Nurian

Nurian/Lexicon

Nurian
nūrimēs
Pronunciation	[/ˈn̪ˠʊ˞ːrʲɪmʲæːs/]
Created by	IlL
Language family	Quihum Talmic Nuric Nurian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	qnr

Nurian (gathvēs nūrimēs /ˈgɐθvʲæːs ˈn̪ˠʊ˞rʲɪmʲæːs/) is a Talmic language descending from Thensarian, aesthetically inspired by Lithuanian, Arabic, Italian and English. Some accents end up sounding a lot like Mandarin.

Introduction

Nurian is spoken on the west coast of the continent called Kuderau by Wiebians. It is easily the most conservative Talmic language, though with signficant influence from Dwischric, in particular Mandarin Orange. It is spoken alongside Meezarric languages, Clofabic languages and New World Reber Wiebian.

Historical phonology

• Cl > Cj > Cʲ (Italian style): pl bl ml fl cl gl ngl chl ghl > pi bi mi fi ci gi ngi chi ghi
  • Exceptions: ħl ȝl; nl, rl > ll
• C₁C₂ > C₂C₂ (similarly to Italian)
• mlīd - conclusion, end > mīd /mʲiːdˠ/
• ar- > aC- (ar- before vowels); as- > s-

Numbers

• 1: cēm /ˈt͡ʃæːmˠ/
• 2: tithōr /tʲɪˈθˠɔɚ/
• 3: narge /ˈnˠɑɚd͡ʒɛ/
• 4: dhaufe /ˈðˠɐʊfʲɛ/
• 5: salir /ˈsˠɐlʲeɚ/
• 6: stām /ˈsˠtˠɑːmˠ/
• 7: rōde /ˈrˠoːdʲɛ/
• 8: lorethe /ɫɔɚˈrʲæθɛ/
• 9: farve /ˈfˠɑɚvʲɛ/
• 10: ħiōr /ˈħɔɚ/
• 11: cēmara /ˈt͡ʃæːmˠɑɚrˠɐ/ (< Themsarian cēmiħiore, influenced by Meetzarri emarra)
• 12: pide /ˈpʲɪdʲɛ/ (Zutarl pirdi)
• 144: tarthe /ˈtˠɑɚθɛ/
• 1728: ūbyc /ˈuːbˠɪ̞k/

Phonology

The Nurian consonant inventory contains around 42 consonants and 10 vowels. A notable feature of the phonology of most Nurian accents is phonemic velarization vs. palatalization in hard-soft pairs. All consonants except /ħ ʕ h j/ are members of a hard-soft-pair. /ħ ʕ h j/ color the /a/ vowel as if they were soft, and /ħ ʕ/ tend to lower adjacent vowels.

Diaphonemes

Consonants

Hard	ṃ	ṗ	ḅ	f̣	ṿ	ṇ	ṭ	ḍ	θ̣	ð̣	ṣ	ẓ	ṛ	ḷ	ŋ	q	ġ	x	ğ	ħ	ʕ	h	y
Soft	m	p	b	f	v	n	t	d	θ	ð	s	z	r	l	ñ	č	j	š	ž

Vowels

a ā i ī u ū ia ua ai au

Dagȳne accent

Consonants

Consonant phonemes in Nurian (Dagȳne)

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Radical	Glottal
		hard	soft	hard	soft	hard	soft
Nasal		/mˠ/	/mʲ/	/n̪ˠ/			/nʲ/	/ɲ/	/ŋ/
Stop	tenuis	/pˠ/	/pʲ/	/t̪ˠ/			/tʲ/	/tʃ/	/k/
	voiced	/bˠ/	/bʲ/	/d̪ˠ/			/dʲ/	/dʒ/	/ɡ/
Fricative	voiceless	/fˠ/	/fʲ/	/θˠ/	/θʲ/	/sˠ/	/sʲ/	/ʃ/	/x/	/ħ/	/h/
	voiced	/vˠ/	/vʲ/	/ðˠ/	/ðʲ/	/zˠ/	/zʲ/	/ʒ/	/ɣ/
Trill						/rˠ/	/rʲ/
Approximant	central							/j/		/ʕ/
	lateral			/lˠ/			/lʲ/

Consonants

Grapheme	m	p	b	f	v	n	t	d	th	dh	s	z	r	l	ng	c	g	ch	gh	ħ	ȝ	h	j
Hard	/mˠ/	/pˠ/	/bˠ/	/fˠ/	/vˠ/	/nˠ/	/tˠ/	/dˠ/	/θˠ/	/ðˠ/	/sˠ/	/zˠ/	/rˠ/	/ɫ/	/ŋ/	/k/	/ɡ/	/x/	/ɣ/	/ħ/	/ʕ/	/h/	/j/
Soft	/mʲ/	/pʲ/	/bʲ/	/fʲ/	/vʲ/	/nʲ/	/tʲ/	/dʲ/	/θ/	/ð/	/sʲ/	/zʲ/	/rʲ/	/lʲ/	/ɲ/	/t͡ʃ/	/d͡ʒ/	/ʃ/	/ʒ/

Notes

• Voiceless stops and affricates are unaspirated.
• All hard consonants are velarized (especially /rˠ, lˠ, θˠ, ðˠ/, which are uvularized).
• All consonants are labialized before the back vowels /u, uː, ʊ˞ː, uɔ/.
• /tˠ, dˠ, nˠ/ are laminal denti-alveolar [t̪ˠ, d̪ˠ, n̪ˠ].
• /tʲ, dʲ, nʲ/ are laminal alveolar [t̻ʲ, d̻ʲ, n̻ʲ].
• /θˠ, θ, ðˠ, ð/ are dental spirants [θʶ, θ, ðʶ, ð].
• /sˠ, sʲ, zˠ, zʲ/ are laminal denti-alveolar [s̪ˠ, s̪ʲ, z̪ˠ, z̪ʲ].
• /rˠ/ is uvularized apical alveolar [r̺ʶ] or postalveolar [r̠ʶ]. When not geminated, it can either be a trill [rʶ] or a flap [ɾʶ].
• /rʲ/ is palatalized alveolar flap [ɾ̪ʲ] and less commonly a trill [r̺ʲ]. It is always a trill [r̺ːʲ] when geminated.
• /lˠ/ is a uvularized apical alveolar [l̺ʶ] or uvularized laminal denti-alveolar [l̪ʶ].
• /lʲ/ is laminal alveolar [l̻ʲ].
• /ɲ/ is postpalatal [ɲ̄].
• /tʃ, dʒ, ʃ, ʒ/ are laminal palatalized alveolar [tʃʲ, dʒʲ, ʃʲ, ʒʲ].
• Before /k, ɡ/, /n/ is realized as velar [ŋ].
• /ħ/ has been variously described as pharyngeal [ħ] and epiglottal [ʜ].
• /ʕ/ is an epiglottal approximant [ʕ̞].
• /h/ is voiced [ɦ] after vowels and voiced consonants.

Vowels

Nurian has three short and three long vowels. There is a considerable degree of allophony in low vowels.

Vowel phonemes (Dagȳne)

	Front		Back
	short	long	short	long
Close	/ɪ~ɪ̞/	/iː/	/ʊ/	/uː/
Open	[ɛ~æ]	[æː]	/a/	/aː/

Diphthongs: /aɪ aʊ iɛ uɔ/

• Short /ɪ/ is lowered to [ɪ̞] after hard consonants.
• /a aː/ each have three allophones:
  • [ɐ~ɑ ɑː] after non-radical hard consonants
  • [ɛ~æ æː] after soft consonants, radicals and /h/
• The degree of allophony of /a aː/ is however, reduced in the speech of many younger speakers, who pronounce both as [ɐ aː]

Fiuschēra

Fiuschēra [fuʃˈʃæːrˁɑ] accent (Arabic-esque)

• Hard consonants > pharyngealized; soft consonants > plain
• θˠ ðˠ > fˁ vˁ
• Non-rhotic

Consonants

Consonant phonemes (Fiuschēra)

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Radical	Glottal
		hard	soft	hard	soft	hard	soft
Nasal		/mʶ/	/m/	/nʶ/			/n/	/ɲ/	/ŋ/
Stop	tenuis	/pʶ/	/p/	/tʶ/			/t/	/tʃ/	/k/
	voiced	/bʶ/	/b/	/dʶ/			/d/	/dʒ/	/ɡ/
Fricative	voiceless	/fʶ/	/f/		/θ/	/sʶ/	/s/	/ʃ/	/x~χ/	/ħ/	/h/
	voiced	/vʶ/			/ð/	/zʶ/	/z/	/ʒ/	/ɣ~ʁ/	/ʕ/
Trill						/rʶ/	/r/
Approximant	central	/wʶ/	/w/					/j/
	lateral						/l/

Notes

• Hard consonants are uvularized, like Arabic emphatic consonants.

Vowels

Vowel phonemes (Fiuschēra)

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	/ɪ~ɪ̞/	/iː/			/ʊ/	/uː/
Open	[ɛ~æ]	[æː]	/a/	/aː/	[ɑ]	[ɑː]

Garubbia

Consonant phonemes (Garubbia)

		Labial		Dental		Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Radical	Glottal
		hard	soft	hard	soft
Nasal		/m/	/mʲ/	/n/	/nʲ/				/ŋ/
Stop	tenuis	/p/	/pʲ/	/t/	/tʲ/	/ts/	/tʂ/	/tɕ/	/k/
	voiced	/b/	/bʲ/	/d/	/dʲ/	/dz/	/dʐ/	/dʑ/	/ɡ/
Fricative	voiceless	/f/	/fʲ/			/s/	/ʂ/	/ɕ/	/x/	/ħ/	/h/
	voiced	/v/	/vʲ/			/z/	/ʐ/	/ʑ/	/ɣ/	/ʕ/
Trill						/r/
Approximant	central							/j/
	lateral			/l/

Notes

Vowels

Vowel phonemes (Garubbia)

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	/ɪ/	/iː/	[ɨ]	[ɨː]	/ʊ/	/uː/
Open	[ɛ~æ]	[æː]	/ɐ/	/aː/		[ɒː]

Notes

• Many vowels are centralized after retroflexes: /a aː i iː/ become [ä äː ɨ ɨː]

Accent 3

Conservative

• ci gi chi ghi = [c ɟ ç ʝ]
• sci = [skʲ]
• ȝ ħ = [q χ]

Accent 4

Scottish Gaelic pseudo-gib

Stress

Nurian stress is derived from a particular pattern of weight-sensitive stress (similar to Arabic) in a dialect of late Thensarian:

• A short final vowel cannot be stressed.
• Only one of the last 3 syllables can be stressed.
• the last heavy syllable is stressed if not the final syllable; if there is a final heavy syllable, the penult is stressed. (e.g. burgent [ˈbʊɚdʒænt])
• If no heavy syllables, the 3rd from last is stressed.

Stress is phonemic in Nurian, due to the loss of many final vowels and the vowel length preceding /r/.

Orthography

Consonants

Consonants

Grapheme	m	p	b	f	v	n	t	d	th	dh	s	z	r	l	ng	c	g	ch	gh	ħ	ȝ	h	j
Hard	/mˠ/	/pˠ/	/bˠ/	/fˠ/	/vˠ/	/nˠ/	/tˠ/	/dˠ/	/θˠ/	/ðˠ/	/sˠ/	/zˠ/	/rˠ/	/ɫ/	/ŋ/	/k/	/ɡ/	/x/	/ɣ/	/ħ/	/ʕ/	/h/	/j/
Soft	/mʲ/	/pʲ/	/bʲ/	/fʲ/	/vʲ/	/nʲ/	/tʲ/	/dʲ/	/θ/	/ð/	/sʲ/	/zʲ/	/rʲ/	/lʲ/	/ɲ/	/t͡ʃ/	/d͡ʒ/	/ʃ/	/ʒ/

Velars (ng c g ch gh) remain hard before other consonants. The remaining consonants assimilate in palatalization before other consonants.

Vowels

• a: hard /a/ [ɐ~ɑ]
• ā: hard /aː/ [ɑː]
• ai: hard /aɪ/ [ɐɪ~ɑɪ]
• au: hard /aʊ/ [ɐʊ~ɑʊ]
• y: hard /ɪ/ [ë]
• y: hard /iː/
• o, u: hard /ʊ/
• ō: hard /uɔ/
• ū: hard /uː/

• ia, e: soft /a/ [ɛ]
• iā, ē: soft /aː/ [æː]
• iai: soft /aɪ/ [ɛɪ]
• iau: soft /aʊ/ [ɛʊ]
• i: soft /ɪ/
• ī: soft /iː/
• io, iu: soft /ʊ/
• iō: soft /uɔ/
• iū: soft /uː/
• ie: soft /iə/

Grammar

Somewhat unusually, Nurian is verb-final with prepositions and modified-modifier order.

Nouns

Sgv-clv-plv system: singulative unmarked, -ōr for plurative, reduplication for collective