Kaikiwan

Kaikiwan
káikwi/túlelù káikwi
Pronunciation	[kái.kʷi] [ʔɤ́ʎɨ̯ʎù kái.kʷi]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2023-2024
Native to	Kaikiwi Island
Native speakers	5-10 (2023) L2: 6,000-10,000
Language family	Kaikiwi–Tol-Sun Kaikiwic Kaikiwan
Standard form	OPKLC Standard Kaikiwan
Dialects	Eastern dialect(Mwípék) Northern dialect(Tùwanòpék) Diasporic dialects Hawaiian dialects Oahu vernacular Kailua Kona vernacular Moloka'i dialect NZ/Kiwi dialects Māori-Kaikiwan Pidgin Te Kaha vernacular Whitianga dialect
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	New Zealand Hawai'i
Regulated by	OPKLC (Organisation for the Preservation of Kaikiwan Language and Culture)

Kaikiwan 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.

Aesthetics

Kaikiwan is heavily aesthetically influenced by the Polynesian languages, mainly Hawaiian and 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.

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 distinguishes phonetic tone by putting accents on vowels.

Áá

Àà

Éé

Èè

Íí

Ìì

Óó

Òò

Úú

Ùù

Consonants

	Bilabial/ Labial-velar	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t		k · g	ʔ
Nasal	m		ɲ
Fricative		s
Approximant/ Lateral Approximant	w		ʎ

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Close-mid			ɤ · o
Open	a	(ä)

Prosody

Intonation

Kaikiwan has two types of tones: rising and falling, and they are only used on vowels.

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/W)V(V)(C/W) syllable structure, where W is /w/ or any labialised consonant, like /pʷ/.

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/.