with the lips closed. There are no vowels. However, when Dritok words are adopted into Umod, vowels are inserted to break up the consonants. is the default vowel, An ejective is followed by or , depending on whether it's labialized. "Semivowels" are or when interpreted as Umod consonants, and as or labialized when interpreted as vowels. In transcription, a period may be used to clarify syllable boundaries. Manual phonemes (cheremes) There is also an element of sign to the Dritok language with various syntactic functions conveyed through the use of sign. Signs may be one- or two-handed. At night, the sign component is conveyed by touch. They same may occur with intimate conversation by day. Dritok handshapes (and orientation) The Drushek have three fingers and a thumb, so the ring-finger may be ignored in these images. The hand is held in one of five basic orientations: palm in (typically against the chest), out (facing the speaker), up, down or to the side. For any of these, the fingers may be inverted (point in the opposite of their usual direction for the basic orientation). There are also motion elements: circling the hand (the circling motion is in the plane of the hand) motion to the flank (to the side away from the centerline) motion across the body (to or past the centerline) downward motion (usually eye level to neutral space) upward motion (usually neutral space to eye level) change from one handshape to another. E.g. means a flat hand, palm up, closes to a fist. For two-handed gestures, the two hands may have various relative positions: A over B A and B side by side A and B are facing each other side by side Thus I1@!/D3 is a downward-pointing index finger brought down to (and generally touching) a palm-up flat hand. Q4+Q4 would be two fists, palm down with the knuckles facing the interlocutor; in Q1#Q1, the palms are toward the speaker and the knuckles of each hand are touching. Grammar Oral nouns and verbs do not inflect for number or tense. Word order is Subject-Verb-Object, though one signed pronoun may be simultaneous with the verb. Script The Dritok script is inspired by Tibetan. It does not have Unicode support. Sample The North Wind and the Sun in Dritok, along with a fairly literal translation, and using a version of the Latin transcription a few years older than that described