uoare

Uoare is a fictional language created for world-building and linguistic study. In its canonical description, Uoare is an isolated language spoken by a community on the fictional island of Uoare in the Great Archipelago. The language is portrayed as endangered, with a speaker population estimated at about 1,200 in the early 21st century within the constructed world. It has no confirmed relatives, and is treated as a language isolate in these sources.

Uoare has a modest phoneme inventory, including 14 consonants (p, b, t, d, k, g, m, n, s, l, r, w, y, h) and five vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Syllables are typically CV or CVC, with rare consonant clusters at word-initial position. The language is described as non-tonal, with stress usually on the penultimate syllable.

Grammar and syntax: Uoare follows a basic subject–verb–object (SVO) word order. It is analytic, with limited affixation; grammatical relations are expressed through postpositions and strict word order. Personal pronouns distinguish inclusive and exclusive 'we' and have singular and plural forms. Noun phrases lack articles; plurality is marked by a suffix, and demonstratives accompany nouns. Verbs show aspect markers such as -ta for completed actions and -mu for ongoing actions, but tense is largely inferred from context.

Writing and study: The traditional writing system of Uoare is described as a local syllabary, though most contemporary texts employ a Latin-based orthography. A small corpus of field notes and narratives has been created by fictional researchers, and some inscriptions on carved objects are cited in related world-building sources. The language is the focus of ongoing documentation and revival efforts within the island community, with educational programs and community-led documentation projects described in UNESCO-inspired meta-texts of the imagined world.