Souk

Souk (phi:sä sou:k) is the native language of the Kai people in Southeast Asia. With a little over one million L1 speakers, it is by far the most widely spoken of the Kai-Souk languages, a branch of the larger Song language family. Souk is head-first and primarily isolating, but employs a pattern of infixes and vowel change. It is syllable-timed and has a simple tone system.

10 vowels

 * 1[ɑ~ɒ] is usually semi-rounded
 * Long vowels are indicated by a semicolon
 * Long vowels centre towards schwa; eg. /u:/ = [uə]

18 consonants

 * Word-initial clusters are permitted; eg. kmou:n [k.mùən]
 * Coda can be any nasal, as well as /l, h, j, w/
 * Coda plosives are unreleased and have merged with checked tone, except /b/

Pitch-accent
The inherent pitch of any syllable (one or two morae) is phonemic but unambiguous and predictable due to its dependence on surrounding consonants and/or vowel length. For example,

We can see in the example above how vowel length determines whether a syllable receives mid or low pitch. Short vowels with low pitch usually have a low-rising sound. Furthermore,

We can see that a short vowel's pitch is low when open (ba), but mid when checked (bat), low when closed by a nasal (bang). Finally,

Checked syllables are low pitch if long (usually low-rising). The plain a in khä:at would have a quick mid-falling contour after the low-rising long ä:. Notice also that nasal-closed syllables have middle pitch when long.

Verbs
Souk verbs are built on word roots. Following a basic pattern, almost any root word can be made a verb, with an associated relevant meaning.

Mood and aspect
Verbs conjugate for three main criteria: aspect, mood and deference. Mood is simple; there are three main moods. The indicative and imperative are straightforward, whereas the irrealis mood is very general and depends highly upon context. The table below shows a few verbs and their respective modal conjugations:

So far, we have seen how verb formation and modality rely upon infixes and ablaut - these are the most inflectional features of the language. Aspect is more simple. Verbs are by default considered imperfective; the perfective is demonstrated simply by the suffix -i:

In some contexts the perfective can behave like the past tense, although tense is technically not distinguished.

Deference
The perfective aspect changes the -i suffix to -o if the speaker is speaking to someone of higher social status, such as elders, teachers, boss, etc. He imperfective does not have this distinction, and is often avoided entirely in cases where it is considered extremely important to show deference. For example:

Vocab
{| class="article-table" !Word !(origin) !Meaning
 * n. - native lexicon
 * s. - Sino-Kai
 * sans. - Sanskrit
 * ~ mixed elements
 * sambu
 * sans.
 * "adult"
 * chi:
 * n.
 * "aunt"
 * jaeb
 * n.
 * "baby"
 * añ
 * n.
 * "brother"
 * dekun
 * n.
 * "boy"
 * khrot
 * sans.
 * "chief, master"
 * dek
 * n.
 * "child"
 * the:k
 * n.
 * "children"
 * bang
 * n.
 * "city"
 * phorn
 * n.
 * "daughter"
 * bao-youong
 * n.
 * "doctor"
 * khmou:
 * n.
 * "dog"
 * thi
 * s.
 * "enemy"
 * com
 * n.
 * "food"
 * rouñ
 * n.
 * "friend, thief"
 * bao
 * n.
 * "gentleman, sir"
 * song
 * n.
 * "go ahead (I'm listening)"
 * mou:n
 * sans.
 * "hermit"
 * kaison
 * n.
 * "hotel"
 * ra:jä
 * sans.
 * "king"
 * jeaw
 * sans.
 * "life"
 * cheaw
 * sans.
 * "live" (v.)
 * lao
 * n.
 * "man"
 * youong
 * n.
 * "medicine, drug"
 * ri:l
 * n.
 * "money"
 * jey
 * n.
 * "new"
 * jäa-jäaw
 * n.
 * "politician"
 * thaikhrotjey
 * "president"
 * jäa-jey
 * n.
 * "prime minister"
 * chey
 * n.
 * "purchase" (v.)
 * sok
 * n.
 * "say" (v.)
 * präsa
 * sans.
 * "servant"
 * khi
 * n.
 * "sister"
 * khmor
 * n.
 * "slave"
 * jäaw
 * n.
 * "soldier"
 * bae
 * n.
 * "son"
 * "medicine, drug"
 * ri:l
 * n.
 * "money"
 * jey
 * n.
 * "new"
 * jäa-jäaw
 * n.
 * "politician"
 * thaikhrotjey
 * "president"
 * jäa-jey
 * n.
 * "prime minister"
 * chey
 * n.
 * "purchase" (v.)
 * sok
 * n.
 * "say" (v.)
 * präsa
 * sans.
 * "servant"
 * khi
 * n.
 * "sister"
 * khmor
 * n.
 * "slave"
 * jäaw
 * n.
 * "soldier"
 * bae
 * n.
 * "son"
 * "servant"
 * khi
 * n.
 * "sister"
 * khmor
 * n.
 * "slave"
 * jäaw
 * n.
 * "soldier"
 * bae
 * n.
 * "son"
 * bae
 * n.
 * "son"
 * "son"