Oas*

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ALABAG
PERIOD OF USE:
SCRIPT USED:
PARENT LANGUAGE:

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"...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."
Translation: kabevum se a polqa pa gon kabevum a zosenlar zequmion osuwiq quos soapwi
Pronunciation: kaˈbevum se a ˈpolqa pa gon kaˈbevum a zoˈsenlar ˌzequˈmion oˈsuwiq ˈquos soˈapwi
Oas word order: and he his hat holding stood and his wet face the wind to turned

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b g k l m n p q r s v w/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b			k g	q
Fricative		v	s
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: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable

Phonological changes (in order of application):

• l → ∅ / _{m,s,k}
• l → h / _k
• b → ∅ / m_l
• n → ∅ / _s
• p → f / V_
• p → b / m_

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling

Grammar

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

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix zeismel /zeˈismel/ dog (doing the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -og zeismelog /ˌzeisˈmelog/ (verb done to) dog

	Masculine	Feminine
Singular	No affix beniq /ˈbeniq/ man	No affix ba /ba/ woman
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -u beniqu /beˈniqu/ men	If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -o bas /bas/ women

Articles

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

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	a /a/ I	ek /ek/ me
2nd singular	va /va/ you (masc)	vum /vum/ you
3rd singular masc	se /se/ he, it	kum /kum/ him, it
3rd singular fem	up /up/ she, it	op /op/ her, it
1st plural	u /u/ we	ev /ev/ us
2nd plural	i /i/ you all	e /e/ you all
3rd plural masc	ru /ru/ they (masc)	sim /sim/ them (masc)
3rd plural fem	ko /ko/ they (fem)	gu /gu/ them (fem)

Possessive determiners

1st singular	u /u/ my
2nd singular	ib /ib/ your
3rd singular masc	a /a/ his
3rd singular fem	i /i/ her
1st plural	ob /ob/ our
2nd plural	o /o/ your (pl)
3rd plural masc	wol /wol/ their (masc)
3rd plural fem	wim /wim/ their (fem)

Verbs

	Future
1st singular	If ends with vowel: Suffix -w Else: Suffix -a ibgow /ˈibgow/ (I) will learn
2nd singular	Suffix -or ibgoor /ibˈgoor/ (you) will learn
3rd singular masc	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -a ibgor /ˈibgor/ (he) will learn
3rd singular fem	Prefix go- goibgo /goˈibgo/ (she) will learn
1st plural	Suffix -ek ibgoek /ibˈgoek/ (we) will learn
2nd plural	Suffix -ep ibgoep /ibˈgoep/ (you all) will learn
3rd plural masc	Suffix -ow ibgoow /ibˈgoow/ (they) will learn
3rd plural fem	If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -i ibgop /ˈibgop/ (they) will learn

Oas uses a standalone particle word for past tense:

Past	Particle before the verb: vuir - vuir ibgo /ˈvuir ˈibgo/ learned

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.
Oas uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -uq ibgouq /ibˈgouq/ have learned

Numbers

Oas has a base-10 number system:
1 - bampimsem
2 - zakoion
3 - zuqenmel
4 - siov
5 - kinsekal
6 - ogkunkom
7 - so
8 - qenkum
9 - us
10 - zapimel
11 - zapimelbampimsem “ten-one”
100 - bampimsem iviqep “one hundred”
101 - bampimsem iviqep bampimsem “one hundred one”
200 - zakoion iviqep
1000 - bampimsem pe “one thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -a
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -v Else: Suffix -a
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -av
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -uq
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -ek
Noun to verb = Prefix be-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix ke-
Tending to = Prefix gu-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -o
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix bo-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix gi-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -p Else: Suffix -e
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -g Else: Suffix -o
Augmentative = Suffix -iv

Dictionary

4424 Words.