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 words that describe the speaker's thoughts and feelings. An onset usually consists of an emotive followed by an evidential.

Emotives
Emotives describe the speaker's feelings about the sentence. All onsets require an emotive.


 * is the default emotive. It often has a neutral connotation when not intensified.
 * is often used when making requests, similar to "please."
 * is often used when thanking someone, similar to "thank you."

Intensifiers
An emotive can be reduplicated to intensify it.

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

Evidentials
Evidentials describe the speaker's evidence for the sentence. Onsets require an evidential if the sentence is indicative and the subject is not the agent.

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.

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.

If a noun would be modified by a pronoun, the noun being modified should instead use one of the following prefixes.

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.

Incorporation
A subject pronoun can be incorporated into a verb with the following prefixes.

Negation
A verb can be preceded by the negation particle 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 must be followed by a mood particle to indicate its voice. There is no indicative mood particle and verbs in the indicative mood are correspondingly not followed by a mood particle.

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. 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. This role is instead filled by a number of intransitive verbs. The rules described here are typically only applied to intransitive verbs, but can technically be applied to any verb.

Intensifiers
A verb can be reduplicated to intensify it.

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 preceded by a comparative particle.

Numbers
Nuim numbers are octal (base-8) 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 nominally subject-object-verb. However, nouns are ordered according to their animacy: merrow, animate things, intangible things, 1-dimensional things, 2-dimenstional things, and 3-dimensional things. If this order would result in the object preceding the subject, the clause's verb must be immediately preceded by the inversion particle a.

If a noun can be inferred from context, it can be omitted. If an omitted noun would be modified or marked, either the modifications or markings must also be omitted or the modified or marked noun must not be omitted. If a clause is indicative and the subject is the speaker, it should be omitted. If a clause isn't indicative and the subject is the addressee, it should 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 echoing 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 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 as 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.