The Language of Waukoian

Natively known as: Wauko /ˈʋauko/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
woi i kao nai ʻaekāinē waepō woi kā liʻoulāi nau nai ʻūnae lāuwē
Pronunciation: /ʋoi i kao nai ʔaeˈkaːineː ˈʋaepoː ʋoi kaː liˈʔoulaːi nau nai ˈʔuːnae ˈlaːuʋeː/
Waukoian word order: and he holding his hat stood and to the wind turned his wet face

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 ae ai ao au aː aːi aːu e eː i iː o oi ou oː u uː/

Diphthongs: ae, ai, ao, au, aːi, aːu, oi, ou

	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
Word initial consonants: h, k, l, m, n, p, ʋ, ʔ
Mid-word consonants: h, k, l, m, n, p, ʋ, ʔ
Word final consonants: N/A
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• N → n / _#
• p → b / m_
• p → b / V_V

Spelling rules:

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

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject-Oblique-Verb-Object. "Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Mary with a key opened the door.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions

Noun

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	No affix huhā /ˈhuhaː/	Suffix -pa huhāpa /huˈhaːpa/
Feminine	No affix huhā /ˈhuhaː/	Suffix -ʔoː huhāʻō /huˈhaːʔoː/
Neuter	No affix huhā /ˈhuhaː/	Suffix -ʋou huhāwou /huˈhaːʋou/

Articles

Waukoian has no definite article ‘the’, or indefinite article ‘a’.

Pronouns

1st singular	wou /ʋou/ I, me
2nd singular	mū /muː/ you
3rd singular masc	i /i/ he, him, it
3rd singular fem	hāi /haːi/ she, her, it
1st plural inclusive	pau /pau/ we, us (including you)
1st plural exclusive	mai /mai/ we, us (excluding you)
2nd plural	no /no/ you (all)
3rd plural masc	ā /aː/ they, them (masculine)
3rd plural fem	wao /ʋao/ they, them (feminine)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	o /o/ my
2nd singular	ha /ha/ your
3rd singular masc	nai /nai/ his, its
3rd singular fem	ni /ni/ her, its
1st plural inclusive	wō /ʋoː/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	nā /naː/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	mō /moː/ your
3rd plural masc	kō /koː/ their (masculine)
3rd plural fem	hu /hu/ their (feminine)

Verbs

Present	No affix kuhe /ˈkuhe/
Past	Suffix -ʔou kuheʻou /kuˈheʔou/
Remote past	Suffix -ʔoi kuheʻoi /kuˈheʔoi/
Future	Suffix -mao kuhemao /kuˈhemao/

Perfect aspect

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.
In Waukoian, the perfect is constructed with an affix

Perfect

Suffix -ʋaːu kuhewāu /kuˈheʋaːu/

Numbers

Waukoian has a base-10 number system:

1 - wī
2 - hāuni
3 - mau
4 - pē
5 - ma
6 - ʻē
7 - hou
8 - le
9 - kai
10 - wāumīlī
11 - wāumīlīwī “ten-one”
100 - wī iʻai “one hundred”
101 - wī iʻai wī “one hundred one”
200 - hāuni iʻai
1000 - wī luʻouhī “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -neː
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ʔaːi
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ko
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ʋoi
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -liː
Noun → verb (to create [noun]) = Suffix -mau
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -kaː
Verb → adjective (likely to do [verb]) = Suffix -ku
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ki
Verb → noun that verb physically produces (e.g. build → building) = Suffix -naːi
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -mou
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -pu
Diminutive = Suffix -maːu
Augmentative = Suffix -meː