/ b, ʧ, d, f, ɡ, h, ʤ, k, l, m, n, ŋ, ɲ, p, s, t, w, j /

(b, ch, d, f, g, h, j, k, l/r, m, n, ng, ñ, p, s, t, w, y)

/l/ becomes [ɾ] after / t d ʧ ʤ /

Nine basic vowel qualities: / a æ e ə i o œ u ʌ / Basic vowels undergo diphthongization (fronting, backing, closing, centring) and variations in phonation (length, tenseness, rhoticity, breathiness, creakiness)

Full vowel phoneme inventory (38 total) (followed by standard romanization):

a (6): /a a̰ː a̰ɪ̯ a̰ʊ̯ a̰˞ː a̤/ (a, aa, ai, ao, ar, ah)

æ (1): /æi̯/ (aiy)

e (4): /ɛ ej ɛə̯ ɛ̤ç/ (e, ey, ea, eh)

ə (3): /əi̯ ɚː ɚ̰ː/ (ay, ur, er)

i (7): /ɪ iː iə̯ iɔ̯ iə̯ʊ̯ ɪ̤ç i̤ə̯/ (i, ee, ia, io, iau, ih, iah)

o (6): /ɔ ɔ̰ ɔ̯o ɔ̰ɪ̯ ɔ̰˞ː ɔ̤/ (o, au, oa, oy, or, oh)

œ (3): /œ øœ̯ œɔ̯/ (eu, euu, euo)

u (6): /ʊ uː ʊɪ̯ uə̯ uə̯ɪ̯ ʊ̤/ (ou, oo, ui, ua, ooay, ooh)

ʌ (2): /ʌ ʌu̯/ (u, uoo)

Notes:

• both rhoticity and creaky voice appear only in /a/, /ə/ and /o/
• rhoticity does not occur without vowel lengthening
• Three of the four rhotic vowels also occur with creaky voice /ɚ̰ː/, /a̰˞ː/ and /ɔ̰˞ː/. Only /ɚː/ occurs without creaky voice.
• except in /a/, non-diphthongal, non-rhotic lengthening is always concurrent with a change in tenseness
• breathy voice does not occur with any other phonation type, and aside from the diphthong /i̤ə̯/, appears only in clear short vowels
• /ə/ and /æ/ do not appear as clear short vowels

/ŋ/ is no more or less restricted than the other nasals, /n m ɲ/

Occurs allophonically only.

See above.

(C1)(C2)V(C3)

Rules:

• C1 and C2 are never both nasals or fricatives, or stops of the same articulation point
• if C1 and C2 are of the same articulation point, C2 is never a nasal
• C2 can never be /f/
• /j/ and /w/ are rare in C2 position
• /h/ never appears in clusters
• C3 is never a voiced stop or fricative

When a stop is preceded by a heterorganic nasal, an extra-short schwa /ə̆/ occurs medially.

Vowels have inherent tones, but these are never contrastive, and both lexical stress (when present) and prosodic stress always take precedence. The inherent vowel tones are as follows:

plain, short or long: high

rhotic: low

breathy: falling or low

fronting/closing diphthongs: rising

backing diphthongs: falling

Consonants may also affect inherent vowel tone contours.

Editor's note: This arrangement of pitch contours was not a planned part of the conlang, and actually developed organically.

Most roots are monosyllabic, but the bisyllabic roots that do exist take final stress. Compound words take stress on the first morpheme.

possessive is indicated with the word 'ler' - 'to belong to; to be connected with' e.g.:

"knung ler bjeuup" - book belong teacher - the teacher's book

In verbs, this may indicate:

Intensification of action:

honer - to break apart; to smash

honerhoner - to smash to bits; to pulverize

joak - to be small

joakjoak - to be tiny; to be miniscule

Prolonged or exhaustive action:

toy - to face; to look at

toytoy - to survey; to inspect; to peruse

skaom - to wash; to clean (dynamic)

skaomskaom - to wash up; to clean up (perfect)

plural indicated with the stative verb 'beym' – 'be many'

Plural marking on pronouns is usually used either for emphasis or to show solidarity, association, etc.

Definiteness is indicated more or less through topic fronting rather than explicit marking of nouns.

Demonstratives are based on locative pronouns 'ork' this place (proximal), 'uang' that place (medial), 'euuk' that place (distal).

Adnominal demonstratives are the same as the locational demonstratives seen above.

Generic demonstratives are typically found compounded with 'pnih' and these are typically contracted, i.e.:

'pñork' - this thing here 'pñuang' - that thing there (proximal) 'pñeuuk' - that thing over there (distal)

standard 3rd person pronoun is 'tui' with a special oblique form 'itui'. Alternate pronouns 'keun', 'wia', and 'ni' also exist.

There exists an honorific second person pronoun, pñau, which contrasts with the standard second person pronoun, duool.

formed with the word 'ga' - item; example; instance

ayt ga; lobnih ga - something

logeuu ga - someone

logiap ga - somehow

lognom ga - some reason

logsar ga - somewhere

loguang ga - sometime

Example: Logeuu ga jart sgiahsmaiy flet duool. - who one come place.and.remain arrive 2 - Someone came and left something for you.

There are only two constructions that could be considered case.

The first involves subjects and topics. In the standard dialect, a redundant 3rd person pronoun ('tui') may optionally be used to mark the subject or topic to reduce ambiguity, while an alternative 3rd person pronoun ('keun') is now used exclusively (and optionally) to mark topics when a subject is also present.

Gmangpiangkeuu tui bui dua koh ler hwai. - emperor TPC reach PERF city GEN 1 - The emperor has arrived at our city.

Chooaywo piang keun io uang tui nlooayk. - rat be.big TPC man there TPC see - That man saw a big rat.

The second involves possession, namely the possessive marker 'ler', which, though classified as a verb, never occurs outside of genitive constructions.

koh ler hwai - city GEN 1 - our city

daich ler gedraap - uncle GEN chairperson - the chairperson's uncle

comitative is indicated with the stative verb 'weup' - be together with

instrumental is indicated with the stative verb 'teuk' - use; employ

Examples:

Hwai kanglooay dua leum teuk gloañjouk. - 1 build PERF house use wood. - I built the house with wood.

Hwai kanglooay dua leum weup klot. - 1 build PERF house be.with older.brother - I built the house with my older brother.

numbers are modified with the verb 'gwuan' - to be consecutive; to line up

ot gwuan - first

arng gwuan - second

si tuoon bda jap gwuan - 480th

A good example is the root "choa": "only; all"

choayoan: unless; only if

choanaa: to be only (this); to be just (this)

choagaa: everything; all

choagduat: the whole thing; the entirety

With interrogatives, the conjunction "gna": "but regardless; nevertheless" is used.

combined with interrogative pronouns:

logeuu: "who"

logsar: "where"

gna logeuu: "anyone"

gna logsar: "anywhere"

Adjectives are stative verbs, and thus there is no differentiation between adjectives and relative clauses.

'nek' - and - used with nouns

'tek' - and then - used with clauses

'dang' - and so; then - used with clauses

'ley' - and; and also - used with both nouns and clauses

'weup' - with; together with - used with nouns

Perfect is indicated with the auxiliary 'dua' Imperfect is indicated with the auxiliary 'bgaiy'

The past is indicated indirectly through the use of aspect markers.

Future or prediction may be indicated with modals:

potential/predictive: Tui peak klaang. - 3 exit POT - He will leave./He should leave./I expect he will leave.

imminent/epistemic: Tui flet peak. - 3 arrive leave - He is about to leave./He seems ready to leave.

The standard perfect mood is indicated with the verb 'dua' - be finished already - the use of which is now mainly restricted to indicating perfect aspect.

'Tui peak dua.' - He has left.

The experiential perfect is indicated with the verb 'joum' - pass; elapse; expire - indicating a completed experience.

'Tui nlooayk joum.' - He has seen (it) before.

The majority of aspect markers occur after the main verb, however, two auxiliaries, "flet" - be about to - and "ach" - may; might - occur before the main verb.

The words 'borm' - can, and 'sdaa' - must can be used in both senses.

Topic-fronting is employed heavily, so the word order may easily become OSV or XSVO. This is especially common with the verb 'aajung' - be, when the subject is dropped, e.g. "Snuh aajung." - bird be - It is a bird.

This may be reversed due to topic-fronting.

used with the verb 'flet' - arrive - which also handles the functions of several English prepositions.

Chauwiap deuuk per flet draap. - scribe give document arrive boss - The scribe gave the boss the document.

Focus is accomplished entirely by word order change due to topic fronting. Often, context is necessary to accurately parse a sentence.

In the sentence "Io loum koañ" - man dog bite - 'dog' is in subject position and the meaning is clear, i.e. "The man was bitten by a dog."

In the sentence "Io arch jgeng ngaiyk" - man throw enter ocean - it is unclear without context whether the man threw something into the ocean or was thrown in himself.

Negative auxiliary 'huoo' - be not

Himmaswa has several question particles depending on grammar and context. Examples:

'lok' - Neutral question particle for polar questions.

'ayt' - Neutral question particle used with question words.

'deu' - informal question particle, often used to show interest. Replaces 'lok', and may replace or be used in conjunction with 'ayt'

'gor'; 'gaa' - Polite softener, occurs in both requests and statements of e.g. apology. Replaces 'lok' and 'ayt'.

'jiagor' - used in formal requests. Replaces 'lok' and 'ayt'.

Predicate nominals must be marked with the inchoative verb 'aajung' - to become; to be

Relative clauses are optionally marked with the relative pronoun 'nung'.

The verb 'jong' - want - serves as an auxiliary for such constructions.

Hwai keuong jong kao Heuopgwa. - 1 go want to Heuopgwa - I want to go to Heuopgwa.

hand: 'teuop' arm: 'ngooay'

In common usage they are not differentiated, but there is a word for finger when disambiguation is necessary: 'teuopbeuon' - "hand that is split". The word 'jriang' "finger" also exists, but it is less common than 'teuopbeuon'.

The logographic script used to write Himmaswa is known as Fkeuswa. It was developed several centuries earlier to write a dialect of Seuongswa, the historical parent language of the entire family.

Every character of the script contains either a pictograph or at last one semantic element, and may contain a phonetic element as well.