Aquan

Natively known as: Aquan /ˈquan/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind... hyim rey aym rey sounaymau aen hyim rey opus soudae mylae yhaum nai Pronunciation: /hyim rey aym rey ˈsounaymau aen hyim rey ˈopus ˈsoudae ˈmylae ˈyhaum nai/ Aquan word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /d h l m n p s ʋ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p		d
Fricative			s	h
Approximant		ʋ
Lateral approximant			l

Vowel inventory: /a ae ai ao au ay e i o oi ou u y yi/
Diphthongs: ae, ai, ao, au, ay, oi, ou, yi

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined Stress pattern: Initial — stress is on the first syllable Word initial consonants: d, h, l, m, n, p, s, ʋ Mid-word consonants: d, h, l, m, n, p, s, ʋ Word final consonants: m, n, s
Phonological changes (in order of application):

• k → c / V_V

How to read phonological rules
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ʋ	w
ʔ	ʻ
aː	ā
eː	ē
iː	ī
oː	ō
uː	ū

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase). "Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Mary the door opened with a key. Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun. Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

• Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
• Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix syihayo /ˈsyihayo/ doɡ (doinɡ the verb)
Accusative	Suffix -dao syihayodao /ˈsyihayˌodao/ (verb done to) doɡ

	Singular	Plural
Definite	No affix syihayo /ˈsyihayo/ the doɡ	Suffix -sy syihayosy /ˈsyihayˌosy/ the doɡs
Indefinite	Suffix -na syihayona /ˈsyihayˌona/ a doɡ	Suffix -kay syihayokay /ˈsyihayˌokay/ some doɡs

Articles

Aquan encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	u /u/ I	nai /nai/ me
2nd singular	dye /dye/ you (masc)	ay /ay/ you
3rd singular masc	rey /rey/ he, it	ke /ke/ him, it
3rd singular fem	pey /pey/ she, it	ai /ai/ her, it
1st plural	dae /dae/ we	wae /ʋae/ us
2nd plural	y /y/ you all	sai /sai/ you all
3rd plural	ha /ha/ they	le /le/ them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	u /u/ my
2nd singular	ay /ay/ your
3rd singular masc	rey /rey/ his
3rd singular fem	pey /pey/ her
1st plural	dae /dae/ our
2nd plural	y /y/ your (pl)
3rd plural	ha /ha/ their

Verbs

	Singular	Plural
Present	Suffix -moi poimmoi /ˈpoimmoi/ (I/you/he/she) learns	Suffix -ly poimly /ˈpoimly/ (we/they) learn
Past	Suffix -myi poimmyi /ˈpoimmyi/ (I/you/he/she) learned	Suffix -lu poimlu /ˈpoimlu/ (we/they) learned
Future	Suffix -ha poimha /ˈpoimha/ (I/you/he/she) will learn	Suffix -mey poimmey /ˈpoimmey/ (we/they) will learn

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.
Aquan uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

Suffix -rae poimrae /ˈpoimrae/ have learned

Numbers

Aquan has a base-10 number system:
1 - oi 2 - we 3 - pou 4 - lan 5 - py 6 - ha 7 - sou 8 - ho 9 - pem 10 - haes 11 - oi hyim haes “one and ten” 100 - las “hundred” 101 - las oi “hundred one” 200 - we las 1000 - houn “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -ʋey Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -ly Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -koi Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Suffix -no Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -le Noun to verb = Suffix -dae Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -sa Tending to = Suffix -kye Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -dao Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -dyi One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -ly Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Suffix -ʋyi Diminutive = Suffix -ʋoi Augmentative = Suffix -so

Dictionary

4361 Words.

Root Languages

• Primordial