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 'rocho'
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'

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 ten 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)

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'.

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 past (one event- did 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	Past- One Event	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 final point on tenses- there is no differentiation between the present and the present continuous. Pe tâk means 'I walk' and 'I am walking'.

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'.