Nutingka

Background Information
Nutingka (/'nʊtɪŋka/) is the sole surviving descendant of Proto-Nutingka, a hypothetical branch of Proto-Indo-European. In an alternate universe, instead of Proto-Italic, there was Proto-Nutingka, and thus the ancient settlers of near and in Italian peninsula spoke this. Years passed and all dialects of Proto-Nutingka but Nutingka died out, most likely because they were not recorded in words while people gradually forgot their vocabularies. In search for a method to document their history and preserve their last hope of a language, in ways not relying on mere speech and memory, the settlers borrowed the alphabet of their more sophisticated neighbours, the Greeks. However, they altered the alphabet to better suit their phonology. Though the Nutingkan word 'alfubit' was derived from Greek 'alphabetos', instead of naming their rendition so after the first two letters, the settlers named it after their first vowel and consonant.

As the settlers became more technologically advanced and conquered the Mediterranean, they, who would later be referred to as the 'Nutingkans', acquired so many loanwords from their expanded territory, that in response to the radical changes to their native language, they called their language a 'new tongue', which is what 'Nutingka' means (compare with PIE 'newos' + 'dngwehs').

As you can see, that name stuck, and Nutingka is still referred to as 'Nutingka' to this day.

Semivowels
/j/ - palatal approximant (when the letter It is followed by another vowel, and to distinguish between /jɪ/ and /i:/, /jɪ/ is written as two Its and a macron is placed over a single It for /i:/)

/w/ - labiodental approximant (similar situation as above, but with the letter Un)

Orthography
* only Romanisation available currently, the alphabet of Nutingka does not have a keyboard

** originated as a digraph of Del and Zhel, but it's too cumbersome to write 'dzh' for /dʒ/

*** similar case as above, but as a diphthong of Euthenu and Un, 'y' preferred over 'eu-u'

Nouns
Grammatical Case Table The first ending in each cell is a first declension ending and the second ending in each cell is a second declension ending. A singular nominative first declension noun ends with a vowel (hence the added consonant in endings for ease of pronunciation) and a second declension one ends with a consonant.

Example text
Ig donad igek iubenboum Jonti.- I gave my young cow (=calf) to John.

Ig vell dona igek anitam iati.- I will give my duck to you.

Ig vell goa had Hellēnesa.- I will go to Greece.