Kalama

See also:

• etymology
• lexicon
• phrases

Introduction

Kalama is intended to be a minimalist artlang, not an auxlang. It draws 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.

Phonology

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

consonants

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

vowels

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.

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, kalama 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.

Writing

For compactness, simplicity, and aesthetics, Hangul can be used to write Kalama

	a	e	i	o	u
k	가	거	기	고	구
l	라	러	리	로	루
m	마	머	미	모	무
n	나	너	니	노	누
p	바	버	비	보	부
s	사	서	시	소	수
t	다	더	디	도	두
w	와	워	위	-	-
y	야	여	-	요	유
-	아	어	이	오	우

Word Order

Kalama is an SVO (subject-verb-object) language. Modifiers generally follow what they modify, as do prepositional phrases and subordinate clauses.

• kani ata nano - dog bite man - The dog bites the man.

However, word order can be free with the use of particles.

• o nano kani ata - DO man dog bite - The dog bites the man.

Determiners precede the noun they modify.

• su kani ata nano - that dog bite man - That dog bites the man.

Prepositional phrases...

Nouns

Nouns only decline for number and possession. They are altered with -lo to show plurality, and possessiveness with -yo.

Determiners

Determiners in kalama precede the noun they modify.

• kula - all; every; each
• pu - this; these
• su - that; those
• ayo - whichever; whatever
• saki - some; several; a few
• ne - no; none; zero

• aku - many; much (one hundred)
• malu - few; a little
• lo - more
• kali - less; fewer
• oto - other
• tonye - same
• asi - such

Pronouns

kalama has three basic pronouns; wa [1sg], ni [2sg], and ko [3sg]. These do not indicate gender. These can be made plural using the suffix "-lo", and possessive with "-yo".

• walo wite ni - 1pl see 2s - We see you.

• kolo ne sapa wa - 3pl NEG know 1s - They don't know me.

Verbs

Verbs do not change and are only ever modified by particles.

• maka - do; make; cause (from make)
• yo - possess; have; hold (from 有)

Tense

Past tense is indicated by the particle le following the verb. Future tense is indicated by the particle sa.

tense/mood	particle	example	translation
present	-	wa ila	I go
past	le	wa ila le	I went
future	sa	wa ila sa	I will go
conditional	yosi	wa ila yosi	I would go

• ko ne kome le - 3sg NEG eat PST - He didn't eat.

• walo wite sa ko - 1pl see FUT 3sg - We will see her.

Questions

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

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

• ma tenpo - when
• ma loka - where
• ma moto - how
• ma - how much, how many
• ma - why

Number

• sunya - num - zero; nothing - (शून्य)
• wa - num - one; single; alone - (وَاحِد)
• li - num - two; double; duo - (两)
• san - num - three; triple - (三)
• si - num - four - (四)
• pen - num - five - (πέντε)
• we - num - six - (swéḱs)
• na - num - seven - (なな)
• pa - num - eight - (八)
• nun - num - nine - (h₁néwn̥)
• ye - num - ten - (열)
• aku / ku - num - hundred - (ひゃく)
• mila - num - thousand - (mil)

When numbers one through ten occur independently, the indicator "ke" precedes the number.

• ko yo le o kasa ke li

3s have PST O house NUM two

She had two houses.

• wa wite o nano ke si

1s see O man NUM four

I see four men.

Higher Numbers

• yewa - 11; eleven
• yeli - 12; twelve
• liye - 20; twenty
• liyesi - 24; twenty-four
• kuyeli - 112; one-hundred-twelve
• sankuweyepen - 365; three-hundred-sixty-five