Kalo

See also: lexicon - thematic word-list - phrasebook

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 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 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.

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

writing

Kalo Hangul

If desired, an adaptation of Hangul may be used to write Kalo.

• ㄱ ㄴ ㄷ ㄹ ㅁ ㅂ ㅅ ㅇ

k n t l m p s -

• ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅘ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ

a ya e ye o wa yo u we wi yu - i

Examples

• 와로 너 고머 사

walo ne kome sa

1pl NEG eat FUT

We will not eat.

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 kome - 1S eat - I eat. (SV)

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

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

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?

Nouns

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

pronouns

kalo 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".

	singular	plural	possessive
1st person	wa I; me	walo we; us	wayo my; mine; our(s)
2nd person	ni you	nilo you (all)	niyo your(s)
3rd person	ko he; she; him; her; it	kolo they; them; those	koyo their(s)

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

• kolo ne kono 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, aspect, and mood

Past tense is indicated by the particle le (了) following the verb. Future tense is indicated by the particle sa (سَـ).

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	kisa	wa ila kisa	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.

positional verbs

Kalo does not use prepositions, but instead uses positional verbs as auxiliaries. These are also used as temporal adverbs in certain situations.

• yu - in; at; within; inside; during; between | from (于)
• ila - be toward; at; in the direction of; go; walk; travel | from (إلى)

Particles

determiners

Determiners in kalo precede the noun they modify.

deixis

• pu - this; these
• su - that; those

amount

• aku - many; much (one hundred)
• kula - all; every; each
• ne - no; none; zero
• saki - some; several; a few

• kali - less; fewer / few; a little
• lo - more

other-ness

• asi - such
• ayo - whichever; whatever
• oto - other
• tonye - same

Number

Kalo	number	English	Kalo	number	English
sunya	0	zero	na	7	seven
wa	1	one	pa	8	eight
li	2	two	nun	9	nine
san	3	three	ye	10	ten
si	4	four	aku / -ku	100	(one) hundred
pen	5	five	mila	1000	(one) thousand
we	6	six

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