root Languages

• Nashwabit*