Nankôre

Nankôre
Nankôre
Pronunciation	[/nan.ko:re/]
Created by	–
Native to	Nanhoshka Kôya
Native speakers	3,232,430 (2014)
Language family	Language Isolate Nankôre
Official status
Official language in	Koya Island
Regulated by	Nankore
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nk
ISO 639-2	nnk
ISO 639-3	nnk

Background

Nankôre, from the words nan ("man, human") and kôre ("speech"), is spoken by the Nanhoshka people of Kôya Island. There are two main dialects, the Konishmak, located in the Northeastern Coastal Mountains, and the Sapshira, encompassing the western and southern parts of the country. The dialects differ chiefly in pronunciation and differences in certain lexical items, but are otherwise mutually intelligible.

The origins of the language and its people remain clouded in mystery. Physically, the Nanhoshka people look distinct from the Northwest Pacific Native Americans just 862 kilometers from the eastern shore, but their physical features bear a strikingly close resemblance to the Minhast people of the Republic of Minhay, who live much further away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean close to Japan and Ainushir. Because of these physical resemblences, both anthropologists and linguists have been exploring a possible relationship between the two peoples. Although recent genetic research has uncovered that both the Nanhoshka and Minhast belong to the haplogroup C-M212, suggesting a common ancestry, linguists have been much less successful in establishing a relationship. Some linguists have compiled Swadesh lists that suggest some lexical items may have a common origin, but so far researchers have failed to demonstrate reliable sound correspondences between the two languages. Therefore, both Nankôre and Minhast remain classified as language isolates.

I'll get back to Nankore later to make it conform to the language format policy. For now, here's a sample text:

Atemana uyasi, mahun teyaroa teh hekaci u tempa wasin te taa'. Okaaka ta techam aci tah sinehne ka ante ta anene yoopani ta asin te taa. Ta hekaci taa. Cis ani taa'. Un kayo taa pahke te oman kusuan.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Post-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p	t				k	ʔ
Affricate				͡tʃ
Fricative			s	ʃ			h
Approximant	w				j
Flap			r

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	ɪ		u
Mid	e		o
Open		ɑ

Orthography

The Nankôre orthography is based on the Allen-Mills system, derived from the Latin alphabet:

a
b
c / ͡tʃ/
s /s/, /ʃ/
sh /ʃ/
e
h
i
k
r
m
n
o
p
t
u
w
y

The symbol [s] is pronounced /ʃ/ when followed by [i] (e.g. sinkokah(t) "orca"), or in coda position (Nanhoska "the Nanhoshka people")

Grammar

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns in Nankôre are not inflected for case. Core arguments for Agent (A) and Patient (P) are marked by verbal affixes. Oblique arguments, behave as adjuncts, and are thus bound to their clause with the connective clitic si= or =si. Context alone determines the semantic role of the oblique. Because obliques are considered adjuncts, they may not come between the core arguments and the verb, and therefore must appear either before or after the clause nucleus. To illustrate, the sentence Maska=si ohipna koykare ekán itá (anthill=CONN twig boy insert PST), i.e. "The boy inserted the twig into the anthill", the noun maska (anthill) is the oblique argument and is marked with the clitic si= to join it to the rest of the sentence. Oblique arguments use the form =si preceding the clause nucleus, or si= following the clause nucleus, e.g. Ohipna koykare ekán itá si=maska.

Possession is indicated by joining the possessor to the possessum with the connective si=, followed either by the verb ras to indicate inalienable possession e.g. Koykare si=naho ras, "The boy's mother", or ocité for alienable possession, e.g. Koykare si=maska ocité. If the possessor is lower in the animacy heirarcy, the inverse marker ta'/tah is prefixed to the verb, as in the improbable Maska si=koykare tah-ocité, "The anthill's boy".