Shinsali

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	Stats Nouns 0% Verbs 0% Adjectives 0% Syntax 0% Words of 1500

Shinsali Icwlatam
Type
Agglutinative-Polysynthetic
Alignment
Nominative-Accusative
Head direction
Final
Tonal
No
Declensions
Yes
Conjugations
Yes
Genders
No
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Central Alveolar	Lateral Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ɳ		ŋ
Plosive	p pʰ pʼ b	t tʰ tʼ d		ʈ ʈʰ ʈʼ ɖ		k kʰ kʼ g		ʔ
Fricative	f	s z	ɬ ɮ	ʂ		x	ħ ʕ	h
Affricate		t͡s t͡sʰ t͡sʼ d͡z		ʈ͡ʂ ʈ͡ʂʰ ʈ͡ʂʼ		k͡x
Approximant			l	ɻ	j	w
Trill		r r̥

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		ɯ u
Mid		ə
Open-mid	ɛ		ɔ
Open	a

Vowels can form closing and opening diphthongs with /j/ and /w/.

Alphabet

Aa	Bb	Cc	Ċċ	Dd	Ḍḍ	Ee	Ff	Gg	Ġġ
/a/	/b/	/t͡s/	/ʈ͡ʂ/	/d/	/ɖ/	/ɛ/	/f/	/g/	/ʕ/
Hh	Ḥḥ	Ii	Jj	Kk	Ḳḳ	Ll	Ḷḷ	Mm	Ṁṁ
/h/	/ħ/	/i/ /j/	/d͡z/	/k/	/k͡x/	/l/	/ɬ/	/m/	/ɳ/
Nn	Ṅṅ	Oo	Pp	Rr	Ṙṙ	ṘH ṙh	Ss	Ṡṡ	Tt
/n/	/ŋ/	/ɔ/	/p/	/ɻ/	/r/	/r̥/	/s/	/ʂ/	/t/
Ṭṭ	Uu	Ww	Xx	Yy	Zz	Żż	'
/ʈ/	/u/ /w/	/ɯ/	/x/	/ə/	/z/	/ɮ/	/ʔ/

Aspiration is marked with with ‹h› and ejective consonants are marked with ‹'›, both following the basic glyph. Consonants that can be written preceeding both of ‹h› or ‹'› are ‹p c ċ k t ṭ›.

Phonotactics

The syllable structure is simple (C)V(C). There are no consonant clusters.

Grammar

Verbs

Shinsali verbs are very complex. They are aspect- and mood-heavy, but have no morphological tense. Verbs of motion, as with many languages, are more complex than other verbs. In Shinsali, verbs of motion indicate deictic information as well as indicating the shape of the object in motion.  Verbs are almost exlusively prefixing but verbs of motion take on suffixes to indicate other infomation, such as deictal suffixes and a suffix indicating the shape of the object in motion. The deictal prefixes are used to denote the relation of the speaker and the subject.

subject	direct object	object	aspect	mood	deictal prefixes	stem	deictal suffixes	shape suffix

Pronominal Prefixes

If there is a third-person suffix there must be a deictal prefix that indicates the relation of the speaker and a third-person object unless the object is invisible to the speaker and the adressee(s). There are standalone pronouns but they are only used with prepositions.  

	Nominative	Dative	Accusative
1SG	a	zy	k'a
2SG	o	ja	le
3SG	uo	ṁa	cw
1PL	w	ny	to
2PL	se	żi	t'e
3PL	i	p'a	cha

Aspect prefixes

	Infix	Meaning
Imperfective	∅	ongoing nature
Perfective	no	viewed as a simple whole
Progressive	la	viewed as ongoing and evolving
Stative	iu	viewed as ongoing but not evolving
Momentaneous	ro	takes place at one point in time
Inceptive	zynu	beginning of a new action
Inochiative	ḷe	begininng of a new state
Terminative	fw	end of an action/state
Repetitive	gi	the action is repeated
Conative	ta	attempted action
Defective	my	the action almost happened
Intentional	xano	the action was intentional
Accidental	ċha	the action was an accident
Imminent	t'a	the action will happen for sure

Mood prefixes

Moods in Shinsali are unique in that every mood has a negative form, for example, the negative indicative translates to "not" in English, the negative imperative translates to "Don't ___!", and so on. However, there is no negative dubitative mood.

	Positive	Negative	Meaning
Indicative	∅	kai	factual statements
Imperative	niza	sat'a	commands
Conditional	tho	cha	event is dependant upon another conditional
Subjunctive	roi	jw	hypothetical statements, polite requests
Desiderative	iu	ḍy	expresses desires or hopes
Dubitative	siu	-	expresses doubt
Interrogative	ia	ija	questions

Deictal prefixes

Deictal prefixes indicate the relation of a third-person subject to the speaker and are only used in the precense of a third-person subject.

Prefix	Meaning
c'o	visible to speaker (but not necessarily to adressee)
kai	invisible to speaker
uaka	visible to adressee only
∅	invisible to both speaker and adressee
ua	abstract noun

Verb stem

The verb stem in the most simple part of a Shinsali verb. Multiple verbs in a list (ex: ____ and ____ and _____) or structures like (verb) to (verb) (such as ask to leave, need to cry, etc) are stacked serially in one verbal construction. Stative verbs also act as adjectives (e.g. to be blue, to be good).

Deictal suffixes

Deictal suffixes are only used on verbs of motion and indicate motion. If any of these suffixes "take" an object, it goes in the prepositional case.

Suffix	Meaning
	motion towards speaker
	motion towards adressee
	motion away from speaker
	motion away from adressee
	motion around the proximal area
	into water
	out of water
	encircling an object
	onto a vertical surface
	off of a vertical surface
	onto a horizontal surface
	off of a horizontal surface
	through something
	across something
	upward or up something
	downward or down something
	from one area to another

Object shape suffixes

These are used for what is in motion. For example, in the sentence "i run" an animate classifier would be used because the object in motion is a first-person speaker. Sometimes they are used in place of an object if specifying it is unnecessary.

Suffix	Description
	human
	animate object other than humans
	cylindrical object
	edible objects
	non-edible plantlife
	liquid (or container of)
	weapon
	clothing or covering
	man-made object