Yashwish

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ISHADIC
# SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 600K / #42
SPOKEN IN: Yei - 600K
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: la zmu'u'uod ro deod 'o whufuf la sumod 'o kemhiw giqitz an denhiw
Pronunciation: la zmuˌʔuʔuˈod ʁo deˈod ʔo whuˈfuf la suˈmod ʔo kemˈhiw giˈqiʦ an denˈhiw

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

Spelling & Phonology

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

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m			n
Stop	p b			t tˤ d dˤ			k g	q		ʔ
Affricate				ʦ	ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ ð ðˤ	s sˤ z	ʃ		x ɣ	χ ʁ	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/

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

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, bn, d, dv, g, h, j, k, kl, km, kv, l, m, n, p, s, st, t, tm, wh, z, zm, ʁ, ʃ, ʔ, ʦ, χ
Mid-word consonants: b, bb, d, dd, dˤ, f, h, j, jj, k, kr, l, ll, lʔ, m, mm, n, nd, nt, ntˤ, nð, q, qq, r, rb, rr, s, sˤ, t, tl, tʤ, tˤ, tˤtˤ, w, ww, x, ð, ðˤ, ħ, ɣ, ʃ, ʔ, ʕ, ʕl, ʕt, ʕtˤ, ʤ, θ
Word final consonants: d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, s, t, v, ʁ, ʃ, ʔ, ʦ, χ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• a → i / _k

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
j	y
χ	kh
ʦ	tz
ʁ	r
ʃ	sh
ʔ	'

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have three 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.

Singular

	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	No affix ziyuf /ziˈjuf/ man (when doing the verb)	No affix shenhiw /ʃenˈhiw/ woman (when doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʦ Else: Suffix -iʦ ziyufitz /zijuˈfiʦ/ (verb done to) man	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -am shenhiwam /ʃenhiˈwam/ (verb done to) woman
Genitive	Prefix mo- moziyuf /moziˈjuf/ manʼs	Prefix o- oshenhiw /oʃenˈhiw/ womanʼs

Plural

	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁ Else: Suffix -aʁ ziyufar /zijuˈfaʁ/ men (when doing the verb)	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ke- keshenhiw /keʃenˈhiw/ women (when doing the verb)
Accusative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -im ziyufim /zijuˈfim/ (verb done to) men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -χ Else: Suffix -aχ shenhiwakh /ʃenhiˈwaχ/ (verb done to) women
Genitive	Suffix -o ziyufo /zijuˈfo/ menʼs	If ends with vowel: Suffix -t Else: Suffix -et shenhiwet /ʃenhiˈwet/ womenʼs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	mekh /meχ/ I	la /la/ me	lan /lan/ mine
2nd singular	a /a/ you (masc)	de /de/ you	she /ʃe/ yours
3rd singular masc	ro /ʁo/ he, it	pe /pe/ him, it	ke /ke/ his, its
3rd singular fem	i /i/ she, it	kar /kaʁ/ her, it	er /eʁ/ hers, its
1st plural	'o /ʔo/ we	mad /mad/ us	on /on/ ours
2nd plural	yaf /jaf/ you all	ma /ma/ you all	bam /bam/ yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	ba /ba/ they (masc)	man /man/ them (masc)	'osh /ʔoʃ/ theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	me /me/ they (fem)	mat /mat/ them (fem)	he /he/ theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	om /om/ my
2nd singular	la /la/ your
3rd singular masc	'o /ʔo/ his
3rd singular fem	a /a/ her
1st plural	na /na/ our
2nd plural	mi' /miʔ/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	khed /χed/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ba /ba/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Present	Past	Future
1st singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʦ- Else: Prefix ʦi- tzishiod /ʦiʃiˈod/ (I) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʃ Else: Suffix -uʃ shiodush /ʃioˈduʃ/ (I) learned	Prefix a- ashiod /aʃiˈod/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -am shiodam /ʃioˈdam/ (you) learn	Suffix -en shioden /ʃioˈden/ (you) learned	Prefix na- nashiod /naʃiˈod/ (you) will learn
3rd singular masc	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -id shiodid /ʃioˈdid/ (he) learns	If ends with vowel: Suffix -χ Else: Suffix -aχ shiodakh /ʃioˈdaχ/ (he) learned	Prefix o- oshiod /oʃiˈod/ (he) will learn
3rd singular fem	Suffix -a shioda /ʃioˈda/ (she) learns	Suffix -e shiode /ʃioˈde/ (she) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -ol shiodol /ʃioˈdol/ (she) will learn
1st plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix ʔ- Else: Prefix ʔo- 'oshiod /ʔoʃiˈod/ (we) learn	Suffix -o shiodo /ʃioˈdo/ (we) learned	Prefix e- eshiod /eʃiˈod/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Prefix ʁu- rushiod /ʁuʃiˈod/ (you all) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʦ Else: Suffix -iʦ shioditz /ʃioˈdiʦ/ (you all) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -m Else: Suffix -em shiodem /ʃioˈdem/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural masc	Prefix su- sushiod /suʃiˈod/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -v Else: Suffix -ov shiodov /ʃioˈdov/ (they) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʃ Else: Suffix -aʃ shiodash /ʃioˈdaʃ/ (they) will learn
3rd plural fem	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʦ Else: Suffix -oʦ shiodotz /ʃioˈdoʦ/ (they) learn	If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁ Else: Suffix -aʁ shiodar /ʃioˈdaʁ/ (they) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -il shiodil /ʃioˈdil/ (they) will learn

Imperfective aspect
The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Yashwish uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Prefix ja- yashiod /jaʃiˈod/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Yashwish has a base-10 number system:
1 - i
2 - e
3 - o
4 - ma
5 - 'oli
6 - rosh
7 - yara
8 - mo
9 - mu
10 - lakh
11 - i la lakh “one and ten”
100 - i mi' “one hundred”
101 - i mi' la i “one hundred and one”
200 - e mi'
1000 - i loroe “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -f Else: Suffix -ef
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -il
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -og
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -el
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʔ Else: Suffix -uʔ
Noun to verb = Suffix -a

Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ba- Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -ʁ Else: Suffix -eʁ
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -al
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -eh
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -v Else: Suffix -uv
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ed
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l Else: Suffix -el
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -us

Dictionary

4424 Words.