Tumia

Tumia is predominantly spoken by Vatelans. It is a language that is part of the Rausic language family. Vatela is located in an equatorial archipelago.

Dialects
Tumia has numerous dialects. Tathalan, Southern, Wonese, East Svata, Vahale and South Etmura.

Tathalan is the standardized dialect which is used in publications, literature, media and day-to-day interactions in South-Eastern Vatela.

East Svata, Wonese and South Etmura are dialects which are also used for similar purposes although are not as official as Tathalan.

Phonology
Tumia mostly uses aspirated consonants and has only 5 vowels.

Consonants
PH - f

TH- θ

KH- x

ZH- ʃ

Y- ɣ

Plosive + z = ps, ts, ks

Ñ at the end of a word makes a verb nasal.

Pronouns, verbs and sentence structure
Verbs don't have conjugations in Tumia. In some dialects, conjugations are used.

There are 3 types of pronouns. Informal, Formal and Possessive

Formal pronouns are used by adding the word here "la" to the pronoun.

Possessive pronouns are added to nouns. For example, Vutoma (My car)

The main sentence structure is VSO, this means the subject of the sentences goes after the verb. SVO is primarily used in colloquial interaction. For example,

Nañath ri revama

Eat I my food

Ri nañath revama

I eat my food

In some sentences, Tumia becomes pro-drop and uses context for understanding. For example,

Tenath elei kita meñ eio tenath kero

Like they cats but not like (they) dogs

Many words end with vowels. Although, there is a list of consonants that you can use at the end of words. In Tumia, all verbs end with the ending -ath.

Tense and time
There isn't tense in Tumia but there is a word for is, was (ek, vaua). Verbs don't have tense although, we use the particles "e" and "om" to define the time of an action.

Vath e tha

Go (past) you

Vath om tha

Go (future) you

Time can be used with the words for Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday Words for hour, minute and second are very similar to English.

Particles and Articles
There isn't an indefinite article but there is a definite article "va", the word is used for the words "the" and "of" in English. For example,

Va metiko pso kiovau

Doctor the very smart

Nuva kaza va Tiqu?

Where house of Tiqu?

Particles are used a lot in Tumia. Although, most of the time they are not glued to other words.

-Ma/-Ka/-La/-Tañ are used for possessiveness (My, Your, Their, etc.)

-Tho is an equivalent to -Ly

-Ksu ne is used for "more than" and -Kseio ne is used for "less than"

Number
Traditional counting is no longer used.