Waa

Waa
Pronounced:	waː, wɑ:
Typology
Morphological type:	analytic
Morphosyntactic alignment:	neutral
Basic word order:	SVO
Credits
Creator:	Xing

Waa is a constructed language. A large part of its vocabulary is derived from English, or a selection of other languages.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Voiceless stops	p	t		k
Voiced stops	b	d
Nasals	m	n		ŋ
Taps/flaps/trills		r~ɾ
Glides	w		j

/j/ is written y, and /ŋ/ g. Otherwise, the phonemes follow their 'expected' spelling according to the IPA.

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a~ɑ

Waa has essentially a five-vowel system. On a phonological level, all vowels could be analysed as short monophthongs. In connected speech, however, adjacent vowels may be realized as diphthongs on a phonetic level, and two identical vowels next to each other as a single, long vowel. Stress falls on the second-to-last mora, or second to last phonological vowel.

A word-final, unstressed u after a consonant may be devoiced or dropped after a consonant:

katu /ka.tu/ [kat] 'cat'

This especially happens when the u appears at the end of an utterance. It may also happen when the next word begins with certain consonants:

katu kou /ka.tu ko.u/ [kat kou]

The consonants may even assimilate in point of articulation: [kak:ou]

When pronounced, /u/ might be slightly fronted and/or derounded.

The middle vowels /e/ and /o/ may be 'true mids' or even mid-open vowels.

Basic Phrases

There is no distinction between singular and plural, or between definite and indefinite forms, nor are there any other inflections of the noun.

katu - a cat, the cat, (some) cats, the cat,s etc.

huno - a dog, the dog, (some) dogs, the dogs, etc.

Adjectives and other modifying expressions follow the noun:

katu witu - a/the white cat(s)

cat white

huno maka - a/the large dog(s)

dog large

Pronouns

mi I

yu you (singular)

kia he, she, it

miera we

yuera you (plural)

kiaera or kiakia they

Demonstrative pronouns are forms with the third person pronouns, together with the deictic adverbs nei 'here' and naa 'there'_

kia nei - this one

3s PROX

kia naa - that one

3s DIST

kiaera nei - these ones

3:PL PROX

kiaera naa - those ones

3:PL DIST

The pronouns sese can render a reflexive or reciprocal meaning:

Kia ruku i sese - He looked at himself.

3s look DAT REFL

Kiaera ruku i sese - They looked at themselves. Or: They looked at each other.

3:PL look DAT REFL

3:PL look DAT RECP

ei tiaoka - somebody (lit. 'one person')

ei mea - something (lit. 'one thing')

ei osa - some amount (lit. 'one part')

Simple clauses

The basic word-order is SVO, or just SV in intransitive clauses:

Katu sewa. The cat is sleeping

cat sleep

Mi kopa katu I'm buying the cat

1 buy cat

Adjectives can serve as predicates. There are optionally introduced by the copula 'nea 'to be':

Katu witu. Or: Katu nea witu - The cat is white.

cat white cat be white

Nea can also introduce prepositional phrases as predicates:

Katu nea i tebo. - The cat is on the table

cat be LOC table

Nea is optional when it comes to nominal predicates:

Kia tiatisu. - He is a teacher.

3s person:teach

Kia nea tiatisu. - He is a teacher.

3s be person:teach

The copula

To summarize, the copula nea 'to be' is:

1) Obligatory with prepositional predicates:

Katu nea i huso. - The cat is in the house

2) Optional with nominal predicates.

Kia (nea) katu. - He (is) a cat.

3) Optional with adjectives, when they serve as predicates:

Katu (nea) rei. - The cat (is) grey.

4) Not used with regular verb predicates.

Prepositions

There are two main prepositions in Waa: the dative/locative i, and the ablative/instrumental a. They can have a variety of meanings, depending on the context.

The dative/locative

I can be used to indicate various form of (spatial) location, as well as goal, destination or recipient.

katu i tebo - the cat on the table

cat LOC table

rumo i huso - the room(s) in the house

room LOC house

tebo i rumoitu - the table in the dining room

table LOC room:eat

Tebo nea i rumoitu. - The table is in the dining room.

table be LOC room:eat

Tuku meku i kapikuru. - Put the milk in the fridge.

put milk DAT box:cool

Kiwe buku i mi. - Give me the book.

give book DAT 1s

Kiaera kou i paiboa. - They went to the village

1:PL go DAT place:live

The instrumental/ablative

A can be used to indicate source, means, etc.

Kia kee a paiboa. - He came from the village.

3s come ABL place:live

Kia padedu katu a korokutu. - He killed the cat with a knife.

3 cause:dead cat INSTR tool:cut

A can be used to mark the standard in a comparison:

Huno nea maka a katu. - The dog is bigger than the cat.'

dog be big ABL cat

Negations and questions

A clause is negated by ku:

Katu ku sewa. - The cat is not sleeping

cat NEG sleep

A yes/no-question may be formed by rising intonation. To respond to a question, you use ye for agreement, and kuye or just ku for disagreement.

Katu sewa? - Is the cat sleeping?

cat sleep

Ye. Katu sewa. - Yes. The cat is sleeping.

agree cat sleep

Ku. Katu ku sewa. - No. The cat isn't sleeping.

NEG cat NEG sleep

Kuye. Katu ku sewa.

NEG:agree cat NEG sleep

Katu ku sewa? - Isn't the cat sleeping?

cat NEG sleep

Ye. Katu ku sewa. - No. The cat isn't sleeping.

agree cat NEG sleep

Ku. Katu sewa. - Yes. The cat is sleeping.

NEG cat sleep

Kuye. Katu sewa. - Yes. The cat is sleeping.

NEG.agree cat sleep

Ku can also be used with adjectives or nouns:

ku bono - no good, not good

NEG good

ku katu - no cat(s)

NEG cat

ku mene - no one, nobody (lit. 'no person')

NEG person

Adjectives

Adjectives go after the words they modify:

Katu miti - a/the small cat

cat small

Huno maka - a/the large dog

dog large

Adjectives as predicates are optionally introduced by the copula nea:

Katu (nea) miti - The cat is small.

cat (be) small

Note that katu miti may be ambiguous, it can mean either 'the small cat' or 'the cat is small'. Without the copula, one must often rely on context to determine the intended meaning.

Another way to introduce adjective predicates is to us a demonstrative or a possessive pronoun:

Katu miti mi - my small cat vs. Katu mi miti - My cat is small.

cat small 1s

Katu miti naa - that small cat vs. Katu naa miti - That cat is small.

cat small DEM.DIST

Comparisons are formed with the preposition a:

Katu nea miti a huno. - The cat is smaller than the dog. (Lit. 'The cat is small from the dog.')

cat be small ABL dog

To express that something is as (adj.) as ...:

Katu nea maka huno. - The cat is as big as the dog.

cat be large dog

Possession

The possessor is placed after the possessum:

katu mi - my cat

cat 1s

huno ota - (the) father's dog

dog father

katu ota mi my father's cat

cat father 1s

Predicative possession

Katu naa nea katu mi. That cat is mine (Lit. 'That cat is my cat.')

cat that be cat 1s

Nea katu mi. I have a cat. ('There is a cat of mine')

be cat 1s

Tense

Tense is not obligatory. A simple clause might interpreted as past, present, or future, depending on the context.

Katu itu musu. - The cat ate the mouse, the cat is eating the mouse, the cat will eat the mouse etc.

cat eat mouse

Katu sewa. - The cat is sleeping, the cat has slept, etc.

cat sleep

Ways to indicate tense include explicit temporal adverbs:

Ina katu sewa. - Now the cat is sleeping.

now cat sleep

Katu sewa ina. - The cat is sleeping now.

cat sleep now

Deinei mi kopa katu. - Today I bought/will buy a cat.

day:this 1s buy cat

Deipasu mi kopa katu. - Yesterday I bought the cat.

day.past 1s buy cat

Pasu may be used to indicate past tense:

Katu pasu sewa. - The cat slept. the cat was sleeping, the cat has slept. ('the cat is past sleeping'

cat past sleep

Mi pasu kopa katu. - I bought a cat.

1s past buy cat

The verb/particle redi ('already, to be finished doing', 'to have done') may serve to indicate something like the perfect tense/aspect:

Mi redi kopa katu. - I have (already) bought a cat.'

1s already buy cat

Katu redi sewa. - The cat hasn't (yet) slept.

cat already sleep

Katu kuo redi sewa. - The cat hasn't slept.

cat NEG already sleep

The adverb taa 'then' may be placed before the predicate, in order to render a past tense meaning:

Mi taa kopa katu. - I bought a cat.

1s PST buy cat

Mi ku taa kopa katu - I didn't buy the cat.

1s NEG PST buy cat

Relative clauses

Relative clauses are introduced with the particle ae:

Mane ae kopa katu. - The man that bought the cat.

man REL buy cat

Katu ae kia kopa. - The cat that he bought.

cat REL 3s buy

If the relativized noun is introduced by a preposition - i or a - it must be represented by a pronoun in the relative clause:

Korokutu ae kia padedu katu a kia. - The knife that he killed the cat with.

tool:cut REL 3s cause:dead cat INSTR 3s

Mane ae mi kiwe katu i kia. - The man that I gave the cat to.

man REL 1s give cat DAT 3s

Prepositional stranding is not allowed:

*Mane ae mi kiwe katu i.

man REL 1s give cat DAT

Complement clauses

Complement clauses are introduced by the conjunction ge 'that':

Mi siu ge kia kopa katu. - I saw that he bought the cat.

1s see CONJ 3s buy cat

Mi ku wita ge kia redi selu katu. - I didn't know he had (already) sold the cat.

1s NEG know CONJ 2s PRF sell cat

Adverbial claues

Temporal adverbial clauses can bi introduced by beo 'before', ata 'after' and sima 'while', 'when', 'at the same time as':

Kia kee beo mi kou. - 'He arrived before I left.

3s come before 1 go

Kia kee ata mi kou. - 'He arrived after I had left.'

3s come after 1s leave

Kia kee sima mi itu. - 'He arrived when I was eating'

3s come while 1s eat

Auxiliary verbs

Mi wae kopa katu. - I want to by a cat.

1s want buy cat

Mi kae kopa katu. - I can buy a cat

1s can buy cat

Mi nae kopa katu. - I must/have to buy a cat

1s must buy cat

Mi mae kopa katu. - I may (am permitted to) buy a cat.

1s may buy cat

Mi sae kopa katu. - I must (am morally obligted to) buy a cat.

1s must buy cat

The prefix pa-

The prefix pa- can be attached to certain verbs to render a causative meaning. It can turn an intransitive verb into a transitive one:

pa + kou ('to go') -> pakou - to lead

pa + rera ('to learn') -> parera - to teach

It can be attached to adjectives:

pa + witu ('white') -> to make white, to bleach

The prefix ke-

The prefix ke- has a couple of functions. It can be added to verbs, to form nouns indicating what would typically be the object (result or patient) of the event described by the verb:

ke + itu ('to eat') -> keitu - food

ke + rita ('to write') -> kerita - letter, (piece of) writing.

ke + rima ('to dream') -> kerima - dream

ke + tigu ('to think') -> ketigu 'thought'

It can form passive participles:

tiki kerai - fried chicken

chicken PASS.fry

tiki nea kerai - the chicken is/was fried

chicken be PASS.fry

Tiki nea kerai a mane - The chicken is being fried by the man.

chicken be PASS.fry man

It can be attached to adjectives to form abstract nouns:

ke + biu (beautiful, good-looking) -> kebiu - beauty (in the sense of an abstract quality, rather than 'a beautiful person', which would be tiabiu or tiaoka biu)

Lexicon

Colours

kara - colour

goko or raku - black

witu - white

rei - grey

buro - blue

rinu - green

redu - red

yero - yellow

runo - brown

burogoko - dark blue, black-blue

burowitu - light blue

reduburo, buroredu - purple/violet

reduyero, yeroredu - orange

reduwitu - light red, pink

Numerals

ei - one

roa - two

kore - three

apa - four

lima - five

sesu - six

sewe - seven

kaha - eight

niu - nine

tega - ten

tegaei - eleven (ten one)

tegaroa - twelve (ten two)

etc.

oa tega - twenty (two ten)

kore tega - thirty (three ten)

etc.

apa tegaei - forty-one (four ten one)

apa tegarao - forty-two (four ten two)

etc.

(ei) huna - (one) hundred

(ei) tusa - (one) thousand

(ei) mirione - (one) million

(ei) birione (one) billion (short scale, like English)

(ei) tirione (one) trillion

Cardinal numerals are placed before the noun:

lima tiaoka - five people

sesu katu - six cats

Ordinal numerals are placed after the noun:

katu kore - the third cat

tiaoka roa - the second person

For 'first', You can use either the numeral ei, or the special word mura:

katu ei - the first cat

katu mula - the first cat

Fractionals are formed with osa 'part' + numeral:

osakore - (a) third

ei osakore - one third

roa osakore - two thirds

ei osatega - one tenth

See also

Waa-English dictionary