Ngolu

Ngolu Ilia (Te)
Spoken:	Áu
Total speakers:	100,000 (approx.)
Genealogy:	Isolate (as far as known)
Typology
Morphological type:	Isolating/futional
Morphosyntactic alignment:	Nominative-Accusative
Basic word order:	VSO
Credits
Creator:	Imralu
Created:	2013-2014

Ngolu, also known as Te or Ilia Te (endonym: ilia (te) IPA: [ìʎá(té)]) is a language isolate spoken throughout the space habitat Áu by the Ngolu people, whose number is estimated to be around 100,000. As the Ngolu are almost entirely monolingual, and while travel to and from Áu remains almost impossible, the language is not in any danger of extinction. At this stage, little is known of dialect differences.

Ngolu is an isolating/fusional, head-initial (right-branching) language with VSO word order and nominative-accusative alignment. Verbs (verbals) make up the only open class of word, with nouns (nominals) constituting a closed class of heavily fusional words that fill the roll of pronouns and articles in other languages, marking grammatical person, gender, number, case, definiteness and specificity.

Terminology

The Ngolu usually call their language ilia [ìʎá], which simply means 'language' or 'speech'. Many Ngolu in Áu do not recognise foreign languages such as English as communication when they hear them, and tend to refer to anything said in another language as maramaria [màɾàmàdʒá] ('babbling' or 'nonsense'). Ngolu on Earth have observed other languages being used between multiple people and typically recognise foreign languages as being capable of conveying meaning. The word ilia in that case refers to all languages. To disambiguate their own language, they may call it ilia te [ìʎáté] 'good language' (or sometimes ilia golu [ìʎáŋòlú] or ilias áu [ìʎásáw]).

The word áu [áw] means 'world' but specifically refers to the world Áu, not to Earth (which is known as aásu [àásù] or uuásu [ùwásù]). The English ethnonym 'Ngolu' derives from golu [ŋòlú] meaning 'person' or 'people'.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i ‹i›		u ‹u›
Mid	e ‹e›		o ‹o›
Low		a ‹a›

Each vowel may be 'strong' or 'weak'. The pronunciation of strong vowels varies across accents but it generally equates to a high tone whereas 'weak' vowels have a low tone. There is only ever one 'strong' vowel per word and it is nearly always the final vowel. Where it is not, it is always the penultimate vowel and the in that case the final vowel is always /i/ or /u/. Non-final strong vowels are indicated in the romanisation using an acute accent, ‹áéíóú›.

The high vowels, /i/ and /u/, when 'weak' and adjacent to another vowel are pronounced non-syllabically as [i̯~j] and [u̯~w]). Non-syllabic /i/ merges with and palatalises any preceding dental/alveolar consonant.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Labiovelar	Dental/Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m ‹m›		n ‹n›		ŋ ‹g›
Plosive	b ‹b›		t ‹t›		k ‹k›	ʔ ‹q›
Ejective			tʼ ‹tt›		kʼ ‹kk›
Voiced Fricative		v ‹v›	z ‹z›	ʒ ‹j›
Voiceless Fricative			s ‹s›	ʃ ‹x›		h ‹h›
Tap			ɾ ‹r›
Lateral			l ‹l›

• The normal pronunciation of /n t tʼ ɾ l/ is dental. When these consonants are followed by a non-syllabic /i/, they are palatalised to [ɲ tʃ tsʼ dʒ ʎ] and the /i/ subsequently disappears.
• /ɾ/ is frequently pronounced as a voiced dental plosive.
• /s/ and /z/ are normally alveolar. When followed by a non-syllabic /i/, they are not distinguished from /ʃ ʒ/.
• /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ cannot be followed by non-syllabic /i/.
• The phonemes /s/ and /ɾ/ do not occur at the beginning of a word.
• The ejective consonants /tʼ/ and /kʼ/ are restricted to positions immediately before a 'strong' vowel, although there may be an intervening non-syllabic 'weak' /i/ or /u/. At the beginning of a 'weak' syllable, ejective consonants become pronounced as their equivalent plain plosive. For example, kka [kʼá] and kkue [kʷʼé] are allowed while expected *kkina (derived from kka plus the infix -in-) is instead present as kina [kì.ná]. In connected speech, /tʼ/ and /kʼ/ may be pronounced as [t̚ʔ k̚ʔ] or even [tː kː]. A strong ejective pronunciation is always heard post pausa.

Morphology

Nominals

Nominals are a large but closed class of words that are essentially the equivalent of pronouns and articles in other languages. They inflect for number, gender, grammatical person, definiteness, specificity and case. They can appear on their own or can be followed by a verbal. When followed by a verbal, they can be regarded as the head of an underlying relative clause which nominalises the verbal and allows it to function as an argument in the sentence.

As a pronoun:

xu

NOM.3s.DEF.INAN

"the thing"

it

As an article:

xu	mala
NOM.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.house
"the thing that"	"is a house"

the house

Number

Nominals indicate two numbers, singular and plural. Plural is marked by the prefix i-, which occurs before some case prefixes and after others (see [[Ngolu#Case|Case] below for more information]).

Singular:

xu	mala
NOM.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.house
"the thing that"	"is a house"

the house

Plural:

ixu	mala
NOM.3p.DEF.INAN.REL	be.house
"the things that"	"are houses"

the houses

Gender

All nominals show one of three genders.

• Inanimate (Ngolu: tiaka)
• Animate (Ngolu: kali)
• Masculine (Ngolu: muja)

It has been suggested that the label 'masculine' is misleading, as this gender is not simply used for any male person but only for adult men who have passed the initiation ceremony into manhood, whereupon they are muja.

The use of the genders partly depends on the speaker's rank, as shown in the following table.

	Kali/Tuva speaker	Muja speaker
Inanimate used for:	inanimate objects abstract concepts plants sessile animals	inanimate objects abstract concepts plants all animals other than pets slaves prisoners
Animate used for:	the goddess Nigáu free women free children free but non-initiated men default for non-specific people slaves prisoners all motile animals	the goddess Nigáu free women free children free but non-initiated men default for non-specific people pets
Masculine used for:	the god Uru initiated men	the god Uru initiated men

The following examples illustrate the difference.

The speaker is a muja, an initiated man:

kulu	ene	xu	ala
be.heard	DAT.1s.MASC	NOM.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.bird
"was heard"	"to me"	"the thing that"	"is a bird"

I heard the bird.

The speaker is a kali or tuva, not an initiated man:

kulu	eni	ju	ala
be.heard	DAT.1s.ANIM	NOM.3s.DEF.ANIM.REL	be.bird
"was heard"	"to me"	"the person who"	"is a bird"

I heard the bird.

The interplay between a speaker and listener's rank is complex and may result in unexpected gender choices. For example, a slave must refer to him- or herself in the inanimate gender when speaking to a muja unless specifically given permission otherwise. To read more about this, see Social Stratification and Language Use.

Person

Three grammatical persons are marked by nominals. The first person nominals contain n. The second person nominals contain a non-syllabic u (realised as v before u). In the third person, j, z, m, x, k and Ø appear depending on gender, definiteness and specificity.

Clusivity

The plural forms of all nominals are exclusive of other grammatical persons except for the first person plural forms inu and ina, which can include third person referents as well, especially when expressing closeness.

In order to group referents from more than one grammatical person together, the required nominals are juxtaposed. For example, inu (gloss: NOM.1s.ANIM) is the exclusive 'we'. The inclusive 'we' may take a form such as vu nu (gloss: NOM.2s.ANIM NOM.1s.ANIM) or na ivu (gloss: NOM.1s.MASC NOM.2p.ANIM), more or less equivalent to 'you and I'. Even addressing people in the second person, should the group include third persons, these are made not of separately, for example ja vu (gloss: NOM.3s.DEF.MASC NOM.2s.ANIM). The nominal ivu (gloss: NOM.2p.ANIM), for example, is only used to address two more people when all are present.

The order of the elements in these juxtapositions depends first on rank, with nominals referring to higher ranking referents appearing before those of lower ranking referents. When the referents are equally ranked, 2nd person precedes third person, which, in turn, preceds first person.

Nominal juxtapositions are characterised by all nominals being inflected in the same case. For example, the nominative ua na becomes eues ene in the dative and uua una in the possessive.

Definiteness and Specificity

In the third person, nominals indicate definiteness and specificity.

• Definite (+specific, +definite): The listener is assumed to know which specific individual(s) referred to.
• Specific (+specific, -definite): The speaker is referring to (a) specific individual(s) which the listener is not expected to know.
• General (-specific, -definite): The speaker is not referring to any specific individual(s).

Definite

Speaker: kali or tuva:

kulu	eni	ju	ala
be.heard	DAT.1s.ANIM	NOM.3s.DEF.ANIM.REL	be.bird
"was heard"	"to me"	"the person who"	"is a bird"

I heard the bird. (Ju ala refers to a specific bird which the listener is assumed to be aware of.)

Specific

Speaker: kali or tuva:

kulu	eni	mu	ala
be.heard	DAT.1s.ANIM	NOM.3s.SPEC.ANIM.REL	be.bird
"was heard"	"to me"	"a specific person who"	"is a bird"

I heard a bird. (Mu ala refers to a specific bird which is known to the speaker but not the listener.)

General

Speaker: kali or tuva:

kka	kulu	eni	u	ala
be.not	be.heard	DAT.1s.ANIM	NOM.3s.NSPC.ANIM.REL	be.bird
"was not"	"was heard"	"to me"	"any person who"	"is a bird"

I did not hear any bird. (U ala does not refer to any specific bird.)

Case

Ngolu possesses 14 grammatical cases.

Nominative

The nominative case indicates the grammatical subject of a verb. The nominative case is always formed with a back vowel, u for animate and inanimate genders, a for masculine. Plural is indicated with a prefixed i-.

Speaker: muja

muja	na
be.initiated.man	NOM.1s.MASC
"am an initiated man"	"I"

I am an initiated man.

Speaker: kali

kka	loe	nu
be.not	sleep	NOM.1s.ANIM
"am not"	"sleep"	"I"

I am not sleeping.

Accusative

The accusative case indicates the grammatical object of a verb. The accusative case is formed with a front vowel, i for animate and inanimate, e for masculine. Plural is indicated with a prefixed i-.

Speaker: kali

uo	ji	(ma	balu)
kill.deliberately	ACC.3s.DEF.ANIM	(NOM.3s.SPEC.MASC.REL	be.royal.guardsman)
"killed"	"him/her/it"	"a specific man who"	"is a royal guardsman"

A member of the royal guard killed it. / It was killed (by a royal guardsman).

Dative

The dative case indicates an indirect object of the verb, a destination or goal of a movement. It is more or less equivalent to the preposition 'to' in English. It is formed by prefixing e(r)- (ie(r)- in plural) before an accusative nominal.

Speaker: muja

volos	ene	izi	hunia
give	DAT.1s.MASC	ACC.3p.SPEC.INAN.REL	be.potable
"gives"	"to me"	"some things that"	"are water"

I was given water. / Someone gave me water.

Speaker: muja

Addressee: muja

xena	uas	ene
be.seen	NOM.2s.MASC	DAT.1s.MASC
"are visible"	"you"	"to me"

I can see you.

Speaker: kali

Addressee: muja

kua	g-ieji	ua	nu
JUSS	VRB-DAT.3p.DEF.INAN	NOM.2s.MASC	NOM.1s.ANIM
"should"	"go - to them"	"you"	"I"

Let us go to them.

Ablative

The dative case is more or less equivalent to the preposition 'from' in English. It is formed by suffixing -i to a nominative nominal.

Speaker: kali

Kuaqa	nu	xui	mala	g-uni
be.distant	NOM.1s.ANIM	ABL.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.house	VRB-GEN.1s.ANIM
"am far"	"I"	"from the thing which"	"is a house"	"is mine"

I'm far away from my home.

Speaker: muja

E	n-nai
IMP	VRB-ABL.1s.MASC
"!"	"go - from me"

Get away from me!

Locative

The locative case indicates a location. It is more or less equivalent to the prepositions 'in', 'on' and 'at' in English. It is also used to replace the verb "have" when indicating immediate possession as in "to have something on one's person". It is formed by suffixing -a to a nominative nominal in the animate and inanimate and prefixing a(r)- (plural: ia(r)-) to a masculine nominative nominal. The prefixed form is also used for the non-specific animate.

Speaker: muja

kka	bani	ana
be.not	be.money	LOC.1s.MASC
"is not"	"is money"	"at me"

I don't have any money (with me).

Addressee: muja

n-xua	mo	ua
VRB-LOC.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.what	NOM.2s.MASC
"are at the thing which"	"is what"	"you"

Where are you?

Nominal Tables

First Person

First person nominals are all definite.

	Anim. Sg.	Anim. Pl.	Masc. Sg.	Masc. Pl.
Nominative	nu	inu	na	ina
Accusative	ni	ini	ne	ine
Dative	eni	ieni	ene	iene
Ablative	nui	inui	nai	inai
Locative	nua	inua	ana	iana
Genitive	uni	iuni	une	iune
Possessive	*unu	*iunu	una	iuna
Vocative	enu	einu	ena	eina
Causal	teni	teini	tene	teine
Benefactive	kuani	kuaini	kuane	kuaine
Instrumental	ani	aini	ane	aine
Comitative	leni	leini	lene	leine
Topical	veni	veini	vene	veine
Essive	onu	oinu	ona	oina

*theoretical

Second Person

Second person nominals are all definite.

	Anim. Sg.	Anim. Pl.	Masc. Sg.	Masc. Pl.
Nominative	vu	ivu	ua	iua
Accusative	ui	iui	ue	iue
Dative	eui	ieui	eue	ieue
Ablative	vui	ivui	uai	iuai
Locative	vua	ivua	aua	iaua
Genitive	uui	iuui	uue	iuue
Possessive	*uvu	*iuvu	uua	iuua
Vocative	evu	eivu	eua	eiua
Causal	teui	teiui	teue	teiue
Benefactive	kuaui	kuaiui	kuaue	kuaiue
Instrumental	aui	aiui	aue	aiue
Comitative	leui	leiui	leue	leiue
Topical	veui	veiui	veue	veiue
Essive	ovu	oivu	oua	oiua

*theoretical

Third Person

Definite

	Anim. Sg.	Anim. Pl.	Masc. Sg.	Masc. Pl.	Inan. Sg.	Inan. Pl.
Nominative	ju	iju	ja	ija	xu	ixu
Accusative	ji	iji	je	ije	xi	ixi
Dative	eji	ieji	eje	ieje	exi	iexi
Ablative	jui	ijui	jai	ijai	xui	ixui
Locative	jua	ijua	aja	iaja	xua	ixua
Genitive	uji	iuji	uje	iuje	uxi	iuxi
Possessive	*uju	*iuju	uja	iuja	*uxu	*iuxu
Vocative	eju	eiju	eja	eija	exu	eixu
Causal	teji	teiji	teje	teije	texi	teixi
Benefactive	kuaji	kuaiji	kuaje	kuaije	kuaxi	kuaixi
Instrumental	aji	aiji	aje	aije	axi	aixi
Comitative	leji	leiji	leje	leije	lexi	leixi
Topical	veji	veiji	veje	veije	vexi	veixi
Essive	oju	oiju	oja	oija	oxu	oixu

*theoretical

Indefinite, Specific

	Anim. Sg.	Anim. Pl.	Masc. Sg.	Masc. Pl.	Inan. Sg.	Inan. Pl.
Nominative	mu	imu	ma	ima	zu	izu
Accusative	mi	imi	me	ime	zi	izi
Dative	emi	iemi	eme	ieme	ezi	iezi
Ablative	mui	imui	mai	imai	zui	izui
Locative	mua	imua	ama	iama	zua	izua
Genitive	umi	iumi	ume	iume	uzi	iuzi
Possessive	*umu	*iumu	uma	iuma	*uzu	*iuzu
Vocative	emu	eimu	ema	eima	ezu	eizu
Causal	temi	teimi	teme	teime	tezi	teizi
Benefactive	kuami	kuaimi	kuame	kuaime	kuazi	kuaizi
Instrumental	ami	aimi	ame	aime	azi	aizi
Comitative	lemi	leimi	leme	leime	lezi	leizi
Topical	vemi	veimi	veme	veime	vezi	veizi
Essive	omu	oimu	oma	oima	ozu	oizu

*theoretical

Indefinite, Non-Specific (General)

	Anim. Sg.	Anim. Pl.	Masc. Sg.	Masc. Pl.	Inan. Sg.	Inan. Pl.
Nominative	u	iu	a	ia	ku	iku
Accusative	i	ji	me	ime	ki	iki
Dative	eri	ieri	ere	iere	eki	ieki
Ablative	ui	iui	ai	iai	kui	ikui
Locative	aru	iaru	ara	iara	kua	ikua
Genitive	ugi	iugi	uge	iuge	uki	iuki
Possessive	*ugu	*iugu	uga	iuga	*uku	*iuku
Vocative	eru	eiu	era	eia	eku	eiku
Causal	teri	teji	tere	teie	teki	teiki
Benefactive	kuari	kuaji	kuare	kuaie	kuaki	kuaiki
Instrumental	ari	aji	are	aie	aki	aiki
Comitative	leri	leji	lere	leie	leki	leiki
Topical	veri	veji	vere	veie	veki	veiki
Essive	oru	oiu	ora	oia	oku	oiku

*theoretical

Verbals

Verbals constitute the only open class of words in Ngolu. They are essentially content words, equivalent to the verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs of other languages. Here are some examples.

• volo 'to give'
• kau 'to eat'
• vuja 'to hunt', 'to be a hunter'
• muja 'to be a man' (refers only to men who have passed the initiation ceremony)
• mala 'to be a house'
• tta 'to be large'

Even many grammatical functions are expressed by verbals.

• kka 'to be not ...' [NEGATIVE]
• hua 'to be always ...', 'to be eternally ...' [GNOMIC]
• hau 'to be defined by being ...' [ESSENTIAL]
• he 'to undergo' [PASSIVE]
• eti 'to have previously done ...' [PAST]

Verbals do not inflect.

Argument Structure

Verbals each have an inherent argument structure, controlling which cases are used for what role. Dictionaries mark the meanings of each relevant case with each nominal.

Many argument structures are as would be expected.

• volo = [NOM] gives [ACC] to [DAT]
• vuja = [NOM] hunts [ACC]; [NOM] is a hunter of [ACC]
• akku = [NOM] is blood; [NOM] is the blood of [GEN]

Example: (Speaker: muja)

volo	na	xi	eje
give	NOM.1s.MASC	ACC.3s.DEF.INAN	DAT.3s.DEF.MASC
"give"	"I"	"it"	"to him"

I give it to him.

There is a tendency for experiencers to be in the dative case.

• hualo = [DAT] loves/cares about [NOM]; [NOM] is loved by [DAT]
• xeva = [DAT] sees [NOM]; [NOM] is seen by [DAT]
• zoua = [NOM] is difficult for [DAT]

Example: (Speaker: kali)

xevas	eni	ja	ttáu
be.seen	DAT.1s.ANIM	NOM.3s.DEF.MASC.REL	be.king
"was seen"	"to me"	"the man who"	"is the king"

I saw the king.

Although that is not always the case, as this pair of opposites shows.

• mahu = [DAT] knows [NOM]; [NOM] is known to [DAT]
• zau = [NOM] doesn't know about [TOP]; [NOM] is ignorant of [TOP]

Examples: (Speaker: kali)

mahu	eni	(xu)
be.known	DAT.1s.ANIM	(NOM.3s.DEF.INAN)
"is known"	"to me"	("it")

I know (it).

(Speaker: kali)

zau	nu	(vexi)
be.ignorant	NOM.1s.ANIM	(TOP.3s.DEF.INAN)
"am ignorant"	"I"	("about it")

I don't know (it).

There is also an unusual class of verbals where the nominative role refers to a body part (or occasionally an item of clothing), the genitive refers to the possessor and when there is an accusative argument, the whole thing refers to an action performed with the body part (or item of clothing) by the possessor.

• omo = [NOM] is the pair of eyes of [GEN]; [GEN] looks at [ACC]
• bale = [NOM] is a fist of [GEN]; [GEN] punches [ACC]
• gula = [NOM] is the pair of arms of [GEN]; [GEN] hugs [ACC]
• buja = [NOM] is a heavy boot of [GEN]; [GEN] crushes [ACC] under his boot

Examples: (Speaker: muja)

omo	une
be.pair.of.eyes	GEN.1s.MASC
"is the pair of eyes"	"my"

I have eyes.

(Speaker: muja)

omo	une	xu	tie
be.pair.of.eyes	GEN.1s.MASC	NOM.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.this.1
"is the pair of eyes"	"my"	"the thing which"	"is this, here by me"

These are my eyes.

(Speaker: muja

omo	une	xi	masa
be.pair.of.eyes	GEN.1s.MASC	ACC.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.snake
"is the pair of eyes"	"my"	"the thing which"	"is a snake"

I'm looking at the snake.

There is a proposed additional place within the argument structure of many verbals, that of a following modifier. A following modifier may mark a specific role which may either be marked by another case or may only be filled by a following modifier. The notation used here indicates a following modifier with [...].

• maue = [NOM] is a group of seven [...]
• kka = [NOM] is not [...]
• mia = [NOM] approaches [DAT]/[...]
• tebi = [NOM] is possibly [...]

tebi	maue	mia	mala
be.possibly	be.group.of.seven	approach	be.house
"is maybe (that which)"	"is a group of seven (that)"	"approach (that which)"	"is a house"

There might be seven (people) on their way to the house.

tebi	maue	mias	exi	mala
be.possibly	be.group.of.seven	approach	DAT.3s.DEF.INAN.REL	be.house
"is maybe (that which)"	"is a group of seven (that)"	"approach"	"to the thing which"	"is a house"

There might be seven (people) on their way to the house.

Verbal Derivation

Derivation among verbals is chiefly achieved by means of infixing.

Gerundive

The gerundive infix -i- indicates the use or purpose of something.

• huna 'to drink'

→ hunia 'to be (fresh) water', 'to be potable', 'to be drinkable' (to be something to be drunk)

• kau 'to eat'

→ tiau 'to be food' (to be something to be eaten, irregular)

→ kaiu 'to be edible' (regular)

• omo 'to be a pair of eyes', 'to look at'

→ omio 'to be beautiful', 'to be handsome' (to be something to be looked at)

• buja 'to be a boot', 'to crush under a boot'

→ buji 'to be a bug', 'to be vermin' (to be something to be crushed under a boot)

• vuja 'to hunt', 'to be a hunter'

→ vuji 'to be prey', 'to be a game animal' (to be something to be hunted)

Collective

The collective infix -ig- indicates a group of the named entity.

• balu 'to be a royal guardsman'

→ baligu 'to be the royal guard'

• kau 'to eat'

→ kaigu 'to eat together'

• ttiáu 'to be a tree'

→ tigiáu 'to be a forest'