Uaru
 | |
|---|---|
| Uaru, Uaa | |
| Pronounced: | waru, waː |
| Typology | |
| Morphological type: | analytic |
| Basic word order: | SVO |
| Credits | |
| Creator: | Xing at the CBB |
Uaru or Uaa is a constructed language. It's a mixture between an artlang and an auxlang.
Contents
Phonology
Common consonants: p t k b d g m n ŋ <ng> l r
Marginal consonants: f s t͡ʃ (ch) ʃ (sh) v z
Vowels: i e a o u
The syllable structures is (C)V.
/u/ can be rather lax. It may be de-rounded, centralised, devoiced, or even dropped completely. It may be inserted to break up consonant clusters in loan-words.
Grammar
The basic word order is SVO. There is generally no inflection, but grammatical relations are expressed through separate words.
Gara mate time. – The cat eats the fish.
Gara mota. – The cat is sleeping.
Gara mota i langetu – The cat is sleeping on the blanket.
There is an optional past tense marker ko
Gara ko mota i langetu. – The cat was sleeping on the blanket.
Gara ko mate time. – The cat ate the fish.
Adjectives
Adjectives follow nouns:
Gara maka – a big cat, the big cat
Time miti – a small fish, the small fish
(Note that there is no distinction between definite and indefinite forms.)
Together with the copula nea (to be), adjectives can serve as predicates:
Gara nea maka. – The cat is big.
Gara ko nea maka. – The cat was big.
Comparative constructions is formed with the construction i talo.
Gara ko nea i tala time. The cat is bigger than the fish.
Prepositions
The most common prepositions are: i – in, at, on o – to, into, onto, a – from, out of, li – through, along, across me – with
Participles
The prepisition i is used to form the passive participle:
Time i mate. – The eaten fish, the fish that has been eaten
The prepisition me is used to form the active participle:
Time me mate – The cat that eats, the cat that has eaten.
Time nea me mate. – The fish has eaten; the fish eats (regularly).
Note that the active participle is not, as in English, used to form the progressive aspect.
Content Questions
Common interrogative words include kai what, which, and kaii who.
Gara ko mate kai? – What did the cat eat?
Gara ko mate kaii? – Whom did the cat eat?
Gara ko mate kai time? – Which fish did the cat eat?
It is also possible to place ai after a noun to render the sense of which (noun):
Gara ko mate time ai? – Which fish did the cat eat?
