Nawuhu

Nawuhu
na’a wúhu
Flag of the Wuhu Autonomous Zone
Pronunciation	[na.a ˈwu.ɦu]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2024
Native to	Wuhu Island
Ethnicity	Indigenous Wuhu peoples
Extinct	~1940
Language family	language isolate Nawuhu
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Regulated by	Wuhu Autonomous Zone
Development body	Wuhu Island Community Discord

Nawuhu(na'a wúhu, Nawuhu: [na.a ˈwu.ɦu]), also called Wuhu or Nauhu is a language isolate that was once predominantly spoken by the inhabitants of Wuhu Island. It was spoken primarily by the civilisation that probably encompassed the entire island, the ruins of which can be seen on the southern half of the island.

Phonology

Orthography

Nawuhu is written in a form of the Latin script. There is one diacritic: the acute accent, ⟨◌́⟩, which signifies where stress is placed in a word.

Majuscule	A	B	C	K	D	E	G	H	I	J	L	M	N	O	P	S	T	U	V	W	Y	Z
Minuscule	a	b	c	k	d	e	g	h	i	j	l	m	n	o	p	s	t	u	v	w	y	z
IPA	a	b	ɕ	k	d	e	g	h	i	ʑ	l	m	n	o	p	s	t	u	ʉ	w	j	z
			ç			ɘ̯		ɦ											ɘ̯

Note that ⟨Vv⟩ is a vowel, representing the sound /ʉ/, as well as the sound /ɘ̯/ in intervocalic, non-syllabic positions.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Alveolo- palatal	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b	t d			k g	ʔ
Nasal	m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Fricative		s z	ɕ ʑ	(ç)		h~ɦ
Semivowel	w			j
Lateral		l		ʎ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ʉ	u
Close-mid	e	(ɘ̯)	o
Front		a

/ɘ/ is an unstressed intervocalic allohpone of /e/ and /ʉ/, e.g. íean, "one", pronounced [ˈiɘ̯an].

Morphology

Nouns

Number

Nawuhu has five categories of grammatical number: singular, dual, paucal, greater paucal and plural. If there is not sufficient context, all nouns in a phrase have to be marked with suffixes denoting their number, including if the noun is singular. If a word ending in -a must be denoted as singular, the suffix -’a is placed instead.

Base suffixes for nouns

Singular	Dual	Paucal	Greater Paucal	Plural
-a	-an	-avn	-avne	-nóa