Peküzhí Nakiwá

peküzhí Nakiwá is the common and official language of zhi Nakiwá. A language isolate, it has very few speakers outside of zhi Nakiwá. A small population of speakers is found in Paltlon ini, in Covtle ini.

Phonology

Consonant phonemes

		Bilabial		Alveolar		Post-alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal			m		n
Plosive		p	b	t	d					k	g
Fricative				s	z	ʃ	ʒ
Approximant									j		w

Vowel phonemes

	Front	Mid	Back
High	i y		u
Mid	e ø		o
Low		a

peküzhí Nakiwá phonotactics are strict, allowing only CV syllables. peküzhí Nakiwá is a pitch accent language, with a lexicalised higher pitch on either the penultimate or final syllable. peküzhí Nakiwá is a syllable-timed language.

Grammar

Word Order

The basic word order is SOV. Peküzhí Nakiwá is strongly left-branching.

Nouns

Nouns in peküzhí Nakiwá are split into two pieces. The first piece, called go pidéwa, is a single syllable root with all morphology attached to it that begins a noun phrase. The second piece, called go newése is a longer root that sits independently after all the adjectives.

While there is no system of noun class or noun gender in the traditional sense, nouns in peküzhí Nakiwá are roughly divided into two categories: go yazhiká or native nouns and go numúge or foreign nouns. go yazhiká are nouns whose roots go back to the original settlement of the islands, while go numúge are borrowed words from other languages, especially Adcovtle. go pidéwa of go numúge is almost always «ki», «shü», or «na».

Verbs

Verbs in peküzhí Nakiwá are conjugated for tense only. The only two tenses are past, marked with the prefix «zü-», and present/future, marked with «da-». There are four irregular verbs, listed below.

peküzhí Nakiwá irregular verbs

	Past	Present/Future
ogó (to be)	núka	shaná
bímü (to go)	zü	da
peké (to do/make)	zeké	deké
newá	ne	ko

Pronouns

Pronouns in peküzhí Nakiwá

Person	Pronoun
1st person	tu öwá
2nd person	tu shósho
3rd person	ka pákü
4th person (generic)	ka zhusú
For referring only to the Queen	ka bokezawéo

Questions

Add the particle «nomé» to the end of the phrase. If the question is a wh-question, replace the question word in place.

Useful morphology

For go yazhiká:

peküX: language of X

uX: people of X

teX: person (or people) who does X

nonaX: story of X

kinaseX: X-like

For go numúge:

Remember, these attach to the go pidéwa!

Common go pidéwa

The following common go pidéwa suggest, but do not determine, what kind of thing the noun is:

ka: island

sha: god/monarch

zhi: collection of things

ki, shü, na: go numúge

go: grammatical element

ma: body of water

ö: something high

ta: having to do with the sun

no: piece of something

sü: family relation

mi: powerful creature

Proper nouns

zhi Nakiwá: (archipelago name) peküzhí Nakiwá: (language name) uzhí Nakiwá: (people name) sha Yagikéwa: (first queen name) sha Bokonená: (second queen name) go yazhiká: (native nouns) go numúge: (foreign nouns) i Gashíkü: (northern peninsula name) ka Nomödá: (northern islands name) ka Bidetí: (northernmost island of the archipelago) sha Osiwéa: (third queen name) ki tódo: (tower of knowledge name) si Shawéna: (capital city) ka Yöméta: (local name for Ñavutlama) sha Badiwéo: (main god name) go pidéwa: (noun first piece name) go newése: (noun second piece name) zhi Nakiwá zho teshü Gosiwá: (state-owned gemstone mining company)

Examples

ki	oyáki	ma	inóka	da-	züzé.
gem.pt1	gem.pt2	ocean.pt1	ocean.pt2	PST	throw

"I threw the gem into the ocean."

tu	öwá	si	somóne	mokinashí	ne
1ST.pt1	1ST.pt2	place.pt1	place.pt2	come.from	NEG

"I am from nowhere."