Gmoa

Consonants
"R" is rolled word initial, tapped word central and final. "N" becomes velar when followed by a velar consonant."P" becomes an affricate word final (very uncommon, but it happens).

Not shown in the chart is "w" which is equivalent to the English "w".

Vowels
The "a" in parenthesis is rounded. An asterisk indicates a short sound. Vowels are long if they are stressed or are only followed by one consonant (or none). Vowels are short otherwise.

Diphthongs are pronounced as they appear, unless it is comprised of the same vowel twice in a row. The only vowel pairs that cannot be diphthongs are "ie", "uo" and "ou", and all vowel pairs must be diphthongs (therefore, any of the aforementioned vowel pairs cannot exist).

When a vowel appears twice in a row, they get unique sounds:

aa - like "a", but begins with a more rounded sound (technically speaking, the open back rounded vowel).

ee - pronounced as "ye".

oo - Pronounced as the English long "o" sound.

"Uu" and "ii" don't exist in Gmoa.

An important note on the "O":

In English, a long "o" starts off in the close-mid position, but gradually turns into a closed vowel by the end. You can see this if you try to say "oh" slowly. In Gmoa, the "o" (pronounced the same long and short besides a difference in duration) never does this; it stays in the close-mid position for the entire duration of the sound.

Alphabet
The full alphabet shown in order is:

Aa, Bb, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Ii, Jj, Kk, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Cc, Yy, Zz

Phonotactics
There aren't any formal limitations on Gmoan phonotactics. Theoretically, any syllable you can imagine can exist - if the term "syllable" can even be used to describe some of the letter clusters used in Gmoa.

Nouns
Nouns are very simple grammatically speaking. They don't decline - word order and prepositions show purpose and a verbal particle shows number in subjects and objects - the only way to show the number of the indirect objects, owners, etc. besides context is to add a number or a word such as "many, several". The most difficult aspect of nouns is that most of them have two forms: informal and "formal".

Often times, the informal is the shorter form of the two (besides a few exceptions). It's used to talk about objects/activities that you enjoy, and close friends and family. The "formal" is used to talk about people you should show respect to (stranger, boss, etc.) The reason I put it in quotation marks is because of its use with non-sentient nouns; then it describes an object/activity you don't like. This can be sketchy, because - though this is usually not the case - it can be used to describe people you don't like if said with the wrong tone, so you could seriously offend someone, and even be excluded form certain transactions/relationships (i.e. get fired), if you say it with a bad atitude. Also, if you use the formal to describe a friend, it could be considered hurtful, implying that you guys aren't as close as they thought. So long as your careful in how you speak to others, though, you'll be fine.

Some examples of nouns: Because this distinction exists, adjectives like "bad" don't exist. Instead of "bad fruit" one would say "fruit (formal)".
 * Jmi->Jamiat - walk, stroll, jog
 * Gto->Gestor - vehicle (doesn't have to have an engine, e.x. horse-and-buggy)
 * Arten->As - fruit
 * Ex->Xiat - vegetable
 * Mo->Map - sound
 * Plis->Polisarna - Police officer (Arna - person*)
 * Aliot->Arosarna - Firefighter (A->Aros - fire)
 * Maa->Maartnigta - Politician (Maa->Maart - politics; Nigta->Nwatnde - scholar)^


 * Arna is an example of a word without the formal/informal distinction.

^Notice how formal compounds may not consist fully of formal words. This doesn't happen with informal compound words.

Pronouns
These also have no plural. First person is "e", second "aru", third "to".

Adjectives
Adjectives don't decline. They always come before their noun, even in sentences such as "He is pompous." (Explained with "Oe" in the verb section).

 Verbs  The most complicated part of speech is the verb. It is conjugated for tense and mood, prefixed to indicate questions, exclamations and unconjugated verbs, and takes a particle which gives the subject and object of a sentence number.

Also - just a side note - verbs must always begin with a consonant. This might mean adding an arbitrary consonant word initial (e.x. Esi->Elten - food->Zesi - eat). Verbs are always formed from the informal.

Tense and Mood

There are three tenses and three moods in Gmoa shown through a suffix. A complete chart:


 * If the final vowel of a verb is "i" or "e", then the vowel changes to "o" and "a" respectively. Otherwise, a verb gets a "-(o)y" ending.

This chart applies to all reular verbs.

Prefixes

All verbs recieve prefixes to indicate questions and exclamations (often accompanied by a change in tone, such as in Indo-European languages). A question recieves a "ge-" prefix, unless it's rhetorical - then it gets a "ye-" prefix. If the speaker is surprised, they can prefix it with "sa-".

Also, any verb that is not the conjugated verb gets a "pagi-" prefix.

Ex.
 * To gejminen ya? - Will he be running?
 * Aru yegas es e? - Do you doubt me?
 * Areel saretes* ya pagizesna! - Ariel wants to abstain from talking! (This may be surprising if the person in question is loquacious.)
 * Verbs such as "rete (to want)" and "isko (would. . . if)" can only take the subjunctive, since they can only describe a hypothetical scenario which may or may not come true.

The Particle

In Gmoa, there are no number declensions. There is, however, a set of particles placds after the verb (only one at any given time) that indicates number for the subject and object of a sentence. A chart for the subject only particles:

If there is an object, a suffix is added to the stem. No suffix if singular. If plural, "-ti" third, "-i" second, and "-ye" plural. These guidlines apply unless both subject and object are third person plurals, in which case we use the particle "agi."

One of these particles must be present any time a verb is present in a sentence (unless the verb is oe).

Irregular Verbs

Oe

Oe is highly irregular, in that it is hardly a verb at all. It doesn't inflect for anything other than tense and takes no particle. Even stranger than that, it just outright disobeys word order (which should go SVO) by going OSV (O in this case may also refer to an adjective). As a matter of fact, the only reason I call it a verb is becase I don't have a better name for it.

Future tense is "os" and past is "oen."