User:Masako/Kalo
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 kome - 1S eat - I eat. (SV)
- wa amo ko - 1S love 3S - I love her. (SVO)
- o mala 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
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polar questions
Any statement can become a polar question by adding the interrogative particle ma at the end of the sentence.
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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.
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a
e
i
k
- v - be; exist; occur
- n - existence
- part - yes; thus
l
m
n
o
p
s
t
- toma (SPA tomar)
- v - eat; drink; ingest
- n - eating; drinking
