Sateca'an

Phonemes, Phonetics, and Orthography

Written

a

b

c

d

e

g

h

í

i

k

l

m

n

ng

o

p

r

s

t

u

w

'

IPA

a

b

ʃ

d

e

g

h

i

ɪ

k

l

m

n

ŋ

o

p

r

s

t

u

w

ʔ

The phoneme /ʔ/ is not considered a letter or sound alone, but rather, is used to separate repeated vowels. It is not technically represented in Sateca'an's native script, but is inserted here in transliteration for convenience and as a stylistic choice.

Vocabulary

Pronouns

I
you
it/he/she
this

Articles

the

Nouns

Neuter
soup, stew
bowl, shell
coast, shore
water
lake, river, a large body of water as seen from shore
west
tree
thing
beast, wild animal
front, top, end
word
ocean, sea, a body of water as seen from within it

Feminine
back, bottom (of something), beginning
air, cloud
sky
time
child
animal (domestic)
meat
plant
fire
bush, branch
mother
woman

Masculine
north
cloth, clothing
son, boy
father
man
edge, border
root
tongue, language
body
rock, stone
earth, land
soil
foot, leg
sword

Prepositions

with, by means of
in, at, on, near
above, in front of, after
behind, in back of, before

Verbs

to be (in a temporary state)
to walk
to love, to be fond of
to speak with
to do
to go (somewhere in particular)
to visit (from "íhwe ina", to go and come from)
to see or hear
to return (to somewhere in particular)
to come from (somewhere), to be originally from (somewhere)
to trouble, to disturb
to travel/go/come (from somewhere, to somewhere)
to want
to eat or drink
to be (permanently, or possessing an inherent quality)
to resemble, to be like
to examine, to learn about
to exist

Adjectives

empty
large
small
old
full
all, completely ("none" with negative)
new

Grammar

Word order is typically SOV. Adjectives follow nouns.

Plurals, Possessives, and Other Affixes

Plural suffixes conjugate by gender.

Neuter	-an
Feminine	-ke
Masculine	-cí

Possessives precede nouns, and conjugate by animacy of the possessor.

Animate	tí
Inanimate	ta

Examples:

dweo ta na ídan
river of the west

Verb Conjugation

Verbs take different prefixes depending on gender and animacy of the subject.

	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Negative*
Animate	dí		bí	kí
Inanimate	de	am		ka

*Applies regardless of gender

Tense is determined by a verb-ending suffix.

	Simple	Continuous	Conditional
Past	-(e)dan	-das	-dín
Present	n/a	-las	-lín
Future	-(e)kan	-kas	-kín

Perfect and pluperfect forms are made by adding ogín (animate) or egan (inanimate) as suffixes to the simple and continuous forms, respectively. The suffix ga marks imperatives.

Variant and Irregular Verbs

There are categories of verbs that conjugate a little differently than the rest.

To Be

/dea/ becomes /de/, and /kaa/ becomes /ka/.

Verbs beginning in /w/

The beginnings /dew/ and /kaw/ become /dw/ and /kw/.

dwemín dwo.
There is water.

dwemín kwo.
There is no water.

Verbs beginning in /ɪ/

The beginnings /diɪ/, /biɪ/, and /kiɪ/ become /diʔ/, /biʔ/, and /kiʔ/. (The spelling does not change.)

ca dwedon ta na cun díina.
ʃa dwedon ta na ʃun diʔna
I come from the Northern coast.

kíinílga ca.
kiʔnilga ʃa
Don't bother me.

Conditional Form

The conditional form is a little unusual, but basically is used for "if" statements, to express the possibility of something.

For example:

telu talta dísilín, hle díwo.
If (a) woman is a mother, (she) has a child.

ca na ana dírundín, na acwin dola de.
If I ate the soup, the bowl is empty.

ca lata tí ke kísilín, ke hlelí tí ca kísi.
If I am not your father, you are not my son.

Translations

tba