Middle Naumes

Middle Naumes vocabulary

Middle Naumes names

Middle Naumes monster names

Middle Naumes (Nāmes re "Naumes's language") is a synraspian language which was spoken by the Naumes people in Namenazea, a northern region of Mocaczea from the 38th to the 48th centuries AN. It is also the last common ancestor of Naumes and Svatolian. The language name Nāmes re ("Naumes's language") is a reference to Naumes, the founder of the Naumes people and their cultural icon. His name in Old Naumes was Nāmenas which was from the Old Sumrë name Naarmölnatš ("the hope man, the reason man") which is from naar ("the man") (definite form of nyr "man") and mölnatš ("hope, reason" - from the double verb compound mölen "to point, to focus" and natšen "to speak out loud, to announce").

=Phonology=

Diphthongs
The light form of ā is ou when before alveolar consonants.

Allophony

 * 1) When after another vowel, /u uː/ become [ʊ].
 * 2) When a root ends in a vowel and takes a suffix beginning in a vowel then the vowel of the stem will be dropped and the first vowel of the suffix will lengthen:
 * nēyā ("game") + -e ("plural suffix") > nēyē ("games")
 * 1) When /x/ follows a plosive it becomes aspiration on the plosive. When it follows a fricative it merges into a long version of that fricative. When it occurs after a voiceless labialised plosive both merge into a labialised voiced plosive.
 * 2) When a root ending in /x/ takes on a suffix beginning in a consonant the [x] is dropped.
 * 3) The clusters /ts/, /tj/ and /ds/, /dj/ merge into /s/ and /z/, even across morpheme boundaries. An exception is with the topicalising clitic d- which does not change before /s/ or /j/.

Prosody
Middle Naumes has a phonemic pitch accent where a stem typically has a high pitch on the penultimate syllable with a low pitch on the preceding syllable. When the pitch falls on any other syllable it is marked with the acute accent (ohel "knife" vs ohíl "knives"). If a monosyllabic word has a long vowel in an open syllable then it can be analysed as two adjacent same vowels but with the pitch pattern [V̀V́].

Due to contact with Tuuric languages, Middle Naumes picked up stress accent where bisyllabic and trisyllabic words stress the second consonant and on longer words the penultimate syllables bear the stress. The vowels u, o cannot occur in stressed syllables due to them becoming ia, ea when stressed. When before r and unstressed no other vowel besides a can occur.

Phonological history
Stress accent gained via Tuuric influence: the second of two and three syllables is stressed. On longer words the stress is on the penultimate.

hw > ʍ

p b t d k g > f v s z x ɣ/{r l N}_

C: > C/_#

t d > θ ð/_{rl}

tʰ dʱ > θ ð

ai > e

u o > ∅/_w

Vʔ > V́

(V)u (V)o > iə eə/stressed

V[+unstressed]r > ar

Cː > C/unstressed

∅>ə/{r ɾ l}_C

ə a > ɑ

pf bv kx gɣ > h ɦ x ɣ

B[+short] > ∅/B. . . _

E[+short] > ∅/E. . ._

V[+short] > ∅/V[+long]. . . _, _. . . V[+long]

wC jC > uC iC

VCː > VːC

CːV > CVː

ɾ > r

au > o

gz > g/#_

eː {oː ɑː} > ei ou/_C[+alveolar]

kn > k

i u e o ɑ ei ou> e o æ ɑ ∅ e o/heavy syllable (ɑ is not lost if the word is monosyllabic)

iː uː eː oː aː > ie uo æi ɑu ɑ/heavy syllable

V>∅/#_{r l n}, {r l n}_#!V=accented

ɲ > in

x ɣ > k g/_{F T D}

pʷ tʷ cʷ kʷ > p t c k > b d ɟ g > w z j ɰ

pʷʰ tʷʰ cʷʰ > bʷ dʷ gʷ

ɟʷ > gʷ

t͡ʃ d͡ʒ > s z

ɕ ʑ > h ɦ

c ɟ > it id

t͡ s d͡z > s z

ɻ > j

=Noun phrase=

Gender
There are four genders which are buzzard, deer, animate and inanimate. The buzzard and deer noun genders have nothing to do with their namesakes as evidenced by the fact the noun haun ("deer") is a buzzard noun. The way to tell which gender a noun belongs to is very simple. If a common noun ends in a vowel then it is in the deer gender, if it ends in a consonant then it is on the buzzard gender. Nouns that belong to other declensions have animate/inanimate genders which are assigned semantically. Animate/inanimate nouns can be derived from common nouns using derivational suffixes which tended to preserve the animate/inanimate case endings of Proto-Sumric albeit each suffix does it in its own irregular way. Even when these suffixes are applied to new words they will go in the animate/inanimate gender, with the exact gender being assigned semantically based on whether the noun is alive or not. The suffix -g(h)āo ("cover of, surrounding") is a prime example of this. This means that Middle Naumes has both purely grammatical genders (buzzard and deer) plus purely semantic genders (animate and inanimate).

Common Buzzard Nouns
Nouns that end in /l r/ have no word final vowels in the nom.pl or the acc/gen/dat.sg. When the vowel is dropped in this environment the high pitch falls on the final syllable (ohel "knife" > ohíl "knives")

Note that the prolative case causes the final consonant of a noun to drop when said final consonant is after a vowel.

Subgroup 1
This group contains buzzard nouns that end in a vowel followed by a nasal stop. When these nouns take on a suffix beginning in a vowel the nasal stop changes accordingly: (m n in > w z j) - The shift in Old Naumes was m, n, ñ > b, d, ǵ but Middle Naumes turned voiced plosives into approximants/fricatives.

Subgroup 2
This group is the same as Subgroup 1 except that the denasalised stop labialises. This is due to it coming after a historic rounded vowel (which may or may not be rounded in Middle Naumes).

Subgroup 3
Nouns in this group end in an accented vowel which alternates with /r/ when a suffix with a vowel is attached. When the suffix begins in a consonant the glottal stop becomes /d/. If the noun has a long vowel bin the penultimate syllable then the accented vowel itself is lost outside of the nom.sg. Nouns in this group experience no light-heavy syllable alternations.

Subgroup 4
Nouns in this group end in an accented vowel which alternates with /h/ when a suffix with a vowel is attached. When the suffix begins in a consonant the glottal stop becomes /b/.

Subgroup 5
Nouns in this group end in an accented vowel which alternates with /ɦ/ when a suffix with a vowel is attached. When the suffix begins in a consonant the accented vowel becomes /w/. Light-heavy syllable alternations do not apply to these nouns.

Subgroup 6
Nouns in this group end in an accented vowel which alternates with /x/ when a suffix with a vowel is attached. When the suffix begins in a consonant the accented vowel becomes /g/. Nouns in this group experience no light-heavy syllable alternations.

Subgroup 7
Nouns in this group end in an accented vowel which alternates with /ɣ/ when a suffix with a vowel is attached. When the suffix begins in a consonant the accented vowel becomes /ɰ/.

Subgroup 8
This group contains monosyllabic buzzard nouns that end in /u uː/.

Subgroup 9
This group contains trisyllabic (and higher syllablic) buzzard nouns that end in /u/.

Subgroup 10
Descends from Old Naumes monosyllabic buzzard nouns which ended in V̄C

Deer Nouns
Middle Naumes has much less deer nouns than Old Naumes. This is because of a sound change which deleted short back vowels when a back vowel was in the previous syllable (and same for high vowels). Many deer nouns that had a word final back/front vowel after another vowel of the same frontness was dropped and it caused the paradigm of these nouns to closer resemble buzzard nouns (especially due to their nom.sg forms now ending in consonants), such so that all of the affected deer nouns were then reanalysed as buzzard nouns. As such the remaining deer noun all have a feature in common in that their word final vowel cannot be of the same frontness as the vowel in the preceding syllable. Note that the vowels a ā were except from this sound change so a deer noun may end with a ā which follows another a ā or any other vowel. Another cause of deer nouns becoming buzzard nouns is due to some disyllabic deer nouns having had a long vowel in the first syllable and a short vowel in the second, Middle Naumes had a change where short vowels were dropped around long vowels so in such nouns the final vowel was dropped causing it to closer resemble a buzzard noun. Word final vowels were dropped after /r l/ so deer nouns that ended in {r,l}V also became reanalysed as buzzard nouns.

Subgroup 1
Nouns in this group have a short final vowel and a short vowel in the preceding syllable. Which inflected for the four core cases the short before in the penultimate syllable is dropped.

Subgroup 2
This group contains deer nouns which have a long word final vowel.

Subgroup 3
This group contains deer nouns that ended in /VlCV/ in Old Sumrë. In the nominative singular they usually end in /a(ː)uCo/ (where C is an hf, hv, r, h, gh) while the in the nominative plural and accusative/genitive cases they contain /{aː,ou}CVː/. All nouns in this group have been reanalysed based upon the noun zaogh ("drum"). For example Old Sumrë bĕlba ("habit, custom") would have given Old Naumes bābbā with the plural bābbē but instead its remoddled forms were baubvo and bābbwē.

Subgroup 4
Deer nouns with a long vowel in the penultimate syllable. If the noun ends in h, gh then it becomes g, y in the prolative.sg/pl and vocative.pl.

Zero-grade nouns
Zero-grade nouns are a set of nouns which contain uj, un, um, us, uv in them. These come from the Old Sumrë syllabic consonants ŕ~ɫ, ń, ḿ, ś, v́ which experienced the insertion of an epenthetic vowel whenever a suffix was attached and in so causing a set of vowel changes throughout the paradigm. Even though there are patterns to zero-grade nouns they can yet inflect quite irregularly. In Middle Naumes the zero-grade forms in locative and vocative cases were leveled to inflect as regular common nouns, leaving only irregular forms in the four core cases. In Middle Naumes these nouns behave as follows:

Buzzard Zero-grade nouns
Buzzard gender zero-grade nouns have uj, un, um, us, uv in the final syllable. In the buzzard gender, the vowel of the suffix is reduplicated before the consonant causing some alternation which are as follows:
 * uj > Vl (possibly even Vu or Vh if the historic Vl came before a plosive followed by a back vowel or is only a back vowel followed)
 * un > Vn
 * um > Vm
 * us > Vs
 * uv > Vv

If uj, un, um, us, uv occur before a plosive or fricative then the epenthetic form with lose the consonant. If epenthetic /e/ occurs before /l/ then it becomes /a/. If there are two adjacent syllables with historic syllabic consonants then both will be affected. In the accusative and dative cases the epenthetic vowels are a and e respectively.


 * vuez ("melody") > vouze ("melodies")
 * muj ("cricket") > malo ("cricket-")
 * zujos ("heron") > zujoss ("herom-")

Deer Zero-grade nouns
Deer zero-grade nouns always end in a vowel. In deer zero-grade nouns the vowel of a suffix is only reduplicated if the suffix begins in a vowel and so replaces the final vowel of the stem when attached.
 * buezna ("hedgehog") > bounnē ("hedgehogs")
 * wudwumio ("minnow") > worūbiō ("minnow-")
 * nuiyu ("stalk") > nuiyuza ("stalk-")

Geo-nouns
Geo nouns are nouns that have been derived from verbs with the suffix -g(h)āo. Nouns formed this way have their own case paradigm. Since -Geo noun endings only differ from buzzard/deer endings. in the nominative,accusative,genitive and dative cases this table will exclude the locative cases. Geo nouns can be either animate or inanimate. Since the causes that created each noun class happened before Old Sumrë gained its locative cases only the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative forms differ in each declension, with the locative causes being identical for every declension.
 * After V = the form when after a vowel
 * After C = the form when the stem ends in a consonant (which is then lost)

B-nouns
B-nouns are animate nouns that have been derived from adjectives with the suffix -á.

O-nouns
O-nouns are inanimate nouns that have been derived with the suffixes -o or -wo/-hvo.

H-nouns
In H-nouns there are two subgroups of nouns which depend on whether the Old Sumrë form ended in a cluster or not.

Y-nouns
In Y-nouns there are two subgroups of nouns which depend on whether the Old Sumrë form ended in a cluster or not. In some forms the consonant which was lost before the y resurfaces.

Null-nouns
Null nouns are so named for in the accusative and genitive cases the final VC is lost. If an animate noun has a geminate plosive before the final VC then it becomes an aspirated singleton in the plural.

D-nouns
D-nouns all end in vowels. Nouns derived with the suffix -l are D-noun also. When inflected nouns ending in -l lose the l.

R-nouns
R-nouns experience an alternation from Vz, Vf, Vv, V́ to Vl, or Vh in the dative case. Both animate and inanimate R-nouns nouns conjugate the same.

Paucal number
Middle Naumes has a third, less productive number which is the paucal number to denote some or several of something. Not all nouns can take the paucal number nor can all cases be inflected in the paucal. The paucal is used alongside the numbers 2-10 and only for count nouns denoting tangible things and only when used with the four core cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative). When no number is used alongside a paucal noun it is assumed to be dual. Also all paucal nouns take on either the animate gender or inanimate gender (with the gender being assigned semantically).

There are two types of paucal which are "paucal 1" and "paucal 2". Paucal 1 refers to nouns that often occur in groups or in pairs (such as herding animals, people and trees) while paucal 2 refers to nouns that often occur alone (such as solitary animals or relative concepts like mother and father".

The paucal can cause stem changes to the noun. Paucal 2 in particular causes the following changes to the final consonant of the stem:

If the noun ends in an accented voweld then in the paucal the older lost plosive will resurface. It is not predictable as to what plosive will resurface. If the plosive was /t/ or /d/ then the paucal form is /s/ and /z/.

Some nouns don't follow this pattern due to sound changes from Proto-Sumric > Old Sumrë. If the Proto-Sumric ancestor ended in [ʂ ʐ] then the Old Naumes paucal form will have [ɕ ʑ] unless the Proto-Sumric form ended in [ʂC ʐC] in which case [nː] is the Middle Naumes form. If the Old Naumes word ends in [Cr Vl m] then the Old Naumes paucal may have [nː] or [nh]. Note that only nasals and fricatives can geminate.

If the noun ended in a long vowel then the first vowel of the suffix is lost.


 * hyol ("pigeon") > hyounh
 * māurl ("buzzard") > māuranni
 * wā ("hand") > wās
 * woz ("blade") > woz
 * awah ("insect") > awagi
 * lyā ("sleeve") > lyāhvi
 * bem ("orca") > benh
 * broga ("sweetheart") > brogahi

Collective and Singulative nouns
Middle Naumes lost the ability to create collective nouns via reduplication and has no way to morphological mark the collective. All it has is remnants of Old Naumes collective nouns which had lexicalised to become their own stems. Here are some nouns that derive from Old Naumes collective forms of nouns.
 * sahfm ("field of flowers") < ON sapfapfam ( MN sahfa "flower")
 * salolan ("brood of chicks") < ON salolon ( MN sal "chick")
 * bīyāyon ("nest") < ON pīggāggān ( MN bīyā "egg")
 * hyolyol ("flock of pigeons") < ON haggālggāl ( MN hyol "pigeon")

Some older singulative nouns also lexicalised as the Old Naumes singulative suffix -(a)nc fell out of productivity.
 * zāghns ("grain of sand") < ON dāghanc ("grain of sand") - the singulative of dāgha ("sand") > MN zāgh ("sand")
 * launs ("drop of water, sip, small drink") < ON láwanc ("drop of water") - the singulative of láwa ("water") > lawa ("water")

Topicalisation
Topic marking in Middle Naumes is one area where there is a distinction between how men and women speak. Topicalisation as used by men is called strong topicalisation and topicalisation as used by women is called weak topicalisation. The various roles of nouns that are topicalised are known as shades. Adjectives that follow the copula may also be topicalised in the same manner as nouns. The closest translation to Middle Naumes's topicalisation into English is the definite article "the".

Shade 1
Shade 1 emphasizes the subject's role as subject.

z-ialon mau-æl wel-∅

TOP-wolf hunt-3S.BUZZ sloth-ACC

"The wolf hunts the sloth"

z-āde inah-z uzia-ro

TOP-rat eat.3S.BUZZ.PST bread-ACC

"The rat ate the bread"

Shade 2
Shade 2 strong topicalisation emphasizes the object's (direct or indirect) role as the patient. Note that a strong topicalised object is placed in the nominative case. It is marked as follows:

jalon mau-æl mel*

wolf hunt-3S.BUZZ TOP/sloth

"A wolf hunts the sloth"

* l- + wir

Shade 3
Shade3 strong topicalisation emphasizes the object’s role and is marked in the same way as a shade 2 strong topicalised noun phrase.

jl-ā ziwale-l malihaze*

give-1S.FUT rose-ACC TOP-girl

"I will give a rose to the girl"

* l- + walihaze

Shade 1
Shade 1 emphasizes the subject's role as the agent. It is marked as follows:

l-ialon mau-æl wel-∅

TOP-wolf hunt-3S.BUZZ sloth-ACC

"the wolf hunt's the sloth"

l-āde inah-z uzia-ro

TOP-rat eat-3S.BUZZ.PST bread-ACC

"the rat ate the bread"

Shade 2
This is marked by fronting the object to the beginning of the sentence.

wel-∅ jalon mau-z

TOP.sloth wolf hunt-3S.BUZZ.PST

"a wolf hunted the sloth"

uzia-ro āde inah-z

TOP.bread-ACC rat eat-3S.BUZZ.PST

"A rat ate the bread"

Shade 3
This is marked by shifting the indirect object to the front of the sentence.

ohi-wien nodwgh-ā

TOP.knife-PRO cut-1S

"I cut with the knife"

Adjective Phrase
Middle Naumes adjectives must agree to the noun they modify in gender, case and number. Adjectives agreeing with the buzzard and deer genders do this by taking on the same endings as the nouns. The animate/inanimate genders act differently as will be described below. Note that adjectives have no distinct paucal form, when agreeing to a paucal noun the adjective takes the plural form. Adjectives always follow the noun.

Agreeing with Buzzard nouns
If the adjective ends in a consonant then no change is needed and can be inflected as is:
 * aln ("big") > māurl aln ("big buzzard")
 * nen ("green") > māurl nen ("green buzzard")

When the final consonant of the adjective is n, m, in the consonant becomes z, w, y when taking on a suffix beginning in a vowel. If the nasal is part of a consonant cluster then an a is inserted when inflected. This is due to Old Naumes a being lost in closed syllables:
 * aln ("big") > alaze ("big-")
 * ralm ("long") > ralawe ("long-")

If the adjective ends in a vowel then it is suffixed with -m which becomes -w- when another suffix beginning in a vowel is attached. The suffix -m causes the preceding vowel to take it's heavy form:
 * sā ("holy, sacred") > sam ("holy-") > sāwe ("holy-")
 * mayia ("strong") > mayem ("strong-") > mayiawe ("strong-")

Adjective in Old Naumes which ended in a glottal stop had a series of alternations when inflected. In Middle Naumes these adjectives (identifiable by how they end in an accented vowel) inflect as any other adjective that ends in a vowel.

Agreeing with Deer nouns
If the adjective ends in a vowel then no change is needed:
 * slā ("old") > na slā ("old person") > ne slē ("old people")

If the adjective ends in a consonant then the suffix -a is added. If the consonant was m, n, in then it becomes w, z, y. Suffixes ending in long vowels cause preceding short vowels to drop:
 * sam ("broken") > sawa ("broken-") > swē ("broken-")

Personal Pronouns
Singular Pronouns

Plural Pronouns

Possessive Pronouns
Middle Naumes possessive pronouns only agree in the four main cases (nominative, accusative, genitive & dative").

1SG
The nominative singular buzzard pronoun m is a syllabic consonant.

Numbers
Middle Naumes numbers act quite differently from the typical Sumro-Letaeric system by treating numbers as uninflectable words. It still has the trait of placing numbers before or after the noun depending on the semantic animacy of the noun. If the noun is semantically animate then the number goes after the noun. if the noun is semantically inanimate then the number precedes the noun.


 * Animate: rāhl zo ("one bear")
 * Inanimate: zo sahfa ("one flower")


 * 1) zo
 * 2) a
 * 3) bal
 * 4) gu
 * 5) wuí
 * 6) wan
 * 7) hūdi
 * 8) wīwī
 * 9) bīr
 * 10) bighem
 * 11) zohfí
 * 12) ohfí
 * 13) bōbí
 * 14) guhfí
 * 15) wuihví
 * 16) mōbí
 * 17) hūpí
 * 18) wīwīhfí
 * 19) bīrhfí
 * 20) uig
 * 30 badég
 * 40 guég
 * 50 wujég
 * 60 madég
 * 70 hūdég
 * 80 wīwīhg
 * 90 bīrhég
 * 100 bighiwég

To form numbers such as 25 or 74, the smaller number is placed before the larger number, with the larger number taking the comitative suffix -z:
 * zo badégz ("31")
 * bal guégz ("43")

To form numbers such as 200 or 300, the number bighiwég ("100") is modified by another number (which may follow or come before). The words for "1000" or "2000" are simply made in this manner by saying "10 100s" or "20 1000s" up until "10,000" which is "100 100s":
 * zo bighiwég ("101")
 * bal guégz bighiwég ("131")
 * bighem bighiwég ("1000")

Subordinate clauses
Middle Naumes has made an alternate use of the adverb jas ("while") as a subordinator for noun phrases. It causes the following verb to take on the supine form in the comitative case (a holdover of how it causes verbs to be supine in adverbs of duration - it's original function), as such these verbs cannot take on any TAM information which is rather just implied by context. Objects of these supine verbs take the dative case.

rahá jas g-awun-z slā

tree SUBR SUP-be-COM old

"tree that is/was/will be old"

wārá jas g-vazvá-z wodn-am

fisherman SUBR SUP-hate-COM jellyfish-DAT.PL

"fisherman who hates/hated/will hate jellyfish"

wāu jas gbá-z nās-um

hillfoot SUBR SUP-smell-COM lynx-DAT.PL

"hillfoot where a lynx was/is/will be smelled"

=Verb Phrase=

Conjugation
Middle Naumes has three classes of verbs which are Common verbs, Eas-verbs and Two-verbs. All verbs are negated by placing the negative particle hermu after the verb. Verbs are made infinitive with the suffix -n.

Common Verbs
Affixes are attached after removing the infinitive suffix -n.

Some of the affixes are identical and so rely on context to tell which person is being used for Middle Naumes was still obligatorily pro-drop.


 * 1) Like nouns there is a set of vowel changes that happen when the suffix begins in /a/ although for verbs it is simpler. When a verb has the vowels /e o/ in its final syllable then any suffixes beginning with /a/ cause both vowels to become /a/.
 * 2) sazohn ("to invade, to raid, to lead an attack against") > sazahl ("you invade")
 * 3) When the verb ends in a voiceless consonant, the 1S past suffix -az becomes -z.
 * 4) sahn ("to forget") > sahz ("I forgot" or "it forgot")

When the verb ends in a short vowel, the attaching of the first person singular, the third person plural, first person plural inclusive far past and the second person singular far past will cause the short vowel to drop.
 * sazohn ("to invade") > sazhā ("I invade")
 * bezzn ("to cook") > bzzā ("I cook")
 * thiorn ("to starve") > thirāg ("you starved")
 * 1) hakdn ("to know") > kdā ("I know") - This verb is slightly irregular, coming from Old Naumes hohtan. When the long vowel caused the loss of the initial vowel both instances of h fortited to k before the plosive.

Long vowel stems
Thanks to Middle Naumes sound change of deleting short vowels around long vowels, verbs that ended in long vowels caused the loss of vowels in the suffixes that attached to them. These are the person suffixes for such verbs.

Eas-verbs
-Eas verbs are verbs that have been derived from nouns and adjectives with the derivation suffix -az (-eas in Old Sumrë) to denote an action that results in the root noun/adjective. In these verbs -az functions as an infinitive.

Like with common verbs, verbs with a short vowel in the final syllable lose that vowel when affixes are applied, with Eas-verbs every affix causes this vowel loss. On the other hand an Eas-verb with a long vowel in the final syllable has no effect on the suffix:

Two-verbs
Two-verbs are verbs that have been derived with the suffix -du (-two in Old Sumrë) from any other word form any part of speech. When the root ends in /r l N/ then the suffixes swap their initial /d/'s with /s/.

Copula
The third person singular buzzard/animate is used in existential constructions alongside the indefinite pronoun huj:

Imperative mood
The imperative is marked with the suffix -ia on the verb stem. If the verb ends in the fricatives hf, hv, h, gh then it causes these to become b, w, g, y. If the verb ends in r, d, z then it becomes s in the imperative with the suffix being only -a. If the verb stem ends in a vowel then the suffix is -ija. If the verb has a long vowel in the final or penultimate syllable of them stem then the suffix is -a or ja for stems ending in vowels. If the verb stem ends in /l/ then the bare stem alone is the imperative.
 * hazn ("to swing a sword") > hazia
 * ydhern ("to ignore") > ydhesa
 * mghouln ("to show") > mghoul
 * wouzin ("to be similar") > wouzija

Verb stems that end in w/ū, z, id experience an alternation where those sounds become m, n, in.
 * sūn ("to travel") > sumia

Some irregular imperatives are:
 * non ("to protect") > naja

Interrogative mood
The Middle Naumes interrogative is formed via infixation of a nasal after the vowel in the first syllable although there are many allophones thanks to sound changes.
 * 1) If there is a fricative or w, jafter the first vowel then the infix m, n or in'' is inserted (depending on the PoA of the fricative - also the vowel may be lost if it was a short vowel when a suffix with a long vowel is applied):
 * 2) hzā ("I swing a sword") > hnzā? ("do I swing a sword?")
 * 3) slwā ("I remember") > slmwā? ("do I remember?")
 * 4) If there is  b, w, g, y after the first vowel then the verb has no change:
 * 5) If there is hf, hv, h, gh then these become b, w, g, y:
 * 6) mghoulā ("I show") > myoulā? ("do I show?")
 * 7) If there is  d, z or r then these become n:
 * 8) sazhā ("I invade") > sannhā? ("do I invade?")
 * 9) thirā ("I go hungry") > thinnā? ("do I go hungry?")

Some verbs have an irregular interrogative, usually due to the Old Sumrë form having a preaspirated plosive:
 * hakdn ("to know") > kdā ("I know") > kdā? ("do I know?")

Divine mood
The suffix -āg is used on a verb after any endings to denote that the subject is sacred or is doing something sacred.

z-soz slamw-ohfa-di-āg

TOP-god remember-3S.DEER.SUB-PASS-DIV

"Would the god be remembered?"

Passive Voice
The passive voice is marked with a suffix which attaches after any person suffix and the subjunctive if it is used. After vowels it is -r and after consonants it is -di which causes the consonant to drop.

sazh-āhfa-di

invade-1S.SUB-PASS

"Were I being invaded"

Supine
The supine is a verbal noun used to describe motion and indicates purpose and intention, or as a predicate of another verb.It can also be used to derive abstract nouns or nouns relating to an action. The supine form of a verb is ultimately quite irregular but there are some vague patterns of stem changes caused by attaching the supine prefix g-. But keep in mind that many supines imply will not follow this pattern. In the vocabuary list each verb entry lists its supine form for reference:

Adjective Participle
Adjective participles are derived from verbs with the suffixes -hn (for agreeing with buzzard noun), -hodwa (for agreeing with deer nouns), -hadwa (for agreeing with animate nouns) and -hwō (for agreeing with inanimate nouns). If the verb ends in hf, hv, gh then it becomes b, w, yy (the initial /x/ of the suffix is dropped if the verb ends in h). These are made negative by attaching the suffix -mu.
 * sāuhn ("to dig") > sāuhn, sāuhodwa, sāuhadwaz, sāuhwō

z-ohel nodway-hn-mu aunz sam

TOP/knife cut-PART-NEG be.3S.BUZZ broken

"The non-cutting knife is broken"

Past Participle
Past participles are derived from verbs with the suffixes -í (buzzard), -iha (deer), -ihaz (animate) and -wō (inanimate nouns).
 * sāuhn ("to dig") > sāuhí, sāuhiha, sāuhihaz, sāuhwbō. The negative forms are -egmu, -ihawu, -ihazmu, -wōu.

z-ohel nodwagh-egmu aunz sam

TOP-knife cut-PP-NEG be.3S.BUZZ broken

"The uncut knife is broken"

Verbs of manner vs verbs of motion
In Middle Naumes there is a morphological distinction between verbs of manner and verbs of motion. There are various prefixes that derive verbs of motion from verbs of manner.

Some verbs which begin in m, n, h experience a shift of these consonants to b/w, d/z, h/y when the motion prefixes are attached. This is due to a sound change which nasalised word initial geminate plosives and so the application of prefixes to affected verbs blocked this change. However telling which verbs beginning in m, n, h experience this shift can't be determined by looking at the infinitive form, rather the supine forms give some hints. Verbs beginning in m which experience this shift have supines beginning in gC{g,w}, gCV{b,w}. Verbs beginning in n which experience this shift have supines beginning in gCVr, gC{t,z}. Verbs beginning in h which experience this shift have supines beginning in gC{h,y}, gCV{hf,hv}.

All prefixes except iz- cause word initial b, w, {d,z,} g, y to become hf, hv, r, h, gh. Any word initial fricatives become voiced. Word initial r becomes l.

Vowels in the prefixes are lost if the verb has a long vowel in the initial syllable. If the verb begins in a consonant cluster then the vowel in the prefix takes on it's heavy form. If iz- attaches to a verb beginning in a consonant then it becomes ez-.

vla-, vl- "direct motion towards" When the subject of the verb is moving directly towards the reference point, the prefix vla- is used on the verb.:

iz-, ez- "onto, into, at" (ir- when the verb begins in a vowel, i- when the verb begins in a plosive)

wa-, u- "away from, out of"' When the subject is moving away from the reference point, the prefix is wa-.

osba-, osb- "from out under" When the subject is moving from out under the reference point, the prefix is osba- and the noun is placed in the delative case.

'''hi-, he- "from behind" When the subject is moving from behind the reference point, the prefix is hi- and the noun is placed in the delative case.

Subordinate clauses
Subordinate clauses in verb phrases are made with the subordinator urzzā́.

slw-ā urazzā́ nodwgh-az

remember-1S SUB dig-1S.PST

"I remember that I dug"

kd-ā urzzā́ brazudwr-alz branha-za

know-1.SG SUB eat_outside-2.SG.PST pork_rind-COM.SG

"I know that you ate a pork rind outside"

=Conjunctions=
 * -á, -ha (“and” - NP, AP)

Attaches as an enclitic to the noun or adjective phrase. When the phrase ends in a vowel the clitic takes the allomoprh -ha.


 * a (“and” - VP, AdP)


 * nanz (“in turn”)


 * rahaz (“following, according to”)


 * hvbrghā (“because”)


 * sehl (“because”)


 * ol (“except”)


 * yō (“or”)


 * hn (“if”)


 * ma (“but”)


 * jas (“while”)


 * sodwazá (“therefore”)


 * diwa (“despite”)


 * el (“instead, rather”)

Adverb of duration
To state an adverb of duration such as "for X amount of time" you take the noun denoting the time such as "day, hour, year" and place it in the comitative case.

mawaz āza-ze guadw-āg

mammoth day-COM.PL graze-3.SG.BUZZ/PST

"the mammoth grazed for days" To state that an action was occurring while another action was taking place, the supine form of the verb is placed in the comitative case to form an adverb. This is equivalent to "while" in English. Due to being in the supine, no TAM information can be given for the supine verb, but context plus the tense of the main verb fills in any possibly ambiguity. Before the supine verb the conjunction jas ("while") is placed.

so jas g-ruw-z fū-z

wind while SUP-walk-COM blow-3.SG.DEER.PST

"the wind blew while (I) walk(ed)"

If the action represented by the supine verb has a patient, then this is expressed by having the object be placed in the dative case as a form of inalienable possession where the object is possessing the supine verb. So a sentence like "while I feed the dog" literally translates as "with dog's feeding". The subject of the supine verb is shown by placing the noun plus a copula before the supine verb and after jas, or just a copula if the subject is a dropped pronoun. Note that the agent of the supine verb is only included when a patient is.

blā jas auz gba sahfam

sit-1S while be.1S SUP-smell flower-DAT.PL

"I sit while I smell flowers"

Hortative mood
The hortative mood is used to mark encouragement. When negative this acts as a light imperative. It can also be used in volitive constructions. This is marked with the adverb daz. This has the negative form dazmu.


 * vlazūl daz muhvazá! (-travel- mountain- ("you should travel to the mountain!")
 * vlazūl dazmu muhvazá (-travel- \mountain- ("you shouldn't travel to the mountain")

=Krintham's Poem=

Krintham's poem is a short prosaic text written by the shaman Krintham. It has become used as a popular text to translate among the Sumro-Letaeric languages to compare the different languages side by side.

se āza-za esrú-za

this day-COM beautiful-COM

"on this beautiful day"

nal-∅ saz-∅-á blag haw-o rala-wo

man-PL woman-PL-CONJ hew-3PL.PST path-ACC long-ACC

"Men and women have hewn a long path"

kzō ll-el sū-n mourn mahu-hviez

so_that can-1PL.INCL travel-INF 1PL.INCL.POSS.BUZZ world-PRO

"So that we can travel through our world"

na-ehfadi daz soz-wiez slo-m-wiez

protect-3SG.SUBJ-PASS HORT god-PRO.DEER.PL old-PRO.DEER.PL

"may it be protected by the old gods"

azel bejilá-há urghl-abz daz nāyiz-o laul wahrú

sun moon shine-3PL.SUBJ HORT light-ACC 3SG.BUZZ above

"may the sun and moon shine light over it"

sūl-∅ nā jas gromz

foot-PL person-GEN.PL while SUP-walk-COM

"as peoples' feet walk"