Ske language

Ske notably drops unstressed vowels. This has resulted in a language rich in consonants, in contrast to related languages such as Raga. Due to the presence of consonant clusters within syllables and other phonological features not typical of the area's languages, speakers of neighbouring languages consider Ske difficult to speak and learn. Geminate consonants occur where two identical consonants have been brought together by the historical loss of an intervening vowel, for example in (compare Sowa ). Geminates contrast with single consonants word initially, e.g., and . Unlike neighbouring languages such as Apma, Ske permits a variety of voiced consonants to occur at the end of syllables, although when they occur at the end of an utterance they are often followed by an 'echo' of the previous vowel. For example, is often pronounced . Stress typically occurs on the final syllable of a word. Consonants • Voiced plosives are prenasalized, contrasting with voiceless plosives. For example, contrasts with . Prenasalization also occurs across word boundaries (sandhi) when the previous word ends in a vowel. For example, becomes . • Verb-initial become . • , younger speakers are re-analyzing as . For example, older speakers say for , while younger speakers say . • Bilabial consonants lose their velarization before a consonant or at the end of a word. • becomes before back vowels. • only occurs in loanwords. • Some speakers pronounce as an affricate. • is pronounced before voiced phonemes. Vowels • is phonetically after most consonants (generally not after ) in a stressed syllable. ==Orthography==

Kay Johnson worked with the Ske community to develop the following orthography: Some older sources write as or . ==Grammar==

Basic word order in Ske is subject–verb–object. Pronouns Personal pronouns are distinguished by person and number. They are not distinguished by gender. The basic pronouns are: Nouns Nouns in Ske are generally not preceded by articles. Plurality is indicated by placing the pronoun or a number after the noun. Nouns may be either free, or directly possessed. Directly possessed nouns are suffixed to indicate whom an item belongs to. For example: : : : : Possession may also be indicated by the use of possessive classifiers, separate words that occur before or after the noun and take possessive suffixes. These classifiers are: • for general possessions ( ) • for things that are cared for, such as crops and livestock ( ) • for things to be eaten ( ) • for things to be drunk ( ) and for buildings ( ) • for fire ( ) • for fruits that are cut open ( ) • for associations, over which the possessor has no control ( ) The possessive suffixes are as follows: } A verb may be transformed into a noun by the addition of a nominalising suffix : : (verb) : (noun) Modifiers generally come after a noun: : : : Verbs Verbs are preceded by markers providing information on the subject and the tense, aspect and mood of an action. These markers differ substantially between older and younger speakers; the newer forms are in brackets below. There is a pattern of verb-consonant mutation whereby v at the start of a verb changes to b, and vw to bw. This mutation occurs in imperfective aspect (present tense), and in irrealis mood (future tense): :ni va = I went :mwa ba = I am going :mwade ba = I will go (Among a few older speakers there is also mutation of z to d, but most Ske speakers today use only the d forms.) Hypothetical phrases are marked with mó: :ni mó umné = I should do it Negative phrases are preceded by kare ("not") or a variant: :kare ni umné = I didn't do it Transitive and intransitive verb forms are distinguished. Transitive verbs are commonly followed or suffixed with -né: :mwa róh = I move :mwa róh né vet = I move the stone Ske makes extensive use of stative verbs for descriptive purposes. Ske has a copular verb, vé or bé. Verbs in Ske can be linked together in serial verb constructions. ==Sample phrases==