Kiwi
| Kiwi | |
|---|---|
| Taʻ rī kiwinikaʻ | |
| Pronunciation | [/tɑʔ rɪː kɪˌwɪɲɪˈkɑʔ/] |
| Created by | – |
| Native to | Easter Island |
| Native speakers | ⅜ (2013) |
Rana languages
| |
Early form | Proto-Rana
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | ki |
| ISO 639-2 | ki |
| ISO 639-3 | qki |
Kiwi (natively known as taʻ rī kiwinikaʻ, IPA: /tɑʔ rɪː kɪˌwɪɲɪˈkɑʔ/) refers to the constructed language supposedly spoken on Easter Island, constructed by Waahlis. The language was devised as an effort to screw with the minds of marine biologists, as well as a hypothetical language for Pagurus prideaux.
The Kiwi language is constructed to be agglutinative, for a change, yet retains the simple phonotactics of Polynesian languages. The phonology is simple by Europan standards, as is the orthography. Morphology and grammar show clear influences from Ojibwe, Navajo and to a certain degree, Spanish. The most interesting bits of information on the language is that is has a very weak word-final stress, lacks adjectives and adverbs, and that is a hyper intelligent shade of blue.
Background
Starting date: August 11th 2013. The 223rd day of the year. Would you know.
Phonology
Consonants
Kiwi has 12 consonants, some of which show great allophony. It is unusual in that it has no proper fricatives; only the pseudo-fricative /h/.
| Labial | Alveolar | Dorsal | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ng /ɲ ~ ŋ ~ ɴ/ 1 | |
| Plosive | p /p/ | t /t/ | k /c ~ k ~ q/ 2 | ʻ /ʔ/ |
| Fricative | h /h/ | |||
| Approximant | w /w ~ v/ 3 | l /l/ | y /j/ | |
| Tap | r /ɾ/ |
- The dorsal nasal is pronounced palatalised if they precede near-front from mid to high vowels, and uvularised if preceding back vowels.
- The dorsal plosive is pronounced palatalised if they precede near-front from mid to high vowels, and uvularised if preceding back vowels.
- The labial fricative /v/ and the labiovelar approximant /w/ are in free variation.
Consonant allophony
The Kiwi dorsal nasals and plosives assimilate to the following vowel in the syllable. The near-front mid to high vowels /e̞ː/ and /ɪ/ thus act palatalising. Likewise, the back and near-back vowels uvularise the consonants.
- kiwi'
/kɪˈwɪʔ/ → /cɪˈwɪʔ/
kiwi'
common_language.c8.PA
common language
- kulā'
/kʊˈlaːʔ/ → /qʊˈlaːʔ/
kulā'
darkness.c8.PA
darkness - ngunē'e
/ŋʊne̞ːʔə/ → /ɴʊne̞ːʔə/
ngunē'e
dagger.c5.PA
dagger
Vowels
The language distinguishes 7 different vowel qualities, 3 of which display differences in length.
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | u /u/ · ū /uː/ | ||||
| Near-close | i /ɪ/, [ʏ] · ī /ɪː/ | ||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | ē /e̞ː/ | e /ə/ | o /o̞/ · ō /o̞ː/ | ||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open | ā /aː/ | a /ɑ/, [ɒ] |
Vowel allophony
Short, unrounded vowels in the Kiwi language get labialised, or rounded, when they follow a labial consonant.
- kiwi'
/kɪˈwɪʔ/ → [cɪˈwʏʔ]
kiwi'
common_language.c8.PA
common language - bahasa
/pɑhɑˈsɑ/ → [pɒhɑˈsɑ]
bahasa
foreign_language.c8.PA
foreign language
- yāma'
/jaːˈmɑʔ/ → [jaːˈmɒʔ]
yāma'
canoe.c4.PA
canoe
Phonotactics
Kiwi phonotactics follow the same pattern as most Polynesian languages. Kiwi syllables may contain one consonant in the onset, or there is no onset. Syllables with no onset contrast with syllables beginning with the glottal stop: /ɑˈlaː/ ('hi') contrasts with /ʔɑˈlaː/ ('to be whole'). Codas and consonant clusters are normally prohibited in the phonotactics Austronesian languages, but Kiwi allows a final glottal stop as a syllable coda. It is elided if the following syllable has an onset.
The syllable has a minimum of one vowel. A one-vowel syllable has any one of the short or long vowels. Any vowel clusters form diaereses.
The structure of the Kiwi syllable can be represented as being (C)V(C), where the round brackets around C and second C mean that a syllable-initial or syllable-final consonant is optional.
Orthography
Grammar and morphology
Nouns
Classes and adjectivisation
There are 9 inherent noun classes, c, in the Kiwi language. These do to some extent govern obviation, and agreement with adjectives. They are mainly dependent upon size and edibility.
Every class has an adjectivising prefix, ADZ, which creates adverbs and adjectives from nouns and verbs.
| Class | Adjectivising prefix | Members |
|---|---|---|
| I | ki- | edible but holy animates; humans, domestic animals |
| II | mahā- | big animate edibles; big animals |
| III | mē- | small edibles; plants, fish |
| IV | we- | big inedibles; objects |
| V | wīʻa- | small inedibles |
| VI | tāʻi- | big shapeless inedibles; ocean, cloud |
| VII | etē- | shapeless inedibles; water, mud, rope |
| VIII | yi-/hi- | abstractions, concepts, as well as titles |
| IX | tāne- | bodyparts, extremities |
Since the classes are relatively defined, it is not morphologically marked which class a noun belongs to. The prefixes are instead fixed on nouns to derive adjectives and adverbs. And epenthic glottal stop, <ʻ> is added if two vowels collide.
The class prefixes are also used to congruate the possessor with a possesse, where the possessor get the class prefix of possessed object, as well as the genitive case.
Word order is most often irrelevant, since Kiwi is more or less non-configurational. See Syntax for further information.
- rānaʻ
/raːˈnɑʔ/
rānaʻ
beauty.c8.PA
beauty
- ōri kirānaʻ
/oːˈrɪ cɪraːˈnɑʔ/
ōri ki-rānaʻ
girl.c1.PA ADZ.c1-beauty.c8.PA
beautiful girl
- yi'ōri rānaʻ
/jɪʔoːˈrɪ raːˈnɑʔ/
yi-ōri rānaʻ
ADZ.c8-girl.c1.PA beauty.c8.PA
girly beauty
Pluralisation works as usual, and adjectivized nouns are simply pluralised before the class prefix is attached. See Plural for further information.
- ʻūluna tāʻikulāʻ
/ʔuːluˈnɑ taːʔɪquˈlaːʔ/
ʻūluna tāʻi-kulāʻ
ocean.c6.PA ADZ.c6-darkness.c8.PA
dark ocean
- ʻuhūluna tāʻikekulāʻ
/ʔuhuːluˈnɑ taːʔɪkəquˈlaːʔ/
ʻu~hūluna tāʻi-ke~kulāʻ
PL~ocean.c6 ADZ.c6-PL~darkness.c8
dark oceans
Number
The language has two numbers, the paucal and the plural. This means that there is no singular grammatical number.
Paucal
The paucal denotes singular entity nouns, as well as a few nouns, or a small group. It is equivalent to the English singular, but less defined. The paucal is the lemma form of the nouns, and thus implicitly unmarked.
- taʻuka
/tɑʔuˈqɑ/
taʻuka
rain_cloud.c6.PA
rain cloud
- kuʻe
/quˈʔə/
kuʻe
fish.c3.PA
fish
Plural
The plural number in Kiwi is used with a big number of objects, or many of them. It is basically similar to the English plural, except smaller groups of objects class as paucal. Pluralisation of nouns is rather straightforward; plurals are formed through initial partial reduplication. The reduplication is phonologically governed.
| Initial syllable | V | CV: | Ca | Cu | Ce | Ci | Co |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reduplicated | VʔV | CVCV: | CiCa | CeCu | CiCe | CeCi | CuCo |
- ʻuhūluna
/ʔuhuːluˈnɑ/
ʻu~ʻūluna
PL~ocean.c6
oceans, seas - kikaukaʻi
/cɪqɑuqɑˈʔɪ/
ki~kaukaʻi
PL~song_bird.c1
song bird
- titaʻuka
/tɪtɑʔuˈqɑ/
ti~taʻuka
PL~rain_cloud.c6.
rain clouds
- kekuʻe
/cəquˈʔə/
kuʻe
fish.c3.pa
fish
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
There are only subjective personal pronouns in the Kiwi language, and they are not used in the same contexts as in English. They are independent, thus not agglutinable. All persons do not exist for all classes of personal pronouns, and many classes have been put together.
| Personal pronouns | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person → | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | ||||
| Number → | Paucal | Plural | Paucal | Plural | Paucal | Plural | Paucal | Plural |
| Class ↓ | Nominative | |||||||
| I | anā | aʻanā | yei | ʻiyē | oukā | oʻoukā | lā | lalā |
| II+III | - | - | ' | ' | ' | ' | ' | ' |
| IV+V | - | - | - | - | ' | ' | ' | ' |
| VI+VII | - | - | - | - | ' | ' | ' | ' |
| VIII | ' | ' | ' | ' | ' | ' | ' | ' |
| IX | - | - | - | - | ' | ' | ' | ' |
The fourth person and obviation
Verbs
Tense
Person
Unipersonal agreement
Bipersonal agreement
The bipersonal prefixes agree with both the subject and the object simultaneously. They have the following transivity direction: subject>object
| Bipersonal prefixes | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Object→ Subject↓ |
singular | |||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||||||
| singular | 0 | - | 'e- | hai- | hane- | 'ahu- | ||||||||||
| 1 | na'a- | - | ki- | we'a- | ku- | |||||||||||
| 2 | nekē- | ngi- | - | ke'a- | neku- | |||||||||||
| 3 | tina- | nē- | tu- | - | ta'ahu- | |||||||||||
| 4 | ma'e- | 'ano- | mi- | nama'ī- | mani- | |||||||||||
- we’akima’orī
/wɛʔacɪmaʔɔˈrɪː/
we’a-ki-ma’orī
1>3-SG-to_kill
I kill him.
- we’akimani’orī
/wɛʔacɪmanɪʔɔˈrɪː/
we’a-ki-ma<ni>’orī
1>3-SG-to_kill<FUT>
I will kill him.
- kiwe’akimani’orī
/cɪwɛʔacɪmaʔɔˈrɪː/
ki-we’a-ki-ma<ni>’orī
1SG>3SG-to_kill<FUT>
I will kill him.
- kiwe’amani’orī
/cɪwɛʔamaʔɔˈrɪː/
ki-we’a-ma<ni>’orī
SG-1>3-to_kill<FUT>
I will kill them.
- kiwe’anomani’orī
/cɪwɛʔanɔmaʔɔˈrɪː/
ki-we’a-no-ma<ni>’orī
SG-1>3-PL-to_kill<FUT>
I will kill them.
- nuwe’amani’orī
/nuwɛʔamaʔɔˈrɪː/
nu-we’a-ma<ni>’orī
PL-1>3-to_kill<FUT>
We will kill him.