Consonants

Pasgemanh has 17 consonant phonemes, summarized below:

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Interdental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labialized Glottal
Stop	p b			d			k g
Affricate				t͡s
Nasal	m			n
Fricative		f	ð	s	ʃ	ç		hʷ
Approximant		ʋ		l
Tap				ɾ

Stops include /p b d k g/. Missing from the inventory is a voiceless alveolar stop; instead there is a voiceless affricate /t͡s/.

Nasal stops include /m n/.

Fricatives include /f ð s ʃ ç hʷ/. /ç/ is pronounced as velar [x] when preceded and followed by back vowels /o/ or /u/, and as palatal [ç] elsewhere.

Approximants include /ʋ/ and lateral /l/.

There is one rhotic, an alveolar tap /ɾ/.

Vowels

Pasgemanh's six vowels are summarized below:

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ɨ	u
Mid	ɛ		o
Low		a

High vowels include /i ɨ u/. When unstressed and word-final, /i/ and /ɨ/ are both pronounced as lax [ɪ̵], and /u/ as lax [ʊ̵]. /u/ is also pronounced [ʊ̵] between two alveolar consonants (/t͡s d n l r/).

Mid vowels include /ɛ o/. /o/ is in free variation with [ɔ] before or after a nasal consonant.

Tones

Vowels can carry any one of four tones: low (unmarked), high (ˆ), rising (´), and falling (`).

Affixation

There are two important phonological aspects of affixation which will be discussed here.

Most affixes have one form, and if the addition of it to a stem creates problems, they are solved through the rules in the Repair section. Many affixes, however, have two possible forms, e.g. -(w)i, -ams/-msu. Where two forms are available, the one with a consonant at the appropriate edge is always used next to a vowel, but is used next to a consonant only if a permissible consonant cluster results automatically; no repair processes may be used—except s → t, and word-final epenthesis of y. In all other cases, the form with a vowel is used.

n(a)-ôma → nôma 'they are eaten'
n(a)-mà → nmà 'they fall'
n(a)-sàr → ntàr 'they melt'
n(a)-pòr → napòr 'they are destroyed'

When an optional vowel of an affix is omitted, the tone of the optional vowel will nonetheless appear on the syllable it attaches to if the latter originally carries a low tone.

n(à)-ôma-(ì)r → nômàr 'they eat it'
n(à)-man-(ì)r → nmânìr 'they use it' (à loses its high tone because of tone sandhi)

Mutations

Certain affixes trigger changes in an adjacent consonant, or the insertion of a segment before an adjacent consonant or vowel. The affected location can be in the same word or in a following word. These effects are called mutations, and they come in three types: voiced, unvoiced, and nasal. Not all phonemes are affected in any one mutation type, only those shown in the table below. If a mutation results in an impermissible consonant cluster, it must be fixed with the rules in the Repair section.

Unmutated	Fortition	Lenition	Nasal
p		b	m
b	p	w	m
t		d
d	t	dh	n
k		g
g	k	w
m		w
n
f		h
dh	sh
s		dh
sh		dh
h		—
w	p		m
l	sh	d	n
r
—	h

Consonant Cluster Repair

These processes are used to fix impermissible final consonants, and consonant clusters at any point in a word. They must be attempted in the order shown (e.g., epenthesis (2)/(5) is not used if deletion (1) would solve the problem). Whatever process used must solve the problem by itself (e.g., the impermissible dt cannot be changed to the impermissible ds (3) to enable metathesis (4) into the permissible sd; since none of steps (1)-(4) fix it independently, (5) must be used). The only exception involves clusters of more than two consonants, which may be broken up by epenthesis (2), but require another run-through to fix remaining clusters (e.g. ap-t-shwûmh 'bird's face' goes through (2) to become aptushwûmh, and then (3) to become apsushwûmh).

(1) Deletion	(a) In clusters consisting of a homorganic nasal and oral stop (mp, mb, nt, nd), followed by another consonant, the oral stop is deleted if a permissible cluster results: dhendrom → dhenrom 'stretched' nlowum-plôm → nlowumlôm 'to the cave' (b) Identical, adjacent consonants are reduced to one. lek ksam-mar → lek ksamar 'old house' top-plô → toplô 'in (the) forest' (c) If two adjacent consonants differ only in voicing (p and b, t and d, or k and g), the voiced one is deleted. blih drók-gim → blih drókim 'under (the) earth' (d) The following pairs of similar consonants are reduced to one: rl / lr → r ts → t
(2) Epenthesis	(a) Word-final consonants or clusters that would be permissible were they not word-final have y added afterwards. (Word-final clusters that are not permissible anywhere are treated no differently from word-initial and -medial ones.) gáf → gáfy 'move' fadr → fadry 'woman' (b) In other positions, epenthesis only applies at this stage to clusters of two consonants that are the result of a mutation, and clusters consisting of more than two consonants. If the consonants in the cluster belong to exactly two different morphemes, a vowel is placed between the two morphemes. If two consonants in the cluster act as one unit (i.e., they are both the result of one mutation, or they occur where the verbal paradigm calls for only one consonant), a vowel is placed between them and the other consonant. Otherwise, a vowel is placed between the last consonant and the consonant(s) before it. The vowel should be the same as the preceding vowel (whether part of the stem itself or an affix), unless there is none or the following vowel is u (or o, in Mfàsgu), in which cases it must match the following vowel. This vowel carries a low tone in most environments, but it will carry a high tone if it is between a rising or high tone on the left, and a falling or high tone on the right. haru ntemp-sgú → haru ntempusgú 'distant star' ísblì → ísbîlì 'ruling' le(F)-ntemp → lentemp 'star's' (F stands for Unvoiced Mutation; this turns n into hn, which acts as a unit)
(3) Other	One of these changes may take place: p → b b → p t → d t → s (this cannot apply word-finally) k → g g → k dh → sh s → t h → sh n → m (this cannot occur word-finally in the Ndymédhlamh dialect) Note: Where either t → d or t → s could fix a cluster, t → d is preferred by most speakers, though t → s is found as well (in all dialects). nles ymîs-pàr → nles ymîsbàr 'beautiful island' fôfohat-rú → fôfohadrú (or fôfohasrú) 'the sigher [reflexive case]' dâb gŷrash → dâp gŷrash 'I can'
(4) Metathesis	The order of the two consonants is reversed. hur hbyr-sham → hur hbyshram 'nasty girl' pâtal-pâtal → pâtaplâtal 'fast'
(5)Epenthesis	A vowel is employed to separate the morphemes, as described in (2). kôr sùk-nam → kôr sùkunam 'happy boy'

Final Consonant Repair

Hiatus Resolution

Two vowels together:

	a	e	i	o	u	y
a	oa			oa
e			oa
i				ou
o	oa	oa
u			oa
y

lià → lihà 'drinking'

Tone Sandhi

In a series of rising tones, all but the first will change to high tones. In a series of falling tones, all but the last will change to high tones.

ròhbìkó → rôhbìkó 'into the wall'

This process takes place after the repair processes described above, so it will not be applied if an epenthetic vowel has already broken up the impermissible tone sequence.

gáfgáf → gáfagáfy 'move more'

Tone Coalescence

.

	o	ô	ó	ò	o̬
o	o	ô	ó	ò	o
ô	ô	ô	ô	ò	ò
ó	ó	ó	ó	ò	ò
ò	ò	ô	ô	ò	ò
o̬	o	ó	ó	ò	o

Loanword Adaptation

Gender

Nouns are divided into two genders: animate and inanimate. Most nouns are of one type or the other, but there are also those known as mixed nouns and variable nouns, which may be treated as one gender or the other depending on the circumstance. Membership in one of these four classes is fixed for every noun, and is loosely semantically based, though there are also clear expections.

1. The animate gender includes humans, most animals, and some plants: ohlu 'king,' epsŷ 'dog,' mârél 'flower.'

2. The inanimate gender includes things which are not alive, as well as most plants: ndem 'night,' ìkó 'wall,' remel 'brush, plants, foliage.' Inanimate nouns can be treated as animate for the purpose of personification in fiction. This is often necessary, because inanimate nouns cannot take the full range of grammatical roles that animate ones can.

3. The mixed class includes things that are not alive but are closely associated with either humans or certain actions and states, as well as those whose status as alive or not alive is not obvious: leremp 'chair,' ksà 'stillness, slowness, silence,' ró 'sinew.' These nouns behave like animate nouns when grammatically specific, but as inanimate ones when general.

4. The variable class includes nouns that imply or modify other nouns: lor 'many,' sop 'remainder, remnant,' màrafs 'just a little.' These nouns are treated as having the same gender as their referent, be it explicit or implicit. Should there be no obvious referent, they behave as mixed nouns: animate when specific, inanimate when general.

Number

There are two numbers: singular and plural. These categories are valid for all nouns, even those of the English "mass noun" type, such as ôtil 'water,' drafe 'money,' and dar 'mud,' which would have the English translation already given when plural, but the respective meanings 'drop of water,' 'unit of money,' and 'small amount of mud' when singular.

Number is distinguished on all pronouns, but only on a limited number of common nouns. Their plural forms are not predictable, though many feature a change of the stressed vowel to é or e, truncation, the addition of -s or -ym, or some combination of the above. Several plural forms are suppletive. Those nouns with plural forms are listed below:

Singular	Plural	Meaning
dlagá	dleg	1. child, offspring; 2. effect, result, product
dhlenîmer	dhlénym	fruit, vegetable
dhòdr	dhédr	ancestor
fadr	fédr	woman, lady, wife
kelik	kéluk	tree
ksam	kesym	house, home
ksahbe	ksebr	dirge
ksyh	ksôhy	hair (esp. on head)
lâmêk	karatỳ	sword
lỳmydỳ	nỳr	finger
mèr	gylym	half
mwèk	mwéks	eye
nomp	némp	man, husband
onùk	onéks	tooth (plural form not used with other senses)
pûnh	kêpra	god
shy	shé	hand
wydho	wedhym	stick

Aside from these forms, number is marked indirectly on finite verbs, which agree in number and animacy with their subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects. For any other nouns in a finite clause, as well as nouns in a non-finite clause, if the number cannot be understood from the context and the speaker feels it is significant, there are several options:

1. Adding an appropriate quantity-denoting modifier: lunt (nv) 'one'; ísh (nv) 'few'; lor (nv) 'many, a lot, much, lots'; etc.

ôtiler hlunt 'one (drop of) water'
íshel kabaty 'a few starfish'
rawaser hlor 'many boats'

2. Appositing a pronoun. Most speakers are not wholly comfortable with this structure, feeling it to be a bit clunky, but they will use it anyway when the situation calls for it.

rawaso dhêms 'a boat'
rawaso ŷnmem 'boats'

3. Reduplicating the noun, though this may be best analyzed as a type of conjunction: Noun phrases are normally conjoined by simple juxtaposition. If two identical NPs are conjoined, the literal meaning must be 'two of NP1', but this is actually understood to be a plural like any other, which may number two or more. However, this is recognized by speakers as a metaphorical usage and is stylistically marked as elegant, and thus it is hardly used more often in ambiguous contexts than in clear ones.

rawas rawas literally 'a boat and a boat', or 'boats'

4. Similar to the previous method, a word may be paired with a close synonym. The word with fewer syllables always comes first. This is always optional, and a single word may be used instead.

gént gowaw ‘sparks’
hbú haiba ‘shadows’
ntemp awánt ‘stars’
rým wesa ‘branches’

Specificity

Each noun is considered to be either specific or general. If the identity of whoever or whatever is referred to by the noun is known by the speaker and felt to matter, the noun is specific. If the identity is not known by the speaker and/or is unimportant/irrelevant, it is general.

Case

Nouns are almost always affixed with a case marker to show their semantic role in the sentence, as related to the verb.

The main arguments of a verb take the Patient, Experiencer, Agent, Instrumental, Reflexive, and Goal cases.

Patient marks something that undergoes a state or a change of state, generally physically. It may be animate or inanimate.

Experiencer is similar to Patient, but it indicates the experiencer of mental state, rather than a physical one. It is used with verbs of sensation and perception.

Agent is the main source or cause of a verb. It can only be an animate noun.

Instrumental is used for nouns, usually inanimate but occasionally animate, that are used in some way to achieve the state described by the verb. It can be used for the locus of an action.

’His heart mourns’

Reflexive is used when one noun has the roles of both Agent and Patient, or Agent and Experiencer.

Goal is what the verb is focused on.

‘We talked about ...’

Benefactive indicates 'for.'

Privative indicates 'without.'

Translative indicates the result of an action. It is used to mark something that another noun became, as well as something new created. This can often be translated as 'into,' but it never indicates the directional sense of the word.

Pertingent - in the form of, about (We went as a group, speaking in Pasgemanh, we are Pasgemanh, it resembles a boat). Also functions as ornative - with (the girl with earrings, holding a knife, with a broken toe)

There are three local cases:

Locative usually translates to 'in' or 'at.'

Ablative indicates 'from' with verbs of motion, or 'below, under' with non-motion verbs.

Allative usually indicates 'to, towards' with motion verbs, or 'above, over' with non-motion verbs. It is also used with nouns that indicate the amount or degree to which a verb took place. It can also mark a time or situation towards which a verb is focused 'preparing for winter'

There are three trigger cases. They are so named because they replace the case that would otherwise be on a given noun, and trigger a change in the verb. The form of the case changes depending on whether the verb in the clause is dynamic or static. Unlike the other cases, the trigger cases do not indicate the role of a noun, and have no direct meaning or translation. They have three functions: 1) To convey emphasis or focus on a noun. This includes wh-type question words, which must take a trigger case, unless the speaker wants to show disinterest. 2) To indicate existence 3) This comes in two forms, one for use when the verb is dynamic, and the other for when it is static. . It indicates a general kind of emphasis or focus on the noun . It is also used, in the static form, when there is no verb, as a kind of existence marker, and can be interpreted as a copula when another noun phrase precedes it. The trigger form is used to give emphasis to a word in the sentence, or as an honorary form. Multiple items in one sentence can be triggers. The verb takes the affix(es) the trigger noun would normally have, in the order of the nouns if there is more than one trigger noun.

Inflectional Affixes

A single affix is used to mark gender, specificity, and case. Note that inanimate nouns may not appear in the Experiencer, Agent, or Reflexive cases. The patient case is for all nouns a null marker, so there is no distinction of gender and specificity.

	Animate		Inanimate
	Specific	General	Specific	General
Patient	-0	-(i)h	-0	-n
Experiencer	-`r	-ìr
Agent	oL-	h(oL)-
Reflexive	-pó	h(oL)- -(i)h
Goal	-el/-em	leN-/lem-	-lí(m)/-íl	-ìl
Instrumental	oL- -h	h(oL)- -h	-(n)shos	-nòsh
Benefactive	-gà	-gì	-shga	-shgà
Translative	-pul	-pàl	-hba	-hòb
Pertingent	-sgouw	-sgòuw	-sgoash	-sgoànsh
Privative	-tash	-tìsh	-pshuk	-nshùk
Locative	snŷ-	sỳn-	-ˆp/-(p)lô	-pòl
Ablative	synt-	smy-	-ˆps/-sôp	-sbàn
Allative	smo-	smah-	-plôm	-plòm
Trigger	-go	nèF-	sgir-	sgir- -n
Existential	ùF-	nùF-	sgùF-	sgùF- -n

Derivation

from Verbs

Noun Stem	Affix	Meaning	Animacy
1	-0	action; verbal noun	[varies]
1	m-	agent	a
1	sh-	Reflexive	a
1	-ha	instrument	a
1	-nsh	instrument	i
2	-0	patient	a
2	-(a)f	patient	i
2	r-	goal	a
2	g-	goal	i
2	h-	location	[varies]
2	m-	desire to	m

from nouns

Descriptive

Adjectives in Pasgemanh formed a closed set of less than 30. They mostly refer to physical characteristics such as size, texture, and color. Most English adjectives would be expressed by verbs in Pasgemanh.

In Pasgemanh, adjectives are distinct from verbs in several ways. Their actual shape, or phonological structure, has no obvious constraints, while verbs must fall into one of twelve classes. Unlike verbs, they agree agree with nouns in neither gender nor number. Within a noun phrase, they modify nouns by being split up and placed around them, while verbs must be made into relative clauses before they can modify a noun. A adjective in predicate position is joined to the subject by a copula (null or otherwise), which is not the case for predicate verbs.

Each adjective has a certain place where it splits into two, which is unpredictable and indicated with a hyphen in the dictionary. Within a noun phrase, the first half of an adjective appears before the noun as a separate word, and the second attaches to the noun as a suffix.

dom àdhlûmshêp
dom àdhlûm-shêp
large₁ plant-large₂
'large plant'

Nouns may only take two adjectives simultaneously. The order of the adjectives—both the first and second parts—is free.

dom mìm àdhlûmémŷshshêp
dom mìm àdhlûm-émŷs-shêp
large₁ green₁ plant-green₂-large₂
'large green plant'

If a speaker desires to describe a noun with more than three adjectives, the pronoun gi is placed directly after the noun, and takes up to three more adjectives. gi can be repeated with further adjectives, though more than two or three adjectives on one noun is rare to begin with.

Prepositional

Finiteness

The last verb in a sentence is finite and the others are non-finite. A finite verb form is the only one that can mark tense, and then it is only between past and nonpast (the latter is the citation form, used in the glossary above), and it is only if it is dynamic. Obviously, context is important to comprehension.

Dynamicity

The distinction between dynamic and static verbs is an important one. Dynamic verbs encompass all of a) entrance into, b) being in the midst of, and c) exit from a state or some type of action. Static verbs only express b). There are two basic distinctions made: dynamic/static, and finite/non-finite.
Dynamic verbs encompass the following:
1) entrance into a state
2) being in a state
3) exit from a state
Static verbs refer only to 2) above.
There are also inchoative verbs, encompassing 1) and 2), which are formed with the dynamic verb stem and the inchoative affix.
In basic sentences, there can only be one finite verb, and this is the last verb. All other verbs in the sentence must be in non-finite forms.

Tense/Aspect

Mood

Imperatives

For dynamic verbs, use the imperative affix and the finite/nonpast stem

	dynamic	static
affirmative	imp affix + d/np stem
negative	d/np stem

There is no passive or middle voice, and there is no distinction between transitive or intransitive verbs. Any verb can be either, depending on whether or not an agent is expressed, and may be translated completely differently in English depending on which arguments are present.

Stem Paradigms

Verbs can be divided into 10 classes, some with several subclasses. Some verbs are considered to belong to one of these classes, although they show some irregularity. Other irregular verbs do not clearly fit into any class, and are treated separately.

Root consonants are represented with the dummy letters N-H-M-L, vowels with A-E. When they are optional in a certain form, they are shown in gray.

Class 1

Class 2

Class 3

Class 4

Class 5

Class 6

Class 7

Class 8

Class 9

Class 10

		Finite			Non-finite
		Dynamic		Static	Dynamic	Static
		Nonpast	Past
Class	1	ANH	ANuHHuN	NAH =ÀNH	eNHA	eNHÀ
	2	NaH	NiH	NaH =NàH	íNH	íNHà
	3	NAH	NàH	NAH =issNAH	eNHA	essNAH
	4	iNAH	NAHim	iNAH =NÀH	eNAHi	eNÀHi
	5a	NHAM{mos/luh/nuh/raw/sy}	NHAM{ment/hwy/nhy/wry/sym}	NHAM ={mìnt/hwỳn/nùh/ràw/sàm}	eNHAM{mos/luh/nuh/raw/sy}	eNHAM{mìnt/hwỳn/nùh/ràw/sàm}
	5b	AM{mos/nuh/raw/sy}	AM{ment/nhy/wry/sym}	AM ={mìnt/nùh/ràw/sàm}	eMA{mos/nuh/raw/sy}	eMA{mìnt/nùh/ràw/sàm}
	6a	HMuL	HMeL	HMuL =HMòL	iHMeL	eHMòL
	6b		HMuLLuM
	6c	NAHMuL	NAHLeM	NAH =MòL	iNAHMeL	eNAHMòL
	7a	NAHEM	NAHMEm(p)*	NAH =ÈM	iNHEM	iNHÈM
	7b		NAHMEM	NAH =HÈM		iNHAHÈM
	8a	NoHaM	NeHeM	NoH =issHaM	iNoHMa	issNoHMa
	8b	NoHoM	NoHeM	NoH =issHoM	iNoHMo	issNoHMo
	8c		NoHuMMuH
	9	NiHiM	NimiHiM / NiHimiM	NiH =HiM	iNHoM	iNHòHiM
	10	NAHMEL	NAHMELEm	NAH =MÈL	eNHAMEL	eNHAMÈL

*If the root has p or b as the second or third consonant, the final p is omitted.

Irregular verbs:

Meaning	Finite			Non-finite
	Dynamic		Static	Dynamic	Static
	Nonpast	Past
'be/become'	(d)a(k)	(d)am	(d)aw	esba	ebas
'get'	dóp	dyp	dóp =dó	ynôsh	ýnŷsh
'swim'	dharew	dhrèm	dha =rew	edhrew	edhrèm
'pull'	ebrà	ebrèm	eb =rà	ýbàr	ýbrà
'be dim'	etu	etetu	tew	agetu	ituw
'not be/become'	fa	fam	faw	ehaf	efa
'dream'	fy	fym	fy =fy	efy	efy
'move'	gáf	gíf	gáf =gá	ìgíf	ìgfí
'be funny'	gôsne	gêsnam	gôs =ne	egônes	esgône
'see'	husi	husim	hu =si	ehosi	ehosi
'help'	kàl	kèl	kàl =kà	íkèl	íklè
'smoke'	lém	lým	lém =lé	elém	elým
'fall'	mà	mè	mà =mà	ímè	ímì
'do, use'	man	hun	man =hu	eman	emna
'wake'	ôry	ôrym	ôry =ôr	úrŷ	úrŷ
'burn'	psî	pes	posî =psî	èpse	èsep
'go'	ràp	rèp	ràp =rà	êrèp	èpra
'feel'	sgà	seg	sgà =sàg	èsge	èkas
'trap'	sgawdis	sgewdes
'cover'	slâ	sal	sâl =slâ	èsla	èsal
'be huge'	shgapot
'sleep'	uty	utym	uty =uty	útŷ	útŷ
'make'	wyr	wỳr	wyr =wy	ywỳr	ỳwyr
'be sick'	ŷwma	ŷwmamp	ŷw =ma	ŷmaw	ewŷma

Applicatives

Case Affixes

...:

	Animate	Inanimate
Patient	-0	-0
Experiencer	-rỳ
Agent	oL-
Reflexive	-pó
Goal	lèN-	líN-
Instrumental	hwoL-	nosh-/nsh´-
Benefactive	gaF-	tuN-
Translative	plú-	mshý-
Pertingent	sg´-	sg´-
Privative	tesh-	push-
Locative	sniL-	ploL-
Ablative	smiL-	sbaL-
Allative	smuL-	plaL-

Local Affixes

Clause-Linking Affixes

Other Affixes

Agreement

Finite dynamic verbs agree with subject, direct object, and indirect object, and finite static verbs agree only with their subject. Non-finite verbs don't agree in anything, and are understood to have the same subject as the finite verb at the end of the sentence. The agreement that does take place is for animacy, number, and person. Verbal agreement is the main indicator of number, as very few nouns are marked for number themselves.

		1S	AS	AP	IS	IP
Dynamic	Subject	-0	sh- / -(i)w	mp(e)- / -nt	-ùnh	n(a)-
	Direct Object	w(ê)-	p(à)-	-nt	-ìr	g(è)-
	Indirect Object	-s	-(i)w	-nél	-hì	-nìh
Static	Subject	-0	mn(é)-	-nt	-í	w- -í b- -í t- -í

Derivation

Derivation

Adverbs are often created by reduplicating verbs or nouns.

Existential Clauses

Focus

Dislocation

Elision

Any subject, direct object, or indirect object can be omitted, but the verb must still agree with it. This allows for the extreme example of a clause with its only noun phrase omitted, and its verb taking a zero marker for the first person subject, so that there there would seem on the surface to be no nominal argument at all.

mè
mè - 0
fall.F/D/P - I/D
'I fell'

Relative Clauses

Complement Clauses