Hvara Mai

Natively known as: māi /maːi̯/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
hū pu lōnū inū nae mīhi hū ʻe nae mahē welā nau ʻoiku
Pronunciation: /huː pu ˈloːnuː ˈinuː nae̯ ˈmiːhi huː ʔe nae̯ ˈmaheː ˈʋelaː nau̯ ˈʔoi̯ku/
Hvara word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

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: Penultimate — stress is on the second 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 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 haola /ˈhao̯la/ dog
Plural	Suffix -ʔi haolaʻi /hao̯ˈlaʔi/ dogs

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	pou /pou̯/ the	kī /kiː/ a
Plural	he /he/ the	la /la/ some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Not used for mass (uncountable) nouns: ‘Walking in the mud’ would always translate to ‘Walking in mud’.
• Used for personal names in third person: ‘The Maria has left for school’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

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	wa /ʋa/ I, me, mine
2nd singular	hō /hoː/ you, yours
3rd singular masc	pu /pu/ he, him, his, it (masc), its (masc)
3rd singular fem	lo /lo/ she, her, hers, it (fem), its (fem)
1st plural	hoi /hoi̯/ we, us, ours
2nd plural	ko /ko/ you all, yours (pl)
3rd plural	ʻo /ʔo/ they, them, theirs

Possessive determiners

	Possessive
1st singular	wo /ʋo/ my
2nd singular	mo /mo/ your
3rd singular masc	nae /nae̯/ his
3rd singular fem	lo /lo/ her
1st plural	ʻoi /ʔoi̯/ our
2nd plural	po /po/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ā /aː/ their

Verbs

Hvara uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: huː - hū aema /huː ˈae̯ma/ learned

Hvara uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: ae̯ - ae aema /ae̯ ˈae̯ma/ will learn

Progressive aspect

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: o - o aema /o ˈae̯ma/ 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).
Hvara uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: ʋo - wo aema /ʋo ˈae̯ma/ learns

Numbers

Hvara has a base-10 number system:
1 - pa
2 - pi
3 - moi
4 - ae
5 - ki
6 - ō
7 - hu
8 - mu
9 - li
10 - la
100 - koki
1000 - wane

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -naːi̯
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -kuː
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -na
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -ʔa
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ki
Noun to verb = Suffix -na
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -maːu̯
Tending to = Suffix -ho
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -ko
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -ʔu
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -pao̯
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -hoː
Diminutive = Suffix -nou̯
Augmentative = Suffix -ʋi

Dictionary

3020 Words.