We'll see if people are interested!
Before I go on with an in-universe introduction, here are some features of Simbri that might be of interest:
- The morphology is probably rich enough to qualify as polysynthetic.
- It makes use of non-concatenative morphology while being quite far from the Semitic model.
- Aspect is combined with voice.
- Nouns distinguish 7 genders and mark both dual and plural.
- It may be characterized as both omnipredicative and precategorial, that is to say I've played quite a bit with the noun-verb distinction.
- Word order is free (or actually, based on focus and newsworthiness) and may involve scrambling and separating noun phrases.
Simbri (native simri ['siᵐb.ri]) is one of the languages of the Tarandim civilization or Tarande, in the northern hemisphere of the planet Massotis, on the eastern coast of the Angry and Serene Seas.
The Tarandim see their civilization as continuously existing for several millenia; they are cultural descendants of the first agriculturalists in the Kandô valley.
They are organized, politically, as rival city states (sandi), most of which are monarchies (bommi) although a few are republics (sibmi) or monastic theocracies (seqchimin) The largest states are Arba and Qin, both kingdoms, and both about the size of England.
The society is matrilinear and ambilocal. Wealth -- which mostly means land -- is held in common by sissas ('commune, village, neighborhood'). Sissix are often endogamous, changing one's sissas is infrequent, but not unheard of.
A sissas is ruled by various office-holders, among which the most prominent is the mayan, typically a military officer.
The able-bodied of the sissas -- that is, men until middle age and, suprisingly, unmarried women -- acts as a military unit in battle, under the command of the mayan.
Tarandim society is mainly agrarian, the chief crops being yeymo (a variety of amaranth), ôr (a grass distantly related to wheat), and potatoes (bapa). Domesticated animals include the dog (mas), the cat (natle, similar to our domestic cat, but actually a close relative of the ocelot), the kâdas (Hippidion, a donkey-like equine), the motas (a giant llama), the mountain goat (xarô), and the momar (an edible, pig-sized rodents).
Horses (nâtchi) and cattle (qammotox) are less common.
Tarandim society is a complex patchwork of various ethnic groups: Katli, Nebari, Newri, Poni, Ôcharandim, etc... held together (barely) by a shared religion and a sense of common history. In particular, priestly orders are more or less neutral with respect to state or ethnicity.
The linguistic situation is equally complex; Simbri acquired a prominent position in the last few centuries, through the combined influence of powerful military alliances and monastic orders. It is now the lingua franca across the whole Tarande.
Simbri can be described as a group of competing dialects, variously influencing and being influenced by each other and the regional languages. There are significant lexical differences, notable phonological variations, some differences in morphology and very little in syntax. Simbri dialects remain generally mutually intelligible.
These lessons will focus on the dialect of the Nandô Bollô, the area where the bulk of Earth-Massotis contact occurs. That dialect has the additional advantage of holding a sort of middle ground between the competing standards of Cardosa, Loqris and Taras.
Lesson 1. Phonology
This is where I'm supposed to run through the alphabet, but as people here are linguistically knowledgeable (impressively so) I can dispense with that and use the IPA instead.
Consonants
| M | Alveolar | Lateral | Post-Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | |
| Nasal | m [m] ~ [ᵐb] | n [n] ~ [ŋ] ~ [ⁿd] | ny [ɲ] | ||||
| Stop | p [p] | t [t] | c [c] | k [c] ~ [k] | q [ʔ] ~ [q] ~ [ʄ] | ||
| Implosive | b [ɓ] ~ | d [ɗ] ~ [d] | j [ʄ] | ||||
| Affricate | tl [t͡ɬ] | ch [t͡ʃ] | |||||
| Fricative | s [s] | x [ç] | |||||
| Approximant | w [w] ~ [ʋ] | r [r] | l [l] | y | ll [ʎ] |
| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | i | ||
| Close-mid | e [e] ~ [ɛ] | ô [əʊ] ~ [uː] | |
| Open-mid | o [ɔ] ~ [o] | ||
| Open | a [ä] | â [ɑʶ] |
- c and k only contrast before a, â, o, ô. k before a front vowel is realized [c]
Likewise, q is realized [ʄ], like j before a front vowel.
- q is realized as a glottal stop at the end of a syllabe: larmaq ['lar.maʔ] 'to remember'.
- b, d, j are implosives. The corresponding plain voiced stops are likely to be mistaken for nasals.
- One exception: b and d are realized as plain voiced after m, n.
- The nasals m, n are realized as prenasalized stops before r: simbri ['siᵐb.ri], anrer ['aⁿd.rer].
- ll, ny are always geminated between vowels: xalli [çaʎ.ʎi] 'beautiful', nanya ['naɲ.ɲa] 'afraid'
- n is pronounced [ŋ] before another consonant (except d and r): manqâ ['maŋ.qɑ] 'looked for'.
- w is pronounced [ʋ] before another consonant: qawchô ['qaʋ.t͡ʃuː], 'to undress'.
The pronunciation of the vowels â, ô is quite variable. The Nandô Bollô dialect has [ɑʶ, əʊ], but other common realizations are [ɑː], [o:]. ô is often realized [u:] word-finally: Kandô ['kan.du:].
The distinction between r and l is hardly phonemic, as these are only distinguished word-finally: aner 'to cook' ~ anel 'saucer'. l never occurs medially, while r can't occur word-initially.
Our reference, the Nandô Bollô dialects, like many other dialects actually merges both: r is realized /l/ word finally. The distinction is kept however, in the dialects of Lowqris and Cardosa.
Syllable structure
Simbri allows the following syllable structures:
V
VC
CV
CVC
Consonant clusters are only acceptable medially, and are restricted to two consonants. Not all clusters are acceptable -- we'll see in the following lessons which are illegal and how they are resolved.
One strategy for resolving illegal clusters is worth mentioning at the outset however:
Vowel weakening.
Simbri morphology makes heavy use of a syncope: verbal morphology, in particular, relies heavily on vowel change and vowel deletion.
When the deletion of a vowel would lead to an illegal cluster, the vowel is sometimes weakened instead.
Weak vowels are indicated with a breve: ă, ӗ, ĭ, ŏ in my romanization. (The native script simply omits them):
Watleqarmĭbar 'I remember him suddenly'. Lonŏyrĭtlomris 'he makes his own shoes'.
Weak vowels are noticeably shorter, and generally voiceless.
Stress and syllables
Aside from â and ô in some dialects, there are no diphtongs in simbri. Two adjacent vowels form two distinct syllables:
taiqo ['ta.i.qo] 'If he knew'.
Stress is determined according to the following rules:
- Stress the penultimate vowel, but:
- Don't count the weakened vowels.
- If the stress vowel is in hiatus with a preceding vowel, move the stress to the preceding vowel.
- Finally, if the penultimate vowel follows b or d, the stress moves to the last vowel.
A few examples:
watleqarmĭbar
Cardosa
taiqo
Monosyllables are naturally enough stressed on their one syllable:
ma 'pyramid'
bon 'king'
yin 'there is, it is'
All syllables should be of roughly equal length, regardless of stress, except for â, ô (a little longer) and weak vowels (noticeably shorter).
Stressed syllables are both louder and higher in pitch, but the pitch variation is the more important of the two.
Finally, being stressed or unstressed never changes vowel quality.
Exercises:
Check the following sentences and see if you can place stress correctly. (Bonus point for trying to pronounce them!):
Waybŏnicomon! 'I give you a royal order!'
Yin iynĭbayam 'He's making a sword'.
Tletonenrĭwisi an tlecayin. 'He dislikes women, especially his daughters'.
Yin sewannin tlebaqo sômâ. 'This panther has eaten grandma.'
Noyindi watlexwatcham wobis tlesâs. 'I made her sister give the ball to Noyin'.
Later ya yin watloyin dara. Askĕrim odeqtis. 'I'd like to go to Earth. They have ice cream there.'
