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/ |
Consonant allophony
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
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.