Wolflandic, natively called Nagūxiti, is a constructed language by me, Ian Foster. It is mainly made to an art-lang, but it function similarly to a natural language on Earth. It is not related to any real language, though it's heavily inspired by Eskimo-Aleut languages, specifically Greenlandic and Inuktitut.
Many of Wolflandic's features pertaining to its phonology and grammar are commonly attested in Eskimo-Aleut languages, such as polysynthetic morphology, noun incorporation, inflected verbs, and rare phonemes such as /ɬ/ and /q/. However, Wolflandic has a few notable features that are not common in languages like Eskimo-Aleut, as there is a lack of case marking, though it's common among polysynthetic languages. Wolflandic is also unique for having OVS word order, where the direct object is attached to the verb as a prefix while the more salient argument, typically the subject, comes after the verb in its oblique form.
History[]
Wolflandic Flag
The project began in May or June of 2016. The first version was natively called Lupölandïxe and it was featured in Jan Milsali's seventh episode of Conlang Critic [1]. Being the first version and the first conlang I made, it was rather poorly made and did not resemble Eskimo languages in the slightest. Since then, Wolflandic has been iterated multiple times and was completed in 2021.
Phonology[]
The newest version of Wolflandic features a consonant (and vowel) inventory that is very similar to that of Eskimo languages, but with a few differences.
Consonants[]
Wolflandic recognizes 14 different consonant phonemes. Wolflandic includes the labialized velar approximant /w/ and no labial fricatives, which isn't very common among Eskimo-Aleut. Hypothetically, a historical /f~v~ɸ~β/ may have turned into /w/, contrasting more with /j/.
| Labial | Apical | Laminal | Velar | Uvular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||
| Stop | p | t | k | q | |
| Fricative | ɬ | s | x | χ | |
| Approximant | l | j | w |
Note that the table above is a simplified, phonemic analysis.
- /q/ tends to be more aspirated than the other stops. It's heavily aspirated word-initially.
- /s/ is mostly pronounced with a laminal articulation [s̻ ~ ɕ]. It's realized as apical [s̺ ~ ʂ] after /t/.
- /χ/ becomes voiced [ʁ] intervocalically. The only occurrence of voicing within obstruents.
- /ɬ/ and /l/ are mostly apical [ɬ̺] and [l̺]. They are realized as laminal [ɬ̻] and [l̻] after /i/.
Vowels[]
Wolflandic features a basic inventory of three vowels, /i/, /u/, and /a/. Each vowel can either be short or long.
Wolflandic vowel ranges
| Non-back | Back | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| short | long | short | long | |
| High | i | iː | u | uː |
| Low | a | aː | ||
Diphthongs almost never occur, except in loan words or by certain morphophonological processes.
- /i/ is normally [i] when it's long and [ɪ] when it's short and/or in word-final position.
- /u/ is normally [u] when it's long and [ʊ] when it's short and/or in word-final position.
- /a/ can vary between [a] and [ä] or [ɐ]. It's reduced to [ə] when it's short and in word-final position.
- /i/, /u/, and /a/ are realized as [e], [o], and [ɑ] before a uvular consonant.
- /u/ and /a/ are fronted to [ʉ] and [æ] before /j/ or /s/.
Phonotactics[]
Wolflandic's structure of syllables and rules that govern morphophonology are also very reminiscent to that of Eskimo-Aleut, especially Inuit languages.
The structure of syllables is rather simple, allowing syllables no larger than CVC. Each syllable will have one mandatory vowel. Coda/word-final consonants can be any of the stops, /p/, /t/, /k/, or /q/, though word-final /p/ is very uncommon. Consonant clusters only occur over syllable boundaries and their pronunciation is subject to regressive assimilation. This means a stem-final consonant will have the same place of articulation as the consonant it preceded, often resulting into a geminated stop or geminated nasal.
Multiple vowels that aren't the same are analyzed as separate syllables and are often divided by a semi-vowel /j/ or /w/. Vowels are dropped if they precede another vowel that's of the same quality.
Sound rules[]
It's important to know that Wolflandic has many sound changes, due to its small phonemic inventory and heavy affixation. All sound changes are listed below in chronological order.
- l s x χ j w → ɬ ts k q ij uw / C_
- q ij uw → qʰ j w / #_
- C → m / _m
- C → p / _p
- C → n / _n
- C → t / _{t ɬ s}
- C → ŋ / _ŋ
- C → k / _k
- C → q / _q
- i u → j w / V_V ! [+long]
- i u → i~ɪ u~ʊ / [-long]
- i u a → ɪ ʊ ə / _#
- i u a → e o ɑ / _{q χ}
- χ → ʁ / V_V
- n t ɬ l → n̺ t̺ ɬ̺ l̺
- s → s̻~ɕ
- u a → ʉ æ / _{s̻~ɕ j}
- ɬ̺ l̺ → ɬ̻ l̻ / i_
- s̻~ɕ → s̺~ʂ / t_
- i u → ij uw / _V ! _V[same]
- V → ∅ / _V[same]
- a → ä~ɐ / else
Orthography[]
Wolflandic has 20 different letters in its orthography, one per phoneme. Long vowels are marked with a bar, ī, ū, ā, /ɬ/ is written with a slash, ł, and /χ/ is x̌. Note that letters in Wolflandic's orthography are written in italics.
| Letter | Phoneme | Phone | Example word |
|---|---|---|---|
| A a | /a/ | [a ä ɐ ə ɑ] | amāx̌u "wolf" |
| Ā ā | /aː/ | [aː äː ɐː ɑː] | ātak "city" |
| G g | /ŋ/ | [ŋ] | ganta "rabbit" |
| I i | /i/ | [i ɪ e ij ɪj] | igat "brown" |
| Ī ī | /iː/ | [iː eː iːj] | īki "small" |
| K k | /k/ | [k] | kunū "fast" |
| L l | /l/ | [l̺ l̻] | lākut "yellow" |
| Ł ł | /ɬ/ | [ɬ̺ ɬ̻] | łīki "want" |
| M m | /m/ | [m] | matti "tree" |
| N n | /n/ | [n̺] | nakā "dog" |
| P p | /p/ | [p] | puak "big" |
| Q q | /q/ | [q qʰ] | qītammatti "forest" |
| S s | /s/ | [s̻ ɕ s̺ ʂ] | saqāt "knife" |
| T t | /t/ | [t̺] | tammaq "run" |
| U u | /u/ | [u ʊ o uw ʊw] | uma "warm" |
| Ū ū | /uː/ | [uː oː uːw] | ūtak "raccoon" |
| W w | /w/ | [w] | wakkat "red" |
| X x | /x/ | [x] | xiti "north" |
| X̌ x̌ | /χ/ | [χ ʁ] | x̌utūqa "night" |
| Y y | /j/ | [j] | yāka "animal" |
The digraphs iy and uw are never written. For example, /ia/ [ija] and /ua/ [uwa] are written as ia and ua respectively.
Prosody[]
Wolflandic does not recognize syllable stress, as prosody is instead determined by the weight of a syllable. Syllables containing long vowel and/or before a geminated consonant are spoken slower than lighter syllables that contain a short vowel and doesn't have a coda/word-final consonant.
Words are divided by a brief pause, essentially speaking with spaces. This could explain why Wolflandic has long words of incorporated verbs and nouns. Whole sentences are dived by a longer pause.
Morphology[]
Compared to its sound system, Wolflandic has a considerably complex morphological system. It is a polysynthetic language that allows the creation of long words by means of extensive affixation. These long words can be translated into a whole sentence in English. For example, Nakāpukiwakkatłākummiłīłikimūx̌awaqutaka, which translates to,"I want to see the lazy orange dog tomorrow morning." Unlike Eskimo-Aleut languages, Wolflandic uses both suffixes and prefixes, perhaps mostly prefixing.
Wolflandic has two types of affixes: inflectional and derivational. Inflectional affixes are non-lexical morphemes that cannot stand in isolation and must be attached to a root. These affixes indicate person, possessive, voice, mood, and negation. These affixes, especially person inflections, are highly fusional, using multiple grammatical functions. Derivational affixes are other roots that can be stacked on each other to create more meanings. With this, Wolflandic allows noun incorporation (for the direct object) on the verb and compounding to construct adjectival and adverbial phrases. While inflectional morphology is more fusional, derivational morphology is far more agglutinative.
Inflections[]
The types of inflectional affixes include person markers, verbal moods, and perhaps postpositions. Postpositions, though infrequently, can stand in isolation, but they are mostly attached to a root as a suffix. Verbs, and sometimes nouns, can be marked with person inflections that can denote the relationship arguments have each other and/or possession. Verbs can also be inflected with one of six moods, each has a negated form.
Person[]
The most important inflectional affixes are for person. Wolflandic is notable for having a 84 person inflections: 80 of which are attached to the end of a verb. Wolflandic has portmanteau agreement, where a single fusional affix can agree with both the patient and agent of a transitive verb. In the case of intransitive verbs, the person marking agrees on the patient and can either be anti-passive or passive.
The table below shows all person inflections for intransitive verbs.
| Anti-passive | Passive | |
|---|---|---|
| 1p | -nuk | -maka |
| 1p.POSS | -nagi | -managi |
| 2p | -kū | -makū |
| 2p.POSS | -tik | -matik |
| 3p | -∅ | -at |
| 3p.POSS | -ni | -anni |
| 4p | -ya | -atia |
| 4p.POSS | -yū | -atiū |
The so-called 4th person distinguished the less salient 3rd person referent from the more proximal one. It's typically the object of a transitive verb, though it can also be the possessor or subject of a subordinate clause that is co-referent with the less salient argument of the matrix clause. This allows Wolflandic to disambiguate sentences like "The man sees the dog and he jumps." If the 4th person pronoun is used in the second clause, "and he jumps," it would denote the dog and not the man in the first clause, otherwise, the 3rd person pronoun denotes the man.
The table below shows all transitive person markers. Note that the left column is for the agent, and the other columns are for the patient.
| >3p | >3p.POSS | >1p | >1p.POSS | >2p | >2p.POSS | >4p | >4p.POSS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3p | -ka | -nit | -ma | -igi | -x̌u | -tik | -sā | -yak |
| 3p.POSS | -nika | -ninit | -nima | -nigi | -nix̌u | -nitik | -nisā | -niak |
| 1p | -taka | -tanit | -tama | -taigi | -tax̌u | -tatik | -tasā | -tayak |
| 1p.POSS | -gāka | -gānit | -gāma | -gāigi | -gāx̌u | -gātik | -gāsā | -gāyak |
| 2p | -ukka | -unnit | -umma | -ukigi | -uqqu | -uttik | -utsā | -ukiak |
| 2p.POSS | -tīka | -tīnit | -tīma | -tigi | -tīx̌u | -tītik | -tīsā | -tīak |
| 4p | -yaka | -yanit | -yama | -yaigi | -yax̌u | -yatik | -yasā | -yayak |
| 4p.POSS | -yūka | -yūnit | -yūma | -yūigi | -yūx̌u | -yūtik | -yūsā | -yūyak |
Within the transitive person markers, Wolflandic arguments follow a hierarchy order from 3, 1, 2, and 4, which is demonstrated in the table above. Arguments higher up the hierarchy are more salient than the arguments below, so in the case of the morpheme 1>2, the more salient argument (the agent) is the 1st person, as in the sentence, "I see you." If 2>1 is used, the 1st person is still the main topic, but it's the patient, as in, "I am seen by you." The 3rd person argument is always on the top of the hierarchy, so using 3>1 can be used for, "he/she/it sees me," and 1>3 would be, "he/she/it is seen by me." Note that the possessive form is lower on the hierarchy than its non-possessive equivalent.
The two tables shown above are for verb phrases. The list below shows the four possessive persons that are attached to noun phrases.
- 1st person possessive: -aga
- 2nd person possessive: -ati
- 3rd person possessive: -lā
- 4th person possessive: -si
The difference between 3rd and 4th person possessives disambiguate sentences like, "The man saw his house," where the 3rd person would indicate the man and the 4th person would indicate someone else.
Mood[]
Wolflandic has one of six different moods inflected on verbs as a prefix. Three moods are for verbs of an independent clause and three are for verbs of subordinate clauses. The six moods are listed below.
- Indicative: For independent clauses that are truths.
- Interrogative: For independent clauses that are questions, mostly yes or no questions.
- Affirmative: For independent clauses that expressed confirmation, like "You CAN run."
- Causative: For subordinate clauses that can mean "because" or "since." Sometimes called the conjunctional mood.
- Conditional: For subordinate clauses that mean "if" or "when."
- Participial: For other subordinate clauses besides causative or conditional. Often can mean "and" or "then."
Each of these six mood prefixes are somewhat fusional, as they each have a negative form and a non-negative form, shown in the table below.
| Non-negative | Negative | |
|---|---|---|
| Indicative | ∅- | gī- |
| Interrogative | xa- | xagī- |
| Affirmative | at- | aggī- |
| Causative | nuxu- | nuxugī- |
| Conditional | māk- | māggī- |
| Participial | it- | iggī- |
Prepositions[]
It can be debatable whether or not prepositions are inflectional or lexical. In certain contexts, prepositions could stay on their own, but are attached to a noun phrase as a prefix almost always. There are many different prepositions in Wolflandic, but only a few are listed below.
- In, at, during: nua-
- With, next to: ami-
- To, for: yū-
- Over, up, on top: yux̌a-
- Below, under: untu-
- Around, outside: wāk-
- Through: isaq-