Oni Language

Natively known as: gikheyu /giˈχeju/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
su yo heku r̀e hinowo qine su r̀e reda tsaʻiye yotu dade r̀o
Pronunciation: /su jo ˈheku ɾe hiˈnowo ˈqine su ɾe ˈreda ʦaˈʔije ˈjotu ˈdade ɾo/
Gikheyuian word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b d g h j k l n p q r s t w ŋ ɢ ɾ ʃ ʔ ʦ χ

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		n			ŋ
Stop	p b	t d			k g	q ɢ	ʔ
Affricate		ʦ
Fricative		s	ʃ			χ	h
Approximant				j
Tap		ɾ
Trill		r
Lateral approximant		l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u

	Front	Back
High	i	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllable structure: (C)V
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ɾ	r̀
j	y
ʃ	sh
ŋ	ng
ɢ	g̀
ʦ	ts
χ	kh
ʔ	ʻ

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Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have six cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man is in town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: ɢe - g̀e yeto /ɢe ˈjeto/ dogs

Ergative	Suffix -je yetoye /jeˈtoje/ dog (doing a transitive verb)
Absolutive	No affix yeto /ˈjeto/ dog (doing an intransitive verb)
Genitive	Suffix -di yetodi /jeˈtodi/ dogʼs
Dative	Suffix -be yetobe /jeˈtobe/ to dog
Locative	Suffix -ro yetoro /jeˈtoro/ near/at/by dog
Ablative	Suffix -nu yetonu /jeˈtonu/ from dog

Definite	No affix yeto /ˈjeto/ the dog
Indefinite	Suffix -ni yetoni /jeˈtoni/ a/some dog

Articles

Gikheyuian encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative	Locative	Ablative
1st singular	ka /ka/ I	ha /ha/ me	lu /lu/ mine	tse /ʦe/ to me	e /e/ to me	ri /ri/ from me
2nd singular	r̀i /ɾi/ you	yu /ju/ you	sa /sa/ yours	ra /ra/ to you	si /si/ to you	di /di/ from you
3rd singular masc	yo /jo/ he, it (masc)	qo /qo/ his, it (masc)	ko /ko/ his, its (masc)	su /su/ to his, to it (masc)	hi /hi/ to his, to it (masc)	do /do/ from his, from it (masc)
3rd singular fem	la /la/ she, it (fem)	tso /ʦo/ her, it (fem)	g̀e /ɢe/ hers, its (fem)	li /li/ to her, to it (fem)	g̀o /ɢo/ to her, to it (fem)	r̀o /ɾo/ from her, from it (fem)
1st plural	o /o/ we	gi /gi/ us	ke /ke/ ours	r̀e /ɾe/ to us	g̀u /ɢu/ to us	r̀u /ɾu/ from us
2nd plural	tsa /ʦa/ you all	ru /ru/ you all	ku /ku/ yours (pl)	go /go/ to you all	lo /lo/ to you all	gu /gu/ from you all
3rd plural	ho /ho/ they	qi /qi/ them	ye /je/ theirs	tsu /ʦu/ to them	i /i/ to them	yi /ji/ from them

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	r̀i /ɾi/ my
2nd singular	u /u/ your
3rd singular masc	r̀e /ɾe/ his
3rd singular fem	gi /gi/ her
1st plural	g̀o /ɢo/ our
2nd plural	su /su/ your (pl)
3rd plural	qi /qi/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix rone /ˈrone/ learn
Past	Suffix -χu ronekhu /roˈneχu/ learned
Remote past	Suffix -qa roneqa /roˈneqa/ learn (long ago)
Future	Suffix -ji roneyi /roˈneji/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Gikheyuian uses an affix for imperfective:

Imperfective

Suffix -ha roneha /roˈneha/ learns/is learning

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.
Gikheyuian uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -do ronedo /roˈnedo/ have learned

Numbers

Gikheyuian has a base-10 number system:
1 - du
2 - g̀u
3 - ro
4 - li
5 - gu
6 - r̀e
7 - se
8 - do
9 - hokhana
10 - gari
11 - g̀ayi
12 - qu
13 - gi
14 - yagi
15 - ho
16 - roguge
17 - tsu
18 - le
19 - siba
20 - qagu
100 - kure
1000 - dug̀i

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -go
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ja
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -pi
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -do
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -pi
Noun to verb = Suffix -ju
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -wa
Tending to = Suffix -je
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ni
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ŋo
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ha
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ha
Diminutive = Suffix -pi
Augmentative = Suffix -bo

Dictionary

286 Words.

Successor Languages

• Blue Oni Dialect
• Red Oni Dialect

Spoken by

• Blue Oni
• Red Oni