Revision as of 15:51, 24 April 2021

Introduction

Kalo is intended to be a minimalist artlang, not an auxlang. It draws primarily on vocabulary from the five most spoken languages in the world; Mandarin, Spanish, English, and Arabic (Hindi is used sparingly although it is spoken by more speakers than Arabic). The grammar is mostly isolating with very few elements of inflection, mostly to show plurality or possession.

Kalo is NOT meant to mimic, replace, or be inspired by Toki Pona or any other IAL. Any similarities are based on design aesthetic coincidences and the minimalist nature of the language.

Phonology

Kalo has nine consonants (/p, t, k, s, m, n, l, j, w/) and five vowels (/a, e, i, o, u/). Stress is mostly word final.

Consonants

	Labial	Coronal	Dorsal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	p	t	k
Fricative		s
Approximant	w	l	j (y)

Vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

Diphthongs

There are two diphthongs [ai̯] ai, and [au̯] au. These are rare and typically only occur word-finally.

Syllable Structure

All syllables are of the form (C)V(N), that is, optional consonant + vowel + optional final nasal, or V, CV, VN, CVN.

phonotactics

A few syllables sequences are disallowed; /ji, wu, wo/. Also, a syllable-final nasal may not occur before /m/ or /n/ in the same root.

Syllables

a	ka	sa	ta	na	pa	ma	ya	la	wa
i	ki	si	ti	ni	pi	mi		li	wi
u	ku	su	tu	nu	pu	mu	yu	lu
e	ke	se	te	ne	pe	me	ye	le	we
o	ko	so	to	no	po	mo	yo	lo

Allophony

The nasal at the end of a syllable can be pronounced as any nasal stop, though it is normally assimilated to the following consonant. That is, it typically occurs as an [n] before /t/ or /s/, as an [m] before /p/, as an [ŋ] before /k/, and as an [ɲ] before /j/. Because of its small phoneme inventory, Kalo allows for quite a lot of allophonic variation. For example, /p t k/ may be pronounced [b d ɡ] as well as [p t k], /s/ as [z] or [ʃ] as well as [s], /l/ as [ɾ] as well as [l], and vowels may be either long or short. Both its sound inventory and phonotactics (patterns of possible sound combinations) are found in the majority of human languages and are therefore readily accessible.

Syntax

Classical Arabic is primarily VSO, but MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) tends to be SVO, favoring full agreement over partial. Chinese is classified as an SVO language. Transitive verbs precede their objects in typical simple clauses, while the subject precedes the verb. Spanish unmarked word order for affirmative declarative sentences is SVO; however, as in other Romance languages, in practice, word order is mostly variable. English word order is almost exclusively SVO. Hindi is primarily an SOV language.

Based on the above information about the main source languages for Kalo, it is primarily an SVO (subject-verb-object) language. Modifiers generally follow what they modify, as do prepositional phrases and subordinate clauses.

wa toma - 1S eat - I eat. (SV)

wa amo ko - 1S love 3S - I love her. (SVO)

o koma amo - DO woman love - The woman is loved. (OV)

Conditionals

TBD

questions

The interrogative particle ma (taken from Chinese (嗎) is used in conjunction with various nouns, adverbs, and adjectives to form specific questions.

non-polar questions

ma - what; which
ma ko - who, whom
ma koyo - whose, of whom
ma tenpo - when

ma loka - where
ma moto - how
ma laka - how much, how many
ma sapa - why

polar questions

Any statement can become a polar question by adding the interrogative particle ma at the end of the sentence.

wa wite le kasa

1S see PST house

I saw the house.

ni wite le kasa ma

2S see PST house Q

Did you see the house?

Lexicon

Words in Kalo tend to function in multiple roles. The lexicon is arranged to include those roles within each entry. What follows is the working lexicon for Kalo.

ARA - Arabic
ELL - Greek
ENG - English
FRE - French
GER - German
HEB - Hebrew
HIN - Hindi

JPN - Japanese
KOR - Korean
PIE - Proto-Indo-European
SPA - Spanish
TUR - Turkish
ZHO - Mandarin

adj - adjective
n - noun
num - number/numeral
part - particle
prep - preposition
pro - pronoun
v - verb

a

amo (SPA amor) - v - like; love; adore | n - affection; adoration; love
asi (SPA así) - part - like this/that; as [such]; thus; so; therefore
awa (ARA أو) - part - either; or; other

aku (-ku) n / num hundred; 100; many; much; a lot ひゃく JPN ante prep / v before; in front; forward; ahead ante SPA ayo part whichever; whatever; something [INDEF] أي ARA

e

e (SPA/ZHO e/和) - part - and; also; too

i

ila (SPA إلى) - prep - to; toward; until; near | v - to move toward; go

k

kan or kana (ARA/HEB كان/כן) - v - be; exist; occur | n - existence | part - yes; thus

kisa (SPA quizá) - part - perhaps; maybe [also ki - if; kile - maybe 'it was']

kono (SPA conocer) - v - know; be aware of; understand; recognize | n - knowledge; awareness

kun (SPA con/跟) - prep - with; by; via | v - use; employ

l

m

maka (ENG make) - v - make; do; cause; happen | n - action; reason; event

me (FRE mais) - part - but; however; although

mente (SPA mente) - v - think; ponder; consider | n - thought; consideration; mind; mental state

n

nai (JPN 内) - prep - inside; within; during; central; middle; center [locative and temporal]

nesi (SPA necesitar) - v - need; require | n - necessity; a must

o

ola (SPA hola) - part - hello; goodbye | v - greet

p

po (SPA por/para) - prep - for; by; through; because | v - be about; move across

pote (SPA poder) - v - be able to; can | n - ability; capability

s

simi (ENG/SPA similar) - v - resemble; similar; like

t

te (SPA/ZHO de/的) - prep - of; from

tela or talo (PIE del) - v - talk; speak; discuss; say; tell | n - language; discussion; conversation

toma (SPA tomar) - v - eat; drink; ingest | n - eating; drinking

u

w

wan (ENG want) - v - want; desire; wish (for) | n - desire; want

y

yo (ZHO 有) - v - have; possess; hold
yu (ZHO 於) - prep - in; at; to; by; than; out of [strictly locative]

zzz

40 before (also as a conjunction) 41 after (also as a conjunction) 42 during 43 Question Words 44 45 who 46 what 47 where 48 when 49 why 50 how 51 how much 52 which 53 Adverbs 54 55 a lot 56 a little 57 well 58 badly 59 only 60 also 61 very 62 too (as in “too tall”) 63 too much 64 so (as in “so tall”) 65 so much 66 more (know how to say “more … than …”) 67 less (know how to say “less … than …”) 68 as … as … (e.g. “as tall as”) 69 most 70 least 71 better 72 best 73 worse 74 worst 75 now 76 then 77 here 78 there 79 maybe 80 always 81 usually 82 often 83 sometimes 84 never 85 today 86 yesterday 87 tomorrow 88 soon 89 almost 90 already 91 still 92 even 93 enough 94 Adjectives 95 96 the, a (technically articles) 97 this 98 that 99 good 100 bad 101 all 102 some 103 no 104 any 105 many 106 few 107 most 108 other 109 same 110 different 111 enough 112 one 113 two 114 a few 115 first 116 next 117 last (meaning “past”, e.g. “last Friday”) 118 last (meaning “final”) 119 easy 120 hard 121 early 122 late 123 important 124 interesting 125 fun 126 boring 127 beautiful 128 big 129 small 130 happy 131 sad 132 busy 133 excited 134 tired 135 ready 136 favorite 137 new 138 right (meaning “correct”) 139 wrong 140 true 141 Pronouns 142 143 I / me / my 144 145 I 146 you 147 she 148 he 149 it 150 we 151 you (plural) 152 they 153 Nouns 154 155 156 157 everything 158 something 159 nothing 160 everyone 161 someone 162 no one 163 (name of the language you’re studying) 164 English 165 thing 166 person 167 place 168 time (as in “a long time”) 169 time (as in “I did it 3 times”) 170 friend 171 woman 172 man 173 money 174 country 175 (name of your home country) 176 city 177 language 178 word 179 food 180 house 181 store 182 office 183 company 184 manager 185 coworker 186 job 187 work (as in “I have a lot of work to do”) 188 problem 189 question 190 idea 191 life 192 world 193 day 194 year 195 week 196 month 197 hour 198 mother, father, parent 199 daughter, son, child 200 wife, husband 201 girlfriend, boyfriend 202 More Verbs 203 204 work (as in a person working) 205 work (meaning “to function”, e.g. “the TV works”) 206 see 207 use 208 should 209 believe 210 practice 211 seem 212 come 213 leave 214 return 215 give 216 take 217 bring 218 look for 219 find 220 get (meaning “obtain”) 221 receive 222 buy 223 try 224 start 225 stop (doing something) 226 finish 227 continue 228 wake up 229 get up 230 eat 231 eat breakfast (in several languages, this is a verb) 232 eat lunch 233 eat dinner 234 happen 235 feel 236 create (aka “make”) 237 cause (aka “make”) 238 meet (meeting someone for the first time) 239 meet (meaning “to bump into”) 240 meet (an arranged meeting) 241 ask (a question) 242 ask for (aka “request”) 243 wonder 244 reply 245 mean 246 read 247 write 248 listen 249 hear 250 remember 251 forget 252 choose 253 decide 254 be born 255 die 256 kill 257 live 258 stay 259 change 260 help 261 send 262 study 263 improve 264 hope 265 care 266 Phrases 267 268 hello 269 goodbye 270 thank you 271 you’re welcome 272 excuse me (to get someone’s attention) 273 sorry 274 it’s fine (response to an apology) 275 please 276 yes 277 no 278 okay 279 My name is 280 What’s your name? 281 Nice to meet you. 282 How are you? 283 I’m doing well, how about you? 284 Sorry? / What? (if you didn’t hear something) 285 How do you say ______? 286 What does ______ mean? 287 I don’t understand. 288 Could you repeat that? 289 Could you speak more slowly, please? 290 Well (as in “well, I think…”) 291 Really? 292 I guess that 293 It’s hot. (talking about the weather) 294 It’s cold. (talking about the weather)

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