Hihna

Hihna is a constructed language (conlang) developed by linguist Aiko N. Kato in 2014 for linguistic experimentation and worldbuilding. It is designed to illustrate agglutinative morphology and vowel harmony while remaining approachable for learners.

The language has a compact consonant inventory including p, t, k, m, n, s, l, r, h and a set of glottal stops. It uses five vowels a, e, i, o, u, with a light form of vowel harmony that aligns suffix vowels with the root's backness.

Morphology and syntax: Hihna is primarily agglutinative; nouns carry case markers for nominative, accusative, and oblique; verbs encode tense, aspect, mood via affixes; argument structure is fairly flexible due to rich morphology. The basic word order is SVO, but changes for focus are permitted.

Writings: The standard orthography uses a Latin-based alphabet with diacritics for vowel quality; an optional phonemic script has been proposed.

Lexicon and sample texts: Core vocabulary derives from native roots, with a productive process for coinages; sample phrases appear in the published grammar and introductory course materials.

Usage and status: Hihna has a small but active community of learners and conlang enthusiasts. It has published grammar, dictionary, and a beginner textbook; used in online forums and hobbyist conventions.

See also: Conlang, linguistic typology, worldbuilding.