Ohinuk

From KneeQuickie

Ohinuk

Ohinuk is the language of the island people of the fourth moon of Bé Odé. These people make up the second largest represented group in Indran government.

Phonology
Vowels
 /a/
Ê /e/
I /i/
Î /I/
O /o/
Ô /V/
U /u/
Û /ju/

Consonants
G, H, K, L, M, N, and V are as in English
R /4/
X /x/

Phonological constraints
(V)CVC(V)(V)(C)(C)(V)(C)(V)

Stress
Words are stressed on the second syllable. Words less than two syllables are not stressed. Secondary stress is placed on the fourth syllable in longer words.

Article
Articles are not used in Ohinuk.

Pronouns
Ohinuk personal pronouns are affixed to a word and are never separate. Each personal pronoun has 2-4 forms, divided into Anterior and Posterior groups, and are determined by the plurality and tense of the sentence. “I, you, he, and she” have four forms; “They” has only the plural forms, and “it” has only singular forms.

(ex) forms of “I”
- âh (singular prefix) âhirênîmlu {I ran}
- nâ (singular suffix) irênîmlinâ {I will run}
- âhâ (plural prefix) âhâirênîmlu {We ran}
- nâhâ (plural suffix) irênîmlinâhâ {We will run}

The verb
Tense and Constituent Order
There are two ways that tense is marked in Ohinuk, both are required for good grammar. Tense is expressed primarily through word order. There are five tenses in Ohinuk, setting sentences into three different orders: OSV, SVO, and VSO. The verb-final word order denotes either past perfect or past progressive tense. A medial-verb sentence describes the present tense. The verb-initial order marks the present progressive or the future tense.

Tense is further marked by affixes on the verb. There are four affixes corresponding to all the tenses except the present. Tense suffixes are placed after the mood.
(ex)
nûxêâk âhkûxoîmlu (I went home){past tense}
âhkûxoîm nûxêâk (I am going home now){present tense}
kûxoîmlinâ nûxêâk (I will be going home){future tense}

Mood
Moods play key roles in determining the meaning of a sentence. Whether the sentence is a command, question, or a statement is marked with the mood. The five moods used are:
Indicative mood – used in regular statements
Cohortative mood – used when commanding another to do something.
Dubitative mood – expresses the negative of a statement.
Optative mood – marks statement as a yes/no question.
Potential mood – lets the listener know of the uncertainty of the of the speakers knowledge of the statement.

(ex)
nûxêâk êhuhîhîmlu (he walked home){indicative}
vînoômlo nûmûâk (close the door){cohortative}
rîkôâk êhugâhâmlu (he didn’t wash the dog){dubitative}
êrôlomlo ginuâk (is he here?){optative}
nôniumlonânî (I can help you){potential}

Nominalization of the verb
Non-person nominalized verbs are created by the particle “kâ”.
Âxêx (to agree) – kâ âxêx (an agreement)

The noun
Case
There are 31 cases in Ohinuk. Most serve the same functions as prepositions (to, at, with) and for the sake of brevity will not be listed here. The only three that will be explained here are the agent-marking case, the oblique, and the ownership case. The agent-marking case is used to nominalize a verb into the performer of the action:
Nêvi (to build) – vânêvi (builder)


The oblique case is used to mark object of being acted upon by a subject. In a transitive sentence, the subject acts upon the object, and the object is put into the oblique case. In an intransitive sentence, the subject acts without an object, thus no oblique marking. In a reflexive sentence, the subject acting upon its self will not receive an oblique case marker.

The ownership case marker is used to show ownership or possession. It is connected to a pronoun suffix to form a genitive pronoun.

My – ûlo (genitive case marker) + nâ (1st, sing, suffix}=ûlonâ

Plurals
Pluralization is done by reduplication of the root word.
The conditional
The conditional sentence order places the effect before the condition, separated by “if”. The potential mood is used in the conditional clause. Tense order is maintained since the conditional and the resultant clauses must be constructed as complete sentences:

Xuho, îrârîmlonâ gêluâk kîku âhêvêxumlu.
Tomorrow, I will buy that shirt if I am paid.

Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives and adverbs follow the noun or verb and are unmarked.

Sentences
Negatives
The negative particle “oxiv” is placed before the verb (and any appended pronouns) to form the negative.
nûxêâk oxiv êhuhîhîmlu – he didn’t walk home

Subclauses
Subclauses are marked in a sentence using “îgâ” and a comma. Instrumental clauses denote the subclause marker in the “with” case ending, while subject clauses suffix a personal pronoun to the subclause marker matching the gender and number of the subject of the sentence. A comma is placed after the clause to return the listener to the sentence (if the clause is at the end of the sentence, a period is used instead of the comma).
(ex)
John îgâkîx rêvâ, gêlîîm kêroâk {instrumental clause}
John, with a hammer, hits the nail.
John îgânê ûlonâ êkûg, xêmûîmlu {subject clause}
John, who was my friend, died