Shewez K’aavjo (Hashu K’aavjo Shewez/Hashuin Shewez/Shewez) /'ʃewez k’aːv'jo/ is the easternmost language/dialect of the K’aavjo family, originally spoken by the Shewez ethnicity. It is the de facto lingua franca of K’aavjo, and has the largest speaker base.
Phonology
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i (ː) | u (ː) |
| Close-mid | e (ː) | o (ː) |
| Open | a (ː) |
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p b | t t' d | k k' g | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||
| Affricate | t͡s d͡z | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | |||||
| Fricative | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ ʒ | x | ||
| Approximant | l | j | w |
/ʃ ʒ/ > [ʂ ʐ] in coastal accents; [ʃ ʒ] in the Aigatach accent
Suprasegmentals
HKS uses a pitch-accent distinction. Stress is marked through a higher relative pitch. If a syllable contains a long vowel, stress always falls on it.Phonotactics
(CC)V(C)
No consonant clusters, including between syllables, except with semivowels. Phonemic length for vowels only.
Hiatus resolution
Vowel clusters longer than a diphthong are not permitted. /w/ is inserted between two morphemes if they would otherwise create an illegal vowel cluster, similar to the English ‘intrusive r’.
-ei > -wei
Morphology
Noun class/gender
There are two noun classes, masculine and feminine. They are encoded into verbs, articles, and 2nd and 3rd person pronouns. In some dialects, 2nd person pronouns have lost gender marking, but verbs declined in the second person have not.
Definiteness
Shewez marks definiteness morphologically on nouns. Masculine and feminine nouns are marked differently.