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Mamoan [MAO]
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Typology New 406 words Mamoan
Registered by [Deactivated User] on 23 December 2016
Language type A posteriori
Species Human/humanoid
About Mamoan My first attempt at an a posteriori language.

Mamoan is a Polynesian language spoken on Mamoa, an island country in the East Pacific that lies roughly between Samoa and Tonga. It is believed to be most closely related to the Tongic languages but is distinctive enough to warrant its own family. It also has vocabulary unique to it, with some possibly being loan words from the now extinct native Melanesian language of Mamoa. Mamoan also shares some features and vocabulary with East Polynesian languages, like Hawaiian and Rapa Nui, despite the differences in location and grammar. This has all resulted in the exact classification of Mamoan to be quite difficult. The most popular theory suggests that the Mamoan's ancestors came from Tonga or East Polynesia and travelled west to Mamoa where they assimilated the local culture and their language.

Grammar:
1. Analytical language with numerous particles, expressing everything from number to tense.
2. VSO word order usually but this is changed to SVO in certain contexts.
3. Extensive use of reduplication. Complete reduplication is used to form adjectives from nouns and verbs (but not from reduplicated words)
E.g: loa (stick), loaloa (straight)

Partial reduplication of the first syllable expresses AUGAugmentative
a bigger, greater, stronger etc. version
or INTSIntensive. Reduplication can occur with nouns, adjectives or verbs.
E.g: matāŋi (to blow air), mamatāŋi (to blow hard, to blow over)

Partial reduplication of the last syllable of a noun expresses plurality but when it's of a verb it expresses intensity. Reduplication can occur with nouns, adjectives or verbs.
E.g:
Sample of MamoanCan't find any yet.
Latest vocabulary
voʻuadjnew
kawakevshine
mazīnanstar
Language family relationships
Language treeAustronesian
 ⤷ Proto-Austronesian
  ⤷ Malayo-Polynesian
   ⤷ Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian
    ⤷ Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
     ⤷ Oceanic
      ⤷ Central-Eastern Oceanic
       ⤷ Central Pacific
        ⤷ Polynesian
         ⤷  Mamoan
[view] About AustronesianThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia, Madagascar and the Pacific, with a few members on continental Asia, that are spoken by about 386 million people. A German scholar, Wilhelm Sch...
Phonology
ConsonantsBilabialLabio-
dental
AlveolarLabio-
velar
VelarPharyngealGlottalOther
Nasal m   n   ŋ      
Plosive p   t       ʔ  
Fricative   v z   [x]1 ʕ h [ɧ]2
Lateral approximant     l          
Approximant   ʋ   [w]3        
Flap     ɾ          
  1. h/x/oho,u, allophone of /h/
  2. Between short front vowels, allophone of /h/
  3. Intervocalic (unless because of reduplication), allophone of /m/
VowelsFrontBack
Close i i: u u:
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ: ɔ:
Open a a:  
Orthography
Below is the orthography for Mamoan. This includes all graphemes as defined in the language's phonology settings - excluding the non-distinct graphemes/polygraphs.
 MamoanOrthography [edit]
Āā/a:/Aa/a/Ēē/ɛ:/Ee/e/Hh/h/, [x]1, [ɧ]2Ii/i/Īī/i:/Kk/ʕ/Ll/l/Mm/m/, [w]3Nn/n/Oo/o/
Ōō/ɔ:/Pp/p/Rr/ɾ/Tt/t/Uu/u/Ūū/u:/Vv/v/Ww/ʋ/Zz/z/Ŋŋ/ŋ/ʻ/ʔ/
✖ Unknown alphabetical order [change]
  1. h/x/oho,u
  2. Between short front vowels
  3. Intervocalic (unless because of reduplication)
Typological information for Mamoan

Base counting systemDecimal (10)
Primary word orderVSO
Definite articleDistinct article
Noun numbersSingular/Paucal/Plural
Morphological typologyAnalytical

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