Simik
Simîk is one of many languages spoken by the Zireen of the planet Rishai.
Phonology
Consonants
| labial | alveolar | retroflex | alv-palat. | palatal | velar | |
| stops | t | k | ||||
| nasals | m | n | ||||
| fricatives | v | s z | š r | ś ź | c j | |
| lat. appr. | l |
Vowels
| front | central | back | |
| high | i | u | |
| mid | e | ||
| low | a |
Tones
Simîk has four tones:
- high rising: á é í ú
- high falling: â ê î û
- low rising: ǎ ě ǐ ǔ
- low falling: à è ì ù
For convenience, the low rising tone is written without a tone mark. Each of these tones may also occur on long vowels (or diphthongs), so it is often said that Simîk has eight tones.
There should be 16 possible combinations of tones in two-syllable Simik words. However, most of these combinations only appear in compounds and foreign words. If you account for vowel length separately, only four or five of the possible tone patterns are common in native Simik roots, and many of the exceptions are emphatic forms that are derived from shorter roots. Historically, Simik developed from a language with pitch accent. The five tone patterns are especially apparent in words with short vowels:
- pattern 1 (HF-LR): jûma "dream", mâjar "to carry", nârik "right-hand"
- pattern 2 (HR-LR): nécla "Yitha", tílma "logic", źálin "to assemble", źérit "bird"
- pattern 3 (LR-HF): imâk "metal", mekî "puzzle", tazâ "six", valâr "finger"
- pattern 4 (LR-HR): izá "cat", jaśí "imbalance", saré "right, proper"
- pattern 5 (LR-LF): jerìn "left-hand", njeźà "lubricant", rizù "to thank"
In the ancient language, at most one syllable of a word received a stress, which could be rising or falling. The fifth pattern is accounted for by words without inherent stress. The various tone patterns of modern Simîk arise from different combinations of pitch accent, vowel length, and other factors.
| ancient: | jùma | néškla | imàk | iðá | ježin |
| modern: | jûma | nécla | imâk | izá | jerìn |
Morphology
Verbs
There are three conjugation patterns for verbs.
- 1st conjugation (intransitive verbs)
| taacèi | I sleep |
| nîicèi | you sleep |
| nâacèi | we; you and I sleep |
| secèi | he/she/it/they sleep(s) |
| kúucèi | we; he/she/it/they and I sleep |
- 2nd conjugation (transitive verbs)
| kítai | I like myself |
| sîitai | I like you |
| setai | I like him/her/it/them |
| síitai | you like me |
| kíitai | you like yourself |
| séetai | you like him/her/it/them |
| leetái | he/she/it/they like(s) me |
| iitái | he/she/it/they like(s) you |
| àtai | he/she/it/they like(s) him/her/it/them |
| kàtai | he/she/it/they like(s) himself/herself/itself/themselves |
- 3rd conjugation (reciprocal verbs)
| núilic | you and I kiss |
| śilic | he/she/it and I kiss |
| zilic | you and he/she/it kiss |
| valic | they kiss |
