Šéwez K’aavjo (Hašú K’āvjo Šéwez/Hašúin Šéwez/Šéwez) /'ʃe.wez '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

Shewez vowels
Front Back
Close i (ː) u (ː)
Close-mid e (ː) o (ː)
Open a (ː)
Shewez consonants
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

(The suffix -ei is the most common means of forming a demonym.)

  • K’āvjo + ei > K’āvjowei ‘K’aavjoke’
  • Kiná + -ei > Kináwei ‘Rlvakke’

    • Morphology

  • Active-stative alignment; agentive-default
  • A patientive particle and an optional agentive particle
  • Free word order

    Noun class/gender

    Shewez has two noun classes, masculine and feminine. They are encoded into verbs, articles, and 2nd and 3rd person pronouns, and also mark notional gender. 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.