Bavanda

Bavanda (IPA: [ba.ˈβãː.da] (native), [bə.ˈvɑːn.də] or [bə.ˈvæn.də] (American), also written as Bavānda) is an Austronesian language spoken on the Harvian Islands. There is an Eastern and a Western variant. The Eastern is considered standard.

Consonants

 * 1) Only in English loanwords.
 * 2) Allophones.

All voiceless plosives may be aspirated, except for /ʔ/.

Vowels

 * 1) Only used in unstressed syllables.
 * 2) /e/ only occurs not nasalized, /ɛ/ only nasalized.
 * 3) /o/ only occurs not nasalized, /ɔ/ only nasalized.

Vowels can be nasalized and can be long and short.

Nouns
There are no cases, only particles. Plural is constructed using reduplication, f.e.: damāroa (man) - dandamāroa (men) and bola (animal) - bōbola (animals). A plural noun always has a long vowel. In order to indicate a group or a collection, the noun is repeated: fare (house) - fare-fare (a group of houses, a village). When indicating something is small, the last syllable is repeated, f.e.: pīre (bird) - pīrere (small bird, tropical perching bird). This system of reduplication can change the meaning of a word as well in some rare instances, f.e. ’aruo (forest) - ’aruo’(u)o (tree). This can even lead to reduplication in phases, a sort of comparison with nouns. F.e. pei (house) - pepei (village) - peipei (town) - pepeipei (large group of houses, city).

Verb
The conjunctive is constructed by reduplicating the last syllable, f.e.: kalopēda (bless) - kalopēdada. The imperative is constructed by duplicating the stressed vowel: kalopēda - kalopēpeda.

Pronouns are indicated by adding a short prefix, f.e.: ’ārofa (to love) -> ’a’ārofa (I love). If the verb begins with a consonant, an extra -e- is added: sau (to come) -> da’esau (you come). When the pronoun is omitted, an infinitive is formed. If the particle u is preceding the verb, an adjective is formed, compare ’ārofa (to love) - ’u ’ārofa (loved sth ).

Example

 * Se ’a’elai ’i moa ’ālu doavai: Se (past particle) ’a’e- (I) lai (eat) ’i (accusative particle) moa (chicken) ’ālu (I) doavai (yesterday): I ate chicken yesterday (not somebody else).