The Neholek Syntax
The base structure
First of all, here's some vocab related to the quite unique grammar of Neholek :
- akconesá : Proclitic klapped before any verb to indicate its lexical aspect (in german, aktionsart).
- concept : Each Neholek root is associated to a concept, instead of a meaning. The meaning of a word is the sum of the concepts composing it with the value given by their order in the word and the word's position in the sentence.
- primal concept : There are 16 primal concepts in Neholek. Not only they are the most prolific affixes, but they also are the one written with the 16 syllabic glyphs.
- klap : Punctuation mark « » specific to Neholek, used both as an hyphen (by convention, transcripted as an interpunct) and a comma, and is part of the akconesá structure.
The klap can be vocally emphasized with a palatal click /ǂ/, for example in a dictation. - persona : Suffix added after any word to turn it into a verb. It consists in a consonant for the pronoun and a vowel for the tense. When the consonant is -k-, the persona is said to be referent. It defines the agent as the previously mentioned entity (so it's an anterior referent), making the sentence OSV instead of OVS.
(NB : I'm using Subject/Object below instead of Agent/Patient because Neholek has a single, active voice)
The Neholek base sentence consists in a subject and a verb.
| A) With a bare personated verb. | B) With a subject and a referent persona. |
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| Zipade | Tatasalos nenbako |
| | |
The first sentence, Zipade « They know », is composed of the concept zipa « knowledge » (itself composed of the primal concepts Deci « deixis » and Pana « science »), and the persona de that indicates a 3rd person plural with a present tense.
The second sentence is one word longer, because it has a subject. Tatasalos nenbako « Dad's vice was drinking alcohol » has two parts. The subject tatasalos is simply an agglutination of tata « dad » and salos « weakness ». That's how all compounds are made in Neholek.
Then the concept nenba « alcoholic beverage » is personated into the verb « to drink alcohol », with a referent persona ko telling us that the action is performed by the previously mentioned entity, tatasalos, and that it's a past tense.
That's for intransitive sentences. Transitive sentences, with an object, are made the exact same way, with the object (direct or indirect, that's not relevant in Neholek) right before :
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| Eltes batitlekdi | Íhikidip ábikabi zizækameike |
| | |
Here, the first sentence Eltes batitlekdi « They must behave towards each other like siblings » has two words like the previous example, but the persona isn't referent. That means the first entity eltes « each other » is the object of the sentence. The persona di is a third person plural as above, but here, -i indicates that it's an imperative. The order is OVS, the persona acting as a subject.
In the second example, however, there are three words and a referent persona. In Íhikidip ábikabi zizækameike « Everybody is born free and equal », íhi·ki·dip « free·and·equal » is the object, ábikabi « everybody » is the subject, and ziz·ækamei « self·birth » is the verb. The referent persona ke indicates a present tense, here a "general truth" present. The order is OSV, the referent persona being a simple inflection.
Are adverbs… subordinate clauses ?
My soul says yes, says yes ♫♪
Here's a sentence introducing two new Neholek parts of speech : an akconesá (in blue-green) and an adverb (in red). As explained above, the akconesá is a short particle added at the beginning of a verb to give it a specific aspect, while the Neholek conception of the adverb refers to any phrase modifying the action described by the verb.
That also means it has the particularity to illustrate both usages of the klap :
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| Bidi co·limkitke, khonsakpso |
| |
As you can see, the adverb is separated with the verb by a comma / spaced klap. More importantly, it is positionned after the verb, which is impossible in a classical structure. That's because the adverb, even when it's a single word or a prepositional phrase, is treated as a subordinate clause.
The above sentence translates as « Birds can fly for hours ». We already studied the structure of a SV sentence. What's interesting here is the adverb part : individually, khonsakpso is simply the plural of khonsak « hour », so it literally means « hours ». Does that mean the comma replaces the particle ? ɴᴏᴘᴇ.
Because as explained at the beginning of that page, « hours » is the concept of the word, not its meaning. That part of the sentence is about the concept of plural hours. The fact that it's after the verb, post-klapped, gives it the structural value of an adverb. What it finally means, is that khonsakpso is the concept of hours applied as a modifier to the verb : the agent does this… for hours. Hoursly ?
There's not as much to say about the akconesá : co· is the one meant to "trigger" the potential aspect. Potential means they can do it, but maybe they don't. The primal concept associated with it is Cone « Energy ». The subject has the energy, the strength, the will, and/or the possibility to do so. For more informations, see the page dedicated to primal concepts.
(NB : By convention, the akconesá is written with the uppercase syllable glyph, but translitterated in lowercase)
The question of the questions
Yeah, what about the questions ?
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| Lot ækace, zizaktescei ? |
| ? |
Because it's all about question : Quiz Time ! What is the role of Q in that sentence ?
The answer is : the object. « You did what ? ».
In the above question, Lot ækace, zizaktescei ? « How are you, in this sunny day ? », we have all usual structure parts : an object, a verb with a non-referent persona, and an "abverb" that is here again a prepositional phrase.
What about the yes-no questions, then ? Simply use the Doli « Indetermination » primal concept (yes, that's the same as for the conditional akconesá) as an adverb, like this :
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| kakelce, zizaktescei, do ? |
| ? |
Introducing a value to the verb æka- « be, feel » → ækakel- « feel good », we may assume the answer to the question. Ækakelce, zizaktescei, do ? « You feel good in this sunny day, right ? ».
To answer a yes-no question, you have to repeat the verb root to say "yes", and simply use the negation adverb to say "no" :
- Ækakel « I do ».
- Di « I don't ».
Channeling reference
As with many languages including a cross-reference system, the referent persona can be used across more than one sentence, if no other subject is identifiable. Here's three cases. The first sentence is always the same, Pelmoszi ziloske « That leather is strong », but the second one changes.
Case A :
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| Pelmoszi ziloske. Maeke. |
| . . |
In that case, the second sentence is a bare verb. In Maeke « It's expensive », the referent persona refers to the leather. There's not ambiguity, the reference is channeled onto the second sentence.
Case B :
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| Pelmoszi ziloske. Pelalos íhite. |
| . . |
In that case, the second sentence still refers to the first one, but the verb admits an object, thus one can't use the reference again : Pelalos íhite « It looks like an armor », where "It" is still the leather.
Case C :
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| Pelmoszi ziloske. Pelalos íhike. |
| . . |
In that case, we have two referent personas… and two subjects. Don't be fooled by the very similar structure. That single letter changed in the persona affects its meaning. Pelalos íhike means « An armor looks alike ». Pragmatically, it refers to a specific armor the speaker saw (but he can't say pelaloszi « that armor » to a listener that hasn't seen it).
The Neholek Numbers
The grammatical numbers :
The Neholek distinguish three numbers : singular (unmarked), plural [–pso], and collective [–(b)i]. the suffix is added at the end of the whole noun group. For example : nehaekakolnot « a blue zombie », nehaekakolnotpso « blue zombies », nehaekakolnoti « the blue zombies community ».
(NB : The suffix –pso is also used as an amplifier in verbs ; it doesn't mean the action is done multiple times)
The mathematical numbers :
The number 16 is sacred for the Nehobi people. That's why they count in hexadecimal. They're using arabic digits plus six additional symbols inspired by the modern usages (X for the roman 10, then B-F) :
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 is actually 16, 2 is 43, and is 255. Read more about hexadecimal.
Each digit is separated in the number by sa, that we could translate by « power of 16 ». If a digit within the number (except in the last position) is equal to zero, you won't use nelsa « 0×16 », but rather la « null ».
A few recursive examples :
- = 12×16¹ + 15×16⁰ = dot·sa tan (however, the usage wants it to be agglutinated into dotsatan). That's actually 207 in decimal.
- 207 = 2×16² + 0×16¹ + 7×16⁰ = doi·sa la zap (doisalazap). That's actually 519 in decimal.
- 519 = 5×16² + 1×16¹ + 9×16⁰ = kon·sa e·sa pi (konsaesapi). That's actually 1305 in decimal.
- 1305 = 1×16³ + 3×16² + 0×16¹ + 5×16⁰ = e·sa hi·sa la kon (esahisalakon). That's actually 4869 in decimal.
And so on. The system may seem complicated, but hey, compare « four hundred seventy-three thousand and ninety-eight » and « zapsahisakoksaladek ». At least, it's optimal !
The following table gives the number in hexadecimal. You can convert them to get a decimal value, but the pronunciation stays the same :
| 0 | nel | 10 | sa | 20 | doisa | 30 | hisa |
| 1 | e | 11 | sae | 21 | doisae | 40 | cetsa |
| 2 | doi | 12 | sadoi | 22 | doisadoi | 50 | konsa |
| 3 | hi | 13 | sahi | 23 | doisahi | 60 | sesa |
| 4 | cet | 14 | sacet | 24 | doisacet | 70 | zapsa |
| 5 | kon | 15 | sakon | 25 | doisakon | 80 | oksa |
| 6 | ses | 16 | sases | 26 | doisases | 90 | pisa |
| 7 | zap | 17 | sazap | 27 | doisazap | 0 | deksa |
| 8 | ok | 18 | sakok | 28 | doisakok | 0 | elsa |
| 9 | pi | 19 | sapi | 29 | doisapi | 0 | dotsa |
| | dek | 1 | sadek | 2 | doisadek | 0 | zensa |
| | el | 1 | sael | 2 | doisael | 0 | silsa |
| | dot | 1 | sadot | 2 | doisadot | 0 | tansa |
| | zen | 1 | sazen | 2 | doisazen | 100 | sadoila |
| | sil | 1 | sasil | 2 | doisasil | 1000 | sahila |
| | tan | 1 | satan | 2 | doisatan | 3004 | hisadoila·elsacet |
Neholek number parser
Enter any number and click on Parse :
The Neholek Phonology [ðiː ne.k͡xo'lɛk fəˈnɒ.lə.dʒi]
Vowels :
Neholek has 4 vocal phonemes (plus 4 allophones).
Consonants :
Neholek has 13 consonants (plus 3 allophones).
| Bilabial | Dental | Alveolar | Palato-Alveolar | Retroflex | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Stop | p b | ʈ ɖ | k | |||
| Fricative | θ ð | s | ʃ ʒ | x ɣ | ||
| Lateral approximant | l |
Orthography-phonology matching :
| IPA | Neholek | Equivalence in english / spanish |
|---|---|---|
| /ɑ/ | a | Like : bar |
| /ɛ/ | e | Like : tell |
| /i/ | i | Like : feel |
| /ɔ/ | o | Like : caught |
| /ɑɪ/ | ae | Like : by |
| [e] | e (after n but not before a nasale, and at the beginning before a velar fricative) | Like : play |
| [ɪ] | i (after a vowel, after c, or at the end of the word) | Like : fit |
| [o] | o (between c/d/m/s/t and s) | Like : dorm |
| [ə] | o (before a stop) | Like : atom |
| /p/ | p | Like : pass |
| /b/ | b | Like : bus |
| /ɖ / | d | Like : dive (with the tongue tip against the palate) |
| /ʈ / | t | Like : tip (with the tongue tip against the palate) |
| /k/ | k | Like : cake |
| /x/ | h | Like : jota |
| /ʃ/ | c | Like : ship |
| /ʒ/ | z | Like : pleasure |
| /n/ | n | Like : nuke |
| /m/ | m | Like : main |
| /s/ | s | Like : salt |
| /l/ | l | Like : law |
| /θ/ | ps | Like : think |
| [ɣ] | y (x between o/e and another vowel, except in neho) | Like : amigo |
| [ð] | b (before a vowel, except at the initial position) | Like : the |
| [ŋ] | n (before k) | Like : king |
The Neholek Orthography : Nehólek and
Neholek has it own constructed script, the Nehólekizi (). It's a bicameral semi-syllabary, that counts 16 base letters plus a diacrited one and a ligature, and 16 syllables.
The letters represent single sounds, either consonants or vowels. The diacrited one is a softened h /x/, romanized as y /ɣ/. The ligature is æ /aɪ/.
The syllable symbols corresponds to the 16 root concepts. There are 12 CV, 2 CCV, 1 VV, and 1 CVC. Syllables only replaces the relevant syllables when the root of that syllable actually comes from the concept itself (ex : ækae (meat) comes from æka (life) + -(me)zi (matter) so it's written and not ).
In the romanization system, the acute accent marks a non-standard stress, as in Spanish.
The letters are : P B D T K H C Z N M S L I O E A (Y Æ).
( )
The syllables are : Æ NE DO DI TO TE KHO SÍ PÁ CO MEI ZI PSO BI ZÍ SÁ.
The 16 Primordial Concepts of Neholek
Here's a short collection of informations about the 16 primordial concepts of Neholek. Each one illustrate a sacred aspect of the Nehobi society, and their associated syllables, very prolific in word constructions, are written with a unique syllable glyph instead of letters.
ka : Life
The primordial concept of Life, ka [ˈɑɪ.kɑ], is associated with the syllable æ /ɑɪ/.
ka is the beginning of existence. The things that lives, the things that are. As a verb root, it's about existing, living, while as an adverb, it refers to a creative process.
The akconesá of ka is the initial (=inchoative), that marks the beginning a process.
Nehó : Death
The primordial concept of Death, Nehó [neˈxo], is associated with the syllable ne /ne/.
Nehó is the end of the existence. The things that dies, the things that are destroyed. As a verb root, it's used to illustrate the end of something, whether its death or its destruction, while as an adverb, it refers to a destructive process.
The akconesá of Nehó is the mortal (=cessative), that marks the end of a process.
Doli : Undetermination
The primordial concept of Undetermination, Doli [ɖɔlʲ], is associated with the syllable do /ɖɔ/.
Doli is the unknown, the expected. The theories about the unkown world. As a verb root, it's all about what's theorical, what could be, while as an adverb, it's used to form yes-no questions, to determine the possibility of a given situation.
The akconesá of Doli is the conditional, that marks the requirement for a process to happen.
Ditos : Impossibility
The primordial concept of Impossibility, Ditos [ˈɖi.ʈos], is associated with the syllable di /ɖi/.
Ditos is the impossible things. What we know can't be done, can't be. As a verb root, it is used to forbid things, while as an adverb, it indicates that the things can't happen.
The akconesá of Ditos is the antifactual, indicating what we know to be false.
Tedos : Space
The primordial concept of Space, Tedos [ˈʈɛ.ɖos], is associated with the syllable to /ʈɔ/.
Tedos is the area, the location. Where the things are, the places. As a verb root, it allows to locate places, while as an adverb, it precises that the process happens right here.
The akconesá of Tedos is the positional, indicating that the thing happens at the object's position, not mandatorily to the object of the sentence.
Tele : Distance
The primordial concept of Distance, Tele [ˈʈɛ.lɛ], is associated with the syllable te /ʈɛ/.
Tele is the movement towards a far objective. As a verb root, it's all about to go somewhere, while as an adverb, it precises that the process happens far from the speaker.
The akconesá of Tele is the distancial, and once again it indicates that the action happened far away.
Khonos : Time
The primordial concept of Time, Khonos [ˈkxɔ.nos], is associated with the syllable kho /kxɔ/.
Khonos is the moment. The exact location in the timeline. As a verb root, it permits to date, to precise that the process happens at a specific moment, while as an adverb, that it happens daily (because the derived noun also means « day »).
The akconesá of Khonos is the ponctual (=semelfactive), indicating that the process happens only once.
Sína : Continuity
The primordial concept of Continuity, Sína [ˈsiː.nɑ], is associated with the syllable sí /siː/.
Sína is the timeline. The things we wait for, the things we keep doing. As a verb root, it implies waiting for something, while as an adverb, it means the process is repeated over a period of time.
The akconesá of Sína is the continual (=durative), for a process that lasts in time.
Pána : Knowledge
The primordial concept of Knowledge, Pána [ˈpɑː.nɑ], is associated with the syllable pá /pɑː/.
Pána is what we know. What's established. Truth. As a verb root, it refers to what we know or study, while as an adverb, it's all about what we do knowingly, anticipating the consequences.
The akconesá of Pána is the factual, what is established to be true.
Cone : Energy
The primordial concept of Energy, Cone [ˈʃɔ.nɛ], is associated with the syllable co /ʃɔ/.
Cone is the energy. The potential in all things, all actions, all ideas. As a verb root, it's what we can be(come), while as an adverb, is how we feel it, how it seems.
The akconesá of Cone is the potential, what we can do.
Meizi : Matter
The primordial concept of Matter, Meizi [ˈmɛj.ʒi], is associated with the syllable mei /mɛj/.
Meizi is the physical things. Items, touchable things. As a verb root, it refers to crafting, building things, while as an adverb, it precises that the experience of the process is physical.
The akconesá of Meizi is the material, indicating that the speaker works hard to make the process actual.
Deci : Deixis
The primordial concept of Deixis, Deci [ɖɛʃʲ], is associated to the syllable zi /ʒi/.
Deci is this. Or that. Or these. The deixis, that is to say what we can point out. As a verb root, it turns any action into a state, while as an adverb, it's the reflexive as you know it (=self).
The akconesá of Deci is the intentional, indicating the process is realized on purpose.
Poso : Quantity
The primordial concept of Quantity, Poso [ˈpɔ.sɔ], is associated with the syllable pso /θɔ/.
Poso is the plural. Like, literally : that's how we mark the plural, by suffixing it to a word. As a "root", it means « a group of » what comes next in the word (so it's more of a prefix). As a verb root, it means counting, while as an adverb, it's very augmentative.
The akconesá of Poso is the incremential (=augmentative), that changes any verb into an amplified version of itself (shout/yell, walk/run, speak/discourse, and so on).
Ábi : Entirety
The primordial concept of Entirety, Ábi [ˈɑː.ði], is associated with the syllable bi /bi/.
Ábi is everything. The whole group. The whole people. The collective grammatical number as a suffix. As a verb root, it deals with gathering things, while as an adverb, its about doing them together.
The akconesá of Ábi is the inferential (=evidential), what the the speaker have seen or heard.
Zíla : Greatness
The primordial concept of Greatness, Zíla [ˈʒiː.lɑ], is associated with the syllable zí /ʒiː/.
Zíla is what's big. As a verb root, it's growing, getting bigger, while as an adverb, it's important.
The akconesá of Zíla is the usual, what we do often.
Sáhos : Smallness
The primordial concept of Smallness, Sáhos [ˈsɑː.xos], is associated with the syllable sá /sɑː/.
Sáhos is what's small. As a verb root, it's shrinkening, getting smaller, while as an adverb, it's negligible.
The akconesá of Sáhos is the unusual, what we're not used to do.