Navȯmar

The Language of Navȯmar

Natively known as: Nāvȯmɑr /næˈvomɑɹ/

…and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind…ɑ pɑy bah hȯy ābah vae ɑ oyɑ ābah neiyȱl shēl ɑy nguuh
Pronunciation: /ɑ pɑˈy bah hoˈy æˈbah vɛˈɨ ɑ ɔˈɪɑ æˈbah neˈɪyˌɔːl ʃiːl ɑˈy ŋʊˈʌ/Navȯmar word order: and stood he holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: /b d f h k l m n p v w z ŋ ɹ ʃ ʤ ʧ θ/

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m			n		ŋ
Stop	p b			d		k
Affricate					ʧ ʤ
Fricative		f v	θ	z	ʃ		h
Approximant				ɹ
Lateral approximant				l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: /e iː o æ ɑ ɔ ɔː ɛ ɨ ɪ ʊ ʌ/

	Front	Central	Back
High	iː	ɨ
Near-high	ɪ		ʊ
High-mid	e		o
Low-mid	ɛ		ʌ ɔ ɔː
Near-low	æ
Low			ɑ

Stress pattern: Second — stress is on the second syllable

Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
ŋ	ng
d	dt
ʧ	ch
ʃ	sh
z	sz
ʤ	g
θ	th
ɹ	r
æɛ	ah
ɛæ	ay
ayy	ay
ɔː	ō
o	ȯ
ōȯ	ōh
ȯō	ȯa
ɨiː	ēh
iːɨ	ēa
æ	ā
ɔɪ	oy
ɛ	a
iː	ē
ɪ	i
ɨ	e
ʊ	u
ʌ	uh

Grammar

Main word order: Verb Subject Object (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Opened Mary the door with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: prepositions

Nouns

Nouns have two cases:

Nominative is the doer of a verb: dog bites man.
Accusative is the done-to of a verb: man bites dog.

Nominative	No affix taȯ /taˈo/human (doinɡ the verb)
Accusative	If starts with vowel: Prefix s- Else: Prefix o- ȯtaȯ /oˈtao/(verb done to) human

Definite	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix id- idttaȯ /idˈtao/the human
Indefinite	No affix taȯ /taˈo/a human

Nouns have three genders:

Animate is anything that is alive and has consciousness.
Inanimate Causative is anything that (a) is alive but does not have consciousness or (b) is categorized as a spiritual entity, physical (often cataclysmic) natural event, some body part, or an emotion.
Inanimate Applicative is everything else.

	Animate	Inanimate-causative	Inanimate-applicative
Singular	No affix taȯ /taˈo/human	Suffix -a eānga /ɨˈæŋa/doɡ	Suffix -u kuhoyu /kʌˈɔɪˌu/paper
Plural	Suffix -se taȯse /taˈose/humans	Suffix -sa eāngsa /ɨˈæŋsa/doɡs	Suffix -su kuhoysu /kʌˈɔɪˌsu/papers

Pronouns

	Nominative	Accusative
1st singular	kha /kha/I	gȯ /go/me
2nd singular	khu /khu/you	ghu /ghu/you
3rd singular	bah /bah/he, she, it	gah /gah/him, her, it
1st plural	lszȯ /lzo/we	jsa /jsa/us
2nd plural	lszu /lzu/you all	jsu /jsu/you all
3rd plural	lah /lah/they	jah /jah/them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	ākha /ækˈha/my
2nd singular	ākhu /ækˈhu/your
3rd singular	ābah /æˈbah/his, her, its
1st plural	ālszȯ /ælˈzo/our
2nd plural	ālszu /ælˈzu/your (pl)
3rd plural	ālah /æˈlah/their

Verbs

Present	No affix fuhoy /fʌˈɔɪ/eat
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nu- nufuhoy /nuˈfʌɔˌɪ/ate
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix h- Else: Prefix ha- hafuhoy /haˈfʌɔˌɪ/will eat

Perfect aspect

The perfect aspect in English is exemplified in ‘I have read this book’, which expresses an event that took place before the time spoken but which has an effect on or is in some way still relevant to the present.

Navȯmar uses an affix for the perfect aspect:

Perfect

If starts with vowel: Prefix r-
Else: Prefix ri-
rifuhoy /riˈfʌɔˌɪ/have eaten

Articles

Navȯmar encodes definite article ‘the’, and indefinite article ‘a’ in noun affixes. See Noun section.

Numbers

Navȯmar has a base-10 number system:

1 – ȱy
2 – ɑyuh
3 – ēn
4 – ēl
5 – fȯ
6 – thuh
7 – uhȱ
8 – szā
9 – ngeiā
10 – ēm
11 – ȱy ɑ ēm “one and ten”
100 – aɑm “hundred”
101 – aɑm ɑ ȱy “hundred and one”
200 – ɑyuh aɑm
1000 – eiyȯ “thousand”

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = If starts with vowel: Prefix p-
Else: Prefix pæ-
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Prefix eɪ-
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix θaɪ-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix næ-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix næ-
Noun to verb = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nɔː-
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = If starts with vowel: Prefix n-
Else: Prefix nɑ-
Tending to = Prefix ʌ-
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Prefix ɨ-
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Prefix ɹo-
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix ɹ-
Else: Prefix ɹɔɪ-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If starts with vowel: Prefix f-
Else: Prefix fɨ-
Diminutive = If starts with vowel: Prefix θ-
Else: Prefix θeɪ-
Augmentative = If starts with vowel: Prefix h-
Else: Prefix hʌ-

Navȯmar Conlang