Shivi is a constructed language. Meant to help me internalize what I learn about linguistics.
To notate the phonology of Shivi I am using the IPA.
Shivi's vowels are:
| Front | Center | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i, iː | u, uː | |
| Mid | e, eː | o, oː | |
| Low | a, aː |
Shivi's consonants are:
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | b | d | k | ||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ||
| Fricative | v | z, ʃ | h | ||
| Liquid | ɾ | j |
Most of Shivi is romanized same as the IPA symbols. There are a few exceptions since writing some of these letters is hard using a common keyboard layout. Because of this /ʃ/ is romanized as "sh", /ɾ/ is romanized as "r" and, /ɲ/ is romanized as "ny". As you can see in the vowel chart Shivi also features long vowels. These are simply written by doubling the letter. So /aː/ would be romanized as "aa".
Shivi's syllable structure is constonant, vowel with an optional coda consonant. In Shivi the stress falls on the last syllable. Unless the second to last syllable contains a long vowel. In which case the stress falls on the syllable with the long vowel instead. A word can only have one syllable with a long vowel in it.
The word order of Shivi is subject, object, verb. Adjectives come before and, adpositions come after the noun that they modify. The possessee comes before the possessor. So instead of "Adam's dog." The order of the words would rearrange to become "Dog adam's.". Shivi has no way of marking words as plural. Instead the word "jara" is used as an adjective to mark someting as plural. If nothing suggests otherwise then present tense is being used. The future tense is marked by using "raba" as an auxiliary verb after the main verb. There is no past tense in Shivi.