Lāu

Natively known as: lāu /laːu̯/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
au pupū kēke oiwi ʻē au eʻoi honu palē ʻē po hīlō
Pronunciation: /au̯ puˈpuː keːˈke oi̯ˈʋi ʔeː au̯ eˈʔoi̯ hoˈnu paˈleː ʔeː po hiːˈloː/
Lāuian word order: and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: h k l m n p ʋ ʔ

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

Vowel inventory: a ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ aː aːi̯ aːu̯ e eː i iː o oi̯ ou̯ oː u uː Diphthongs: ae̯ ai̯ ao̯ au̯ aːi̯ aːu̯ oi̯ ou̯ ?

	Front	Back
High	i iː	u uː
High-mid	e eː	o oː
Low	a aː

Syllable structure: Custom defined ?
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable ? Spelling rules:

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

Grammar

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

Numbers

Lāuian has a base-10 number system: 1 - nai
2 - pā
3 - pao
4 - mi
5 - lī
6 - wae
7 - we
8 - kai
9 - hāu
10 - kō
100 - nonō
1000 - lō

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Prefix maː-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix ʔai̯-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix hi-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix lau̯-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix paː-
Noun to verb = Prefix mu-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Prefix maːi̯-
Tending to = Prefix huː-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix la-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix kai̯-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Prefix ʋuː-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ko-
Diminutive = Prefix ka-
Augmentative = Prefix ʔi-