Ulele Language

Ulele is a language spoken by a tribe indigenous to colossal underground caverns. This tribe numbers approximately 100,000 people. It is a predominantly analytic language, with all affixes having actual lexical meanings.

General information
Ulele is a analytic language, head-final, and uses postpositions. Word order is nearly always SOV, but can be VSO to emphasize the action, or OSV as an equivalent to the English passive voice. There is not always a clear distinction between agent and patient, sometimes context determines which is the agent and which is the patient. Additional particles like now or a while ago are used in place of tense, and verbal aspects are mostly realized via reduplification or vowel lengthening. Nouns do not decline for the plural or dual, instead the particle many, lot, or a number must be used alongside the noun, or simply repeating the noun a second time implies plurality. Instead of a dual case, one would say, X with Y. There are no indefinite or relative pronouns, phrases consisting of man or thing together with a particle are used instead of the former, the reduced relative clause ( The man [I saw yesterday] went home instead of The man that I saw yesterday went home) is used for the latter.

Phonology
Ulele possesses an extremely small sound inventory, like that of Piraha or the more familiar Hawaiian. There is a great deal of varying pronunciation, with many correct ways to utter a word.

Consonants
{| class="wikitable article-table" style="width: 660px; text-align:center;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" ! style="width: 68px; " | ! style="width: 68px; " |Labial ! style="width: 68px; " |Alveolar ! style="width: 68px; " |Velar ! style="width: 68px; " |Glottal !Nasal !Plosive !Fricative !Approximant
 * m
 * n
 * p
 * t
 * k
 * ʔ
 * s
 * s
 * l
 * l


 * There is no distinction between voiceless and voiced consonants. Generally, when plosives are pronounced as voiceless, there is never any aspiration as in English. In between words and in clusters with a nasal, they are voiced.
 * k may be pronounced, depending on the speaker, variously as [x], [ɣ], [tʃ], or [dʒ].
 * t before [i] or /ɛ/, tends to be [ts], [dz], [tʃ], or [dʒ]
 * Between vowels /p/ may be [v] or [β] instead of [b].
 * The nasals and /l/ may be syllables all by themselves.
 * /n/ is pronounced as [ŋ] before /k/.

Vowels

 * Vowels as well as nasals and even /l/, can have a high, low, or normal tone, which distinguishes words but also plays a role in grammar.
 * Speakers may pronounce [æ] as [ɛ] or [æ] depending on its environment.

Phonotactics
The syllable structure has a few restrictions that characterize the language. Namely, no word may have three plosives, or any consonant clusters other than NC, lC, lN, and NN (N=nasal, C=all plosives and /s/). Syllabic consonants do not count as part of a clusters. Hiatus is permitted, but no consonant is allowed to occur at the end of a word except the nasals, [ʔ], /s/, and /l/.

Verbs
There are two types of verbs, active ones such as run and hit, and stative ones which depict a state of being, such as live. The verbal aspects are the Habitual, Progressive, Inchoative (started to X), Terminative (finished X), Defective (almost X), Pausative (stopped X for a while), Durative, Frequentative, Experiential (have done X many times), Intentional, Accidental, and Intensive. These can all be expressed in a variety of ways, some with particles or extra words, some with reduplication of either the first syllable or the whole word.
 * }

Habitual The first vowel is lengthened to express the habitual aspect, along with the first syllable being repeated, which is optional. Or, one may say something like He do X all (the) time.

Progressive Expressed by phrases like She us-with no cease (to) live, which is more understandably said as, She's still living with us.

Inchoative The verbal phrase go into, which translates to begin or start in English, is used.

Terminative The verb to end is used.

Defective Phrases of the structure come near to X are used.

Pausative The verbs stop and pause are used, which have different connotations from using to end, namely they imply a temporary pause to an action.

Durative The phrase to (a) long time is used.