olili-lan is a conlang (constructed language) intended to be a small,
minimalist, and easy to learn. It is not
meant to be a complex, naturalistic and specific language. It has a reduced
dictionary on purpose (less than 200
root words), trying to balance simplicity and communication potential.
olili-lan is mainly influenced by tokipona and ygyde, with some extra bits of
English, Portuguese, South Pacific
Pidgins, and Hawaiian. It is also a philosophical and abstract language,
styled after the
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
2. Phonology and Writing System
2.1. Consonants
consonants
Bi labial
Labio dental
Alveolar
Dorsal
Nasal
m
n
Plosive
p
t
k
Fricative
v
s z
Lateral Approximant
l
"All the consonants are pronounced like any person who speaks a Western
Germanic language would expect them to be,
so if you are familiar with English or Dutch this should be straightforward
for you.
The s is normally pronounced as /s/ when in the beginning and middle of
words, and as /z/ at the end.
For those who can't read IPA symbols, the approximate pronunciation in
American English is shown below:
consonants
Letter
IPA Symbol
American English (sound in bold)
k
k
kiss
l
l
let
m
m
him
n
n
month
p
p
pack
s
s
sand
s (end of word)
z
zoo
t
t
tick
v
v
valve
2.2. Vowels
vowels
Front
Back
Close
i
Mid
ɛ
ɔ
Open
a
olili-lan's vowels are quite unlike English ones. Whereas vowels in English
are quite arbitrary and can be
pronounced tons of different ways depending on the word, olili-lan's vowels
are all regular and never change
pronunciation. If you're familiar with Portuguese or Spanish, or certain
other languages, especially romance ones,
then your work is already cut out for you. The vowels are the same as they
are pronounced when isolated in these
languages.
For those who can't read IPA symbols, the approximate pronunciation in
American English is shown below:
vowels
Letter
IPA Symbol
American English (sound in bold)
a
a
hat
e
ɛ
bed
i
i
free
o
ɔ
thought
2.3. Writing System
All olili-lan words have no case distinctions, like Arabic, for example. This
means that you do not need to use
Upper Case letters even in the beginning of phrases. This doesn't mean you
can't write it in Upper Case; you can,
but it won"t mean anything.
olili-lan consists in the Latin alphabet, albeit using only 12 letters: 8
consonants and 4 vowels.
alphabet
Vowels
a
e
i
o
IPA
/a/
/ɛ/
/i/
/ɔ/
Consonants
k
l
m
n
p
s
t
v
IPA
/k/
/l/
/m/
/n/
/p/
/s/,/z/
/t/
/v/
2.4. Hyphen
The hyphen (-) is used extensively in olili-lan. When you
make compound words, the hyphen is needed
between morphemes. It is also used for the plural and possessive suffixes,
adverbs, negation, male and female
prefixes, and the foreign words prefix, as explained in detail in section
3.3. Affixes.
2.5. Stress
Stress is always in the penult syllable. Below is a phrase in olili-lan, the
transcription into IPA characters, the
glossed version, and the English translation:
Stress
koko-ako, lo pi-eko tatono anaka-s, pi-etava avila
pepe-aposa.
/ˈkɔ.kɔ-akɔ | lɔ pi ɛkɔ
ta.ˈtɔ.nɔ a.ˈna.ka z | pi
ɛ.ˈta.va a.ˈvi.la pɛ.pɛ a.ˈpɔ.sa/
M-man, CONJ PST-have five children-PL, PST-go home now-day.
The man, who had five children, went home today.
3. Syntax
3.1. Word Order
Sentences in olili-lan follow the common Subject-Verb-Object
(SVO) order, like English. Check the
example below:
example
iti
emoki
apana
2SG
eat
food
This can also be easily identified by the start of the words: Since most
nouns, all adjectives and all verbs have
common starting letters, a simple sentence in olili-lan would have the
following letters starting the 3 words:
i e a
3.2. Tenses
There are three verbal tenses in olili-lan: Past, Future, and Infinitive. For
the present, use the infinitive form
of the verb. For the past and the future, you need to use the prefixes
"pi-" for
the past and
"ni-"
for the future.
3.3. Affixes
Olili-lan makes extensive use of prefixes and suffixes. These affixes modify
the meaning of the word or words they
are hyphenated with. Olili-lan is head final, meaning that the last word is
the most important. For example,
avava-apoki, meaning "car" or "motor vehicle", can be
translated literally as "power-vehicle".
3.3.1 Prefixes
prefixes
kaka-
Female
koko-
Male
pi-
Past
ni-
Future
na-
Negation (also used as "no" when not a prefix)
ken-
Question
mi-
Foreign Word
The
"mi-" prefix
is used preceding all foreign words, like names. The negation prefix
"na-" can
also be used isolated, but should be used as a prefix for clarity.
"ken-"
can also be used isolated " see
3.6. Interrogative.
3.3.2 Suffixes
suffixes
-s
Plural (when following a vowel)
-os
Plural (when following a consonant)
-v
Possessive (when following a vowel)
-iv
Possessive (when following a consonant)
-lem
Comparative (when following a vowel)
-em
Comparative (when following a consonant)
-lom
Superlative (when following a vowel)
-om
Superlative (when following a consonant)
When pluralizing a word (except for pronouns " see 4.1. Pronouns), use "-s"
when following a vowel and
"-os"
when following a consonant. This can also be done with verbs and adjectives;
the result would be difficult to
translate to English. See the examples below:
example
ili
elasa
akata
-s
3SG
hunt
animal
PL
example
ili
elasa
-s
akata
-s
3SG
hunt
PL
animal
PL
In this second case, using the plural suffix on the verb turns it into a
repeated action:
"He/She hunts animals many times".
3.4. Possessive
When indicating possession, you need to use the possessive suffixes on the
owner"s. Use "-v" when
following a vowel and
"-iv"
when following a consonant. See the examples below:
example
akali
-v
akalama
bird
POSS
noise
example
ilip
-iv
alo
-s
3PL
POSS
tool
PL
The phrase above translates as "Their tools". Note the
use of
"-iv"
following a word ending in consonant.
3.5. Comparison
To indicate comparatives and superlatives, the respective suffixes must be
used.
example
olete
olete-lem
olete-lom
cold
colder
coldest
The conjunction "pin", meaning "than", is also used in
comparisons.
example
ako
omama
-lem
pin
akala
person
big
COMP
CONJ
fish
example
ako
omama
-lom
person
big
SUPL
The phrases above translate as
"The person is bigger than the fish"
and
"The person is the biggest"
respectively.
3.6. Interrogative
Questions are asked by using the prefix
"ken-" on
the main verb.
example
ako
ken-
etoki
se
ako
person
Q
speak
PREP
person
In this example, the English translation could be
"The man asked the other man".
example
ako
ken-
etoki
se
ako
person
Q
speak
PREP
person
However,"ken"can also be used as a independent word,
meaning can:
example
ken
iti
ekama
se
i
-v
avila
Can
2SG
come
PREP
1SG
POSS
home
The phrase above could be translated as
"Can you come to my house?".
3.7. Negation
The negation word
"na"
can be used two ways: as a prefix and as an independent word.
example
ako
na-
omama
person
NEG
big
example
na
ako
lo
omama
NEG
person
ADV
big
The phrases above translate as
"The person is not big"
and
"No person is this big" respectively. Be aware that if you
used the
"na"
as prefix on the second phrase, preceding the noun, then it would translate
as
"Something that is not a person is this big".
4. Vocabulary
4.1. Pronouns
All pronouns start with i. Unlike English, and like many
other European languages, there is a
difference between you (singular) and you (plural). Check the table below.
pronouns
Singular
Plural
1st Person
i
ip
2nd Person
iti
itip
3rd Person
ili
ilip
Gender is non-existent unless specified. Should only be specified when
needed. The male and female pronouns
can be applied to the pronouns: For example, the literal translation of "he"
is koko-ili.
4.2. Nouns
Nouns in olili-lan mostly start by a. Nouns decline
indirectly according to gender and number, both
through the use of suffixes.
example
ip
ako
-s
1PL
person
PL
example
i
kaka-
ako
1PL
F
person
The phrases above can be translated as
"We are humans"
and
"I am a female"
respectively. Nouns are gender neutral by default, to infer gender use
"kaka-" and"koko-".
4.3. Verbs
Verbs in olili-lan always start by e. There is a "to be" verb
in olili-lan, but it is omitted in
normal conversation and writing, unless it is relating to another verb. This
works in a similar way to other natural
languages that omit the verb "to be", like Russian.
example
i
ako
1SG
person
example
i
evile
eli
amama
1SG
want
be
parent
Verbs in olili-lan don't change according to tense, you just need to add a
prefix for either future or past. For the
present, just leave the verb in the normal infinitive.
verb tenses
pi-
Past prefix
ni-
Future prefix
example
i eko omote amani.
I have a lot of money.
i pi-eko omote amani.
I had a lot of money.
i ni-eko omote amani.
I will have a lot of money.
4.4. Adjectives
Adjectives in olili-lan always start by a. For the
superlative and comparative forms, suffixes are
used. For more details, see section 3.5.
Comparison.
4.5. Prepositions
prepositions
se
to
sila
inside
ki
of
poko
with
pin
than
son
in/at/on
tan
from
taso
but
4.6. Colors
Olili-lan has a simple list of six core colors
(akolo-s).
colors
melo
yellow
mako
blue
maso
red
mato
green
valo
white
vola
black
Other colors can be mentioned in two ways:
By addition
colors
mako-maso
Purple
melo-maso
Orange
melo-maso-mato
Brown
By comparison
colors
atelo-akolo
Water color (light blue)
apalisa-akolo
Wood color (brown)
Amono-akolo
Moon color (whit/grey)
4.7. Numbers
Numbers in olili-lan "nanepa" are based on the body. The word
for five (tatono) is
similar to the word for hand (atono), while the word for
twenty, related to the number of fingers
in a hand. The word for twenty (tako) is similar to the word
for person (ako),
related to the sum of fingers and toes. The list of number-related root words
is shown below.
numbers
so
Zero/Nothing
ta
One
te
Two
ti
Three
to
Four
tatono
Five
tako
Twenty
kili
Hundred
mili
Thousand
tili
Million
To refer to other numbers, the words above must be used together, always
remembering that the last word of a
sequence is the most important.
numbers
Seven
tatono-te
Five-two
Fifteen
ti-tatono
Three-fives
Twenty-five
tako-tatono
Twenty-five
Sixty-four
ti-tako-to
Three-twenties-four
One hundred and eleven
kili-te-atono-ta
Hundred-two-fives-one
4.8. Directions
Directions are based on the cardinal points.
directions
amava
North - in front
ameve
East - Right
amivi
South - in the back
amovo
West - Left
The possessive can be used to refer to relative directions:
example
ili
son
i
-v
amovo
2SG
PREP
1SG
POSS
West/left
The phrase above could be translated as
"He is at my Left side".
example
ili
son
amovo
2SG
PREP
West/left
In this case, the phrase above could be translated as
"He is in the West".
4.9. Compound Words
Since olili-lan has a small number of root words (less than 200), compound
words are necessary to expose more
complex concepts. In this case, as mentioned before, hyphens must be used, and
the last word is the most important.
avava-apoki, means car (power-vehicle) while
apoki-avava
means the car"s fuel (vehicle-power).
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