This was a language I made for the 26th speedlang challenge on the conlangs subreddit. I started work on it a bit late, less than a week from the deadline, but I am reasonably happy with the result.
Cúúysung (a contracted form of Cúúy Oosung (Edéég Óóm), ‘language of the palace (of the king)), Anglicised as Chuysung, is the official language of the island nation of Arad, spoken in practically all formal contexts of Arad society and the only written language used by the Aradan people. The Kuton-koň-Cuuy, the official government institute of language, sets the official standard for formal Chuysung, alongside its philological and literary duties.
| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | /i iː/ ⟨i ii⟩ | /u uː/ ⟨u uu⟩ | |
| Mid | /e eː/ ⟨e ee⟩ | /o oː/ ⟨o oo⟩ | |
| Open | /a aː/ ⟨a aa⟩ |
Chuysung distinguishes five phonemic monophthongs, each of which comes in a short/long pair. Phonemic diphthongs are not present—all instances of diphthongs are vowels followed by consonantal glides. The mid vowels /e eː o oː/ are usually realised as open-mid vowels [ɛ ɛː ɔ ɔː], while the close vowels [i iː u uː] vary in their realisation between close [i iː u uː] and near-close [ɪ ɪː ʊ ʊː]. The open vowel is typically realised as a front vowel [a aː], but there is significant variety from speaker to speaker. There are no differences in quality between the short and long vowels, with the only distinguishing factor being length. Primary stress occurs on the final root of a word, with secondary stress occurring on any other roots present. Prefixes and suffixes are always unstressed.
Vowels can take a high tone, marked orthographically with an acute accent <á í é ó ú áá íí éé óó úú>, in contrast to a level tone, which is unmarked orthographically. High tone is a simple rise in pitch throughout the entire vowel, whether short or long, with the vowel of the following syllable lowering in pitch. If the following vowel has a high tone, the high tone is erased completely in favour of a low tone, whether the vowel is long or short. These processes apply across word boundaries.
Allophonically, certain consonants in the coda position trigger a low tone on the preceding vowel, with the realisation of this low tone depending on the length and tone of the vowel in question. If the vowel is short, it gains a simple drop in pitch, with high tone short vowels losing their high tone completely. If the vowel is long, the second mora gains a drop in pitch, with high tone long vowels retaining the high pitch on their first mora, and level tone long vowels gaining a high pitch on their first mora in contrast to the low tone on the second.
Short, unstressed, toneless, non-open vowels devoice when between two voiceless consonants, except in emphatic speech. In rapid speech, devoiced vowels can be deleted entirely, producing a range of phonetic consonant clusters. For example, tufom is typically realised as [tu̥.fɔ̃w̃], but in rapid speech often becomes [tfɔ̃w̃].
| Bilabial | Coronal | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Nasal | /m/ ⟨m⟩ | /n/ ⟨n⟩ | /ɲ/ ⟨ň⟩ | ||
| Stop | /p b/ ⟨p b⟩ | /t d/ ⟨t d⟩ | /c ɟ/ ⟨c j⟩ | /k g/ ⟨k g⟩ | /ʔ/ ⟨h⟩ |
| Fricative | /f/ ⟨f | /s/ ⟨s⟩ | /ʃ/ ⟨š⟩ | ||
| Approximant | /r l/ ⟨r l⟩ | /j/ ⟨y⟩ | /w/ ⟨w⟩ |
Chuysung distinguishes three nasal consonants, a bilabial nasal, an alveolar nasal, and a palatal nasal. Words cannot begin with nasals—in roots, they only occupy the coda position. Vowels preceding a nasal consonant are always nasalised. In the coda position, /m ɲ/ are realised as nasalised glides [w̃ j̃] respectively, while /n/ varies between complete elision, with lengthening and nasalisation on the preceding vowel, and a consonantal realisation of an alveolar nasal [n] or a velar nasal [ŋ]. All three nasals are merged when followed by a consonant, being realised in a similar manner to final /n/, with nasalisation and lengthening on the preceding vowel. Intervocalically, /m/ is a bilabial [m], /n/ is an alveolar [n], and /ɲ/ is a pure palatal [ɲ], with no coronal coarticulation.
Chuysung distinguishes nine stop consonants, but only four may occur word-initially—/t/, /k/, /c/ /ʔ/, and /ʔ/ is not permitted to occur in any position except the absolute word-initial position, with root-initial /ʔ/ undergoing a number of deletion processes when a prefix is attached to the root.
Intervocalically, the contrast between the fortis and lenis stops is that of voicing, /p t c k/ being unvoiced and /b d ɟ g/ being voiced. Word-finally, the stops themselves are realised identically, with no audible release [p̚ t̚ c̚ k̚], but with the voiced stops triggering an allophonic low-tone on the preceding vowel, as described in the vowel section.
The alveolar stops /t d/ are alveolar [t d], not dental. Both undergo affrication when they form an onset with a glide /j w/, becoming [tsj tsw dzj dzw].
The palatal stops /c ɟ/ are realised as affricates [t̠ʃ d̠ʒ] when in positions with audible release—when unreleased, they are realised as a retracted palato-alveolar stop [t̠̚ʲ]. /ɟ/ can also deaffricate in rapid speech, becoming [ʒ].
Chuysung distinguishes three fricative phonemes, two of which are sibilants. The labiodental fricative /f/ patterns in a similar manner to a voiceless stop in that it can undergo lenition into /b/, and can occur in both the onset and the coda position. /s ʃ/ are a denti-alveolar sibilant [s̪] and palato-alveolar apical sibilant [ʃ] respectively, and unlike /f/, they possess no lenis form. All three fricatives have a different realisation when in the coda position, regardless of the following consonant, with /f s ʃ/ becoming [ɸ h ç], with the preceding vowel gaining a low tone.
Chuysung distinguishes four approximant phonemes. The coronal liquids /r l/ generally pattern like nasal consonants—they cannot occur word-initially, and so in roots only appear in the coda position. When followed by a vowel, they are realised as an alveolar tap and an alveolar lateral approximant respectively: [ɾ l]. Word-finally or when followed by a consonant, /r/ is realised as an alveolar approximant [ɹ], or is vocalised entirely into a non-syllabic schwa-like sound [ə̯], which elides entirely in certain unstressed contexts. In the same position, /l/ undergoes strong velarisation, being realised as either a pure velar lateral approximant [ʟ] or losing its lateral element to become a velar approximant [ɰ], with it devoicing to [ʟ̥] or [x] when followed by a voiceless consonant.
The glides /j w/ can occur in the word-initial, intervocalic, and coda positions, as well as form complex onsets with preceding obstruent consonants. Intervocalically and in the coda, /j w/ are glides [j w], while phrase-initially and as a part of a complex onset with a voiceless consonant, they are devoiced to voiceless fricatives [ç xʷ]. Word-initially and as a part of connected speech, they vary between voiced [j w] and voiceless [ç xʷ].
Roots have the following syllable structure:
(C1)(G)V(C3)(C2)
For verbal and nominal roots, if there is no coda consonant, the vowel must be long, with open syllable short vowels being illegal. However, some other parts of speech have roots with open syllable short vowels, e.g. šo ‘to, at’.
A few roots are disyllabic, e.g. amak ‘millet’ and edéé ‘servant’. These words tend to follow some set patterns, typically being of the shape VCVC or CVrVC or CVlVC, with identical vowels. They are thought to be borrowings from an otherwise unattested substrate, possibly representing the assimilation of monosyllables with illegal onsets (**mak or **déé would both be illegal root shapes).
The fortition or lenition of an initial or final stop consonant in a root is a morphological process which is used for both derivational and inflectional purposes. Lenition causes a post-vocalic voiceless stop consonant (including /f/, and excluding /p/) to voice, /f t c k/ > /b d ɟ g/, while fortition causes the opposite, devoicing voiced stops /b d ɟ g/ > /f t c k/. Lenition and fortition are often combined with additional suffixes and prefixes in both derivation and inflection.
Consonant clusters and vowel clusters formed by prefixes and affixes undergo a number of assimilation processes:
Verbs are marked for aspect, mood, and plurality, and a closed class of verbs receive subject/object suffixes, the subject/object suffixes merging together into portmanteau suffixes. Number is poorly distinguished in the person suffixes.
| Singular | Plural | |
| First Person | -w, -u | -y, -ya |
| Second Person | -s, -sa | -s, -sa |
| Third Person | -k, -kon | -k, -kon |
Subject markers are on the first column, while object markers are on the second row, below the singular and plural titles.
| Singular | Plural | |||||
| First Person | Second Person | Third Person | First Person | Second Person | Third Person | |
| First Person Singular | -w, -o | -w, -o | -wt, -ot | -wnd, -ond | ||
| First Person Plural | -yas | -yon | -yat | -yond | ||
| Second Person | -so | -son | -say | -sond | ||
| Third Person | -ko | -kos | -kong | -koň | -kond | -kond |
TAM is marked with a mixture of suffixes, tone changes, lenition/fortition processes, and adverbial particles. The plural marker is placed on top of the TAM marker, being marked solely by a change in tone from level to high.
| Singular | Plural | |
| Imperfective Subjunctive | -∅ | CV́C |
| Perfective Subjunctive | -∅ + yan — Triggers fortition | CV́C + yan — Triggers fortition |
| Future/habitual Subjunctive | CV́C + sol | CV́C + sol |
| Singular | Plural | |
| Imperfective Indicative | -ii — Triggers lenition | -íí — Triggers lenition |
| Perfective Indicative | -ii + yan — Triggers fortition | -íí + yan — Triggers fortition |
| Future/habitual Indicative | -íí + sol — Triggers lenition | -íí + sol — Triggers lenition |
The subjunctive mood is primarily used for forming subordinate clauses, but it is also used for hypotheticals, wishes, and dubitative statements, as well as commands.
The distinction between the imperfective, perfective, and future/habitual is primarily that of aspect, as opposed to time—the imperfective marks an action or state as occurring over an indefinite period of time, while the perfective marks an action or state as a single entity. The future/habitual is used to express future time with no commentary on its likelihood, as well as actions that occur regularly and as custom.
Two verbs are suppletive, having different roots for the perfective aspect in contrast to the imperfective and future/habitual aspects.
| Singular | Plural | |
| Imperfective Subjunctive | ee | éé |
| Perfective Subjunctive | foo | fóó |
| Future/Habitual Subjunctive | ee | éé |
| Singular | Plural | |
| Imperfective Indicative | eey | ééy |
| Perfective Indicative | fooy | fóóy |
| Future/Habitual Indicative | eey | ééy |
| Singular | Plural | |
| Imperfective Subjunctive | koň | kóň |
| Perfective Subjunctive | sal | sál |
| Future/Habitual Subjunctive | kóň | kóň |
| Singular | Plural | |
| Imperfective Indicative | koň-ii | koň-íí |
| Perfective Indicative | sal-ii | sal-íí |
| Future/Habitual Indicative | koň-ii | koň-íí |
Most prepositions in Chuysung are verbs in the singular subjunctive imperfective, unmarked for person, which take on prepositional meaning, for example šil ‘to pass’ can also mean ‘through, along’, kwaa ‘to sit’ can mean ‘atop’, etc. The main exception is šo ‘to, at, on’, which does not seem to have a corresponding verbal meaning, but it functions in the same way as other prepositions. Prepositions can also be used adverbially, and do not always need to take a dependent noun, for example:
Konj-i sal-ii-g week sún-g.
man-DEF go-PFV-3s. away.from house-3s.
‘The man went from his house.’
Konj-i sal-ii-g week.
man-DEF go-PFV-3s. away.from
‘The man departed.’
Chuysung is satellite framing, encoding the manner of the verb on the head verb and the path of motion on the preposition. Large amounts of prepositions can be stacked onto a single inflected verb:
Konj-i sal-ii-g week sún-g šil yóň-i šo sán-i.
man-DEF go-PFV-3s. away.from house-3s. through village-DEF to forest-DEF
‘The man went from his house through the village into the forest.’
Prepositions can also be stacked with each other to form complex paths:
Konj-i sal-ii-g week šil sún-g.
man-DEF go-PFV-3s. away.from through house-3s.
‘The man exited his house.’
Likewise, these too can be used adverbially, without a dependent noun:
Konj-i sal-ii-g week šil.
man-DEF go-PFV-3s. away.from through
‘The man exited.’
There are two classes of adjectives—adjectives of the first class are a small, closed class of adjectives that precede the nouns they modify and require no additional particles or morphology. They mostly consist of colour terms, and basic descriptors of size and shape:
Kééd ooból.
red sun
‘The red sun.’
Taay konj.
big man
‘A big man.’
All other adjectives follow the nouns they modify, and are linked to their noun with the i particle, which is also used to form relative clauses. A number of them are derived from verbal roots which take on different meanings when used as eventive verbs:
Cííd-i i yím.
woman-DEF REL be.tall
‘A tall woman.’
Cííd-i yím-ii womifel.
woman-DEF stretch-IPFV bedsheet
‘The woman is stretching a bedsheet.’
This closed class of adjectives possess a set of suffixes to form comparative and superlative adjectives, -ii and -íí, which form the comparative and superlative respectively, as well as -áá, which forms a comparative meaning ‘less than’. The preposition kwaa ‘atop’ is used to form comparisons between two nouns:
Konj-i eey-g taay-ii kwaa kúj-i.
man-DEF be-IPFV-3s. big-COMP atop child-PS-DEF
‘The man is bigger than the child.’
Comparatives and superlatives for the open class of adjectives are formed with taayii and taayíí respectively, following the adjective in question:
Konj i yím taay-ii kwaa kúj-i.
man-DEF REL be.tall-SUBJ-IPFV COMP atop child-PS-DEF
‘The man is taller than the child.’
Adjectives and adverbs are the same part of speech in Chuysung, and the closed class of adjectives precede their verbs and the open class follow their verbs when functioning as adverbs, just as they do their nouns, for example:
Konj-i cíň tíw-ii-g šil.
man-DEF little look-IPFV-3s. along
‘The man looked around a little bit.’
Konj-i tíw-ii-g told šil.
man-DEF look-IPFV-3s. be.quick along
‘The man quickly looked around.’
Nouns are declined for possession, definiteness, and number—however, only a closed class of nouns decline for number and the number/person of their possessor. The suffix -i marks nouns as plural, definite, or possessed:
Konj-i say.
man-PL PL
‘Men’
Saa fom-i.
2s. bowl-PS
‘Your bowl.’
Fom-i.
bowl-DEF
‘The bowl.’
These meanings can be disambiguated via additional words—for example konj-i say has the plural suffix combined with the plural word say. Plural definite nouns can be optionally formed with demonstrative pronouns, if disambiguation is required:
Yom konj-i.
this man-PL
‘The men.’
Only a closed class of animate nouns take the -i plural marker, with all other nouns being optionally marked with say, with plurality frequently being unmarked. Reduplication (without a plural marker) refers to a group of something taken as a collective whole, while reduplication with a plural marker has a meaning of ‘all’:
Konj-konj.
man-REDUP
‘A group of men.’
Yom konj-konj-i say.
this man-REDUP-PL PL
‘All the men.’
Possessed nouns can be paired with pronouns, as in the saa fom-i example above, or with a noun, e.g. fom-i konj ‘man’s bowl’—note that the possessive pronoun in these constructions is placed before the noun, while a possessive proper noun is placed after. The preposition koň can also be used, e.g. fom-i koň konj, with the former process being used more frequently for literal possession and the later for marking association, origin, composition, and more abstract connections.
A small class of nouns are obligatorily possessed, with possession formed via a different means to the -i construction outlined above, with a set of suffixes which mark person and number (number only in the first person) being appended to the end of the word instead:
| Singular | Plural | |
| First Person | CV́C-u | -y(a) |
| Second Person | -s(a) | -s(a) |
| Third Person | -k(on) | -k(on) |
Obligatorily possessed nouns without a specified possessor take the -i possessive suffix, meaning ‘someone’s’, for example: fooy ‘(someone’s) mother’, cin-i ‘(someone’s) sister’, etc. Forms such as **foo or **cin without any suffix are not permitted. Some nouns are only obligatorily possessed with certain meanings, for example: konj ‘man’ but konj-i ‘(someone’s) husband’. Most obligatorily possessed nouns are kinship terms, body part nouns, as well as a few miscellaneous nouns, such as súm-i ‘house’.
Count nouns must be declined with -i and paired with a classifier when a number of said noun is specified. For example:
Fom-i yin kíp.
bowl-DEF two CL
‘Two bowls.’
Something like **fom-i yin would not be a valid construction in Chuysung. Classifiers are mostly transparently derived from nouns—kíp as a noun means ‘head’, and as a classifier is used to count nouns with a round shape.
When a noun denoting a human being is the object of a verb, the preposition šo, ‘to, at’ is required; compare:
Cííd-i wal-ii-kong fom.
woman-DEF carry-IPFV-3s.3s. bowl
‘The woman is carrying a bowl.’
Cííd-i wal-ii-kong šo kú-c.
woman-DEF carry-IPFV-3s.3s. to child-3s.
‘The woman is carrying her child.’
Personal pronouns distinguish two numbers, as well as two cases, the accusative pronouns being used for when the pronoun is the direct object of a transitive verb and the nominative pronouns for everything else.
| Singular | Plural | |
| First Person Nominative | huu | yaa |
| Second Person Nominative | saa | sáá |
| Third Person Nominative | kon | kón |
| First Person Accusative | húú | yáá |
| Second Person Accusative | sáá | sáát |
| Third Person Accusative | kón | kónd |
Chuysung also possesses an indefinite pronoun, kas, as well as a set of three demonstrative pronouns, yom, it, and kyaa, which mark something as near the first person, near the second person, and near the third person respectively. The demonstrative yom can also be used as a definite article in certain contexts.
There are three main interrogative pronouns, tee, ‘who, what’, téé, ‘whom’, and teen ‘how, why’, alongside additional compound interrogative pronouns, such as teebúň ‘where’, teesak ‘whose’, etc. Interrogative pronouns are not fronted, but remain in the typical position of the noun they stand in for:
Week-ii-s yan téé?
cut-PFV-2s. PFV what
‘What have you cut?’
The three most frequent particles are fu, the negation particle, i, the relative particle, and ki, the interrogative particle. Fu negates verbs and adjectives, equivalent to English ‘not’, but is placed after the verb or adjective, for example:
Konj-i told-ii fu.
man-DEF run-IPFV NEG
‘The man was not running.’
Tum fu konj-i.
happy NEG man-DEF
‘The unhappy man.’
Konj-i i yím fu.
man-DEF REL be.tall NEG
‘The man is not tall.’
The relative particle i is used to form relative clauses as well as connect verbal adjectives to their head nouns:
Konj-i cúp-ii-gon yan cííd-i i sal-ii-g kyaa fól šo yóň-i kwaa kon fel-i.
man-DEF give-PFV-3s. PFV woman-DEF REL go-PFV-3s. other day to village-DEF with 3s. bed-PS.
‘The man gave the woman, who had arrived in the village yesterday, his bed.’
The particle ki forms yes/no questions, and is placed after the verb:
Koň-íí-s ki kwaa yom fól?
go-PFV-2s. INT away.from this day
‘Will you be leaving today?’
Productive derivational morphology consists of prefixes, changes to the final consonant (lenition or fortition), and reduplication. Some prefixes trigger lenition on the initial consonant of the root.
oo- — Forms augmentatives of status from nouns. — Triggers lenition. tur- — Forms augmentatives of size from nouns. kus- — Forms patient nouns from verbs, nouns meaning ‘where X occurs’ or ‘relating to X action’ from verbs. — Often combined with lenition on the coda consonant. šan- - Forms result nouns from verbs. — Often combined with lenition on the coda consonant. cal- - Forms diminutives of size from nouns. ši- - forms diminutives of status from nouns. — Triggers lenition. ik- - Forms agent nouns from verbs. ki- - forms adjectives of quality from nouns. — Triggers lenition. Often combined with fortition on the coda consonant. CVP > CVB — Forms nouns from verbs — Frequently combined with additional prefixes. CVB > CVP — Forms verbs from nouns — Frequently combined with additional prefixes.
Both noun and verb compounds are present in Chuysung. Nouns can be compounded with other nouns, adjectives, and verbs to form new nouns with the addition of an -i- interfix, probably derived from the i relative clause particle. For example: wom ‘cloth’ and fel ‘bed’, womifel ‘bedsheet’. In the case of vowel hiatus, -i- is simply deleted: twéé ‘water’ and twum ‘be heavy’, twéétwum ‘alcohol’, and not **twééitwum or **twééytwum.
Verb compounds mostly consist of two verbal roots, with the second verb being declined for the subjunctive imperfective singular, with no pronominal inflection, e.g. koň ‘to go’ and tíw ‘to see’ > koň tíw ‘to find, to meet’. Unlike compound nouns, these verb compounds do not form a single word, as inflection is appended to the first element of the compound, between the first verb and the second.
Nouns are often turned into verbs via pairing the verb kom ‘to do’ with the noun as a direct object, with prepositions then used to introduce indirect objects, e.g. kom twéé ‘soak’, kom twéé šo wem ‘to soak cloth’ (literally ‘to do water to cloth’).
The Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň dialect is the informal spoken register of Chuysung in the urban centre of Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň. While relatively close to Standard Chuysung, it notably lacks the voiced series of stops /b d ɟ g/, having merged them with the voiceless series /p t c k/ while fully phonemicising the low tone the voiced series imparted phonetically on preceding vowels. The low tone from coda fricatives has also been phonemicised, with coda /s/ being elided completely with compensatory lengthening, and coda /ʃ/ vocalising into /j/ alongside the imparting of a low tone. For example, kask is realised as [kàːk̚].
Voiced stops still surface phonetically, but according to a very consistent allophonic rule, in which /p t c k/ in-between vowels voice, and in all other positions are realised as voiceless. For example, cī́d and cī́d-in are [t̠ʃîːt̚ t̠ʃíːdĩː] in Standard Chuysung, while they are [t̠ʃîːt̚ t̠ʃîːdĩː] in Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň, with the falling tone retained in both forms. Likewise, while intervocalic voiceless stops can be found in Standard Chuysung, they are not present in Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň. For example, kukoň is [ku̥.kɔ̃j̃] and [ku.gɔ̃j̃] in Standard Chuysung and Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň respectively.
Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň possesses a few archaisms in comparison to Standard Chuysung, the main archaic features being the absence of /f/ (outside of loanwords) and the presence of /ŋ/. Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň did not undergo the prehistoric sound change of *p > f as Standard Chuysung did (Standard Chuysung /p/ likely originates from an old geminate *-pp-), and so all instances of Standard Chuysung /f/ are /p/ in Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň, except in cases of borrowing. This gives the local pronunciation of the name Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň as [kugɔ̃j̃ikɔ́xpũ̀j̃] as opposed to standard [ku̥kɔ̃j̃ikɔ́xfũ̀j̃], with púň instead of fúň. The velar nasal is realised as a nasalised velar glide [ɰ̃] when word final and a velar nasal stop [ŋ] in-between vowels. Notably, /ŋ/ can correspond to any of the three nasals from Standard Chuysung, for example, Standard Chuysung fom, sán, seň [fɔ̃w̃] [sã́ː] [sɛ̃j̃] correspond to Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň [fɔ̃ɰ̃] [sã́ɰ̃] [sɛ̃ɰ̃]. Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň does not devoice initial glides, and /w/ is realised as a labiodental fricative, for example yóň and wēg, [çɔ̃j̃] and [xʷɛ̀ːk̚] in Standard Chuysung, are [jɔ̃j̃] and [vɛ̀ːk̚]. Likewise, word-final /m/ is realised as a nasalised labiodental fricative [ṽ], compare [xʷɛ̃w̃] to [vɛ̃ṽ] for wem.
Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň /t/ has underwent palatalisation to /ts/ when before /i/ or /u/, which has phonemicised due to the loss /tj tw/ clusters, with [dz] as a voiced allophone, e.g. tíík, túng, twéétwum are [tsíːk̚], [tsũ̂ːk̚], [tsɛ́ːdzũṽ] respectively.
The Túng dialect is spoken in the countryside regions surrounding Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň, and deviates more strongly from Standard Chuysung than Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň, having a highly reduced consonant inventory. It shares a few features with Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň, such as the lack of voiced stops and consequent phonemicising of the low tone, as well as the preservation of /p/ and consequent lack of /f/. This is thought to be due to the Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň dialect originating from an early form of the Túng dialect, when rapid urbanisation led to an influx of workers from the outlying agricultural regions into the city centre.
The main factor which distinguishes the Túng dialect from other dialects is its process of nasalisation. All word-final nasals have disappeared, nasalising the preceding vowel. Likewise, nasals in the prevocalic position nasalised the following vowel, before denasalising themselves into stops. As such, phonemic nasal consonants have disappeared from the language entirely, but they surface phonetically as allophones of the stops when followed by a nasalised vowel. For example, túng is pronounced as [tũ̂k̚] in Standard Chuysung but [nũ̂k̚] in Túng.
Túng distinguishes the habitual from the future with an additional particle con [ɲɔ̃ː], which marks the habitual aspect; compare: twéég-íí sol amak ‘I will reap the millet’ vs twéég-íí con amak ‘I reap the millet (every year, frequently, etc)’.
Another distinct grammatical feature of broad Túng is the lack of the -i suffix on nouns for marking definiteness, plurality, and possession. E.g. konj ‘man, men, the man, a man’. This occurs much more frequently among elderly speakers, and -i is common in the speech of younger speakers in the countryside due to influence from Standard Chuysung. Túng also lacks pronominal marking on more verbs than Standard Chuysung, for example twéék in Standard Chuysung receives pronominal marking, but doesn’t in Túng. Pronominal marking is confined to less than a dozen verbs, and unlike the reintroduction of -i, pronominal marking is generally not being restored among younger speakers, as there is a strong tendency in all colloquial dialects to reduce inflectional person markers.
Túng has a number of specialised words relating to geography and agriculture that look to be of substrate origin, so-called ‘millet-words’, due to amak, ‘millet’, being the best known of such substrate words (though amak is present in all dialects). These words are often bisyllabic, but with both vowels being of the same quality, and often without any initial consonant, e.g. amak, olon, edéé, ujún, etc. Notably, there is a strong tendency for these ‘millet-words’ to have as their intervocalic consonant a consonant which cannot appear in initial position in Standard Chuysung—likely the initial vowel was inserted epenthetically by Proto-Chuysung speakers to make the word conform to Chuysung phonotactics, thus amak, olon, edéé, and ujún probably go back to substratal forms roughly of the shape *mak, *lon, *déé, and *jún. Cases involving initial consonants, e.g. talap, may have originated as monosyllabic words with complex onsets in the substrate language, *tlap.
fooy - n. obl. pl. mother tooy - n. obl. pl. father cini - n. obl. pl. sister konj - n. obl. pl. man cííd - n. obl. pl. woman ser - n. people, person kúji - n. obl. pl. child, son, daughter fom - n. bowl weeg - n. section, piece, plot of land, property ikweek - n. knife cuuy - n. obl. neck, throat, speech, language fúň - n. field fól - n. day (unit of time), daytime yóň - n. village kípi - n. obl. head twéé - n. water, body of water, river, lake hom - n. cloud, sky fel - n. bed tóm - n. hill, mountain, elevated land arp - n. earth, ground, soil, mud, land elt - n. deer aaň - n. student (typically at a religious school) fet - n. chair súmi - n. obl. house wem - n. cloth táwk - n. pig, boar, mammal saaw - n. sea, ocean túng - n. land, countryside fen - n. island seňi - n. obl. name sán - n. tree, forest amak - n. millet oogonj - n. pl. sir, lord, male teacher, male royal, respectable man oojííd - n. pl. miss, lady, female teacher, female royal, respectable woman ooból - n. sun šaňcúb - n. gift tufom - n. large bowl kukoň - n. road, path šansom - n. darkness, night šánaaf - n. tiredness tuyóň - n. city óóm - n. sky, God kusee - n. being, person (formal) waaň - n. priest, priestess cotóm - n. hillock, mound calelt - n. fawn šaňím - n. space, room šigonj - n. young-man šijííd - n. young-woman kuton - n. school tutúng - n. large landmass, continent iksíg - n. belt kask - n. fire túngisaaw - n. harbour, coastline šankwob - n. measure, standard kukoňitwéé - n. river fúňitwéé - n. lake, sea fomifól - n. sky seriduyóň - n. burgher, business owner, clerk, urban professional, middle-class individual tuyóňifooy - n. capital city twéétwum - n. alcohol womifel - n. bed-sheet oosúmi - n. obl. palace edéé - n. servant ujún - n. plough — Dialectical, sometimes rendered as uňún in order to reflect contemporary Túng pronunciation. olon - n. yoke — Dialectical. talap - n. furrow — Dialectical. tíík - n. bird sak - n. thing, item, property fosti - n. obl. hair hiili - n. obl. blood kutéég - n. prey šanee - n. life, being
kál - adj. black, dark brown, maroon som - adj. black, dark blue hooy - adj. yellow, green kééd - adj. red, orange cíň - adj. small, little, a few taay - adj. large, big, much, many tum - adj. happy, joyful, lovely fay - adj. good koo - num. one yin - num. two sap - num. three hap - num. four tyar - num. five kól - num. six
ee - v. pro. sup. to be koň - v. pro. to step, to go, to leave, to come, to meet kom - v. pro. to do, to make cúp - v. pro. to be generous, to give šóór - v. to be useful, to be good, to be diligent, to use week - v. pro. to cut, to slice cót - v. pro. to speak, to say, to talk wal - v. pro. to carry, to convey ton - v. pro. to hold, to have, to know, to learn foor - v. to write yím - v. to be long, to be tall, to stretch, to extend, to show tam - v. to follow coň - v. to open, to begin, to start šéén - v. to fall, to fail šil - v. to pass haaf - v. to be tired, to be weary, to tire tíw - v. pro. to see, to know (perfective) twum - v. be heavy, be full, fill kwaa - v. pro. to sit told - v. to be quick, to run elb - v. be akin to, be like wer - v. to lie down, to rest, to sleep kíš - v. pro. to eat kigonc - v. be male, be masculine, to masculinise koň tíw - v. pro. to find sík - v. pro. to tie, to fasten twéék - v. pro. to cut, to reap, to harvest yak - v. to become hard, to be stiff, to be stern, to harden tíw yak - v. to judge, to regard negatively, to scrutinise kwát - v. to fear, to be scared of, to worry kwof - v. to count yet - v. to seek, to want kyod - v. be dear to, be beloved, to love, to like twep - v. to be near, to be close to kélk - v. to drink téék - v. to hunt taad - v. to stop, to prevent sat - v. pro. to receive, to feel kom twéé - v. pro. to soak
šo - pre. to, towards, at, on šil - pre. through, along, into koň - pre. from, of, because of, due to week - pre. away from, apart from kwaa - pre. atop, with, while
šweeg - adv. until, to the point of, finally, eventually šom - adv. when, where, at the point, at the place šiyom - adv. by doing so, having done so koňom - adv. from doing so, and so weecom - adv. but, rather tadat - adv. always
ci - conj. if
i - part. relative particle fu - part. privative particle ki - part. interrogative particle
huu - pro. 1s. saa - pro. 2s. kon - pro. 3s. yaa - pro. 1pl. saa - pro. 2pl. kón - pro. 3pl. yom - pro. this it - pro. that (proximal) kyaa - pro. that (distal), other kas - pro. indefinite pronoun
ser - class. human nouns fúň - class. large, flat nouns kíp - class. round nouns
A letter from a new student of Som Kuton Fay Óóm (‘Navy Blue School of the Good God’) to her mother.
Šo Aamaa,
Tam-tam-íí šil kukoň-i i yím, sal-íí-ya šweeg šo Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň, šom ōból coň-ii šéén šil, cíň tíw-ii-w šo tuyóň-i šo fól-i koň šansom-i šánaaf-i, koňom sal-ii-w told šil huu šaňím-i, huu šéén-ii yan šo kwā huu fel-i. Huu haaf-haab-ii sal-u šo cín-u! Šo yin fól sal-ii-w šo kon—sen-g eey-g Šaňcúbóóm, eey-g cíň šijííd—cíň-ii kwaa huu weecom cíň-aa kwaa cíň-íí ya Tumtum-i—i taay cót-on sol, weecom tam-íí sol šil fay kukoň-i say, i šóór. Toogon eey-g seriduyóň koň Tómom, foogon eey-g oojííd koň kuton koň tuyóň-i, weecom Šaňcúbóóm cód-íí-g sol fay, i elb oojííd—cót-u yan koň foo-g.
Ya oojííd-i eey-g Ōdumtaay, fay i šóór-šóór, weecom i yak, kon taay tam-íí sol šil fay kukoň-i say, tíw-ii-w yan eey-g fay, weecom hu kwád-ii tíw-g yan yak šo huu ci huu šéén yan week kon fay šankwob-i. Huu yet-yed-íí sol koo yím fay-íí šankwob šo cíň Tumtum.
Cót šo kon huu cin-g i taay-íí kyod taay-íí kyód sol kón, elb huu kyód sol sáá, foow. Huu fooríí sol twep šo saa, saa cíň Calelt-i.
to mum,
INTENS-follow-IPFV-PL along road-DEF REL, go.to-PFV-PL-1pl. finally at Kukoňi-Kól-Fúň, when sun set-IPFV pass-SUBJ through, little see-IPFV-1s. at city-DEF at day-DEF due.to darkness-DEF tiredness-DEF, and.so go.to-PFV-1s. quick into 1s. room-PS, 1s. fall-PFV PFV to atop 1s. bed-PS. 1s. INTENS-be.tired-IPFV go.to-SUBJ-1s. to sister-1s.! at second day go.to-PFV-1s. to 3s.—name-3s. be-IPFV-3s. Šaňcúbóóm, be-IPFV-3s. small woman—small-COMP atop 1s. but small-NEG.COMP atop small-SUPR 1pl. Tumtum-PS—REL much talk-SUBJ-HAB-3s. HAB, but follow-HAB HAB good road-DEF PL, REL be.diligent-SUBJ-IPFV. father-3s. be-PFV-3s. businessman from Tomom, mother-3s. be-IPFV-3s. teacher of school of city-DEF, but Šaňcúbóóm speak-IPFV-HAB-3s. HAB well, REL akin.to-SUBJ-IPFV respectable.woman—speak-PFV-1s. PFV due.to mother-3s.
1pl. teacher-PS be-IPFV-3s. Tumtaay, good REL INTENS-be.learned-SUBJ, but REL be.stern-SUBJ, 3s. much follow-HAB-3s.-HAB HAB along good road-DEF PL, see-PFV-1s. PFV be-IPFV-3s. good, but 1s. fear-IPFV see-SUBJ-PFV-3s. PFV be.hard at 1s. if fall-SUBJ-PFV PFV away.from 3s. good measure-PS. 1s. INTENS-want-HAB HAB first show-SUBJ good-SUPR measure to small Tumtum.
speak-IMP to 3s. 1s. sister-3s. REL be.beloved-SUBJ-IPFV much-SUPR love-SUBJ-HAB HAB 3s.-ACC, akin.to 1s. much-SUPR love-SUBJ-HAB HAB 2s.-ACC., mother-1s.. write-FUT FUT soon to 2s., 2s. small Calelt-PS.
To Mum,
Following the long road, we finally arrived at Kukoni-Kol-Funy, when the sun was just beginning to set, and so on the first day, due to darkness and tiredness, I saw very little of the city, and I quickly went into my room to fall onto my bed. I was too tired to even meet my sister! I met her the day after—her name is Sanchubom, she is a short young woman, shorter than me, but not as short as our littlest Tumtum, and she talks a lot, but follows the righteous path, being very studious. Her father is a businessman from Tomom, while her mother is a teacher at a school in the city, but Sanchubom speaks very well, like a gentlewoman—I imagine due to her mother.
Our teacher is Ms. Tumsay, who is good and very learned, but stern, and she follows the righteous path very diligently, which I know is good, but I fear she will look down on me if I fail to live up to her good standard. I only want to set a good standard for little Tumtum.
Tell her I, her dearest sister, love her very much, as much as I love you, Mother. I will write to you soon; your little Calelt.
Sal-íí-g tíw šo cíň kúj-i i kigonc i wer kwaa arp.
come-PFV-PL-3pl. see-SUBJ-IPFV to small child-PS REL be.male-SUBJ-IPFV REL lie-SUBJ-IPFV atop earth.
"There they found a child, a little boy, lying on the ground."
Weecom elb sál-k šil kyaa kukoň.
rather akin.tp-SUBJ-IPFV go-SUBJ-PFV-PL-3pl. along that.distal path
"It seems like they had just (already) gone on another path"
Táwk-i say koň-íí-g šil week tutúng-i šo fen-i say.
animal-DEF PL go-IPFV-PL-3pl. along away.from continent-DEF to island-DEF PL
"The animals cross over again to the islands (from the mainland)."
"It drinks its blood while (its prey is still) running."
Kon kélk-ii hiil-k kwaa kon kutéég-i taad-ii fu told.
3s. drink-IPFV blood-3s. while 3s. prey-PS stop-IPFV NEG run-SUBJ-IPFV
"I’ve always felt that there is something a little lacking in my life."
Sát-u sol tadat kas salkon cíň week huu šanee-y.
receive-SUBJ-HAB HAB always ind.pro go-SUBJ-PFV little away.from 1s. life-PS.