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.

Nuktaq is spoken by the Nuktaq elves, a tribe of about 300 forest elves who live in the kingdom of Soqerlak. The Nuktaq live a traditional life and have no modern technology, so their language lacks many modern words you'll find in English. The elves 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 14 phonemes; 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. The consonant inventory includes three plosives (/t k q/), four fricatives (/s ɬ ɣ h/), two nasals (/n ŋ/ ) and two approxmants (/l ʁ/). The plosives are always pronounced as unaspirated. The consonant system has very little allophony. The uvular rhotic /ʁ/ may have slight frication, but is generally pronounced as a pure approximant. /h/ may have palatal frication when occurring after the front vowel /i/, and may have velar frication after the back vowel /u/.

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 shown in the orthography. There is no contrastive vowel length and there are no diphthongs.

Consonants
The 11 consonants of Nuktaq.

Vowels
The three vowels of Nuktaq. Note that close vowels are lowered when adjacent to a uvular consonant.

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/). /h/, /n/ and /ŋ / are not permitted in the syllable coda. 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, with a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. The alphabet consists of 16 letters, two of which are digraphs. Due to the phonotactics and permissible consonant clusters of the language, the use of these digraphs causes no ambiguity. The following table shows each letter of the alphabet and the sound it represents:

Basic Grammar
The grammar of Nuktaq has few irregularities and is fairly simple, and so is easy to learn.

The language is strongly right-branching and is prepositional rather than postpositional. Word order is strictly Subject-Verb-Object.

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. Particles preceding the verb mark tense and aspect simultaneously. 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 conveyed through particles: singular, dual and plural. There is no grammatical gender.

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.