Liwi

''' The creator of Liwi, mnozz, asks you not to alter this page in any way. ''' Liwi at this point is entirely complete. Comments and concerns are welcome.

Liwi is an aggultinative-ogliosynthetic IAL designed for ease of learning and communication, as well as a quick language-learning process that can be facilitated with a simple image describing the language.

Phonology
There is also an additional diphthong, /ai/, which is pronounced just as it looks in the IPA.

Orthography
Most are written one to one, but /j/ is written as (y).

Phonotactics
Liwi uses a simple CV(n) syllable structure. The (n) can only be the sound /n/.

Words
In Liwi, each word has three possible separate meanings. Let's examine a word such as (lo) for example. (Lo) can have a few different meanings depending on the context. In Liwi, (lo) alone will always mean water. When it has the -n suffix attached, it becomes its verb form, which in this case is to flow, or rain. When placed as a description of another word, it is considered its adjective form. And finally, when preceding the word for color, (po), it becomes blue.

Syntax
In a sentence, the actor must precede the verb, and the acted must supersede the verb. The actor is not necessarily a subject and the acted is not necessary an object. The actor will always be what interacts with the acted, and the acted will always be the affected thing by the actor.

Let's take a basic sentence, such as "I am going to the store."

The final form for this sentence is Ya fan fe sepefefai. (Ya) means I, and (fan) is the verb form of (fa), meaning to do, move. The word store, (sepefai), is made up of (se) - place, (pe) - food, (fe) - for, and (fai) - money. As you can see, the actor goes before the verb.

But if we have a sentence such as "I was burned", it would look like this instead:

The final form would be Fuhain ya. and not Ya fuhain. because the subject is being acted upon, rather than acting.

(Fu-hain) - Past-toBurn | (ya) - me

There is no need to have just one "other" clause.

Take the sentence "You ate the fish at the pond because you were hungry."

(Ye) - You | (fu-pen) - past-toEat | (la-lo) animal-water | (se-lo) - place-water | (pu) - reason | (lan) - to be | (pe) - hungry

You can imagine the sentence being broken into the elements of a main sentence, and each subsequent extra sentence following, mandated  in form by its prefix.

In nouns, the adjectives supersede the word it modifies, while verbs have the adverbs precede it. This is due to the -n suffix, and having adverbs supersede the verb would make pronunciation more difficult.

Word Creation
Liwi is an example of a compound word: (Li) - Speech + (wi) - Small. In many cases, the words presented in Liwi won't be enough to discuss every single word. But the process of word creation allows the description of more complex sentences.

There is no single word to describe one thing. Let's take a word for cell phone as an example.

The most barebones word for cellphone is (Li-pi). (Pi) means far, so it literally means “Speak far”. You can add (ko) to make it (Li-ko-pi). (Ko) is the word for wind, and “people’s wind” refers to speech. To specify further, you can make it (Li-ko-to-pi). (To) means understand, so (Li-ko-to) is literally a person’s air that you can understand. To make it a device, you can add (ke) to make it (Ke-li-ko-to-pi). To say it’s a small device, you can add (wi) to make it (Ke-wi-li-ko-to-pi). You may say this is outrageous, but this is used for either if the person you’re talking to doesn’t understand quite what you mean when you say (Li-pi), like is that a teleporter, since (Li) can also just mean person, or it can be used to, as stated previously, make yourself sound more formal. Notice even with all of the meaning attached to it, the phrase (Ke-wi-li-ko-to-pi) isn’t even as unwieldy as some long Toki Pona phrases can get, such as “Telo kili pi loje jelo” for orange juice, which would be (Lo-pe-sa-po-su) in Liwi. The point of Liwi is to be minimal in word count and yet minimal in word length while also being relatively easy to pronounce for the vast majority of language speakers.

Vocabulary
The vocabulary for Liwi can be found in this spreadsheet. There are a total of 66 words, minus the -n suffix.

Loan Words
The following is from a script in a video detailing how to turn words from other languages into Liwi.

Loan words in Liwi are reserved for stuff that requires it, such as brand names and nation names; otherwise you would simply describe it using descriptors. These come from the language of origin rather than English. To demonstrate the process we use to "Liwi"-ify the word, let's use the name for the country of Germany, or Deutschland. We'll use the IPA pronunciation:  dɔʏtʃlant

First, all countries begin with the prefix Mi-. We have Mi-dɔʏtʃlant.

Next, we need to convert the vowels into Liwi vowels. Here's a chart of the IPA vowels and the Liwi vowels, marked here in bold: a accepts a, æ, ä, ɑ, ɐ, ə, ʌ, ɒ, ɞ

e accepts e, ɛ, ɜ, ɘ

i accepts i, ɣ, ɪ

o accepts o, ɶ, ɔ, o̞, ø̞, ø

and u accepts u, y, ɨ, ʉ, ɯ, ʏ, ʊ, ɵ

These vowels can also be the default way a speaker pronounces them if you're unable to use the default vowel.

Let's apply this to our vowels. We have Mi-doitʃlant.

Then, we have to fill in gaps, as Liwi cannot have consonants as codas or next to each other, not even for affricates. To fill in these gaps, we use the vowel in the consonant preceding it. If there is none, we use the one superseding it. We have Mi-doitiʃilanata.

Next, we have to fill in more gaps, as Liwi cannot have simultaneous vowels in the form of diphthongs, with the notable exception of ai. To fill these in, we use the letter H. We have Mi-dohitiʃilanata.

Lastly, we convert the consonants into Liwi consonants. Here's a chart of the IPA consonants and the Liwi consonants, marked here in bold, while the consonants in italics are removed entirely during conversion: This was a nightmare to make.

m accepts m, m̥, ɱ, n̼

n accepts n, n̥, ɳ̥, ɳ, ɲ̥, ɲ, ŋ̊, ŋ, ɴ

p accepts b, p̪, b̪, t̼, d̼, ʙ̥, ʙ

t accepts t, d, ʈ, ɖ, c, ɟ

k accepts k, g, q, ɢ

f accepts f, v, ɸ, β, θ̼, ð̼

s accepts s, z, ʃ, ʒ, ʂ, ʐ, ɕ, ʑ, ç, ʝ, θ, ð, θ̠, ð̠, ɹ̠̊˔, ɹ̠˔, ɻ˔

h accepts h, x, ɣ, χ, ʁ, ħ ʕ, ɦ, ʔ̞, ʀ̥, ʀ, ʜ, ʢ, ʡ̆, ɥ̊, ɥ, ɧ

w accepts w, ʍ, ʋ̥, ʋ, ⱱ̟, ⱱ, ɾ̼

l accepts l, ɹ̥, ɹ, ɾ̥, ɾ, r̥, r, ɬ, ɮ, l̥, ɺ, ɻ̊, ɻ, ɽ̊, ɽ, ɽ̊r̥, ɽr, ɭ̝̊, ɭ̝, ɭ̊, ɭ, ɭ̆

j accepts j, j̊, ɰ̊, ɰ, ʎ̝̊, ʎ̝, ʎ̥, ʎ, ʎ̆, ʟ̝̊, ʟ̝, ʟ̥, ʟ, ʟ̆, ʟ̠

These consonants can also be used instead of the default if you're unable to pronounce it.

Let's apply this to our consonants: We finally have our result, Mi-Tohitisilanata.

Tower of Babel Story
1. Sewa fulan nahelai ne likono.

2. Limo fusin limi se-Sainala, limo fulan se-Sainala, pai limo fufan payase.

'''3. Limo fulin felino: "Fan. Liyaye fesin kaipoki, liyaye fehain kaipoki." Limo fufon kaipoki ne suwapoku ne naikai ne naisu.'''

4. Limo fulin felino: "Fan. Liyaye fesin sinoni ne siyiwa, siyiwa fenan feseteko: Limo feton mailiyaye paifu mun liyaye."

5. Teli fufan pu futun li-Hatama sin sinoni ne siyiwa.

6. Teli fulin: "Tun, nalini, nalini fon nalikono: Limo sin, limo naifin pai limo sin fe."

7. "Fan, pu, mun likomo, limo naiton likolimo."

8. Teli fumun limo, limo fufan semo, limo fufin sin sinoni.

9. Maisinoni se-Papele pu fumun likosemo: Fumun limo fan semo pa se-Papele.