Cioti/Kua-Toa

a language spoken by most Kua-Toa.

Natively known as: ciot /kio̯t/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
glax plunt coes pla plunt cos glax er plunt ned gaur quuis bes
Pronunciation: /glaːks plunt koe̯s pla plunt kos glaːks er plunt ned gau̯r kʷui̯s beːs/
Cioti word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d f g h k kʷ l m n p r s t w

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	k kʷ g
Fricative		f	s		h
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a ae̯ au̯ aː e ei̯ eu̯ eː i io̯ iu̯ iː o oe̯ oː u ui̯ uː
Diphthongs: ae̯ au̯ ei̯ eu̯ io̯ iu̯ oe̯ ui̯ ?

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable ?
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
kʷ	qu
ks	x
k	c
w	v
ː
̯

---

Grammar

Main word order: Subject Verb Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary opened the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions ?

Nouns

Singular	No affix qua /kʷaː/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix kʷ- Else: Prefix kʷiu̯- quiuqua /ˈkʷiu̯kʷaː/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	na /naː/ the	tra /tra/ a
Plural	grau /grau̯/ the	tre /tre/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific mass (uncountable) nouns: non-specific means ‘Would you like some (any) tea?’ whereas specific means ‘Some tea (a specific amount) fell off the truck’

Pronouns

1st singular	pa /paː/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	trau /trau̯/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	plunt /plunt/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	mui /mui̯/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	sun /sun/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	stio /stio̯/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ciu /kiu̯/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	pa /paː/ my
2nd singular	trau /trau̯/ your
3rd singular masc	plunt /plunt/ his
3rd singular fem	mui /mui̯/ her
1st plural	sun /sun/ our
2nd plural	stio /stio̯/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ciu /kiu̯/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix fub /fub/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix br- Else: Prefix bri- brifub /ˈbrifub/ learned
Remote past	If starts with vowel: Prefix fr- Else: Prefix frau̯- fraufub /ˈfrau̯fub/ learn (long ago)

Cioti uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: woe̯ - voe fub /woe̯ fub/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Cioti uses an affix for progressive:

Progressive

Prefix skae̯- scaefub /ˈskae̯fub/ is learning

Habitual aspect

The ‘habitual’ aspect refers to actions that happen habitually, such as I learn (something new every day), as opposed to actions that happen once (I learned something).
Cioti uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

If starts with vowel: Prefix ess- Else: Prefix esse- essefub /esˈsefub/ learns

Numbers

Cioti has a base-10 number system:
1 - vor
2 - grae
3 - pri
4 - triu
5 - vur
6 - fu
7 - lostrei
8 - pra
9 - mu
10 - te
100 - vet
1000 - clions

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix froː-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix uː-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix kʷ-
Else: Prefix kʷi-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix m-
Else: Prefix mu-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix art-
Else: Prefix artaː-
Noun to verb = Prefix oe̯-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix bri-
Tending to = Prefix oe̯-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pu-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If starts with vowel: Prefix f-
Else: Prefix fu-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix tr-
Else: Prefix trei̯-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ae̯-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix pr-
Else: Prefix pro-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix tr-
Else: Prefix tru-

Dictionary

3050 Words.

Spoken by

• Kua-Toa