Kiwi

Kiwi
Taʻ rī kiwinikaʻ
Pronunciation	[/tɑʔ rɪː kɪˌwɪɲɪˈkɑʔ/]
Created by	–
Native to	Easter Island
Native speakers	⅜ (2013)
Language family	Rana languages Kiwi
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/.

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. Known as kikiwī in the Kiwi 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.

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

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.

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

Moai statues on Easter Island, called moʻai in Kiwi, as well as a few wild horses. Horses are called tototō, by the way.

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. 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	Co
Reduplicated	VʔV	CVCV:	CiCa	CeCu	CiCe	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

Verbs

Person

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.