Nebulani

Consonants

Vowels

IPA and English comparisons are pronunciation guides. In particular, a varies between the vowels of cat and father. The precise distribution of its variants is not fully settled.

Word shape

The underlying pattern is consonant plus vowel. A word may also end in n. Initial h drops, so hu becomes u when spoken alone, and hu + na + bia becomes unabia. Inside a word, h remains available to separate vowels.

Final written re sounds like the ending of teacher, [əɹ]. Before a vowel-bearing suffix, re returns to [ɹɛ]. Final rei is a different vowel and does not follow this rule.

The letter z writes a voiced form of s. It is not the same sound as zh. Compare luzolo, pink, with the separate words lo so luhia, red and black. Free so keeps its s.

Adjacent syllables normally cannot begin with the same consonant. The empty buffer sa can separate them: re + ri becomes resari. When two s-onsets meet, the second can voice instead: soso becomes sozo. Numerals allow repeated t.

The combinations she, shei, zhe, zhei, li, lei, lai, lia, and sia are excluded. Other restrictions across syllable boundaries are not yet consistent enough to serve as a complete word-building test.

Compounds and blends

In an ordinary compound, the last root names the thing and earlier roots qualify it. Lu + ke is white energy, light. Lo + ku is red liquid, blood. Re + ri is knowledge-sending, speak, with sa inserted to avoid adjacent r-onsets: resari.

So between roots makes an additive blend rather than a modifier-head compound. Le + so + la is green and blue blended, cyan. For these blends, vowel order is i, u, o, e, ei, a, ai. Lu + so + lo therefore gives luzolo, pink.

A free-standing so joins separate words. Lo so luhia means red and black, not a blended color.

Terminal modifiers

An ia-ending applies to the whole stem it closes. Build the compound first, then apply the ending. A final plural n may follow it.

People, possession, and number

A possessor can go before the thing possessed. Ma + loku gives maloku, my blood. There is no separate possessive ending in this construction.

Maria is my parent and meria is your parent. The pronoun inside the word specifies whose parent. Muzamaria means my mom: mu qualifies maria, with voiced sa between the m-onsets.

Final n marks a plural. Collective so- treats its head as a group: soma is we, literally collective-I. The distinction is not completely regular: mi means it or thing, while min means stuff.

Equating properties and actions

Hei means identity or equivalence. As a separate word it loses initial h and becomes ei. Many expressions equate a property or action rather than describe the whole person.

Se means of: X se Y is X of Y. It is also written inside some words, as in resemin, knowledge of stuff. Its full scope and its relationship to direct compounding remain open.

Time frames

Ho means place, area, or land. After a phrase, it also sets the frame for the following clause. As a separate spoken word, ho becomes o.

Nehai is past time and nahai is future time. The examples below use a short form with ma directly attached to the eating expression. How this relates to the longer equational construction is not fully settled.

Roseku can sound like ros ku, with the e nearly absent. The role of this reduced s(e), and a general rule for forming verbs, are still open. These examples establish useful expressions, not a complete tense or verb system.

Roots

Everyday compounds

Small numbers

The basic values are tu zero, ti one, te two, to four, and tai eight. Smaller components before larger ones add. Tite is one plus two; titeto is one plus two plus four.

Larger spoken forms

A digit after tai is a multiplying coefficient. Taite is eight times two. Each final so then multiplies the completed term by eight. Put the coefficient before these so endings: taititeto is octal 70 and taititetoso is octal 700.

Smaller terms before larger terms add without a linker. Larger-first addition uses so between the terms. Multiplication binds before addition. Titetotaite and taitesotiteto both mean octal 27.

Position matters. Taisotiteto is eight plus seven, octal 17, because its so joins two terms. It does not mean octal 700. Adjacent soso becomes sozo, as in taisozo.

Ni raises the magnitude while leaving its coefficient outside the power. Taisonite is 64 squared, decimal 4096. Taitesonite means two times 64 squared, decimal 8192, not 128 squared. Its te coefficient stays immediately after tai, before so and ni.

Taisozonite is 512 squared, decimal 262144. A number can have more than one construction. The converter shows a so-based word and a ni-based rendering without treating either grouping as the only possible name.

Larger numbers

Higher magnitudes use a native exponent to the right of a magnitude sign. There is no separate ni glyph. A coefficient stays below the magnitude sign and outside the power.

The table uses powers of taiso for even octal places and powers of tai for odd places. This is one consistent construction, not the only possible name. Spaces separate additive terms, from smaller to larger.

Written numerals

The basic signs are a circle for tu, a dot for ti, a short horizontal stroke for te, a crossing for to, and a double crossing for tai. Tite places a dot over the te stroke; tito places a dot over the to crossing. Teto has two horizontal crossbars through a short vertical stem, and titeto adds a dot above it.

A smaller quantity above a magnitude adds. Te above tai is tetai, octal 12. A coefficient below the magnitude multiplies. Tai above te is taite, octal 20.

Taiso has two horizontal bars through two vertical stems. Te below this completed sign is taiteso, octal 200. For octal 777, the five rows are titeto, tai, titeto, taiso, titeto, read from top to bottom. Each lower coefficient belongs to the magnitude directly above it.

Taitesonite is the complete taiteso sign with te to its right. The right-hand te squares only the taiso magnitude; the lower te remains its coefficient. This writes octal 20000.

A complete arithmetic operator set is not yet established. The usual plus sign already resembles the numeral to, so it should not be mistaken for a native addition operator.