Nolikan

Nolikan is the language of the Nolikans of Hudar, as well as sacred language of Norhabimism. It belongs to the Hacheric family.

Phonology
All syllables have (C)V(C) structure. Stress falls on one of the three last syllables of the word.

Vowels
There are five vowel phonemes: /a e i o u/. There is some allophony:


 * /e/ is realized as [ɛ] in closed syllables that don't end in a nasal consonant
 * /o/ is realized as [ɔ] in closed syllables that don't end in a nasal consonant
 * /a/ is realized as [ɐ] in unstressed open syllables

Consonants
1 - [ŋ] is an allophone of /n/ before /k g/

2 - Occurs only as an epenthetic sound before a word-initial vowel

3 - These affricates are allophones of /s ɬ/ after /r l n ʧ/; in some dialects also after /p k/

4 - The combination /hk/ is always pronounced as [xk].

5 - A fricative, [], occurs in many dialects instead of [g]. This never happens in word-initial position or after /n/.

Stress

 * In verbs, the stress falls on the vowel before the last consonant of the stem. The exceptions are verbs whose stems end with a vowels, for example the stem sibu 'believe' yields sibuamo 'I believe him' [sibu'amo], with stress shifted from fourth syllable from the end to the penultimate.


 * In other parts of speech, the vowel before the word's last consonant is stressed: sisu 'horse' ['sisu], koman 'feast' [ko'man]


 * The plural ending -ak is never stressed

Writing
Nolikan is written with a syllabary, which has 101 glyphs in total. The syllabary was borrowed from the Yoketi, though Norhabimists would argue that it was God Himself who has taught it to the Prophet.

Every possible CV syllable has its own glyph (janjarol). CVC syllables are written as CV-Cu, when the vowel is rounded, or CV-Ci if otherwise. For example mek 'people' is written  and sul 'sad' is written . Word-final /i/ and /u/ are written using an additional glyph. Joni 'feminine' is .

There are also three additional glyphs, representing the negative prefix al-, gemination and prenasalization. Attaf 'hero' is written  and munda 'bull' is spelled . These glyphs are also employed in inflectional endings, e.g. mevak 'legs' is  and šarbam 'I am loved' is <ša-ri-ba-N>.

Romanization employed here is rather straightforward. Postalveolars are written as <č j š>, the lateral fricative as <ļ> and /j/ as . Other letters have their IPA values.

Morphology
Nolikan is a head-final, moderately fusional, polysynthetic language. Verbs are inflected for ergative and absolutive arguments, as well as indirect objects.

Verbal inflections
Middle voice, declares that the subject of the verb is acting and the action is received by itself. Reciprocal voice is formed from the middle voice by changing -a to -i. Eg. ankidarda 'they wash themselves' vs ankidardi 'they wash one another'.

Negation of a verb is formed by prefixing al-. This morpheme has lot of allomorphs: l- before perfective verbs, an- before an initial /n/, aļ- before /p t č k/, as- before /s/, aš- before /š/ and ay- before /y/ Reduplication of the first syllable expresses intensity: vak 'big' yields vavak 'very big'. This applies mostly to adjectives, but can be used with other parts of speech as well: kikiabe 'it rains heavily', bibinat 'girly girl'.

Parts of speech are not strictly separated. Nouns and adjectives receive absolutive verbal endings instead of a copula: meriš 'you are a man', otugiš 'you are stupid'. In fact, native grammarians divide Nolikan vocabulary into yočaļak, which include nouns, adjectives and participles, and piraļak, which are personal verbal forms.

Nolikan has also an imperative formed with two suffixes, which are always stressed:
 * í, when the addressee is absolutive: čolí 'run!'
 * ú, when the addressee is ergative. Absolutives are treated as indirect objects in imperative sentences: matečandú 'give it to me!'

There is no infinitive. There are two participles: absolutive, which is a bare stem, and ergative, formed with -m after a vowel and -im after a consonant.

Aspect
There are no tenses or moods per se, there is only a perfective aspect formed by prefixing e- before a consonant and er- before a vowel. It is used to:
 * talk about bygone things: Enejam, maškel eneabam 'As a child, I hated milk'
 * express the fact that an event is completed before another one starts: Sokmak erankiderja va elladarka jimiš 'When you wash your teeth, you will go to school'

Irregular verbs

 * The verb meaning 'to exist' has the following personal forms: dem diš de do den deol deš dak.
 * The verbs pir 'do', ag 'can' čar 'speak, say', lin' 'see' and jat 'have' have also somewhat shortened personal forms. For example 'I say it' is čarme and linjo is 'you see her'.

Plurals
Plurals are formed by adding -ak to a noun or adjective. If the noun ends in p t č or k, the consonant becomes voiced.

There are some irregular nouns:
 * /u/ replaces /o/ before syllable-final nasal consonants. In plurals, /o/ is restored: jun 'woman' > jonak
 * epenthetic vowels are deleted in plurals: tolok 'tree' > tolgak
 * some words are unpredictable, e.g. nan 'mother' > nanok, kilis 'foot' > kissak

Relational nouns
Nolikan has no preposition, but has relational nouns instead. These form compounds with normal nouns and create together equivalents of English pronominal expressions: ben-di in a house', ettavit 'with a dog'. Relational nouns can be used alone to mean parts of the human body or more abstract ideas: jopak 'the back', gor 'the outside'. Like normal nouns, relationals have plurals and can be possessed, e.g. topan 'on him'

Syntax
The default word order is SOV. SVO is used to emphasize the object. Adjectives and possessive expressions precede nouns, but numerals and relative clauses follow them. Singular nouns are used after numerals: etta puja 'four dogs'.

Indirect objects are placed before the direct object, but follow the subject. Relational expressions begin the sentence:

Saruktardi mahimmi nejak unseholak tačandota 'In the marked, my aunt gives toys to the children'

History
Nolikans came to the Len valley from the Šilkari plain, inhabited today by their kinsmen the Tulahi, around -700, assimilating the native people called Tamma or Tamra. Initially they were a pastoral people, but later they learned agriculture based on corn from the Tamma and Yoketi. They learned writing as well. This marked the beginning of the so-called Pagan Period. Most documents from this period are inscriptions and poems. Linguistically this period is marked by presence of glottal stops and in the oldest period ergative ending -a on nouns.

Initially, the Nolikans had a number of city states (Fejandar, Ituka, Kasvina, Malnerjak), but eventually created what is known in history as the Old Kingdom (Vot Ardaļ) with capital in Kasvina (modern Kazvin).

Revelation of monotheism to Norhabim starting with the year 12 (The prophet's conventional date of birth is beginning of the Hudari calendar) marks the beginning of the Golden Period. The language of revelations (Anki Čorbaļ, 'pure teachings') is considered the best standard for any formal writing. After the conquest of Yoket, the Pure Empire or Ankibadaļ was created. Peace across the civilized world ensured, literature had now a great opportunity to flourish.

After about the year 400, the spoken language started to diverge from the scriptural standard. Poets of this so-called Copper Period continued to write in a highly stylized and polished variety of the spoken language.

Ankibadaļ collapsed in 896. In the dark ages of feudalism that lasted till the end of the 13th century, there was very few writing at all. In 14th century an equivalent of Renaissance occurred. By this time, early forms of descendants of Nolikan-- Šarajy and Myengeli-- already existed and were used mostly in comedies. Two nations corresponding to those languages: Šaraj and Myengew exist till today, together with the Free City of Kazvin.

In the end of the second millennium, Nolikan is no longer a spoken language but it remains used in literature, science, prepared speeches, radio and TV broadcasts except entertaining ones, which use the modern dialects. The modern 'eloquent language' is a mixture of forms from the Golden and Copper Periods.

Nolikans are usually long-faced, high-headed and hook-nosed people. Their hair are red or chestnut. Men usually wear lose trousers and shirts reaching to mid-thigh. Women wear long sleeved dresses. Both sexes cover their heads with a piece of cloth called finļe.

Schleicher's fable
The Sheep and the Horses

On a hill, a sheep that had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly. The sheep said to the horses: "My heart pains me, when a man drives horses". The horses said: "Listen, sheep, our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a garment for himself. Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

Jia va sisuak

Ečandi, kumaļup jia sisuak elinota: ļak dap samok erusorote, ļak vak šuhat erafudote va ļak mer erafudoto šufo. Jia sisubuak etačarote: mapilač dendu jete, eso mer sisuak ardota. Sisuak etosigabato: Tatiče, ya jia, nipilajak dendu jate eso linene: mer, ardim, jia tokumahil toļegetka kačiete. Tet elinote jia buškerka ečolo.