Waa

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

Waais a constructed language.

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 diphthings 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]

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)

huno maka - a/the large dog(s)

Pronouns

mi I

yu you (singular)

kia he, she, it

miera we

yuera you (plural)

kiaera or kiakia they

A pronoun placed right after a noun can serve as a possessive pronoun:

katu mi - my cat

huno kia - her/his dog

Simple clauses

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

Katu sewa. The cat is sleeping

Mi kopa katu I'm buying the 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.

Nea can also introduce prepositional phrases as predicates:

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

Nea is optional when it comes to nominal predicates:

Kia tiatisu. - He is a teacher.

Kia nea tiatisu. - He is a teacher.

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

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

tebo i rumoitu - the table in the dining room

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

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

Kiwe buku i mi. - Give me the book.

Kiaera kou i paiboa. - They went to the village

The instrumental/ablative

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

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

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

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

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

Negations and questions

A clause is negated by ku:

Katu ku sewa. - The cat is not sleeping

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?

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

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

Kuye. Katu ku sewa.

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

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

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

Kuye. Katu kewa.' - Yes. The cat is sleeping.

Adjectives

Adjectives go after the words they modify:

Katu miti - a/the small cat

Huno maka - a/the large dog

Adjectives as predicates are optionally introduced by the copula nea:

Katu (nea) miti - The cat is 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.

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

There are a couple of ways to form comparisons. One can mark the standard to which something is compared with a:

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

Another way is to use two adjacent clauses:

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

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

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

Possession

The possessor is placed after the possessum:

katu mi - my cat

huno ota - (the) father's dog

katu ota mi my father's cat

Predicative possession

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

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

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.

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

Ways to indicate tense include explicit temporal adverbs:

Ina katu sewa. - Now the cat is sleeping.

Katu sewa ina. - The cat is sleeping now.

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

Deipasu mi kopa katu. - Yesterday I bought the 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'

Mi pasu kopa katu. - I bought a 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.'

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

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

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.

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

Relative clauses

Relative clauses are introduced with the particle ae:

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

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

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.

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

Prepositional stranding is not allowed:

*Mene ae mi kiwe katu i.

See also

Waa-English dictionary