Oealu

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	dʒ

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							dʒ
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	-å	-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	på	pasa	palta	palu	pahu	pala	para	puva	puna	paʒa	puo
2nd Person Singular	sa	så	sasa	salta	salu	sahu	sala	sara	suva	suna	saʒa	suo
3rd Person Singular	ma	må	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