Hoyu

Haiyu (Haiyu: Hoxzantư) is a language spoken in Haigwo, an island nation south of China, where it is the sole official language of Haigwo's 9 million residents. It is a language isolate.

General information
Haiyu is the native language of the Hai people in the South China Sea. It is a verb-heavy language with an agglutinative grammar. Word order is preferably SOV in basic sentences, but in interrogative sentences, there is a rigid VSO word order. It is written with the Latin alphabet. Because of the nation's frequent contact with the Chinese and Vietnamese, there are many loanwords from these languages in the Haiyu language.

Etymology
The English name for the language, Haiyu, is a direct loan from Chinese (海语 Hǎi yǔ) and literally means "sea language". When the Qing Dynasty discovered Haigwo in 1651, it was officially reported to the emperor that the people spoke a strange "sea language" that was impossible to understand. The Hai people and their homeland, Haigwo, are also called so because of this.

The native name for the language is Hoxzantư [hɔʔzæntɯ̽]. It is of unknown etymology.

Vowels
All of /i ɯ u ɤ/ occur short and long, differed only by length, while /ɛ ɔ æ/ have the respective long counterparts /e: o: a:/.

Consonants

 * Stops are unreleased at the ends of words. For example, /p/ > /p̚/.
 * Similarly to English, /ɹ/ is commonly realised as post-alveolar or retroflex and produces rhotic vowels when preceeded by a vowel.
 * Stops and affricates are aspirated before another stop or affricate across a syllable boundary.
 * Nasals assimilate to a following consonants place of articulation across syllable boundaries.
 * Unvoiced consonants become voiced before another voiced consonant and vice-versa.
 * /ɸ/ and /β/ are allophones of /f/ after (not before) an unvoiced and a voiced labial consonant, respectively.
 * The velar series /ŋ k g x/ are palatised to /ɲ c ɟ ç/ before a front vowel or before /j/.

Phonotactics
Haiyu syllables follow the simple structure (C)V(V₂)(C) where C is any consonant, V is any vowel, and V₂ is /j/ or /w/.

Writing System
Haiyu is written using the Latin alphabet.

Verbs
The only necessary elements in a Haiyu verb is the verb root and the subject prefix. Everything else is only included if needed. The non-past tense, simple aspect, indicative mood, and active voice are all implied.

Vocabulary
 Haiyu Dictionary at ConWorkShop