Kahehane*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: RUHANDIC
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:
DESCENDANT LANGUAGES:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: hē ril bʊ ū pol huɬ hē ū mīŋ lūpprittaɬ ho bog gʰʊq
Pronunciation: hē ril bʊ ū pol huɬ hē ū mīŋ lūpˈprittaɬ ho bog gʰʊq
Kahehane word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b bʰ d dʰ f g gʰ gʷ gʷʰ h j k kʷ l m n p q r s t v w ŋ ɟ ɬ ʁ ʂ ʐ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n			ŋ
Stop	p b bʰ		t d dʰ		ɟ	k kʷ g gʰ gʷ gʷʰ	q
Fricative		f v	s	ʂ ʐ			ʁ	h
Approximant					j
Trill			r
Lateral fricative			ɬ
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /a aa aː ā e eː ē i ii iː ī o oː ō u uu uː ū ə ɪ ʊ/
Diphthongs: aa, ii, uu

	Front	Central	Back
High	ī i iː		ū u uː
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	e ē eː		ō o oː
Mid		ə
Low	ā a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: No fixed stress
Word initial consonants: b, bʰ, d, dʰ, g, gʰ, gʷ, gʷʰ, h, k, kʷ, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w
Mid-word consonants: b, bl, br, bs, bt, d, dd, dkʷ, dm, dw, f, ff, g, gg, gm, gn, gr, h, k, kk, kkʷ, kr, ks, ksk, ksp, kspl, kssp, kst, kstr, kt, kʷ, l, lg, lk, ll, ln, lp, ls, lt, ltr, lw, m, mb, mkʷ, mm, mn, mp, mpl, mpr, mw, n, nd, nf, nfl, nfr, ng, ngr, nk, nkl, nkr, nkʷ, nl, nn, ns, nskr, nsp, nst, nstr, nt, ntr, nw, p, pl, pp, ppl, ppr, pr, ps, pt, r, rb, rd, rf, rg, rk, rkʷ, rm, rn, rp, rr, rs, rsp, rt, rw, s, sd, sk, skʷ, sm, sp, ss, st, stkʷ, str, t, tkʷ, tr, ts, tt, ttr, w
Word final consonants: g, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, s, t, v, ŋ, ɟ, ɬ, ʁ, ʂ, ʐ
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• s → f / h_r

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
kʷ	qu
ks	x
k	c
w	v
ː

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 two 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).

Ergative

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	Prefix ē- ēheptiblin /ˈēhepˌtiblin/	If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix gō- gōneg /ˈgōneg/
Plural	Prefix ū- ūheptiblin /ūˈheptiˌblin/	If starts with vowel: Prefix kʷ- Else: Prefix kʷa- quaneg /ˈkʷaneg/

Absolutive

	Animate	Inanimate
Singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix koː- coheptiblin /koːˈheptiˌblin/	Prefix ɪ- ɪneg /ˈɪneg/
Plural	Prefix eː- eheptiblin /ˈeːhepˌtiblin/	Prefix ī- īneg /īˈneg/

Articles

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	rii /rii/ the	gʰoɬ /gʰoːɬ/ a
Plural	vūg /wūg/ the	tū /tū/ some

Pronouns

	Ergative	Absolutive
1st singular	do /do/ I	ha /ha/ me, I
2nd singular	ga /gaː/ you	haaq /haaq/ you
3rd singular	ril /ril/ he, she, it	səp /səp/ him, her, it, he, she
1st plural inclusive	həv /həv/ we (including you)	lō /lō/ us, we (including you)
1st plural exclusive	gʊ /gʊ/ we (excluding you)	re /reː/ us, we (excluding you)
2nd plural	gʷʰi /gʷʰiː/ you all	luun /luun/ you all
3rd plural	sa /saː/ they	gʰu /gʰu/ them, they

Possessive determiners

1st singular	gʷʰi /gʷʰi/ my
2nd singular	gō /gō/ your
3rd singular	ū /ū/ his, her, its
1st plural inclusive	gʰu /gʰu/ our (including you)
1st plural exclusive	ne /ne/ our (excluding you)
2nd plural	nɪg /nɪg/ your (pl)
3rd plural	duŋ /duːŋ/ their

Verbs

	Present	Past
1st singular	Prefix ri- riuɟ /ˈriuɟ/ (I) learn	Prefix oː- ouɟ /ˈoːuɟ/ (I) learned
2nd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bu- buɟ /buɟ/ (you) learn	If starts with vowel: Prefix k- Else: Prefix ko- cuɟ /kuɟ/ (you) learned
3rd singular	If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix gū- guɟ /guɟ/ (he/she/it) learns	Prefix nē- nēuɟ /ˈnēuɟ/ (he/she/it) learned
1st plural inclusive	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bo- buɟ /buɟ/ (we) learn (including you)	If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix gaa- guɟ /guɟ/ (we) learned (including you)
1st plural exclusive	Prefix eː- euɟ /ˈeːuɟ/ (we) learn (excluding you)	If starts with vowel: Prefix gʰ- Else: Prefix gʰoː- gʰuɟ /gʰuɟ/ (we) learned (excluding you)
2nd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix ni- nuɟ /nuɟ/ (you all) learn	Prefix dō- dōuɟ /dōˈuɟ/ (you all) learned
3rd plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix go- guɟ /guɟ/ (they) learn	Prefix ə- əuɟ /ˈəuɟ/ (they) learned

Kahehane uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: gʰoːɬ - gʰoɬ uɟ /gʰoːɬ uɟ/ will learn

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

Progressive

Particle before the verb: gʰo - gʰo uɟ /gʰo uɟ/ 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).
Kahehane uses a standalone particle word for habitual:

Habitual

Particle before the verb: rii - rii uɟ /rii uɟ/ learns

Numbers

Kahehane has a base-10 number system:
1 - gaaʐ
2 - uɟ
3 - gu
4 - re
5 - heɟ
6 - ti
7 - o
8 - gi
9 - gə
10 - sav
11 - sav hē gaaʐ “ten and one”
100 - nɪnvɪlsʊ “hundred”
101 - nɪnvɪlsʊ gaaʐ “hundred one”
200 - uɟ nɪnvɪlsʊ
1000 - uq “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ti-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ā-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix do-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix wo-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix g- Else: Prefix ge-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix du-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bo-
Tending to = If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bā-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix heː-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix go-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix w- Else: Prefix woː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix kʷə-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix doː-
Augmentative = Prefix lū-

Dictionary

4431 Words.