Nuktaq

Setting
Nuktaq is an a-priori language created by John Stevens. Its phonology is inspired by the Inuit languages and its grammar is inspired by Welsh, which the author can speak fluently as a second language. It is spoken by the Nuktaq elves, a tribe of about 300 forest elves who live in the kingdom of Soqerlak. The elves live a traditional life and have no modern technology, so their language lacks many modern words you'll find in English. The Nuktaq like their language to be unique, so they avoid borrowing words from other languages. Instead, they create new words by combining existing morphemes together. Nuktaq is written in the Latin alphabet, although originally it had its own script which is no longer used. The language has a small sound inventory and a fairly simple grammar with few irregularities. It is an isolating, head-initial language with SVO word order. It has a rich five-term evidential system.

Phonology
Nuktaq has a small phonemic inventory consisting of just 11 consonants and three vowels.The language is unusual in that it has no labial consonants. Consonants occur at the alveolar, velar, uvular and glottal points of articulation. There is no voicing contrast for plosives or fricatives. Nuktaq has a basic three-vowel system consisting of the vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/. The close vowels /i/ and /u/ become allophonically lowered to [e] and [o] respectively when occurring adjacent to a uvular consonant (/q/ or /ʁ/), and this is indicated in the orthography. There is no contrastive vowel length and there are no diphthongs.

Consonants
The consonants of Nuktaq are listed below:

Vowels
The vowels of Nuktaq are listed below, with allophones in brackets:

Allophony
Nuktaq does not have much allophony. As mentioned above, close vowels are lowered to mid height when occurring adjacent to a uvular consonant. The uvular rhotic /ʁ/ is generally pronounced as an approximant but may also have slight frication.

Phonotactics
All root morphemes (including affixes) begin in a consonant and also end in a consonant. Consonant clusters can occur root-initially, root-medially and root-finally. Initial and final clusters never exceed two consonants in length, while medial clusters may be up to three consonants in length. Four-consonant clusters are possible across root boundaries when a root ending in a two-consonant cluster precedes a root beginning in a two-consonant cluster. Clusters of two or more adjacent vowels are not permitted. Roots never begin in a lateral consonant (/ɬ/ or /l/), and never end in a nasal consonant (/n/ or /ŋ /) or in /h/. Nasals may occur in non-final syllable codas, however, while /h/ may not. Roots may be from one to three syllables in length. The majority of roots are disyllabic.

Orthography
Nuktaq originally had its own script, but nowadays is written in the Latin alphabet. Its alphabet is entirely transparent and avoids the use of diacritics. The alphabet includes two digraphs, but due to the phonotactics and permissible consonant clusters of the language there is no ambiguity caused by this. The following table shows each letter of the alphabet and the sound it represents. Note that the vowel allophony is shown in the orthography.

Basic Grammar
The grammar of Nuktaq has few irregularities and is fairly simple, and so is easy to learn. Nuktaq is a predominantly isolating language which uses particles and prepositions rather than inflection to convey the meaning of grammatical case, number, mood, tense, aspect and voice. The language is strongly right-branching and is prepositional rather than postpositional. Word order is strictly Subject-Verb-Object. Nuktaq has no grammatical gender. Tense and aspect are indicated simultaneously by particles preceding the verb. There are three tenses (past, present, future) and three aspects (perfective, habitual, continuous/progressive). There are five evidential paradigms (visual sensory, nonvisual sensory, inferential, reportative, assumed) that are indicated by suffixes. Nuktaq has three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural. Each root word in Nuktaq belongs to a default part of speech. Particles are used to turn root words into a different part of speech from their default. The language makes no distinction between adjectives and adverbs. More on the grammar of Nuktaq coming soon.