Kaikiwan: Difference between revisions

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{{construction}}
{{Infobox language
{{Infobox language
| name = Kaikiwan
| name = Kaikiwan
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** Hawaiian dialects
** Hawaiian dialects
| script1 = Latn
| script1 = Latn
| agency = OPKLC<br>(Organisation for the Preservation of Kaikiwan Language and Culture)
| agency = OPKLC
| minority = New Zealand<br>Hawai'i
| minority = New Zealand<br>Hawai'i
| notice = ipa
| notice = ipa
}}
}}
'''Kaikiwan'''(''túlelù káikwi''; <small>Kaikiwan:</small> [[IPA for Kaikiwan|<nowiki>[ʔɤ́ʎɨ̯ʎù kái.kʷi]</nowiki>]]) is a Kaikiwi–Tol-Sun language spoken natively on the island of Kaikiwi. It is a critically endangered language with a native speaker population of around 10 at the highest estimates. Very few native Kaikiwans still inhabit Kaikiwi Island; instead, the vast majority of said native speakers live in New Zealand or Hawai'i; the youngest of these native speakers, 78-year-old ''Mániwamaé'', was born and raised in Oahu.
'''Kaikiwan'''(''túlelù káikwi''; <small>Kaikiwan:</small> [[IPA for Kaikiwan|<nowiki>[ʔɤ́ʎɨ̯ʎù kái.kʷi]</nowiki>]]) is a Kaikiwi–Tol-Sun language spoken natively on the island of Kaikiwi. It is a critically endangered language with a native speaker population of around 10 at the highest estimates. Very few native Kaikiwans still inhabit Kaikiwi Island; instead, the vast majority of said native speakers live in New Zealand or Hawai'i. The youngest of these native speakers, 78-year-old ''Mániwamaé'', was born and raised in Oahu.


Although there are not many remaining native speakers of the language, the L2(second-language) community is thriving. Thousands of non-native Kaikiwan speakers live in New Zealand, Hawai'i and Japan, with even the most conservative estimates putting the number of L2 speakers at around 6,000, with the most optimistic estimates putting it as high as 10,000.
Although there are not many remaining native speakers of the language, the L2(second-language) community is thriving. Thousands of non-native Kaikiwan speakers live in New Zealand, Hawai'i and Japan, with even the most conservative estimates putting the number of L2 speakers at around 6,000, with the most optimistic estimates putting it as high as 10,000.
==Aesthetics==
Kaikiwan is heavily aesthetically influenced by the Polynesian languages, mainly [[w:Hawaiian language|Hawaiian]] and [[w:Māori language|Māori]], and much of its vocabulary is borrowed from said languages as well as English and Japanese. However, its grammar is entirely unique and not based on any prevailing natlangs, and any similarities are coincidental unless specified otherwise.
==Usage==
==Usage==
Kaikiwans and the Kaikiwan language are native to Kaikiwi Island(<small>Kaikiwan:</small> ''pi‘kà káikwi''), though very few people still live on Kaikiwi Island, with only about 10.7% of Kaikiwan speakers living on Kaikiwi Island. Instead, the vast majority of Kaikiwans are [[w:Diaspora|diasporic]], and live in various countries, though mostly countries that border the Pacific  Ocean.
Kaikiwans and the Kaikiwan language are native to Kaikiwi Island(<small>Kaikiwan:</small> ''pi‘kà káikwi''), though very few people still live on Kaikiwi Island, with only about 10.7% of Kaikiwan speakers living on Kaikiwi Island. Instead, the vast majority of Kaikiwans are [[w:Diaspora|diasporic]], and live in various countries, though mostly countries that border the Pacific  Ocean.
===Hawaii===
===Hawaii===
The vast majority of Kaikiwan natives and L2 speakers alike live in Hawaii, specifically in Honolulu, with about 67% of the Kaikiwan diaspora living in Hawaii. Most Kaikiwan village elders also live in Hawaii, apart from the ''Pa‘éne-ikipíwa'' village, that still inhabit the eastern coast of Kaikiwi Island.
The vast majority of Kaikiwan natives and L2 speakers alike live in Hawaii, specifically in Honolulu, with about 67% of the Kaikiwan diaspora living in Hawaii. Most Kaikiwan village elders also live in Hawaii, apart from the ''Pa‘éne-ikipíwa'' village, that still inhabit the eastern coast of Kaikiwi Island.
==Phonology==
==Phonology==
===Orthography===
===Orthography===
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===Consonants===
===Consonants===
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! !! Bilabial/<br>Labial-velar !! Alveolar !! Palatal !! Velar !! Glottal
! colspan=2 | !! Bilabial/<br>Labial-velar !! Alveolar !! Palatal !! Velar !! Glottal
|-
! rowspan=2 | Plosive
! pulmonic
| p || t || || k g || ʔ
|-
|-
! Plosive<ref>All plosives apart from /ʔ/ can be labialised.</ref>
! labialised
| p || t || || k · g || ʔ
| pʷ || tʷ || || kʷ gʷ ||
|-
|-
! Nasal<ref>Only /m/ can be labialised in this case.</ref>
! colspan=2 | Nasal
| m || n || ɲ || colspan=2 |
| m || n || (ɲ) || ||
|-
|-
! Fricative
! colspan=2 | Fricative
| || s || colspan=3 |
| || s || || ||
|-
|-
! Approximant/<br>Lateral Approximant
! colspan=2 | (Lateral) Approximant
| w || || ʎ || colspan=2 |
| w || || ʎ || ||
|}
|}
The glottal stop is represented by two glyphs: in initial position, the glyph ⟨t⟩ is used, where as in any other positions, the ⟨‘⟩(''ókina''), derived from Hawaiian orthography, is used.
The glottal stop is represented by two glyphs: in initial position, the glyph ⟨t⟩ is used, where as in any other positions, the ⟨‘⟩(''ókina''), derived from Hawaiian orthography, is used.
====Nasal palatalisation====
When /n/ is followed by /i/ or /a/, it palatalises and becomes [ɲ]. The only exception to this rule is ''‘na'', which is a particle that roughly translates to "as" or "in the same way". ''‘na'' is pronounced [na].


===Vowels===
===Vowels===
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! !! Front !! Central !! Back
|-
! Close
| i || ɨ || u<ref>Substitution for /ɤ/ at the end of a syllable.</ref>
|-
! Close-mid
| colspan=2 | || ɤ · o
|-
|-
! Open
| a || (ä)<ref>Substitution for /a/, mostly used by L2 speakers who are not familiar with native phonetics.</ref> ||
|}
====Elongated vowels====
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! !! Front !! Central !! Back
! !! Front !! Central !! Back
|-
|-
! Close
! Close
| iː || ɨː ||
| i iː || ɨ ɨː || u
|-
|-
! Close-mid
! Close-mid
| colspan=2 | || ɤː<ref>Elongated /uː/ does not exist, even at the end of syllables.</ref> · oː
| colspan=2 | || ɤ ɤː · o oː
|-
|-
! Open
! Open
| aː || colspan=2 |
| || a aː
|}
|}
===Prosody===
===Prosody===
====Intonation====
====Intonation====
Kaikiwan uses intonation to quite an extent in morphology, though it is rarely found in grammar(e.g. particles, noun declension suffixes, verb conjugations) and even less in loanwords from Polynesian languages or more recently, English or Japanese.
Kaikiwan uses intonation to quite an extent in morphology, though it is rarely found in grammar(e.g. particles, noun declension suffixes, verb conjugations) and even less in loanwords from Polynesian languages or more recently, English or Japanese.


The language has two types of tones: '''rising''' and '''falling''', and they are only used on independent vowels and diphthong-initial vowels e.g. /a/ → /á/ and /ai/ → /ái/.
The language has two types of tones: '''high''' and '''low''', and they are only used on independent vowels and diphthong-initial vowels e.g. /a/ → /á/ and /ai/ → /ái/.


There is some historical evidence that Kaikiwan may at one point had tone on nasal consonants, especially /m/, though modern Kaikiwan only uses tone on consonants for ideophones, like in English "hmm?".
There is some historical evidence that Kaikiwan may at one point had tone on nasal consonants, especially /m/, though modern Kaikiwan only uses tone on consonants for ideophones, like in English "hmm?".
Line 107: Line 98:


===Phonotactics===
===Phonotactics===
Kaikiwan has a (C/W)V(V)(C/W) syllable structure, where W is /w/ or any labialised consonant, like /pʷ/.
Kaikiwan has a (C)V(V)(C) syllable structure.


===Morphophonology===
===Morphophonology===
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===Nouns===
===Nouns===
====Collective nouns====
====Collective nouns====
<small>For a full list, see ''[[Kaikiwan/Collective nouns|§Collective nouns]]''.</small><br>
<small>For a full list, see ''[[Kaikiwan/Collective nouns|Nouns § Collective nouns]]''.</small><br>
In English, collective nouns are used to indicate mainly groups of animals, like "a ''murder'' of crows" or "a ''rafter'' of turkeys". In Kaikiwan, there are collective nouns for almost all non-abstract nouns, and different collective nouns are used based on the number of said noun.
In English, collective nouns are used to indicate mainly groups of animals, like "a ''murder'' of crows" or "a ''rafter'' of turkeys". In Kaikiwan, there are collective nouns for almost all non-abstract nouns, and different collective nouns are used based on the number of said noun.


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! rowspan=2 | Noun !! colspan=2 | Collective noun
! rowspan=2 | Noun !! colspan=2 | Collective noun
|- class=small
|- class=small
! 5+ !! 10+
! Quintuple !! Decuple<ref>Idk man</ref>
|-
|-
| ''tona''<br>"person" || ''iku''<br>"group" || ''mwéké''<br>"army"
| ''tona''<br>"person" || ''iku''<br>"group" || ''mwéké''<br>"army"
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| ''òpan''<br>"tree" || ''okámwe''<br>"grove" || ''sikiwa''<br>"forest"
| ''òpan''<br>"tree" || ''okámwe''<br>"grove" || ''sikiwa''<br>"forest"
|}
|}
===Personal pronouns===
 
Kaikiwan has five personal pronouns, divided into two categories: inclusive and exclusive.
===Determiners===
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! Person !! Exclusive !! Inclusive
! !! Singular !! Plural
|-
! Near
| ''wá'' || ''wa‘é''
|-
! Far
| ''yo'' || ''yo‘é''
|}
===Pronouns===
====Personal pronouns====
Kaikiwan has five personal pronouns, divided into two categories: singular and plural.
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! Person !! Singular !! Plural
|-
|-
! 1
! 1
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| ''tona'' || ''iku''
| ''tona'' || ''iku''
|}
|}
Unlike in English, third person pronouns are not gendered, so the sentence "''tona ìn po mai''" can mean "he is in front of me," "she is in front of me," "they are in front of me," "the person/man is in front of me" or "a person/man is in front of me."


==Syntax==
==Syntax==
===Constituent order===
===Tenses===
Kaikiwan uses an OVS constituent order. In imperative phrases, OSV is used instead.
Kaikiwan has five tenses: '''simple present''', '''simple past''', '''imperfect''', '''simple future''', '''conditional'''. Kaikiwan is quite conservative in this regard, only dropping the perfect tense from Proto-Kaikiwi–Tol-Sun.
===Noun phrase===
 
===Verb phrase===
To indicate tense, prefixes are added.
===Sentence phrase===
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
===Dependent clauses===
! colspan=2 | !! Prefix
<!-- etc. etc. -->
|-
! rowspan=6| Tense
|-
! Simple Present
|
|-
! Simple Past
| ''a‘-''
|-
! Imperfect
| ''ā‘-''
|-
! Simple Future
| ''i‘-''
|-
! Conditional
| ''ī‘-''
|}
===Nouns===
====Cases====
Kaikiwan noun cases are distinguished by a hyphen before the case suffix. This does not appear phonetically- it is entirely an orthographic convention.
 
There are four noun cases: '''nominative''', '''absolutive''', '''genitive''' and '''dative'''. Specifically the '''absolutive''' suffix varies in tone based on the previous noun's tone, e.g. ''sámo-tó'' or ''hùwui-tò''. If there is no clear tone, e.g. in ''túlelù'', ''-to'' is used.
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
|+ Noun cases
|-
! rowspan=2 | Tone !! colspan=4 | Case
|- class=small
! Nominative !! Absolutive !! Genitive !! Dative
|-
! No tone
| rowspan=3 | || ''-to'' || rowspan=3 | ''-na'' || rowspan=3 | ''-ō''
|-
! Rising
|| ''-tó''
|-
! Falling
|| ''-tò''
|}
 
====Noun phrase====
===Verbs===
====Weak verbs====
Kaikiwan weak verbs do not have inflection or conjugation, and thus require a pronoun preceding the verb to understand the aspect of the verb. Most weak verbs are verbs relating to everyday things, e.g. ''tikīa''(to toast), ''néwa''(to work).
====Strong verbs====
Kaikiwan strong verbs change form irregularly based on pronoun and context. However, because strong verb conjugations are unique(usually based on intonation), strong verbs do not require a preceding pronoun.
 
Strong verbs are often related to the emotional state of a person.
=====''īni''("to be")=====
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! colspan=2 rowspan=2| !! colspan=6 | Pronoun
|-
! 1.SG !! 1.PL !! 2.SG !! 2.PL !! 3.SG !! 3.PL
|-
! rowspan=6| Tense
|-
! Simple Present
| ''in'' || ''ini'' || ''ín'' || ''íni'' || ''ìn'' || ''ìni''
|-
! Simple Past
| ''san'' || ''sani'' || ''sán'' || ''sáni'' || ''sàn'' || ''sàni''
|-
! Imperfect
| ''isen'' || ''iseni'' || ''isén'' || ''iséni'' || ''isèn'' || ''isèni''
|-
! Simple Future
| ''tan'' || ''tani'' || ''i‘an'' || ''i‘ani'' || ''i‘ān'' || ''i‘āni''
|-
! Conditional
| ''ana'' || ''ani'' || ''ána'' || ''áni'' || ''na‘na'' || ''na‘ni''
|}
=====''ēso''("to have")=====
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
! colspan=2 rowspan=2| !! colspan=6 | Pronoun
|-
! 1.SG !! 1.PL !! 2.SG !! 2.PL !! 3.SG !! 3.PL
|-
! rowspan=6| Tense
|-
! Simple Present
| ''es'' || ''esi'' || ''és'' || ''ési'' || ''si‘sa'' || ''si‘si''
|-
! Simple Past
| ''ske'' || ''skē'' || ''ské'' || ''ském'' || ''skè'' || ''skèm''
|-
! Imperfect
| ''ka'' || ''kasi'' || ''ika'' || ''ikasi'' || ''kes'' || ''kesi''
|-
! Simple Future
| ''ala'' || ''ali'' || ''ála'' || ''áli'' || ''àla'' || ''àli''
|-
! Conditional
| ''lak'' || ''laki'' || ''lāk'' || ''lāka‘i'' || ''ki‘lā'' || ''ki‘lāi''
|}
 
====Verb phrase====
===Sentences===
====Constituent order====
Kaikiwan uses an SOV or SVO constituent order.
 
====Sentence phrase====
: ''Sáwa-na imol lampa ìn sa‘āk po-na sakani, igo tike po-na loda.''
: 2.{{sc|sg}}-{{sc|gen}} word lamp.{{sc|sg}} is.3.{{sc|sg}}.{{sc|prs}} for 1.{{sc|sg}}.{{sc|gen}} foot.{{sc|pl}}, light.{{sc|sg}} on 1.{{sc|sg}}.{{sc|gen}} path.{{sc|sg}}.
: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
:: ''(Psalm 119:105)''
=====Dependent clauses=====


==Example texts==
==Example texts==
<!-- An example of a translated or unique text written in your language. Again, it is recommended that you make sure that the phonology, constraints, phonotactics and grammar are more or less finished before writing. -->
===Matthew 6:9-13===
<small>''Based on the '''[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+6%3A9-13&version=KJ21 21st Century King James Version]'''.''</small>
====In Kaikiwan====
<small>'''9'''</small> ''Wá kelo-ō, itana sákona-ō: tèo-na Pa‘pā<br>tona itani-ō ìn, sáwa-na nā‘ma ā‘itana.''<br><br>
<small>'''10'''</small> ''Sáwa-na imuwiká wá ena‘a. I‘an<br>‘na itela-ō ‘na itani.''
<br><br>
<small>'''11'''</small> ''Yaká wá ito tèo-ō tèo-na iki‘i pán.''<br><br>
<small>'''12'''</small> ''Waka nati‘ka tèo-na isikiti, ‘na tèo nati‘ka tèo-na isikitonai.''<br><br>
<small>'''13'''</small> ''Waka īpi imu‘kea tèo kùkù-tò, kài ni‘ipig-na kawéka tèo. Āmen.''
 
====In English====
<small>'''9'''</small> ''In this way, you shall pray: Our Father<br>who is in Heaven, blessed be your name.''<br><br>
<small>'''10'''</small> ''Your Kingdom come. You will be on earth, as it is in Heaven.''<br><br>
<small>'''11'''</small> ''Give us this day our daily bread.''<br><br>
<small>'''12'''</small> ''And forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors.''<br><br>
<small>'''13'''</small> ''And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.''
 
==Other resources==
==Other resources==
<!-- Example: Word order, qualifiers, determinatives, branching, etc. -->
<!-- Example: Word order, qualifiers, determinatives, branching, etc. -->

Latest revision as of 11:57, 17 November 2024

Kaikiwan
túlelù káikwi
Pronunciation[ʔɤ́ʎɨ̯ʎù kái.kʷi]
Created byJukethatbox
Date2023-2024
Native toKaikiwi Island
EthnicityKaikiwan
Native speakers5-10 (2023)
L2: 6,000-10,000
Kaikiwi–Tol-Sun
  • Kaikiwic
    • Kaikiwan
Standard form
OPKLC Standard Kaikiwan
Dialects
  • Eastern dialect(Mwípék)
  • Northern dialect(Tùwanòpék)
  • Diasporic dialects
    • Hawaiian dialects
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
New Zealand
Hawai'i
Regulated byOPKLC
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Kaikiwan(túlelù káikwi; Kaikiwan: [ʔɤ́ʎɨ̯ʎù kái.kʷi]) is a Kaikiwi–Tol-Sun language spoken natively on the island of Kaikiwi. It is a critically endangered language with a native speaker population of around 10 at the highest estimates. Very few native Kaikiwans still inhabit Kaikiwi Island; instead, the vast majority of said native speakers live in New Zealand or Hawai'i. The youngest of these native speakers, 78-year-old Mániwamaé, was born and raised in Oahu.

Although there are not many remaining native speakers of the language, the L2(second-language) community is thriving. Thousands of non-native Kaikiwan speakers live in New Zealand, Hawai'i and Japan, with even the most conservative estimates putting the number of L2 speakers at around 6,000, with the most optimistic estimates putting it as high as 10,000.

Usage

Kaikiwans and the Kaikiwan language are native to Kaikiwi Island(Kaikiwan: pi‘kà káikwi), though very few people still live on Kaikiwi Island, with only about 10.7% of Kaikiwan speakers living on Kaikiwi Island. Instead, the vast majority of Kaikiwans are diasporic, and live in various countries, though mostly countries that border the Pacific Ocean.

Hawaii

The vast majority of Kaikiwan natives and L2 speakers alike live in Hawaii, specifically in Honolulu, with about 67% of the Kaikiwan diaspora living in Hawaii. Most Kaikiwan village elders also live in Hawaii, apart from the Pa‘éne-ikipíwa village, that still inhabit the eastern coast of Kaikiwi Island.

Phonology

Orthography

Kaikiwan uses the Latin alphabet, although with 15 letters instead of the usual 26.

Aa Ee Gg Hh Ii Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Ss Tt Uu Ww

The Kaikiwan alphabet is mostly directly phonetic, with almost all the letters only corresponding to one allophone, although ⟨Tt⟩ represents /ʔ/ in onset positions and ⟨Uu⟩ represents /ɤ/ and /u/ in both of their usages.

Phonetic tone is distinguished by putting accents on vowels.

Áá Àà Éé Èè Íí Ìì Óó Òò Úú Ùù

Elongated vowels are distinguished by a certain diacritic that looks like a dash.

Āā Ēē Īī Ōō Ūū[1]

Consonants

Bilabial/
Labial-velar		 Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive pulmonic p t k g ʔ
labialised pʷ tʷ kʷ gʷ
Nasal m n (ɲ)
Fricative s
(Lateral) Approximant w ʎ

The glottal stop is represented by two glyphs: in initial position, the glyph ⟨t⟩ is used, where as in any other positions, the ⟨‘⟩(ókina), derived from Hawaiian orthography, is used.

Nasal palatalisation

When /n/ is followed by /i/ or /a/, it palatalises and becomes [ɲ]. The only exception to this rule is ‘na, which is a particle that roughly translates to "as" or "in the same way". ‘na is pronounced [na].

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i iː ɨ ɨː u
Close-mid ɤ ɤː · o oː
Open a aː

Prosody

Intonation

Kaikiwan uses intonation to quite an extent in morphology, though it is rarely found in grammar(e.g. particles, noun declension suffixes, verb conjugations) and even less in loanwords from Polynesian languages or more recently, English or Japanese.

The language has two types of tones: high and low, and they are only used on independent vowels and diphthong-initial vowels e.g. /a/ → /á/ and /ai/ → /ái/.

There is some historical evidence that Kaikiwan may at one point had tone on nasal consonants, especially /m/, though modern Kaikiwan only uses tone on consonants for ideophones, like in English "hmm?".

Kaikiwan intonation is technically phonemic, meaning semantics can change based on tone pronunciation alone, though in practice very few words distinguish between themselves solely on tone. A commonly used example of this in the language itself would be the word for the islands of Hawai'i, húwui, and the word for "salmon", hùwui, although hùwui is an archaic term, and most modern speakers prefer the term sámo, based on the English term.

Phonotactics

Kaikiwan has a (C)V(V)(C) syllable structure.

Morphophonology

Kaikiwan has a sandhi system similar to the French liaison. The most common type of sandhi in Kaikiwan is what the OPKLC calls naso-palatal sandhis, or when one word ends with a /n/ and the next word begins with a /ʎ/, in which case the two sounds combine into one /ɲ/. A less common sandhi is the alveolo-labial sandhi, where a /t/ and a /w/ side by side merge into a /tù/.

Morphology

Numerals

Many Kaikiwan numerals are derived from Proto-Polynesian. Thus, this table also shows their respective etymologies. If the etymology box is empty, then it is unknown or derived from Proto-Kaikiwic.

Kaikiwan numerals
English Kaikiwan Pronunciation Etymology
one mima mima
two lwa ʎʷa From Proto-Polynesian *rua.
three olu oʎu From Proto-Polynesian *tolu.
four keno kɨ̯no
five mwó mʷó
six ono ono From Proto-Polynesian *ono.
seven sima sima From English seven.
eight lwakeno ʎʷakɨ̯no lwa, "two" + keno, "four".
nine iwa iwa From Proto-Polynesian *hiwa.
ten tumi ʔɤmi̩ From Hawaiian ‘umi.

Nouns

Collective nouns

For a full list, see Nouns § Collective nouns.
In English, collective nouns are used to indicate mainly groups of animals, like "a murder of crows" or "a rafter of turkeys". In Kaikiwan, there are collective nouns for almost all non-abstract nouns, and different collective nouns are used based on the number of said noun.

For example, take the word tona; "person". When there are one or two people, there is no collective noun nor plural declension; it is simply mima tona or lwa tona(lit. "one person", "two person"). After three, the plural declension is used. Then, at 5 people, the collective noun iku, roughly translating to "group" is used, and at 10 people, the word mwéké("army") is used.

Thus, there are two categories of collective nouns: 5+ and 10+.

Because the usage of collective nouns is dependent on the grammatical number, they can be used to infer the number of a noun, e.g. one could infer that Mwéké-na tonai, "army of people", means at least 10 people.

Some other examples are:

Noun Collective noun
Quintuple Decuple[2]
tona
"person"		 iku
"group"		 mwéké
"army"
migu
"fruit"		 miuk
"dozen"		 kówe
"plantation"
òpan
"tree"		 okámwe
"grove"		 sikiwa
"forest"

Determiners

Singular Plural
Near wá wa‘é
Far yo yo‘é

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Kaikiwan has five personal pronouns, divided into two categories: singular and plural.

Person Singular Plural
1 po tèo
2 sáwa sákona
3 tona iku

Unlike in English, third person pronouns are not gendered, so the sentence "tona ìn po mai" can mean "he is in front of me," "she is in front of me," "they are in front of me," "the person/man is in front of me" or "a person/man is in front of me."

Syntax

Tenses

Kaikiwan has five tenses: simple present, simple past, imperfect, simple future, conditional. Kaikiwan is quite conservative in this regard, only dropping the perfect tense from Proto-Kaikiwi–Tol-Sun.

To indicate tense, prefixes are added.

Prefix
Tense
Simple Present
Simple Past a‘-
Imperfect ā‘-
Simple Future i‘-
Conditional ī‘-

Nouns

Cases

Kaikiwan noun cases are distinguished by a hyphen before the case suffix. This does not appear phonetically- it is entirely an orthographic convention.

There are four noun cases: nominative, absolutive, genitive and dative. Specifically the absolutive suffix varies in tone based on the previous noun's tone, e.g. sámo-tó or hùwui-tò. If there is no clear tone, e.g. in túlelù, -to is used.

Noun cases
Tone Case
Nominative Absolutive Genitive Dative
No tone -to -na -ō
Rising -tó
Falling -tò

Noun phrase

Verbs

Weak verbs

Kaikiwan weak verbs do not have inflection or conjugation, and thus require a pronoun preceding the verb to understand the aspect of the verb. Most weak verbs are verbs relating to everyday things, e.g. tikīa(to toast), néwa(to work).

Strong verbs

Kaikiwan strong verbs change form irregularly based on pronoun and context. However, because strong verb conjugations are unique(usually based on intonation), strong verbs do not require a preceding pronoun.

Strong verbs are often related to the emotional state of a person.

īni("to be")
Pronoun
1.SG 1.PL 2.SG 2.PL 3.SG 3.PL
Tense
Simple Present in ini ín íni ìn ìni
Simple Past san sani sán sáni sàn sàni
Imperfect isen iseni isén iséni isèn isèni
Simple Future tan tani i‘an i‘ani i‘ān i‘āni
Conditional ana ani ána áni na‘na na‘ni
ēso("to have")
Pronoun
1.SG 1.PL 2.SG 2.PL 3.SG 3.PL
Tense
Simple Present es esi és ési si‘sa si‘si
Simple Past ske skē ské ském skè skèm
Imperfect ka kasi ika ikasi kes kesi
Simple Future ala ali ála áli àla àli
Conditional lak laki lāk lāka‘i ki‘lā ki‘lāi

Verb phrase

Sentences

Constituent order

Kaikiwan uses an SOV or SVO constituent order.

Sentence phrase

Sáwa-na imol lampa ìn sa‘āk po-na sakani, igo tike po-na loda.
2.sg-gen word lamp.sg is.3.sg.prs for 1.sg.gen foot.pl, light.sg on 1.sg.gen path.sg.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
(Psalm 119:105)
Dependent clauses

Example texts

Matthew 6:9-13

Based on the 21st Century King James Version.

In Kaikiwan

9 Wá kelo-ō, itana sákona-ō: tèo-na Pa‘pā
tona itani-ō ìn, sáwa-na nā‘ma ā‘itana.

10 Sáwa-na imuwiká wá ena‘a. I‘an
‘na itela-ō ‘na itani.

11 Yaká wá ito tèo-ō tèo-na iki‘i pán.

12 Waka nati‘ka tèo-na isikiti, ‘na tèo nati‘ka tèo-na isikitonai.

13 Waka īpi imu‘kea tèo kùkù-tò, kài ni‘ipig-na kawéka tèo. Āmen.

In English

9 In this way, you shall pray: Our Father
who is in Heaven, blessed be your name.

10 Your Kingdom come. You will be on earth, as it is in Heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Other resources

  1. ^ Elongated ⟨Ūū⟩ only represents /ɤː/.
  2. ^ Idk man
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