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+{{privatelang}}
 '''Guaru''' [ˈŋuaɾu] (also '''Gualu''', '''Nguaru''', '''Ngualu''') is a constructed language spoken by the inhabitants of Oru, part of an enormous space habitat in an uncertain location, which is putatively a conservation ark and research station developed by an unknown extra-terrestrial civilisation in order to conserve and study terrestrial life. The language itself was developed by a historical figure known only as Orimu, who appears to have been a human involved with the setting up of Oru several hundred years ago. The education system of Oru prescribes a strict adherence to the original structure of the language as detailed in Orimu's original documents, more or less preserving the original orthography and grammar, although sound changes have apparently taken place, most notably the universal change of [p] to [h].
 Guaru appears to be unrelated to any other known language. It is a right-branching, analytic language with a very simple phonology, with a small inventory of eight consonants and five vowels and consisting only of open syllables.
+==History==
+According to the documents left by Orimu, the creator of Guaru, the language was designed to be an auxiliary language in order to enable communication among the first inhabitants of Oru, who came from diverse language backgrounds, presumably taken either from Earth or another location where humans are kept. There is nothing in the documents that indicates any source or inspiration for the vocabulary of Guaru, so it is not known if it is ''a priori'' or derived or influenced by other potentially unknown languages. The small phoneme inventory and relatively simple phonotactics of the original language are probably a feature designed to provide few obstacles to pronunciation.
+Orimu is believed to have lived somewhere between about 400 to 600 years ago. The Oru calendar reached its 400th year in February 1998 in the Terrestrial Western calendar and some believe the starting point of the Oru calendar to be the date of Orimu's birth although there is some evidence to suggest that the currently used calendar had its starting point long after Orimu's death.
+==Informants and speakers==
+Knowledge of Oru and Guaru on Earth comes only from the hundred or so Oru people who have been dropped on Earth since about the 1970s. It was only in the early 90s that these mysterious undocumented people who were unable to speak any known language were recognised as one singular phenomenon. Many of them had unfortunately wound up in mental health institutions in various countries.
+In 1993, linguist Petra Schäfer from Potsdam in Germany compared two cases, a young girl who had appeared in Germany and a man who had appeared in Poland, and discovered that they spoke the same language. Upon uniting them, she was able to record fluent conversations between the two and began to learn the language from them in order to describe it. What information is available about Oru and Guaru comes from interviews with Oru people since those days. The consistency of their reports from interviews conducted in many countries has validated their claims, as outlandish as many of them are.
+Oru apparently consists of a series of enormous rotating tubes, the inner surfaces of which are largely hilly and covered in tropical rainforest. Light comes from a sun-like source called the '''ukana''', a long spoke running through in the centre of the tubes which seems to emit parallel beams light that change in angle throughout the day, giving the appearance of an impossibly distant sun. The ''ukana'' also emits other lights which seem to simulate the Earth's moon, complete with a monthly cycle, although a crescent shape is not discernable. By climbing the mountainous walls at the ends of the tubes it is possible to access a cave-like linking system in which there is no gravity. These caves are dimly lit and home to thousands upon thousands of bats and swiftlets. Many branches of these cave systems have dead ends, but some lead to other tubes and there are seven or eight inhabited tubes with relatively easy access between them. There are also other tubes which are visible but have no way to climb down into and many people in Oru believe there are many more inaccessible tubes, possibly with people in them too, and that this system is potentially infinite.
+A precise estimate of the population of Oru is not available but most estimates are between about 300,000 to 1,000,000. Monolingualism is the norm in Oru. Members of the '''Tagahu''', a kind of militarised, technologically advanced secret society which rules and polices Oru, use a secret language known in Guaru as '''Uoriuo'''. The only other language known to the Oru people is a sign language and basic knowledge of this is reasonably widespread among even hearing people, although some informants say there is a separate sign language used by the ''Tagahu''.
+Within Oru, there is apparently no knowledge of Earth, although one informant has reported that she has heard of one or two mysterious people who appeared in Oru, initially unable to speak, and who apparently came from a place where people live "on the outside of a ball" rather than inside tubes. This may mean that people from Earth have been transported to Oru in recent times, although they may also be from elsewhere.
 ==Phonology==
 ===Consonants===
+====Plain====
 {| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
 |+ '''Single Consonants'''
 |-
-!  !! Bilabial !! Dental !! Velar !! Glottal
+!  !! Bilabial !! Dental/<br>Alveolar/<br>Retroflex !! Velar !! Glottal !! Schäfer<br>Romanisation !! Tanner<br>Romanisation
 |- align=center
 ! Nasal
-| /'''m'''/<br>[m]<br><'''m'''>
+| style="vertical-align: top;| /'''m'''/<br>[m]<br>
-| /'''n'''/<br>[n̪]<br><'''n'''>
+| style="vertical-align: top;| /'''n'''/<br>[n]<br>*<small>1</small>
-| /'''ŋ'''/<br>[ŋ]<br><'''g'''>
+| style="vertical-align: top;| /'''ŋ'''/<br>[ŋ]<br>
 |
+! < m n g >
+! < m n ng >
 |- align=center
 ! Plosive
 |
-| /'''t'''/<br>[t̪]~[d̪]<br><'''t'''>
+| /'''t'''/<br>[t]~[d]<br>*<small>1</small> *<small>2</small>
-| /'''k'''/<br>[k]~[g]<br><'''k'''>
+| /'''k'''/<br>[k]~[g]<br>*<small>2</small>
-| /'''ʔ'''/<br>[ʔ]<br><('''x''')>
+| /'''ʔ'''/<br>[ʔ]~Ø<br>*<small>3</small>
+! < t k (x) >
+! < t k (ʻ) >
 |- align=center
 ! Fricative
@@ Line 28: / Line 49: @@
 |
 |
-| /'''h'''/<br>[h]<br><'''h'''>
+| /'''h'''/<br>[h]~Ø<br>*<small>4</small>
+! < h >
+! < h >
 |- align=center
 ! Tap / Lateral
 |
-| /'''l'''/<br>[ɾ]~[l]<br><'''r'''>
+| /'''l'''/<br>[ɾ]~[l]*<small>1</small> <br>*<small>5</small>
 |
 |
+! < r >
+! < l >
 |}
-The allophones listed are all in more or less free variation and chiefly subject to individual variation, with voiced allophones of /t/ and /d/ being used more often by men.
+* <small>1</small> The phonemes /n t r/ are all most frequently dental but can also be alveolar or occasionally even retroflex
+* <small>2</small> The voiced allophones of /t/ and /k/ are more or less in free variation although both are used more frequently by men, more frequently within a word than initially, and [g] appears more often than [d].
-The phoneme /ʔ/ is usually elided word initially in casual speech. In both commonly used romanisations, it is not written at the beginning of a word. Any word that begins with a vowel can optionally begin with a glottal stop. A glottal stop within a word, however, is always pronounced and is thus indicated in the romanisation.
+* <small>3</small> The phoneme /ʔ/ is frequently elided word initially in casual speech. This largely depends on the surrounding vowels although in very casual speech it is virtually always elided in initial position. In both commonly used romanisations, it is not written at the beginning of a word. Any word that appears to begin with a vowel has at least an underlying glottal stop. A glottal stop within a word, however, is always pronounced and is thus indicated in both romanisation.
+* <small>4</small> Similarly, the glottal fricative /h/ is optionally elided from the beginning of monomoraic words (particles). It is, however, always written in the romanisations. It is not elided from polymoraic words.
+* <small>5</small> The phoneme /r/ has a variable pronunciation. Men tend to gravitate more towards [ɾ] and women towards [l] however speakers who pronounce /t/ as [d] (who are more often male) often use [l], presumably an example of dissimilation.
-Similarly, the glottal fricative is optionally elided from the beginning of particles. It is, however, always written.
+====Doubled====
-All consonants may be doubled and are then pronounced as geminate or "strong". This only occurs at the beginning of words in the genitive case.
+All consonants may be doubled and are then pronounced as geminate or "strong". This only occurs at the beginning of contentives in the genitive case and appears to have evolved out of syllable reduplication.
 {| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
 |+ '''Doubled Consonants'''
 |-
-!  !! Bilabial !! Dental !! Velar !! Glottal
+!  !! Bilabial !! Dental/<br>Alveolar/<br>Retroflex !! Velar !! Glottal !! Schäfer<br>Romanisation !! Tanner<br>Romanisation
 |- align=center
 ! Nasal
-| /'''mm'''/<br>[mː]~[mb]<br><'''mm'''>
+| /'''mm'''/<br>[mː]~[mb]
-| /'''nn'''/<br>[n̪ː]~[n̪d̪]<br><'''nn'''>
+| /'''nn'''/<br>[nː]~[nd]
-| /'''ŋŋ'''/<br>[ŋː]~[ŋg]<br><'''gg'''>
+| /'''ŋŋ'''/<br>[ŋː]~[ŋg]
 |
+! < mm nn gg >
+! < mm nn nng >
 |- align=center
 ! Plosive
 |
-| /'''tt'''/<br>[t̪ː]~[t̪ʼ]<br><'''tt'''>
+| /'''tt'''/<br>[tː]~[tʼ]
-| /'''kk'''/<br>[kː]~[kʼ]<br><'''kk'''>
+| /'''kk'''/<br>[kː]~[kʼ]
-| /'''ʔʔ'''/<br>[ʔː]<br><'''x'''>
+| /'''ʔʔ'''/<br>[ʔː]
+! < tt kk x >
+! < tt kk ʻ >
 |- align=center
 ! Fricative
@@ Line 67: / Line 98: @@
 |
 |
-| /'''hh'''/<br>[ɸ(ː)]~[p(ː)]<br><'''hh'''>
+| /'''hh'''/<br>[ɸ(ː)]~[ʍ(ː)]~[p(ː)]<br><'''hh'''> / <'''wh'''>
+! < hh >
+! < wh >
 |- align=center
 ! Tap / Lateral
 |
-| /'''ll'''/<br>[r]~[lː]~[ʈʼ]<br><'''rr'''>
+| /'''ll'''/<br>[r(ː)]~[lː]~[ld]<br><'''rr'''> / <'''ll'''>
 |
 |
+! < rr >
+! < ll >
 |}
@@ Line 130: / Line 165: @@
 |}
-The sequences of identical vowels /ii ee aa oo uu/ are pronounced as long vowels [iː ɛː aː ɔː uː]. In the Polynesian influenced Tanner romanisation, these are indicated with macrons <'''ā''' '''ē''' '''ī''' '''ō''' '''ū'''> however the Schaefer romanisation, used here, depicts them as separate vowels as this helps better conceptualise the morae within a word.
+The sequences of identical vowels /ii ee aa oo uu/ are pronounced as long vowels [iː ɛː aː ɔː uː]. In the Polynesian influenced Tanner romanisation, these are indicated with macrons <'''ā''' '''ē''' '''ī''' '''ō''' '''ū'''> however the Schäfer romanisation, used here, depicts them as separate vowels in order to help better conceptualise the morae within a word.
+The particles '''hi''' and '''hu''', in casual speech, lose their /h/ and may become pronounced as [j] and [w] respectively, especially when sandwiched between vowels with an initial glottal stop elided, as long as those vowels are not identical. For example '''ia hi ua''' is, formally [ˈʔia hi ˈʔua] but in more casual speech any of [ˈ(ʔ)ia hi ˈua], [ˈ(ʔ)ia i ˈua], or [ˈ(ʔ)ia ˈjua].
 ===Phonotactics===
@@ Line 161: / Line 198: @@
 ===Pronouns===
-Pronouns constitute a word class that differs syntactically only slightly from contentives. Unlike contentives, they never need to be preceded by the subject particle '''he''' and when appearing as the predicate, they always need to be preceded by the predicate particle '''hi'''. They also form their genitive case differently, not by gemination of the first consonant but by substituting /h/ for their initial (unwritten and often unpronounced) glottal stop /ʔ/.
+Pronouns constitute a word class that differs syntactically only slightly from contentives. Unlike contentives, they ''never'' need to be preceded by the subject particle '''he''' and when appearing as the predicate, they ''always'' need to be preceded by the predicate particle '''hi'''. They also form their genitive case differently, not by gemination of the first consonant but by substituting /h/ for their initial (unwritten and often unpronounced) glottal stop /ʔ/.
-Pronouns distinguish first second and third persons. In the third person, a distinction is made between animate and inanimate referents and these are further distinguished by whether they are visible or invisible to the speaker at the time of speaking.
+Pronouns distinguish first second and third persons. In the third person, a distinction is made between animate (<small>ANIM</small>) and inanimate (<small>INAN</small>) referents and these are further distinguished by whether they are visible (<small>VIS</small>) or invisible (<small>INVIS</small>) to the speaker at the time of speaking.
 Plural pronouns are formed additively by compounding these bases. Generally only two grammatical persons are combined at once grammatical persons together in the order of the following heirarchy:
 : (1) second person '''ua'''
-: (2) third person animate visible '''aa'''
+: (2) third person animate visible '''aa''' (suffixed as '''-xaa''')
-: (3) third person animate invisible '''ao'''
+: (3) third person animate invisible '''ao''' (suffixed as '''-xao''')
 : (4) first person '''ia'''
 : (5) third person inanimate visible '''ii'''
 : (6) third person inanimate invisible '''io'''
-Very long pronoun forms may be used for groups comprising many different persons. For example, a group including more than one addressee, several third persons, both visible and invisible and the speaker will be referred to with '''uauaxaaxaoia''' (glossed as 2+2+3.ANIM.VIS+3.ANIM.INVIS+1). Because combining these can result in hundreds of available forms, the following tables are limited to forms that combine two bases. This is enough to show which combinations the epenthetic glottal stop /ʔ/ <'''x'''> appears between.
+Very long pronoun forms may be used for groups comprising many different persons. For example, a group including more than one addressee, several third persons, both visible and invisible and the speaker will be referred to with '''uauaxaaxaoia''' (glossed as 2+2+3.ANIM.VIS+3.ANIM.INVIS+1). Because combining these can result in hundreds of available forms, the following tables are limited to forms that combine two bases.
 {| class="bluetable lightbluebg"
 |+ '''Subject pronouns'''
 |- align=center
-! Header text !! singular !!   +1   !!   +2   !! +3.ANIM.VIS !! +3.ANIM.INVIS || +3.INAN.VIS !! +3.INAN.INVIS
+! Header text !! singular !!   +1   !!   +2   !! +3.<small>ANIM</small>.<small>VIS</small> !! +3.<small>ANIM</small>.<small>INVIS</small> || +3.<small>INAN</small>.<small>VIS</small> !! +3.<small>INAN</small>.<small>INVIS</small>
 |- align=center
 ! 1
@@ Line 187: / Line 224: @@
 | ua || <span style="color:lightblue">uaia</span> || uaua || uaxaa || uaxao || uaii || uaio
 |- align=center
-! 3.ANIM.VIS
+! 3.<small>ANIM</small>.<small>VIS</small>
 | aa || <span style="color:lightblue">aaia</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">uaxaa</span> || aaxaa || aaxao || aaii || aaio
 |- align=center
-! 3.ANIM.INVIS
+! 3.<small>ANIM</small>.<small>INVIS</small>
 | ao || <span style="color:lightblue">aoia</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">uaxao</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">aaxao</span> || aoxao || aoii || aoio
 |- align=center
-! 3.INAN.VIS
+! 3.<small>INAN</small>.<small>VIS</small>
 | ii || <span style="color:lightblue">iaii</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">uaii</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">aaii</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">aoii</span> || iixii || iixio
 |- align=center
-! 3.INAN.INVIS
+! 3.<small>INAN</small>.<small>INVIS</small>
 | io || <span style="color:lightblue">iaio</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">uaio</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">aaio</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">aoio</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">iixio</span> || ioxio
 |}
@@ Line 203: / Line 240: @@
 Many of these combinations are rarely used. For example, it is not often that one wishes to refer to the addressee(s) plus (an) invisible third person inanimate object(s) (ie. "you and it", "you and those things") but on the rare occasions that this happens, the pronoun is '''uaio'''.
-The choice between '''iaia''' and '''aaia''' is a subtle one. '''Iaia''' is used to speak on behalf of a group which does not include the listener(s). '''Aaia''' is the same but does not carry this connotation of speaking on behalf of the group. '''Aoia''' is used when not all members of the group are present.
+As with many languages, there is a distinction between the inclusive "we" '''uaia''', which includes any addressees (as "you and I"), and exclusive "we"s, '''iaia''', '''aaia''', '''aoia'''. The choice between '''iaia''' and '''aaia''' is a subtle one. '''Iaia''' is used to speak on behalf of a group. '''Aaia''' is the same but does not carry this connotation and also indicates that the referents other than the speaker are present or potentially visible to the speaker at the time of speaking. '''Aoia''' is used when not all members of the group are present.
 The following table, included for the sake of completeness, shows the genitive forms of these pronouns which are all regularly formed by prefixing /h/ (which substitutes the initial underlying glottal stop in all of the subject forms).
@@ Line 211: / Line 248: @@
 |+ '''Genitive pronouns'''
 |- align=center
-! Header text !! singular !!   +1   !!   +2   !! +3.ANIM.VIS !! +3.ANIM.INVIS || +3.INAN.VIS !! +3.INAN.INVIS
+! Header text !! singular !!   +1   !!   +2   !! +3.<small>ANIM</small>.<small>VIS</small> !! +3.<small>ANIM</small>.<small>INVIS</small> || +3.<small>INAN</small>.<small>VIS</small> !! +3.<small>INAN</small>.<small>INVIS</small>
 |- align=center
 ! 1
@@ Line 219: / Line 256: @@
 | hua || <span style="color:lightblue">huaia</span> || huaua || huaxaa || huaxao || huaii || huaio
 |- align=center
-! 3.ANIM.VIS
+! 3.<small>ANIM</small>.<small>VIS</small>
 | haa || <span style="color:lightblue">haaia</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">huaxaa</span> || haaxaa || haaxao || haaii || haaio
 |- align=center
-! 3.ANIM.INVIS
+! 3.<small>ANIM</small>.<small>INVIS</small>
 | hao || <span style="color:lightblue">haoia</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">huaxao</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">haaxao</span> || haoxao || haoii || haoio
 |- align=center
-! 3.INAN.VIS
+! 3.<small>INAN</small>.<small>VIS</small>
 | hii || <span style="color:lightblue">hiaii</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">huaii</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">haaii</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">haoii</span> || hiixii || hiixio
 |- align=center
-! 3.INAN.INVIS
+! 3.<small>INAN</small>.<small>INVIS</small>
 | hio || <span style="color:lightblue">hiaio</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">huaio</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">haaio</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">haoio</span> || <span style="color:lightblue">iixio</span> || hioxio
 |}
 ===Contentives===
+[[Category:Languages]]
+[[Category:Conlangs]]