Koha

Location

Koha is the trade language of the Pacific nations of the Earth of the Eislehrenwelt, where Imperial Germany was the colonizing power and the moon, its icy surface shining brilliantly, illuminates the dalliances of servicemen and native women.

Phoneme Inventory

The phoneme inventory of Koha is small: /a, e, i, k, h, l, m, n, o, p, q, u, w/. /q/ represents the glottal stop {{[ʔ]}}. /w/ is pronounced {{[v]}}

Nouns

Koha nouns have gender, definiteness, and number.

Gender and Definiteness

There are two genders in Koha: masculine and feminine. The definite masculine article is /ka/; the definite feminine article is /ki/.

Ka Haka. The father.

Ki Muka. The mother.

The indefinite masculine article is /a/, while the indefinite feminine article is /ana/.

A Haka. A father.

Ana Muka. A mother.

The mother language of Koha, Tosa, possessed three cases (nominative, accusative, and prepositional) in addition to definiteness and gender, although not every combination received an individual form.

Definite Father – ta Fata (nom.), te Fata (acc./prep.) Mother – ti Muta (nom./acc.), ta Muta (prep.) Indefinite Father – a Fata (nom.), ana Fata (acc./prep.) Mother – ana Muta (nom./acc./prep.)

Number

Koha has only two numbers: singular and plural. The plural is indicated by placing /hi/ after the noun.

Ka Ho hi. The sons.

Ki Koka hi. The daughters.

There are some nouns, all feminine gender, which are inherently plural and therefore do not use the plural indicator /hi/. These include:

ki Eka – parents, elders ki Qeheweqa – siblings

Adjectives

Descriptive adjectives are placed between the article and the noun:

ka loka Waqa – the red car

ki hena Ta – the beautiful city

Predicate adjectives follow the copula /ha/

ka Waqa ha loka – the car is red

ki Ta ha hena – the city is beautiful

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Koha personal pronouns are as follows: I/me – mi you (sg) – ku he – i she – hi we – wi they – i hi

/i hi/ is used for both male and female. /ku/ is an unusual choice (one would have expected /ki/ given the origin of Tosa) but the choice seems to reflect a desire to avoid homophony of “thou” and “the (fem)”

Demonstrative Pronouns

There is one demonstrative pronoun is Koha: /kiha/.

Kiha Ma. This man.

Kiha Ha. This woman.

Kiha Qi hi. These children.

Interrogative Pronouns

wa – Who? What? we'e – Which? wo -Where? waha – When? (from Tosa /wa sa/ 'what time?') walo – Why? wi – How?