Nolikan

The Nolikan language (native name: Noliki čarg) is ethnic language of the Nolikan people, as well as sacred language of Nurhabim's religion. It is a descendant of Old Kusairan. The standard form is based on language from the so-called golden era of the Ankawi empire (3rd - 9th century); as a result spoken dialects are very divergent.

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: in open syllables and before a nasal consonant,  everywhere else. Stressed /a/ is always, however.

Consonants
The consonants in brackets exist only as allophonic variants

There is obviously some allophonic variation, as described below:
 * 1) /g/ becomes  after vowels and liquids /r l j w/
 * 2) A glottal stop occurs predictably between two vowels and before an initial vowel, e.g. raib 'sword' or anki 'pure' . It may be considered phonemic or not.
 * 3) are dental;  are laminal alveolar
 * 4) /s/ in native Kusairan words is used only after i u or before p t.

Stress
Nolikan has a dynamic stress, which is placed on the penultimate syllable when the word ends with a vowel, otherwise on the final. In Roman transcription h is used after a final vowel to indicate that it is stressed: coluh 'run!' is pronounced. In absolutive, ergative and reflexive plural, as well as reflexive singular of II, III and IV declensions, penultimate syllable is stressed even if the word ends in a consonant: mujisak 'miracles', mabúyam (reflexive of mabu 'grandmother'). In longer words, the initial syllable receives secondary stress.

Phonotactics
Primary syllable structure of Nolikan is CV(C)(C), where /p/ cannot occur in coda position. The following coda consonant clusters are allowed:


 * r l + obstruent: warg 'wolf', karz 'kiss', nilj 'hail'
 * fricative + plosive: maxk '4', azušt 'salt', likazd 'tear'
 * nd: hand 'flower'

Geminates occur chiefly between morphemes and in loanwords. An exception is /ss/, which is derived from Old Kusairan *ks, as in hisse 'he is afraid' and in the formant -nna.

Sandhi
There are some voicing assimilations in Nolikan. Voiced obstruents are devoiced before voiceless ones (ginabxaaz 'vineyard' ), but there is no anticipatory voicing (cakbinat 'only daughter' is pronounced ). Forms of the verb de 'to be' are pronounced with a after a voiceless obstruent, as in Naus de 's/he is nice' pronounced. It may be caused by the fact that the verb is usually unstressed.

There are also other, unpredictable but mostly unwritten assimilations. For example dastdarwan 'mental work' is pronounced and biškšiyak 'intestines' -.

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, reflexive, genitive and adverbial. Reflexive marks the middle voice, and adverbial is used to derive adverbs from nouns.

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

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

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

Nouns that end in coronal consonants other than /s z/ have -e in genitive plural, e.g. binate 'girls' ', nincure 'horses' '. Another irregularity concerns the noun nan 'mother', which has endings -ok -oš in absolutive and ergative plural.

declension III – nouns ending in -e, -o - pire 'deed'

The alternations e:ay i o:aw in this declension occurs because Nolikan /e o/ usually come from Old Kusairan *ai au. If these vowels come from *iɁ uɁ, alternation with iy uw occurs instead (kazo 'herb' - plural kazuwak).

declension IV – nouns in -i, -u - mabu 'grandmother'

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

Relational nouns
There are officially no prepositions in Nolikan, because genitive with a so-called relational noun is used instead. They can be divided into two groups.

First group contains seemingly ordinary nouns, which used in the adverbial become equivalents of Indo-European prepositions. In other cases, however, they have other meanings. Most of Nolikan relational nouns belong here:

Second group contains invariable lexical items, which could be called prepositions as well. However, native speakers feel that they belong to the same class as the words enumerated above and Nolikans do not care about what dixkmek linguists have to say about their sacred language.

When it does not make the sentence unintelligible, relational nouns may be omittted. "I climb the mountain" can be translated as jebluha yu tazgan, or – especially in colloquial speech - jebluha tazgan.

Verbs
Nolikan has four tenses: present, past, future and aorist as well as two optative moods: present and past. Verbs are also inflected for persons, agreeing with the absolutive argument of the sentence. In case the subject is an inalienably possessed nouns, the verb agrees with the possessor: ni gi abronu 'my eye will turn back'.

Verbs are divided into four conjugations ("A", "I", "U", athematic) because of the last sound of the stem. There are no infinitives and the third person singular of the present tense is considered to be the basic form. Verbs ending -eh i -oh are inflected according to respectively "I" and "U" conjugation, and in other persons /a/ appears before the thematic vowel: šakroh < *šakrao 'he restarts', šakraun 'I restart'.

Present and imperative
The imperative has always a subject in absolutive. The ergative is to be understood as 2nd person singular if it is not explicitly given:
 * Serd motah.
 * Let the door be opened
 * Open the door!
 * Cil serd motah.
 * Let the door be opened by you
 * Open the door, you!

Past tense and optatives
Optatives, as well as the past tense, are formed by inserting interfixes before the thematic vowel: jir-i-n 'I sleep' vs. jir-ig-i-n 'I slept'.

In the zero conjugation there is a lot of sandhi, e.g. lini 'he sees' -> limbi 'may he see', as well as epenthetic vowels - mainly /i/, but others do occur too, e.g. bahri 'he dies' -> bahargi 'he died' (/a/ is here a retention of Old Kusairan vowel, which underwnet syncope in the present).

Future tense
The future tense is rarely used in colloquial speech, present or optative is used instead.

Aorist
Aorist is used to express so-called timeless truths: Nehad paldi da. 'Sky is blue'.

Participles
Participles are very commonly used in Nolikan because the language has no subordination. For example, one has to say "He said the king dying" instead of "He said that the king dies".

Irregular verbs
Nolikan has only three irregular verbs: de (the copula), xo 'to do', jat 'to exist, have'. Their conjugation is shown below:

Past and optatives
The verb de i jatin the past and optatives are found with endings of "I" conjugation, and xo - with "U" endings.

Participles
All irregular verbs are intransitive, so they have only absolutive participles.

The verb jat means 'to have', 'to exist' in the aorist and is used as a locative verb in all other tenses.


 * Uramešak la jit.
 * Dragons do not exist.
 * Ni do xaškak jit
 * I have two younger brothers. (literally: My two younger brother exist.)
 * Nudaziro mi jan
 * I am in the bathroom.

Personal pronouns
Absolutive pronouns are usually omitted, except of emphatic sentences ("it's he"). Pronouns in other cases must however be used. Nal (ergative of the 1st person singular) is however often omitted in colloquial speech.

Equivalents of modal verbs
Modal verbs per se do not exist in Nolikan. Certain nouns in the adverbial case are used instead:


 * koj - willing
 * nal koja cilkut 'I want to sing' (literally: 'I will sing willingly')
 * agib - able
 * taul agiba jingarawa 'He is able to read'
 * luhat - necessary
 * či so luhata mandit 'You have to eat it' (literally: 'your necessarily it will be eaten')
 * xamin - legal
 * če la xamina jiriwat 'You must not sleep' (literally: 'for you it's illegal to sleep')

Numerals
Nolikan uses cardinal, ordinal, partitive and multiplicative numerals.

Numbers from 11 to 29 are expressed with compounds, as cašod (from cak+šod) '11' or maxkajed '24'. The powers of ten are: ganat '100', tehri '1000', warčod '10 000', warganat '100 000' and wartehri '1 000 000'. Other numbers are expressed as sums, using the conjunction wa 'and': ganat wa xajodak wa do '172'.

Some simple have their own names: nisib '1/2', burtu '1/3', pakawa '1/4', layux '1/5' i caldi '1/10'. Other fractions are expressed with numerator in absolutive and denominator in genitive: šiga tahibo '3/8' (literally, 'three of eight').

In multidigit number names, all elements except the names of powers of ten receive the ordinal or multiplicative suffix, as in maxk ganattu wa šigodu wa mot '431 times'.

The numeral mot 'once' means also 'alone', and dautu 'twice' can mean 'as a couple'.

After cardinal numerals, nouns are used in the singular (xaje bur 'seven cities'), although the plural can be used to express the notion of a collective (warčodak darwamak 'myriads of workers').

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
 * kumle 'to listen' -> kumlim 'listener'


 * -ji used to form nomina actionis from the perspective of the object:
 * moswa 'to defeat' -> moswaji 'being defeated'


 * /a/ infix (not used in the athematic conjugation) used to form nomina actionis from the perspective of object:
 * karzi 'to kiss' -> karz 'kiss'
 * bahri 'to die' -> bahar 'death' (/hr/ is not allowed in coda)
 * čilko 'to sing' -> čilkawa 'singing'


 * -ad – added to the previous derivation, forms names of objects:
 * juke 'to hunt' -> jukaya 'hunting' -> jukayad 'game animal'


 * -dan (with -tan and -an as variants) form abstract nouns:
 * zibo 'to believe' -> zibudan 'faith'
 * naus 'nice' -> naustan 'benevolence'
 * amlij 'poor' -> amlijan 'poverty'


 * -zir, -ar i -hal form place names:
 * nuda 'to wash' -> nudazir 'bathroom'
 * mend 'house' -> mendar 'inhabited area'
 * sange 'smoke' -> sangehal 'chimney'


 * -i (-ni after a vowel) forms names of inhabitants:
 * Yoked -> Yokedi
 * Šilkarya -> Šilkaryani
 * the same suffix forms names of people according to their age or disability:
 * došod '12' -> došodi '12-year-old'
 * xiwart 'tuberculosis' -> xiwarti 'a man with tuberculosis'


 * -ata forms names of occupations:
 * jiya 'sheep' -> jiyata 'shepherd'
 * awcig 'cake' -> awcigata 'baker'


 * The same suffix is often used in pejoratives:
 * bišk 'belly' -> biškata 'fat'
 * aryax 'prostitute' -> aryaxata 'man who frequents brothels'


 * -aštu forms names of ideologies and sciences:
 * četik 'free' -> četikaštu 'liberalism'
 * zilcu 'to build' -> zilcuwaštu 'architecture'


 * -ade forms names of materials:
 * mijan 'pig' -> mijnade 'pork'
 * tolg 'tree' -> tolgade 'wood'


 * -nnaforms tool names:
 * bizde 'to fight' -> bizdinna 'weapon'
 * nurba 'to light' -> nurbanna 'lightbulb'


 * -wa forms inchoatives:
 * jire 'to sleep' -> jiriwa 'to fall asleep'


 * -ze means finishing an acvtivity:
 * jire 'to sleep' -> jirize 'to awaken'


 * -ba forms verb of aim:
 * nur 'light' -> nurba 'to light'


 * -go means using something:
 * jebax 'throat' -> jebaxigo 'to shout, literally: to use the throat'


 * -ča and -či added to (often shortened) nominal stems form diminutives:
 * pilaj 'heart' -> pilča 'little heart'
 * Sometimes it signifies small size only, without any emotional component:
 * nepul 'honey' -> nepulči 'honeybee'

The suffixes -wa -ze -ba -go have also variants -uwa -ize -iba -igo, used after consonants other than /l r n/ (mainly after verbal roots of the athematic conjugation).

The only really productive prefix is mo-, used to negate nouns, e.g. moanki 'impure', mobahrim 'immortal'. Some agent nouns still have the Old Kusairan prefix a-, e.g. ašrib 'lover' (por. šarib-an 'love'), atrig 'king' (cf. tirik-tlān 'power' in Tulahi – the language of Shilkarya).

Nolikan has also many compound words, especially tatpurusas, cf. duštsabax 'dachshund' (literally: hole-dog). Verb-noun compounds are also productive, e.g. čilkuruxpa 'toad' (literally: sing-frog), as are compound with relational nouns akašangul 'forbidden' (literally: law-outside).

Reduplication is also productive, but is not strictly a derivational process. It is used to expressed emphasis, more often in colloquial and poetic language.


 * ni pana 'above me' - ni panana 'high, high above me'.
 * otug 'stupid' - otutug 'totally moronic'

Syntax
Nolikan uses SOV word order and is consistently head-final. Yes/no questions are formed by placing mu before the sentence, wh-questions with interrogative ke 'what', kam 'who' czy kaye 'where'. Nolikan has no wh-movement, unlike English:

The logic behind sentence formation is also different than in English. In the English sentence The cat hears the mouse the cat is considered more active, but in Nolikan it's the mouse who causes the cat to hear (Muryo angusal kumle).
 * Šariban ke da? 'What is love?'
 * Cukwabil kam bahraga? 'Whom did the barbarian kill?'

Conjunctions
Among most popular ones are:
 * ahno 'so': tawa la kord jit ahno otug da 'he has no head, so he is stupid' – used mainly to clarify learned and idiomatic expression
 * ašt 'because': nal kel tehma ašt waršib jat 'I drink water because of heat'
 * bil 'in order to': jolen bil bizdin 'I live to fight'
 * sax 'but': la nokri da, sax arzu 'It's no hawk, it's an eagle'
 * ul 'or': cetixtan ul bahar 'Freedom or death'
 * wa 'and': axcin wa binat 'Boy and girl'
 * la... wa... 'Neither... nor...': la cidaha wa horo 'Neither in the day nor in the night'
 * ter 'if': Ter la koja darwat, la mandih 'If you don't want to work, don't eat'

Subordinate clauses
They generally do not exist in Nolikan. Participles are used instead:


 * Nal pilgewaka mend laban da 'The house, which I have built, is white', literally: 'By-me built house...'.

Where participles cannot be used, paratactic clauses are found:


 * Mend, di Xasib jolawa, laban da 'The house, where Khaseeb lives, is white', literally 'House, in [it] Khaseeb lives...'.

There is no morphological marker of subordination. One of the sentences ([Sawa] di Xasib jolawa) is placed inside the other (Mend laban da).

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

Dialects

 * Western vernacular


 * unstressed /e o/ in open syllables become
 * becomes
 * final /t k/ become
 * intervocalic /b d dʒ/ become
 * /x g/ become after or before a front vowel
 * /pr br tr dr kr/ become /pp bb tt dd kk/
 * development of Continuous tenses using auxiliary pilge 'to stand'.


 * Eastern vernacular


 * new phonemes /dz q ɢ/ due to heavy borrowing from Yoketian
 * /p b t d ts dz tʃ dʒ k g q ɢ/ are in fact when syllable initial. In codas, the voicing contrast is neutralized and both series become
 * simplification of certain consonant clusters results in compensatory lengthening of vowels
 * loss of the ergative and SVO word order in speech of lower classes
 * large number of Yoketian words make this dialect unintelligible to people knowing only the standard variety.

Example text
The classic Schleicher's fable:

Ečano pana, kumalo baga jiya nincuruš lingi: tane aldu cakal haram ohilund usorgi wa cakal war šuhad pudaga wa cak meral ehrala mehindige. Jiyal nincure bil zahlaga: "Ni pilajo dendawa jit ašt meral mehindic nincuruš lineha". Nincuruš jobaga: "Kumlih, ya jiya, zine pilajne dendawa jit saul linic: razwima meral či kumalo ri nist yenhar izbaha. Wa jiyaha la kumal jit". Saul kumlika jiya buškero yu čolugo.

''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, seeing a man driving 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 warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool". Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.''

Interlinear translation:

Hill-GEN top-ADV, woll-GET lack-ADV sheep horse-ERG-PL see-PAST: 3pl-GEN one-ERG heavy wagon pull-PAST-3g and one-ERG big load carry-PAS-3sg and one man-ERG fast-ADV ride-PAST-3sg. Sheep- ERG horse-GEN to say-PAS-3sg: "my hear-GEN pain exist because man-ERG-PL ride-PARTICIPLE horse-ERG-PL see-AOR-1sg". Horse-ERG-PL answer-PAST-3sg: "Hear-IMP, o sheep, our hear-GEN-PL pain exist it-ERG see-PARTICIPLE: ruler-ADV man-ERG your wool-GEN from warm clothing create-AOR. And sheep-GEN no wool exist". It-ERG heasr-PARTICIPLE sheep plain-GEN into fleed-PAST-3sg.