Hano
Introduction
This is my third conlang and the first I've actually begun to develope. It, like all my other conlangs, is inspired by my native language Finnish and Native American languages, especially those of Pacific Northwest.
General information
Hano language is a language isolate spoken by the Hano people of Hano archipelago.
Phonology
Consonants
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Epiglottal | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | ||||||||||||
| Plosive | ||||||||||||
| Fricative | ||||||||||||
| Affricate | ||||||||||||
| Approximant | ||||||||||||
| Trill | ||||||||||||
| Flap or tap | ||||||||||||
| Lateral fric. | ||||||||||||
| Lateral app. | ||||||||||||
| Lateral flap |
Vowels
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | |||||
| Near-close | |||||
| Close-mid | |||||
| Mid | |||||
| Open-mid | |||||
| Near-open | |||||
| Open |
Phonotactics
Basic grammar
Hano can be very agglutinating in its verbs, but less so of adjectives and nouns. It's possible for a sentence to consist of either words with high degree of inflection or words that haven't been inflectled at all, depending on the number, tense etc..
Noun classes
Hano includes three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural, of which dual exists only in personal pronouns. It has three noun classes: concrete animate, concrete inanimate and abstract. All nouns are plural by default and the singular is marked by adding a suffix to the end of the noun. They are -is for concrete animate, -ic for concrete inanimate and -ip for abstract (for example kiál means "birds" and kiális means "a bird"). Words, such as "water", "time" and other material and uncountable nouns of the concrete inanimate and abstract noun classes can be given the singular suffix to denote a small amount. For example "some water" would be Gashéic in Hano and "a moment" Mí'cip (could be expressed as "a piece of time")
Verbs
In the Hano language verb stems form the core of the verb and suffixes are added to the verb to denote different grammatical functions. Their place within the verb depends on the tense and other suffixes and there is much variation.
There are five tenses, which are future, present, preterite, aorist and perfect. Aorist is used when talking about some already occured event, that's either unique or otherwise special. For example T'aétáska, which uses aorist, means "I swam" (only time doing so or for the first time), while Yentás'ka means "I swam" (several times before and/or after), as it's preterite. Present isn't marked with an affix while others are.
| Future | Me'í |
|---|---|
| Present | - |
| Preterite | Yen |
| Aorist | T'aé |
| Perfect | Qo |
There are four grammatical persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, all of which have got singular, dual and plural forms. 4th person is used when referring to the target of 3rd person's actions: compare Yenmálka sán, which means "I saw her/him" and Yenmálksá seik, which means "she/he saw her/him".
They are as follows:
| sg. | dl. | pl | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | A/Aś | At/As | Át/Áś |
| 2nd | E/Ell | Et/Éll | Ét/Ét |
| 3rd | Sá/Sáŋ | Sat/Saw | Sát/Sall |
| 4th | Sé/Seik | Set/Si'ek | Sét/Se'ek |
There are two forms of each pronoun. The first ones are used to indicate the agent of the sentence and the latter ones to indicate the patient and, furthermore, when only a pronoun is needed to convey the meaning. The agent pronouns are added to the verb and cannot be on their own. The place of the pronoun depends on the other affixes of the word. In the present tense it's always initial: Atás'k = "I swim". But in other tenses it's usually the final one and the tense marker is the first: Yentás'ka = "I swam". It's optional to omit the agent pronoun if the subject of the sentence is something other than a personal pronoun, ie. one can say either Tás'k kiál or Sáttás'k kiál for "The birds swim".
Negation is formed by adding the suffix -yé before the verb stem. The tense and question markers and the person are placed after the verb stem in the order tense marker-question-person. Compare Kweyentáska "Did I swim?" and Yétáskyenkwea "Didn't I swim?"
Vocabulary
| Kinship | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grandmother | Grandfather | Grandmother | Grandfather | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Uncles Wife | Uncle | Uncles Wife | Uncle | Uncles Wife | Uncle | Aunts husband | Aunt | Aunts husband | Aunt | Aunts husband | Aunt | Father | Mother | Uncles Wife | Uncle | Uncles Wife | Uncle | Uncles Wife | Uncle | Aunts husband | Aunt | Aunts husband | Aunt | Aunts husband | Aunt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | Male Cousin | Female Cousin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Twin Sisters Husband | Twin Sister | Little Sisters Husband | Little Sister | Big Sisters Huband | Big Sister | Wife | Self | Husband | Big Brother | Big Brothers Wife | Little Brother | Little Brothers Wife | Twin Brother | Twin Brothers Wife | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Niece | Nephew | Niece | Nephew | Niece | Nephew | Son | Daughter | Son | Daughter | Niece | Nephew | Niece | Nephew | Niece | Nephew | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Swadesh list
Example texts
Kweyenká'hc'aet sascha'm ké'énic ám?
Didn't you two give it to me yesterday?