Szöhaúmu (Language)

**Szöhaúmu** (Szöhaúmu: Szöhaúmu[n]) is an extremely influential Súno-Szöhaúmic language spoken by the Szöhaúmu and other peoples throughout Mézaxómu, most prevalently in the Second Szöhaúmu Empire. It has existed in its modern form since around 1010 UA (but first became distinct several centuries earlier), and is closely related to Agemu and Sziuszu as all 3 derive from Old Szöhaúmu.

## Classification

*Main Articles: Core Szöhaúmic Languages, Súno-Szöhaúmic Languages*

Szöhaúmu is a member of the Súno-Szöhaúmic language family, specifically being part of the Core Szöhaúmic group. Szöhaúmu, Agemu, and Sziuszu all descended from Old Szöhaúmu, with modern Szöhaúmu coalescing around the Pahovöthava River after being isolated from its sister-languages by the Bagalúpuu Hills. It is extremely similar to the other Core Szöhaúmic languages and shares partial intelligibility with the Lake Szöhaúmic languages.

## Phonology

Szöhaúmu as a language has fairly simple phonetics and phonotactics, but does have numerous dialects that aren't always so similar. Generally speaking, there are 5 main groups of Szöhaúmu dialects. That which is spoken by the Zhómno and Hemno of the Hwídhat Lakes, that spoken along the Nabilopu Coast, that spoken North of Bekétóxi by the Szöhaúmized Tűvcí, that spoken by most Szöhaúmu around the historical capitals, and the various dialects and creoles spoken by other populations across Mézaxómu. While all these dialects differ in some way in pronunciation, the vast majority of dialectal variation is in lexicon. The information provided reflects the Szöhaúmu of the capitals unless otherwise clarified. The symbols used below are from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

### Phonemes

*Note: all consonants absent from below are transcribed within the graph as they are in both Romanized Szöhaúmu (RSz) and English*

* s is typically written as "sz" in RSz and as "s" in English
* ʃ is typically written as "s" in RSz and as "sh" in English
* ð is typically written as "th" in RSz and as "th" in English words such as *that*
* χ is typically written as "x" in RSz and is not a sound in English, but is similar to "ch" in words such as *loch* (preferred phoneme in most dialects)
* h is typically written as "h" in both RSz and English and is also written as "x" in RSz (preferred phoneme in dialects North of Bekétóxi)
* j is typically written as a diaresis/double acute accent on a vowel in RSz and as "y" in English
* ʢ is typically written as "x" in RSz and is not a sound in English (preferred phoneme in the south coast dialect)

Generally, almost all dialects of Szöhaúmu will never aspirate their consonants (although doing so would not change the intelligibility of the word).

* eɪ is preferred in open syllables in northern dialects, such as that spoken by the Szöhaúmized Tüvcí

Szöhaúmu has phonemic vowel length for all vowels.

### Phonotactics

The phonotactics of Szöhaúmu are simple and relatively open. The standard syllable structure of Szöhaúmu is formed around a vowel with optional consonants adorning either end, (C)V(C). While multiple combinations are available in this arrangement, CV is by far the most common. Szöhaúmu splits both consonants and vowels into two groups each. For consonants these are restricted and unrestricted, while for vowels these are primary and secondary. Restricted consonants may only occur at the beginning of a syllable while unrestricted may occur anywhere; primary vowels may only occur at the beginning of vowel pairings and also must occur at the end of a noun, while secondary vowels may only occur at the end of vowel pairings. Exceptions occur more than one would expect in Szöhaúmu, and so these rules often manifest more like trends.

* Restricted Consonants: b, f, h, j (written as accent), p
* Unrestricted Consonants: k, l, m, n, s, sz, t, v, x, z
* Primary Vowels: a, é, i, u
* Secondary Vowels: e, o, ó, ú

## Grammar

Szöhaúmu as a language is fairly average in its predictability, with there being clear grammatical rules alongside clear exceptions to these rules. Compared to its fellow Core Szöhaúmic languages it is conservative in its grammar. Like all Core Szöhaúmic languages it is primarily subject-object-verb (SOV) word order. Szöhaúmu distinguishes between at least 6 major word classes: verbs, nouns, adjectives (including adverbs), determiners (including articles), prepositions, and conjunctions. Szöhaúmu prefers noun-cases over analytic construction.

Szöhaúmu will frequently undergo vowel mutation when changing a word from adjective to noun or from noun to adjective. This is a very frustrating part of the language to learn as the mutations only follow a loose pattern and must be learned on a case-by-case basis. Those that don't mutate are the exception as well so they must also be learned individually.

### Nouns

Nouns in Szöhaúmu are inflected only for plurality and optionally based on their noun gender as a formal part of speech and sometimes for clarification. Szöhaúmu makes no significant grammatical distinction between proper nouns and common nouns.

Optional noun gender is specified in Szöhaúmu through the use of single consonant suffixes. The three most common are *-m* for animate/feminine, *-n* for utility/masculine, and *-th* for inanimate. There is also an archaic divine gender, *-l*, that is used sparingly on a handful of words to lessen reliance on context for homophones with words such as *mehuul* (English: spirits).

All nouns are pluralized by lengthening the last vowel sound of the word, making all other long vowels short if they occur before.

* Singular: *űlun, ütääfósi*
* Plural: *űluun, ütäfósii*

Possession in Szöhaúmu is only marked through words specifically meaning "my," "our," "your," "their," or "its," for pronouns and through the use of *vi* (English: of) for all other cases. For this reason there's no distinction between dependent and independent possession outside of use/order in a sentence

* Pronoun Possession: *aka ve̋, etao visz*
* Noun Possession: *xu vi thali, été vi őnaszu*

Nouns in Szöhaúmu can form noun phrases in intuitive ways and generally only with other nouns.