The labialised velars only occur when preceding vowels a, e, and i. The phoneme /l/ is pronounced when preceding low vowels but when preceding high vowels. For example, lu'u is pronounced "ru'u".
Syllables
In the Kwaio language the bases are usually formed using stings of CVCV, but CVV, VCV, and VV appear because the consonants are sometimes dropped. There are no consonant clusters, and all syllables are open, so they end in a vowel.
Stress
When the same vowel appears twice in a row, the vowels act as separate syllables. Within morphemes, the stress is typically placed on the second-to-last vowel. When suffixes are attached to bases, the stress shifts to the second-to-last vowel according to this rule. One exception is when a verb is in the form CVV and a monosyllabic pronoun is attached to it as a suffix, in which case the stress does not move. For example, the verb fai 'scratch' is stressed on the , but in the suffixed form fai-a 'scratch it' the stress remains with the first and does not move to the .
Reduplication
In Kwaio, full and partial reduplication commonly occurs. It happens when showing the passage of time; to emphasize the meaning of an adjective ; to show continuous, prolonged, or repeated action in verbs ; or to indicate plurality in nouns.
The glottal stop is often omitted in the Kwaio language when there are successive syllables that use the glottal stop. This happens across the word boundary if one word ends in -V'V and the next starts 'V-, which will then be pronounced as VV'V, i.e. one of the glottal stops is dropped. An example of this is te'e + 'ola → tee'ola.
Morphology
Similar to other Melanesian languages, Kwaio uses two morphological classes: bases and particles. More complex forms can be made by modifying bases by adding affixes or by conjoining bases. Particles attach to bases and show the relationship between phrases and clauses. The bases follow the syllable pattern CVCV, CVV or VCV.
Possessive Nouns
Similar to other languages on Malaita, the Kwaio language does not show possession of food and drinks, but it adds the possessive particlea-, e.g. 'ifi a-gu 'my house'. To show alienable possession, Kwaio uses fue nua which translates to 'my namesake'. Nouns are not strictly alienable or inalienable, instead the possession forms a semantic relationship between nouns. Possession must be looked at with a wider scope to establish where the possession belongs as nouns may be possessed differently using markers.
If an inanimate noun is countable, it can be quantified by either a number or ni, which is a plural article. For example, in ni 'ai 'trees' the noun 'ai 'tree' is marked by the plural article. ni or numerals cannot be used when a noun is uncountable or a mass object. For example, one 'sand' refers to a mass substance, so *ni one is ungrammatical. Yet, certain mass nouns can be quantified with an additional measure word, e.g. in oru foo'i one 'three grains of sand' the measure word foo'i 'grains' is used to quantify one 'sand'.
Pronouns
There are 15 personal pronouns in Kwaio, covering four number categories and four persons. The language also distinguishes focal and referencing pronoun. The pronouns are shown in the table below. The vowels in parentheses are optional vowel lengthening.
Number
Person
Focal Pronoun
Referencing Pronoun
Gloss
Singular
first
nau
ku
"I"
Singular
second
'oo
"you"
Singular
third
ngai
"he, she, it"
Dual
first incl.
da'a
golo
"you two"
Dual
first excl.
me'e
mele
"we two "
Dual
second
mo'o
molo
"you two"
Dual
third
ga'a
gala
"they two"
Trial
first incl.
dauru
goru
"we three "
Trial
first excl.
meeru
meru
"we three "
Trial
second
mooru
moru
"you three"
Trial
third
gauru
garu
"they three"
Plural
first incl.
gia
ki
"we "
Plural
first excl.
mani
mi
"we "
Plural
second
miu
mu
"you"
Plural
third
gila
la
"they"
Verbs
Verbs in Kwaio fall into two categories: active verbs, which describe actions, and stative verbs, which describe states. Active verbs can be broken up into two more categories, namely transitive and intransitive verbs. The verbs can generally be distinguished by the relationship with noun phrases that are in the sentence or clause.
Syntax
Sentences in Kwaio either have verbal predicates or do not. If a sentence has a verbal predicate, a comprising declarative, or is an interrogative sentence, it follows an SVO word order. Phrases in Kwaio include noun phrases, verb phrases, prepositional phrases, and temporal phrases. Sentences that do not have a verbal predicate include sentences that are equational and locative. Types of sentences include declarative verbal sentences, stative verbal sentences, and verbless declarative sentences. Questions have no special morphological marking but are indicated with intonation contours. The passage of time can be represented with reduplication and repetition, as in eeleka leeleka leeleka ma la age no'o i mae-na 'He ran away into the forest and they gave the feast for his death', where the verb leka 'go' is reduplicated and repeated.
