Niniat

Niniat
ᓂᓯᐊᑦ ᐄᓕᖅ Nisiat Iiliq
Native to	Hinsey
Region	Aldinea
Native speakers	approx. 614 000 604 000 in Hinsey 10 000 in Sjealand (2018)
Language family	Language Isolate Niniat
Official status
Official language in	Hinsey
Regulated by	Irusiiras Institute of Hinseyish Studies
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ni
Regions where Niniat is the language of the majority   Regions where Niniat is spoken by a considerable minority

Niniat (ᓂᓯᐊᑦ ᐄᓕᖅ, Nisiat Iiliq) often referred to as Hinseysish is the language spoken in the arctic nation of Hinsey. Linguistically it is unrelated to any other language in Aldinea making it a language isolate relative to any other known language in Midgard. The Niniat are a people indigenous to the northern Sjealandic Archipelago.

Niniat is spoken by the majority of Hinseyish people around 90% of whom consider it their mother tongue. There is also a significant community of Niniat-speakers in Sjealand numbering around 10 000.

Niniat is a greatly monotone language charactirized by its high degree of inlfection and large number of irregular declensions. It is written in the Niniat Syllabry which was invented in the early 1800s by Avuhuariuq a Niniat nationalist politician as an alternative to the various foreign scripts in which Niniat was written at the time.

The Irusiiras Institute of Hinseyish Studies regulates Niniat which is funded by the state. The High Commission of the IIHS is the ultimate authority in the Niniat language and often discourages the use of foreign loanwords by denying them official status. Despite its efforts, many foreign loanwords have entered spoken Niniat. For example, the word for 'phone' in standard Niniat is nilihup, however most Niniat speakers use the Tynic-derrived loanword of itelefuun

History

For most of its existence, Niniat was a purely oral language. Old Niniat on which modern Niniat is greatly based on is preserved in the extensive oral tradition of the Niniat people specifically in the Imlukautiitamiriq, the national epic of Hinsey. The Imlukautiitamiriq roughly meaning Three Great Traditions is a series of stories and records passed down orally among the Niniat people. It is composed of the Irhiq, Atnuk and Asnaq. The Irhiq and Atnuk vary from person to person and place to place, however the most extensive part of the Imlukautiitamiriq, the Asnaq, is the same for all and details the perceived history of the Niniat people. The Asnaq was one of the first texts written down when Niniat first began to be written in the late 12th century.

In the early 1800s, Hinsey adopted the Niniat Syllabry as a domestic alternative to other foreign scripts. It was invented by the famous Hinseyish linguist Avuhuariuq. With the further standardization of Niniat in the early 1800s, Old Niniat words were taken back into use and new ones were invented or constructed to replace foreign vocabulary in Niniat. For example, the Standard Niniat word for 'phone' is nilihup which was constructed from the Niniat word for to speak, auhup. The written Niniat language has not changed much from the early 1800s apart from the addition of new words and minor spelling changes.

Phonology

Vowels

Niniat has a three-vowel system composed of the vowels /i/, /u/, and /a/. Other vowels such as /e/ and /o/ as well as /æ/, /y/ and /ø/ are used in rare instances with specific loanwords in certain dialects. However, in standard Niniat, only the three-vowel system is used, so loanwords such as itelefooni are written as itilifuuni despite some pronouncing it with the original vowels.

	Front	Back
	Unrounded	Unrounded	Rounded
Close	i iː		u uː
Open		ɑ ɑː

Consonants

Consonants of Standard Niniat

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Stops	p	t		k	q
Fricatives	v	s		g*		h
Nasals	m	n
Liquids		l
Semivowel			j
Trill		r

• g* is in certain dialects of standard Niniat

Writing System

The Niniat language is most often written in the Niniat Syllabry. It was originally created to write down Old Niniat, yet was adopted as the script of standard Niniat after a few changes to the pronunciation of letters. It is a syllabary where the direction of the letter tells with which vowel the letter is pronounced. A small circle called the Aripmi is added on top of the letter to mark long vowels.

Niniat Syllabry

The Niniat Syllabry in Unicode

	Vowel Only	P	T	K	G	M	N	S	L	J	V	R	Q	GN	RN
I	ᐃ	ᐱ	ᑎ	ᑭ	ᒋ	ᒥ	ᓂ	ᓯ	ᓕ	ᔨ	ᕕ	ᕆ	ᕿ	ᖏ	ᖠ
II	ᐄ	ᐰ	ᑏ	ᑮ	ᒌ	ᒦ	ᓃ	ᓰ	ᓖ	ᔩ	ᕖ	ᕇ	ᖀ	ᖐ	ᖡ
U	ᐅ	ᐳ	ᑐ	ᑯ	ᒍ	ᒧ	ᓄ	ᓱ	ᓗ	ᔪ	ᕗ	ᕈ	ᖁ	ᖑ	ᖢ
UU	ᐆ	ᐴ	ᑑ	ᑰ	ᒎ	ᒨ	ᓅ	ᓲ	ᓘ	ᔫ	ᕘ	ᕉ	ᖂ	ᖒ	ᖣ
A	ᐊ	ᐸ	ᑕ	ᑲ	ᒐ	ᒪ	ᓇ	ᓴ	ᓚ	ᔭ	ᕙ	ᕋ	ᖃ	ᖓ	ᖤ
AA	ᐋ	ᐹ	ᑖ	ᑳ	ᒑ	ᒫ	ᓈ	ᓵ	ᓛ	ᔮ	ᕚ	ᕌ	ᖄ	ᖔ	ᖥ
Consonant Only	ᑋ	ᑉ	ᑦ	ᒃ	ᒡ	ᒻ	ᓐ	ᔅ	ᓪ	ᔾ	ᕝ	ᕐ	ᖅ	ᖕ	ᖦ
	H	P	T	K	G	M	N	S	L	J	V	R	Q	GN	RN

Grammar

Niniat is classified as being a Synthetic langauge that makes great use of agglutination to varying modifiers in verbs, nouns, numerals and adjectives.

Pronouns

Pronouns of Standard Niniat (In Nominative Case)

	Singular	Plural
1st person	ᐊᒥ / Ami	ᐃᒻ / Im
2nd person	ᐊᓯ / Asi	ᐃᑦ / It
3rd person	ᓇᑋᐃ/ᐊᑋᐃ / Nahi/Ahi	ᐃᑋ / Ih

Pronouns of Colloquial Niniat (In Nominative Case)

	Singular	Plural
1st person	Am/A	Uim
2nd person	As/Uis	Uut
3rd person	Is	Uih

Pronouns are mostly used for emphasis as verbs are modified to show the person doing the action.

Verbs

Niniat Verb ᐊᓪᓗ / Allu (To be)

Per.	No.	Present	Past	Near Future	Far Future	Potential	Potential Past	Imperative
1st	sg.	ᓄᓗ Nulu	ᓂᓗ Nilu	ᓄᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Nulu Tullu	ᓂᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Nilu Tullu	ᓂᓯᓗ Nisilu	ᓂᓃᓪ Niniil	-
2nd	sg.	ᑐᓗ Tulu	ᑎᓗ Tilu	ᑐᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Tulu Tullu	ᑎᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Tilu Tullu	ᑎᓯᓗ Tisilu	ᑎᓃᓪ Tiniil	ᐅᓕ Uli
3rd	sg.	ᓄ Nu	ᐃᓗ Ilu	ᓄ ᑐᓪᓗ Nu Tullu	ᐃᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Ilu Tullu	ᐃᓯᓗ Isilu	ᐄᓃᓪ Iiniil	ᓅᖅᓗ Nuuqlu
1st	pl.	ᐃᒻᒧᓗ Immulu	ᐃᒻᒥᓗ Immilu	ᐃᒻᒧᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Immulu Tullu	ᐃᒻᒥᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Immilu Tullu	ᐃᒻᒥᓯᓗ Immisilu	ᐃᒻᒥᓃᓪ Imminiil	ᐃᒻᒫᖅᓗ Immaaqlu
2nd	pl.	ᐃᑦᑐᓗ Ittulu	ᐃᑦᑎᓗ Ittilu	ᐃᑦᑐᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Ittulu Tullu	ᐃᑦᑎᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Ittilu Tullu	ᑎᓯᓗ Ittisilu	ᑎᓃᓪ Ittiniil	ᐋᖅᓗ Aaqlu
3rd	pl.	ᑕᕗ Tavu	ᑕᕕᓗ Tavilu	ᑕᕗ ᑐᓪᓗ Tavu Tullu	ᑕᕕᓗ ᑐᓪᓗ Tavilu Tullu	ᑕᕕᓯᓗ Tavisilu	ᑕᕕᓃᓪ Taviniil	ᑑᖅᓗ Tuuqlu
passive	-	ᓈᓪᓗ Naallu	ᓃᑦᓗ Niitlu	ᓈᓪᓗ ᐅᑦᓗ Naallu Utlu	ᓃᑦᓗ ᐅᑦᓗ Niitlu Utlu	ᓃᓯᐊᑦᓗ Niisiatlu	ᓃᓇᑦᓗ Niinatlu	ᓅᑲᑦᓗ Nuukatlu

The verb Allu behaves like a suffix and is put at the end of a noun/adjective/number.

• ᑐᓄᖠᓲᑋᓄᓗ [Tunurniluuh-nulu] ( I'm worried; lit. Worried-I'm).

• ᑐᓄᖠᓲᑋᐅᑦᑎᓄ [Tunurniluuh-uttit-nu] (The Child is worried/there is a worried child; lit. worried-child-is)