Nytal
Nytal is a costructed fantasy language, born to be isolated and not related to any linguistic family in the world.
Phonology and Pronounce
Basical pronounce
- a = like a in father
- b = as in English
- c = always like ch in church
- d = as in English
- e = like open e in lady or close e in men
- f = as in English
- g = always like g in get
- h and ' = these two graphemes represent a phoneme which is unknown to the most European languages: the glottal stop. Danish language has it and use it very often for distinguishing words but does not give it an alphabetic sign. Semitic languages use it more and more largerly, in fact it is considered as a single consonant. It is not easy to pronounce, in English we can find some example in the stop we make when we pronounce Bat'man. The real glottal stop is a fast movement open/closed of the vocal cords, but for the speakers who do not know how to pronounce it we advise to pronounce it as a little stop during pronunciation.
- i = always like ee in meet
- j = always like ee in meet
- k = as in English
- l = always like l in lane
- lij = as in Spanish ll or Italian gl
- m = as in English
- n = as in English
- nij = as in Spanish ñ
- o = like open o in rock or close o in orange
- p = as in English
- q = sounds like k
- r = rolled Italian/Spanish-like r
- s = as in English, but can only be unvoiced
- š = like sh in shop
- t = as in English
- u = like u in put
- v = as in English
- x = as in English
- y = this is the most difficult vowel to pronounce, because it appears rarely in romance or germanic languages. Instead, it is present in English, it is the schwa. It almost corresponds also to Russian Ы. A romance or germanic speaker can pronounce it by saying the ee of meet (or i in "ilusiòn" for Spanish, "illusion" for French and German) but lowering the tongue in the middle of the oral cavity and obtaining a sound middle-way between close e and ee.
- z = as in English, it can be voiced or unvoiced
Phonology in IPA
Consonants
This is the consonant system in the IPA consonant table:
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | ||||||||
| Nasal | ||||||||
| Vibrant | ||||||||
| Fricative | ||||||||
| Affricate | ||||||||
| Approximant | ||||||||
| Lateral approximant | ||||||||
Vowels
This is the vowel system in IPA vowel table:
| Front | Near-front | Central | Near-back | Back | ||
| Close |
| |||||
| Close-mid | ||||||
| Mid | ||||||
| Open-mid | ||||||
| Open | ||||||
Morphology
Nytal is an isolating language. It means that its particles (substantives, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, etc...) never flect according to their quality or function.
Substantives
Nytal substantives never flect for genre, number or cases.
They only can be accompanied by the pluralizing particle le which is placed before them
- city: syr
- cities: le syr
There are no articles at all, neither definite articles nor indefinite ones.
Adjectives
Nytal adjectives never flect according to their substantive. They are placed always after their substantive.
- the big city: syr haron
- the big cities: le syr haron
Adjectival comparison
Nytal has two degrees of comparison: the comparative and the superlative:
- Comparative. Adjectives build their comparative by placing the particle ty before the adjective. The second term is expressed by particle udh.
They do not usually use less-comparative.
- Superlative. Adjectives build their superlative by placing the particle jrje before the adjective. The second term can be expressed with the preposition yd (of) or okled (between, among)
- she is the most beautiful woman of the entire city: si ad’jo mec jrje skon yd syr vsj
Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Nytal has only three forms for personal pronouns:
They never flect for genre, number or cases. They can only be accompanied by their pluralizing particle la, which is placed after them.
- I love: ni a'ljek
- we love: ni la a'ljek
- I love you: ni a'ljek ok
- you love me: ok a'ljek ni
The role played by the pronoun is decided by the position in the sentence word order, not as in English where there are different form like I / me.
If a personal pronoun is placed after a substantive, it plays the role of a possessive adjective:
- my husband: sik ni
- their cities: le syr si la
It exists also a proper reflexive possessive pronoun, su, which is used when the subject and the owner are the same, for all persons.
- I love my wife: ni a'ljek mec su
In third person, if it is used the proper third person pronouns, it means that the owner is not the subject itself:
- si a'ljek mec su: He loves his own wife
- si a'ljek mec si: He loves his wife (of another man).
Demonstrative pronouns and adjectives
They can be used both as pronouns and adjectives.
When they are used as pronouns they can take the pluralizing particle la after themselves, when they are used as adjectives they follow all adjectives' rules.
Relative pronoun
There is only one indeclinable relative pronoun kj.
- The cows you see belong to my husband (the cows, which you see, are of my husband): le desti, kj ok a'ljub, ad'jo yd sik ni
Interrogative pronouns
These are the interrogative pronouns; they are all indeclinable.
Adverbs
Nytal adverbs, which are derived from an adjective, are distinguished by the particle klo which is placed just before the adjective. They can be found many isolated adjectives, used as adverbs anyway.
- finally: klo blek
Numbers
Cardinal
Nytal number system is a 10 base one:
Numbers over 10 are constructed:
- numbers x 10: add -'djn.
- numbers x 100: add -'odhj
- numbers x 1000: add -'medjh
composed numbers are formed with a (and). Examples:
- 25: do'djn a so (twenty and five)
- 456: ti'odhj a so'djn a kha (four hundert and fifty and six)
Each number has to be intended as an adjective but it can be placed before its substantive.
Ordinal
The ordinal numbers are formed by placing the particle tjux after all simple numbers:
- first: js tjux
- fifteenth: djneh a so tjux
and they follow all adjectives' rules.
- the fifth city: syr so tjux
Preposition
Verbs
Nytal verbs do not decline as Indo-European verbs do according to number and tenses.
They only take some particles which indicate the temporal position of the action.
As in English, Nytal verbs always require the presence of a subjects, substantives and personal or demonstrative pronouns.
To negate a verb you have to place the particle ta just before the verb.
- I love you: ni a'ljek ok
- I do not love you: ni ta a'ljek ok
From the verb we can obtain an adjective with a passive meaning which corresponds to our past participle, by placing -'lo after the verb
- to see: ljub
- seen: ljub'lo
This is a special form because Nytal verbs do not have a passive form.
Each verb has to be intended as transitive and intransitive if possible: With an object it must be translated it with the transitive form, without any object it must be considered as an intransitive verb.
In English it is the same in the sentences: The boy broke the window (transitive) / The window broke (intransitive)
- the man broke the window: sik be'krijg eknje
- the window broke: eknje be'krijg
Derivational morphology
Since all words in Nytal language could, in theory, play the rule of substantive, adjective, (pronoun) and verb, the derivational morphology was almost nonexistent. Some traces of a derivational morphology existed, a very few processes of derivations:
- the couple "prefix me- + word + suffix -(j)er", added to a verb, create a new word with the leading meaning of "one who makes the action", equivalent to the English suffix -er. The new word could be used as adjective or as verb too.
- skit, to write → meskitjer, writer
- xenoj, to take care → mexenojer, caretaker
- finans, debt, to be in debt → mefinanser, debtor
This prefix and this suffix were maybe born as independent particles, because of the isolating nature of the language, and only after the continuos usage they were felt as an added prefix and suffix.
Syntax
Word order
Nytal is a strictly SVO language, i.e. its components in the independent sentences are placed Subject - Verb - Object.
This word order is respected in every kind of sentences, dependent and independent; only by this the words can play their exact role in the sentences, because no word has cases or changes according to its function as in Indo-European languages does:
- ni a'ljek si: I love her but if the pronouns' position changes, the sense of the sentences changes: si a'ljek ni: She loves me.
There are only a few cases where the word order can change:
- In the relative sentence we can find an OSV order, because the relative pronoun is the object, accusative:
- the man which you see: sik kj ok a'ljub
- In direct questions we can find an OSV order, because the interrogative pronoun is the object, accusative:
- Which city did you visit?: kjel syr ok be'ljeuben?
Usage of words
Nytal words can have more than an unique function:
A substantive can be easily used as an adjective or a verb:
- love: ljek → to love → relative to the love
- I love my wife, it's a great love: ni a'ljek mec su, tjel ad'jo ljek haron
- to see: ljub → seeing, vision
- beautiful: skon → beauty → to get beautiful → to make beautiful
- I am beautiful: ni ad'jo skon
- I got beautiful: ni be'skon
- She will make her own house beautiful: si fi'skon toj su
- man, husband: sik → human, masculine, male
- to stop, to finish: blek → end, termination → final
So many words have different functions, which can be recognized because of their accompaining particles.
