Namchog language

Namchog language
Ppŭhryndadda, ŋıqııt ryndadda
Pronunciation	[ppʊhrɨˈndadda]
Native to	Oroshia
Ethnicity	Namchog people
Native speakers	ca. 250,000 (2018)
Language family	Language isolate
Writing system	Sabarian
Official status
Official language in	Oroshia
Language codes
ISO 639-1	nm
ISO 639-2	nam
ISO 639-3	nam

The Namchog language, or Namchogi (ppŭhryndadda, pronounced: [ppʊh.rɨˈnda.dda]), is a language isolate, or a small family of languages, spoken in the interior of the Oroshan peninsula, mostly in the central, mountainous regions of Oroshia, in northeast Surucia. It is the second-most spoken language in Oroshia, with around 250,000 speakers in 2018. While not an official language in the country, it is a recognized charter language in the Oroshan department of Qaʔłvəŋočəčivi ğiʔnvək, where most of the Namchogi population lives.

Namchogi is most likely the indigenous language of the Oroshan peninsula, having been supplanted by Gujino-Bintani languages, whose speakers migrated from the west, and later Jogin during the colonization of Oroshia. Namchogi speakers were severely prosecuted and oppressed under colonial rule, though the remoteness of the locations where the language is spoken prevented the language from total extinction. Namchogi was made a recognized language in the interior mountain region in 1972, after Oroshan independence. This is despite the Oroshan government's extant restrictive language policy, which limits the use of minority languages, especially Yvlipkan. The large number of speakers relative to the country's population made Namchogi recognition necessary for effective government of the whole country.

Phonology

Namchogi has an extensive consonant and vowel inventory, employing both consonant gradation and vowel harmony.

Consonants

Namchogi consonant phonemes

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	p b	t d	tʃ dʒ	k g	q
Fricative	f v	s		x ɣ	χ ʁ	h
Approximant	w	l r	j

Consonant gradation follows two main paradigms, depending on whether the initial consonant is geminate or not. For non-geminate base consonants, there are up to 5 different levels of gradation, while for geminates, there are only 4.

Gradation level	Labial	Labial nasal	Alveolar	Alveolar nasal	Palatal	Palatal nasal	Velar	Velar nasal	Uvular	Glottal
5	pp	mpp	tt	ntt	čč	ňčč	kk	ŋkk	qq	xx
4	p	mp	t	nt	č	ňč	k	ŋk	q	x
3	b	mb	d	nd	dž	ňdž	g	ŋg	w	h
2	v	m	l	n	j	ň	ğ	ŋ	ǥ	∅
1	w	v	∅	l	∅	j	w	ğ	w	∅
4i	pp	mpp	tt	ntt	čč	ňčč	kk	ŋkk	qq	xx
3i	bb	mbb	dd	ndd	ddž	ňddž	gg	ŋgg	ww	hh
2i	vv	mm	ll	nn	jj	ňň	ğğ	ŋŋ	ǥǥ	∅
1i	ww	vv	∅	ll	∅	jj	ww	ğğ	ww
3ii	ff	∅	ss	rr	∅		xx	∅	ħħ	∅
2ii	f		s	r			x		ħ
1ii	v		h	∅			ğ		ǥ

Vowels

Oroshan vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː y yː	ɨ	ɯ ɯː u uː
Mid	e ø	ə əː	ʊ o oː
Open		a aː

Vowels are contrastive for length, and are grouped into 3 groups for vowel harmony, which works based on both roundness and height. Vowel group 1 (V1) are the high vowels, V2 are the lower vowels, and V3 are the reduced vowels, which are not contrastive for length.

Group	Front clear	Front round	Back clear	Back round
V1	i	ü	ı	u
V2	ə	ə	a	o
V3	e	ø	y	ŭ

Syllable structure allows for clusters of CCC, but these are analyzed as one consonant of a high grade. Under that interpretation, the general syllable structure is understood to be (C)V(C). Stress is placed on the penult of the root, meaning that affixes do not shift stress.

Morphology

Namchogi is an agglutinative language with up to 10 grammatical cases. Nouns have no gender, declension follows a nominative-accusative alignment, and syntax is predominantly head-initial. Nouns have 3 numbers, singular, dual, and plural. Prefixes on nouns harmonize with the root vowel pattern, or the pattern of the first root word in compounds, which is closest to the prefixes.

Nouns

Number is considered more central to the noun, and is prefixed before case. Being head-initial, consonant gradation affects the first consonant, which is cross-linguistically unusual.

Case	Prefix	Example
Nominative	∅	nadda, mountain
Accusative	qqV1-	qqınadda, mountain (acc.)
Dative	-GRAD	ladda, to the mountain
Genitive	+GRAD	ndadda, of the mountain
Ablative	-GRAD, V2t-	atladda, from the mountain
Locative	-GRAD, gV2d-	gadladda, in/on the mountain
Allative	-GRAD, V3dž-	ydžladda, into/onto the mountain
Elative	-GRAD, qqV1-	qqıladda, out of the mountain
Instrumental	+GRAD, V2t-	atndadda, with (using) the mountain
Comitative	+GRAD, gV2d-	gadndadda, with (by) the mountain

Namchogi employs prefixes for the dual and plural, and appear to be invariable. Since nouns lack gender, the same prefixes are used for all nouns.

Number	Prefix	Example
Singular	∅	ŋŋit, tree
Dual	sV2-	səŋŋit, two trees
Plural	rV3-	reŋŋit, trees

Verbs

Unlike nouns, verbs inflect very little, conjugating for only person. This similarity in morphology with Gujino-Bintani languages was once used to propose a genetic relationship, however this has been proven to be only a coincidence. While Gujino-Bintani languages such as Oroshan make use of uninflected particles, Namchogi employs an extensive class of modal and aspectual verbs, which can conjugate in their own right and stand alone in a clause. An animacy distinction is made in the third person, with separate verbal prefixes.

Personal prefixes in Namchogi

	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	jV1ǥ-	sV2j-	-GRAD, rV3j-
	jıǥqııt, "I speak"	sajqııt, "we two speak"	ryjwııt, "we all speak"
2	ssV2-	+GRAD, ssV2-	rV3ssV2-
	ssaqııt, "you speak"	ssaqqııt, "you two speak"	ryssaqqııt, "you all speak"
3.ANIM	lV1p-	sV2l-	-GRAD, rV3l-
	lıpqııt, "he/she/they speak(s)"	salqııt, "they two speak"	rylwııt, "they all speak"
3.INAN	ħV3ddžV1-	+GRAD, ħV3ddžV1-	-GRAD, ħV3ddžV1-
	ħyddžıqııt, "it speaks"	ħyddžıqqııt, "they two speak"	ħyddžıwııt, "they all speak"

Example of modal/aspectual verb use

Verb	Use alone	Use in combination
gəət, "finish"	ssəgəət qqiŋixet, "you finished the work"	jiǥgəət rrad, "I finished eating, I ate"
palıŋ, "want"	lıppalıŋ qqitispi "he/she/they want(s) a reindeer"	rylbalıŋ rrad "they all want to eat"
vivve, "begin"	səjvivve, "we two begin, we two set off, depart"	jiǥvivve rrad, "I begin to eat"