Siitò

Consonants
The phonology of Siitò is very complex, with 16 vowels and 41 consonants (this is not including the possible affricates, which are phonemically distinct). There are also gradations of vowel length and a qualitative pitch accent that have both morphological and sometimes lexical implications. The phoneme inventory is as follows:


 * 1) In cells with two symbols (or combinations), the first is voiceless, and the second its voiced counterpart.
 * 2) Shaded cells indicate unused points of articulation.

Vowels
Vowels
 * 1) In cells with two symbols, the first is unrounded and the second its rounded counterpart.
 * 2) Shaded cells indicate unused points of articulation.


 * The only diphthongs to exist in Siitò are those that represent a shift from unrounded to rounded vowel, or vice versa. (Example: eø̀ - so/therefore)


 * All vowels can be nasalized. This is indicated by the use of a tilde (~) over the noun in question. These are phonemically relevant, and therefore can change the morphological case of a word. They never affect a lexical change, however, because the nasalization does not carry down through the declension, and therefore even if two words were different in the nominative, they would be identical through the rest of the declension.


 * There are also gradations of vowel length, which are indicated two ways in the orthography:


 * 1) A vowel is long if its syllable bears a marked pitch accent or
 * 2) If it is doubled in the orthography of an unmarked syllable.
 * Short vowels are always unmarked and written only once.

Phonotactic Rules

 * 1) Any vowel can precede any consonant.
 * 2) Consonant clusters may be three phonemes long, and affricates do count as two sounds.
 * 3) All words must end in a vowel or one of the two semivowels ([j] or [w]).
 * 4) The phoneme [ɾ] can only follow a vowel or a fricative (non-lateral).
 * 5) Any vowel can follow labials, labiodentals, dentals, alveolars, postalveolars, taps, trills, glottals, lateral fricatives, and [l]. This rule also applies to any affricate that includes these phonemes.
 * 6) Palatals, uvular fricatives, [ɹ], and [ʍ] cannot be followed by [ɨ]. This rule also applies to any affricate that includes these phonemes.
 * 7) Velars cannot be followed by [ɨ] or [ɔ]. This rule also applies to any affricates that includes these phonemes.
 * 8) Uvular stops cannot be followed by front vowels.
 * 9) When a morphological suffix that begins with a consonant or a semivowel is attached to a root which ends in more than one consonant, then a combining morpheme {ɪ} is added in between. If the root ends in the phoneme [ɾ], then the combining morpheme must be used. If the suffix begins with the phoneme [ɾ], then the combining morpheme is only used if the root ends in a non-fricative, pulmonic consonant. This suffix can never carry stress under any circumstances. (Example: The third person present forms of the verb "to be" - sesivù - are sesiχɾè and sesivɾè in the imperfective and perfective aspects, respectively. Since the personal ending -ɾè is preceded by a fricative in both cases, no combining morpheme is necessary. However when the progressive aspect is formed, it produces sesiɬɪɾè. Since the personal ending is this time preceded by a lateral fricative, the combining morpheme must be used.)

Pitch Accent and Tone

 * The Siitò language has a system of pitch accents and tonal differences that it uses to a great extent morphologically and sytactically. There are three levels of pitch, which sound like a musical triad (C, E, and G, for instance). The pitches are indicated through the use of two accent markings in the orthography.


 * The base pitch is in the middle. Orthographically, it is unmarked, as most syllables exist on this pitch. The base pitch is also the only one to have both short and long vowels. Any unaccented syllable with only one vowel is always short, and it is long if the vowel is doubled.


 * The low pitch is marked with a grave accent ( ` ), and is always long.


 * The hight pitch is marked with an acute accent ( ´ ), and is always long.


 * There is also a third accent mark, but it marks a tonal difference. The use of the circumflex ( ˆ ) indicates that the pitch of the syllable starts high, but by its end it has fallen to base pitch. While technically this indicates a tone, and not a shift, the three accents operate together closely and inseparably in the morphology.


 * Note: When the letter and phoneme [ɪ] is marked orthographically as carrying the pitch accent, in hand writing it is marked with the same accents as any other letter. However, since often in type it appears identical to the phoneme [i] (e.g. í vs.ɪ́), it is often represented with different markings. High pitch is shown as ɪ̋, low pitch as ɪ̏, and the falling tone as ɪ̂̂. This makes it easily contrasted. It should be kept in mind that on some computers this will not be an issue, and the accent differences will simply be redundant.

Morphology

 * The morphology of Siitò is very complex, though extraordinarily regular. While there are many forms of any word to learn, once the rules are known, declension and conjugation is very easy.

Nouns

 * Nouns in Siito decline in fifteen cases, in three numbers, and in three genders. Each gender is determined by the final vowel in a word:


 * 1) Masculine nouns end in a back vowel or [w].
 * 2) Feminine nouns end in a front vowel or [j].
 * 3) Neuter nouns end in a central vowel.
 * Each of these genders is split into two paradigms, based on the characteristics of the vowel that ends the word in the nominative case.

Noun Cases

 * Siitò is fully declined in fifteen cases, each of which performs a specific syntactic function.

Declension Paradigms

 * (Note: Wherever a morpheme is in parentheses, it is only used to decline single syllable words. All words in brackets are translations of the nominative.)

Formation of the Plural
In polysyllabic words, the plural is formed by means of a stress shift to another syllable. If the word has two syllables, the stress simply shifts to the other syllable. If the word has three or more syllables, then the stress shifts back one syllable, unless it is initial, in which case it shifts to the final syllable.


 * Example: Since the stress in the word beɾêvɔ [ocean] is in the middle syllable, when the plural is formed it shifts back to the initial syllable, becoming bêɾevɔ [oceans]. Dɮípɑɾɨ [light] has initial stress, so to form the plural the stress is shifted to the final syllable, which provides dɮipɑɾɨ́ [lights]. The word cótə [heaven] has to syllables, so in the plural the stress is shifted to the other syllable, and it becomes cotə́ [heavens].

Monosyllabic words form the plural through a mutation of the pitch accent along a certain pattern, which is as follows: ( ^ ) --> ( ´ ), ( ´ ) --> ( ` ), ( ` ) --> ( ^ ).


 * Example: To form the plural of the word tɨ̂ [mountain], the pitch accent mutates from high falling tone to high pitch, which gives tɨ́ [mountains].


 * (Note: Since this pitch mutation is also used to form the partitive case in nouns, the partitive singular and nominative plural of monosyllabic are always identical.)

Formation of the Dual
The dual number is generally more regular in formation than the singular and plural. In the masculine and feminine genders, there exists only one set of dual endings for each gender. However, the neuter dual endings are different between the two paradigms.

In order to form the dual of monosyllabic words, a combining morpheme {n} is used in every gender and in every case.

On the Interrogative and Partitive Cases
The interrogative and partitive cases are formed by means of mutations of the pitch accent, which is invariable from gender to gender.


 * Interrogative:( ^ ) --> ( ` ), ( ` ) --> ( ´ ), ( ´ ) --> ( ^ )


 * Partitive: ( ^ ) --> ( ´ ), ( ´ ) --> ( ` ), ( ` ) --> ( ^ )

Declension of Monosyllabic Words
All monosyllabic words take the same endings as any polysyllabic word when declined into another case. However, the must make use of a combining morpheme in the singular and plural, which varies from gender to gender. Massuline nouns utilize {j}, and feminine nouns utilize {w}. The neuter gender combining morphems are irregular, varying from case to case, and they must simply be learned.

Personal Pronouns
There are thirteen personal pronous in the Siitò language. In the singular, there are first, second, and third person pronouns. There are actually three third person singular pronouns, one for each gender. In the dual, it is the first person which has more than one pronoun, as there is an inclusive/exclusive distinction present (e.g. the inclusive pronoun refers to the both the speaker and the one being addressed, whereas the exclusive one refers to the speaker along with someone other than the addressee). Second and third person dual only have one pronoun each. The plural operates in the same fashion as the dual, with two first person pronouns indicating an inclusive/exclusive distinction, along with second and third person pronouns.

As with nouns, the final vowel of the nominative indicates along what paradigm the pronouns will be declined. Unlike nouns though, these do not actually indicate gender (excepting, of course, the third person singular pronouns). Any adjective combined with a pronoun will describe the true grammatical gender of the subject, not that indicated by the ending of the pronoun.

Declension of Personal Pronouns
*Irregular form

*Irregular form

Notes on Personal Pronouns
There are a few irregularities in the declension of personal pronouns. The first is the vocative case forms of the neuter third person singular pronoun kiðɾə̀ and the second person plural pronoun zɛnôvə. Since both of these follow a neuter declension paradigm, one would expect the vocative case forms to be identical with the nominative, as in all neuter nouns. However, these pronouns take the vocative morpheme {ɪ}, borrowed from the masculine gender, producing the forms kiðɾɪ̏ and zɛnôvɪ.

The other is the ablative case form of the third person plural pronoun xìdoɾo. Instead of taking the expected form of *xìdoɾɪni, it simply attaches the ablative morpheme {ni} to the end of the nominative of the word.

Dummy Pronoun
The Siitò language also utilizes a dummy pronoun, kiðɾɑ̀. This is used when a pronoun is needed grammatically, but no real subject is semantically required for understanding. The English language makes use of a similar device in the sentence "It is raining." The subject it does not actually take the place of a noun as the subject of the sentence, but it is required for the sentence to sound correct.

Siitò makes use of the dummy pronoun in a few different cases. The first is similar to the English usage, in that there are several ways to say that it is raining. The first two ways do not require the dummy pronoun, as they translate as, "Rain is falling (kɛ̂lnɔʁiɬɪɾe ɡɑ̀ɲo.)," and, "The sky is raining (ɡɑɲóviɬɪɾe χiʒõ.)." However, there is a third way to say this that does use the dummy pronoun. It would translate simply as, "It is raining (ɡɑɲóviɬɪɾe kiðɾɑ̀.)," and is essentially a one-to-one correspondence with English. Another major way that the dummy pronoun is used is with the causal case. On the occasion that the explanation of the cause of an effect requires an entire clause to lay out, then the dummy pronoun, along with the conjunction mɛpò, is used in the causal case (kiðɾèɬu) to introduce the causal clause. Example: From Genesis 11:9 - "eø̀, sesivɾè stɛ́ni ɑ̃trèsi Bɑ́bɛlɪ, kiðɾèɬu, mɛpò zɛ̀tɑ rɑ̀ɡuʒɑvɾe míθonu lóɾɪ zìɾiji Vɛtɑ́ɾino;..." ("Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth;..."). The closest translation into English would be "because of it, that."