Noigcalac

Noigcalac
Type	Agglutinative
Alignment	Fluid-S
Head direction	Head-Initial
Tonal	No
Declensions	Yes
Conjugations	Yes
Genders
Nouns decline according to...
Case	Number
Definiteness	Gender
Verbs conjugate according to...
Voice	Mood
Person	Number
Tense	Aspect
Meta-information
Progress	0%
Statistics Nouns 0% Verbs 0% Adjectives 0% Syntax 0% Words of 1500
Creator	Eçeþesi

Noigcalac /nʷig̊ʷalʷakʷ/ is a language that I am developing for a friend's Dungeons & Dragons campaign, in which it is spoken by a class of witches and is used to cast spells. With that in mind, I am designing it to have a vaguely Celtic-inspired aesthetic, as my friend and I agreed that the Celtic aesthetic is what most readily comes to mind when thinking of witches; however, it is not a direct copy of Irish or any other Celtic language. I am also taking into consideration what grammatical features may be useful for witches.

This conlang may also later be adapted into my own conworld, Aysling.

Phonology

Consonants

Noigcalac phonology is characterized by a form of consonant harmony, in which a given word may only contain consonants belonging to a single harmony group. This is similar to how many languages, such as Finnish or Turkish, require all of the vowels of a given word to be either front or back vowels. In Noigcalac, there are three such harmony groups, namely labialized consonants, palatalized consonants, and velarized consonants.

The below consonant table is representative of the most universal analysis of Noigcalac phonology. Most dialects of Noigcalac possess all of these phonemes, but their realizations may vary considerably from one region to another.

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal	m mʲ mˠ		nʷ nʲ nˠ		ŋʷ ŋʲ ŋ
Plosive	p pʲ pˠ b̥ b̥ʲ b̥ˠ b bʲ bˠ		tʷ tʲ tˠ d̥ʷ d̥ʲ d̥ˠ dʷ dʲ dˠ		kʷ kʲ k g̊ʷ g̊ʲ g̊ gʷ gʲ g
Fricative		f fʲ fˠ	sʷ sʲ sˠ		xʷ xʲ x
Approximant				j	w
Trill			rʷ rʲ rˠ
Lateral app.			lʷ lʲ lˠ

Vowels

In most dialects, Noigcalac's vowel inventory is the classic five-vowel system.

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

Writing System

Letter	p	b	bp	t	d	dt	c	g
Sound	p, pʲ, pˠ	b, bʲ, bˠ	b̥, b̥ʲ, b̥ˠ	tʷ, tʲ, tˠ	dʷ, dʲ, dˠ	d̥ʷ, d̥ʲ, d̥ˠ	k, kʷ, kʲ	g, gʷ, gʲ
Letter	gc	m	n	ñ	f	s	h	r
Sound	g̊, g̊ʷ, g̊ʲ	m, mʲ, mˠ	nʷ, nʲ, nˠ	ŋ, ŋʷ, ŋʲ	f, fʲ, fˠ	sʷ, sʲ, sˠ	x, xʷ, xʲ	rʷ, rʲ, rˠ
Letter	l	a	i	u	ai	au	e, ë	o, ö
Sound	lʷ, lʲ, lˠ	a	i	u	e	o	ʲ, j	ʷ, w

Because of the nature of Noigcalac's consonant harmony system, the harmony group a word belongs to is indicated by an <e> or an <o> following the initial consonant of the word, or the absence of either. Words with <e> indicate words belonging to the palatal group; words with <o> belong to the labialized group; and those with neither belong to the velarized group. If a word begins in a vowel sound, the indicating <e> or <o> simply begins the word. Later in words, <e> and <o> indicate the semivowels /j/ and /w/. In cases of ambiguity, or sometimes for ease of reading, <e> and <o> may be topped with diaereses for clarity when indicating semivowels.

Grammar

Tentative grammar outline:

• active-stative (fluid-S) alignment
• aspect-heavy TAM system
• wide variety of moods
• evidentiality
• head-initial, VSO word-order
• telicity
• noun class/animacy
• possession marked on nouns via person-specific markers
• classifiers

Nouns

Case

	Affix	Example	Meaning
Absolutive
Accusative
Ergative
Dative
Instrumental
Comitative
Abessive
Benefactive
Locative
Ablative
Allative
Essive
Semblative

Number

	Affix	Example	Meaning
Default (Singular/Collective)
Plural
Singulative

Possession

1S
1P
2S
2P
3SM
3SF
3P

Verbs

Aspect

	Affix	Example	Meaning
Continuous
Progressive
Perfective
Durative
Habitual
Momentane
Iterative
Gnomic

Mood & Evidentiality

Realis Evidentials

	Affix	Example	Meaning

Irrealis Moods

	Affix	Example	Meaning