Hüm Kiinfe Haankaysiw

Hüm Kiinfe Haankaysiw ([çyɲ‿ˈciːmβe ˈxɑːŋgai̯ʃiu̯]), also known as just Hüm Kiinfe or Haankaysiwan is a language spoken on the Haankay Steppe by the Haankaysiw people. It is a lightly agglutinative language featuring front-back vowel harmony, mora timing, and a VOS word order as well as a consonant inventory on the smaller side and length distinction in vowels. It is a Nominative-Accusative language featuring a singular definite and plural definite article.

Allophony & Syllable Structure
Syllable structure is (C)V(C), there are no syllabic consonants, and all vowels can be long. If the nucleus is a long vowel, a semivowel cannot be in the coda. Hiatus is not allowed.


 * Before front-close vowels, /t͡s/ and /s/ are realized as post-alveolar [t͡ʃ] and [ʃ], and /k/ and /x/ are realized as palatal [c] and [ç].
 * Nasals in coda assimilate, including over word boundaries. Before velar realized consonants and utterance final, they assimilate to [ŋ], before palatal realized consonants they assimilate to [ɲ], before alveolar and post-alveolar realized consonants they assimilate to [n], and before labials they assimilate to [m].
 * The velar fricative /x/ is realized as [h] before non-velar consonants
 * The realization of the dorsal liquids /r/ and /j/ vary greatly between dialects. The most popular realization, however, is the alveolar tap [ɾ] and the palatal approximant [j] respectively.
 * Voiceless consonants voice after nasals and when touching the voiced labial fricative /β/, but not across word boundaries.
 * The open vowel /a/ is realized as [ɑ] after guttural consonants unless before the palatal liquid /j/
 * When the semivowel liquids /w/ and /j/ are in the coda and not intervocalic, they diphthongize with the nucleus vowel and are realized as [u̯] and [i̯] respectively

Stress & Mora-Timing
Hüm Kiinfe Haankaysiw is a mora-timed language. Syllabically, the mora break down as such:


 * (C)V = Light
 * (C)VV, (C)VC = Heavy
 * (C)VVC = Super Heavy

If there is a super heavy syllable in a word, stress will fall on the first super heavy syllable in a word. If there is a heavy syllable in a word, stress will fall on the first heavy syllable in a word. Otherwise, stress will fall on the first syllable in a word with an onset.

Articles, Particles, and Affixes cannot be stressed and do not affect stress, however reduplication and derivation do. Monosyllabic words are stressed.

Vowel Harmony
Hüm Kiinfe Haankaysiw features a front-back vowel harmony system, with the vowels /a/ and /e/ as transparent neutral vowels. When harmonizing, a vowel maintains its roundness. The front vowels are /i y ø/, and the back vowels are /ɯ u o/. If in a situation where the only trigger vowel for harmony in affixation is a neutral vowel, the realization of the affix’s vowel is that of a cardinal vowel (so /i/ for -I, /u/ for -U, and /o/ for -O).

Grammar & Syntax
Hüm Kiinfe Haankaysiw has an underlying word order of VOS. It is an agglutinative language with isolating tendencies.

Articles
Hüm Kiinfe Haankaysiw features two articles, a singular definite, and a plural definite. The articles harmonize with the noun they are modifying.

{ARTICLE TABLE}

The singular definite article also acts as a Proper Article, and as such is used with names of people and major places, even if that would disagree with the plurality of the noun.

Primary Document
A primary, always up-to-date, document can be found here.