Nalik language

A Nalik Phonology analysis developed by Clive H. Beaumont[4]

In West Coast and Southern East Coast dialects and when preceded by vowels, /p/ and /k/, two non-coronal voiceless stops are transformed into fricatives. Additionally, the voiceless fricatives become voiced.[2]

When immediately preceded by a vowel the following consonants change their voicing:

/f/ and /p/ become [β] (written as v)

/s/ becomes [z]

/k/ becomes [γ] (written as x)

The following are examples of these characteristics:[2]

Nouns in Nalik are categorized as being an uncountable noun, or a countable noun. Nouns can be part of a noun phrase or can be an independent subject referenced in a verbal complex. When used as subjects, some uncountable nouns are co-referential with plural subject markers however those are the exceptions and are usually marked with singular subject markers. With uncountable nouns, numerical markers cannot be used. Countable nouns, however, can be singular or plural and can be modified by numerical markers.

Variations in the third person non-singular pronouns are attributed to rapid speech and regional variants. In rapid speech naande often becomes nande. In the Northern Eastern Coast naande is the variant used. In the South East Coast naandi is the variant used. Naanda is used primarily by younger speakers from all areas.[2]

Personal pronouns can notably be utilized in the same way as related nouns such as "a woman" (a ravin) being replaced with "she" (naan).

• A raivin ka na wut. (The woman will come.)
• Naan ka na wut. (She will come.)

The Nalik counting system is reflective of using one's hand to count and indicative of the style in which they do so. They begin with an open palm and bring individual fingers down per digit counted and the action of doing so is shown in their counting system. As such the Nalik counting system contains elements of a base five counting system however when proceeding past ten, the counting system uses elements of base ten.[2]

The word for the number five kavitmit can be analyzed as the phrase ka vit mit. Ka being a third person indicator, vit being a negation particle, and mit meaning hand. It can, therefore, be translated to no hand as all fingers have been lowered.

The numbers six through nine are also representative of this pattern. In these numbers, the phrase describes the act of lowering additional fingers.

Past ten, the counting system starts to use combinations of ten in multiples of a number one to nine. Higher numbers in the hundreds use "ten squared" as its base.

Interrogatives in Nalik occur in the same position as adverbs, prepositional phrases, and nouns, and bear the same grammatical relations. Several interrogatives are built off the base word ze, meaning 'what'.