pitaWiSa words

Morphology

All nouns end in "a", all verbs end in "u", and all adjectives and adverbs end in "i". All content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) contain at least two syllables, but function words (pronouns, prepositions, negatives etc.) may only contain one syllable. WiSaWiSa has very little inflection. The only process used to inflect words is total reduplication, single or double. Given a word AB, the singly-reduplicated form would be ABAB, and the doubly-reduplicated form would be ABABAB.
For nouns and pronouns, the singly-reduplicated form is the plural, so WiSaWiSa is the plural of WiSa. The doubly-reduplicated form is not used with nouns or pronouns.
For adjectives, the singly-reduplicated form is used for the comparative, while the doubly-reduplicated form is used for the superlative.
For verbs, the singly-reduplicated form is used for the past tense, while the doubly-reduplicated from may be used for the future, although the present, unreduplicated form is often used when future meaning is clear from the context.

Wordlist

This wordlist is still pretty small, but hopefully it will grow soon.

Transliteration Pronunciation Translation
tStkk tSika ear
kWkkk kWaka grass
kWkkt kWaki green
pk pa he/she (human)
Wk Wa he/she (WiSa)
tStkk tSika to hear
sk sa I, me
kWp kWu in
kwtpk kwipa house
kwt kwi not
pttk pita person
pstWp psiWu to sleep
tk ta you (singular)
tptk tuta tooth
tWpksk tWuksa tree



















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