Nuim

General Information
Nuim is spoken by the Mero, a race of merfolk living in the oceans of Ciel. It is isolating, head-final, and encodes the speaker's thoughts and feelings within every utterance.

Consonants

 * /p/, /t/, and /k/ are voiced [b], [d], and [g] between vowels.
 * /f/, /s/, and /ʃ/ are voiced [v], [z], and [ʒ] between vowels.
 * [ʃ], [ʒ], [ɹ], and [j] are romanized as "c", "x", "r", and "y."

Vowels

 * [ə] is romanized as "e."

Phonotactics
Nuim's syllable structure is (C)V(C). /h/, /j/, and /w/ are not permitted as codas.

Stress
Nuim places stress on either the first complex syllable or the second syllable, whichever comes first. Any syllable with a coda is complex.

Onsets
All nuim sentences begin with an onset: a set of one to three words that describe the speaker's thoughts and feelings. An onset can contain up to one intensifier, emotive, and evidential, in that order.

Intensifiers
Onset intensifiers intensify or weaken the feelings described by the emotive and are optional.

Emotives
Emotives describe the speaker's feelings, either about the sentence or those being felt at the time the sentence is spoken. All onsets require an emotive.


 * is often used as a neutral or default emotive with describing the basic "joy" emotion. , on the other hand, usually describes a lack of emotions.
 * is often used when making requests, similar in some ways to "please."  is often used when thanking someone, similar in some ways to "thank you."

Derivations
A stative verb can be derived from an emotive with the suffix -(e)s.

Evidentials
Evidentials describe the source of the speaker's knowledge of the sentence. If the speaker is the subject, the sentence is interrogative, or the sentence is imperative, evidentials aren't permitted. Otherwise, an evidential is required.

Derivations
A bound verb can be derived from an evidential with the suffix -ha.

Nouns
Nuim nouns are not inflected for number, gender, or definiteness. Nouns are not inflected for case but do take case particles.

Collectivity
A noun can be reduplicated to describe either a distinct group or the general class of that noun. Reduplicated words follow the Nuim voicing rule.

Modification
A noun can be immediately preceded by another noun to modify it. If one noun immediately precedes another noun and doesn't modify that noun, the separator particle we should be inserted between them.

Cases
A noun must be immediately followed by a case particle to indicate its case. There are no subject or object case particles and subjects and objects are correspondingly not followed by a case particle.

Correlatives

 * A noun can be immediately preceded by a determiner to modify it if it is inflected by a classifier suffix. In this manner, determiners resemble numbers.

Verbs
Nuim verbs are not inflected for agreement, tense, or aspect. Verbs are not inflected for negation, voice, or mood but do take particles for those things.

Negation
A verb can be immediately preceded by sis to negate it.

Voices
A verb must be immediately followed by a voice particle to indicate its voice. There is no active voice particle and verbs in the active voice are correspondingly not followed by a voice particle.


 * When making a passive verb, turn the object of the active verb into the subject. The old subject can be omitted or followed by.
 * When making a causative verb, turn the instigator of the action into the subject. The old subject can be omitted or followed by.
 * When making an applicative verb, turn the appropriate oblique of the active verb into the object. The old object can be omitted or followed by.

Moods
A verb can be followed by a mood particle to indicate its mood. Only the interrogative and imperative moods are indicated by mood particles.

Serial Verbs
A verb can be immediately preceded by another verb to serialize it if neither verb is subordinate to the other. A verb and its serial behave as a single verb and are preceded or followed by particles as if they were one. Serial verbs express multiple actions.

Compound Verbs
A verb can be immediately preceded by another verb to compound it if the second verb is subordinate to the first and the first verb is inflected with the compounding suffix -(e)r. A verb and its compound behave as a single verb and are preceded or followed by particles as if they were one. Compound verbs express a single action.

Derivations
A noun can be derived from a verb with the following suffixes.

Adjectives
Nuim does not have a distinct class of adjectives. Traits commonly associated with adjectives will be described here.

Intensifiers
A verb can be reduplicated to intensify it. Reduplicated verbs follow the Nuim voicing rule.

Comparatives
A verb can be preceded with a comparative particle to compare its subject to another noun followed by. There is no comparative particle for equality and verbs showing that comparison are correspondingly not followed by a comparative particle.

Numbers
Nuim numbers are quinary (base 5) and can be formed into larger numbers with two subsystems: a multiplicative subsystem and a positional subsystem.

Derivations
A word can be derived from a number with the following suffixes.


 * Derived fractions are of the form "1/N." A numerator can be specified by counting the fraction.

Counting
A noun can be immediately preceded by a number and inflected with a classifier suffix to count it.

Clauses
Nuim clauses are subject-object-verb. If the subject of a clause is the speaker, the subject of a clause is the addressee and the clause is interrogative, or a clause is imperative, the subject of that clause should be omitted. Otherwise, subjects can only be omitted if they can be easily inferred from context. Other nouns can be omitted if they can be inferred from context. Verbs can never be omitted.

Adverbial Clauses
A clause can be preceded by another clause to modify it if the first clause is dependent on the second and is followed by a clause particle.

Relative Clauses
A noun can be immediately preceded by a clause to modify it. If the modified noun would appear in the modifying clause as a subject or object, it should be omitted from the clause. If the modified noun would appear in the modifying clause as any other part of speech, it should be replaced by a pronoun in the clause.

Quotations
A clause can be immediately followed by the quotation particle le to quote it. Quotations are usually the first element in their clause, but depending on the length of the quotation and the context, the speaker of the quotation can appear before the quotation. In such cases, the speaker and the quotation are usually separated by the separation particle we.

Questions
A clause whose main verb is in the interrogative mood is a question. Questions are answered by restating the main verb affirmatively or negatively and filling in any interrogative pronouns that may be present.

Conjunctions
Any two nouns, verbs, or clauses can have a conjunction inserted between them to conjoin them. Conjoined elements behave as a single element and are preceded or followed by particles as if they were one.

Special Particles
Nuim has two special particles which do not precisely correspond to the other groups of particle described above. The first of these particles is the separator particle we, which can be inserted between any two elements to indicate that the first does not modify the second. We most commonly occurs between a clause's the subject and object, which are not followed by particles to indicate their case and as such could be confused for modification. We also commonly occurs between the speaker of a quotation and the quotation itself, to indicate that the speaker is not a part of the quotation.

The second special particle is the definer particle fal, which defines the word following it to the noun, verb, or clause preceding it. Fal is most commonly used to give additional information about a word, in a manner similar to apposition. In these cases, the word in question follows fal and the additional information precedes it. Fal is also used to create temporary pronouns to refer to particular people in situations where the standard pronouns would create ambiguity.