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 diphthongs 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

Demonstrative pronouns are forms with the third person pronouns, together with the deictic adverbs nei 'here' and naa 'there'_

kia nei - this one

3s PROX

kia naa - that one

3s DIST

kiaera nei - these ones

3:PL PROX

kiaera naa - those ones

3:PL DIST

The pronouns sese can render a reflexive or reciprocal meaning:

Kia luku i sese - He looked at himself.

3s look DAT REFL

Kiaera luku i sese - They looked at themselves. Or: They looked at each other.

3:PL look DAT REFL

3:PL look DAT RECP

Simple clauses

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

Katu sewa. The cat is sleeping

cat sleep

Mi kopa katu I'm buying the cat

1 buy 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.

cat white cat be white

Nea can also introduce prepositional phrases as predicates:

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

cat be LOC table

Nea is optional when it comes to nominal predicates:

Kia tiatisu. - He is a teacher.

3s person:teach

Kia nea tiatisu. - He is a teacher.

3s be person:teach

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

cat LOC table

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

room LOC house

tebo i rumoitu - the table in the dining room

table LOC room:eat

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

table be LOC room:eat

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

put milk DAT box:cool

Kiwe buku i mi. - Give me the book.

give book DAT 1s

Kiaera kou i paiboa. - They went to the village

1:PL go DAT place:live

The instrumental/ablative

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

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

3s come ABL place:live

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

3 cause:dead cat INSTR tool:cut

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

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

dog be big ABL cat

Passives

The copula nea might be used to render a passive meaning. An optional agent may be introduced by the preposition a.

Katu nea kopa. - The cat is/was/has been bought

cat be buy

Katu nea kopa a mi. - The cat is/was/has been bought by me.

cat be buy INSTR 1s

Musu nea itu. - The mouse is/was/has been eaten.

mouse be eat

Musu nea itu a katu. - The mouse is/was/has been eaten by the cat.

mouse be eat INSTR cat

Negations and questions

A clause is negated by ku:

Katu ku sewa. - The cat is not sleeping

cat NEG sleep

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?

cat sleep

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

agree cat sleep

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

NEG cat NEG sleep

Kuye. Katu ku sewa.

NEG:agree cat NEG sleep

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

cat NEG sleep

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

agree cat NEG sleep

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

NEG cat sleep

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

NEG.agree cat sleep

Ku can also be used with adjectives or nouns:

ku bono - no good, not good

NEG good

ku katu - no cat(s)

NEG cat

ku mene - no one, nobody (lit. 'no person')

NEG person

Adjectives

Adjectives go after the words they modify:

Katu miti - a/the small cat

cat small

Huno maka - a/the large dog

dog large

Adjectives as predicates are optionally introduced by the copula nea:

Katu (nea) miti - The cat is small.

cat (be) 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.

cat small 1s

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

cat small DEM.DIST

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.')

cat be small ABL 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.')

cat be small dog be large

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

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

cat be large dog

Possession

The possessor is placed after the possessum:

katu mi - my cat

cat 1s

huno ota - (the) father's dog

dog father

katu ota mi my father's cat

cat father 1s

Predicative possession

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

cat that be cat 1s

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

be cat 1s

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.

cat eat mouse

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

cat sleep

Ways to indicate tense include explicit temporal adverbs:

Ina katu sewa. - Now the cat is sleeping.

now cat sleep

Katu sewa ina. - The cat is sleeping now.

cat sleep now

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

day:this 1s buy cat

Deipasu mi kopa katu. - Yesterday I bought the cat.

day.past 1s buy 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'

cat past sleep

Mi pasu kopa katu. - I bought a cat.

1s past buy 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.'

1s already buy cat

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

cat already sleep

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

cat NEG already sleep

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.

1s PST buy cat

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

1s NEG PST buy cat

Relative clauses

Relative clauses are introduced with the particle ae:

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

man REL buy cat

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

cat REL 3s buy

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.

tool:cut REL 3s cause:dead cat INSTR 3s

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

man REL 1s give cat DAT 3s

Prepositional stranding is not allowed:

*Mane ae mi kiwe katu i.

man REL 1s give cat DAT

The prefix ke-

The prefix ke- has a couple of functions. It can be added to verbs, to form nouns indicating what would typically be the object (result or patient) of the event described by the verb:

ke + itu ('to eat') -> keitu - food

ke + rita ('to write') -> kerita - letter, (piece of) writing.

ke + rima ('to dream') -> kerima - dream

Sometimes it can serve as an adjective, indicating something like the passive participle in English:

ke + pana ('to fry') -> mitu kepana - fried meat

ke + ope ('to open') -> kapi keope - an opened box

It can be attached to adjectives to form abstract nouns:

ke + biu (beautiful, good-looking) -> kebiu - beauty (in the sense of an abstract quality, rather than 'a beautiful person', which would be tiabiu or tiaoka biu)

See also

Waa-English dictionary