Old Sumrë

Old Sumrë vocabulary

Old Sumrë affixes

Old Sumrë names

Old Sumrë placenames

Old Sumrë phrases and expressions

Old Sumrë (Sumrė [súmre]) is a Late Synraspian language spoken by the Sumnė in the Mӑgalsjo of Malomanan during the Sumric Golden Age, spanning from the 20th to 30th centuries AN. It is a descendant of Proto-Sumric (specifically Late Proto-Sumric as evidences by having Late Proto-Sumric developments such as umlaut), making it a sister language to Hajec and Old Tuura. During most of its lifetime Old Sumrë experienced very little regional variation thanks to the constant moving around of the Hrȯtongi nomads. Near the end of the golden age is when the Kheldre dialect emerged, along dialects which would eventually become Alatir and Old Nusibara although none of these are represented in any literature or writing. As a meta note the english version of the name contains <ë> even though no such letter exists in Old Sumrë anymore. But its first romanisation which was scrapped used <ë> instead of <ė> and the english name retains the older spelling.)

Old Sumrë had an avoidance register called Mylmrė for use during hunts or after midnight. Due to it being the language of the Sumric Golden Age, Old Sumrë is seen by modern Sumric scholars as the perfect language, being revived among their circles as a prestige second language.

Being the native language of the Sumnė of the Golden Age, Old Sumrë is attested in a variety of texts, including the Sumrichronicon.

Pitch accent
Old Sumrë has a phonemic pitch accent, known as swėrė or "crooked speech" where a word has a high pitch on the penultimate syllable with a low pitch on the preceding syllable. The pitch pattern is a shifting one as certain conditions can cause the pitch to fall on different syllables than the root word. An example of this in nouns is definiteness which causes the high pitch to fall on the final syllable and the low pitch on the penultimate syllable. Another condition is compounding as this increases the number of syllables for the pitch to fall on.


 * lustas /lústas/ ("fruit") → lastás /làstás/ ("the fruit")
 * lustas + -var ("suffix denoting a typical location of") → lustasvar /lùstásvar/ ("fruit tree")
 * lustasvar /lùstásvar/ ("fruit tree") → lastasvár /lastàsvár/ ("the fruit tree")

An exception to the high pitch falling on the penultimate syllable is collective nouns (and any singulative nouns derived from them) which may place the high pitch on any syllable: kíakim, óunsaram.

The high pitch is marked with an acute accent with the preceding low pitch being unmarked as the next syllable having an acute accent is enough to indicate that the previous syllable has a low pitch. Some letters are not compatible with the acute accent, <ü ö> instead become <ű ő> and <ė ȯ> do not change at all. Monosyllabic words do not use the acute accent as it is obvious that the high pitch will fall on the only syllable.

If a monosyllabic word has a long vowel then it can be analysed as two adjacent same vowels but with the pitch pattern [V̀V́] such as in seelh /sɛ́ːlç/ [sɛ̀ɛ́lç] "fin".

Another exception to the high pitch falling on the penultimate syllable is when a vowel occurs before a certain geminated consonant or before some instances of /g/ and /k/, both originating from glottal stop clusters in Proto-Sumric. Do note that not all geminates cause this effect and those that do are marked so in the orthography by marking the high pitch on the vowel. Such a pitch pattern is fixed and not mobile:


 * hwáffe [hwáfːɛ] ("kidney") → hwáffesamu [hwáfːɛsamu] ("without a kidney")
 * istíges [ìstígɛs] ("chance") → istígesbin [ìstígɛsbin] ("by chance")

The pitch accent originated in Proto-Sumric’s stress. Proto-Sumric placed stress on the initial syllable of a word except in definite nouns where the stress shifted to the final syllable of the stem. In Old Sumrë’s derivation the stress shifted to the penultimate syllable while the definite stress shifting extended from being restricted to the stem to falling on affixes. Stressed syllables then became high pitch with the preceding unstressed syllable taking a low pitch. Function words however lost their stress and so never gained pitch. The practice of shifting stress to mark definiteness in Proto-Sumric originated back in the Nebyetic dialect of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric which itself was a substrate feature from Tagitwi, the Arhwi-Roquai language previously spoken by the Geramandi which is unrelated to the Sumro-Letaeric languages. In Tagitwi the stress shifting was used as a form of topicalisation and quite often a topicallised noun was assumed to be definite.

Phonotactics

 * The consonant clusters /rn, rm and lm/ have a short schwa inserted between the two consonants.
 * ern, -ėrm, ralm /ɛ́rn, érm, rálm/ [ɛ́rə̆n, érə̆m, rálə̆m] ("big, hearsay suffix, long")
 * When a stem that ends in /Cj/ takes on an affix beginning in a consonant the /j/ becomes /i/:
 * örjen [ǿrjɛn] ("to feel, perceive") + -kwu ("illusion suffix") → örikwu [ø̀ríkwu] ("delusion")
 * When a root ends in a consonant and takes a suffix beginning with the same consonant then the consonants will become a single geminate consonant:
 * rȯjakkwu /ròjákwu/ [ròjákːwu] ("deimatic behaviour")
 * 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:
 * nėėlga ("game, riddle, puzzle") + -e ("greatest of") → nėėlgee ("courtship")
 * when [h] follows a plosive or /s/ it assimilates as aspiration on the consonant:
 * bant [bánt] ("blade") + -ha ("similarity suffix") → bantha [bántʰa] ("nail, claw")
 * when word final, [h] becomes [ç]:
 * kylh [kɶ́lç] ("claw") vs kylhė [kɶ́lhe] ("claws")
 * The cluster /hj/ becomes [ç]:
 * Lehjo /lɛ́hjɔ/ [ɫɛ́çɔ] ("personal forename")
 * When a root ending in /h/ takes on a suffix beginning in a consonant the [h] is dropped:
 * avalh [ávalç] ("insect") + -bo ("dead, lifeless") → avalbo [àváʊ̯bɔ] ("shedded insect skin")
 * When a root ending in /t/ takes on a suffix beginning in /d/, the /t/ is dropped:
 * asensisten [asɛ̀nsístɛn] ("to leave a footprint") + -dren ("destruction suffix") → asensisdren [asɛ̀nsísdrɛn] ("to cover up track, to be stealthy")
 * When an alveolar plosive occurs before or after an affricate, it becomes the nasal /n/ in a form of dissimilation:
 * idlȯd [ídlod] ("slow") → idlȯntṡo [ìdlónt͡ɕɔ] ("to slow down")
 * The lateral approximant [l] becomes [ɫ] when a back vowel follows or is in the following syllable:
 * lustas /lústas/ [ɫústas] ("fruit")
 * The lateral approximant [l] becomes [ʊ] before a plosive followed a back vowel:
 * l'buko /l̩̀búkɔ/ [ʊ̀búkɔ] ("TOP=stick")
 * The clusters /stC, rtC, ltC/ become [sːC, rːC, lːC] except when the consonant is /r/ as happens in stralof [stráɫɔf] ("mask")
 * lusten /lústɛn/ [ɫústɛn] ("to pluck") + -naes ("season") → lussnaes [ɫùsːnáɛs] ("autumn")
 * türten /túrtɛn/ [tʏ́rtɛn] ("to sparkle") + -naes ("season") → türrnaes [tʏ̀rːnáɛs] ("early winter")
 * The cluster /ntn/ becomes [nː]:
 * lhenten /l̩hɛ́ntɛn/ [l̩hɛ́ntɛn] + -naes ("season") → Lhennaes [l̩hɛnːáɛs]
 * When /v/ and /f/ come into contact they both merge into [vː]:
 * v- ("adjectival prefix") + fardwir ("owl") → vvardwir [vːárdwir] ("strigiform")
 * When in a cluster fricatives assimilate in voicing with the following consonant:
 * misg /mísg/ [mízg] ("fish")
 * sbiri /sbíri/ [zbíri] ("baby sloth")
 * vkwagi /vkwági/ [fkwági] ("pertaining to sabre tooths")
 * If the cluster is word final and precedes a word beginning in a vowel then this doesn't happen:
 * misg ansos /mísg ánsos/ [mís gánsos] ("white fish")
 * When alveolar plosives form consonants form clusters with alveolo-palatal fricatives they merge into alveolo-palatal affricates:
 * abbat /ábːat/ ("fist") + -ṡi /ɕi/ ("inanimate paucal suffix") → abbatši /àbːát͡ɕi/
 * asilӑd /àsílʌd/ "large fire" + -ši /ɕi/ "inanimate paucal suffix" → asilӑtši /asìlʌ́t͡ɕi/
 * Geminated /hː/ becomes [ç]:
 * seelhha /sɛ́ːlhːa/ [sɛ́ːlça] ("swimming")
 * When a long vowel follows, geminated consonants shorten:
 * seelhha /sɛ́ːlhːa/ [sɛ́ːlça] ("swimming") → seelhaa /sɛ́ːlhaː/ [sɛ́ːlhaː] ("of swimming")
 * meelgüllen [mɛ̀ːlgʏ́lːɛn] ("to teach") → meelgülaa [mɛ̀ːlgʏ́laː] ("I teach")
 * When a plosive comes before the affricate /t͡ʃ/ it assimilates as a geminate /t͡ʃː/:
 * kvasvag [kvásvag] ("supine of the verb to hate") + -c → kvasvacc ("divorce") [kvásvat͡ʃː]
 * Word final /ʌ/ becomes /au/:
 * atӑbi ("monster") → satau ("brat")
 * When a fricative comes after the affricate /t͡ʃ/ it assimilates as a geminate /t͡ʃː/:
 * sakėsa [sàkésa] ("forgetful") + c- ("derives collective nouns from adjective") → ccakėsa [t͡ʃːàkésa] ("the forgetful")
 * The clusters /ts/, /tj/ and /ds/, /dj/ merge into /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/, even across morpheme boundaries:
 * esten [ɛ́stɛn] ("to carry") + -je [jɛ] ("imperative suffix") → esče [ɛ́st͡ʃɛ] ("carry!")
 * denӑden [dɛ̀nʌ́dɛn] ("to design") + -je [jɛ] ("imperative suffix") → denӑče ("design!")
 * The back vowels [u, o, {ɔ, ʌ}] front to [ʏ, ø, ɶ] when before /l, r/ and when in the antipenultmate, penultimate or final syllable except when word final and followed by a plosive:
 * üri /úri/ [ʏ́ri] ("instead")
 * örji /órji/ [ǿrji] ("finger")
 * ylm /ɔ́lm/ [œ́lm] ("doe")
 * There are a handful of words which break this rule such as Bidăre [bìdʌ́rɛ] ("sky god") and wȯȯlgu [wóːlgu] ("sting of a bee, barb, thorn, prick")

Back Vowel Restoration
The back vowels /u o {ɔ ʌ}/ front to [ʏ ø œ] when before /r l/ but only when within the last three syllables, however this does not happen when the /V{r l}/ sequence is before a word final plosive: sumӑrk ("it travelled"). Thanks to this rule when a word containing a fronted back vowel gains extra syllables via suffixation causing the fronted back vowel to be more than three syllables from the word's end, the fronted back vowel will revert to it's older back quality:
 * öldӑkal ("fire mushroom") > ȯldӑkalau ("fire mushroom-")
 * rylmӑn ("bitch dog in heat") > rӑlmӑnesȯn ("beside the bitch dog in heat")
 * jyrglon ("tempting") > jorglonosė ("tempting-")

The vowel [œ] may revert back to either [ɔ] or [ʌ]. This is because when these vowels front they both become [œ]. Only when they restore do they unmerge. For ease of learning each entry in the dictionary containing a fronted [œ] marks whether the vowel in the word reverts to [ɔ] or [ʌ].

Gemination
Gemination is a feature which can be triggered in stems by the application of certain affixes, such as the prefix kna-g: dülh > knaddülh. However some consonants in the position will fortite rather than geminate. The consonant /h/ fortites to /k/ and /w j/ both fortite to /g/. Observe the effects the the prefix kna-g has on the following words: wylmkau, hani, jo ("bend in a river, thorn, self") > knagylmkau, knakani, knago ("noose, stinger, evil part of one's self"). If the geminating affix is applied next to a vowel then an /h/ is inserted between the affix and vowel: ü-g ("eater of") + yrbne ("wet coastal mud") > ühyrbne ("mudskipper"). Any affix that triggers gemination/fortition/h-epenthesis will be listed with the superscript g for reference. These processes of gemination are thanks to Proto-Sumric clusters containing /ʔ/.

Umlaut
Old Sumrë has an umlaut which remains productive in affixes (such affixes are listed with a superscript u for reference. The umlaut originated in Late Proto-Sumric (as observed by the lack of umlaut in Hajec which is from Early Proto-Sumric) when the rounded central vowel [ʉ] began affecting the vowels in adjacent syllables. When [ʉ] occurred in an adjacent syllable it caused high rounded vowels to centralise to [ʉ], high-mid vowels to centralise to [ɵ] and low-mid vowels to centralise to [ə]. The front unrounded vowels [i e ɛ] where rounded to [y ø œ]. The diphthongs /aʊ əʊ~oʊ/ became /əʉ ɵʉ/.

Some examples of Proto-Sumric umlaut, with the non-umlauted forms in Hajec for comparison:


 * *itəʔjys ("sinew") + *-tüu ("suffix which derives animal names form inanimate nouns") > *itəʔjüstü ("snake" >OS idӑgüstü vs H itoḥist < PS* itəʔjystü)
 * *joyk ("meat") + *üʔu- ("eater of") > *üʔjəük ("carnivore" > OS ügӑük vs H *uḥjoik < PS *üʔjoyk)
 * *pedź ("hoe, digging tool") > -tüu > *pödźtü ("prairie dog > OS počtü vs H *petst < PS *pedźtü)
 * *askxi ("thistle") + üʔu- > *üʔəaskxi ("weevil" > OS ühӑskhi H uḥaskhi < PS *üʔaskxi)

Here is the umlaut as it worked in Old Sumrë: 1 = When before /r l/

2 = This pattern of /i/ becoming /o/ is no longer a productive mutation, rather it is for words formed with umlaut in the Late Proto-Sumric period which had /e/ become /ø/. Since there was a merger in Old Sumrë where /e/ raised to /i/, the vowel /i/ could mutate to either /u/ or /o/. Analogy quickly ensured that all /i/ would mutate only to /u/. However there are some words which show traces of the /i/>/o/ umlaut when it occured in proto-Sumric such as pič ("digging tool") and počtü ("prairie dog") coming from Proto-Sumric *pedź and *pødźtü. This word in particular is a great example of the analogy that occured as in Old Sumrë the same suffix -tüu was applied to the same root but it resulted in the newer /i/>/u/ umlaut: pič > pučtü ("armadillo").

3 = When from Proto-Sumric /ɪ/

Pre-syllabic Epenthesis
In Old Sumrë there are a set of syllabic consonants: ḿ ń v́ ś ɫ ŕ. When a syllabic consonant is word final, or in a word final cluster, and takes on a suffix beginning in a vowel then the vowel of the suffix will be reduplicated before the syllabic consonant causing it to become non-syllabic (if that vowel is /u o ɔ ʌ/ then keep in mind how it fronts before /r l) :


 * vŕŕt ("melody") + -ė ("buzzard nom.pl") > vėŕŕtė ("melodies")
 * jobɫ ("eyelash") + -a ("buzzard gen.sg") > jobala ("eyelash's")
 * stedś ("fragrance") + -e ("greatest of") > stedese ("greatest fragrance")
 * fńt ("shiver, tremble") + -im ("augmentative") > fintim ("earthquake")

If the reduplicated vowel follows the approximants /j w/ then the approximant will be reduplicated also but as the vowels /i u/:


 * vŕŕt + -jo ("ritual suffix") > viorrco ("music")
 * sv́d ("roar, growl") + -wo ("affinity to") > suovdwo ("aggressive, angry")

The same also applies when a prefix ending in a syllabic consonant or ending in a cluster with a syllabic consonant is attached, with the first vowel of the root being reduplicated in the prefix. If the root begins in CCV then the vowel is not reduplicated:


 * ŕ- ("derives nouns for people with a characteristic") + dӑv ("dark, black") > yrdӑv ("black haired person")
 * ŕ- + her ("lucky") > erher ("lucky person")
 * ŕ- + mnė ("proud") > ŕmnė ("proud person")

Aspiration
There are two forms of aspiration, preaspiration and postaspiration. While both function independently of each other, both do come from Proto-Sumric clusters containing /χ/.

Postaspiration
Postaspiration may occur in a stem or across morpheme boundaries. When within a stem, postaspiration comes from /Cχ/ clusters in Proto-Sumric: *məntxo ("petal") > PS mnatho ("petal, tongue"), or across morpheme boundaries when a suffix beginning in /h/ is applied after a plosive or /s/: bant [bánt] ("blade") + -ha > bantha [bántʰa]. Phonemically the aspiration is realised as /ʰ/ but around the high from vowels [i e ʏ ø] it is realised as a voiceless palatal fricative. If the plosive is voiced then in the same condition the poataspiration is realised as the voiced palatal fricative,.


 * mnatho /mnátʰɔ/ [mnátʰɔ] ("petal tongue")
 * mnathėė /mnátʰeː/ [mnátçeː] ("petals")
 * taarwodh /táːrwɔdʰ/ [táːrwɔdʰ] ("comfort, ease")
 * taarwodhė /tàːrwɔ́dʰe/ [táːrwɔdʝe] ("comforts")

Preaspiration
preaspiration can only occur within stems. Like postaspiration it comes from Proto-Sumric clusters containing /χ/ when it came before a plosive or /t͡ʃ d͡ʒ s/: PS *tǒχg > OS tohg. When a preaspiration consonant is after the front high vowels [i e ʏ ø] it is realised as the voiceless palatal fricative. If the plosive is voiced then it becomes the voiced palatal fricative. If the preaspirated follows a sonorant or nasa, then the sonorant or nasal will become voiceless. If the preceding sonorant or nasal is geminate then it will be realised as a voiced consonant followed by its voiceless counterpart:


 * tohg /tɔ́ʰg/ [tɔ́ʰg] ("river conflux")
 * sihti /síʰti/ [síçti] ("responsible")
 * pühdyn /pʏ́ʰdœn/ [pʏ́ʝdœn] ("to roast")
 * vuolhpa /vùɔ́lʰpa/ [vùɔ́l̥pa] ("antenna")
 * sgörrhse /sgórːʰsɛ/ [zgǿrr̥sɛ] ("underground stream")



Phonological History
During the derivation of Old Sumrë from Proto-Sumric a number of sound changes occurred which are explained below.

Debuccalisation of /χ/
Proto-Sumric /χ/ became /h/:
 * *əixenǒ- [ˈəi.χenɔ] ("heap, pile") → ihíno [ìhínɔ] ("scree, heap")
 * *xak- [χak] ("to break") → haken [hákɛn] ("to break, to snap")
 * *toləxaa- [toləχaː] ("timid animals") → telhė [tɛ́lhe] ("shrews")

When /χ/ occured in a consonant cluster with a plosive, it resulted in the plosive becoming preaspirated or postapirated, depending on whether it occured before or after the plosive:
 * *idixtǒ- [ˈi.diχtɔ] ("light rain") → idihto [ìdíçtɔ] ("downpour of water from trees after the rain has stopped")
 * *txaigx- [tχaigχ] ("slate") → thaigh [tʰáigʰ] ("book")

The sequence /ɔnjV/ becomes /ɔlɲV/
Although this change was hardly drastic in that the sequence /ɔnjV/ was never widespread to begin with. All occurances of it became /ɔlɲV/ [ɶlɲV]:
 * *ǒnja- [ˈɔn.ja] ("bad") → olña [ɔ́lɲa] → ylña [ɶ́lɲa] ("bad")

/n/ became palatal before /i/ and /j/
The sequences /ni/ and /nj/ merged into /ɲ/:
 * *gaanian- [gaːnian] ("to swell") → gëñanen [gèɲánɛn]

/ɔ/ merges with /a/ around /j/
The change was co-occurant with the /jɔ/ → /la/ change:
 * *jǒn- [jɔn] ("still") → lam [lam] ("still")

/j/ merging with /l/
/j/ sporadically became /l/ word initially and word finally after a vowel, usualy around /ɔ/:
 * *jǒmǒj- [jɔmɔj] ("juttance") → lamal [lámal] ("peninsula")

Word initially
Epenthetic /h/ before some words beginning in vowels:
 * *okś- [okʂ] ("cold") → hȯkar [hókar] ("cold")

/m/ sporadically became /b/:
 * *mor- [mor] ("to replace") → beren [bɛ́rɛn] ("to prefer")

Vowels are dropped between /a/ and /r/:
 * *iśaaim- ("name") → *iraaim- → *airaaim- → arėum [àréum] ("name")

Word medial
/o/ became /ɛ/ between consonants:
 * *kloś- [kloʂ] ("friend") → kler [klɛ́r] ("frined")

/r/ became /n/ when before a consonant:
 * *kəwörβ- [kəwørβ] ("to graze") → kwonen [kwónɛn] ("to graze")

/s/ was dropped after a vowel and before a consonant, causing compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel:
 * *əmasβatar- [əmasβatar] ("buzzard") → maawatar [màːwátar] ("buzzard")

The fricative /β/ became /w/ intervocalically:
 * *əmasβatar- [əmasβatar] ("buzzard") → maawatar [màːwátar] ("buzzard")

Word finally
/n/ merged with /m/:
 * *nin- [nin] ("woman") → nim [ním] ("woman")

/s/ very sporadically became /f/ intervocalically or word finally:
 * *nijǒs- [nijɔs] ("grass") → nílaf [nílaf] ("grass")

/z/ very sporadically became /v/ intervocalically or word finally
 * *jǒz- [jɔz] ("to smile") → laven [lávɛn] ("to smile")

/h/ word finally became [ç]:
 * *dyləx- [dyləχ] ("pellet, bubble, blob") → dülh [dʏ́lç] ("ball, orb, halo, sphere")

Vowel shifts and mergers
/e/ merged with /i/:
 * *betər- [betər] ("cloud") → bidyr [bídœr] ("cloud")

/ø/ merged with /o/:
 * *göb- [gøb] ("to trade") → gȯben [góbɛn] ("to trade")

long /aː/ became /e/:
 * *-aa [aː] ("animate nominative plural suffix") → -ė [e] ("buzzard plural suffix")

/y/ merges with /u/:
 * *dyt [dyt] ("then") → dut [dut] ("then")

The back vowels /u, o, {ɔ, ʌ}/ fronted to /ʏ, ø, œ/ when before /l/ or /r/ when in the anitpenultimate, penultimate or final syllable, except if a word final plosive follows the /l/ or /r/:
 * *njukur- [njukur] ("maternal grandfather") → ñucuir [ɲúkʏr] ("grandfather")
 * *olesət- [olesət] ("soul, spirit") → ölista [ø̀lísta] ("soul, spirit")
 * *ġǒryrnaʔjə- [ʝɔryrnaʔjə] ("crackling noise") → yrunag [œrùnág] ("laughter")

The lax vowels /ʊ ɪ ɘ/ lower to /ʌ e ɜ/:
 * *uǐpte- [ˈu.ɪpte] ("woman's headdress") → uėpti [ùépti] ("crested aukling")
 * *tsuɘsəti- [ˈtsu.ɘsəti] ("yew") → tsuĕsti [tsùɜ́sti] ("yew")

The long lax vowels /ʊː ɪː ɘː/ become /ʌo ei ɜi/ before consonants or word finally, and /ʌw ej ɜj/ when before vowels:
 * *ɘɘsv- [ɘːsv] ("to slide, to slip") → ėitven [éi̯tvɛn] ("to slip, to fall, to lapse")
 * *tǔǔ- [tʊː] ("falcon") → tӑo [tʌ́o̯] ("falcon")
 * *pǐurǒt- [pɪːurɔt] ("moon") → pėjürot [pèjʏ́rɔt] ("moon")

Consonant shifts and mergers
The retroflexes /ʂ/ and /ʐ/ became /r/ when after vowels, or /s/ and /z/ otherwise:
 * *ěśəβ- [ɛʂəβ] ("last") → erb [ɛ́rb] ("last")
 * *torökśβ [torøkʂβ] ("swords) → terȯkas [tɛ̀rókas] ("swords")

Remaining /β/ and /ɸ/ became /b/ and /p/:
 * *-goβ [goβ] ("suffix denoting a cover of") → OS -geb ("nom.sg Geo-noun ending")

/t/ voices after vowels:
 * *jöt- [jøt] ("some") → lȯd [lód] ("some")

/s/ very sporadically becomes /t/:
 * *ǒsja- [ɔsja] ("bread") → otja [ɔ́tja] ("bread")

/l/ became [ɫ] before back vowels, and [ʊ] before plosives followed by back vowels:
 * *lǒb- [lɔb] ("pile, mound") → lob [ɫɔ́b] ("pile")
 * *mɘləʔju- [mɘləʔju] ("spot, blemish") → mĕlgu [mɜ́ʊgu] ("spot, freckle")

Epenthesis
/a/ was inserted to break up certain consonant clusters:
 * *ěśd- [ɛʂd] ("big, tall, high") → erad [ɛ́rad] ("high")

Syncope
/ə/ is dropped although sporadically kept as /ʌ/ in some syllables:
 * *dəz- [dəz] ("black, dark") → dûv [dʌ́v] ("black, dark")
 * *əma- [əma] ("land") → ma [má] ("land")

The fricatives /ɸ/ and /β/ are lost when word final after a consonant or before a word final consonant:
 * *gorḅ- [gorβ] ("valle") → cen [kɛ́n] ("valley")

The palatal fricated was dropped completely in Old Sumrë. Before vowels and between consonants is was dropped and after vowels it dropped, causing the vowel to lengthen:


 * *ġisək- [ˈʝi.sək] ("toolbelt") → isc [ísk] ("toolbelt")
 * *bəʔdəjøġ [ˈbeʔ.dəjøʝ] ("blanket") → bíddjö [bídːjoːka] ("cape")

Prosody
The stress shift from word initial to being placed on the penultimate syllable. Then stressed syllables gain a high pitch with any preceding syllables gaining a low pitch.

Gemination of glottal stop clusters
When a glottal stop occured in a consonant cluster, that cluster became a geminate of the non-glottal stop consonant:


 * *jǐmʔě- [ˈjɪm.ʔɛ] ("shoulder") → jėmme [jémːɛ] ("favour, aid, assistance")

If the glottal stop was the first element of the cluster, then any preceding vowel took on a high tone (such high toned vowels are always marked in Old Sumrë orthography and they always have a fixed pitch pattern rather than the typical mobile pattern):


 * *joʔdy- [ˈjoʔ.dy] ("to lean on, to slant against") → jédduen [jɛ́dːuɛn] ("to lean against, to rely on, to trust")
 * *xoʔna- [ˈχoʔ.na] ("threat") → hénna [hɛ́nːa] ("ordeal, issue")
 * *bəʔdəjöġka [ˈbeʔ.dəjøʝka] ("and a blanket") → bíddjȯȯka [bídːjoːka] ("and a cape")

When a glottal stop clustered with /χ/, /j/ and /w/, the clusters merged into fortited /k/ and /g/. The glottal stop here has the same effect of causing the preceeding vowel to have a high tone:
 * *kjǒʔx- [kjɔʔχ] ("ice") → klak [klák] ("ice")
 * *masʔwǒśβ- [ˈmas.ʔwɔʂβ] ("scent, smell") → maagon [máːgɔn] ("scent, smell")

When a glottal stop clustered with /ʂ/ and /ʐ/, the result was that the clusters became /ɕ/ and /ʑ/ respectively:
 * *naʔśi [naʔʂi] ("person-PAU") → naši [náɕi] ("person-PAU")
 * *ʔźənǒjǒ- [ʔʐənɔjɔ] ("berries mixed with fat") → žnójo [ʑnɔ́jɔ] ("berries mixed with fat")

Elsewise around vowels the glottal stop shifted to /h/:
 * *ʔatlśvaa- [ˈʔa.tlʂvaː] ("to take") → hadɫsveen [hàdĺ̩svɛːn] ("to take")
 * *ǒpəβaʔi [ˈɔ.pəβaʔi] ("mother-in-law-PAU") → opwahi [ɔ̀pwáhi] ("mother-in-law-PAU")

Affricates
The sequences /ts/, /tj/ and /ds/, /dj/ became /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ respectively:
 * *tsomɸeś- [ˈtsom.ɸeʂ] ("to cling, to hold close to the body") → cempiren [t͡ʃɛ̀mpírɛn] ("to value")
 * *jǒts- [jɔts] ("for, until, within a time period") → joc [jɔt͡ʃ] ("while")

Summary of Old Sumrë sound changes

 * χ→h
 * ɔnjV→ɔlɲV
 * n{i,j}→ɲ
 * ɔ→a/(j)_(j)
 * j→l/#_ (sporadic)
 * j→l/V_# (sporadic)
 * j→l/(ɔ)_(ɔ) (sporadic)
 * n→m/_#
 * s, z→f, v/V_V (sporadic)
 * s, z→f, v/_# (sporadic)
 * ʉ→ʏ
 * ɵ→œ
 * o→ɛ/C_C
 * e→i
 * ə→ʌ (sporadic)
 * ʂ, ʐ →r/V_! when in a cluster with a glottal stop
 * ʂ, ʐ →s, z ! when in a cluster with a glottal stop
 * r→n/_C
 * ɸ, β→∅/_#
 * ɸ, β→∅/_C#
 * VsC→VːC
 * ə→∅
 * β→wV_V
 * ɸ, β→p, b
 * CC→CaC (sporadic)
 * t→d/V_
 * ∅→a/#_Er
 * V→∅/a_r
 * aː→e
 * y→u
 * s→t (sporadic)
 * m→b/_# (sporadic)
 * ø→o
 * ∅→h/#_V (sporadic)
 * $[+stress]→\$[+high]
 * $[-stress]→\$[+low]/_$[+high]
 * F[-voice]→F[+voice]/_C[+voice]
 * F[+voice]→F[-voice]/_C[-voice]
 * Vʝ→Vː
 * ʝ→∅/_V
 * ʝ→∅/C_C
 * u, o, {ɔ, ʌ}→ ʏ, ø, œ/_{l,r}(σ)(σ)#!_{l,r}T#
 * ʔχ → k
 * ʔw ʔj → g
 * (V)ʔC→(V́)Cː
 * Cʔ→Cː
 * Vʔ→Vh
 * ʔ→h/#_V
 * ʂː ʐː → ɕ ʑ
 * tɕ dʑ → t͡ɕ d͡ʑ
 * χ→h
 * h→ç/{l,r}_#
 * l→ɫ/_...B
 * l→ʊ/_TB
 * tɕ dʑ → t͡ɕ d͡
 * stC, rtC, ltC → sːC, rːC, lːC ! any consonant in the sequence is syllabic
 * ntn → nː
 * t→∅/_d
 * ph bh th dh kh gh sh → pʰ bʰ tʰ dʰ kʰ gʰ sʰ
 * hj → ç
 * {tj ts} {ds dj} → t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
 * t͡ʃF → t͡ʃː
 * t d → n/_A, A_
 * C[+plosive] t͡ʃ → t͡ʃː
 * ʌ → au/_#
 * ʊ ɪ ɘ → ʌ e ɜ
 * ʊː ɪː ɘː → ʌo ei ɜi/_C, _#
 * ʊː ɪː ɘː → ʌw ej ɜj/_V

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 loman ("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 (unless that vowel is /u/ in which case it is a buzzard noun), 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 -geo ("cover of, surrounding") is a prime example of this:


 * sülar ("eye" - buzzard noun) > sulargeo ("eyelid - inanimate noun")
 * baawa ("hillfoot - deer noun") > baawageo ("Antennaria dioica" - animate noun)

This means that Old Sumrë has both purely grammatical genders (buzzard and deer) plus purely semantic genders (animate and inanimate).

Gender Switching
Gender switching occurs when a animate or inanimate noun inflects for a locative case. This is because each declension only differs in the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative cases as those were the cases that existed when the declensions formed in Proto-Sumro-Naukl. However the locative cases are an Old Sumrë innovation and so they are the same for any declension of nouns. The locative cases do however inflect for the buzzard and deer gender. So when an animate or inanimate noun takes on a locative case it must switch gender to become either a buzzard noun or a deer noun (depending on whether the noun ends in a consonant or vowel). This gender switch is evidenced in agreement. For example the J-noun misg ("fish") is animate and ("big fish") is misg ernos (the -os ending is adjective agreement with animate nouns) and "of the big fish" is misja ernosa however "under the big fish" is misgun ernun (the -un ending is adjective agreement for subessive buzzard nouns).


 * Animate noun ending in a consonant → buzzard noun
 * Inanimate noun ending in a consonant → buzzard noun
 * Animate noun ending in a vowel → deer noun
 * Inanimate noun ending in a vowel → deer noun

Gender switching also occurs in the paucal number. Every noun, even buzzard and deer nouns, in the paucal number is assigned either the animate or inanimate gender based on the semantic animacy of the noun. This is because the paucal number preserves the older animacy based inflections. So the singular noun hangar ("pigeon") is a buzzard noun but the paucal form hanganši animate.

Gender switching also occurs with certain vocative cases, more is explained under "vocative cases" under the common nouns section.

History of Noun gender
Old Sumrë's four genders arose from the two gender system of Proto-Sumric which used the animate-inanimate genders. In the shift from Proto-Sumric the animate-inanimate began to fall out of use but two new genders, Buzzard and Deer arose which were assigned based on whether the noun stem ended in a vowel or not. These new genders started when the extra locative cases were added in Pre-Old Sumrë in which nouns ending in vowels added an extra -a after the case ending as a quaint sort of harmony which then became fixed onto the root causing case endings to have two different forms resulting in agreement with the noun. Such nouns that ended in vowels became the new Deer gender and nouns which didn't became the new Buzzard gender. Since the Deer and Buzzard genders are the most common they belong to the Common Noun Declension. This agreement was expanded elsewhere with adjectives adding the -a when modifying a deer noun and even adding an extra consonant; -m if the adjective ended in a vowel and modified a Buzzard noun. However the animate-inanimate genders were not totally wiped out as every non-Common noun is either animate or inanimate. The reason for this can be traced far back into the sound changes of Proto-Sumro-Letaeric to Proto-Sumro-Naukl. These sound changes caused irregular paradigms to form apart from the neat and tidy inflections of Proto-Sumro-Naukl causing new declensions to form. Any noun belonging to these new declensions retained their old genders in the shift form Proto-Sumric to Old Sumrë due to their distinct case endings (which as mentioned earlier; influenced the formation of the Buzzard and Deer genders). Also because of this the animate-inanimate genders are a closed class of nouns, new nouns can't be added to these genders easily as they would have to have been affected by the Proto-Sumro-Naukl sound changes first (with the exception of affixes which have inherent gender, but those form their own declensions). The Old Sumrë suffixes -geo, -b, -o can derive animate and inanimate nouns from common nouns due to the affixes having an inherent gender. These suffixes have inherent gender because their Proto-Sumric ancestors were ordinary derivational suffixes which then melded with case endings through Old Sumrë sound changes to form new sets of endings, causing each suffix to create a new declension.

Case
Old Sumrë has 20 noun cases which inflect for gender and number. the 20 cases are''':


 * Nominative: marks the subject
 * Accusative: marks the direct object
 * Genitive: marks possession
 * Dative: marks the indirect object
 * Vocative: marks a directly addressed noun
 * affectionate vocative: marks a directly addressed noun in an affectionate way
 * complimentary vocative: marks a directly addressed noun in a respectful manner
 * rude vocative: marks a directly addressed noun in a rude manner
 * Superessive: on the surface of something
 * Subessive: under something
 * Illative: movement into something
 * Perlative: movement through or along
 * Allative: movement to something
 * Comitative: in company of something, with
 * Apudessive: beside something
 * Delative: movement down from the surface, from
 * Supressive: above something
 * Paressive: beside something
 * Prolative: through something, by way of
 * Inessive: inside something

Vocative cases
Old Sumrë has four vocative cases. These originated when Proto-Sumric innovated them by grammatical words as suffixes.The most common used case is the default vocative which is simply named "vocative", which is used for directly addressing a noun without anything else implied in the addressing. The vocative is formed with the suffix -sȯ which is from the Proto-Sumric *sø- "for" (from which also comes Old Sumrë sȯ "for")

The affectionate vocative is used when addressing a loved one in an endearing way such as "my dear X, my darling X". It is formed with the suffix -yr (for buzzard nouns or singular animate/inanimate nouns ending in a consonant) and -ra (for deer nouns or singular animate/inanimate nouns ending in a vowel). This derives from the Proto-Sumric *ǒź- ("dearly, with love" - This root survives in Old Sumrë as yr "dearly, passionately" and also in abyren "to commit, to be faithful" which is from the Proto-Sumric compound *abǒź. An example of this can be found in the legend of Oskül's Tree where the winter god Oskül asks the sun goddess Asilñe to marry him:

Oskül rėnӑrk «Asilñera, ma lamlomanėñera»

Oskül say-3SG.BUZZ.PST Asilñe-AFV 1SG.GEN summer-FEM.DIM-AFV

"Oskül said 'dear Asilñe, my dear summerling"

The suffix has two other forms which are -rë for plural animate nouns and -ož for plural inanimate nouns. These two come from the inflected Proto-Sumric forms *-ǒźaa and *-ǒźźβ respectfully, where *-ā was the Proto-Sumric plural suffix for animate nouns and *-śβ the inanimate plural (the voicing to *-źβ was via assimilation to the final *ź in the vocative suffix). An example of both of these can be seen in the Book of Settlements where the Bat god Bidyro urges his subjects to migrate to Malomanan, since the word for bat in Old Sumrë is inanimate it takes the inanimate plural suffix:

Esigje! Lüraboź batabrėka, sumi vyres amáta antarpacȯn

listen-IMP bat-AFV.PL fisherman-AFV.PL travel-2S compulsion-COM DEF/land-ALL live-3P.ACTN-PAR

"Listen! O dear bats and fishermen, you must travel to the land of the living"

The complimentary vocative is used to address someone while implying good things about them Its usage can range from being used in polite formal speech to people sucking up to each other for favours, it roughly translates as "O great X". Like the affectionate vocative there are separate forms for plural inanimate nouns but no distinct form for plural animates. The suffix is -ualidg (for buzzard nouns, plus animate nouns and singular inanimate nouns ending in a consonant), -ualidag (for deer nouns, plus animate nouns that end in a vowel and singular inanimate nouns that end in a vowel) and -ualitšg (for plural inanimate nouns). This vocative is often used when addressing a spirit directly, as the following example from Sӑkwe Panararė, a song from the Book of Settlements shows when a human calls out to a sacred whale:

Sumace, lasbbualid lamjӑm lelwepėmjӑm

come-IMP creature-VOC DEF/path-DEL wet-BUZZ-DEL

"Come! O great creature of the wet path"

Notice how the noun lasb ("creature") in the complimentary vocative has a geminate consonant. This is because the suffix derives from the Old Sumrë *ʔwalet- ("lucky" - from which comes the Old Sumrë galid "prosperous") and the initial glottal stop in a cluster resulted in a geminate consonant in Old Sumrë, or more specifically the following mutations take place:


 * Plosive → Geminate plosive: gwesab ("badger") > gwesabbualid
 * r → š ž (when the Proto-Sumric form had *ś or *ź: hangar ("{pigeon")  > hangašualid
 * r → rr (else): har ("terror") > harrualid
 * V → Vh: seku ("whale") > sekuhualida
 * h → k: seelh ("fin") > seelkualid

The rude imperative, much like its name implies, is used when implying an insulting or derogatory meaning. The suffix for this is -jurt (for buzzard nouns or singular animate/inanimate nouns that end in consonants), -jürta (for deer nouns or singular animate/inanimate nouns that end in vowels). However the suffix causes even the buzzard and deer gendered roots to take on the inanimate gender. This is because this suffix derives from Proto-Sumric *juret- which was the dative form of *jureb- ("bat" - from which comes Old Sumrë lürab "bat"). This noun is inanimate as in Sumric culture bats are viewed as dead spirits and are looked upon negatively (hence why it became a derogatory suffix). The inanimate gender of the suffix spread to the noun causing it to switch gender (gender switching is a known feature within Old Sumrë) as can be seen in agreement. For example the noun sapiire ("rouge") has the deer gender, and in sapiire rȯjaka ("dangerous rouge") where the adjective rȯjak is inflected for the deer gender. However by placing "dangerous rogue" in the rude vocative case the gender of the noun and adjective switches to inanimate: sapiirejürt rȯjahė ("you fucking dangerous rouge!"). Morphologically Animate nouns however don't switch their gender to inanimate as during the Proto-Sumric period an animate version of the rude vocative was constructed by placing the animate deriving suffix *-jos (itself from jos "life", this root never survived in Old Sumrë but can be seen in compounded words such as laferok "life") to create the Proto-Sumric suffixes *-juretjos (sg) and *-juretśβjos (pl) which became -jürcos and -jürcjos.

Additional use of cases
Along with their main uses, several cases are also used for other finer constructions.

ACCUSATIVE
 * extent of space

ñok-aa mowor-au

walk-1S mammoth-ACC

"I walk the length of a mammoth"

GENITIVE
 * has X quality

mylelwe nilar-a

island grass-GEN

"Island of grass"

DATIVE
 * Benefactive

sȯ misj-ȯm

for fish-DAT

"for the fish"
 * B-possession (B-possession is predicative possession marking belong-constructions used in Old Sumrë after the copula to place extra emphasis on the possessor)

sėn misg emens mȯ

that.ANIM fish be.3S 1SG.DAT

"That fish belongs to me, that fish is mine"

Ylvjemu sėd terokau! Sėd emens Ualkasȯ!

take-IMP-NEG that.INAN sword-ACC that.INAN be.3SG Ualkas-DAT

"Don't take that sword! It belongs to Ualkas!
 * When used without the copula, B-possession is used for inalienable possession

estal mȯ

hand 1SG.DAT

"my hand"

sül-al Biridӑn-ȯ

eye Biridӑn-DAT

"Biridӑn's eye"
 * Change or transition into

lýlwe hȯkautr-au báld-wȯ

DEF/water freeze-3SG.DEER frost-DAT

"the water freezes into water"

SUBESSIVE Ualkas gir-yrut-mu apalėsa-sa, lemyr-a-m terog ylv-yrs-ti Biridӑn-un
 * Cause ("{because of, therefore, since, as", this construction triggers the passive mood)

Ualkas fight-3SG.BUZZ.FUT-NEG ambiguous-COM 3SG.GEN.BUZZ sword take-3SG.PST-PASS Biridӑn-SUB

"Ualkas may not fight because his sword was taken by Biridӑn"

ALLATIVE
 * Patient of experiential verb

sül-aa misg-at

see-1S fish-ALL

"I see the fish"

ñus-aa misg-at

hear-1S fish-ALL

"I hear the fish"

pep-aa misg-at

smell-1S fish-ALL

"I smell the fish"


 * Until

yrak-ül nirilefskaal-at vyr-es mylm-en misj-au

wait-1P.INCL spring-ALL compulsion-COM hunt-INF fish-ACC

"We must wait until spring to hunt fish"


 * Temporal

lyr-aa nirilefskaal-at ñok-en

like-1S spring-ALL walk-INF

"I like to walk in spring"

COMITATIVE
 * Duration

misg onta-sėė sülh-yrk

fish day-COM.PL swim-3SG.BUZZ.PST

"the fish swam for days"


 * Compounded Description (in English formed with "of" e.g "man of honour". In Old Sumrë the inflected descriptive noun is written without a space between the described noun to form a new noun, in this new noun the comitative case ending is part of the root so when inflected in other cases the fused comitative ending remains)

rȯsal-har-es

bird-terror-COM

"vulture" (bird of terror)
 * Similies/Equative

meribs pėyjl-es myr

be.2S hero-COM noble

"You are noble like a hero/as noble as a hero"

DELATIVE
 * Partitive, some of, a bit of

dok-aas lýlwe-jӑma

drink-1S DEF/water-DEL

"I drink some of the water"

PARESSIVE
 * Made of X material

garjos-easi kug-oӑhė térma-sȯna

make_weapon-3PL.PST axe-ACC stone-PAR

"They made axes from stone"
 * Composed of or containing X object

rakӑs dülde-sȯna

though wonder-PAR

"thought of wonder"

lyreli ipotu-sȯnė

river-DIM frog-PAR.PL

"stream fo frogs"
 * Concerning, about

folk rodo-sȯnėė

story giant-PAR.PL

"story about giants"

There are a group of irregular nouns called S-plurals that descend from Proto-Sumric inanimate nouns. So named due to their tendency for the nominative plural to end in -s. Due to irregularity of the S-plurals in the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative plurals each form is listed in the dictionary.

Paucal Number
Old Sumrë has a third, less productive number besides the singular and plural which is the paucal. The paucal number is a bit of an anomaly as its use doesn't apply for all nouns nor does it inflect for any of the locative cases. The paucal number refers to nouns which number from 2 to 10. When no number is used with a paucal noun it is assumed to be dual as it first arose in Proto-Sumro-Naukl as a dual number: hanganši ("two pigeons, both pigeons") vs hanganši ben ("six pigeons"). Only tangible nouns (i.e physical objects) can inflect for the paucal and even then if the noun inflects in a locative case then it reverts to the usual plural e.g hanganši ñakėen ("two pigeons ate") vs ȯjaa hangarunė ok ("I stand under two pigeons"). Paucal nouns also switch gender as they retain the same gender as their Proto-Sumric ancestor rather than the gender of the singular noun in Old Sumrë, so the Proto-Sumric *ʔangər- ("pigeon") was an animate noun and Old Sumrë hangar is a buzzard noun yet the paucal hanganši is still animate. This affects agreement e.g hanganši ansos ñakėen ("two white pigeons ate") vs ȯjaa ok hangarunė ansomunė ("I stood under two white pigeons"). If a noun didn't exist in Proto-Sumric due to being derived in Old Sumrë via derivational morphology then it will be assigned an animate or inanimate gender based on whether the referee is actually alive or not. Any adjectives agreeing with paucal noun decline as if plural.

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

In the below tables CC represent either a gemminated or fortited consonant. If the final sound is a vowel then an /h/ is inserted. Some nouns may not follow the usual gemminating/fortiting pattern in paucal nouns due to sound changes from Proto-Sumric. If the Proto-Sumric ancestor ended in *-ś or *-ź then the Old Sumrë paucal will have -š and -ž, unless the Proto-Sumric *-ś or *-ź came before a consonant in which case -n is found in the Old Sumrë form. If a word ends in -r or -m then the Old Sumrë paucal will have -nn-/-nš-

In any case where the paucal form doesn't follow the typical gemminating/fortiting pattern then its paucal will be listed in the dictionary. Despite whatever irregular consonant alternations happen the case endings will always be the same.

Collective and Singulative Nouns
As well as being singular, paucal and plural, Old Sumrë nouns can take on collective forms. The Old Sumrë collective refers either to a collection or group of nouns, or to a unspecific general occurrence of a noun where English would use the plural (e.g "I like dogs" "knives are dangerous")). This is achieved by reduplicating the final CVC sequence of a noun. Note that collective nouns are an exception to the pitch accent rule that states the high tone falls on the penultimate syllable, as collective nouns keep the high tone on the same syllable which it fell on as the root word. So that gwesab ("badger") is reduplicated as gwésabab and not *gwesabab. Note that the typical phonotactics apply to reduplicated syllables.


 * oswun ("cave lion") > óswunwun ("pack of cave lions, cave lions in general")
 * rakӑt ("tree") > rákӑtӑt ("trees in general")

Since the reduplicated syllable must be CVC, if the noun ends in VCV or C.CV then an epenthetic nasal of the same place of articulation as the previous consonant will be inserted at the end of the reduplicated syllable:


 * alati ("flame") > alati -ti > alátitin ("flames in general, several flames")
 * sėpa ("flower") > sėpa -pa > sėpapam ("several flowers, flowers in general, field of flowers")
 * örji ("finger, toe") > örji -ji > őrjijiñ ("several fingers, handful of fingers")

Nouns that end in V.VC will reduplicate the final VC and insert an epenthetic nasal of the same PoA as the previous consonant will be inserted at the end of the reduplicated syllable:


 * neas ("line") > neas -as > néasnas ("several lines, lines in general")

Nouns that end in VCC will reduplicate only the first VC:


 * dalh ("henge") > dálhal ("henges in general")
 * noold ("handle") > nóoldool ("handles in general")

Nouns that end in CVV will reduplicate only the first CV and at the end insert an epenthetic nasal. Since every reduplicating collective noun ends in a consonant they are placed in the buzzard gender.
 * labgeo ("sleeve") > labgéogen ("several sleeves, sleeves in general")

Non-reduplicating Collectives
There are, of course, nouns which are inherently collective. These nouns usually refer to liquids ("water, saliva, blood"), liquid-like solids ("mud, sand"), gases or gas-like (gas-like here being defined as what the Sumnė view as being like gas or air) substances ("air, steam, clouds"), solids which can have smaller chunks carved or sliced from ("meat, ice, wax, fat, wood") or insects which live in colonies. These nouns can have singulative nouns derived with the suffix -(a)nc (derived from Proto-Sumric *təts- "child" and cognate to Hajec tits "child") with /a/ only being included when the root ends in a consonant. Non-reduplicating nouns are an exception to the rule that high pitch always falls on the penultimate syllable, as in non-reduplicating collectives and their derived singulatives, the high pitch can fall anywhere and it won't shift even if suffixes are added. As such the high pitch bearing syllable will always be written with an acute accent in non-reduplicating collectives and their derived singulatives, except when the noun is monosyllabic.


 * lélwe ("wate") > lélwenc ("drop of water")
 * we ("blood") > wenc ("drop of blood")
 * klak ("ice") > klákanc ("block of ice")
 * daaga ("sand") > daaganc ("grain of sand")
 * wȯȯlgu ("wasps, wasp colony") > wȯȯlgunc ("wasp")

There are a handful of inherently collective nouns which don't refer to the above criteria, instead these nouns can mean anything. They descend from Proto-Sumric reduplicating-collective nouns whose singular stems fell out of use - the singular stems fell out of use in Late Proto-Sumric, this is evidenced by how they survived in Proto-Sumric's other daughter Hajec as singular nouns. Compare the below examples with their cognates in Hajec which show no sign of reduplication: diipios, his, oupuu, ki, uotioh, heh, oįs, akn, iohn, tiaksus, nikpos, leaving only the collective form to survive into Old Sumrë. Thanks to the sound changes which have occurred between Proto-Sumric and Old Sumrë, these nouns may not look like reduplicated stems anymore.


 * duipíor (An older form is *duipíoror which lost it's final syllable due to haplology) ("bolases, several bolases") > duipíoranc ("bolas") < PS *dyipiośoś, reduplicated form of *dyipioś-
 * húnhür ("snow goggles, several snow goggles") > húnhuranc ("a pair of snow goggles") < PS *xyśxyś, reduplicated form of *xyś-
 * oúpjuñ (An older form is *oúpjujuñ which was affected by haplology) ("several hawks, the hawk species} > oúpjuñanc ("hawk-") < PS *ǒupjujunj, reduplicated form of *ǒupju-
 * kíakim ("several oak trees, the species of oak") > kíakimanc ("oak tree") < PS *kiakin, reduplicated form of *kia-
 * uodíogn (An older form was *uodíognog which was affected by haplology) ("ferns, the fern species, coverage of ferns2) > uodíognanc ("fern") < PS *uǒtiǒgnǒg, reduplicated form of *uǒtiǒg-
 * hӑgauganam ("boar species, boar-kind, several boars") > hӑgauganamanc ("boar") < PS *xegaugan, reduplicated form of *xegau-
 * óunsaram ("several bulbs, bulbs in general") > oúnsaramanc ("bulb") < PS *oynźaźan, reduplicated form of *oynźa-
 * áknuonum ("several finches, finch species") > áknuonumanc ("finch") < PS *aknyonyn, reduplicated form of *akyno-
 * iógnam (An older form is iógnanam which was affected by haplology) ("guests, several guests") > iógnamanc ("guest") < PS *iǒgnanan, reduplicated form of *iǒgna-
 * tuáksunnur ("several willow trees, the willow species") > tuáksunnuranc ("willow tree") < PS *tyaksuśnuś, reduplicated form of *tyaksuś-
 * níkpospos ("several newts, newt species") > níkposposanc ("newt") < PS *nikpospos, reduplicated form of *nikpos-

Common Nouns
Note that if a noun ends in the diphthongs ĕi, ėi, ӑo and takes on a case ending beginning in a vowel then the diphthongs will become the sequences ĕj, ėj, ӑw: marĕi, arjėi, tӑo ("beetle, cot, falcon") > marĕja, arjėja, tӑwa ("beetle's, cot's, falcon's").

U-Nouns
One exception to the rule that all buzzard nouns end in consonants are the U-nouns; a subclass of buzzard nouns which end in -u. When a case ending begins in a vowel the final /u/ becomes /w/ with an effect of backing and rounding the first vowel of the case ending (except when the vowel is /a/). When the case ending begins in a consonant the final /u/ is dropped.

Zero-Grade Nouns
Old Sumrë zero-grade nouns are nouns which have syllabic consonants. When inflected, the first vowel of the suffix will be reduplicated before the sonorant, causing it to become non-syllabic. As such the vowel in the stem will change depending on the case and number. How this gradiation occurs differs depending on the gender of the noun.

Buzzard gender zero-grade nouns
Buzzard gender zero-grade nouns have a syllabic consonant in the final syllable, quite often they have no vowels at all. In the buzzard gender, the vowel of the suffix is reduplicated before the syllabic sonorant in every case. If there are two adjacent syllables with syllabic consonants then the vowel will be reduplicated in both. Do note that other phonotactics will apply after gradiation when appropriate, such as the fronting of rounded back vowels before /r/ and /l/.


 * vŕŕt ("melody") > vėrrtė ("melodies")


 * spɫ ("cricket") > spölȯ ("cricket-")


 * dŕjś ("heron") > derjeses ("with a heron")

Deer gender zero-grade nouns
Deer gender zero-grade nouns always end in a vowel, as such they are not truly zero grade but they do show the pre-syllabic epenthesis gradiation in a similar way to buzzard gender zero-grade nouns. Typically in deer gender zero-grades, the penultimate syllable contains the syllabic sonorants but it isn't unheard of for the syllabic sonorants to appear in syllables further to the left. In deer gender zero-grades the vowel is only reduplicated if the vowel of the suffix replaces the final vowel of the root. As phonotactics dictate that when a vowel of a suffix comes into contact with a vowel of a stem that the vowel of the stem is dropped and the vowel of the suffix is lengthened, the reduplicated vowel will also be long. This only happens when the suffix begins in a vowel, when the suffix begins in a consonant then the vowel of the stem is not lost and so the vowel is not reduplicated.


 * pŕtne ("hedgehog") > pėėrnnėė ("hedgehogs")
 * botḿjo ("minnow") > botȯȯmjȯȯ ("minnow-")
 * stɫgu ("stalk") >stɫgusa ("with a stalk")

Geo-nouns
Geo nouns are nouns that have been derived from verbs with the suffix -Geo. 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.

B-nouns
B-nouns are animate nouns that have been derived from adjectives with suffix -ab. The alternation of /b/ to /w/ in some of the endings is due to this affix coming from the Proto-Sumric ending *β. Old Sumrë sound changes turned /β/ into /b/ when after a consonant but into /w/ when between two vowels.

O-nouns
O-nouns are inanimate nouns derived from any word with the inanimate suffix -o or the suffix -bo.

H-nouns
H-nouns are nouns whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vq/. Typically the Old Sumrë forms end in /Vk/ or /Vg/.


 * terȯg ("sword") > terȯkas ("swords"), terȯkau ("sword-"), terȯhen ("swords'")
 * telg ("shrew") > telhė ("shrews"), telha ("shrew's"), telho ("shrew-")

J-nouns
J-nouns are nouns whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vg/. Typically the Old Sumrë forms end in /g/.


 * silig ("fish trap") > siligas ("fish traps"), silijȯ ("fish trap's")
 * misg ("fish") > misjė ("fish"), misja ("fish's")

Null-nouns
Null-nouns are nouns whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vk/. Typically the Old Sumrë forms end in /Vk/.


 * sürȯk ("conical hill") > sürȯkas ("conical hills"), sürȯ ("conical hill's")
 * terdak ("cat") > terhė ("cats"), terd ("cat's")

D-nouns
D-nouns are nouns whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vt/. The Old Sumrë forms typically end in vowels.


 * otja ("bread") > otjada ("bread's")
 * iri ("ant colony") > irida ("ant colonies")

S-nouns
S-nouns are nouns whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vb/. The Old Sumrë forms tend to end in /Vb/.


 * lürab ("bat" - bats are considered dead and inanimate in Sumric culture) > lürabas ("bats"), lüra ("bats")
 * unsib ("serpent") > unsihė ("serpents"), unsi ("serpent's")

R-nouns
R-nouns are nouns whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vs/ or /Vs/. The forms in Old Sumrë tend to end in /Vs/ but rarer forms can end in /Vf Vd Vv Vt/. Both animate and inanimate R-nouns conjugate in the same way.


 * karjȯs ("wit") > karjyra ("of wit")
 * nilaf ("grass") > nilara ("of grass")

S-Plurals
S-plurals are a group of buzzard and deer nouns which take the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative plural suffixes -s, -ӑs, -es, od plus a possible irregular alternation of consonants within the stem itself. In other cases and numbers these nouns are otherwise regular. The reason that these nouns do not decline like Common nouns in the plural forms of the core cases is thanks to a phonotactic rule in Proto-Sumric which states that voiced fricatives devoice when between two consonants (also devoicing said consonants). The inanimate plural suffix in Proto-Sumric was *-śβ and this affected inanimate nouns that ended in a voiced fricative causing the fricative to devoice according to the previously mentioned rule: *aźβ, *əmybooźβ, *joroźβ ("skin, mountain, colour") produced the cluster [sɸsɸ] which was then shortened to [sɸ]: *aśɸ, *əmyboośɸ, *jorośɸ ("skins, mountains, colours"). These plurals then went through sound changes which deleted bilabial fricatives when word final and after a consonant but also these irregular endings evaded another sound change which rhoticised *ś to r when after a vowel. Instead, in these endings [sɸ] became [s]. These changes together resulted in the S-plurals of Old Sumrë: as, mubes, leros ("skins, mountains, colours") - Old Tuura also has nouns which share this feature of devoicing, compare the above examples with these cognates: aźm, omybbuoźm, juorruoźm (sg) > aśmh, omybbuośmh, juorruośmh (pl).

One unusual S-plural is kerpes ("valleys"), the nominative plural of ken ("valley"). This differs from the other S-plurals as its Proto-Sumric ancestor didn't end in *źβ but rather *rβ and as such went through different changes. In Proto-Sumric "valley" was *gorβ and being inanimate it took the plural suffix *-śβ to become *gorɸśɸ. The final cluster at the end wasn't simplified. Where [ɸ] wasn't deleted word finally it became [p] giving kerps in Old Sumrë. The [ps] cluster sporadically became [pɛs]. The singular ken has [n] because sound changes turned [r] into [n] before a consonant but like how other S-plurals avoided rhoticisation of *ś, kerpes avoided turning [r] into [n]. In the accusative, genitive and dative cases the [p] becomes [b]: kerbӑs, kerbes, kerbod. This is because S-plurals, not content with avoiding a few sound changes, also evaded the loss of the inanimate case endings when Old Sumrë lost the animate/inanimate distinction in the vast majority of its nouns. Thus the S-plurals tend to have the case endings -s, -ӑs, -es, -od, from the Proto-Sumric inanimate plural endings *-śβ, *-əw-śβ, *-o-śβ, *-ot-śɸ. As can be seen here the plural suffix *-śβ went after case endings and so never came into contact with the final voiced fricative and thus never devoiced it outside of the nominative.

Definiteness
Old Sumrë's method of marking definiteness was very typical of its contemporary Sumro-Naukl languages yet few of its own descendants use it, with the exception of Alatir. Old Sumrë marked definiteness by shifting the high pitch to the final syllable of the stem and by using a vowel mutation system in which the vowel in the first syllable mutates.

This vowel mutation can be traced backed to Late-Proto-Sumro-Naukl which innovated a way to mark definiteness by shifting stress from the first syllable to the final syllable of a stem. This same system was used in Proto-Sumric, however the shifting stress affected sound changes between Proto-Sumro-Naukl and Proto-Sumric as certain vowel changes only happened when stressed or unstressed. Since the definite and indefinite form had different stress the sound changes gave them different vowels. For example /a, ɑ/ became /o/ when stressed (giving the indefinite forms /o/) but when unstressed they became /ə/, also when unstressed /u/ became /ɔ/ (giving the definite forms /ə/ and /ɔ/). In Proto-Sumric only polysyllabic words were affected by the vowel mutation as in monosyllabic words the stress remained on the first syllable and therefore evaded the sound changes above. This alternation became grammatical and spread to any polysyllabic nouns by analogy even when their vowels weren't initially affected by the stress related changes.

If the noun was monosyllabic and had no vowels and only had a syllabic consonant, then an epenthetic schwa was insert at the end for the stress to fall on: *vŕʔt- ("melody") > *vŕʔtə́ ("the melody") A very simple and regular system. Until the speakers (unaware of the stress related conditioning which created this mutation) reanalysed this mutation as lowering vowels and they applied this reanalysed rule to any vowel in the first syllable of a polysyllabic word by lowering it one height or by lowering it to the height of the closest pre-existing low vowel.

This new pattern was larger but still regular and very predictable. It was when Proto-Sumric diverged into Old Sumrë that it become a bit more complex. Each of these vowels went through Old Sumrë's sound changes separately which destroyed the simple lowering pattern and due to some of the changes being conditioned by environment the same unmutated vowel in Old Sumrë can have several mutated forms as the same unmutated vowel was originally several different vowels in Old Sumrë. Old Sumrë also changed the rule to include monosyllabic nouns as well as polysyllabic nouns. Old Sumrë innovated a large amount of new compound nouns formed from verbs and adjectives which were not present in Proto-Sumric and so never went through the same changes in regards to definiteness. These new compound nouns take the definite form by mapping the compound onto a class depending on its first vowel regardless of its etymology.

Thanks to these sound changes a noun's definite class can no longer be predicted by its sounds but rather each noun's definite class has to be memorised. Below are the ten definite classes: 1 = when before /r l/

Zero-Grade Definites
In zero-grade nouns, especially those with the buzzard gender, often have no inherent vowel in the first syllable, with the vowel changing depending on the case and number. Inflected forms of zero-grade nouns are often assigned ad-hoc a definite class where the reduplicated vowel is mutated to show definiteness. Uninflected buzzard gender zero-grade nouns are made definite by applying the suffix -áu, deer gender zero-grade nouns are made definite by mutating the leftmost vowel of the stem.


 * vŕŕt ("melody") → vyrrtáu ("the melody" -10), virrtė ("the melodies" - 5  (darjӑ́sau "the heron-ACC" - 3 üyhȯȯ

disú hȯkarutrӑnut üýhȯȯ

DEF/dew freeze-3SG.DEER.FUT morning_frost-DAT

"The dew will freeze into morning frost"

Since this suffix was present in Proto-Sumric and since it triggers umlaut, it will cause any schwas lost in the first syllable roots from Proto-Sumric to resurface as  [œ]. Due to this irregularity each word which does this has its non-specific form listed in the dictionary.


 * mnė ("snail") > ümynė ("snail-") (PS: *mənaa > *ümənaa - compare the Hajec forms minaa > uminaa)
 * maawatar ("buzzard") > üymaawatar ("buzzard-") (PS: *əmasβtar > *üəmasβtar- compare the Hajec forms imastar > uimastar)
 * mnatho ("petal") > ümynatho ("flower-") (PS: *məntxǒ > *üməntxǒ - compare the Hajec forms mįth ~ uimįth)

There are also some words which experience a change of b > m within n the non-specific. This is due to the initial Proto-Sumric /m/ which sporadically became Old Sumrë /b/ being rendered non-initial and so exempt from that change. There is also b>w owing to Proto-Sumric's /β/ which become /b/ but /w/ between vowels:


 * bĕdi ("grouse") > ümüdu ("grouse-") (PS: *mɘde > *ümüdu)
 * biddjȯȯ ("cape, shawl") > üwyddjȯȯ ("cape-") (PS: *βeʔtəjöġ > üβöʔtəjög - sporadic heightening of ö>y later occured)
 * bidwi ("risk, danger") > ümudwi ("risk-") (PS: *medəβe > *ümödəβe)

Some nouns beginning in /sk/ experience a change to /V:k/ when the prefix is applied thanks to Proto-Sumric /VsC/ becoming /V:C/:
 * skalmgė ("adult progeny") > üükimgė ("adult progeny-") (PS: *skǒjməgaġ > *üskəjməgaġ)
 * sbnoko ("volcano") > üübynoko ("volcano-") (PS: *sbənǒkǒ > üsbɘ̈nǒkǒ)
 * skrudo ("iris, halo") > üükrüdy ("iris-") (PS: *skrytǒ > *üskrütə)

Noun Enforcement
Old Sumrë has a way of enforcing the quality or meaning of a noun. Much like how an intensifier works on adjective, but for nouns. This is done by placing dosa- (<the comitative of do) on the noun. In English this can roughly translate as 'very much a X':

Altasi emens dosa-pėjyl

Altasi be.3SG.BUZZ one-COM-hero

"Altasi is very much a hero"

There is a weaker form of noun enforcement to say that a noun "sort of" has X quality. Known as the lesser noun enforcer itok- meaning "half quality" carries this purpose:

Altasi emens itok-pėjyl

Altasi be.3SG.BUZZ half_quality-hero

"Altasi is sort of a hero"

Verbalising Nouns of Destruction
It is possible to treat nouns like verbs by adding past tense endings to nouns to imply that said noun was destroyed. The effect can be made more severe by using the far past ending. In this construction the verb is dropped and the accusative case isn't applied to the direct object. The past tense ending agrees with the gender to the noun it is applied to:

lamán nilafyrs

DEF/deer grass-PST

"the deer (ruined) the grass"

When the far past ending is used it intensifies the degree of destruction:

lamán nilafӑrk

DEF/deer grass-PST

"the deer (utterly ruined) the grass"

Similies/Equative
Where in English a simile is formed by using "like" or "as" e.g "you are noble like a hero" or "you are as noble as a hero". Old Sumrë handles this by putting the descriptor (in this case it is "hero") in the comitative case, causing it to behave like an adverb:

meribs pėjyles myr

be.2S hero-COM noble

"You are noble like a hero"

davaró nansasa emens dӑv

DEF/crow DEF/night_sky-COM be.3SG black

"the crow is as black as the night sky"

girar jakasa

fight-2S antlerless_male_deer-COM

"you fight like an antlerless male deer"

Antlerless male deers are held to be 'weak' or 'less worthy' in Sumric culture

jamsá brigarsȯna asilása jamsӑs

DEF/fire bright-ADV.DEER DEF/sun-COM burn-3SG.DEER.PST

"the fire burned as bright as the sun"

malmará dӑvarosa emens erad ȯmab

DEF/spear crow-COM be.3SG high sky-INE

"the spear is as high in the sky as a crow"

The conjunction "and" in noun phrases
When used with nouns the conjunction for "and" is the clitic -ak which has the postvocalic allomorph -ka:

a-maawatár-ak

DEF-buzzard-CONJ

"and the buzzard"

atjá-ka

DEF/bread-CONJ

"and the bread"

-ak/-ka will always be the last clitic on a noun phrase:

a-maawatár-es-ak

DEF-buzzard-COM-CONJ

"and with the buzzard"

atjá-sa-ka

DEF/bread-COM-CONJ

"and with the bread"

Comparative and Superlative constructions
To form comparative and superlative constructions Old Sumrë a rather quaint system of marking the comparative and superlative on the nouns being compared to instead of marking it on the adjective.

Comparative
The comparative is formed by placing the object being compared to in the paressive case to give a sense of "beside".

Altasaa ron emens ern Jebraa ronesȯn

Altasi-GEN dog be.3SG big Jebri-GEN dog-PAR

"Altasi's dog is bigger than Jebri's dog"

When using the comparative in a subordinate clause ("dog that is bigger") the following sentence structure is used: subject + verb + object + to be=demonstrative clitic + adjective + object-paressive case

dañika ronau emenssėd Jebraa ronesȯn

want-1S dog-ACC be.3S-SUB Jebri-GEN dog-PAR

"I want a dog that is bigger than Jebri's dog"

Superlative
A superlative sentence is formed in much the same way as the comparative except that instead of placing the object being compared to in the paressive case (as there are none in superlative constructions) you take the word nӑn ("all") and place it in the paressive case.

Altasaa ron emens ern nӑnesȯn

Altasi-GEN dog be.3SG big all-PAR

"Altasi's dog is biggest"

In a subordinate clause the superlative works the same as the comparative also:

dañikaa ronau emenssėd ern nӑnesȯn

want-1S dog-ACC be.3S-SUB big all-PAR

"I want the biggest dog/dog that is biggest"

Nominal Topicalisation
Topicalisation in Old Sumrë comes in two "strengths" which are alatiñe kwaki ("femininity weight" or "weak topicalisation") and alatiñuir kwaki ("masculinity weight or "strong topicalisation"), and in three "shades" which are "agentive" (shade 1) and "patientive" (shade 2) and "indirect" (shade 3). Weak topicalisation serves to emphasise the noun's role as a subject, object or indirect object and strong topicalisation serves to place extra emphasis on the noun in general. The use of topicalisation is optional in speech and it differs between men and women forming a small genderlect. Weak topicalisation is mostly used by women although men will use it in polite speech when speaking towards an elder woman. Strong topicalisation is used mostly by men although elder women may use it when speaking to children or young men. The various forms of topicalisation are marked by word order and proclitics.

Shade 1
Shade 1 weak topicalisation emphasises the subject's role as the agent and is marked attaching the proclitic l'- onto the noun phrase. If the noun phrase already begins in /l/ then a vowel is inserted between the two l's, the vowels being whatever vowels followed /l/ in the noun. When the noun begins in any other consonant the /l/ becomes syllabic.

l'jarón mylmyr birau

"the wolf hunts the sloth"

l'arsté ñakuӑs atjádau

"the rat ate the bread"

Shade 2
Shade 2 weak topicalisation emphasizes the object's role as the patient and is marked by shifting the object to the front of the sentence.

bírau jarón mylmyr

sloth-ACC DEF/wolf hunt-3SG.BUZZ

"the wolf hunts the sloth"

atjádau arsté ñakӑs

DEF/bread-ACC DEF/rat eat-3SG.DEER.PST

"the rate ate the bread"

Shade 3
Shade 3 weak topicalisation emphasises the indirect object and is marked by shifting the indirect object to the front of the sentence.

barikánȯ jyraanu tivarerau

DEF/girl-DAT give-1SG.FUT DEF/rose-ACC

"I will give a rose to the girl"

tarȯ lustaa sipau sȯ

you.DAT pluck-1S DEF/flower-ACC fir

"I pluck the flower for you"

Shade 1
Shade 1 strong topicalisation emphasises the subject's role as the agent and is marked attaching the proclitic d'- onto the noun phrase. If the noun phrase already begins in /d/ then a vowel is inserted between the two d's, the vowel being whatever vowels followed /d/ in the noun.

d'jarón mylmyr birau

"the wolf hunts the sloth"

d'artsé ñakӑs atjádau

"the rat ate the bread"

de'derkėesálė kӑnӑb kwonėen

"the stags graze in the valley"

Shade 2
Shade 2 strong topicalisation emphasises the object's role as the patient and is marked attaching the proclitic l'- onto the noun.If the noun already begins in /l/ then a vowel is inserted between the two l's, the vowels being whatever vowels followed /l/ in the noun. When the noun begins in any other consonant the /l/ becomes syllabic. Note that a strong topicalised object is placed in the nominative case.

jarón mylmyr l'biri

"the wolf hunts the sloth"

arsté ñakӑs l'atjá

"the rat ate the bread"

Shade 3
Shade 3 strong topicalisation emphasise the direct object's role and is marked in the same way as a shade 2 strong topicalised noun phrase with the proclitic l' and is also placed in the nominative case.

jaraanu tivarérau l'barikané

"I will give the rose to the girl"

lustaa sipau sȯ l'tar

"I pluck the flower for you" Here is a small table to summarise topicalisation:

Adjectives
Old Sumrë adjectives must agree to the noun they modify in gender, case and number. Adjectives agreeing with Buzzard and Deer nouns do this by taking on the same endings as the nouns, the animate/inanimate genders act differently as will be described below. Adjectives have no distinct paucal form, when agreeing to a paucal noun, the adjective takes a plural form.

Old Sumrë has two registers which determine the placement of adjectives. In formal polite speech adjectives always precede the noun. This formal register of adjectives is used heavily by the shaman Upwolast in his writings. The far more common usage is the informal register if for adjectives to follow the noun with the exception that adjectives denoting animacy, liveliness or motion precede the noun. This usage traces back to Proto-Sumro-Letaeric where animacy determined word order with animate nouns taking precedence over inanimate nouns and adjectives followed similar rules with their nouns. While Old Sumrë has a rigid order with its nouns the adjectives still work with similar rules. Note that the adjective fronting is only true when the noun is a subject as they have more animacy and agency than an object or indirect object.

Here are some examples of the various adjective orders:

Formal

myros misg sülhӑrk lamlelwéba

grey-ANIM fish swim-3SG.BUZZ.PST DEF/lake-INE

"The grey fish swam in the lake"

Informal

misg myros sülhӑrk lamlelwéba

fish grey-ANIM swim-3SG.BUZZ.PST DEF/lake-INE

"The grey fish swam in the lake"

In heavily formal speech, or when partaking in a ritual, or when in reference to a sacred being, adjectives will take on the divine suffix -olk. This goes after any case endings that appear on the adjective, unless when in the negative when it goes after the case endings and the negative suffix. Any adjective with this suffix will appear before the noun rather than after. This is used quite often in telling tales or legends, such as this example from the The Book of Creation:

Tobḿ Unwe hwolpt-ӑk-mu-olk mab-ӑӑ dӑv-dwo-sela,

around Unwe surround-3SG.DEER.PST-NEG-DIV void-ACC dark-AB-PER

"The void was not surrounded by darkness, for Unwe"

Agreeing with Buzzard nouns
If an adjective ends in a consonant then no change is needed and can be inflected as is:
 * ern ("big") > maawatar ern ("big buzzard"), maawatarė ernė ("big buzzards")
 * nin ("green") > maawatar nin ("green buzzard"), maawatarė ninė ("green buzzards")
 * raak ("strong") > maawatar raak ("strong buzzard"), maawatarė raakė ("strong buzzards")

If an adjective ends in a vowel however then -m is added onto the adjective to make it agree with a buzzard noun. After the -m are placed the regular buzzard endings:
 * ylña ("bad") > maawatar ylñam ("bad buzzard"), maawatarė ylñamė ("bad buzzards")
 * nȯka ("weird") > maawatar nȯkam ("weird buzzard"), maawatarė nȯkamė ("weird buzzards")
 * magja ("angry") > maawatar magjam ("angry buzzard"), maawatarė magjamė ("angry buzzards")

Agreeing with Deer Nouns
If an adjective ends in a vowel then no change is needed and can be inflected as is:
 * salėa ("old") > nappa salėa ("old king"), napėė salėė ("old kings")
 * sėa ("divine") > nappa sėa ("divine king"), napėė sėė ("divine kings")
 * goñėsa ("healthy") > nappa goñėsa ("healthy king"), napėė goñėsėė ("healthy kings")

If the adjective ends in a consonant however then -a is added onto the adjective, after which the normal deer endings are placed:
 * hȯkar ("cold") > nappa hȯkara ("cold king"), napėė hȯkarėė ("cold kings")
 * ern ("big") > nappa erna ("big king"), napėė ernė ("big kings")
 * brigar ("bright") > nappa brigara ("bright king"), napėė brigarėė ("bright kings")

Agreeing with Animate/Inanimate Nouns
When agreeing to animate or inanimate nouns, adjectives behave differently than when they agree with buzzard and deer nouns. Rather than simply not changing or attaching a single suffix before the same nominal case endings, adjectives agreeing with animate/inanimate nouns have their own paradigms independent of those of the noun that they modify. Much like how there are several declensions of nouns which experience a consonant alternation based on how the Proto-Sumro-Naukl ancestor ended, there are several subgroups of adjectives which went through the same process (albeit producing different paradigms). Such subgroups are named with letters and will be described below.

One feature unique to adjectives agreeing to animate and inanimate nouns is how they can change meaning depending of the gender of the noun that they agree to. For example the stem ürig becomes ürig meaning "lean" when agreeing to animate nouns yet becomes ürijau ("bare, devoid of vegetation") when agreeing to inanimate nouns. In daughter languages of Old Sumrë which lost these genders these inflected adjectives with different meanings became different words in their own right without the interchange. Note that these nouns only take these paradigms when inflecting with animate/inanimate nouns, when agreeing with buzzard/deer nouns they inflect like any other adjective.

In addition to that there are also the S-plural adjectives. Do note that the vast majority of adjectives do not belong to any of these subgroups.

Agreeing with Animate Nouns
Adjectives agree to animate nouns by adding the suffix -os onto the adjective. Adjectives agreeing to animate and inanimate nouns don't take on regular case ending like the deer and buzzard nouns do. Rather -os has its own case paradigm shown below, this is true only for the nominative, accusative, genitive and dative cases with the locative cases being the same as as they are on nouns. When the adjective ends in a vowel the final vowel of the stem is deleted, when the stem ends in two vowels only the second vowel is deleted.


 * hȯkar ("cold") > lamab hȯkaros ("cold trapper"), lambahė hȯkarosahė ("of cold trapper")
 * ern ("big") > lamab ernos ("big trapper"), lambahė erosahė ("of big trappers")
 * salėa ("old") > lamab salėos ("old trapper"), lambahė salėosahė ("of old trappers")

Agreeing with Inanimate Nouns
Adjectives agree with inanimate nouns by adding the suffix -bo or its post-vocalic allomorph -wo. Like the suffix -os, -bo/-wo has its own paradigm:


 * ern ("big") > estӑbo ernbo ("big cobweb"), estӑbon ernbohė ("big cobwebs")
 * ylña ("bad") > estӑbo ylñawo ("bad cobweb"), estӑbon ylñawohė ("bad cobweb")
 * ter ("hard") > estӑbo terbo ("hard cobweb"), estӑbon terbohė ("hard cobwebs")

T-Adjectives
T-adjectives are adjectives whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vt/. If the Proto-Sumric form had a schwa before the /d/ in inflected forms then it became /a/ in Old Sumrë in the animate singular accusative/genitive and inanimate singular nominative forms while being dropped in the uninflected form. Note that if the Proto-Sumric form had a low vowel before the /ð/ (which descends from the PSL /t/) then the /ð/ would become /d/ instead of /t/ in Old Sumrë. As such those endings simply switch the first /t/ with /d/


 * kumi ("tame, domestic"-anim, "occupied"-inan)
 * terdak kumi ("tame cat") > terdhė kumitė ("tame cats")
 * sürȯk kumit ("occupied conical hill") > sürȯkas kumitan ("occupied conical hills")

J-Adjectives
J-adjectives are adjectives whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vg/. Here an j~g alternation takes place.


 * ürig ("lean"-anim, "bare"-inan)
 * terdak ürig ("lean cat") > terdhė ürijė ("lean cats")
 * sürȯk ürijau ("bare conical hill") > sürȯk ürijan ("bare conical hills")

Null-Adjectives
Null-adjectives are adjectives whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vk/. Note that if the vowel before /k/ in the stem is /a o/ then it will become /e o/ when the /k/ is dropped. If the vowel is /i/ then inanimate dative forms it becomes -ow.


 * ilik ("weak"-anim, "marshy"-inan)
 * terdak ilik ("weak cat") > terdhė ili ("weak cats")
 * sürȯk ili ("marshy conical hill") > sürȯkas ilin ("marshy conical hills")

Null 2-Adjectives
Null2-adjectives are adjectives whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vb/. The Old Sumrë forms end in /b/ which is dropped in inflected forms. If the vowels before /b/ in the stem are /a ɔ o/ then they mutate into /e o u/.


 * ričȯb ("lonely"-anim", "lone"-inan)
 * terdak ričȯb ("lonely cat") > terdhė ričudė ("lonely cats")
 * sürȯk riču ("lone conical hill") > sürȯkas ričun ("lone conical hills")

H-Adjectives
H-adjectives are adjectives whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vq/.


 * rȯjak ("aggressive"-anim, "dangerous"-inan")
 * terdak rȯjak ("aggressive cat") > terdhė rȯjahė ("aggressive cats")
 * sürȯk rȯjahau ("dangerous conical hill") > sürȯkas rȯjahan ("dangerous conical hills")

D-adjectives
D-adjectives are adjectives whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vd/ and whose Proto-Sumric form had a high vowel before the /d/ or /ð/. Any adjectives that didn't have this high vowel became a common adjective.


 * galid ("prosperous"-anim/inam")
 * terdakk walid ("prosperous cat") > terdhėh walitė ("prosperous cats")
 * sürȯkk walit ("prosperous conical hill") > sürȯkass walitan ("prosperous conical hills")

For information regarding the g>w and the h-epenthesis/gemination shift see "Glottal Affection" as the last section in under "Adjectives".

R-adjectives
R-adjectives are adjectives whose Proto-Sumro-Letaeric ancestor ended in /Vs/ or /Vz/.


 * nes ("natural"-anim/inam")
 * terdak nes ("natural cat") > terdhė nerė ("natural cats")
 * sürȯk ner ("natural conical hill") > sürȯkas nen ("natural conical hills")

S-Plurals
The changes from Proto-Sumric to Old Sumrë that created the S-plurals in nouns also had the same effect in adjectives which met the same conditions. When Old Sumrë reformed its gender system from animate/inanimate to buzzard/deer/animate/inanimate, S-plural adjectives that took on their irregular forms while agreeing to inanimate nouns did the same when agreeing to deer nouns. When agreeing to buzzard/animate nouns the adjective takes on a regular form. lomanė dӑvė ("black deer" - regular) vs kwagėė dӑs ("black sabre tooth tigers" - S-plural)

Glottal Affection
In the shift from Proto-Sumric to Old Sumrë, clusters with glottal stops tended to geminate or fortite, or if the glottal stop was after a vowel it became /h/.


 * ʔx > k
 * ʔw ʔj > g
 * ʔC>CC
 * Cʔ>CC
 * śʔ/ʔś ź/ʔź > š ž
 * Vʔ > Vh
 * ʔ > h/#_V

However Proto-Sumric adjectives beginning in /ʔ/ caused some unusual alternations. When the adjective followed a noun (as is the normal pattern) the initial glottal stop would form a cluster with the final sound of the noun and so it would become subject to the above sound changes to happen causing alternations in Old Sumrë.


 * PS *ʔokś ("cold") > OS hȯkar
 * PS *kloś ("friend") > OS kler
 * PS *kloś ʔokś ("cold friend") > kleš ȯkar

Normally PS *ś and *ź yielded OS r however when in a glottal stop cluster they geminated and later became alveolo-palatal fricatives: /ʂʔ ʐʔ > ʂː ʐː > ɕ ʑ/. Here is another example:


 * PS *nəź ("man") > OS nyr
 * PS *nəż ʔokś ("cold man") > OS nӑž ȯkar (The vowel change is part of an Old Sumrë change which fronted back vowels before sonorants. In this case since the *ź never became r so the condition wasn't present and so the back vowel never fronted)

In a similar fashion if the final consonant in Proto-Sumric was *x then it fortited to k when around a glottal stop, elsewise it became h:


 * PS *gǒjx ("henge") > OS galh
 * PS *gǒjx ʔokśə ("cold henge") > OS galk ȯkar

It is noteworthy that while Old Sumrë has a default Noun - Adjective word order it also uses an Adjective - Noun word order when using a formal register. This formal register is used mostly in rituals, when speaking to significantly older people and such such polite contexts. This was present in Proto-Sumric also so when in the formal register the initial glottal of the adjective and the final sound in the noun never came into contact and avoided the above changes. For example:


 * PS *ʔokś gǒjx ("cold henge") > OS hȯkar galh
 * PS *ʔokś nəź ("cold man") > OS hȯkar nyr
 * PS *ʔokś kloś ("cold friend") > OS hȯkar kler

However even in this formal word ordering these glottal-alternations could still take place in two conditions:

1 If the noun began in a glottal stop then it formed a cluster with the final sound of the adjective (otherwise the initial glottal would become h):
 * PS *ʔangər ("pigeon") > OS hangar
 * PS *dərǒlx ("good") > OS drylh ("correct")
 * PS *dərolx ʔangər ("good pigeon") > OS drolk angar (compare with the informal hangar drylh "correct pigeon". Old Sumrë never fronted back vowels if they followed a sonorant followed by a word final plosive hence the vowel alternation in drylh~drolk)

2 If the adjective ended in a glottal stop it formed a cluster with the initial sound of the noun:
 * PS *gělsǒʔ ("brindled, speckled") > OS gelsoh
 * PS *gělsǒʔ nəź ("speckled man") > OS gelso nnyr (Compare with the informal nyr gelsoh)

To Summarize the following changes take place under Glottal Affection:

This page will list a large number of words which behave as described above. The first list will contain nouns and adjectives which began in a glottal stop in Old Sumrë followed by their "Glottal affected" forms (the form taken when after a noun/adjective).

Cases with locative nouns/prepositions
Locative nouns or prepositions can be used to show the location of a noun, or where an action is performed in relation to another noun or point of reference. When used with a locative noun or preposition a noun will inflect for a case, which case is used varies with each preposition. When the adverb is a predicate after a copula, such as "the bag is near the boulder", then the preposition is placed after the copula while the adverb itself is placed in it's usual place after the subject or inflected verb. When the adverb is used with a non-copular verb then the preposition itself placed before the adverb itself.

Accusative


 * tobḿ ("around, about")
 * rumaas tobḿ dȯnaabau ("I walked around a tent")
 * beakatub ("front, in front of")
 * ȯjaa beakatub dȯnaabau ("I stand in front of the tent")
 * dže ("alongside, by")
 * sipėė dže larélau gėnӑs ("the flowers grew alongside the river")

Genitive


 * nonmarӑn ("between")
 * rodo amubénšiė tomyr nonmarӑn ("there is a giant between the mountains")

Superessive
 * jŕd ("onto, upon")
 * tomyr jŕd jorkeryla mȯ estӑd ("there is a bag upon my back")
 * jŕd jevla ("right onto, right upon")
 * ipȯtú jŕd jevla palduryl idmarakӑs ("the toad leaped right onto a hare")

Illative


 * jŕd ("into, inside")
 * tomyr jŕd wončȯb arste ("there is a rat inside the cave")
 * jŕd jevla ("direct linear movement into with clear direction")
 * nagül jŕd jevla wončȯb ȯmñokyrs ("the bat flew straight into the cave")

Allative


 * jŕd ("up to, no further than, up until")
 * rumaas jŕd wondat ("I walked up to a cave (but did not enter)")
 * rumaas jŕd aránat ("I walked up to the dog")
 * rumaas jŕd ksongat mȯ ("I walked until I got tired - lit: I walked until my tiring) - When used for temporal adverbs, the following verb takes the supine form.

Apudessive


 * sɫba ("near")
 * astí tšaugarana emens sɫba ("the bag is near the boulder")

Delative


 * wegɫ ("out of, away from")
 * rumaas wegɫ ñukajӑma ("I walked out of a forest")
 * rotśpa ("out from under, from under")
 * saválh rotśpa morgjӑm sumatyrs ("the larva is coming out from under a log")
 * utgi ("from behind")
 * sӑké utgi slafawójӑma sbŕnӑs ("the whale swam from behind the iceberg")

Supressive


 * jotŕ ("across")
 * rumaas jotŕ slafáka ("I walked across the glacier")

Inessive


 * pihr ("denotes non-linear movement without clear direction")
 * rumaas pihr wondӑb ("I walked about in the cave")
 * sbŕnaa pihr larélӑb ("I swam around in the river")
 * jevla ("right into, straight into, linear movement with clear direction")
 * rumaas jevla wondӑb ("I walked straight into the cave")
 * sbŕnaas jevla larélӑb ("I dove into the river" - lit: I swam right into the river)

Post-Positions/Locative Nouns
Beyond the several prepositions, Old Sumrë has postpositions, also called locative nouns, derived from nouns which the suffix -vo(m). Postpositions are an open class set of words and are very flexible in their formation. Most locative nouns have no set form and are usually formed on the fly according to current context. This is done by the use of the suffix -vo. So one speaker may say ȯmvom ("sky-ward") for above while another may say mirmavo ("head-way") or asilvom ("sun-way") with all being interchangeable ways to say "up". A speaker may invent new ones of his own if he struggles to remember any existing ones, so long as context shows which locative is being referred to, For example if there is a tree to the speaker’s left then he may say rakӑtvom for left but if he turns around then rakӑtvom would mean right. In daughter languages these terms became more fixed. The final /m/ is used when the stem ends in a consonant. Any noun modified by a postposition is always in the genitive case.


 * maa ("I") > maavo ("in my direction, towards me")
 * majėnonsau ("horizon") > majėnonsauvo ("straight forward, straight ahead")
 * rȯsal ("bird in flight") > rȯsalvom ("above, upwards")

Postpositions can also be used as in adverbial phrases when placed in the prolative case:

rusál mirmavobina raná ȯmñokyrs

DEF/bird head-ward-PRO DEF/dog-GEN fly-3SG.BUZZ.PST

"the bird flew above the dog"

Numbers
The number system in Old Sumrë is very typical of Sumro-Letaeric languages, with the order being determined by animacy and agreement determined by the use of adjectives. The way that numbers agree with the head noun can be irregular due to the inflection descending directly from those in Proto-Sumro-Naukl and not experiencing analogy like nouns did.

Order
A number may follow or precede its noun. If the noun is semantically (or grammatically if it is an animate noun) animate then the number follows. If the noun is inanimate then the number goes before the noun:


 * Animate: raakal do ("one bear")
 * Inanimate: doo sėpa ("one flower")

Agreement
Numbers do not agree with the buzzard or deer genders, instead they agree only with animate or inanimate. If a noun has the buzzard or deer gender then the number will agree to the semantic animacy of the noun (i.e if the noun represents a living sentient being). In terms of agreeing with number, the number 1 agrees with no number for obvious reasons. The numbers 2-3 agree with the paucal numbers and the numbers 3-10 agree with the plural. It is important to note that numbers higher than 10 do not agree whatsoever with the noun.

Numbers only agree with the four traditional cases (nominative, accusative, genitive and dative). For any other case the nominative form of the noun is used. Numbers also only agree with the nouns case if an adjective is modifying the noun, if there is no adjective then the numbers takes the nominative case:


 * raakala do (bear- one-) "one bear's"
 * raakala ernama doo (bear- big- one-) "one big bear's"
 * raakalbin ernambin do (bear- big- one-) "by one big bear"

Number 1

The number one agrees only with the singular number and takes the following forms:


 * Animate nom: do
 * Inanimate nom, inanimate/animate acc, inanimate/animate gen: doo
 * Animate dat: doom
 * Inanimate dat: dooet

Numbers 2-3

The numbers 2 and 3 agree only with the paucal numbers and take the following forms:

ok ("two")

per ("three")


 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg: ok, per
 * Animate acc.sg, inanimate gen.sg: ohă, peră
 * Animate gen.sg: oha, pera
 * Animate dat.sg: ohȯ, perȯ
 * Inanimate dat.sg: ohet, peret
 * Animate nom.pau1/2: okri, penši
 * Inanimate nom.pau1/2: oki, peri
 * Animate/inanimate acc.pau1, animate gen.pau2: okriă, penšia
 * Animate gen.pau1: okria, penšia
 * Inanimate gen.pau1: okia, peria
 * Animate dat.pau1: okriȯ, penšiȯ
 * Inanimate dat.pau1: okiȯ, periȯ
 * Animate acc.pau2: okruu, penruu
 * Inanimate acc.pau2: okuu, penuu
 * Inanimate gen.pau2: okiă, periă
 * Animate dat.pau2: okriet, penšiet
 * Inanimate dat.pau2: okiet, peruit

Number 4
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg: ku
 * Animate nom.pl: kuė
 * Inanimate nom.pl, inanimate gen.pl: kuuă
 * Animate/inanimate acc.sg, inanimate gen.sg, animate gen.pl: kuu
 * Animte accc.pl: kuun
 * Inanimate acc.pl: kunu
 * Animate gen.sg: kua
 * Animate dat.sg: kuȯ
 * Innimate.dat, animate.dat.sg: kuet
 * Inanimate dat.pl: kuetă

Number 5
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg: bŕt
 * Animate nom.pl: bėrtė
 * Inanimate nom.pl, inanimate gen.sg/pl, animate/inanimate acc.sg: byrtă
 * Animate acc.pl: byrtăm
 * Inanimate acc.pl: byrtănu
 * Animate gen.sg: barta
 * Animate dat.sg: bȯrtȯ
 * Ianimate dat.sg, animate/inanimate dat.pl: bertet

Number 6
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg: ben
 * Animate nom.pl: benė
 * Inanimate nom.pl: benȯȯ
 * Animate/inanimate acc.sg, inanimate gen.sg, animate gen.pl: benă
 * Inanimate acc.pl: benăm
 * Inanimate acc.pl: bennu
 * Animate/inanimate gen.sg: bena
 * Inanimate gen.pl: benăă
 * Animate dat.sg: benȯ
 * Inanimate dat.sg, animate dat.pl: benet
 * Inanimate dat.pl: benetă

Number 7
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg: skumti
 * Animate nom.sg: skumtiė
 * Inanimate nom.pl: skumtii
 * Animate/inanimate acc/sg, inanimate gen.sg, animate gen.pl: skumtiă
 * Animate gen.sg: skumtia
 * Animate acc.pl: skumtiăm
 * Inanimate acc.pl: skumtinu
 * Inanimate gen.pl: skumtiăă
 * Animate dat.sg: skumtiȯ
 * Inanimate dat.sg, animate dat.pl: skumtiet
 * Inanimate dat.pl: skumtietă

Number 8
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg: biipiid
 * Animate nom.pl: biipiidė
 * Ianimate nom.pl: biipiidȯȯ
 * Animate acc.sg, inanimate gen.sg, animate gen.pl: biipiită
 * Inanimate acc.sg: biipiidă
 * Animate acc.pl: biipiităm
 * Inanimate acc.pl: biipiidnu
 * Animate gen.sg: biipiita
 * Inanimate gen.pl: biipiităă
 * Animate dat.sg: biipiitȯ
 * Inanimate dat.sg, animate dat.pl: biipiitet
 * Inanimate dat.pl: biipiitetă

Number 9
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg: piidik
 * Animate nom.pl: piidikė
 * Inanimate nom.pl: piidikȯȯ
 * Animate acc.sg, inanimate gen.sg, animate/inanimate gen.pl: piidiă
 * Inanimate acc.sg: piidikă
 * Animate acc.pl: piidiăm
 * Inanimate acc.pl: piidiknu
 * Animate gen.sg: piidia
 * Animate dat.sg: piidiȯ
 * Inanimate dat.sg, animate dat.pl: piidiet
 * Inanimate dat.pl: piidietă

Number 10
 * Animate/inanimate nom.sg: pigim
 * Animate nom.pl: pigimė
 * Inanimate nom.pl: pigimȯȯ
 * Animate/inanimate acc.sg, inanimate gen.sg, animate gen.pl: pigimă
 * Animate acc.pl: pigimăm
 * Inanimate acc.pl: pigimnu
 * Animate gen.sg: pigima
 * Inanimate gen.pl: pigimăă
 * Animate dat.sg: pigimȯ
 * Inanimate dat.sg, animate dat.pl: pigimet
 * Inanimate dat.pl: pigimetă

Numbers 11-19 The Numbers 11-19 are totally uninflectable and are as follows:
 * 11 dopig
 * 12 opig
 * 13 pempig
 * 14 kupig
 * 15 bŕpig
 * 16 mempig
 * 17 skumpig
 * 18 biipiipig
 * 19 piidipig

The numbers cause the noun to take the delative plural and they always go before the noun:
 * Tomyr skumpig gwesabjămė (herald- seventeen badger-) "there are 17 badgers"

Numbers 20+ The numbers 20-100 are also don't agree with nouns and also trigger the delative plural case. The numbers 20-100 are as follows:
 * 20 oíkk
 * 30 peníkk
 * 40 kuíkk
 * 50 bŕíkk
 * 60 meníkk
 * 70 skumtíkk
 * 80 biipiikíkk
 * 90 piidikíkk
 * 100 pigimíkk

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 -es:
 * bŕt oíkkes (five twenty-) "25"
 * ku skumtíkkes (four seventy-) "74"

To form numbers such as 200 or 300, the number pigimíkk ("100") is made plural as pigimíkkė and 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":
 * pigimíkkė ok, ok pigimíkkė (hundred- two) "200"
 * pigimíkkė skumti, skumti pigimíkkė (hundred- seven) "700"
 * pigimíkkė pigim (hundred- ten) "1000"

For more specific numbers like "438" or "694" the smaller number is placed before or after the larger number, with the last number taking the conjunctive clitic -ak ("and"):
 * pigimíkkė ku biipiid peníkkesak (hundred- four eight thirty-) "438"
 * pigimíkkė ben ku piidikíkkesak (hundred- six four ninety-) "694"

Pronouns and Determiners
Singular Pronouns

Plural Pronouns

Inalienable Possession
Old Sumrė has an alienable - inalienable possession distinction which means that it distinguishes between alienable items are possessed (items that can cease to be owned by  a person) and how inalienable items are possessed (items that can't cease to be owned by a person). Alienable possession uses the possessive pronouns shown above, or by placing a noun in the genitive case. While inalienable possessions uses the dative forms of pronouns or placed after the noun or by placing a noun in the dative case also after the noun. So "my fish" and "my hand" are respectively mam misg and estal mȯ. Misg ("fish") is an alienable noun as a fish can be traded or stolen while estal ("hand") is inalienable as it is a body part, so even if someone chopped your hand off and ran away with it it would still be "your" hand. As well as body parts culturally important items are considered inalienable even if they can be stolen or lost as they are seen as integral to the person. I will include a list to show which nouns tend to be inalienable.

Inalienable items


 * Body parts
 * örji mȯ ("my toe")


 * Names
 * arėum mȯ emens... ("my name is...")


 * The soul'
 * ölista tarȯ ("your soul")


 * Family members
 * ernyr mȯ ("my father")
 * Dogs
 * estӑbibogyr Geddȯȯ ("Gedda's sleigh dog")


 * Pet crows
 * ''sdӑva mȯ ("my crow chick")
 * Thoughts, emotions, ideas, perceptions, mental states
 * ördwoswu Ualkasȯ ("Ualkas's bravery")
 * örikwu jaronȯ ("wolf's delusion")


 * Actions
 * ralgwel ronȯ ("dog's dance" - this refers to the excitedness of a dog when meeting people)
 * Tattoos, carvings, inscriptions
 * syrdu Türnȯȯ ("Türna's tattoo")
 * rėsortatermasa aavyrok ("erratic boulder's engraving")
 * Stories
 * folk rodosȯna ernyrȯ ("father's story about giants")
 * Appearances, states of being
 * panarlum barikánȯ ("the girl's beauty")
 * Birth, death
 * bėsowri ernyrȯ mȯ merik garsu ("my father's death was sad")
 * Wounds, ailments (except contagious illnesses)
 * mylodwir kwágȯȯ pėjӑrk nista mȯ labryl mȯ ("the sabre tooth's fang left a slash on my arm")
 * Native language, speech, voice, words, communication, messages
 * rė mȯ ("my native language" - compare with the alienable ma rė "{my non-native language")
 * rėlon maatarȯm ("our conversation")

Determinative Pronouns
Demonstrative, interrogative and existential pronouns in Old Sumrë don’t agree with noun case or number and are distinguished by animacy rather than gender. For example the animate singular pronoun is sėn ("that") which refers to things that are alive but sėd ("that") refers to objects that aren’t alive.

Interrogative Pronouns
Interrogatives denoting where or when an action took place are placed at the end of the sentence:

amaawatár ñakyrs mawohau otjdau kyr?

DEF/buzzard eat-3SG.BUZZ.PST 1SG.INAN.POSS.ACC bread-ACC where

"where did the buzzard eat my bread"

Existential Pronouns
=Verbs= Old Sumrë verbs are quite fusional with its person/tense suffixes but more agglutinative when it comes to marking mood and voice, being able to stack up individual suffixes. Old Sumrë verbs have 8 tenses: present, last night, hesternal (actions performed yesterday), near past, far past, immediate future, near future and far future. There is also the subjunctive mood, imperative mood, interrogative mood, passive voice, habitual aspect and four levels of evidentiality as well as a distinction between verbs of manner and verbs of motion.

Verb Class and Person/Tense Conjugation
Old Sumrë has 13 classes of verbs. Do note that the vast majority of verbs fall under the regular class of "Common Verbs". The classes are


 * 1) Common verbs
 * 2) Zero-Grade verbs
 * 3) Umlaut verbs
 * 4) Analytic verbs
 * 5) Two-verbs
 * 6) Eas-verbs
 * 7) D-verbs
 * 8) S-verbs
 * 9) S2-verbs
 * 10) R-verbs
 * 11) R2-verbs
 * 12) Y-verbs
 * 13) H-verbs

Common verbs
Common verbs are by far the most common and have the infinitive suffix -en. There are a small amount of verbs that end in the suffix -utre ("to make use of, utilize suffix") which verbalises nouns, these verbs are treated as common verbs despite not ending in -en. They are conjugated by removing the final e and placing the endings after the t. Such verbs also take the supine form ending in -utŕ. The suffixes -ӑrk and -ulk become -yrk and -ülk when rendered non-final: sumӑrk, sumulk ("it travelled, we travelled") > sumyrkmu, sumülkmu ("it didn't travel, we didn't travel").

Zero-Grade Verbs
Zero-Grade verbs are verbs which take on the same endings as common verbs but whose stems contain no vowels, possessing only syllabic consonants. Much like Zero-Grade nouns, the vowels of the suffixes are reduplicated before the syllabic consonant, rendering it non-syllabic. Since all infinitive verbs contain the vowel e in the infinitive suffix, the infinitive forms of zero-grade verbs always contain the vowel e also: dhśp- > dhespen. As such each zeri-grade verb has its vowel-less form listed in the dictionary alongside its infinitive. Elsewise zero-grade verbs can be distinguished as the supine forms do not contain any epenthetic vowel.


 * dhśp- ("to weave, to fabricate")
 * dhespen ("to weave, to fabricate")
 * dhaaspaa ("I weave")
 * dhispi ("you.pl weave")
 * kshśp ("weaving")
 * pɫt- ("to stray")
 * pelten ("to stray")
 * pyltӑk ("it strayed")
 * pėltėenu ("they will stray")
 * kpɫt ("straying")

Umlaut Verbs
Umlaut verbs contain the vowel ü in the final syllable. Since this vowel triggers umlaut on vowels in surrounding syllables the verbal affixes are affected. Beyond the umlaut vowels, the suffixes of umlaut verbs are the same as common verbs. An umlaut verb is immediately identifiable as it takes the infinitive suffix -yn instead of -en.

Analytic Verbs
Analytic verbs in Old Sumrë form a very small class of verbs formed of two words: an auxiliary and an uninflecting verb (without an infinitive suffix). Any TAM information that would typically be marked on the verb is instead marked on the auxiliary. Most verbs from this class are from the Widosiuge language but some are also made up off native nominal stems (which may or may not be in the accusative case). The auxiliary is leren (form the verb leren "to do, to act"). For example the following verbs are analytic. The auxiliary may occur either before or after the verb:


 * ñiñut leren ("to tame a bat")

naar naddarussrivėsamjum nonnajӑma ñiñut leryrs

DEF/man naddarussriv-ADJ-BUZZ-DEL tribe-DEL tame_bat do-3S.PST

"The man from the naddarussriv tribe tamed a bat"
 * sv́d leren ("to roar < sv́d "roar")

Kialge ridwíresȯn raakėsamesȯn, sv́d lerau ribina,

Kialge DEF/thunder-PAR mighty-BUZZ-PAR roar do-3S.DEER screaming_wind-PRO

"Kialge of the mighty thunder, roars with screaming wind,"
 * larsumau leren ("to march to war < larsum "warmarch")

Lerėenk larsumau Wondžohtemat natėė lematėėka,

do-3PL.PST warmarch-ACC.BUZZ Wondžohtem person-ALL.DEER.PL 3SG.POSS.DEER-ALL.PL

"They marched to war, to Wondžohtem's people"

Two-verbs
Two-verbs are those which have been derived from any class of word with the suffix -two. In these verbs -two functions as an infinitive. There are a number of two-verbs which rather end in the suffix -oswu which derives stative verbs from nouns. By analogy of ending in -wV these stative verbs were placed in this category. Instead of the endings ending in -twV they end in -oswV but they are otherwise identical.

Eas-verbs
Eas-verbs are those which have been derived from nouns and adjectives with the suffix -eas to denote and action the results in the noun or adjective. In these verbs -eas functions as an infinitive suffix. In the imperative and supine the -eas suffix is dropped: santeas ("to echo") > sance ("echo!), ksant ("echoing").

D-verbs
D-verbs descend from Proto-Sumro-Letaeric verbs which ended in /Vt/, with the Proto-Sumro-Naukl descendants experiencing lenition when inflected causing the verb class to arise. The first person singular forms are identical to those in Common Verbs, with the rest experiencing an epenthetic d before the suffix.

S-verbs
S-verbs descend from Proto-Sumro-Letaeric verbs which ended in /Vd/, with the Proto-Sumro-Naukl descendants experiencing lenition when inflected causing the verb class to arise. The Old Sumrë forms tend to end in /Vd/. In these verbs only the first person singular differs from Common Verbs.


 * kloden ("to float") > klodas ("I float"), klodar ("you float")

S2-verbs
S2-verbs descend from Proto-Sumro-Letaeric verbs which ended in /Vb/, with the Proto-Sumro-Naukl descendants experiencing lenition when inflected causing the verb class to arise. The Old Sumrë forms tend to end in /Vb/. In this class some vowels shifts happen before person conjugation in all persons except the first person singular. The shifts are a o > ė e. When inflected the final /b/ is dropped.


 * vinoben ("to inscribe") > vinopas ("I inscribe"), viner ("you inscribe").
 * ñeben ("to recollect") > ñepasak ("I recollected"), ñek ("you.pl recollected")

R-verbs
R-verbs descend from Proto-Sumro-Letaeric verbs which ended in /Vs/, with the Proto-Sumro-Naukl descendants experiencing lenition when inflected causing the verb class to arise. The Old Sumrë forms tend to end in /Vk/ though rarer forms can end in /Vf Vd Vv Vt/. R-verbs turn the last consonant into /r/ in all persons except for the first perosn singular. The endings themselves are the same as Common Verbs.


 * disrӑten ("to claim") > disrӑtaa ("I claim"), disryrar ("you claim")
 * switen ("to resemble") > switaa ("I resemble"), swirar ("you resemble")
 * token ("to ride") > tokaa ("I ride"), tyrar ("you ride")
 * dwӑsen ("to wear") > dwӑsaa ("I wear"), dwyrar ("you wear")
 * ilėfen ("to allow, to let") > ilėfaa ("I allow"), ilėrar ("you let")
 * twusen ("to ender") > twusaa ("I enter"), twürar ("you enter")

R2-verbs
R2-verbs descend from Proto-Sumro-Letaeric verbs which ended in /Vk/, with the Proto-Sumro-Naukl descendants experiencing lenition when inflected causing the verb class to arise. The Old Sumrë forms tend to end in /Vk/. In this class some vowel shifts happen before the endings in all persons except the first person singular. The shifts are a o > ė e. When inflected the final /k/ is dropped.


 * üraken ("to row") > ürakaa ("I row"), ürar ("you row")
 * aafyreken ("to propose an offer") > aafyrekaa ("I propose"), aafyrer ("you propose")
 * klaken ("to return") > klakaa ("I return"), klėr ("you return")
 * ansiken ("to roll") > ansikaa ("I roll"), ansirar ("you roll")

Y-verbs
Y-verbs descend from Proto-Sumro-Letaeric verbs which ended in /Vg/, with the Proto-Sumro-Naukl descendants experiencing lenition when inflected causing the verb class to arise. The Old Sumrë forms tend to end in /Vg/. When inflected the /g/ becomes /j/ except in the first person singular. Otherwise the endings are the same as in Common Verbs.


 * slȯgen ("to relax") > slȯgaa ("I relax"), slȯjar ("you relax")
 * irogen ("to wander") > irogaa ("I wander"), irojar ("you wander")
 * iswaagen ("to rest") > iswaagaa ("I rest"), iswaajar ("you rest")
 * alӑgen ("to escape") > alӑgaa ("I escape"), alӑjar ("you escape")
 * esigen ("to listen intently") > esigaa ("I listen"), esijar ("you listen")

H-verbs
H-verbs descend from Proto-Sumro-Letaeric verbs which ended in /Vq/, with the Proto-Sumro-Naukl descendants experiencing lenition when inflected causing the verb class to arise. The Old Sumrë forms tend to end in /Vk/ but may also end in /Vg/. When inflected the /Vk/ becomes /h/ except in the first person singular. If there was a plosive before the final /Vk/ then the h assimilated as post-aspiration on the plosive. Otherwise the endings are the same as in Common Verbs.


 * öldӑken ("to get dressed") > öldӑkaa ("I get get dressed"), öldhar ("you get dressed").
 * basvagen ("to hate") > basvagaa ("I hate"), basvhar ("you hate")
 * tülaken ("to shoot") > tülakaa ("I shoot"), tülahar ("you shoot").

Passive
To form a phrase such as "to be X-ed by Y", Old Sumrë cannot use the passive suffix on the verb as it is infinitive in this case and so is unable to take on any other morphology besides the infinitive suffix -en. To get around this the copula is placed after the verb preceding verb and the main verb is placed in the supine in the comitative case and the theme is placed in the dative case.

skoht-ӑk-ti-pos emnen k-jėr-es Vaint-ȯȯ,

can-3S.PST-PASS-SUBJ be.INF SUP-use-COM Vainti-DAT

"it could be used by the Vainti"

Verbs of manner vs verbs of motion
In Old Sumrë there is a morphological distinction between verbs of manner and verbs of motion e.g sbaarnaas larélӑb ("I swam in the river") vs vlasbaarnaas sӑӑnnüty ("I swam to a river island"). There are various prefixes that derive verbs of motion from verbs of manner. when attached to the supine, the prefixes go before the supine prefix.

vla- "direct motion towards" When the subject of the verb is moving directly towards the reference point, the prefix vla- is used on the verb: rusál ȯññyrak ("the bird flew") vs rusál vlaȯññyrak ñokáta ("the bird flew to the forest").

id- "onto, into, at" When the subject if moving to the surface of the reference point, say by climbing, the prefix id- is used. The exact meaning of the prefix is determined by which case the noun is inflected for. If the noun is in the superessive case then the prefix means "onto, upon": rusál apӑ́tryl idhircyrk ("the bird landed on the skull"), nim jamsáryl idovwirӑ́sistyrs vagómpӑӑ ("the woman placed the pot on the fire"). But if the noun is in the illative case then the prefix means "into, in, inside"): rusál apӑcȯb idȯññyrak ("the bird flew into the skull"), nim jamsájȯb idovwiryrsistyrs rӑstálau ("the woman placed the leaf in the fire").

we- "away from, out of" When the subject is moving away from the reference point, the prefix is we-: werumaas ñukajӑma ("I am walking out of a forest")

śpa- "from out under" When the subject is moving from out under the reference point, the prefix is śpa- and the noun is placed in the delative case: saválh myrgjӑm śpasumatyrs ("the larva is coming from out under a log")

tgi- "from behind" When the subject is moving from behind the reference point, the prefix is tgi- and the noun is placed in the delative case: sӑké slafawójӑma tgisbirnӑs ("the whale swam out from behind the iceberg").

Verbal Nouns
There are two main ways of deriving a verbal noun, either the supine form is used or the gerund. The gerund is formed by adding the suffix -ta the the verb stem: mylmen, ñakikeas, kyren ("to hunt, to cook, to wash") > mylmta, ñakikta, kyrta ("hunting, cooking, washing"). Supines are a bit more complex in their formation. It is formed with the prefix k- and the removal of the infinitive suffix -en. This prefix causes changes to the stem itself. If the verb stem begins in a plosive then the plosive will lenite as shown below. If the verb stem begins in a cluster then when the k- prefix is attached it will place an /a/ between the cluster in the stem (but not in the cluster with the prefix).The table below will explain how it is treated in each situation. When in the supine the verb's infinitive suffix will drop. If the verb stem ends in the approximants /j/ or /w/ then these will vocalise into /i/ and /u/ when word final. If the stem with the infinitive suffix removed ends in m n, l, r, s,v then these will become syllabic. Also note that any verbs derived with a verbalising suffix from another part of speech will drop the suffix in the supine.

The supine can also be used to be "act of X", or as an abstract noun:

khahinhedɫ emens sėa

SUP-depict be.3S sacred

"depiction is sacred"

The supine is also used to make compounds where it is compounded with a noun, where the noun is destined or made for the purpose of the supine verb. Such a compound is called a "Supine Compound":


 * térȯn ("wood") > khug ( térȯnkhug ("chopping wood")
 * syr ("cloth") > khyr ( syrkhyr ("wash cloth, sponge")

=Adverbs=

Old Sumrë adverbs are a very open class system where adjective are turned into adverbs by adding a suffix. Which suffix is used depends on the number ad gender of the subject as the adverb always agrees with the subject of the verb. Adverbs always follow the subject or inflected verb if the subject is a dropped pronoun.

Note that when after /t/ and /d/, the /s/ of the suffix causes the resulting cluster to become /t͡ʃ/ or /d͡ʒ/.

Examples:

The adverb erhede denotes an action that was about to happen, but didn't:
 * amaawatár beročȯn ñakyrs atjádau ("the buzzard quickly ate the bread")
 * larná laawasȯna giryrs ("the soldier fought well")
 * lamáb laawasȯnos mylmyrs lamánau ("the trapper hunted the deer well")
 * astӑbó pėjasonbo nonyrs ("the cobweb split easily")


 * mylmsaa erhedes lomanau (hunt- about_to deer-) ("I was about to hunt a deer, but didn't")

Marking moods with adverbs
Some adverbs are used to mark grammatical mood. Most typically these adverbs are derived from nouns or adjectives in the comitative case. These mood marking adverbs do not take any form of agreement.

Jussive mood
The adverb vyres ("must, have to") is from the stem vos ("compulsion") in the comitative case. This marks an action required by the speaker but also an action or truth that the speaker believes should happen.


 * mylmaa vyres lomanau (hunt- compulsion- deer- ("I must hunt a deer")
 *  hӑsar vyresmu lústastasau (throw- compulsion- fruit-{Smallcaps|col.pl}} ("you shouldn't throw fruit")

Conditional mood
The adverb apalësasa marks the conditional mood. This derives from the adjective apalësa ("ambiguous").


 * sumaaut apalėsasa (travel- ambiguous- ("I would walk")

Hortative mood
The hortative mood is used to mark encouragement. When negative this acts as a light imperative. This is marked with the adverb tûs.


 * sumar tӑs amubénat! (travel- \mountain- ("you should travel to the mountain!")
 * sumar tӑsmu amubénat (travel- \mountain- ("you shouldn't travel to the mountain")

Adverbial clauses
In Old Sumrë there are several types of adverbial clauses relating to duration, time and purpose. These adverb clauses are marked with a mixture of locative nouns and cases and unlike single word adverbs they do not agree to the subject although the do always follow it.

Adverb of purpose
To state an adverb of purpose such as "so that" or "in order to" you take the locative noun akiste ("forward") and place it in the dative case to become akistȯ, this causes the subject of the adverbial clause to be placed in the genitive case. Here the locative noun, recipient of the purpose and the verb all form the adverb clause. Here I will place the adverbial clauses in brackets.

(rána akistȯ ñakyr)

DEF/dog-GEN forward-DAT eat-3S.BUZZ

"so that the dog eats" This sentence quite literally translates as "to the the dog's forward it eats".

This sentence literally translates as "he let your forward you will die you to live". The adverb clause is tara akístȯ nӑreasirud ("so that you will die") which is after the subject ilėfyrk ("he will let") (conjugated verbs count as subjects when the subject is not a noun). If we take away the adverb clause we are left with ilėfyrk tarau anten ("he let you live").
 * mylmaa (rána akistȯ ñakyr) lomanaum (hunt- \dog- forward- eat- deer-) ("I hunt deer so that the dog can eat")
 * ilėfyrk (tara akistȯ nӑreasirud) tarau anten (let- your forward- die- you- live-) ("He let you live so that you will die")

To summarise the structure of purposeful adverb clauses is: "subject- akistȯ verb" with the verb being conjugated for the subject within the clause.

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.

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 joč ("while") is placed.
 * mawós ontasė kwonӑrk (\mammoth day- graze-) ("The mammoth grazes for days")

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 joč, 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.
 * sow joc krumes fumӑstӑk (wind while -walk- blow-) ("the wind blew while I walked")
 * tar kiaratylje mylmñürȯ tarȯ joc emes kvedes astálgeė ( listen- brother- while be- -repair- \glove-) ("listen to your brother while I repair the glove")
 * lyraaupra panarareas joc emes klustes lustastasȯ (like- sing- while be- -sing- fruit-) ("I like to sing while I pluck fruit")

Adverb of condition
The adverb of condition which translates as "providing that" or "on the condition that" is marked with the locative anwa ("against") placed in the dative case to become anwô while causing the subject of the adverb clause to take the genitive case. This sentence literally means "I will hunt of me against I may eat a portion beside it the deer?".
 * mylmaaut (ma anwȯ ñakaautpos blӑdau lemyrsȯn) lamánau (hunt- me- against- eat- portion it- \deer-) ("I will hunt the deer on the condition that I may eat a portion of it")

=Conjunctions=


 * -ak, -ka (“and” - NP, AP)

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

snár saósak töölėenk ñukürkăă nimkyrkăăka

DEF/boy DEF/girl-CONJ become-3P.PST husband-ACC wife-ACC-CONJ

"the boy and girl became sweethearts"


 * ak (“and” - VP, AdP)

Lañé aihkdoăk ak skohtăkmu rumen awóndăb

DEF/mother fall-3S.DEER.PST and know-3S.DEER.PST.NEG walk-INF DEF-cave-ILL

"The mother fell and she couldn’t walk in the cave"


 * nonses (“in turn” - lit “with change”)

Măt nonses töölėenk mylmarpăă

but change-COM become-3P.PST hunt-3P.NOMI-ACC

"but in turn they became the hunted”


 * rakăses (“such so, such that, with this in mind” - lit “with idea”)

Rakăses khiapusărk Mnojăă nimga lomanan lemyrȯ

idea-COM sent-3S.BUZZ.PST mnoja-ACC.DEER daughter deer-GEN.PL 3S.BUZZ.DAT

"Such so that he sent out Mnoja his daughter of the deer"


 * ton (“as”)

Wondžohtem gėnărk ton skŕ ki

wondžohtem grow-3S.BUZZ.PST as man when

"When Wondžohtem grew into a man"


 * žprege (“because”)

Žprege rėnărk grĕi tȯngasa sikka Naddarussrrivesȯn

because speak-3S.BUZZ.PST often praise-COM about naddarussrriv-PAR

"Because he often spoke with praise about the Naddarussrriv"


 * sėkyl (“because”)

Sėkyl lowtaras mau, lomylmik mewodaar,

because help.2S.PST 1S.ACC fake rewarding

"Because you helped me, a rewarding fate"


 * aar (“except”)


 * go (“or”)

Tiláb meridimu loman go suda

DEF/creature be.3S.BUZZ.PST-NEG deer or pig

"The creature wasn’t a deer or a pig"


 * hen (“if”)


 * măt (“but”)

Wondžohtem estamesărk disgarau măt estamesărk gles obwitanau

Wondžohtem have-3S.BUZZ.PST victory-ACC.BUZZ but have-3S.BUZZ.PST still worry-ACC.BUZZ

"Wondžohtem had victory but he still had worry"


 * joc (“while”)

Nė magjėė sv́d lerėenk asujȯb joc meridan larsumau kler

person.NOM.PL angry-NOM.PL roar do-3P.PST DEF-air-ILL while be.3P.PST war_walk-ACC.BUZZ SUP-do

"The angry people roared into the air as they marched"


 * sonesak (“therefore” - lit “and with that”)

Sonesak niláf ledlărk tobḿ estomăă anúftȯ leralėsamȯ ak finbalărk lemyrau amáut

that-COM-CONJ DEF/grass wrap-3S.BUZZ.PST around leg-ACC.DEER.PL DEF-fool-DAT scared-BUZZ-DAT and trap-3S.BUZZ.PST 3S.BUZZ.ACC DEF-ground-ALL

"Therefore the grass wrapped around the coward’s legs and trapped him to the ground"


 * sonesakmu (“despite”)


 * tiwa (“despite”)

Estomausėė tinasėė lgeasisėė twurăk wondaum, tiwa wosistăk,

leg-COM.PL short-COM.PL quick-COM.PL enter-3S.DEER.PST cave-ACC.PL despite thirst-3S.DEER.PST

”With quick short legs he entered the cave, despite being thirsty”


 * üri (“instead, rather”)

=Syntax=

= Derivational Processes =

Lexicalisation of Definite Nouns
Definite nouns which place the high pitch on the final syllable are the only exception to Old Sumrë's pitch accent which typically falls on the penultimate syllable. A definite noun can be lexicalised by shifting the high pitch onto the penultimate syllable while retaining the vowel mutation as a form of noun derivation. Nouns derived this way tend to have cultural importance. For example the noun tyli ("preventer") takes the definite form of talí ("the preventer") which is lexicalised as tali ("ditch surrounding the Vintakues Henge that prevents people entering"). These new nouns can themselves be made definite by the regular process by assigning the new words to definite classes based on the vowel in the initial syllable. A good example of this is the noun nȯkatwi ("imitator"), derived from the verb nȯkatwio ("to imitate") which being a class 1 noun has the definite form of nukatwí ("the imitator"). This can then be lexicalised by shifting the pitch to the penultimate syllable: nucatwi ("wooden duck placed on a lake shore to attract other ducks to settle for the purpose of hunting" or quite literally "the imitator"). Nukatwi is then analysed as a class 2 noun due to having /u/ in the first syllable and so has the definite form of nokatwí. In a rather extreme example nokatwí was itself lexicalised into nokatwi to refer to the large bird statue carved from stone which lies near the coast in Gwozhaltasyr, being analysed as a class 3 noun with the definite form of nakatwí ("the nokatwi"). Since the carving of a similar statue in 2000AN some speakers have taken this even further and refer to the older statue as nakátwi by lexicalising the definite form of the statue's older name.

Examples:


 * sööldu ("prediction") > siildú ("the prediction") > siildu ("apocalypse")
 * pronpė ("glutton") > pranpė ("the glutton") > pranpė ("giant") - not that the high pitch is not marked in the orthography when it falls on ė
 * uevug ("force, compulsion") > ȯevúg ("the force") > ȯevug ("gravity")

Nominalising Phrases
Old Sumrë uses the suffix -aski to nominalise entire phrases into a single noun. When this suffix is applied every word in the phrase is compounded and the usual morphophonotactics apply. For example the phrase dülh balsáfajӑma ("a ball (made) from rotten snow") is nominalised as dulbalsafajӑmaaski ("a snowball that is made of rotten snow") where the pitch accent shifted to the penultimate syllable and [ç] was lost in its non-final position and before a consonant.


 * derku raagen ("antler to trim") > derkuraagenaski ("shedded antler that can be used to make carvings from")
 * tarau osruaa gim ("I hug you tight") > tarauosruaagimaski ("python")

Agentives
There are various forms of agentive suffixes that can derive from nouns, adjectives and verbs. They are: the human agentive, animal agentive, inanimate agentive and locative agentive. If the verb was derived with a verbalising suffix then this suffix is lost before the agentive endings.

The human agentive is formed with the suffix -na (cf na "person, human"): mylmen, ñakikeas, kyren ("to hunt, to cook, to wash") > mylmna, ñakikna, kyrna ("hunter, cook, washer").

The animal agentive is formed with the suffix -al: mylmen, saawaken, kyren ("to hunt, to dig, to wash") > mylmal, saawakal, kyral ("predator, mole, dolphin") - Knowing the nature of this suffix the words sumal ("foot") and estal ("hand"), derived from sumen ("to travel") and esten ("to carry"), will suddenly look odd and out of place, as if they were referring to animals instead of body parts. The explanation is that sumal and estal are the results of the fact that in very early Old Sumrë the animal agent suffix -al and the inanimate agent suffix -i were in fact synonyms and both referred to inanimate objects. It wasn't until just before the golden age that -al came to refer to animals only.

The inanimate agentive is formed with the suffix -i. This suffix is most productive in forming the names of tools. These nouns inflect like O-nouns: rėnen, örjen, pӑktwo ("to speak, to feel, to reach") > rėni, örji, pӑki ("mouth, finger, log or beam that can be used as a bridge").

The locative agentive serves to derive placenames from dynamic verbs with the suffix -swa to insinuate the effect that the place has: ñaken, termutre, emnen ("to eat, to smash, to be") > Ñakswa, Termutreswa, Emnswa - Ñasswa is a boggy marshland in modern day southern Meddiorn that is so muddy that the feet of a person standing there will sink into the mud, almost as if the land was eating them. Termutreswa is a place at the bottom of the Meddiorn mountain Mo So Seie in modern day Meddiorn. The name was given as there is a huge scree on the western face of the mountain and quite often large rocks would be sent plummeting down the mountain and batter the ground below. The sound made by this is thought to be the whisper of the spirits as indeed Mo So Seie in the Meddió language means "mountain of the gods". Emnswa refers to the whole universe.

Diminutives
There are various diminutive suffixes which are: Non-human, male, female and child,.

The male diminutive is formed with the suffix -ñür which is an irregular S-plural suffix with the irregular plural forms -ñus (nom.pl), -ñudӑs (acc.pl), -ñudes (gen.pl), -ñudod (dat.pl). anso, kugo, gar ("white, axe, sorrow") > ansoñür, kugoñür, garñür ("man with naturally white hair, man assigned to do menial tasks around camp, taboo word for leaf").

The female diminutive is formed with the suffix -ñe: anso, asil, ryl ("white, sun, bitch dog") > ansoñe, Asilñe, rylñe ("woman with naturally white hair, sun goddess, sweetheart").

The child diminutive is formed with the suffix -ka: anso, dwylja, magja ("white, speckled, angry") > ansoka, dwyljaka, magjaka ("child's milk tooth, freckled child, grumpy child")

Active and Passive Nominalisers
There is one method of noun formation that doesn't have a single suffix but rather a set. This set of suffixes came from a Proto-Sumro-Naukl practice of deriving nouns from verb phrases by attaching past and present participle suffixes onto conjugated verbs, over time sound changes caused the person agreement and participle suffixes to fuse into a new set of nominaliser suffixes that agree with person and voice. The suffixes that descend from the present participles form the "active nominalisers" while those that descend from the past participles form the "passive nominalisers". These suffixes mostly derive from verbs but are able to derive from nouns and adjectives also. The active nominaliser creates a noun meaning "that which is, that which does" while the passive nominaliser forms nouns meaning "that which was, that which X-ed, that which was X-ed". It is incredibly common for personal names to be derived in this manner.

Active Nominalisers
* If the stem ends in /a/, then the vowel is lengthened.


 * ansotwo ("to purify") > ansot ("I who purifies")
 * örjen ("to feel, to perceive") > örjat ("he who perceives")
 * hȯkar ("cold") > hȯkarast ("I who is cold")
 * serpes ("chaos") > serpesast ("I who is chaos")

Locative equivalents exist to create placenames. These are formed by placing the suffix -sӑn ("there") onto bare verb stems such as -gėnsӑn ("where X-plant grows"), -tšigsӑn ("where X-bird sings").


 * Cvėrrtėsalamsӑn ("Where the melodic ones live")

Passive Nominalisers

 * ansotwo > ansosi ("I who was purified, I the purified one")
 * örjen > örjasi ("he who is perceived")
 * hȯkar > hȯkarsi ("I who was cold")
 * serpes > sepresi ("I who was chaos")

The "former suffix" -cuo can be attached to give a sense of "former" to such nouns: ansosicuo ("I, who formerly purified"), ȯrjasicuo ("he who formerly perceived")

The nominalisers are most active in creating proper nouns, in fact a large number of personal names in Old Sumrë are formed this way:


 * Ansivarnaat: a female name, ("I, the lofty one")
 * Artwomut: a male name, ("I who reveals")
 * Garkasi: a unisex name, ("I, the orphaned one")
 * Larėsart: a male name, ("he who is warlike")
 * Dӑvart: a male name, ("he who is dark")
 * Dwyljaat: a male name, ("I who is speckled")
 * Ilajӑtir: a female name, ("she who is graceful")

Sidenote: The name of the mythical hero Altasi, the human son of the wniter god Oskül, was formed in a similar way. Altasi travelled the four worlds to battle with the storm god Peryl to end the rampaging storm on Malomanan. After the battle Altasi fell back to the human world but erupted into flame when falling through the sky. It may seem that the name derives from a word like *alta with the suffix -si attached but this is not the case as there is no such word as *alta. This word was crafted back in the days of Proto-Sumro-Naukl from the verb stem *hicalta- ("to combust") which conjugated as hicaltas ("I combust"). This was then nominalised with the past participle suffix -i (the very same one which spawned the passive nominaler suffixes) to create *hicaltasi ("I have combusted" or "I, the one that combusted") which was used for the noun "meteor". This noun passed into Proto-Sumric as the stem *altesi- which would then form Old Sumrë's Altasi.The PSN verb stem *hicalta- passed into Proto-Sumric as *altə- ("to ignite") which then became Old Sumrë alaten ("to catch flame, to burn"). If you were to derive a passive nominal from this you would end up with alaci ("I, the one who caught flame") which so happens to be an alternative name for the sun goddess Asilñe.

Double Verb Compounds
Nouns can be formed by attaching two noun stems together. Before being compounded the verb infinitive is removed from both nouns for example eosen ("to appear") and sumen ("to travel") are compounded as: eossum ("order"). This method of derivation is also the only way that giant names in Sumric mythology are formed: Sgrümtyr < sgrümen ("to bunch up, to bundle, to crinkle, to squeeze") + taren ("to revive, to restore, to heal, to make whole"), Larswör < laren ("to battle") + swören ("to charge at, to chase off, to intimidate") and Labhӑs < laben ("to hold") + hӑsen ("to throw").


 * eosen ("to appear") + sumen ("to travel") > eossum ("order")
 * mölen ("to point, to focus") + natšen ("to speak out loud, to announce") > mölnatš ("hope, reason")

Plural Derivation
In Old Sumrë, as with languages in general, inflection prevents derivation. An example in English would be how sock can become sockless but socks can't become *socksless. So inflected forms of stems don't allow to have new words derived form them. However one exception to this in Old Sumrë is when the noun typically occurs in groups or numbers more than one. For example for "fish" is misg yet ("to fish") is misjėtwo. Here the verb deriving suffix -two attaches to misjė ("fish.pl") instead of the singular misg. This is because fish are typically caught in groups using nets (fishing with rods and hooks is much less popular among the Sumnė). From misjėtwo the noun misjėna ("fisherman") can be derived however a derogatory word for "fisherman" is misgna (with a side meaning of "imbecile") which is derived from the singular, implying that one is a poor fisherman to catch only one fish.

Other Nominalising Affixes
Below are a few examples of derivational affixes. For the complete list see Old Sumrë affixes.

Former suffix: -cuo
The former suffix -cuo (from Proto-Sumric *tsyo- "to stop, to end", this root never survived in Old Sumrë but can be found in Hajec as tsio "to prevent, to block") attaches to nouns and derives terms which mean "that which was formerly a X" or "that which used to be X". It is fairly analogous to the "ex-" prefix in English. Which exact noun is derived depends a lot on what noun is was derived from.

When attached to the names of trees, it derived a more specific meaning referring to a log that came from a tree. When derived from names of saplings it derives a meaning of "staff from X tree". There is one instance where s- and -cuo function together as one circumfix s- -cuo meaning "staff of X-tree" where the staff was not made from a sapling. This occurs in the word soskularacӑccuo ("staff made from the love tree" - the love tree being a single, huge tree from sumric myth). Since this tree doesn't reproduce, there are no saplings and as such soskülarakӑt ("sapling of the love tree") is grammatically fine but totally unattested. Rather in this one case it seems that s- -cuo was analysed as a circumfix.


 * somwes ("pine tree") > somwescuo ("log from a pine tree")


 * ossomwes ("pine tree sapling") > ossomwescuo ("staff made from a pine tree sapling")


 * tӑӑga ("fir tree") > tügacuo ("log from a fir tree")


 * stӑӑga ("fir tree sapling") > stӑӑgacuo ("staff made from a fir tree sapling")

When attached to the name of food, it derives a meaning of "crumb of", or ""remains of" if the food is meat


 * otja ("bread") > otjacuo ("breadcrumb")


 * pron ("crisp") > proncuo ("crisp crumb")


 * algwyra ("caught fish") > algwyracuo ("remains of an eaten fish")

When attached to the names of animals, it derives a meaning of "fur/hide/down/skin of"


 * ovahȯ ("seal") > ovahȯcuo ("sealskin")


 * terdak ("cat") > terdakcuo ("cat hide")


 * tint ("goose") > tinncuo ("goose down")

Time Of suffix: -stas
-stas (from Proto-Sumric *əsts- "moment, period"). In Proto-Sumric it also acted as a suffix, when it did the schwa, being medial, was lost in Old Sumrë and an epenthetic /a/ was placed between the final /ts/. When it derived as a stem however the initial schwa became /ʌ/ and the final cluster didn't gain the epenthetic schwa so it was subject to a later sound change of stC  → sCː. This resulted in PS *əsts- becoming the Old Sumrë noun ӑss ("moment, pause"), cognate to Hajec ists ("hour"). The suffix -stas attaches to the supine form of verbs to signify the time for doing or of doing an act:


 * keos (supine of eosen "to appear") > keosstas ("appointment, arranged time for meeting")
 * kpӑk (supine of pӑktwo "to cross, to reach") > kpӑkstas ("part of a journey where one must cross a river")

To derive a term to signify "to time for/of" but for a noun, this can be achieved indirectly by deriving a verb from the noun using the suffixes -utre ("to utilize, make use of"), -oswu ("to be devoted) or -two ("general verb to noun suffix") and then creating a supine form of this verb and then applying the -stas suffix. Most verbs derived for this specific use have little to no attestation elsewhere, for example there is the derivation pron ("crisp") > *pronoswu ("to be devoted to crisps") > *kpronoswu ("supine verb") > kpronoswustas ("crisp time, time for eating crisps") yet the verb *pronoswu is unattested so an inflected form such as *pronoswuaa'' is ungrammatical.


 * ammyli ("rope") > kammyluutrstas ("any activity which requires rope, part of a journey when it is so dark at night or when there is whiteout, that the travellers tie one long rope to each other and walk in single file so as not to lose each other")
 * tilru ("berry") > ksilrooswustas ("time for berry picking")

This type of noun is often used as interjections. Such as if a blizzard starts while a group is travelling one may shout kammyluutrstas! while getting out his rope. To construct a sentence such as "it is time for X to do Y" or "it is the time when Y does X", it is common to say tomyr X-stas sȯ Y which literally translates as ("it heralds X-time for Y"). Here are some examples:

tom-yr k-pӑk-stas sȯ maatarȯm

herald-3SG.BUZZ SUP-cross-time_of for 1PL.INCL.DAT

"It is time for us to cross the river"

tom-yr k-silr-oowsu-stas sȯ raakal-kal

herald-3SG.BUZZ SUP-berry-devotion-time+of for bear-COL

"Is it the time when bears pick berries"

Collective concepts
Nouns that express concepts of a collective can only take the singular as they represent the concept as an indivisible whole.

Collection of a certain characteristic
The prefix c- attaches to adjectives to derives collective nouns that have the quality of the adjective.


 * digӑn ("doomed") → cdigӑn ("the doomed")
 * ablon ("cruel") → cablon ("the cruel")
 * rotan ("curly") → crotan ("the curly (ones)")
 * sihti ("responsible") → ccihti ("the responsible ones")

The resulting nouns are collective nouns and can have singulatives derived from them with the suffix -(a)nc with a meaning of ("one of the X ones") or ("X one").


 * cdigӑnanc ("one of the doomed, a doomed person/thing")
 * cablonanc ("one of the cruel, a cruel person/thing")
 * crotananc ("one of the curly, a curly (haired) person/thing")
 * ccihtinc ("one of the responsible ones, a responsible person/thing")

ribsidi c-rotan-anc?

be.2SG.INT COL-curly-SGV

"are you one of the curly ones?"

rimbas tara c-cihti-nc-ė

be.3PL.PST 2SG.GEN COL-responsible-SGV-PL

"They were the ones responsible for you"

Collection of beings
The suffix -ci derives names for groups or collections of beings.


 * kler ("friend") > klerci ("social circle")
 * pėjyl ("hero") > pėjylci ("heroism")
 * na ("person") > naci ("humanity")

=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.

Sė ontasa panarasa

this day-COM beautiful-DEER-COM

"on this beautiful day"

skėrė nimėka pylėenk lomau ralmau

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

"Men and women have hewn a long path"

maatanboha akistȯ skohtül sumen maataranbin makubin

1PL.INCL.POSS.GEN forward-DAT know-1PL.INCL travel-INF 1PL.INCL.POSS.PRO world-PRO

"So that we can travel through our world"

biñasa stoauti apalėsasa sėanabinėė salėabinėė

hope-COM protect-3SG.PL-PASS ambigious-COM god-PRO.DEER.PL old-PRO.DEER.PL

"may it be protected by the old gods"

biñasa asíl peürótak spupėenpos nylkirau lemyryl

hope-COM DEF/sun DEF/moon shine-3PL-SUBJ light-ACC 3SG.BUZZ.SUPER

"may the sun and moon shine light over it"

sumalė nȯȯm joc krumes

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

"as peoples' feet walk"