Kiwi

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Kiwi
Taʻ rī kiwinikaʻ
Pronunciation[/tɑʔ rɪː kɪˌwɪɲɪˈkɑʔ/]
Created by
Native toEaster Island
Native speakers⅜ (2013)
Rana languages
  • Kiwi
Early form
Proto-Rana
Language codes
ISO 639-1ki
ISO 639-2ki
ISO 639-3qki
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.

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/.

Consonants
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/
  1. The dorsal nasal is pronounced palatalised if they precede near-front from mid to high vowels, and uvularised if preceding back vowels.
  2. The dorsal plosive is pronounced palatalised if they precede near-front from mid to high vowels, and uvularised if preceding back vowels.
  3. 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
The language's namesake. So damn cute.
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.

Vowels
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
ma'
/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

Class

There are 9 inherent noun classes in the Kiwi language. These do to some extent govern obviation, and agreement with adjectives. They are mainly dependent upon size and edibility.

Class Prefix
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- 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.

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.

ʻūluna
/ʔuːluˈnɑ/
ʻūluna'
ocean.c6.PA

ocean, sea
kaukaʻi
/qɑuqɑˈʔɪ/
kaukaʻi
song_bird.c1.PA

song bird
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.

ʻuhūluna
/ʔuhuːluˈnɑ/
ʻu~ʻūluna
PL~ocean.c6

oceans, seas
ikaukaʻi
/ɪqɑuqɑˈʔɪ/
i~kaukaʻi
PL~song_bird.c1

song bird
titaʻuka
/tɪtɑʔuˈqɑ/
ti~taʻuka
PL~rain_cloud.c6.

rain clouds
kekuʻe
/cəquˈʔə/
kuʻe
fish.c3.pa

fish

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.

Morphology

Syntax