Ah Oka

Ah Oka
‘ā ōka
Pronunciation	[ʔaː oːka]
Created by	Jukethatbox
Date	2024
Ethnicity	Tipu Oka
Native speakers	1,000 (2026)
Language family	Sinatolean Hauhau Ah Oka
Early forms	Proto-Sinatolean Himé Hauhau
Writing system	Latin

Ah Oka (‘ā ōka [ʔaː oːka]) is a Sinatolean Hauhau language spoken on Ka Oka (kā ōka) island in the Nelahgan Islands. It is the most spoken descendant of the ancient Hau-Hau language, with around 1,000 speakers as of 2026. The Hau-Hau branch was the first Sinatolean language branch to diverge with the arrival of the T'pu Hau people on the Pukahau Archipelago of the Nelahgans.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p	t	k	ʔ
Nasal	m	n
Approximant	w	l

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Mid		o oː
Open	a aː

Phonotactics

Ah Oka's syllable structure is strictly (C)V(k); /k/ is the only consonant that can appear in coda positions, and only in word-final positions. It appears in a fair amount of words however, such as tāk "young, new".

Grammar

Articles

Number

Ah Oka preserves the pu plural article from Hau-Hau, which itself its derived from the Proto-Sinatolean *-pu- infix. Singularity is not inflected.

Demonstrative

Ah Oka has four demonstrative pronouns, which act as articles.

	Singular	Plural
This	ti	tī
That	tu	tū

Personal pronouns

Singular personal pronouns in Ah Oka have ergative-absolutive alignment; this is believed to have been preserved from all the way back in Proto-Sinatolean, though it was dropped in all other Sinatolean descendant languages.

		Singular		Plural
		ergative	absolutive
First person		la	lō	pula
Second person		ki	‘ā	puā
Third person	inanimate	mi	mā/ mō	pumi
	animate			mā‘a

Example texts