'Orelo
'Orelo is the language spoken by the Arahoi'i of Akahoshi asteroid. It is a dialect of Tuapa'ani, a language spoken by a minority Caldari population around the Tierijev pocket. It is grammatically identical to Tuapa'ani, with minor word and pronunciation differences.
'Orelo is an analytic (isolating) language. There is no use of inflection. Instead the grammatical meaning of words is marked by adjacent particles (short words) and their relative positions.
The predominant word order is "verb subject object", with the exception that if the sentence has a negative mood the order becomes "subject verb object" (e.g. a'ole 'oia e puka ana, "not he [future] graduate [single event]", "he won't graduate").
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Pronunciation
'Orelo is known for having very few consonant phenomes, nine plus a glottal ('u'ina). The consonants are largely pronounced as in English, and are m, n, p, k, t, h, w, l and r.
The letter w is pronounced with a distinctive v sound following the vowels i or e. The letter h is pronounced with a slight sh sound if a word begins with it, and is sometimes transliterated sh.
'Orelo possesses five vowels, which can take either a long or short form. No distinction is used between the two forms in written 'Orelo (unlike the Tuapa'ani kahako). Long form vowels are pronounced identically to short form, and extend the sound of the vowel.
Vowels | |
| Letter | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| A | Like the a in far |
| E | Like the e in bet |
| I | Like the y in city |
| O | Like the o in sole |
| U | Like the oo in moon |
Glottal
'U'ina (written with an apostrope, ') is a glottal consonant, and takes the form of a very brief break in a word. It is very brief, and can be difficult to detect. The break in the English phrase "oh oh" gives an indication of the duration of the pause.
Pronunciation
'Orelo morphemes take the form of either an isolated vowel, or a consonant vowel combination. Morphemes are never more than two letters, and never end with a consonant. Likewise, words always end in vowels, never consonants.
Examples | |
| Word | Pronunciation |
|---|---|
| Kaika | Ka-i-ka |
| Arahoi'i | A-ra-ho-i-'i |
| 'Orelo | 'O-re-lo |
| Ahi'ahi | A-hi-'a-hi |
Common Words and Phrases
| A hui hou kakou | until we meet again |
| Ahi'ahi | hello |
| A 'ole pilikia | no problem |
| Akahele | be careful |
| E tomo mai | welcome |
| Malihini | "outsider" (non-Arahoi'i) |
| Nui loa | thank you |
| Pomaika 'i | good luck |
| Pu'ulu | family (refers to the currently living generation of Arahoi'i) |
| Kamali'i | children (used for any generation in the clade younger than the speaker's) |
| Kula hoa | reference mate (used for any of the same generation as the speaker) |
| Honi | kiss |
| 'Anakala | uncle (used for males of any generation in the clade older than the speaker's) |
| 'Anake | aunt (used for females of any generation in the clade older than the speaker's) |
| 'Ao'ao | clade (refers to the Arahoi'i genotype as a whole, past, present and future. Not the same as family, which is "Pu'ulu") |