Okemola

Natively known as: oʊkɛmoʊlæ /oˌʊkɛˌmoʊˈlæ/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
ō mo ʻāu konī lo kana ō noimi ka ʻāu pepe hupō oune
Pronunciation: /oː mo ʔaːu̯ koˈniː lo kaˈna oː noi̯ˈmi ka ʔaːu̯ peˈpe huˈpoː ou̯ˈne/
Okemola word order: and he hat his holding stood and the wind to his face wet 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 after the noun.
Adposition: postpositions ?

Nouns

Nouns have three 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.

Nouns form plural with separate plural word:

Plural

Particle before the noun: i - i kakoi /i kaˈkoi̯/ dogs

Ergative	Suffix -ʔau̯ kakoiʻau /kakoi̯ˈʔau̯/ dog (doing a transitive verb)
Absolutive	No affix kakoi /kaˈkoi̯/ dog (doing an intransitive verb)
Genitive	Suffix -ʔeː kakoiʻē /kakoi̯ˈʔeː/ dogʼs

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive
1st singular	pāu /paːu̯/ I	pāi /paːi̯/ me	ae /ae̯/ mine
2nd singular	kou /kou̯/ you	mā /maː/ you	wau /ʋau̯/ yours
3rd singular masc	mo /mo/ he,	ʻō /ʔoː/ his,	hū /huː/ his,
3rd singular fem	hi /hi/ she,	kū /kuː/ her,	u /u/ hers,
3rd singular neuter	nē /neː/ it (neut)	le /le/ it (neut)	kao /kao̯/ its (neut)
1st plural	a /a/ we	ka /ka/ us	kau /kau̯/ ours
2nd plural	e /e/ you all	ai /ai̯/ you all	me /me/ yours (pl)
3rd plural masc	mi /mi/ they (masc)	hā /haː/ them (masc)	ō /oː/ theirs (masc)
3rd plural fem	lā /laː/ they (fem)	wa /ʋa/ them (fem)	ʻū /ʔuː/ theirs (fem)
3rd plural neuter	li /li/ they (neut)	nī /niː/ them (neut)	ʻu /ʔu/ theirs (neut)

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	ʻo /ʔo/ my
2nd singular	wae /ʋae̯/ your
3rd singular masc	ʻāu /ʔaːu̯/ his
3rd singular fem	ni /ni/ her
3rd singular neuter	ʻou /ʔou̯/ his, her, its (neut)
1st plural	lou /lou̯/ our
2nd plural	ki /ki/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	lū /luː/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	ma /ma/ their (fem)
3rd plural neuter	mao /mao̯/ their (neut)

Verbs

Present	Suffix -nai̯ hahaunai /hahau̯ˈnai̯/ learn
Past	No affix hahau /haˈhau̯/ learned
Remote past	Suffix -kaː hahaukā /hahau̯ˈkaː/ learned (long ago)

Okemola uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: kau̯ - kau hahau /kau̯ haˈhau̯/ will learn

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.
Okemola uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -ʔo hahauʻo /hahau̯ˈʔo/ have learned

Numbers

Okemola has a base-20 number system:
1 - ʻi
2 - kō
3 - i
4 - ʻa
5 - lau
6 - pā
7 - wa
8 - mē
9 - āu
10 - lū
11 - kou
12 - ena
13 - a
14 - ai
15 - wae
16 - pou
17 - pa
18 - keou
19 - ʻau
20 - wō
400 - keha
8000 - ne

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -no
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -pai̯
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -ʋai̯
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -pu
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ʋa
Noun to verb = Suffix -hu
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -hi
Tending to = Suffix -mae̯
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -kiː
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -neː
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -pae̯
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -keː
Diminutive = Suffix -nuː
Augmentative = Suffix -ne

International Phonetic Alphabet Reader

Dictionary

3047 Words.

Spoken by

• Okemola