Hano

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Introduction

This is my third conlang and the first I've actually begun to develope. It, like all my other conlangs, is inspired by my native language Finnish and Native American languages, especially those of Pacific Northwest.

General information

Hano language is a language isolate spoken by the Hano people of Hano archipelago.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal
Plosive
Fricative
Affricate
Approximant
Trill
Flap or tap
Lateral fric.
Lateral app.
Lateral flap

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Basic grammar

Hano can be very agglutinating in its verbs, but less so of adjectives and nouns. It's possible for a sentence to consist of either words with high degree of inflection or words that haven't been inflectled at all, depending on the number, tense etc..

Noun classes

Hano includes three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural, of which dual exists only in personal pronouns. It has three noun classes: concrete animate, concrete inanimate and abstract. All nouns are plural by default and the singular is marked by adding a suffix to the end of the noun. They are -is for concrete animate, -ic for concrete inanimate and -ip for abstract (for example kiál means "birds" and kiális means "a bird"). Words, such as "water", "time" and other material and uncountable nouns of the concrete inanimate and abstract noun classes can be given the singular suffix to denote a small amount. For example "some water" would be Gashéic in Hano and "a moment" Mí'cip (could be expressed as "a piece of time")

Verbs

In the Hano language verb stems form the core of the verb and suffixes are added to the verb to denote different grammatical functions. Their place within the verb depends on the tense and other suffixes and there is much variation.

There are five tenses, which are future, present, preterite, aorist and perfect. Aorist is used when talking about some already occured event, that's either unique or otherwise special. For example T'aétáska, which uses aorist, means "I swam" (only time doing so or for the first time), while Yentás'ka means "I swam" (several times before and/or after), as it's preterite. Present isn't marked with an affix while others are.

Future	Me'í
Present	-
Preterite	Yen
Aorist	T'aé
Perfect	Qo

There are four grammatical persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, all of which have got singular, dual and plural forms. 4th person is used when referring to the target of 3rd person's actions: compare Yenmálka sán, which means "I saw her/him" and Yenmálksá seik, which means "she/he saw her/him".

They are as follows:

	sg.	dl.	pl
1st	A/Aś	At/As	Át/Áś
2nd	E/Ell	Et/Éll	Ét/Ét
3rd	Sá/Sáŋ	Sat/Saw	Sát/Sall
4th	Sé/Seik	Set/Si'ek	Sét/Se'ek

There are two forms of each pronoun. The first ones are used to indicate the agent of the sentence and the latter ones to indicate the patient and, furthermore, when only a pronoun is needed to convey the meaning. The agent pronouns are added to the verb and cannot be on their own. The place of the pronoun depends on the other affixes of the word. In the present tense it's always initial: Atás'k = "I swim". But in other tenses it's usually the final one and the tense marker is the first: Yentás'ka = "I swam". It's optional to omit the agent pronoun if the subject of the sentence is something other than a personal pronoun, ie. one can say either Tás'k kiál or Sáttás'k kiál for "The birds swim".

Negation is formed by adding the suffix -yé before the verb stem. The tense and question markers and the person are placed after the verb stem in the order tense marker-question-person. Compare Kweyentáska "Did I swim?" and Yétáskyenkwea "Didn't I swim?"

Vocabulary

Kinship
																					Grandmother		Grandfather				Grandmother		Grandfather
Uncles Wife		Uncle		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Aunts husband		Aunt		Aunts husband		Aunt		Aunts husband		Aunt		Father		Mother		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Uncles Wife		Uncle		Aunts husband		Aunt		Aunts husband		Aunt		Aunts husband		Aunt
Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin						Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin		Male Cousin		Female Cousin
										Twin Sisters Husband		Twin Sister		Little Sisters Husband		Little Sister		Big Sisters Huband		Big Sister		Wife		Self				Husband		Big Brother		Big Brothers Wife		Little Brother		Little Brothers Wife		Twin Brother		Twin Brothers Wife
										Niece		Nephew		Niece		Nephew		Niece		Nephew		Son		Daughter		Son		Daughter		Niece		Nephew		Niece		Nephew		Niece		Nephew

Swadesh list

No.	English	Hano
0	Hano	Hánokacip
1	I	A
2	you (singular)	E
3	he	Sá
4	we	Át
5	you (plural)	Ét
6	they	Sát
7	this
8	that
9	here
10	there
11	who
12	what
13	where
14	when
15	how
16	not
17	all
18	many
19	some
20	few
21	other
22	one
23	two
24	three
25	four
26	five
27	big
28	long
29	wide
30	thick
31	heavy
32	small
33	short
34	narrow
35	thin
36	woman
37	man (adult male)
38	human being
39	child
40	wife
41	husband
42	mother
43	father
44	animal
45	fish
46	bird
47	dog
48	louse
49	snake
50	worm
51	tree
52	forest
53	stick
54	fruit
55	seed
56	leaf
57	root
58	bark
59	flower
60	grass
61	rope
62	skin
63	meat
64	blood
65	bone
66	fat
67	egg
68	horn
69	tail
70	feather
71	hair
72	head
73	ear
74	eye
75	nose
76	mouth
77	tooth
78	tongue
79	fingernail
80	foot
81	leg
82	knee
83	hand
84	wing
85	belly
86	guts
87	neck
88	back
89	breast
90	heart
91	liver
92	drink
93	eat
94	bite
95	suck
96	spit
97	vomit
98	blow
99	breathe
100	laugh
101	see
102	hear
103	know
104	think
105	smell
106	fear
107	sleep
108	live
109	die
110	kill
111	fight
112	hunt
113	hit
114	cut
115	split
116	stab
117	scratch
118	dig
119	swim
120	fly
121	walk
122	come
123	lie
124	sit
125	stand
126	turn
127	fall
128	give
129	hold
130	squeeze
131	rub
132	wash
133	wipe
134	pull
135	push
136	throw
137	tie
138	sew
139	count
140	say
141	sing
142	play
143	float
144	flow
145	freeze
146	swell
147	sun
148	moon
149	star
150	water
151	rain
152	river
153	lake
154	sea
155	salt
156	stone
157	sand
158	dust
159	earth
160	cloud
161	fog
162	sky
163	wind
164	snow
165	ice
166	smoke
167	fire
168	ash
169	burn
170	road
171	mountain
172	red
173	green
174	yellow
175	white
176	black
177	night
178	day
179	year
180	warm
181	cold
182	full
183	new
184	old
185	good
186	bad
187	rotten
188	dirty
189	straight
190	round
191	sharp
192	dull
193	smooth
194	wet
195	dry
196	correct
197	near
198	far
199	right
200	left
201	at
202	in
203	with
204	and
205	if
206	because
207	name

Example texts

Kweyenká'hc'aet sascha'm ké'énic ám?

Didn't you two give it to me yesterday?