Waku
Waku is a conlang created by Xing at the CBB.
Phonology
Consonants
/pʲ pˠ tʲ k/
/bʲ bˠ d g/
/mʲ mˠ nʲ ŋ/
/l r/
/j ɰ/
Vowels
/i u/
/e o/
/a/
Phonotactics and word-structure
Most roots are bisyllabic. They can have one of three shapes:
- CVːCV
- CVCːC
- CVCVː
Noun phrases
A singular referential noun may be preceded by the singulative article ta.
The article is not used when:
- The noun is plural.
- One does not now, or does not want to indicate how many things the word refers to.
- The noun is a mass noun, or refers to kind of quality rather that to specific entities.
Adjectives follow, and numerals precede the noun.
Verbs
Verbs in Waku are often preceded by a tense or aspect marker. There are two common tense/aspect markers:
- ko - indicates perfective aspect, and is used mainly to talk about events that occurred in the past.
- me – indicates imperfective aspect, and can be used to talk about events that have been occurring, or is occurring.
Non-derived mono-morphemic verbs are reduplicated to indicate plural (that the subject is plural).
'Me mota ta mwena' - "The man is sleeping."
'Me motamota mwena' - "The men are sleeping."
Some verbs are not reduplicated. Those include:
- Verbs that are made up of more than one morpheme.
- Verbs that are derived from nouns.
Syntax
The most neutral word order is VSO.
Ko teke a ta mwena ta luki. - "The man hit the dog."
PFV hit ERG SG man SG dog
Note that the subject in a transitive clause is preceded by the ergative marker a.
However, the word-order is often rearranged for various pragmatic effects. Often either the subject or the object is fronted, and placed before the verb. This typically involves some form of topicalisation, and usually presupposes that the fronted constituent is definite. Object fronting is very common, as is often preferred when the object is definite.
Ta luki ko teke a ta mwena. - "The man hit the dog", or maybe "the dog, the man hit (it)."
SG dog PFV hit ERG SG man
Subject fronting is also rather common, but perhaps not as common as object fronting.
Ta mwena ko teke ta luki. - "The man hit the dog", "the man hit a dog".
Not that the ergative particle a is not used when the subject comes before the verb.
Note that if there is an adverbial phrase - such as a locative or temporal determination - before the verb, no subject or object fronting can occur.
I ta nguru, ko teke a ta mwena ta luki. – "In the night, the man hit the dog."
It is as if there only is one slot before the verb - and if that slot is already taken by an adverbial phrase, no other constituent can take it.
