TASHMIIJ

LANGUAGE FAMILY: RUHANDIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 1.35M / #29
SPOKEN IN: Aupek - 700K / Ceweren - 350K / Chalornok - 300K
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: témpt whá ngkurúr pow múmo re árak ro whá tíu útʻú ik
Pronunciation: re tɛmpt whə ˈŋkurɨr pow ˈmɨmo re ˈərɑk ro whə ˈtɪu ˈɨtʔɨ ik

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

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /h k m p r t w ŋ ɦ ʔ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		ŋ
Stop	p	t	k	ʔ
Fricative				h ɦ
Trill		r

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /e i o u ɑ ə ɛ ɨ ɪ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Near-high	ɪ
High-mid	e		o
Mid		ə
Low-mid	ɛ
Low			ɑ

Syllable structure: (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Word initial consonants: k, kr, m, mp, p, r, t, th, tr, w, wh, ŋk, ɦ
Mid-word consonants: h, hk, hr, ht, hw, k, kk, kkw, kr, ktr, kɦ, m, mm, mp, mpt, mt, mw, p, pp, pw, r, rkt, rr, rt, rtk, rtr, rw, rɦ, t, th, tk, tkr, tm, tpr, tr, tth, ttr, tʔ, w, wk, wp, wt, ŋ, ŋh, ŋk, ŋkr, ŋkt, ŋkw, ŋw, ɦ, ʔ
Word final consonants: k, mpt, mt, p, r, rkt, t, th, w, ŋ, ŋkt, ŋʔ, ɦ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• r → h / C_
• k → ç / _#
• m → w / _#
• ŋ → ŋ̊ / _#
• u → wə / #_
• e → o / w_ŋ
• h → ∅ / _#
• o → ɔː / _i
• w → ∅ / _o

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʔ	ʻ
ɑ	a
ɪ	í
ə	á
ɛ	é
ɨ	ú
ŋ	ng

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 five 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.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.

Ergative	Suffix -i kríái /krɪˈəi/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix kríá /ˈkrɪə/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -th Else: Suffix -ith kríáth /ˈkrɪəth/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -mt Else: Suffix -ɪmt kríámt /ˈkrɪəmt/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -ɨw kríáw /ˈkrɪəw/ near/at/by (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix kríá /ˈkrɪə/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -ɨw kríáw /ˈkrɪəw/ dogs

Articles

Tashmiij has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative
1st singular	ɦa /ɦɑ/ I	kur /kur/ me, I	kré /krɛ/ mine	trup /trup/ to me	ké /kɛ/ at me
2nd singular	e /e/ you	é /ɛ/ you	múrkt /mɨrkt/ yours	tri /tri/ to you	eng /eŋ/ at you
3rd singular masc	témpt /tɛmpt/ he, it	ík /ɪk/ him, it	whá /whə/ his, its	rumpt /rumpt/ to him, at it	á /ə/ at him, at it
3rd singular fem	trungʻ /truŋʔ/ she, it	mi /mi/ her, it	mpa /mpɑ/ hers, its	timpt /timpt/ to her, at it	mungkt /muŋkt/ at her, at it
1st plural	kuth /kuth/ we	ru /ru/ us, we	ing /iŋ/ ours	píɦ /pɪɦ/ to us	úɦ /ɨɦ/ at us
2nd plural	páng /pəŋ/ you all	o /o/ you all	i /i/ yours (pl)	krírkt /krɪrkt/ to you all	pé /pɛ/ at you all
3rd plural	ro /ro/ they	po /po/ them, they	pá /pə/ theirs	ngkuw /ŋkuw/ to them	whíp /whɪp/ at them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	kré /krɛ/ my
2nd singular	múrkt /mɨrkt/ your
3rd singular masc	whá /whə/ his
3rd singular fem	mpa /mpɑ/ her
1st plural	ing /iŋ/ our
2nd plural	i /i/ your (pl)
3rd plural	pá /pə/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix whép /whɛp/ learn
Past	Suffix -uth whéputh /ˈwhɛputh/ learned
Remote past	Prefix ə- áwhép /ˈəwhɛp/ learned (long ago)
Future	Prefix u- uwhép /ˈuwhɛp/ 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.
Tashmiij uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -ut whéput /ˈwhɛput/ have learned

Numbers

Tashmiij has a base-20 number system:
1 - wúrkt
2 - whíw
3 - kré
4 - wháng
5 - iɦ
6 - mi
7 - uk
8 - kip
9 - mpat
10 - ngku
11 - rumptu
12 - úhták
13 - ngkuma
14 - rummímí
15 - wúmpe
16 - mingiɦ
17 - trutkrú
18 - páɦamt
19 - púrtéʻu
20 - rurítré
21 - rurítréwúrkt “twenty-one”
400 - ár “fourhundred”
401 - ár wúrkt “fourhundred one”
800 - whíw ár “two fourhundred”
8000 - wúwpípí “eightthousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋkt Else: Suffix -oŋkt
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ŋʔ Else: Suffix -oŋʔ
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ɛk
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ŋk- Else: Prefix ŋko-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -i
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix mp- Else: Prefix mpɑ-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -i
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix ŋk- Else: Prefix ŋko-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -u
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ip
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ik
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -uŋ
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -k Else: Suffix -ɪk
Augmentative = Suffix -ə

Dictionary

4467 Words.