Pūhan/Triton

a language spoken by most tritons.

Natively known as: pūha /puːˈha/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ʻae ku pō nimo wau mēhu ʻae woʻa ko pō kaela ūmi lau
Pronunciation: /ʔae̯ ku poː niˈmo ʋau̯ meːˈhu ʔae̯ ʋoˈʔa ko poː kae̯ˈla uːˈmi lau̯/
Pūhan word order: and he his hat holding stood and the wind to his wet face turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: h k l m n p ʋ ʔ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p			k	ʔ
Fricative					h
Approximant		ʋ
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: a ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ aː aːi̯ aːu̯ e eː i iː o oi̯ ou̯ oː u uː
Diphthongs: ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ aːi̯ aːu̯ oi̯ ou̯ ?

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

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

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʋ	w
ʔ	ʻ
aː	ā
eː	ē
iː	ī
oː	ō
uː	ū
̯

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have three cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.

Nominative	No affix ounāi /ou̯ˈnaːi̯/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Prefix lao̯- laoounāi /lao̯ou̯ˈnaːi̯/ (verb done to) dog
Genitive	Prefix hae̯- haeounāi /hae̯ou̯ˈnaːi̯/ dogʼs

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix maihu /mai̯ˈhu/ boy	No affix ʻaekō /ʔae̯ˈkoː/ girl
Plural	Prefix he- hemaihu /hemai̯ˈhu/ boys	Prefix ʔaːu̯- ʻāuʻaekō /ʔaːu̯ʔae̯ˈkoː/ girls

Articles

Definite	hau /hau̯/ the
Indefinite	ō /oː/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’
• 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

	Nominative	Accusative	Genitive
1st singular	hou /hou̯/ I	ke /ke/ me	pa /pa/ mine
2nd singular	ha /ha/ you	mi /mi/ you	moi /moi̯/ yours
3rd singular masc	ku /ku/ he, it (masc)	pau /pau̯/ his, it (masc)	hi /hi/ his, its (masc)
3rd singular fem	i /i/ she, it (fem)	hē /heː/ her, it (fem)	hau /hau̯/ hers, its (fem)
1st plural	nau /nau̯/ we	na /na/ us	lē /leː/ ours
2nd plural	kū /kuː/ you all	hao /hao̯/ you all	pā /paː/ yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	mā /maː/ they (masc)	wo /ʋo/ them (masc)	wi /ʋi/ theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	kāu /kaːu̯/ they (fem)	wau /ʋau̯/ them (fem)	nō /noː/ theirs (fem)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	mo /mo/ my
2nd singular	a /a/ your
3rd singular masc	pō /poː/ his
3rd singular fem	hō /hoː/ her
1st plural	ʻi /ʔi/ our
2nd plural	kāu /kaːu̯/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	na /na/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	lu /lu/ their (fem)

Verbs

Present	No affix mīkae /miːˈkae̯/ learn
Past	Prefix ʔau̯- ʻaumīkae /ʔau̯miːˈkae̯/ learned
Remote past	Prefix paː- pāmīkae /paːmiːˈkae̯/ learn (long ago)
Future	Prefix nu- numīkae /numiːˈkae̯/ will learn

Progressive aspect

The ‘progressive’ aspect refers to actions that are happening at the time of speaking, such as I am learning.
Pūhan uses a standalone particle word for progressive:

Progressive

Particle before the verb: kaːi̯ - kāi mīkae /kaːi̯ miːˈkae̯/ 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).
Pūhan uses an affix for habitual:

Habitual

Prefix he- hemīkae /hemiːˈkae̯/ learns

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Pūhan uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Reduplicate last part of last syllable mīkaeae /miːkae̯ˈae̯/ have learned

Numbers

Pūhan has a base-20 number system:
1 - lāi
2 - hai
3 - pou
4 - ē
5 - pau
6 - ʻī
7 - mai
8 - lā
9 - wai
10 - hāu
11 - mi
12 - koi
13 - ne
14 - kipāi
15 - ʻē
16 - nae
17 - na
18 - kā
19 - āu
20 - haiʻa
400 - kūku
8000 - kola

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix kaː-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ʋi-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix laːu̯-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix ʔi-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix haːi̯-
Noun to verb = Prefix haːu̯-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix kiː-
Tending to = Prefix naː-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix leː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix koː-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ʋa-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix li-
Diminutive = Prefix kau̯-
Augmentative = Prefix ʔao̯-

Dictionary

3046 Words.

Spoken by

• Triton