Njûlan

Read this page in Njûlan.

Njûlan /nju:lan/ is a language created solely upon sound as well as other linguistic roots- that is to say that certain languages have a shared mentality with me. Each word is a representation of how the word feels inside my own head, which is why it is not a language that is editable by anyone else. It is also an evolved form of another created language that I had created, which I found to be far too complicated. This simplicity, along with the feel of the language inside your mouth and on your tongue, is the reason for why I found it so fun to create.

The Alphabet

The 25 letters in this language are as follows:

Letter	Pronunciation
A	Like the 'a' in 'scampi'
B	Like the 'b' in 'battle'
C	Like the 'c' in 'critical'
Ç	Like the 'j' in the French 'je'
D	Like the 'd' in 'dog'
E	Like the 'e' in 'empty'
F	Like the 'f' in 'full'
G	Like the 'g' in 'garden'
H	Like the 'h' in 'heaven'
I	Like the 'i' in 'hint'
J	Like the 'y' in 'yacht'
K	Like the 'c' in 'critical'
L	Like the 'l' in 'listen'
M	Like the 'm' in 'mother'
N	Like the 'n' in 'new'
O	Like the 'o' in 'pop'
P	Like the 'p' in 'pony'
R	Like the Spanish 'r' in 'rojo'
S	Like the 's' in 'Sam'
T	Like the 't' in 'tango'
U	Like the 'u' in 'upstairs'
V	Like the 'v' in 'video'
W	Like the 'w' in 'window'
Z	Like the 'z' in 'zebra'

Diphthongs

Naturally, not all sounds have been covered. Say you wished to transcribe your name but you couldn't find the way to make a certain vowel sound. This is easily done by making diphthongs (the combining of two vowels to make a new sound). The vowels and examples are as follows:

Diphthong	Pronunciation	Example
ai or ae	"eye"	Maia for Maya
au	"ow"	Hauwâd for Howard
ei	"ay"	Ceit/Keit for Kate
eu or iu	like the Welsh "iw"	Heu for Hugh
ie	"ee"	Ielizabef for Elizabeth*
iû	"oo"	Liûsie for Lucy
ôu or oû	"oh"	Djôuns/Djoûns for Jones

Note: the 'th' in Elizabeth does not exist. We recommend swapping it for an 'f' or a 't'.

Further Examples:

• Maikl Hauwâd - Michael Howard
• Saemon Djôuns - Simon Jones

Remember that transcribing your name is done to your own tastes. You could even make a brand new name for yourself. Following the phonetic rules are important but as long as it makes the preferred sound(s), it doesn't really matter whether you follow this table to the letter.

The Basic Grammar Points

• Njûlan uses the general European sentence structure of Subject + Verb + Object. This order cannot be broken as the subject and objects may get confused. Where other particles- such as time and place- are concerned, these can be placed anywhere depending upon emphasis, importance and sound.
• Verbs do not need to be conjugated in relation to the subject/pronoun. You need only worry about conjugation of verbs in the tense and to also show a change in state/movement. This will be explained in the next chapter.
  • Examples of this:
    • Pe sjeh Mâtjû. I am Matthew.
    • Djon sjeh zêt jâna. John is seven years old.
• Circumflexes are found upon vowels that require double the time to pronounce. In the number "zêt", the need for the 'e' sound is double. It is pronounced "zeht". You will notice that some words spell these sounds by adding a "h" after the vowel. These spellings are not interchangeable.
• Plural nouns are made by adding '-na' to the noun.
  • Tîp (house) - Tîpna (houses)
  • Jên (pen) - Jênna (pens)
• To negate a verb, you simply put the prefix "bê-" in front of the verb. So pe sjeh ("I am") becomes pe bêsjeh ("I am not").

Pronouns

• The following is a list of pronouns. You see that to change a pronoun in a plural pronoun (I into we, for example), you follow a slightly altered plural rule of -na plus circumflex to the first vowel.
• To make a singular possessive pronoun, you change the the main vowel into an 'â'. To make a plural possessive pronoun, you change the 'na' into 'nâ'.

Singular Pronoun	Plural Pronoun	Singular Possessive	Plural Possessive
Pe (I)	Pêna (we)	Pâ (my)	Pênâ (our)
Te (you)	Têna (you)	Tâ (your)	Tênâ (your)
Çe (he)	Çêna (they)	Çâ (his)	Çênâ (their)
Ça (she)	Çâna (they, feminine)	Ça (her)	Çânâ (their, feminine)
Çi (it)	Çîna (they, inanimate)	Çî (its)	Çînâ (their, inanimate)

You will notice that "Ça" did not change for the possessive (her). This is to ensure that no confusion will occur between 'his' and 'her'.

Object Pronouns

The Object Pronouns represent who receives the action. This is what makes "me" different from "I" in English. To form the Object Pronouns, you simply swap the last vowel with a 'u'.

Singular Pronoun	Singular Object Pronoun	Plural Pronoun	Plural Object Pronoun
Pe	Pu	Pêna	Pênu
Te	Tu	Têna	Tênu
Çe	Çue	Çêna	Çênu(e)*
Ça	Çua	Çêna	Çênu(a)*
Çi	Çui	Çêna	Çêni(i)*

Note: him, her and it- çue, çua and çui- all have had their letters put back onto the end. If that didn't happen, they would look the same and it would be ridiculously difficult to understand.

Note also: for "them", you would generally just use çênu. If you wanted to be specific, you could add "e" to make it a specific group of males, "a" for females and "i" to objects. But it's normally not necessary.

Examples:

• Te raidû çênu. - You need them.
• Çe çivitan pu. - He scared me.

Tenses

Tenses are really easy to formulate in Njûlan. All we need to do is add certain endings. There is no need for auxiliary verbs, like in most European languages, because all is shown inside the ending.

There are six tenses: the Present, the Simple Past (did something or have done something), the Imperfect (was doing, used to do), the Close Past (just did something), the Close Future (going to do something) and the Distant Future (will do something).

See how the verbs change to create each tense:

Present	Simple Past	Imperfect	Close Past	Close Future	Distant Future
sjeh - to be	sjehitan - was	sjehiçlan - was being	sjehitulan - was just being	sjehûtan - am going to be	sjehûçlan - will be
tâk - to walk	tâkitan - walked	tâkiçlan - was walking	tâkitulan - just walked	tâkûtan - am going to walk	tâkûçlan - will walk
pei - to buy	peitan - bought	peiçlan - was buying	peitulan - just bought	peiûtan - am going to buy	peiûçlan - will buy

• A quick point on tenses- there is no differentiation between the Present and the Present continuous.
  • Pe tâk means 'I walk' and 'I am walking'.
• Also, the Simple Past is a mixture of two concepts in English of the Preterite (I have done something) and the Perfect (I did something)- either translation works fine.

Conditional Tense

The Conditional Tense generally talks about what you "would do". In Njûlan this is easy as we stick with the rule of there being only one word to display the tense. This is different from the other tenses because we use a prefix. This allows you to add your suffixes to give it a temporal aspect. The prefix we use is "sçeh-".

• Pe sçehmâna. I would go.
• Pe sçehmânitan. I would have gone.

Future Perfect

Another rather difficult tense to think about is the Future Perfect. This refers to something that "will have happened". To form this, we combine the Simple Past and the Distant Future endings to create "-uçitan".

• Pe mânuçitan. I will have gone.
• Pe peuçitan. I will have bought.

The Command Form

Naturally, all languages contain the ability to command and order people to do things. However, there is no special conjugation for verbs to show this. Like in English, just say the verb's infinitive in a commanding voice.

• Mâna! Move! or Go!

Subjunctive

Luckily for readers, the Subjunctive does not exist as a separate voice in Njûlan. It is, instead, shown through the use of the Conditional:

• Oç Maikel sçehsjeh hul, çe sçehkantet duhg Franiç. If Michael were intelligent, he could learn French.

Questions

There are two types of questions that exist within Njûlan- those which require a question word and those that do not. Question words (such as 'what', 'who' and 'which') ask for a specific detail whereas questions such as "Did he read that book?" require a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer.

• The question words in Njûlan are as follows. The question word always comes first with the verb remaining in second position, followed by the subject and the rest of the sentence following as normal.
  • Te çul dâ tuv. - You have the book.
  • Cûla çul te dâ tuv? - Why do you have the book?

Question words include:

Njûlan	English
Cwa	What
Cwi	Which
Cûla	Why
Cwû	Who
Wû	Where
Ken	When
Hau	How

• To turn a statement into a question for a 'yes' or 'no' answer, you can switch the verb and the subject around.
  • Te çul dâ tuv. - You have the book.
  • Çul te dâ tuv? - Do you have the book?
• There are specific translations of 'yes' and 'no', however, here you simply answer with the verb for 'yes' or add the negation particle 'bê-' to the verb as 'no'.
  • Çul te dâ tuv? - Do you have the book?
  • Çul/Bêçul - Yes/No
• If you cannot work out a way of saying 'yes' or 'no', you can always use 'ieda' (yes) or 'nâ' (no).
  • Ieda comes from the verb ied meaning 'to nod'.

Changing of State/Place

Unfortunately, this language isn't without its share of annoying linguistic features. This little feature allows us to make a clearer image of how an action is done. Compare the following phrases:

• Djon sjlah un dâ bed. John sleeps in the bed.
• Djon sjlahano un dâ bed. John falls asleep in the bed.

The addition of '-ano' to the verb makes it clear that the state has changed. In the first example, John is merely sleeping in the bed. In the second example, John has changed from awake to asleep. There is a change of state.

In Tenses

Evidently, this will lead to two tense endings. If we were to use the same examples but put them into the past, the past tense ending will come before the State/Place ending.

• Djon sjlahitan un dâ bed. John slept in the bed.
• Djon sjlahitano un dâ bed. John fell asleep in the bed.

As is clearly seen, since the tense endings already end in 'an', we simply need only to add an extra 'o'.

Numbers and Counting

Here are the first ten numbers:

English	Njûlan
1	Ono
2	Dûo
3	Dri
4	Fûwa
5	Fip
6	Sês
7	Zêt
8	Okon
9	Aks
10	Dîn

Bigger numbers are made by simple maths. Twenty is made by "two-ten" because two times ten is twenty- dûdîn. Twelve is "ten-two" because ten plus two is twelve- dîndûo. As you have seen, sometimes the ending needs to be cut off the first half to introduce the second half smoothly. This normally happens in scenarios where the preceding number is two syllables long (e.g. fûdîn is forty, okodîn is eighty) but you will learn them as time goes by.

Other useful words are:

English	Njûlan
Hundred	Kandet
Thousand	Milsan
Million	Dînsan
Billion (UK)	Kansan

Basic Phrases

English	Njûlan	Literal Translation
Hello	Dâhniâc	Good Time
Good Morning	Dâhn Gosçan	Good Morning
Good Day	Dâhn Taçk	Good Day
Good Afternoon	Dâhn Têkan	Good Afternoon
Good Night	Dâhn Tuhlian	Good Night
How are you?	Hau sjeh çjosan?	How are things?
I am well/bad, and you?	Çjosan sjeh dâhn/sek, a te?	Things are good/bad, and you?
Thank you	Tâhnna	Thanks
Please	Pe bêç te.	I'm asking you.
I'm sorry	Pe saranta.	I apologise.
What is your name?	Hau sjeh tâ gah?	How is your name?
My name is...	Pâ gah sjeh...	My name is...

Example Text

Harry Potter

This is a translation of a segment of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

"Cûla lâja te an hau pe mânitan?" sêitan Hari arv. "Voldemort sjehita wehj tâ bûd."

"Voldemort," sêitan Tomos aruf, "sjeh pâ fôriâc, mântiâc a wehjiâc, Hari Poteh..."

Çe nêmitan Harîs sçap o ça tâj a çe scrîtan dri vôt un dâ ajia:

TOMOS LJAM VAPEHE-HELDE

Wehj çe fâfitan dâ sçap atono, a dâ sumna o çâ gah pacjep:

PE SJEH LAHAME VOLDEMORT

"Te dehla?" çe hâlelitan. "Çi sjehitan gah det pe padêv un Mocnosmot î pâ natog naisna înic, evîd. Te donc det pe dêvitan pâ fahames ersça Mugul âlja? Pe, an dâ blût o Salzah Sçnapohm un pâ blûtlinna, dûhrc pâ fahames curn? Pe, câd dâ gah of ersça, rêg Mugul, cwû almânitan hiç pe fôr pe nêtehacinan, înic ohko çe hwanitan det çâ hama sjehitan surpama? Nâ, Hari. Pe njûitan njûon gah det pop surpamena sjehmalan çiveh î sçpek, ken pe paçul dehvnoma dâ essî dâhn un dâ glurd."

This will need proof-reading. When I have corrected any mistakes, this line will disappear from underneath.

The Lord's Prayer

Njûlan
Pânâ Fahame un rîs,
Hohlum sjeh tâ gah,
Tâ kimplan êri,
Tâ plîda mâkitan,
Ahr dâ Glân sçtrû un rîs.
Gehp pêna hapn tack pênâ taçkena sof,
Ac upsan pênâ upsorna,
Sçtru pêna upsanitan pênâ bântçipona.
A bêrêmpli pêna pwo dêvsçû,
Poh rêmpli pêna hiç bânton.

English
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.

Vocabulary

Please click here for some Njûlan Vocabulary. Not every word will be here but you will find some important words.

Credits

• Thanks to my wife, Kate "Mrs. Njûlan" Barclay for pointing out the flaws. If it weren't for her you wouldn't have a written list of diphthongs or your object pronouns! Tâhnna!