Watteeteroxo Rakkake

Setting
Watetēteroxo Rakake is one of the many languages of the Mureke [mu'rɛkɛ] planet. It is spoken by the Teroxo [t̪ɛr'ɔʔɔ] people. From their original Island, they have spread around the coastal area, and established communities in various nations and cities. The number of speakers is not known for sure, but it estimated to be between 700000 and 800000, about half of them live on their original Island, and about a quarter in the Northeastern provinces on the Southern Island, just south of their original Island. They are politically divided. A part of their original Island forms an independent state, a constitutional monarchy. The provinces on the Southern Island have some degree of self-government. Generally, the Teroxo tend to have pragmatic attitude towards politics.

The Teroxo people have traditionally been involved in trade. They have followed various religions, but today many of them are worshippers of the triumphant God-man. Many are missionaries, and they have often established schools and hospitals in various nations. There is an independent academy, originally created through a royal grant, which has a kind of "de facto" authority over the Watteeteroxo Rakkake language.

There are two main dialects, a southern and a norther. The northern dialect dominate on most of the Original Island, and the southern in the northeast provinces of the Southern Island (and also on many smaller Islands, in coastal communities on the main continent, and in some areas on the Original Island.)

Vowels
There are four diftings: ai, ei, oi, ui.

R might be a flap/tap or an approximant in the northern dialects, and either a flap/tap or a trill in the southern dialects.

The pronunciation of the coronal consonants tend to be dental in the southern dialects, and alveolar in the northern dialects.

The vowels may be long or short. There are also four diphtongs: ai, ei, oi and ui.

Dialects and Standard Pronunciation
The dialect in the capital area, which belongs to the northern dialect area, has some innovative features

-Long ā is pronounced [ɑː].

-The diftong ai is pronounced [æː]

-Long ō is a diftong [ɔʊ].

-The rhotic consonant is always an approximant.

-The coronal consonants become rertoflex.

These features might occur more or less in other northern dialects. They are considered non-standard, however.

Non-standard features in southern dialects include:

-The rhotics are strongly trilled.

Here I will follow what may be called standard pronunciation. This is more similar to the southern than the northern dialects, but it does not include the non-standard features above. Features in standard pronunciation include:

-The vowels are pronounced close to their IPA value.

-The rhotic is a flap/tap.

Phonotactics
A syllable must consist of exactly one consonant, followed by exactly one vowel. The vowel may be a long vowel or a diftong.

In informal spoken language, syllables are sometimes dropped or fused together. This is especially common when there are two nearby, identical syllables. Sometimes result in a geminate consonant (tata - tta), and sometime on syllable will be dropped (tata - ta). The former might even be heard in semi-formal context.

Orthography
Watetēteroxo is written by a syllabary. Each glyph represent a consonant and a vowel. Long vowels and diphtongs are marked through diacritics. In formal writing, all syllables must be written, even if they are dropped or reduced in pronunciation. In informal, or sometimes in semi-formal writing, one might use diacritics to indicate dropped syllables.

Here I will use a romanized orthography, with the following letters:

A E I O U H K L M N NG P R T W X Y

Long vowels are marked through a macron (ā, ē, ī, ō, ū). When romanizing in this way, it might happen that reduction of syllables is reflected in spelling, resulting in genimate consonants (tata - tta). Here I will follow the more formal style, and write the whole syllables. I will write tata, even in tta might be heard even in semi-formal speech.

Nouns
Nouns are not inflected. Number and definiteness are indicated by articles. There are six articles:

Ta - definite singular.

Tu - definite plural

La - indefinite specific singular.

Lu - indefinite specific plural

Ha - non-specific singular

Hu - non-specific plural

Plural is not marked on the nouns. Instead, plural is marked by:


 * The article.


 * Plural forms of verbs and prepositions.

There are no genders. Case relations are marked through prepositions.

Prepositions
There are two kind of prepositions in WR. Basic prepositions, and compound prepositions.

Below is a list of the basic preposition. Note that there are (plural forms) of the prepositions.

Kī (kikī) - on, at, in. This is the most general locative prepositions. Depending on context, it can correspond to several different English prepositions.

Spatial location

Xe tuxu ta xaka kī ta xarū - The mam sits in the chair.

''Xe tuxu ta xōkā kī ta pūralaili. ''- The milk is in the chair.

Means of transportation

Xe xikakā ta xaka kīha kana. - The man travels by car.

Expressions of time

Kī pāna - today

Kī ta lalangi - in the weekend (the weekend to come).

Tewa (tetewa) - for. This is used to denote the person or entity that benefits from an action.

Ko hūku Yesu tetewa mamai - Jesus died for us.

Moxo (momoxo)- to. This marks the recipient of an action, and correspond to the dative case in many languages.

Ko patuxu nā xī ta xākō moxo ta pūralaili. - He put the mill in the fridge.

Ko lika nā ta xaka la xeina moxo ta xenga. - The man gives the woman a flower - The man gives a flower to the woman.

Mō (momō) - to, at, towards. This preposition marks the direction, destination or goal.

''Xe xikā nā mamai mō ta toxongi. ''- We are walking to the store.

tā, (tatā) - from, of, out of, after

Nā, (nanā) - by (marks instrument, also frequently used for subject/agentive marking)

Xā (xaxā) - of, by (agentive marker

Mē (memē) - during, around, about, with, of (various uses)

Pō (popō) - at, by, of. Often used to express the genitive.

Xū (xuxū) - of. Might be used to express the genitive.

Hīni (hihīni) - without

Lē (lelē) - with, and (marks companionship, also used for nominal conjunction)

Kē (kekē) - as, like.

Kīmu (kikīmu) - because of

The compound prepositions are made up by the general preposition ki, and some more specific (usually locational) word.

Ki ta loko xū - inside (in the inside of)

Ki ta kuima xū - outside (on the outside of)

Ki ta rele xū - near, close to

Mō ta loko xū - into (to the inside of)

Tā ta loko xū - out of (from the inside of)

Pronouns
The personal pronouns are as follows:

hane - 'some', 'something', 'someone' (non-specific)

hunu - 'some' (plural, non-specific)

lahe - 'some', 'something', 'someone' (specific)

luhe - 'some' (plural, specific).

nīne - 'no', 'none', 'nothing', etc.

Verbs
Tense, aspect and mood are indicated by preceding particles.

Xe - present tense.

Me - imperfective aspect

Ko - perfective aspect

Ma - future tense.

Ke - stative or resultative aspect

Xē - optative mood, also used for polite commands.

Xā - imperative mood.

Verbs must agree in number with their patients (the argument that is not marked with the agentive prepositions nā or xā, or with any preposition). Plurals are usually formed by reduplication of the first syllable.

Syntax
Word order is relatively free. VSO is often considered to be the default word order. VOS and OVS are also possible. The subject, however, can not precede the verb.

"The man looks at the woman" might be expressed in the following ways:

''Xe kipe xa ttaka ta xenga. ''(VSO)

Xe kipe te xenga xa ttaka. (VOS)

Ta xenga xe kipe xa ttaka. (OVS)

The following ways, however, are ungrammatical:

Xa ttaka xe kipe ta xenga. (SVO)

Xa ttaka ta xenga xe kipe. (SOV)

Ta xenga xa ttaka xe kipe. (OSV)

Adjectives
In Wattēteroxo, there is no clear-cut distinction between adjectives and verbs. In fact, when adjectives are used as predicatively, they behave like verbs.

Ta xenga xatai 

"The good woman"

Xe xatai ta xenga

"The woman is good" ("Litterally, we might translated it like "the woman goods").

Note that the adjectives don't need any copula (like the English "is"), when they are used predicatively).

Like verbs, adjectives are inflected for number.

Tu xenga xātai.

"The good women"

Xe xātai tu xenga.

"The women are good"

To say "X is bigger than Y", one might used conjoined phrases, like "X is big, Y is small", or "X is big, Y is not".

Xe makkā ta ppahā lī, nītī ta makkā lā

"This stone is bigger than that stone." (Lit. "is big the stone this, not-so the stone that.")

Xe makkā lā te ppahā lī, xe ppahā lā.

"This stone is as big as that stone" ("Is that big this stone and that stone")

Numerals
0 - Xeke

1 - Teki

2 - Koxa

3 - Huno

4 - Xappa

5 - Xikka

6 - Tainu

7 - Kītai

8 - Pōla

9 - Xuikka

10 - Tengēna

11 - Tengēna teki

12 - Tengēna roxa

20 - Koxa tengēna

30 - Hono tengēna

100 Laipō

1000 Tengēna laipō

1000 Tengaipō

2000 Koxa tengēna laipō

2000 Koxa tengaipō

10000 LaipōLaipō

10000 Tengēna tengaipō

100000 Laipō tengaipō

1000000 Tengatengaipō

Numerals comes after the nouns:

Me taka toro - 'three men'

Ordinals

To form ordinal numerals, one use the particle pa.

Ttaka pa toro - 'the third man'.

This is sometimes omitted in casual speech:

Ttaka toro - 'the third man'

Distributive numerals:

To express the meaning 'each' or 'every', one must use the word 'kīla'

Ttaka kīla - every man

Kīla might be used pronominally:

Xe ttē na kīla - everybody is working.

It might also be used adnominaly:

Xe ttē na ttaka kīla - Every man is working.

It might also be used like this:

Xe ttē nā tu taka pāla, kīla. - All the men are working, each of them.

To say "five percent", one might say:

Xippa pohe laipō

Such epxpressiona are mostly used with mass nouns.

To say "one fifth", "one of five", or similar, one may use a preposition:

Teki pō xippa "one in five"

Teki ttā xippa "one of five"

Questions
Wai - where?

Nge wai - for whom/to whom?

Nu wai - whereto?

Taa wai? - wherefrom?

Na wii? - Does who? By whom?

Wei - how?

Wii - who, what, which?

Wangi? When?

Waarui? Why?

Xe paxuu xii wai?

Where does she live?

Xe llaka xii nu wai?

Where is he going?

Ma xatta mmaxa wangi?

When will we leave?

Yes/no questions might be formed in two ways. One might put the word for "or" (koo or koono) at the end of the sentence. This is the common way in everyday language.

One might also put the question particle ho before the verb. This is typically used in more formal language.

Negation
The word ni (with varieties nini, nī, and ninī) can be translated approximately as 'not'

Ko ni kipe nā ta taka ta xenga.

'The man did not see the woman.'

Especially in spoken language, one might use double negation for emphasis:

Ko ni kipe nā ta taka ni ta xenga 

Ni ha taka ki ta kana.

'There are no people in the car.'

In colloquial language, one might also use the word xeke ('zero', see the numerals above).

Ha taka xeke ki ta kana.

'There are no ('zero') people in the car.'

Xe kipe xeke nā mai

'I see nothing ('zero')', 'I don't see anything'.

Note: xeke don't go together with ni:

*Xe kipe xeke nā mai.

Relative Clauses
There are no relative pronouns in Watteeteroxo. For maximal clarity, one can write the relative clause as a full clause, with subject and object.

Xe kinni mai ta xenga hilla xii na mai

'I see the woman that I love.'

Or, 'See I the woman, love the woman I.'

But it is often practical to omit either the subject or the object, when no practical ambiguity might arise:

''Xe kinni mai ta xenga hilla xii. ''

'See I the woman, love her.'

Xe kinni mai ta xenga hilla naa ngai.

'See I the woman, love I.'

Note that no tense or aspect marker is needed i the relative clause.

Often the boundary between relative clauses and adjectives is very fuzzy.

If the verb in the relative clause has the same tense as the verb in the main clause, one may omit the tense marker. Of the verbs have different tenses/aspects, one must use tense markers with both verbs.

Ko kinni mai ta xenga xe hilla xii naa mai.

'I saw the woman that I love'.

Conjunctions
In watteeteroxo, there is a difference between nominal and verbal conjunctions. For nominal conjunctions, one use the word "le", which might mean either "and" or "with".

Ko niinnu naa mai ta xenga le ttaka.

I saw the woman and the man. (Note the plural inflection of the verb, since there are two objects!)

For verbal conjunctions, one repeats the tense marker.

''Ko ninnu naa mei ttaka, ko ninni naa ttaka mai. ''

I saw the man, and the man saw me.

Sometimes, one might use both construnctions in otherwise similar sentences, giving them a slightly different meaning.

''Ko ninnu naa mai ta xenga lo ttaka. ''

I saw the woman, and I saw the man. (Note the singular inflection of the verb. Even if it refers to two events, each event has only one object!)

I you use 'le', you indicate that you saw the man and the woman together, in a single event. If you use 'lo' you indicate that it was actually two different events.

Disjunctions
The word for 'or' i s koo or koono

Ta xenga koo ttaka.

The man or the woman.

There is no word corresponding to the English 'neither'.

Ni ta xenga, ni ttaka.

Not the woman, not the man.

To form an exclusive disjunction (either… or), one might use one of the followng expressions:

''Ta xenga koo ttaka, ni tu lukka. ''

'The woman or the man, not the both of them'

''Ta xenga koo ttaka, ttepa teki. ''

The man or the woman, only one.

Xe paakeere ttaka naa rei.

Reflexive and Reciprocal Constructions
Xe pākekere ta taka nā rei.

The man washes himself.

Xe papākekere tui taka nā rei.

The men wash themselvers

There is a reciprocal pronoun ''rāxā. ''

Xe papākekere ta xenga nanā rāxā.

The women are washing each other.

Xe pākekere nā ta taka rei

Xe pākeere nā rei ttaka.

Xe pākere rei nā ta taka.

In Watteetereiti, a reflexive clause is much like a transitive clause, it's just that the agent and the patient happen to be identical. Therefore, all the constructions above are grammatical, the differences are pragmatic and stylistic.

NOTE: rei is a 'singular pronoun', even when referring to more than one person. Neither the verb nor the agentive particle inflect for the plural. Raxaa is always a plural pronoun; verbs, prepositions, and the agentive particle must be in the plural.

Dictionary

tūni - beginning

poko - create ('cause to become', when transitive) become (when intransitive)

Ta Wāta - God

ngōxa - heaven

tawa - earth

rakipi - void, empty, deserted

moti - void, formless, disordered, insubstantial

ngoto - darkness

xapo - over, above

pūre - deep

lapāle - hover

kimu - spirit

nire - surface

manō - water

kenei - say

poko - become

hīlai - light

kipe - see

we - that (conj.)

xatai - good

kirahe - separate (transitive), be separate (intransitive)

wekai - to call

wāna - day

nuru - night

tomo - to come, to be, to become, to turn into

nikuku - evening

pinā - morning

teki - one

Example text
Ki ta tūni ko popoko xā Ta Wāta ta ngoxa lē ta tawa. Me rakipi me moti ta tawa, me ngoto ki xapo ta pāre, me lapāle ta kimu xū Ta Wāta ki ta xapo xū ta nire pō ta manō. Ko kenei Ta Wāta "xē poko ha hīlai", ko poko ha hīlai. Ko kipe xā Ta Wāta we me xatai ta hīlai, ko kirahe xā Ta Wāta ta hīlai tā ta ngoto. Ko wekai xā Ta Wāta "wāna" tewa ta hīlai, ko wekai xā Ta Wāta tewa ta ngoto "nuru". Ko tomo ha nikuku, ko tomo ka pinā, ta wāna pa teki.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was void and formless, and the Spirit of God was hovering upon the face of the waters. And God said, "let there be light". And there was light. And God saw, that the light was good, and God separated the the light from the dark. And God called the light "day", and the darkness he called "night". And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day.

(Unsure if Bible texts are known on Mureke. I put this here mostly to give people a "taste" of how the language might look in written form. Strangely however, it seems like many legends and stories bear a striking resemblance to those found in the Bible, or in various forms of "Earthly" mythology.)