Summary

Introduction. 

Context 

History. 

Notations and Conventions  

Letter and Sounds. 

Consonants  

Vowels. 

Orthography  

Romanization  

Historical script 

Typology. 

Morphological 

Morphosyntactic  

Word order 

Morphology  

Pronouns. 

Noun. 

Adjective. 

Grammatical cases. 

Nominative  

Accusative  

Genitive  

Dative. 

Instrumental 

Essive. 

Equative  

Causative  

Adessive  

Inessive  

Superessive  

Verbs. 

Tense. 

Aspect 

Mood. 

Voices. 

Serial Verb Construction  

Numerals  

Cardinals  

Ordinals  

Collectives  

Derivation  

Paralinguistics  

Deixis. 

Spatial Deixis. 

Temporal Deixis. 

Size and Quantity Deixis. 

Honorifics  

Tone of the sentence. 

Cultural Elements. 

Morality. 

Identity. 

Colors. 

Time. 

Measuring time. 

Representation of Time. 

Kinship and Family. 

Spirituality  

Dictionary. 

 

 
 

 

Introduction

Context

            The Old Tsumiyokian language is a language that was spoken by the Tsumiyokian people upon their arrival in Lapland. It is the mother language (i.e., ancestor) of most Tsumiyokian language spoken by the various clans, people and families, that compose this country.

            In modern day Tsumiyoku it is supposed to not be spoken anymore, even though it is still used and understood by a variety of scholars and in the literature field.

            The Old Tsumiyokian language, despite its unified state, still had varieties and was not a completely identical language to every speaker. Thus, the language described in this paper, which already somehow was a language of literature, is believed to be a standardized and scholar language while still being used as a lingua franca. This fact would explain the high regularity it faces and the relative variety of words it contains.

History

Please see: Tsumiyokian History

Linguistic history: in construction...

First elements: unknown origins and no traces of pre-old-tsumiyokian languages. Has borrowed from a language somewhere between nostratic and altaic, and from paleo-european languages.

Notations and Conventions

            Here are listed the notations and conventions that are used in writing this paper. They are especially used in gloss.

 

The gloss should be written in the following order:

For nouns and pronouns: Case.Number.Person.Class

For verbs TAMs: Mood.Tense.Aspect

For verbs Persons: Number.Person.Class

For adjectives: Case.Number.Class

 

 

Letter and Sounds

Consonants

 

 

            

Vowels

 

Orthography

            Old Tsumiyokian can be written in two ways. The first one being the latin way, which is mostly used to teach foreigners or when the language is needed to be accessible. The other one is a writing system specific to the Tsumiyokian languages that was first used to write Old Tsumiyokian and Pre-Old Tsumiyokian. This article will be written using the IPA and the romanized Old Tsumiyokian.

            Old Tsumiyokian’s orthography is important because a lot of Tsumiyokian languages are in fact written through Old Tsumiyokian, this at least through orthography and usually also through grammar. Thus, each Tsumiyokian needs to understand lexicon employed in other dialects.

Romanization

            Old Tsumiyokian can be written with the Latin alphabet. It is then written with the alphanumeric characters without diacritic or special characters. This system was designed to be regular and to not convey any ambiguity. Only purely IPA characters have a romanized counterpart, otherwise you write them the same as you would with a standard Latin script or as they are described in the phonological tables. In the rare cases where it could actually be ambiguous, unrelated characters that do not compose a digraph will be separated by a point <.>.

 

            This article will be written with IPA and romanized Old Tsumiyokian.

 

            Here are the romanized characters:

 

Historical script

            The Old Tsumiyokian language has a historical and traditional script named “”. This script is composed of 37 glyphs, which means it has a high rate of sound/letter correspondence. It has been developed by scholars surrounding the Miyokutsu clan, after some of them traveled and observed emergent writing systems in old civilizations.

            This script was probably written in snow at first, which allowed relatively free logograms to be written. However, snow being ephemeral, it is believed that writing was a mean of conveying art, literature, music and history as a support and that its ephemeral character was the main point of it being appreciated.

            The beginning of the tradition of tattoos has shaped the Tsumiyokian writing as being vertical because it was more practical to write on the human body

Typology

Morphological

            Old Tsumiyokian is a polysynthetic and agglutinative language.

Morphosyntactic

Old Tsumiyokian is a Nominative-Accusative language: the subjects of transitive and intransitive verbs are marked the same way. It is also a strict head initial language. Which means that:

the noun comes before the adjective

the possessed noun and related adjectives come before the possessor

the nominal group comes before the determiner

the verb before the adverb

the adpositions are postpositions

Word order

However, when it comes to word order, Old Tsumiyokian is much more flexible. The main word order used in this document is SVO as it is the preferred one in Tsumiyokian official and standardized documents. However, other word orders are commonly used: SOV, VOS, OSV.

VS word orders are not used, probably because this specific word order led to personal declensions on verbs in older versions of Old Tsumiyokian.

 

 

Morphology

Pronouns

            Old Tsumiyokian pronouns are distinguished between personal, demonstrative, determiner and relative pronouns, and are declinable to 11 grammatical cases. They are distinguished between three persons, 3 numbers and 4 classes.

            The three persons are: First person, Second person and Third person. The First person is the speaker, the Second person is the person to which the speaker speaks, the Third person is another person outside of the conversation. There is no distinction between clusivity, which then has to rely on context.

            The three numbers are: Singular, Dual and Plural. The Dual number is unmarked due to the drop of /h/ word finally; the Dual number is also stable due to the Tsumiyokian culture that valorizes pairs. Collective statements are expressed through the Plural number.

            The pronominal classes are different from the nominal ones. The pronominal classes are of two orders. The first order is the one of animacy and distinguishes Animate and Inanimate. The second order splits the animate class into Neuter, Feminine and Masculine while the Inanimate class is not split for pronouns. The role of class in politeness will be further explained in this manual.

 

            Determiner and Relative pronouns are composed of a single root pronoun that is declined to the case, number and class. Respectively, those root pronouns are kagh and sos.

 

Relative pronoun table:

 

Determiner table:

 

 

Noun

            Old Tsumiyokian nouns are also declinable to the previously mentioned 11 grammatical cases and numbers. They are also declinable to 7 classes.

            The grammatical cases and numbers do not change, they are the same as in pronouns.

            However, the grammatical classes change a little. Even though the Animate class and its second order divisions remain the same, the Inanimate class is split between Object and Abstract on the second order.

            The nominal declensions are mainly inherited from the third person pronominal declensions.

Adjective

            In old Tsumiyokian, Adjectives are declined with the same declensions as nouns. Adjectives are placed after the modified noun (i.e., the language is head-initial). There is no copula, which means that adjectives are directly after the noun they modify. The lack of copula also applies when the adjective is formed with a noun declined to a grammatical case like Equative, Essive or Genitive.

Grammatical cases

            Old Tsumiyokian has 11 grammatical cases that affect nouns, pronouns and adjectives. 2 of them are morphosyntactic alignment cases (Nominative, Accusative), 4 are relation cases (Genitive, Dative, Instrumental, Causative), 2 are state cases (Essive, Equative) and 3 are local cases (Inessive, Adessive, Superessive).

            Those grammatical cases are usually expressed through suffixes, the only unmarked case being the Nominative one.

Nominative

The Nominative case is a morphosyntactic case that expresses the subject of a sentence or proposition. The Nominative case is the only unmarked one, even though in the nominal form it could be considered as marked with the alveolar thrill /r/ which was used for breaking hiatuses in Proto-Tsumiyokian.

 

Example: 

                       ighloxurjev kebumalzakjaky

                       Sun.NOM.SG shine.(IND.P.GN).(SG.I)

                       The sun shines.

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

 

Accusative

            The Accusative case is the second morphosyntactic case that expresses the object of a sentence or proposition. It is recognizable by its typic voiceless alveolar fricative /s/. This case tends to be eroded in the dual and plural numbers.

 

            Example: 

                                   kemedajoeara araso ojleraluov

nourish.(IND.P.PRG).(SG.1) me apple.INS.SG

I am nourishing myself with an apple (i.e. I eat an apple).

            

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

 

Genitive

            The Genitive case is a relational case that marks the possession. Just as in most Indo-European languages the genitive case marks the possessor and is recognizable by its typical open vowel /a/ that, unlike the nominative case, isn’t broken by an epithetic consonant. However, it may induce the following vowel to become a semi-vowel. 

 

            Example:

                                   ojlerarjuev araha

apple.NOM.SG SG.1.GEN

The apple is mine.

            

Personal Pronouns:

            

 

Nouns:

 

 

Dative

            The Dative case is a relational case that usually marks the receiver of an action, and this independently of the action, may it be beneficial or not. It is recognizable by its typical post-alveolar voiceless affricate /t͡ʃ/. The Dative case globally tends to be eroded.

 

            Example:

                                   imatchoara ljesitch oejljicoesiev arahasiev

give.(IND.P.GN).(SG.1) DAT.SG.2.F love.ACC.SG GEN.SG.1.(ACC.SG.ABS)

I give you my love.

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

 

Instrumental

            The Instrumental case is a relational case used to mark a noun that is a mean by or with which an action is accomplished. It is recognizable by its typical liquid alveolar /l/ sound. This case tends to be eroded for the dual and plural numbers.

 

            Example: 

                                   kemedajoeara araso ojleraluov

nourish.(IND.P.PRG).(SG.1) ACC.SG.1 apple.INS.SG

I am nourishing myself with an apple (i.e. I eat an apple).

 

            In Old-Tsumiyokian the Instrumental can also take the value of Comitative, which means it can also mark the noun that accompanies the actor, which is in general an animate noun. When the Instrumental has a Comitative value, it should be used with the postposition orag.

 

            Example:

                                   kimadzhueryoetchoxes arapa ikjrixiloev oxesitchoeloev orag

learn.(IND.P.PROG).(SG.2.F) I.CAUS sibling.INS.SG.M her.INS.SG.M with

I teach her with her brother (i.e. she learns because of me).

 

            The Instrumental case can also take the value of Abessive, which means the lack or deprivation of something. The Abessive case can be applied to any type of noun, not only animate or inanimate. The Abessive case is expressed with the postposition oragga literally meaning “not with”.

 

            Example:

                                   xuedagara ljitch oragga.

go.(IND.P.PRG).I you.(INS.SG.N) with.not

I'm going without you.

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

 

Essive

            The Essive case is a state case that usually marks identity. More specifically it marks identity in a specific timeline. It is not to be confused with Equative even though the distinction is slim. The Essive case can be recognized by its typical voiced labio-dental fricative /v/. It tends to take over on Equative and Causative.

 

            Example: 

malejuejuov bulzuvelugnuov

cat.NOM.SG black.ESS.SG.ANL

The cat is black.

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

 

 

Nouns:

 

 

Equative

            The Equative case is a state case that marks comparison or similarity. It is not to be confused with the Essive case. The Equative marks a spontaneous state that is dissociated with identity. It is recognizable by its typical palatal nasal /ɲ/. It is eroded in the Dual number and hold small differentiation in the Plural number.

 

            Example:

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

                                               

Causative

            The Causative case is a relational case that marks the cause, the origin, of the action. It doesn’t mark the one that is influenced by the cause or origin however. It is recognizable by its typical voiceless bilabial plosive /p/. It almost doesn’t hold any distinction if not in the singular number.

 

            Example: 

                                   kimadzhueryoetchoxes arapa ikjrixiloev oxesitchoeloev orag

learn.(IND.P.PROG).(SG.2.F) I.CAUS sibling.INS.SG.M her.INS.SG.M with

I teach her with her brother (i.e. she learns because of me).

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

 

Adessive

            The Adessive case is a local case that marks the exterior place the action is done in; it can also mark the adjacency. It is recognizable by its typical voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/.

 

Example: 

                                   ara edzhenueagjev

I forest.AD.SG

I am in the forest.

 

            The Adessive case is also used to mark time without emphasizing it.

 

            Example:

                                   xuemljuegara nixudev voffesugjev

(go somewhere).(POT.PF.GN).I there(far).INE.SG (next time unit).AD.SG

I will likely go there tomorrow.

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

 

Inessive

            The Inessive case is a local case that marks the place the action is done in, when the place of the action is a closed environment. The Inessive case is recognizable by its typical voiced alveolar plosive /d/.

 

            Example:

                                   ara pitojomedegh

I roots.INE.PL

I am in the house.

 

            The Inessive case also marks time and emphasizes it.

 

            Example:

                                   kememajoeara araso vovoccoedev

nourish.(IND.P.GN).(SG.1) me now.INE.SG

Now is the time for me to eat.

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

Superessive

            The Superessive case is a local case that marks the surface the action in done on. Typically, it is used when countries or locations take place in the sentence or proposition. The Superessive case is recognizable by its typical voiced post-alveolar fricative /ʒ/.

 

            Example:

                                   ara tojomozhev

I soil.SUP.SG

I am on the soil.

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

 

Nouns:

 

 

Verbs

            Old Tsumiyokian verbs are conjugated for Tense, Aspect, Mood (TAM) as well as Person. The person declension being very effective, phrases drop pronouns if not necessary.

            Verbs are accorded to the subject of the action. The personal particles are suffixes and are the nominal pronouns simply suffixed.

            TAM however are infixes. The rules for infixes are simple: the infixation place is after the first CV string of the root word. The TAM particles are organized in the following pattern: ATM, which means that first comes the aspect particle, then the tense particle and finally the mood particle.

Tense

            There are 5 Tenses in Old Tsumiyokian. Those Tenses are Present, Distant Past, Proximal Past, Distant Future and Proximal Future. The Proximity indicates the time the action occurred depending on the present moment in which the speaker is. Because of their longevity, Tsumiyokians don’t pay too much attention to time, therefore a Proximal Tense would occur in the two to three weeks around the present time and a Distant Tense would occur beyond two or three weeks. The Present, Distant Past, Proximal Past, Distant Future and Proximal Future tenses are, in order, expressed with: an unrounded open vowel /a/, a rounded front mid vowel /ø/, an unrounded front mid vowel /e/, a rounded front high vowel /y/ and an unrounded front high vowel /i/.

Aspect

            There are 5 expressed Aspects in Old Tsumiyokian. An Aspect expresses how the action extends over time and shows the relation of the subject of the action with the time the action was expressed. The Aspects are not paired by opposition in Old Tsumiyokian because a hierarchy exists, which means that an aspect will imply the ones of higher order. Please see the following hierarchy:

 

 

            The first level of distinction is Bounded vs. Unbounded. A Bounded action means that the action expressed is not the main action, it is used in the discourse to set context. More specifically, a Bounded action could be seen as punctual and blurry, an action that doesn’t extend to which the speaker or interlocutor doesn’t pay much attention. Only the Bounded aspect is expressed through a nasal alveolar consonant /n/. On the contrary, an Unbounded action is the main action, the one the discourse is focusing on.

 

            The second level of distinction is Perfective vs. Imperfective. The Perfective Aspect views the action as a simple whole unit, an action that was punctually done. It is comparable to the English Preterit: “I watched a show”, in opposition with the Imperfective Aspect, which expressed the internal structure of an action, just like you would say in English: “I was watching a show” or “I was cracking eggs multiple times”. Only the Perfective is expressed through a voiced velar stop /g/. Imperfective and Perfective Aspects also imply an Unbounded action.

 

            The third level of distinction is the Iterative vs. Semelfactive. The Iterative Aspect expresses an action that was repeated multiple times on a continuous linear sequence. On the contrary the Semelfactive Aspect expresses an action that has was done only one time. Only the Iterative Aspect is expressed with a voiced bilabial stop /b/. The Iterative and Semelfactive Aspects imply an Imperfective Aspect and thus also an Unbounded Aspect.

 

            The fourth and last level of distinction is Progressive vs. Gnomic. The Progressive Aspect marks an action that is in the process of being realized in the moment the speaker is referring to (“I am making”). On the contrary, the Gnomic Aspect marks an action that is done, but without distinction on its timespan, progression or else (“I make”). The Progressive Aspect is marked through a voiced alveolar stop while the Gnomic Aspect is expressed with a bilabial nasal consonant /m/. Both Aspects imply the Semelfactive Aspect and thus also the Imperfective and Unbounded Aspects.

Mood

            Old Tsumiyokian distinguishes 8 verbal Moods. Moods are the reality in which the action is expressed.

 

            The first Mood is the most common: Indicative. The Indicative Mood places the action in the current reality, the one that has been going on and will go on in a continuation of the current timeline. It is expressed with no consonant, though it was expressed with a glottal stop in an older version of Old Tsumiyokian that disappeared in consonant clusters.

 

 

 

            The second Mood is the Imperative Mood. This mood expresses orders and injunctions, and is recognizable by the velar voiced fricative /ɣ/.

 

 

 

            The Subjunctive mood expresses alternative reality, a reality that could have happened but did not, or a reality that did not happen (i.e. a counterfactual value). Its typical consonant is the postalveolar voiced fricative /ʒ/.

 

 

            The Optative mood is used to express hope, desire and wish, independently on whether it is realizable or not, it is mainly the speaker’s feeling. In Past tenses, the Optative mood merges with Imperative. An alveolar lateral consonant /l/ is typical to this mood.

 

 

 

            The Conditional mood expresses realities depending on conditions. A conditional utterance can be separated into two parts: the condition “if I had eaten that oyster” (i.e. protasis) and the consequence “I would have been sick” (i.e. apodosis). The Old Tsumiyokian Conditional mood marks the protasis only and implies different moods on the apodosis:

In Present tense Potential is used.

In Past tenses Subjunctive is used.

In Future tenses Presumptive is used.

The Conditional mood’s typical consonant is a spirant palatal /j/.

 

 

 

The Potential mood is used to express the probability of an event, which is likely in the opinion of the speaker. This mood is recognizable by a lateral palatal consonant /ʎ/.

 

 

 

The Presumptive mood expresses presupposition or hypothesis in the eyes of the speaker. It can also carry various emotional and mental states such as curiosity. It is marked by a bilabial voiced fricative consonant /v/.

 

 

 

The Inferential mood is used to report an unwitnessed event. It is usually present in narrative discourses by the speaker when they were not the witness and got the information from someone else. Thus, a speaker using Inferential mood doesn’t confirm or agree with the events and information reported. It’s typical consonant is a trilled alveolar consonant.

 

 

Voices

            The Old Tsumiyokian language distinguishes five moods in total. First, it distinguishes between active, passive and middle. Then, the middle voice is separated into mediopassive, reciprocal and reflexive.

 

            The Active voice is used in a clause whose subject expresses the main verb’s agent. In Old Tsumiyokian the active voice is unmarked. Even though any sentence structure is possible with the active voice, usually only structures with the object coming after the subject are used to avoid conflict with the passive voice.

 

            The Passive voice is used in a clause where the subject is the theme or patient of the main verb, which means the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed. In Old Tsumiyokian, the passive voice I expressed by putting the object before the subject, thus using OVS and OSV sentences, and putting the passive particle ozhe directly after the verb.

 

            The Mediopassive voice is used to combine passive voice and the lack of true subject (i.e. middle voice). Therefore, a mediopassive sentence has a subject that is the theme/patient of the verb and no object that is the verb’s agent. An example in English would be “ripe oranges peel easily”. The mediopassive voice is expressed by putting the particle yoe directly after the verb.

 

            The Reciprocal voice is used when the subject expresses an action on the object that itself expresses the same action on the subject of the sentence. Thus, the subject and object of the verb express the same action on each other, it’s reciprocal. An example in English could be “we wash ourselves” (in the sense: “I wash them and they wash me (back)”). The reciprocal voice is expressed by putting the particle ru directly after the verb, and by putting the subject and object both at the Nominative case.

 

            The Reflexive voice is used when the direct object of the verb is the same as the subject of the same verb. An example in English would be “I wash myself”. The formation of a reflexive sentence relies on syntax: the object of the transitive verb is the same as the subject.

Serial Verb Construction

            Old Tsumiyokian uses serial verb construction when needed. Which means to conjugated verbs or verb phrases can follow in the same clause when considered as being part of the same event. Serial verbs don’t have specific marking and are conjugated like any normal verb. Serial verbs allow to drop subordinating conjunctions relative pronouns which usually introduce them. However, to do so, the subject has to be able to be dropped too. Usually, serial verbs are used with verbs that have the same subject and TAM but can be used for different subjects and TAM, especially in poetry.

 

Example:

                        chematchara jamaara

want.(IND.P.GN).(SG.1) eat.(IND.P.GN).(SG.1)

I want to eat

Numerals

            Old Tsumiyokian numeral system works on a base 16, which means that the point of overspill is 16 in the English base 10 system, every number being calculated through powers of 16. However, this system does not comprise the figure zero which is replaced by the word … “void, nothingness” in mathematics. Zero is further borrowed from Arabic in multiple modern Tsumiyokian languages. Three types of numerals are distinguishable: cardinals, ordinals and collective.

 

The mathematical representation of an Old Tsumiyokian number B is therefore as following:
 
 B = a₀*16⁰ + a₁*16¹ + ... + a_n*16ⁿ 

With n ∈ N; B, a₀, a₁, …, a_n ∈ Z

Cardinals

 

            Bigger numbers are formed by literal addition and multiplications from the highest power of 16 to the smallest. For instance, 231 would be “2*100+3*10+1”, of course with 10 and 100 being replaced in the hexadecimal base.

 

            For instance: rep uue ka à B*10 + 3 = 11*10 + 3 à 113.

            For instance: zox uuecc kili uue ni à 5*16² + 2*16 + E = 5*16² + 2*16 + 14 à 1326.

 

Cardinals also serve the function of adverbs to precise the number of iterations of an action. Thus, they need to be used with the Iterative aspect.

Ordinals

            Ordinal numbers are simply formed by deriving cardinal numerals with the noun to adjective derivation. Ordinal numbers express numeral order and/or hierarchy, just like the words “first, second, third, etc” in English.

 

 

Collectives

            Collective numbers express the idea of group of entities, of association. They are similar to the English word “dozen”. They are formed by adding the particle mi(j)-  in front of cardinals, which literally means “a group of …”, as this particle is a short for miyoxi “family”. However, the first eight collectives are not frequently used and rather replaced by cardinals as they represent very small quantities.

 

 

Derivation

In compounded words if the last word is finished by a nominal declension, it will be reanalyzed as the place of declension of the compounded word. Most derivation happens through prefixes.

 

 

 

 

 

Paralinguistics

Deixis

            Deixis is the way one may refer to the world surrounding him, especially time, space or quantities. Old Tsumiyokian faces a 5-way deictic distinction covering proximity, distance and extreme distance.

Spatial Deixis

            Spatial Deixis concerns spatial locations and has a dual implicit distinction between absolute and relative locations. Thus, closeness can also be used to refer to a place towards the speaker and distance to a place towards the listener, with a mid-point between the two. Spatial Deixis concerns Adverbial phrases that are nouns declined to locative cases and are used to refer to places, Distance Adjectives and Demonstratives. Adverbials and demonstratives are the same: to be a demonstrative, an adverbial must be placed after the noun it qualifies.

 

 

Temporal Deixis

            Temporal Deixis concerns relative time in an utterance. It is distinguished between nouns and adverbs. Adverbs are used to qualify time or speed of actions while Nouns are used to refer to relative moments in time.

 

 

Size and Quantity Deixis

            Size and quantities are also referred to using a type of Deixis, with two extremes and a mid -size or mid-quantity that is referred to as being normal in the eyes of the speaker. Please note that sizes and quantities use the same Deixis and can also be used as adverbs to qualify verb actions instead of solely adjectives.

 

 

Honorifics

            Old Tsumiyokian uses an honorific system. Principally, the use of the neuter class is seen as particularly polite when addressing people or speaking about people you hold respect for. You may also use this class when talking to or about someone don’t know the gender of, for which you may confuse their gender (as old Tsumiyokians didn’t hold much value in categorizing people according to supposed gender).

Tone of the sentence

            Old Tsumiyokian furthermore distinguishes tones in the sentence. There are three grammatically marked tones: Negation, Interrogation and Exclamation.

 

            Negation is when you transform the verbal phrase into its contrary, in English “I didn’t eat that apple” is the negation of “I ate that apple” and vice versa. In Old Tsumiyokian, Passive and Reflexive sentences would see the particle ga directly after the verb. In Reciprocal, Active and Mediopassive, the particle ga would be suffixed to voice particles.

 

            Interrogation is when the speaker requests information with the sentence they phrase. In English “Are you sure?” is opposed to “You are sure.”. In Old Tsumiyokian, the particle chi is added at the very end of the sentence in order to express Interrogation. Moreover, interrogative sentences generally also use the Presumptive mood, which expresses a presumption or a hypothesis.

 

            Exclamation is when you want to emphasize an event like surprise, anger, etc. In Old Tsumiyokian, the particle na is added at the very end of the sentence in order to express exclamation.

 

 

Cultural Elements

Morality

            The notion of good and bad exists in the Old Tsumiyokian culture, but it has very different values than the morality we know. Good and Bad are inherently nouns and have to be used with the Essive case when needed to qualify something. Here are the main points about morality in Old Tsumiyokian culture:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Identity

Sexuality and Identity are good, privileged and openly displayed. As part of the way of nature they are not judged nor imposed nor hidden. Sexual exclusivity was not an important cultural element in Old Tsumiyokian culture.

 

            Equality between people despite differences is natural. Just like an ecosystem, a society is perceived to work with everybody. Equality may not even be understood as a concept, Old Tsumiyokians may struggle to understand why you would try and discriminate people based on gender, culture or personal identity. Differences are acknowledged but not seen as relevant against the mass of society and among natural elements.

 

            A very common, if not default, way to display your identity is through tattoos. Tattoos have to display an art form and are usually done through black inked Tsumiyokian script or clanic symbols. Tattoos are often done in very visible place such as the jawline, neck and cheeks for clanic symbols and around the navel, the perceived center of life of a mammal being, are written personality, philosophy or other important traits of a person.

Colors

            Colors in Old Tsumiyokian hold more value than a simple visual information. A color can hold multiple sensations’ information such touch or smell (non-exclusive) but also sentiments, feelings, abstract concepts, etc. Because of that, colors are inherently nouns and have to be used with the Essive case when needed to qualify something.

 

            Colors have two level of distinction. First level:

 

 

To which you can add colors of the second level:

 

Here’s a chart that shows the two-level distinction and color split:

Time

Measuring time

            Old Tsumiyokian uses similar time units as English with a couple differences. First of all, months and weeks don’t exist per se and cycles are measured with seasons. There are 8 seasons very similarly to Sami languages:

 

 

            The year vofteno- starts when the first plants emerge from the last snow during the final snow season, which means that the start of the year is variable. Days are counted according to the start of each season in Old Tsumiyokian and dates were not that relevant compared to relative measures as time was not important to people living long periods of time. Time is referred with vofpuzhghi- (previous time unit, past) and voffesu- (next time unit, future) that work in context and can be used with any time unit. Day is an understood minimal unit with the word ighloxu-, but refers to only the period of light as opposed to uvelu- (night). Past, Future and Present are understood and used in verb declensions, the word vovoccoe- can refer to the present and can be used as an adverb “now”. 

Representation of Time

            Due to the already long lives of Old Tsumiyokians, there is little relevance in time: There are no distinctions between old/young (rather, a distinction of independent-ness); time is not feared, death either, and people do not live lives pressed by time. Life happens and flows, and you feel it without fear of a deadline. 

 

            Rather than time, people talk about life when needing to refer to something. Through life, time is conceived as the following: rather than a stream, time is conceived like air. The air is your future, each direction you look at is a possibility that you can reach. As life happens, each event condenses from the air, passes through you when you live it, and becomes stored below your feet, in the earth. Indeed, below your feet is perceived to be roots, that expand and make you solid in order to live life. Memories are conceived to reinforce your roots (or shake them). In the end, memories go through the same cycle as plants: absorbed through the leaves of life, passing your trunk and getting stored by your roots.

Kinship and Family

            Old Tsumiyokian has a kinship system that relies more to closeness rather than blood relations. “Grand-parents” refer to people in the clan that take part in raising you (caretaker), as in clans you may find groups of children raised together. Siblings, cousins and people you are close to are referred with the same word and do not hold real distinction. Piblings refer to the parents of people you’re close to that are not your own parents. The only blood relation considered are parents. Each word is originally of the neuter class but usually can be declined to masculine or feminine if needed. Marriage doesn’t exist as a concept, there are no terms related in Old Tsumiyokian.

 

            Family Trees and various spirits are considered to be an important part of the family. Families refer to everyone you’re close to and that took part in your raising, even the ones you have no blood relations with. The clan is the next level of kinship that is more distant and formal though a very important constituent of the identity. A clan might have multiple families constituting it if big enough. Bigger clans are more similar to political units that encompass cultural identity while smaller clans have little to no distinction between a family and the clan.

 

In daughter languages, kinship systems may evolve very differently.

Spirituality

            There were no mythological and belief systems among Old Tsumiyokians that is similar to a so-called religion. Spirituality of Old Tsumiyokians was based on nature and history. 

 

Old Tsumiyokians believed to be an integral part of nature, they believed each animal and plant to hold a spirit withing themselves. Thus, we can observe in Old Tsumiyokian the name of animals and plants very commonly “spiritualized” with the adjunction of a prefix “i-”. The familiarity with nature led to a close proximity: plants and animals were often attributed proper names; hunting, killing, foraging or else were accompanied by rituals and extreme carefulness as well as a will to compensate for the damages; Old Tsumiyokians believed to be protected if living with nature, for instance in forests houses were built among the roots (hence the etymology) and each house/close family was believed to have a protecting spirit in the presence of the tree. Such trees were named and cared for.

 

            History is carried through what could be called a “mythology” with the difference that stories are very poorly fantasized, exaggerated (no gods, no supernatural event, etc). Even though trying to bring up the past was pointless for Old Tsumiyokians, trying to remember in order to understand their own origins and avoid repeating mistakes was an important factor of history reminiscence.
 

Dictionary