Hi

Phonology
The latin transliteration of Hi uses an alphabet of 16 letters: A K E H I L PL M N O P R S T U QU. All letters are generally pronounced the same way regardless of their placement. The letter "I" tends to form diphtongs if it follows another vowel; other vowels tend to be pronounced separately from each other. "H" is never silent. "QU" is pronounced as "kw". The rest of the letters are pronounced the way you would expect them to be.

Hi uses the folowing original script (click the thumbnail on the right to view). Note that the white space in some letters is the integral part of these letterforms. The spaces between words tend to be 2-3 times as large as the gaps inside the letters.

Basic Grammar
Hi has a very simple and regular grammar. It is guided by several basic principles that make it quite different from other languages.

Root tuples and root chains
The basic unit of a Hi sentence is two root-words linked together. The link between the roots expresses their relationship.

For example: We have to make several observations here:

- when the first root ends with the same vowel as the first vowel of the link, this vowel is not repeated

- a two-root combination can express one notion that in other langauges is usually expressed with a separate word

- it is written as one word

A Hi sentence consists of several two-root phrases placed one after another. One important case is when the first root of the following two-root phrase is the same as the last root of the preceding one. In this case, this root is not repeated, and the two phrases are joined together in a root-chain.

For example,

Putting root chains together
Syntactic relationships between Hi root-chains are created by repeating the same root-word in different chains. Such repetition indicates that these root-chains point at the same thing. For example:

Sentence structure
Hi does not have any set sentence structure. In fact, a Hi sentence is nothing more than a sequence of root chains. It is quite common to speak in very long "run-away" sentences that would gradually change the subject and seamlessly move from one thought to another.

Links.
Below is the list of all links found in Hi.

Here are some examples:

Root polymorphism.
As you saw in the previous section, one root-word can change its roles depending on which links connect it to other roots. In fact, most of Hi words have different meanings in each of these roles: Noun, Adjective/Intransitive Verb, Transitive Verb, or Adverb. Some roots also have a special meaning when they used with -ia, or with -o, etc. For example:

Of course not all roots have the full range of meanings, but it's hard to find a root that does not have at least a few.

What is also common is having the same word in different roles when it is used in different root-tuples. The "aggregated" meaning can then be an abstract notion (adjective-noun), or a gerund (verb-noun). Here are some examples:

In the first example, the word "si" is first used as a verb (si-i-lo, "looking well") and then as a noun (si-un-lir, "the look will prevent"). The combination of meanings results in translating it as "beauty".

Example text
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.

They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.

Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;

''and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.''

And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.

Kopinuplu e tenosun ekurhiquet hiuroiplo kuro kuho hitoti menuti menomisuquo menuquaheuplur heuquo quainiroran.

Ekurhisam hiusiakupaiaher paiplir menuheraheuplur menomis siniopla siuroiplo quuroiplor.

Kopinuplu kourmiako miroisamaro kokiro oi kourmiroiplo menurpeniroiplo menomis penaheuplur peniahearanomen

e kourtirioniopla tiritoplir tiraleiapa'. 'Tenursuniplur sunitoukar tenosun e menurheraheuplur menomis heritouquo.

E kourquiahiosa kopinuplu hiuroiplo tenuro tenosun kouroiplor