Oealu

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Oealu oʊ.i'a.lu is a constructed international auxiliary language created by American linguist Cameron White in 2010. His goal being to merge the Hawaiian and Baltic-Finnic phonological systems with the grammar of the greater Uralic and Japanese languages.

Linguistic properties

Classification

As a constructed language, Oealu is not genealogically related to any ethnic language group. However, it does posses a great number of grammatical cases for which the Uralic language family is known. Typologically, Oealu has few prepositions and a strict word order of subject-verb-object. Adjectives are placed before or after the nouns they modify, connected by the particle "no", a feature of |Japanese.

Orthography

Oealu is written with a modified version of the Latin alphabet, including six letters with diacritics: å, ǩ, ļ, ƶ, and ǯ.The alphabet does not include the letters b, c, f, g, q, w, x or z.

The 28-letter alphabet is:

Aa Åå Dd Ee Hh Ii Jj Kk Ǩǩ Ll Ļļ Mm Nn Oo Pp Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Yy Ƶƶ Ʒʒ Ǯǯ

All letters are pronounced as in the IPA, with the exception of the letters with diacritics:

Letter å ǩ ļ ƶ ǯ
Pronunciation ɔ kj ʎ ʑ

Phonology

Oealu has 17 consonants and 6 vowels that can combine to form 9 diphthongs. Tone is not used to distinguish meanings of words. Stress falls on the penultimate vowel in 3-or-more-syllabled words and on the first syllable for disyllabic words. For example, jauva "family" is ['jau.va], with the stress on the au, but jadouʒa "dog" is [ja'dou.ʒa].

Consonants

The 22 consonants are:

Bilabial Labio-dental Alveolar Post-alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m   n        
[Plosive p   t d     k kj  
Affricate            
Fricative   v s ʒ ʑ   h  
Trill     r        
Approximant     l   ʎ j    

Consonant clusters of quantities of up to two can occur, such as in jårvi "you eat" or koiski "two". Final clusters, however, are not permitted (English cent, board, sips).

Vowels

Oealu has the five cardinal vowels found in such languages as Japanese, Zulu, and Spanish plus the close front rounded vowel and open-mid back rounded vowel found in northern European languages such as Swedish and Danish:

Front Back
Close i y u
Mid e o
Open ɔ a

There are also nine diphthongs, [ai], [au], [ɔi],[ɔu], [ei], [oi] [ou], [uo], and [yo] which are written respectively as ai, au, åi, åu, ei, oi, ou, uo, yo .

Grammar

Nouns

Oealu nouns decline for 13 singular and plural cases although some may argue that the actual number is 12 because the Allative an Illative cases decline the same way. The case endings are borrowed from Finnish and Hawaiian.

Declension of nouns
Case
Number Nominative Accusative Genitive Illative/Allative Inessive Elative Adessive Ablative Supressive Subessive Essive Comitative
Singular -a -asa -alta -alu -ahu -ala -ara -uva -una -aʒa -uo
Plural -an -ån -asan -altan -alau -ahau -alan -arva -avu -anu -aʒan -aui

Verbs

Oealu has a fairly simple verb inflection system in which verbs inflect for person, tense, and mood. Conjugations by person can be observed in this table:

Singular Plural
-o -u
-i
-a -an

Oealu has 6 tenses, present, present perfect, past, past perfect, future, and future perfect. To conjugate with these tenses, simply add the following suffixes for the 6 tenses to the prsonal ending, respectively: "- , -ma, -ǯa, -na, -lka, and -da". Verbs can be made passive by placing the word Syla before the verb, or negative by placing Nyt before it. So, in full conjugation, marahei "to see" would become Syla nyt marahada "He will not have seen".

Personal pronouns

Oealu pronouns inflect for case. This table shows all of the forms of Oealu personal pronouns.

Declension of pronouns
Case
Pronoun Nominative Accusative Genitive Illative/Allative Inessive Elative Adessive Ablative Supressive Subessive Essive Comitative
1st Person Singular pa pasa palta palu pahu pala para puva puna paʒa puo
2nd Person Singular sa sasa salta salu sahu sala sara suva suna saʒa suo
3rd Person Singular ma masa malta malu mahu mala mara muva muna maʒa muo
1st Person Plural nan nån nasan naltan nalau nahau nalan narva navu nanu naʒan naui
2nd Person Plural tan tån tasan taltan talau tahau talan tarva tavu tanu taʒan taui
3rd Person Plural han hån hasan haltan halau hahau halan harva havu hanu haʒan haui

Adjectives

As previously stated, Oealu adjectives are placed before the noun which they modify and joined to it by a particle. That particle is "no" for positive adjectives, "ǩa" for comparative, and "lo" for superlative. Adverbs can be made by joining the corresponding adjective with one of the above particles before the verb.

Interrogative Pronouns

The seven Oealu interrogative pronouns are as follows.

English Oealu
Who? Koi?
What? Kau?
Where? Kåina?
When? Kuo?
Why? Kaʒ
How? Kaǯ?
How Many? Kei?

Useful phrases

English Oealu
Hello Alua
Yes Ƶa
No Nou
Good morning Eiki no uomoka
Good evening Eiki no pauva
Good night Eiki no jausa
Goodbye Alua Oi
What is your name? Kau ola tuova sasa?
My name is John Tuova pasa ola Jono
How are you? Kaǯ oli?
Do you speak Oealu? Syovi Oialu?
I don't understand you Nyt ǯuoko så
All right/Ok Eiki
Thank you Teinu
You're welcome Oli voiri
Please? Maļuo?
Gesundheit! Jesas!
Congratulations Savarpuo
I love you Ƶudo så
One beer, please Ykasi no bira, maļuo
What is that? Kau kas ola?
That is a dog Kas ola piǩaha
Peace! Malauna!

Numerals

The Oealu number system is based on that of the Baltic-Finnic group of languages. So there is a suffix for the equivalent of the English "-teen".This table shows the other similarities also occur.

Numeral English Oealu Finnish Estonian
0 zero noula nolla -
1 two ykasa yksi üks
2 two kasa kaksi kaks
3 three koluma kolme kolm
4 four neļa neljä neli
5 five veisa viisi viis
6 six kuoƶa kuusi kuus
7 seven seisama seitsemän seitse
8 eight kadeksa kahdeksän kaheksa
9 nine ydeksa yhdeksän üheksa
10 ten poia kymmenen kümme

11-19 are formed by adding "-taisa" to the numeral (ykasataisa, kasataisa, kolumataisa, etc.)Numbers 20-90 are formed by adding "-poian" (kasapoian, kolumapoian, neļapoian, etc.) Numerals can qualify nouns by dropping the final -a, adding an -i and joining it before the noun qualified with the particle "no". Some more examples are listed here:

English Oealu
51 Veisapoian-ykas
100 Raha
1,000 Hisuona
10,000 Poiahisuonan
100,000 Rahahisuona
1,000,000 Miļuona
Three dogs Kolumi no piǩahan
15 brothers?! Veisataisi no påsavan

Sample text

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Låpås huoman syla mausanma hausi va sǩupi maremaʒa va keitaʒan. Syla kakouvanma sauvanuo va hjumaluo va huoskan mekei huomaltan påsavaʒa.

References

  1. Estonian Language on Omniglot
  2. Finnish Language on Omniglot
  3. Hawaiian Language on Omniglot
  4. Japanese Language on Omniglot
  5. Khanty Language on Omniglot
  6. Livonian Language on Omniglot
  7. Oealu Website