Oealu
Oealu oʊ.i'a.lu is a constructed international auxiliary language created by American linguist Cameron White in 2010. His goal being to merge the Hawaiian and Baltic-Finnic phonological systems with the grammar of the greater Uralic and Japanese languages.
Linguistic properties
Classification
As a constructed language, Oealu is not genealogically related to any ethnic language group. However, it does posses a great number of grammatical cases for which the Uralic language family is known. Typologically, Oealu has few prepositions and a strict word order of subject-verb-object. Adjectives are placed before or after the nouns they modify, connected by the particle "no", a feature of |Japanese.
Orthography
Oealu is written with a modified version of the Latin alphabet, including six letters with diacritics: å, ǩ, ļ, ƶ, and ǯ.The alphabet does not include the letters b, c, f, g, q, w, x or z.
The 28-letter alphabet is:
All letters are pronounced as in the IPA, with the exception of the letters with diacritics:
| Letter | å | ǩ | ļ | ƶ | ǯ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | ɔ | kj | ʎ | ʑ | dʒ |
Phonology
Oealu has 17 consonants and 6 vowels that can combine to form 9 diphthongs. Tone is not used to distinguish meanings of words. Stress falls on the penultimate vowel in 3-or-more-syllabled words and on the first syllable for disyllabic words. For example, jauva "family" is ['jau.va], with the stress on the au, but jadouʒa "dog" is [ja'dou.ʒa].
Consonants
The 22 consonants are:
| Bilabial | Labio-dental | Alveolar | Post-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||||
| [Plosive | p | t | d | k kj | ||||||||||
| Affricate | dʒ | |||||||||||||
| Fricative | v | s | ʒ | ʑ | h | |||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||
| Approximant | l | ʎ j | ||||||||||||
Consonant clusters of quantities of up to two can occur, such as in jårvi "you eat" or koiski "two". Final clusters, however, are not permitted (English cent, board, sips).
Vowels
Oealu has the five cardinal vowels found in such languages as Japanese, Zulu, and Spanish plus the close front rounded vowel and open-mid back rounded vowel found in northern European languages such as Swedish and Danish:
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i y | u |
| Mid | e | o |
| Open | ɔ | a |
There are also nine diphthongs, [ai], [au], [ɔi],[ɔu], [ei], [oi] [ou], [uo], and [yo] which are written respectively as ai, au, åi, åu, ei, oi, ou, uo, yo .
Grammar
Nouns
Oealu nouns decline for 13 singular and plural cases although some may argue that the actual number is 12 because the Allative an Illative cases decline the same way. The case endings are borrowed from Finnish and Hawaiian.
| Declension of nouns | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | ||||||||||||||
| Number | Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Illative/Allative | Inessive | Elative | Adessive | Ablative | Supressive | Subessive | Essive | Comitative | ||
| Singular | -a | -å | -asa | -alta | -alu | -ahu | -ala | -ara | -uva | -una | -aʒa | -uo | ||
| Plural | -an | -ån | -asan | -altan | -alau | -ahau | -alan | -arva | -avu | -anu | -aʒan | -aui | ||
Verbs
Oealu has a fairly simple verb inflection system in which verbs inflect for person, tense, and mood. Conjugations by person can be observed in this table:
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| -o | -u |
| -i | |
| -a | -an |
Oealu has 6 tenses, present, present perfect, past, past perfect, future, and future perfect. To conjugate with these tenses, simply add the following suffixes for the 6 tenses to the prsonal ending, respectively: "- , -ma, -ǯa, -na, -lka, and -da". Verbs can be made passive by placing the word Syla before the verb, or negative by placing Nyt before it. So, in full conjugation, marahei "to see" would become Syla nyt marahada "He will not have seen".
Personal pronouns
Oealu pronouns inflect for case. This table shows all of the forms of Oealu personal pronouns.
| Declension of pronouns | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Case | ||||||||||||||
| Pronoun | Nominative | Accusative | Genitive | Illative/Allative | Inessive | Elative | Adessive | Ablative | Supressive | Subessive | Essive | Comitative | ||
| 1st Person Singular | pa | på | pasa | palta | palu | pahu | pala | para | puva | puna | paʒa | puo | ||
| 2nd Person Singular | sa | så | sasa | salta | salu | sahu | sala | sara | suva | suna | saʒa | suo | ||
| 3rd Person Singular | ma | må | masa | malta | malu | mahu | mala | mara | muva | muna | maʒa | muo | ||
| 1st Person Plural | nan | nån | nasan | naltan | nalau | nahau | nalan | narva | navu | nanu | naʒan | naui | ||
| 2nd Person Plural | tan | tån | tasan | taltan | talau | tahau | talan | tarva | tavu | tanu | taʒan | taui | ||
| 3rd Person Plural | han | hån | hasan | haltan | halau | hahau | halan | harva | havu | hanu | haʒan | haui | ||
Adjectives
As previously stated, Oealu adjectives are placed before the noun which they modify and joined to it by a particle. That particle is "no" for positive adjectives, "ǩa" for comparative, and "lo" for superlative. Adverbs can be made by joining the corresponding adjective with one of the above particles before the verb.
Interrogative Pronouns
The seven Oealu interrogative pronouns are as follows.
| English | Oealu |
|---|---|
| Who? | Koi? |
| What? | Kau? |
| Where? | Kåina? |
| When? | Kuo? |
| Why? | Kaʒ |
| How? | Kaǯ? |
| How Many? | Kei? |
Useful phrases
| English | Oealu |
|---|---|
| Hello | Alua |
| Yes | Ƶa |
| No | Nou |
| Good morning | Eiki no uomoka |
| Good evening | Eiki no pauva |
| Good night | Eiki no jausa |
| Goodbye | Alua Oi |
| What is your name? | Kau ola tuova sasa? |
| My name is John | Tuova pasa ola Jono |
| How are you? | Kaǯ oli? |
| Do you speak Oealu? | Syovi Oialu? |
| I don't understand you | Nyt ǯuoko så |
| All right/Ok | Eiki |
| Thank you | Teinu |
| You're welcome | Oli voiri |
| Please? | Maļuo? |
| Gesundheit! | Jesas! |
| Congratulations | Savarpuo |
| I love you | Ƶudo så |
| One beer, please | Ykasi no bira, maļuo |
| What is that? | Kau kas ola? |
| That is a dog | Kas ola piǩaha |
| Peace! | Malauna! |
Numerals
The Oealu number system is based on that of the Baltic-Finnic group of languages. So there is a suffix for the equivalent of the English "-teen".This table shows the other similarities also occur.
| Numeral | English | Oealu | Finnish | Estonian |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | zero | noula | nolla | - |
| 1 | two | ykasa | yksi | üks |
| 2 | two | kasa | kaksi | kaks |
| 3 | three | koluma | kolme | kolm |
| 4 | four | neļa | neljä | neli |
| 5 | five | veisa | viisi | viis |
| 6 | six | kuoƶa | kuusi | kuus |
| 7 | seven | seisama | seitsemän | seitse |
| 8 | eight | kadeksa | kahdeksän | kaheksa |
| 9 | nine | ydeksa | yhdeksän | üheksa |
| 10 | ten | poia | kymmenen | kümme |
11-19 are formed by adding "-taisa" to the numeral (ykasataisa, kasataisa, kolumataisa, etc.)Numbers 20-90 are formed by adding "-poian" (kasapoian, kolumapoian, neļapoian, etc.) Numerals can qualify nouns by dropping the final -a, adding an -i and joining it before the noun qualified with the particle "no". Some more examples are listed here:
| English | Oealu |
|---|---|
| 51 | Veisapoian-ykas |
| 100 | Raha |
| 1,000 | Hisuona |
| 10,000 | Poiahisuonan |
| 100,000 | Rahahisuona |
| 1,000,000 | Miļuona |
| Three dogs | Kolumi no piǩahan |
| 15 brothers?! | Veisataisi no påsavan |
Sample text
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Låpås huoman syla mausanma hausi va sǩupi maremaʒa va keitaʒan. Syla kakouvanma sauvanuo va hjumaluo va huoskan mekei huomaltan påsavaʒa.
