Naumes

Naumes vocabulary

Naumes affixes

Naumes names

Naumes monster names

=Phonology=

Allophony

 * 1) An epenthetic schwa is placed after word final voiced plosives.

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

Due to contact with Tuuric languages, Naumes has a stress accent where bisyllabic and trisyllabic words stress the second consonant and on longer words the penultimate syllables bear the stress.

Phonological History
V1(C)(C){r l n}# → V1(C)(C){r l n}V1 (if V1 is a diphthong, only the second element was reduplicated)

r l → ∅/F_

l →∅/C_C

ɣ → h V_V

Vx Vɣ→ Vi Vu

∅→ɵ/#_CC


 * 1) VC1C2 → #C1VC2! V = diphthong

z→∅

g>i/V_$

g>j/V_V

D>Də/_#

iː aː > ei au

eː oː > æ ɵ

x ɣ > ∅

{bʷʰ dʷʰ} gʷʰ > v ʒ

bʷ dʷ gʷ > gʷ

i u>e o/_#

i u e o > e o æ ɑ/_{h,ɦ}

i e æ > əi̯/$(closed)

u o ɑ > əu̯/$(closed)

{ia iɑ} {ea eɑ} æi uo oʊ ɑʊ > i e æ u o ɑ/$(closed)

w>∅

=Noun Phrase=

Case and Number
Nominal morphology of Modern Naumes is quite simpler in many ways than that of Middle Naumes. Many of the various groups and subgroups of nouns merged together due to a mass leveling of nominal paradigms. The subgroups 1 2 3 10 of buzzard nouns collapsed into one declension following the pattern of Middle Naumes common noun, although many nouns retain an irregular nom.pl form as a remnant of the Middle Naumes declensions. The subgroups 4 5 6 7 8 9 shifted gender to become deer nouns due to how they ended in vowels (as do typical deer nouns). The subgroups 2 3 4 of deer nouns merged with subgroup 1 although some nouns did retain an irregular nom.pl form. Zero-grade nouns were also leveled as either buzzard or deer nouns based upon their nom.sg forms (those that ended in consonants became inflected as buzzard nouns, those that ended in vowels became inflected as deer nouns. All other declension of nouns such as Geo-nouns, B-nouns, O-nouns etc were leveled as either buzzard or deer nouns depending on whether they ended in a vowel or consonant.

The fairly irregular paucal number of Middle Naumes was also lost.

The case system itself was trimmed down on in Naumes, with the locative cases the allative, comitative, delative and prolative being lost, leaving only the nominative, accusative, genitive, dative and three vocative cases. The dative case is now used when anything locative related is required.

An effect of all this leveling was the complete loss of the animate and inanimate genders entirely.

Buzzard Gender
In the affectionate vocative singular the suffix -l causes the closest leftward vowel to be reduplicated after it. Reduplicated /əi əu/ become /e o/: gàin ("granddaughter") > gàinle ("dear granddaughter"). If said noun is /i u/ then it gets reduplicated as /e o/.

Irregular Buzzard Nouns
The following nouns have irregular forms in the nominative plural, note that these are not the whole list of all the irregular nouns:
 * gàin ("granddaughter") > geagwe
 * mohvàun ("mountain") > mohvoue

Deer Nouns
The final vowel of the deer noun is removed before applying the Nom, acc, gen and dat suffix but kept for the vocatives.

The deer affectionate vocative singular behaves as it does in the buzzard gender.

Irregular Deer Nouns
The following nouns have irregular forms in the nominative plural, note that these are not the whole list of all the irregular nouns:
 * óele ("knife") > oili
 * daló ("sword") > dáloi
 * salá ("flower") > salahfe
 * tho ("finger") > thoie
 * sögwū ("tattoo") > sögwo
 * day ("shrew") > dáie
 * dauáu ("cat") > dadhe

Topicalisation
Topic marking in Naumes differs from it's Sumric relatives by how there is no different ways to form it between men and women. The reason for this is that Early on when Naumes was diverging from Middle Naumes, many men were kept busy away at wars so young boys grew into adolescence with no fathers or men around to pick up the male form of topicalisation, rather they had only learned how to topicalise nouns from the speech of their mothers and other woman around the villages. As such the female version of topicalisation (termed "weak topicalisation" in sumric linguistics) became the default and only way to topicalise. The various roles of nouns that are topicalised are known as shades. Adjectives that follow the copula may also be topicalised in the same manner as nouns. The closest translation to Naumes's topicalisation into English is the definite article "the".

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

l-ialono mau-ælæ elö-∅

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

"the wolf hunt's the sloth"

l-aude inai-á uzi-ö

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

"the rat ate the bread"

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

ele-∅ jalono mau-á

TOP.sloth wolf hunt-3S.PST

"a wolf hunted the sloth"

uzi-ö aude inai-á

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

"A rat ate the bread"

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

óel-ö nogwau-au

TOP.knife-DAT cut-1S

"I cut with the knife"

Adjective Phrase
Naumes adjectives must agree to the noun they modify in gender, case and number. Adjectives agreeing with the buzzard and deer genders do this by taking on the same endings as the nouns.

Agreeing with Buzzard nouns
If the adjective ends in a consonant then no change is needed and can be inflected as is:

When the final consonant of the adjective is m, in the consonant becomes ∅, ∅, y when taking on a suffix beginning in a vowel. If the nasal is part of a consonant cluster then an a is inserted. when inflected. This is due to Old Naumes a being lost in closed syllables. If the vowel of the stem is broken then it will unbreak when taking a suffix beginning in a vowel
 * ràulm ("long") > ralae ("long-")

If the adjective ends in a vowel then it is suffixed with -m which becomes -∅- when another suffix beginning in a vowel is attached.
 * sau ("holy, sacred") > saum ("holy-") > saue ("holy-")
 * mayia ("strong") > mayiam ("strong-") > mayiae ("strong-")

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

If the adjective ends in a consonant then the suffix -a is added. If the consonant was m, in then it becomes ∅, y.
 * sam ("broken") > sa ("broken-") > saæ ("broken-")

Personal Pronouns
Singular Pronouns

Plural Pronouns

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

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

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

raiá jàus gamu-ö sau

tree SUBR SUP-be-DAT old

"tree that is/was/will be old"

airá jàus gövav-ö àudn-m

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

"fisherman who hates/hated/will hate jellyfish"

au jàus göb-ö naus-m

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

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

=Verb Phrase=

Conjugation
Naumes has three classes of verbs which are Common verbs, Eas-verbs and Two-verbs. All verbs are negated by placing the negative particle àirmo after the verb. Verbs are made infinitive with the suffix -nV (the V is the final vowel of the verb stem reduplicated after the infinitive suffix). The future tense of Middle Naumes was lost but it is now marked in Modern Naumes by attaching the suffix -da onto the present tense verb. This is from the Middle Naumes hortitive particle daz. The near past tense was dropped due to the suffixes becoming were similar to the present tense forms.

Much like nouns, verbs experienced a lot of analogy. Many of the odd stem changes of Middle Naumes were leveled out. Long vowel stems were leveled to become inflected as any other common verb.

Unlike Middle Naumes, Modern Naumes requires that the subject be explicitly marked via a subject pronoun always, even for the third persons when a noun is explicit e.g gàin laulo àukdá ("the granddaughter knew" or "the granddaughter she knew").

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

The V in -lV is the reduplicated vowel of the stem.

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

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

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

Subjunctive Mood
The personal endings in the subjunctive mood all merged due to becoming very similar sounding. As such each set of verb has onto two subjunctive suffixes; one for the present and one for the past which do not agree to the subject. The suffixes directly descend from the third person singular buzzard forms of Middle Naumes.

Imperative Mood
The imperative is marked with the suffix -ia on the verb stem. If the verb stem ends in a vowel then the suffix is -ija. If the verb stem ends in a single consonant following a broken vowel, the vowel unbreaks:
 * yödhàirne ("to abandon") > yödheria
 * ouine ("to be similar") > ouija

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

Interrogative mood
The Naumes interrogative is formed quite irregularly, with each verb having an irregular interrogative verb stem which derives from infixation of nasals in the first syllable in Old Sumrë. Here are some interrogative stems:
 * sauno ("to think") > sàum-
 * thiàurno ("to starve") > thionn-
 * àukdna ("to know") > köd-
 * möiolno ("to show") > möyoul-
 * saoino ("to invade") > sannau-

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

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

saoi-æhfa-ra

invade-1S.SUB-PASS

"Were I being invaded"

Supine
The supine is a verbal noun used to describe motion and indicates purpose and intention, or as a predicate of another verb.It can also be used to derive abstract nouns or nouns relating to an action. The supine form of a verb is ultimately irregular although they always begin with g. Here are some examples:

Adjective Participle
Adjective participles are derived from verbs with the suffixes -ini (for agreeing with buzzard noun), -iogwa (for agreeing with deer nouns). These are made negative by attaching the suffix -mo.
 * sauinu ("to dig" - sau-) > sauini, sauiogwa

Past Participle
Past participles are derived from verbs with the suffixes -é (buzzard), -ia (deer). The negative forms are -eimo, -iaou.
 * sauini ("to dig") > saué, sauia

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

Some verbs which begin in m, n, h experience a shift of these consonants to b, d, y when the motion prefixes are attached. This is due to a sound change which nasalised word initial geminate plosives and so the application of prefixes to affected verbs blocked this change. However telling which verbs beginning in m, n, h experience this shift can't be determined by looking at the infinitive form and so is irregular.

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

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

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

i-, e- "onto, into, at" (er- when the verb begins in a vowel, e- when the verb begins in a plosive)

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

àusba-, àusb- "from out under" When the subject is moving from out under the reference point, the prefix is osba-.

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

sauau urau nogwau-áu

remember-1S SUB dig-1S.PST

"I remember that I dug"

àukdau urau böragwr-aui böran-ö

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

"I know that you ate a pork rind outside"

=Conjunctions=
 * a (“and”)


 * nàun (“in turn”)


 * raia (“following, according to”)


 * börau (“because”)


 * olo (“except”)


 * yö (“or”)


 * in (“if”)


 * ma (“but”)


 * jàus (“while”)


 * sogwa (“therefore”)


 * dia (“despite”)


 * ele (“instead, rather”)

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

ma au-m guagw-á

mammoth day-DAT.PL graze-3.SG.DEER.PST

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

so jàus gör-ö fū-á

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

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

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

bàul-au jàus au göba sahfm

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

"I sit while I smell flowers"

=Krintham's Poem=

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

se auö esó

this day-DAT beautiful-DAT

"on this beautiful day"

nalæ a ialæ lame bàulai àumo ralö

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

"Men and women have hewn a long path"

kö mouro làulele sūno mourao maö sauini

so_that 1.PL.INCL can-1PL.INCL travel-INF 1PL.INCL.POSS.BUZZ.DAT.SG world-DAT through

"So that we can travel through our world"

ui óuiæhfa, urau lao noæhfara sö sö

INDEF be_similar-SUBJ, SUB 3.SG.DEER protect-SUBJ-PASS god-DAT.PL old-DAT.PL

"may it be protected by the old gods"

ui óuiæhfa, urau áele a bejilá ulaza lame urólno nauyö walabo airó

INDEF be_similar-SUBJ, SUB sun and moon COND 3.PL shine-INF light-ACC 3.SG.BUZZ.DAT over

"may the sun and moon shine light over it"

nàun sūlæ jàus göràumo

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

"as peoples' feet walk"