Word Order in Phrases

Phrases have head-final word order, i.e. numbers first, then adjectives, and then nouns.

Putting a noun right next to another noun means that it is both of those things at the same time.

If we want a noun to be modified by another noun, the modifier (i.e. the secondary or attributive noun) must be turned into the "genitive form" by replacing the final -a with an -o and be placed before the primary noun (head). We can also put the primary noun before the modifier if we turn the primary noun into the "construct form" by replacing the final -a with an -e. This allows flexibility in word order.

We can turn genitives, adjectives, and verb roots into nouns by adding -sa: X-sa means 'something that does X' or 'something with an X quality' (for more information about word derivation, see: affixes).

Since the X-sa form is a noun, it can be placed before or after the original head noun because they both have equal status in describing the referred object. So now, we can switch the order of the words around to disambiguate multiple modifiers vs compound adjectives.

Word Order in Sentences

Sentences have a subject-verb (SV) or subject-predicate (SP) structure. The word ai works like a copula to make a statement about the identity, characteristic, or activity of the subject. You can think of it like a ∈ symbol, where "A ∈ B" means 'A is an element of B' or 'A is an example of B'.

(the person 'I' is an example of what we call 'a human')

('that tree' is an example of what we call 'a tall thing')

('this bird' is an example of what we call 'a singing thing')

For brevity, the final /a/ sound of a noun can be omitted. In writing, we may indicate this with the letter ă, an apostrophe ', or even eliminating the letter altogether (for more information about vowel reduction, see: phonology).

Sentences with objects are usually expressed with an SOV-like (subject-object-verb) structure. The ""object"" is technically just a modifier that is formed by turning a noun into its "genitive form": the final -a is replaced with an -o and is placed before the verb.

If the speaker is more comfortable with an SVO-like structure (subject-verb-object), the verb is treated like a "construct form": the verb gets an -e ending and the ""object"" is placed after it in bare form.

The ""object"", or more accurately the modifier of a verb can be anything: direct object (patient), destination/recipient, time, manner, location, etc. To specify the semantic role, we need to use a preposition (for more information, see: preposition-3)

Negation

We can negate a phrase by adding the word non, 'not', in front of that phrase (for more information on negating multiple arguments, see: conjunctions).

Question

We can make a question by replacing the requested information with kua 'what'. The expected answer is simply the one word/phrase that was requested or a relevant explanation about the situation (e.g. misconception or lack of information).

Yes-or-No questions can be made my adding au kua 'or what' (can also be shortened to just au ... 'or...?') at the end of the sentence. The expected answer is either ai (yes), non (no), or a relevant explanation about the situation (e.g. misconception or lack of information).

In informal speech, we can shorten au kua to just 'au.