Nomnom

Alternate Names:

Nom Nom

Nomnom

Phonology and Restrictions
Consonants

These are all pronounced labialized. This isn't necessary, but it is necessary to sounding like a natural speaker or understanding natural speakers.

Vowels

Technically, this is a horizontal vowel system, but both vowels are always pronounced nasalized and rounded.

The syllable structure is (C)CVC(C), so the word has to be surrounded by consonants.

The alphabet goes top to bottom, consonants before vowels.

Nomnom /nomnom/ is the name of the people and tribe, and is sometimes used to refer to the language by outsiders.

Word List
mfon (悔) - to repent

mfoyn - to deify, to put on a pedestal

mfeyn - to attack

mnom (㗂) - language

mqop - art form comparable to poetry; person inserts as many words as possible without repetition

mom - to float on/ to fly in

men - to thank

med - refuse to follow the outcome of, refuse to cooperate with (one does this when they don't follow the sentence hints other people set out)

fney - possible outcome

fom (固) - to have

foy - FRONT3>BACK

fenm - to believe in the truth of

pmod - be stupid regarding (according to)

pon - bom

poy - BACK>FRONT3

pep - riverbed

nmomn - negative number

nmof - stomach acid, blood, soul

nmoy (𠊛) - person

nmeynom - uncertainty

ndof - indicates that preceding word is foreign

ndon - to orate to

ndoq - word, sound

ndoqon - to argue about (to)

ndoqg - be true to

nden - to learn

ndengem - test of skill

ndeym - animal

nyem - to signify (to)

nyef - to fear

nyen - to see

nyedf - phrase

nyedg - to turn (into)(from)

nyenp - necessity

nyeq - to eat

ngeyn - be blue/white

nom - unreal thing

nomn - be look deeply at

nomnom - these people and language

nof - false thing

non - HIDE

nonp - UNHIDE

nond (金)- stone (used for building)

nong (事) - action

noy - FRONT4>BACK

nog - to cause

noq - SWITCH

nep (添) - DUP

nenp (坭) - place

neqg - to hate

dmomn - positive number

dmen - to celebrate

dnoy - be red/green

dnogn - the inside of a solid/liquid

dnoq - water

dnen - want

dneyf (垌) - field

dneyg - kill

dyep - be more than

doy - BACK>FRONT4

dog - inanimate mobile object

dep - END

ynem - be fewer/less than

ypemq - to make happy

ydeq - struunh

yon - to say (to)

yen - indicates that noun modifies verb

yend - to stay at

yoy - something, that thing

gpemn - be black/purple

gnon - DELETE VERB/NUMBER IN SERIES OF NUMBERS

gyepn - to empty

gyend - sky, space

gyeg (投)- to send (to) (from)

gondey - instance of genocide (etymology: English word "colony")

gefden - flat surface

gedf - normal situation

qnonq - cave, space inside a hollow

qned - kind of grass

qdem - kind of grass

qyon (羅) - to be equal to

qong - to know

qod - to argue with

qoqm - mouth of the space inside a hollow

When a number ends a word, this is how it pans out.

1 - The being points to itself.

2 - The being points to the person it speaks to.

3 and over - The being points at the being it means to talk about.

Compound Words fenm nep nom qyon dep - Dreamland

nmoy nep domof ynem dep - dying line of people

nmoy nep nond fom dep (𠊛添金固)- rich man, powerful man ndoq yoy nog - words with meanings (as opposed to sounds)
 * nmoy nep mom nond noy fyeg dep - boss; ruler (formal)

nmoy nep ndoq yoy2 yon dep - I/me (formal)

nmoy nep nmoy nyeq dep - victim

nmoy nep nmoy noq nyeq dep - villain

nmoy nep domof yoy noq yon dep - society ) ndeym nep nmoy nyeq - raw-meat-eater, carnivore

nom nep nmoy nmoy nyem dep - imaginary friend

nenp nep nom qyon dep - dog nep mnom qong dep - computer

qnonq nep gyend mom dep - spaceship

dog nep nmoy nep gyend yoy gyeg nog dep - airplane

Idioms X Y mom dep - Y's prowess in X is unsure.

fenm X yend dep - X is asleep.

ydeq dmomn nmoy2 dnen dep. - For how long are you going to talk? ydeq nmomn nmoy2 dnen dep. - How far back is the stack?

What is a Stack-Based Language?
There is a cerebral way to explain this and a less cerebral way. For the cerebral way, go here.

Please note as well that I'm not an expert. If you know more about this than me, you have every right to correct this article, though not the grammar of the language proper.

As a whole, stack-based languages have the quirk that you can build sentences around other sentences. Let's pretend English is a SOV strictly head-final language (which basically means all the words are like in the dictionary and the verb/adjective/article/adverb/conjunction comes after what it modifies) and an SOV LIFO stack language with no inflections or sentence conjunctions (the stack equivalent of that without any weird cop-outs, so I can show how it works differently more easily). In fact, just to make it less confusing, I'll eliminate the articles (a and the). You'll thank me later.

At first, they seem similar in word order, even though the LIFO language has a particle specifically stating when the sentence is over. In fact, because English already puts the adverb behind the verb, some sentences are exactly the same the entire way through.

But let's see how multiple sentences work.

How come you can say "I I yard clean END fridge wash END"? The reason is that this basically constitutes two different sentences, "I yard clean" and "I fridge wash", but put in such a way that the final result is "I (I yard clean) fridge wash". The assumption made is that all verbs have a fixed number of slots which cannot be changed.

The verb "clean" will only be used like "x y clean END" to mean "x cleans y". This may seem obvious, but that's because it's the wrong kind of verb. Consider the verb "read". It can be used in the sentences "I read", "I read it", and "I read them it" (meaning "I read it to them."). Assuming the verb "read" in our stack language is defined "X Y Z read" to mean "X reads Y to Z", those would have to be "I something myself read END", "I it myself read END" and "I it them read END".

Now, I need to point out at this point that not all stack languages are the same. Another way this could work is if each word was assigned a particle x, y, or z and then that particle was included between the verb and END. Then the verb would be described as "read (x, y, z): (1 argument) x reads something to itself; (2 arguments) x reads y to itself; (3 arguments) x reads y to z" sentences would be "I x read x END", "I x it y read x y END" and "I x it y them z read x y z END".

The flexibility of this approach is that you can say "them z it y I x read x y z END" and it means the exact same thing. To do that in a stack language without the particles, such as this one, Nalnuàntir, or Fith, you need separate words which indicate the arguments have switched places. The word used for this is DUP. So in our LIFO stack language, assuming DUP works this way, we could say "it I DUP read END". These are called "stack conjugations".

Now I can't talk anymore, because even though I mentioned Fith and Nalnuàntir, those languages aren't like one another or like this language.

More Stack Conjugations
noq - switches the places of two words/phrases noy - moves a word/place t

Verbs
Like many languages, this one has verbs.

Transitivity
All verbs have at least one argument. The most arguments a verb can have are four: nominative, accusative, dative/lative, and exessive/initiative. If a verb has an argument, it must be filled, and if the argument doesn't matter, the slot is filled with yoy. In the language of the Nomnom, the arguments start nearer to the verb and go farther from the verb as more exist.

(Note: I use V for Verb, S for Subject, DO for Direct Object, and IO for Indirect Object, which are all common terms. However, when I use OO for Other Object, that isn't a common term. If you know the correct term for the fourth argument of a multitransitive verb, please tell me.)

ndeym gpemn dep. - The beast is dark in color.

ndeym nmoy1 fom dep. - I have a beast. (DO-S-V)

ndeym yoy nmoy1 yon dep. - I say something to the beast/ I talk to the beast. (IO-DO-S-V)

ndeym3 nenp2 qned nmoy1 gyeg dep. - I send qnedgrass from that beast to your place. (O-IO-DO-S-V)

The verb qyon (to be) treats both of its arguments the same way; if I say "ndeym yoy1 qyon dep." and "yoy1 ndeym qyon dep.", there is no grammatical difference. However, when saying "X is Y", it is customary to say "Y X qyon" rather than the other way around, like with yen in Adverbs.

Verb as Noun-Sentence
When a verb modifies as many nouns as possible, the entire sentence is treated as a noun until dep is added. As such, if it is modified by nep qon, then the entire sentence is taken away.

However, if you want only the verb to be deleted, you have to say gnon after the verb.

nmoy1 qenm nyeq gnon. = nmoy1 qenm

Now, when I say "after" the verb, I don't necessarily mean that. As long as the sentences which are technically between the verb and gnon end with dep, one can still use gnon. In fact, if there are legitimate nouns between the verb and gnon, the effect of gnon will skip over the nouns and only delete the verb.

nmoy qenm nyeq mnom nmoy1 mom dep gnon = I am floating (i.e. tentative) in a language. (nmoy qenm)

nmoy qenm nyeq mnom nmoy1 gnon = nmoy qenm mnom nmoy1

What About Adjectives
You may think that some verbs like gpemn, which means "be dark-colored" are actually adjectives. This, however, is not true grammatically. Let's use gpemn in a sentence.

nom gpemn dep. - The unreal is dark.

Here, gpemn acts as a verb. Let's use it to modify a noun in a sentence.

yoy nmoy nep gpemn dep nep Nepmen noq mfeyn dep qyon dep? - Who is the being, dark in color, who attacked Nepmen?

Note how instead of gpemn taking a role separate from the subordinate clause "who attacked Nepmen", it takes a role similar to it, but as an intransitive verb or, at best, a predicate adjective. In languages with adjectives, the adjective is never required to take this role to modify the noun. As such, it can be easily argued that gpemn and verbs like it are simply intransitive verbs, and this language has no adjectives.

Adverbs
The word yen indicates that the noun before the sentence applies to the verb.

nmoy qned nyeq nof yen dep. - I do not eat qnedgrass. (I eat qnedgrass; this action is false.)

Technically, it can also go the other way, and that's more likely when falseness is the topic or is mentioned earlier.

qned nmoy nyeq nof yen dep. - I do not eat qnedgrass.

qned nmoy nyeq nom yen dep. - I have never eaten qnedgrass (and don't plan to).

Comparatives
When the person of a comparative is unspecified, it is thought to mean "average person" or "average people".

qned nep nmoy1 nyeq dep qned nep nmoy nyeq dep ynem dep. - The average person eats less qnedgrass than I do.

This sentence compares the grass; if the sentence were "qned nep nmoy1 nyeq nmoy nyeq ynem dep," it would mean, "The average person eats qnedgrass less often than I do."

Imperative
The imperative mood is created by the phrase "nyenp (sentence) yen dep".

nyenp nmoy nyeq fom yen dep. - The person must have food.

nyenp yoy nyeq fom yen dep. - Have food! (This doesn't mean "eat food"; it means "obtain food". The literal translation is more like "You must have food in your possession.")

Interrogative
As in languages such as Chinese or Toki Pona, the basic structure of asking a question is a sentence followed by a negated sentence. In practice, this becomes "nom (sentence) nep dep yen".

nom nmoy qned fom nep dep yen. - Does this person have qnedgrass?

Negation
Negation comes from "nof" or, more extremely, from "nom". The difference is like that between "not" and "never".

qned nmoy nyeq nof yen dep. - I do not eat qnedgrass.

qned nmoy nyeq nom yen dep. - I have never eaten qnedgrass (and don't plan to).

Subjunctive
The interrogative and subjunctive mood are both created by the phrase "fney (sentence) yen dep".

fyen nmoy qned fom yen dep. - The person might have qnedgrass.

Possessive Structures
The possessive structure for X's Y when X is going to be used later is "X nep Y nep noy noq fom". When X will not be used later, there is no "nep" after X.

Numbers
There was a precolonial number system which followed the same general logic as the current one. However, with the introduction of an alphabet, one person was able to create a new set of numbers for them, which extended much further though it was a numeric one. Contrary to everyone else's belief, the people quickly adopted the number system even though they turned it into a prime-centered one.

qon - 0

domom - 1

domof - 2

domop - 3

domon - 5

domod - 7

domoy - 11

domog - 13

domoq - 17

domomf - 19

domomp - 23

domomn - 29

domomd - 31

domomy - 37

domomg - 41

domomq - 43

domofm - 47

domofp - 53

domofn - 59

domofd - 61

domofy - 67

domofg - 71

domofq - 73

domopm - 79

domopf - 83

domopn - 89

domopd - 97

domopy - 101

domopg - 103

domopq - 107

domonm - 109

domonf - 113

domonp - 127

domond - 131

domony - 137

domong - 139

domonq - 149

domodm - 151

domodf - 157

domodp - 163

domodn - 167

domody - 173

domodg - 179

domodq - 181

domoym - 191

domoyf - 193

domoyp - 197

domoyn - 199

domoyd - 211

domoyg - 223

domoyq - 227

domogm - 229

domogf - 233

domogp - 239

domogn - 241

domogd - 251

domogy - 257

domogq - 263

domoqm - 269

domoqf - 271

domoqp - 277

domoqn - 281

domoqd - 283

domoqy - 293

domoqg - 307

demem - 311

demef - 313

demep - 317

demen - 331

demed - 337

demey - 347

demeg - 349

demeq - 353

dememf - 359

dememp - 367

dememn - 373

dememd - 379

dememy - 383

dememg - 389

dememq - 397

demefm - 401

demefp - 409

demefn - 419

demefd - 421

demefy - 431

demefg - 433

demefq - 439

demepm - 443

demepf - 449

demepn - 457

demepd - 461

demepy - 463

demepg - 467

demepq - 479

demenm - 487

demenf - 491

demenp - 499

demend - 503

demeny - 509

demeng - 521

demenq - 523

demedm - 541

demedf - 547

demedp - 557

demedn - 563

demedy - 569

demedg - 571

demedq - 577

demeym - 587

demeyf - 593

demeyp - 599

demeyn - 601

demeyd - 607

demeyg - 613

demeyq - 617

demegm - 619

demegf - 631

demegp - 641

demegn - 643

demegd - 647

demegy - 653

demegq - 659

demeqm - 661

demeqf - 673

demeqp - 677

demeqn - 683

demeqd - 691

demeqy - 701

demeqg - 709

dofom - 719

dofof - 727

dofop - 733

dofon - 739

dofod - 743

dofoy - 751

dofog - 757

dofoq - 761

dofomf - 769

dofomp - 773

dofomn - 787

dofomd - 797

dofomg - 809

dofomq - 811

dofofm - 821

dofofp - 823

dofofn - 827

dofofd - 829

dofofy - 839

dofofg - 853

dofofq - 857

dofopm - 859

dofopf - 863

dofopn - 877

dofopd - 881

dofopy - 883

dofopg - 887

dofopq - 907

dofonm - 911

dofonf - 919

dofonp - 929

dofond - 937

dofony - 941

dofong - 947

dofonq - 953

dofodm - 967

dofodf - 971

dofodp - 977

dofodn - 983

dofody - 991

dofodg - 997

dofodq - 1009

dofoym - 1013

dofoyf - 1019

dofoyp - 1021

dofoyn - 1031

dofoyd - 1033

dofoyg - 1039

dofoyq - 1049

dofogm - 1051

dofogf - 1061

dofogp - 1063

dofogn - 1069

dofogd - 1087

dofogy - 1091

dofogq - 1093

dofoqm - 1097

dofoqf - 1103

dofoqp - 1109

dofoqn - 1117

dofoqd - 1123

dofoqy - 1129

dofoqg - 1151

defem - 1153

defef - 1163

defep - 1171

defen - 1181

defed - 1187

defey - 1193

defeg - 1201

defeq - 1213

defemf - 1217

defemp - 1223

defemn - 1229

defemd - 1231

defemg - 1237

defemq - 1249

These numbers can only actually function as adjectives, which means they constitute an open class in the language. I cannot think of many other languages where actual numerals constitute an open class, so I will go out on a limb and assume that this is unique or at the very least strange.

Language
Now, to be clear, this is no walk in the park. Though it is nontonal and barely cheremic, if you attempt to learn this language within a week, you will be discouraged to find that it is harder than such obvious contenders as Spanish or Chinese, and apparently also more difficult than Zapotec and Mixtec as well.

Their resonant nasal cavity causes their words to have a nasal sound. Words are completely and utterly nasalized for this very reason, like a parodic rendition of a Caucasusian giant. Its syllable structures are jarring, but they also make the language easier to parse on the go. The beings also have some repair strategies, such as saying how many arguments are left, even though these are only used frequently when talking to humans, in a way reminiscent of Fith and Shallow Fith. To truly comprehend the language takes a bit more time and spatial reasoning, and I assume that you're ready for this. As such, I will hide the repair strategy and how to ask for it so you won't cheat until you figure it out.

Beings
The photosynthetic/herbivorous Nomnom are capable of comprehending extremely large numbers. They also have the ability to consciously remember every second of their existence. This doesn't give them any ability to better understand the world, but it does make their language rather difficult to understand in the case of, say, one of their monologues. However, when humans speak, it is not in monologue, and much of the time, humans can understand other humans after practicing this language for protracted amounts of time (funnily enough, in less time than some other human languages, due to how isolating this language is).

Their bodies are large and not easily breakable, and because of this, they did not advance beyond the stone age by themselves. Their lack of pattern recognition appears not to be a disadvantage because their predators/scavengers are more or less clouds of bacteria, so any pattern recognition would be useless or nearly useless in contending with them. Instead, they have extremely strong immune systems.

History
The humans came to their planet in 6D (1022). At that time, it was filled with many different languages, perhaps millions. The Nomnom were among the most receptive to their efforts to colonize, and even though this earned their nation-state scorn, during the Trial of the Eternal Night in 6Y (1054), they were the only tribe left standing.

But couldn't you, dear reader, also create a stack language? Why don't you, just to show them up? Stack language creation is a small world, and this world is gigantic. They are definitely other tribes living.

Single Phrases
nmoy1 nep domof ndon dnen dep - I want to dance.

nmoy1 ndoq nep nom qyon dep yoy2 yon dep. - I didn't speak to you. (I spoke nonexistent words to you.)

nmoy2 ndoq nep ynem nyef dep. - You fear a few words.

nmoy2 nep nong nmoy1 foy neqg qyon dep nog dep. - You're the reason why I hate you.

gyep nmoy1 nenp2 nenp4 gyeg dep. - I came to your place from somewhere else (I wasn't always with you.).

fney nmoy1 nmoy nep mfoyn nmoy2 nyem dep. - I might seem apathetic to you.

nmoy2 nmoy1 ndoqg nden nog dep. - You teach me the truth.

ndoq nep nep nomnom qyon dep nmoy1 fom nmoy fom dyep ndoqg yen dep. - It is true that the average person knows more words in Nomnom than I do.

nmoy1 nep nmoy2 dog noq noy gyeg dep. - I throw something at you. (See "Actual or Not?" if you are confused.)

nmoy nmoy nep nmoy2 fom dep noq nep nmoy1 fom dep ynem dep. - Your people number fewer than mine.

Ndeym nep qoqm2 yend nmoy mfeyn dep. The beast in that cave attacks people. (The dog next door is dangerous.)

*This is not actually the word for "Fith".

Stories Translated into this Language
[ https://americanliterature.com/childrens-stories/the-bogey-beast The Bogey Beast]

Ndeym Nep Yoy Domop Noy Nep Nyedg - The Beast Which Turns Into Three Things

Nmoy nep yoy nep non ypemq dep - The person, the things make them happy.

nep npon domomp noq fom nof yen dep - They don't (even) have 23 of them.

nep gefden yend nmoy gefden yend ynem dep - The average person has lived for a shorter time than them.

nep nond noq fom nof yen dep - They aren't rich.

nep nmoy yend nof yen dep. - People don't stay by them.

Tongue Twisters
HEY, YOU READING THIS. WHY DON'T YOU TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THIS LANGUAGE AND ATTEMPT TO MAKE ONE? BASICALLY ALL OF THE WORDS SOUND THE SAME TO ANY EARS, SO YOU CAN'T GO WRONG.