Nolikan

The Nolikan language (native name: Nolikine carag) is an umbrella term for a group of related dialects of the Khacheric family. The language discussed here is the classical language of the Ankawidan empire (specifically called Ankawidano carag; possibly Anglicized as Ankawidanian), modern dialects are very divergent and the speakers use this one as a standard. It is also the language of the Acobisak, the Nurkhasibite holy book.



Vowels
The vowels /i u/ are always pronounced, but in unstressed open syllables before /j w/ they can be deleted - miyan 'dark' is more often pronounced than. Remaining three vowels are found in pairs of allophones: /e o/ are lowered to before  and after. In unstressed open syllables /a/ becomes.

Consonants
There is obviously some allophonic variation, as described below:
 * 1) A glottal stop occurs predictably before an initial vowel, e.g. anka 'pure' . It may be considered phonemic or not.
 * 2) are dental;  are laminal alveolars
 * 3) /s z ɬ/ become affricates after.
 * 4) /n/ assimilates to a following velar stop
 * 5) voiced obstruents are devoiced before a voiceless one. Sabxam 'dog (loc.)' is pronounced . However, there is no anticipatory voicing: eļga 'rib' is pronounced

Stress
When a word ends in a consonant, the last syllable is stressed; otherwise - the penultimate. The exceptions occur in some inflexional forms and are always marked in this grammar.

Phonotactics
Primary syllable structure of Nolikan is CV(C), where /p w/ do not occur in coda position (at least in native vocabulary) and /j/ only in muyga 'mumble, jabber'.

Geminates are banned; even in compounds they are simplified to simple consonants. However, many denizens of Ankawidan pronounced /ld/ as /ll/.

Syncope
It is an important phenomenon, occurring in many inflectional forms. Wherever three syllables of the form CV-CV-CV(C) occur, having the same vowel, the middle vowel is deleted. For example the locative of carag 'language' is cargam not caragam. On the other hand, the first person present of zahla 'to answer' is zahalda, because the syncope occurred in the 3rd person but not in the 1st.

Grammar
Nolikan is a fusional language.

Noun
Nouns are inflected for case and number. Plurals almost always end in -ak

Nolikan has 5 cases: ergative, absolutive, dative, genitive and locative. There is also a vocative particle ya, as in ya Esax 'O God'.

There is no morphological distinction between nouns and adjectives. Nouns used as modifiers are always in absolutive singular, as in mal karzusa 'sweet kiss', ergative: mal karzusal, genitive plural: mal karzusane.

Declensions
Declension I – nouns ending in -a - cida 'day'

Declension II – nouns ending in a consonant - sabax 'dog'

Nouns that end in a stop have -še in dative plural and -ekam in locative plural. Note also the syncope in sabxam.

There is a group of nouns stressed on the penultimate syllable. They have syncope before all endings which begin with a consonant: náraj 'boat', gen. sing. narjo but gen. pl. narajne.

A number of nouns in e i, such as pulhi 'belt' belong here. Wherever a hiatus could occur, an intrusive ģ is added (pulhiģil, pulhiģak). Me 'leg' and gi 'tooth' receive a w instead.

declension III – nouns in vowels other than /a/ - mabu 'grandmother'

The noun mek 'people' has its own declension. It occurs in the plural only.

Case usage
The absolutive marks experiencer or the patient in a transitive sentence. By combining two nouns in this case, one forms an equative sentence:
 * Ankawidan karu 'Land of the Pure is rich'
 * Kur mij girbad 'This man is a chieftain'

The ergative marks the agent in a transitive sentence. It is also used for causes of states and events:


 * ahmeha rogasal sul 'Sad because of a friend's death

With verbs of perception, the roles are reversed:


 * Binat cumanil linate 'The girl saw a barbarian' (he caused her to see him)

The genitive marks possessor or the source of motion: It is also used before relational nouns:
 * axcino sabax 'the boy's dog'
 * acwiro zelanda 'I went from the city (by foot)'
 * tolokne niram 'above the trees'

The dative marks indirect objects, as well as a superior in a relationship:
 * Xasibil Datriš yag kenate 'Khasib gave the knife to Datri'
 * axcince menor 'the boys' father'
 * Esaxiš jimran 'I worship God'

Subjects of modal verbs are in the dative:
 * Lamiš salawam colatu pirnat 'Noone is allowed to run naked'

It marks also the goal of motion:


 * Ļimsariš dode 'the road to Tlimsar'

The locative marks location or path: It is the case in which the relational nouns are used:
 * acwiram mek 'the people in the city'
 * dodayam zela 'he is going down the road'
 * biškum šayam 'inside the belly'

As the example above indicates, it is also used before relational nouns if the location is inside the landmark chosen.

The locative has also an adverbial and comparative function:
 * cetikam zalat 'She sings freely' (sc. as she wants to)
 * horbiļam ruz 'evil as a demon'

Most verbs have an ergative-absolutive allignment, but some have different. As seen above, jimra 'to worship, pray' has absolutive-dative, as do some other verbs, e.g. šarbe 'love'.

Relational nouns
Relational nouns are normal nouns gramatically, but they are distinguished by their meanings. Generally, they denote spatial relations. For example, nir means 'up', 'the upper part of something'. Relational nouns in the locative, genetive and dative are equivalents of Indo-European prepositions. Therefore, niram means 'above' or 'about', niro means 'from above' and niriš 'up (as a direction)'. Similarly, ļub means 'lack (of something)' but ļubam is 'without'.

Personal pronouns
Short forms of the genitive are used only directly before nouns and only in the sense of possession. Therefore 'a gift from you' is ceha keneļo, not **ce keneļo.

Demonstrative pronouns
There are three basic ones: kad 'so', kur 'this' and haģe 'that'. They are the basis of all demonstrative expressions:
 * kuram 'here' and hayam 'there' (both are locative cases of the aforementioned pronouns)
 * kum < *kur xazum 'now' and hazum < *haģe xazum 'then'

Negative and interrogative pronouns
They form pairs, differing only in initial consonant:
 * mam 'who' and lam 'no one'
 * mina 'where' and lina 'nowhere'
 * maļ 'what' and ļaļ 'nothing'
 * mange 'which' and lange 'neither'
 * ma and la (see below)

There are three interrogative pronouns with no negative counterpart: mište 'how many', maš 'when' and mok 'how'. Case forms are also employed: maļo means 'why' and maļiļ - 'what for'.

There are also negative pronouns resulting from prefixing la 'no' before a demonstrative pronoun or relational noun, e.g. lakad 'no way' or laxzum 'never'.

Nolikan has no wh-movement, unlike English:


 * Šarbidan maļ? 'What is love?'
 * Šarnaxil mam mandate? 'Whom has the sharnakh eaten?'

Yes/no questions are formed by placing ma before the sentence:


 * Ma sol liniš? 'Do you see it'

Any word can be negated by using la (al before vowels). To negate a sentence, one adds it before the VP:
 * Tol al Esax zibat. 'She does not believe in God'

Another negative particle, bano, implies that the information negated used to be true:
 * Bano en wimaj. 'I am no longer strong'

Verbs
Verbs agree with the absolutive argument of the sentence. There is no infinitive; the quotation form is the 3rd person present tense. Note that in the 3rd person there is no difference between numbers.

The verbs presented are representative of the three regular conjugations. They mean 'lead, drink, hurt'. Obviously, there are irregularities within these paradigms. There are also three completely irregular verbs: ja 'do' and tis (existential verb).

Present
If a cluster of three consonants would occur, an e is added (šarbene instead of *šarbne 'I love'). After /l n/, the n in suffixes is dissimilated to d (kende instead of *kenne 'I give') and š to c (kence instead of *kenše 'you give'). The combinations tš</tt> and dš</tt> are replaced by c j</tt> - hypothetical *ģedše 'you fly' becomes ģeje.

Aorist
The aorist is used to express things true regardless of time; much like English Present Simple.

Future
The future, apart from its obvious function, expresses impossible things:
 * Takšahiš dode mina decore? 'Where is (literally: will be found) the road to Texas?' (Texas was on another planet and there is no road there)

Other forms
The imperatives work as in a nominative-accusative language, with the object put after them (this is the only exception from the verb-final word order):
 * Mandi wed! 'Eat bread'

The supine express a goal and is also used before modal verbs:
 * Neš jolutu korja 'I want to live'

Antipassive is formed by adding augment at the begining of the verb:


 * Mulumoļ wed mande 'Workers eat bread'
 * Mulumak amande 'Workers eat (something)'

If the stem of the verb begins with a vowel, intrusive r</tt> occurs to prevent hiatus. The antipassive cannot take a patient complement, at least in classical Ankawidanian. Constructions with the dative are however common in dialects.

There are two more voices: middle, formed by the ending -rá and reciprocal in -ris:
 * jegutrá 'they hurt themselves'
 * jegutris 'they hurt one another/each other'

Optative is formed using the particle du after the verb in any tense:
 * Nal kur solkel la mahate du. 'I wish I hadn't drunk that wine'
 * Lemyadan cal decore du. 'May you find happiness'

Numerals
Other numbers are formed in a completely regular way, by summing the multiples of powers of ten: 2744 is po tehirak xaje tagniyak bir šodak bir.

Fractions are formed with the denominator in genitive plural: maxke pehne '3/8'. A few ones have their lexical names: habal '1/2', butre '1/3', pakawa '1/4' and xul '1/5'.

Derivational morphology
Suffixation is the most common derivational process. Most common suffixes are given below:


 * -m – added to a verbal stem to form name of an agent
 * kumre 'to listen' →kumrim 'listener'
 * -ļo used to form names of results of the action :
 * mospa 'to defeat' →mospaļo 'spoils of war'
 * -sa to form nomina actionis:
 * karazo 'to kiss' →karzusa 'a kiss'
 * -d –forms names of patients:
 * juke 'to hunt' →juked 'game animal'
 * -dan (with -tan and -an as variants) form abstract nouns:
 * bar 'worthy' →bardan 'worth, honor'
 * toš 'equal' →toštan 'equality'
 * wimaj 'strong' →wimajan 'strength'
 * -kar and -men for place names
 * nuda 'to wash' →nudakar 'bathroom'
 * hanwe 'flower' →hanwekar 'garden'
 * waho 'deity' →wahomen 'a shrine'
 * -i (-ni after a vowel) forms names of inhabitants:
 * Yoket →Yoketi 'Yoketian'
 * Šilkarya →Šilkaryani
 * the same suffix forms names of members of collectives:
 * cuma 'horde' →cumani 'barbarian, vandal'
 * -ade forms names of materials:
 * hagala 'cow' →haglode 'beef'
 * tolok 'tree' →tolkade 'wood'
 * -cin for diminutives and -mu for augmentatives:
 * pilac 'heart' →pilacin 'little heart'
 * bur 'settlement' →bormu 'town'
 * -hob (in itself meaning 'thing') for inanimate objects:
 * šil 'beautiful' →šilhob 'ornament'
 * ziwale 'to play' →ziwalihob 'toy'
 * -waš forms names of people according to their affinities:
 * jego 'hurt' →jegwaš 'cruel'

The most unusual part of the Nolikan derivational system are infixes, used to form verbs from verbs. They are usually placed before the last consonant of the root:


 * ⟨tu⟩ - causative (used only with intransitive verbs)
 * jolo 'to live' →jotulo 'to conceive', 'to beget'
 * ⟨xa⟩ - trying to achieve the meaning of the main verb
 * pela 'to hold' →pexala 'to desire'
 * ⟨za⟩ - inchoative
 * xirpe 'to sleep' →xirzape 'to fall asleep'
 * ⟨li⟩ - strengthening the meaning of the main verb
 * tiba 'to lead' →tiliba 'to rule'
 * ⟨ni⟩ - end of an action
 * jolo 'to live' →jonilo 'to die of natural causes'

The only really productive prefix is ku-, adding a sinister aspect to the meaning:
 * kel 'water' →kukel 'flood'
 * šub 'fast' →kušub 'mad, insane'

Nolikan has also many compound words, especially tatpurusas, cf. duštisabax 'dachshund' (literally: hole-dog). Compounds with verbs (cf. zaljun < zala-jun 'sing-woman', 'songstress') and relational nouns (cf. biškawada 'belly-below', 'crotch') are also common.

Syntax
Nolikan uses typically SOV word order and is consistently head-final. As in any fusional language, the word order is more free than in English.

Expressing possession
There is no verb meaning 'to have'. Two constructions can be used to replace it:


 * Joniš yag kenate. 'The woman as a knife', literally: 'A knife has been given to the woman'
 * Jono yag tiste. Literally, 'woman's knife exists'.

The construction with the existential verb tis in the aorist is obligatory when talking about inalienable entities:


 * To šil xorak tiste 'She has beautiful eyes'

Comparisons
Comparisons are done using the relational noun pan 'beyond':
 * Datri Xasibo panam wimaj. 'Datri is stronger than Khasib' (literally: strong beyond Khasib)

Superlative is replaced by the word hupan, etymologically hud-pan 'beyond all':
 * Hupan perdu 'the ugliest'
 * Hupan yatwe 'the wisest'

Before non-adjectival nouns, hupan acquires the meaning of 'having the most typical qualities of an X' or 'superior as an X':
 * Hupan oteb 'the greatest despot'
 * Hupan binat 'the most girly girl'

Subordination
There are two subordinating particles, dar for absolutives and dil for ergatives:


 * Mijil solkel mahe 'Man drinks wine'
 * mijil dar-mahe solkel 'the wine drunk by the man'
 * solkel dil-mahe mij 'the man that drinks wine'


 * Axcin arģa 'Boy sits'
 * dar-arģa axcin 'the boy that sits'

Other components of sentence cannot be subordinated. Periphrastic strategies are employed, for example nominalization:


 * Cumaniha zalsaha xazum karzatoris. 'They kissed when the barbarian was singing' (literally: during the barbarian's singing)

Other strategy is to juxtapose the clauses. The subordination is implied:


 * Cumani zalata, karzatoris (literally: the barbarian was singing, they kissed)

Conjunctions
Among most popular ones are:
 * ahno 'so': Behar da, ahno la zahlare 'He is dead, so he won't answer'
 * bil 'in order to', 'because': Meljandiyak ruzak bil šarnaxce jimrat 'The Meljanese are evil, because they worship sharnakhs'
 * sax 'but': la nokri da, sax arzu 'It's no hawk, it's an eagle'
 * ul 'or': cetik ul behar 'Free or dead'
 * si 'and': axcin si binat 'Boy and girl'
 * ter 'if': Ter šec la mulutu korja, la mandi 'If you don't want to work, don't eat'

Quoting
There are two ways to quote other person's words.

The first, favored by classical Ankawidanian, uses the subordinators dar- and dil-:


 * Bot dar-zalat minuwak carata 'The old man said that the stars sing', literally 'said the stars singing'

This is practical only when the sentence quoted is short. Therefore, for longer sentences, another construction is used. The sentence quoted is incorporated into the main one as the pronoun kur and then quoted verbatim:


 * Bot kur carata, minuwak zala, literally 'The old man said this, the stars sing'.

This construction is virtually the only one used in colloquial speech.

Names
Every adult Nolikan has two names. The first is childhood name, given by the mother after birth. These names are usually admired qualities or objects: Wimaj 'Strong' or Tehen 'Tiger' for boys; Anka 'Pure' or Hanwe 'Flower' for girls. After their 12th birthday (15 in Earth years), a Nolikan would choose his adult name, usually conveying a statement: Nokruled 'Hawk-Son' chosen by an emperor to honor one's father, or the name of the prophet, Nurxasib 'Virtue-Peace'. Parents would still call one by one's childhood name.

Referring to a person officially, one uses the father's name in the genitive before the proper name.

Writing system
Nolikan has its own syllabary, based on the Yoketian syllabary, which was created from earlier ideograms. For example the syllable &lt;ya&gt; is written using a descendant of ancient Yoketian hieroglyph for ram (ya'ak). Each CV syllable has its own unique glyph. More complex syllables are written using combinations of two or three glyphs, as in maxke, written &lt;ma-xa-ke&gt;.