Introduction

This book describes the major phonological, orthographic, syntactic, and semantic properties of Najan, my first and so far only conlang. Najan is an a priori, analytic, isolating conlang featuring perfectly phonemic orthography, and an unambiguous context-free grammar inspired by first-order logic. The Najan name for Najan is kʊ​naj​vɪx [kʰʊ näʒ vɪɾ̥].

I have no formal linguistic training, so the language is not very naturalistic or elaborate as far as conlangs go. Nevertheless, it’s been a joy to work on, and I’m happy with how it has evolved and am excited to share it with others.

Soli Deo gloria.

Phonology

Najan has thirty-two phonemes: eight vowels and twenty-four consonants.

The unvoiced plosives /p/, /t/, and /k/ are generally aspirated.

Allophones

Najan has the following allophonic rules:

1. Assimilation of plosives to a following fricative or liquid with a nearby place of articulation, including:
   • Labial to labio-dental
   • Alveolar to dental or postalveolar
2. Affrication of homorganic plosive-fricative and plosive-liquid clusters
3. Gemination of the first consonant in a cluster of two consonants with nearby places of articulation and the same manner of articulation, with the exception of taps

Taken together, rules 1 and 2 lead to the following allophonic affricates, which can occur either within or across word boundaries:

Rule 3 allows for many additional possible allophones (but only across word boundaries, due to phonotactic constraints). For example:

As a non-example, /kd/ is realized as [kʰd], with no gemination and with the usual aspiration on /k/, since /k/ is velar while /d/ is alveolar.

Phonotactics

Najan is monosyllabic, with C(C)V(C) structure. The onset must have consistent voicing: any plosives, fricatives, and taps must either all be voiced or all be voiceless. For example, /ts/ and /tl/ are valid onsets, but /tz/ is not.

If the nucleus is a peripheral vowel (/ä/, /ɛ/, /i/, /u/, or /o̞/), the coda is required. If the nucleus is a mid-central vowel (/ə/, /ɪ/, or /ʊ/), the coda is optional; if present, it must be a nasal, liquid, tap, or glide.

Stress

Najan uses a stress accent system, with stressed words receiving greater volume, a longer vowel, and higher tone. Najan is also stress-timed, with stressed words occurring at relatively constant intervals. Typically, only verbs and pronouns are stressed, except for emphasis.

1. A non-velar plosive is never followed by a velar fricative. ↩

Orthography

Najan uses a perfectly phonemic featural alphabet, which is written left-to-right, top-to-bottom in scriptio continua (meaning with no punctuation marks, not even spaces between words).

The table below lists each Najan letter, labeled with its name and corresponding phoneme.

Note the alphabet’s featural elements:

• Voiced consonants resemble their voiceless counterparts but with inverted positioning of crossbars and apertures.
• Velar consonants and front vowels have an upper-left ascender. Labial consonants and back vowels have a lower-right descender. Alveolar (or nearby) consonants and central vowels have neither ascenders nor descenders.
• Consonant shape indicates manner of articulation. Plosives, nasals, approximants, and taps form self-similar sets, ignoring ascenders and descenders. Likewise, the fricatives form three sets, based on place of articulation:
  • Postalveolar
  • Velar/alveolar (whose points of articulation exactly match their corresponding plosives)
  • Dental/labiodental
• The glyphs for /i/ and /u/ closely resemble those of the corresponding glides, /j/ and /w/.
• Mid-central vowels resemble nearby peripheral vowels.

Ligatures

An affricate within a word is represented as a ligature. For example, the letters k (/k/) and h (/h/) combine to form kh when they occur in onset position. (Although the /kx/ cluster is always affricated, ligatures may never cross word boundaries.) Notice that the kh ligature only has one ascender (indicating a velar consonant) since affricates are always homorganic and there is therefore no risk of misinterpreting kh as a ligature of k and s.

Unicode Transliteration

This site renders Najan text using a custom font applied to a transliteration of the Najan alphabet into Unicode. This transliteration uses lowercase English letters to represent the first twenty-six Najan letters. For the remaining six letters, it uses the IPA symbol corresponding to the letter’s phoneme. (The transliteration system could have used the IPA symbol for every letter, but this would have left many English letters unused, making Najan more difficult than necessarily to type on a QWERTY keyboard.)

The transliteration system is relevant when inputting Najan text or when rendering it where the font is unavailable. The mouseover bubble for each Najan word on this site includes the word’s transliteration in angle brackets.

Syntax

Najan has the following word classes:

• Verbs (fyas)
• Determiners (qə​saθ​dan, means of instantiation)
• Pronouns (sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and…​zax​kuv, borrowed identity)
• Prepositions (qə​qac​dan, means of relation)
• Conjunctions (qə​cob​vom, logical operator)
• Particles (lug)

Najan has no nouns, adverbs, or adjectives. Verb phrases, pronouns, and determiner phrases can all function as noun phrases. (A verb phrase may be used as a verbal noun phrase without any inflection or other marking.)

Prepositional phrases can take the semantic role of adverbs and adjectives. However prepositions are a closed class; more generally, modification can be expressed through logical conjunction. For example, whereas the English phrase happy person consists of an adjective and a noun, the Najan phrase sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and…​tay​mɪl is a conjunction (sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and…) of two verbs: tay (to be happy) and mɪl (to be a person). Since conjunction is commutative, the reverse phrase, sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and…​mɪl​tay is equivalent.

Formal Grammar

Najan is a deterministic context-free language whose formal grammar can be expressed in extended Backus-Naur form as follows:

clause ⇒ ⟨mood ᴘᴛᴄʟ⟩ ⟨VP⟩
| ⟨PP⟩ ⟨clause⟩
| ⟨parenthesis⟩ ⟨clause⟩

ᴘʀᴇᴘ phrase (PP) ⇒ ⟨ᴘʀᴇᴘ⟩ ⟨NP⟩

parenthesis ⇒ vew ⟨VP⟩

verb phrase (VP) ⇒ [ ⟨aspect ᴘᴛᴄʟ⟩ ] ⟨verb⟩
| mə ⟨VP⟩
| ⟨PP⟩ ⟨VP⟩
| ⟨parenthesis⟩ ⟨VP⟩
| txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot ⟨VP⟩
| ⟨ᴄᴏɴᴊ⟩ ⟨VP⟩ ⟨VP⟩

noun phrase (NP) ⇒ ⟨VP⟩ | ⟨restricted NP⟩

restricted NP ⇒ ⟨ᴘʀᴏ⟩
| ⟨ᴅᴇᴛ phrase⟩
| ⟨quotation⟩
| ⟨parenthesis⟩ ⟨restricted NP⟩
| txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot ⟨restricted NP⟩
| ⟨ᴄᴏɴᴊ⟩ ⟨restricted NP⟩ ⟨restricted NP⟩

ᴅᴇᴛ phrase ⇒ ⟨ᴅᴇᴛ⟩ [ ⟨ᴘʀᴏ⟩ ] ⟨VP⟩

quotation ⇒ tcə ⟨quoted word⟩+ tcə

quoted word ⇒ ⟨word⟩ - tcə - tsə | tsə​tcə | tsə​tsə

Logical Connectives

The binary logical connectives are as follows:

Note

Binary logical connectives are the only true grammatical conjunctions in Najan. Other semantic relationships between phrases or clauses are expressed using prepositional phrases.

There is one unary connective, txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot, which indicates logical negation (ɴᴏᴛ).

The logical constants ᴛʀᴜᴇ and ꜰᴀʟꜱᴇ, which can be considered nullary logical connectives, are expressed using the verbs jʊjʊ ⟨jʊ⟩ — yes; true… and txəytxəy ⟨txəy⟩ — no; false…, respectively.

Modality

Every clause in Najan begins with a mood particle expressing how the speaker relates the clause to the world or to other possible worlds. The mood particles are derived from corresponding verbs, e.g. jə (sensory indicative mood) from jec (sense, perceive, or intuit).

Indicative Moods

The indicative moods are used to assert a claim about how the world actually is. These moods are distinguished by evidentiality, i.e. the speaker’s source of information supporting the claim.

The sensory mood (sɴs) is for claims supported by the speaker’s own direct sensory experience or intuition.

The deductive mood (ᴅᴇᴅ) is for conclusions the speaker has deduced rationally from other accepted evidence. The conclusion could be based on sense data, hearsay, or other inferences, as long as the conclusion itself comes from the speaker’s own reasoning. Use of the deductive mood doesn’t imply that the speaker has consciously constructed a formal logical proof for their claim, but it should imply that they believe they could sketch a convincing informal argument on request. Hunches should be expressed using the sensory mood, not the deductive.

The reportative mood (ʀᴘʀᴛ) is for claims originating from someone other than the speaker, such as something the speaker has heard or read.

The choice of indicative particle by itself has no bearing on how strongly the speaker believes the claim. For instance, it’s entirely possible to be more convinced of a reportative statement originating from a highly reliable and authoritative source than of a sensory statement based on a vague feeling or unclear view. The speaker may convey how strongly they believe their own statement using an epistemic mood particle.

Interrogative Moods

The interrogative moods are for asking different types of questions.

A content question (ᴄᴏ̨) requests missing information using the interrogative pronoun vel. The response should supply the missing information that would make the complete clause true. To this question…

…I could respond jə​djan (It’s Jon).

Informally, one can omit vel, if it’s apparent what’s being asked: gwi​kuv (Name?).

A content question may request multiple pieces of information.

This questioner has asked for two pieces of information here: who did it and what they did. Note that vel is a pronoun, so it can’t stand in for a verb directly. However, using pɪn (do) as the verb allows asking about actions, by using vel as a causal-final argument.

A polar question (ᴘᴏ̨) prompts for a yes-or-no answer, confirming or denying the clause.

The reponse can usually be very brief, e.g. jə​jʊjʊ ⟨jʊ⟩ — yes; true… (it’s true) or jə​txəytxəy ⟨txəy⟩ — no; false… (it’s false).

An alternative question (ᴀᴏ̨) should pose a series of mutually exclusive options, only one of which makes the overall clause true. Typically this involves an exclusive logical disjunction. It’s possible but very uncommon for an alternative question to contain multiple sets of options, prompting multiple selections from the respondent. A question with two opposite possibilities would typically be expressed as a polar question but could be expressed as an alternative question for emphassis: are you or are you not my people?

Any question may be predicated on faulty premises, whether implicit or explicit. In that case, the respondent may choose to contradict these assumptions rather than answer the question on its own terms.

Deontic Moods

The deontic moods are for asserting how the world shall be or ought to be.

The commissive mood (ᴄᴍs) indicates that the speaker intends to bring about the clause so that in the future it will be become or remain true.

The imperative mood (ɪᴍᴘᴇʀ) expresses a request or command for the listener to make or keep the clause true.

The volitive mood (ᴠᴏʟ) expresses a wish or desire of the speaker. Unlike the commissive or imperative moods, it does not imply that the speaker or listener is responsible for actualizing that wish.

Hypothetical Mood

The hypothetical mood is for expressing counterfactuals. A hypothetical clause posits that though the claim is not actually true, it would be true under other conditions. Clauses in this mood generally involve a conditional argument to clarify under which counterfactual circumstances the claim would be true. Note that the conditional argument should apply to the verb phrase within the hypothetical clause, not to the entire hypothetical clause itself.

Conditional claims where the consequent could actually be or become true should instead use the indicative mood with a conditional argument to the verb.

Modal Clauses as Truth Propositions

It’s possible to analyze clauses in any mood as corresponding to assertions about what is actually true. Though this correspondence is most obvious for the indicative moods, it’s true for the others as well. For instance, a verb phrase X belonging to a clause in the volitive mood asserts the proposition that the speaker wishes for X to be true. Likewise, a clause in the polar interrogative mood signifies that the speaker wonders whether X is true and would like the listener to provide an answer.

This kind of analysis is unusual but can be useful for correctly interpreting logical operators or prepositional phrases applied to clauses. For example, jə​txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot​gleð means I sense that it’s not raining, whereas txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot​jə​gleð means I don’t sense that it’s raining, which is a weaker claim. Similarly, sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and…​zʊm​kcə​vig literally means regretfully, I request that you go, whereas kcə​sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and…​zʊm​vig means I request that you regretfully go.

Parenthesis

A parenthesis (parenthetical expression) is a relative clause, introduced with vew (which), that modifies its head nonrestrictively. In other words, it provides additional, nonessential information about the head without defining it. If omitted, the subject of the parenthesis is implicitly the modified head.

Here, vew​tir asserts that dogs are good (it is excellent to be a dog). We could remove the non-restrictive modifier entirely, and the meaning of gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner​ŋix would not change. In fact, we could split this sentence into two: tir​ŋix​gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner​ŋix.

Restricted noun phrases, such as determiner phrases and pronouns, cannot be further modified by prepositional phrases. For instance, nʊ​tay​kwʊ (happy I) is ungrammatical. Conversely, a parenthesis can modify a restricted noun phrase.

In this example, vew​tir does not contribute to the identification of the dog, nor does it describe dogs in general; it provides extra information about a particular dog that has already been identified.

Prepositional Phrases

A prepositional phrase comprises a preposition and its noun phrase complement, assigning that complement some semantic role within the clause or verb phrase that the prepositional phrase modifies. In contrast to parenthetical expressions, prepositional phrases are always restrictive.

Prepositions are derived from corresponding verbs by clipping. For example, the preposition cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent marks its object as an agent and is derived from the verb cɪm, agent.

Subjects & Relations

Most prepositional phrases—and the verb arguments they express—have relatively fixed definitions, so if one knows the meaning of a verb, then the meaning of its arguments follows straightforwardly. Two semantic roles are exceptions to this pattern of predictability: the subject (ŋiθ) and relation (qac). These roles are essential components of the semantics of each verb.

Every Najan verb describes some state of being. The subject of a verb, marked using the preposition ŋɪ, denotes the entity that is in that state. (It can be very difficult to provide a good gloss for this preposition since in English the subject is positional. Therefore, I will generally gloss ŋɪ as just “sʙᴊ”.)

Many verbs also permit a secondary relational argument, marked using qə, which most often means something like of, with respect to, with regard to, or in relation to.

For example, in the verb zim (want), the subject is the one who is experiencing desire, and the relation is that which is wanted.

For a given Najan verb, the meanings of ŋɪ and qə may or may not align well with the subject and object of a similar English verb. As a general rule, the entity most strongly pertaining to or affected by the verb will be defined as its subject. Taking for example the verb tcet (be eaten), the subject is the thing consumed, and the relational argument is the consumer. These roles are exactly reversed for the related word hɪm, eat.

Causes & Conditions

An agent (cɪm) of a verb, marked by the preposition cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent, is its animate, voluntary cause.

In contrast to an agent, a cause (slon) is involuntary. The preposition slə translates to because of.

A cause can also be inanimate.

When the complement of a causal argument is a verb phrase, slə functions like the English subordinating conjunction because.

The causal-final (ғɪɴ) preposition tcɪ identifies a final cause: a purpose, outcome, or product of some state. It can translate to for or so that. A final cause may be a verb phrase or noun phrase.

The conditional preposition xə specifies a condition or dependency required in order for the modified expression to apply. It most closely translates to depending on.

When the complement is a verb phrase, the conditional functions like the English subordinating conjunction if.

Time & Place

Najan has four prepositions for characterizing time and place:

1. lɪ for location at or within a point or region of space or time
2. wɪ for movement to or into a point or region
3. xʊ for movement from, away from, or out of
4. zɪ for movement through, throughout, or across

Each of these prepositions is inclusive; i.e. wɪ includes the destination, xʊ includes the origin, and zɪ includes the entirety of the path, region, or duration.

The complements of these prepositions may be explicit places or times, but they could also be something else, such as a person or event. In the latter case, the argument refers to the spatio-temporal location of that object; e.g. lɪ​kwʊ (literally at me) means at my time and place.

English supplies a plethora of prepositions for describing spatio-temporal relations. For instance, a chair may be at, on, under, or beside a table. In Najan, each of these relations would use the same (locative) preposition: zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner​lɪ​zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner​tsac​qə​muð​dan, a chair at a table.

The preposition alone is often sufficient in context to convey the full relationship, but to add clarity or expressiveness, one can replace the complement of the preposition with a more specific expression. For example, since the preposition wɪ (to) is always inclusive of the specified destination, wɪ​gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner​tθak (to the end) means that the expression holds true up to and including the end. To convey that the expression held true up to (but not necessarily including) some time before the end, one could say wɪ​zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner​qə​gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner​tθak​klɪ, lit. to a past [time] of the end.

Similarity & Comparison

The semblative (sᴇᴍʙʟ) preposition marks something the complement is similar to. The semblative particle kɪ means as, like, or in the manner of.

The comparative (ᴄᴏᴍᴘ) preposition marks a point of comparison or reference within a verb phrase of degree.

The comparative particle vɪ means roughly than or in comparison to, but unlike these English terms, the comparison is always against the subject of the verb. This avoids ambiguous comparisons such as I like cheesecake more than you—more than you like cheesecake or more than I like you?

A comparative argument can be combined with the distributive determiner sʊ to form a superlative:

Verb Phrases

Arguments

Arguments to a verb are expressed as optional prepositional phrases. As a result, arguments have no fixed order, and a single verb can take multiple arguments of the same semantic role.

In the following, you and I are both eating the same fruit:

Reversing the order of the arguments usually does not affect the meaning:

However, sometimes order does matter, for instance when universal and existential quantification are involved.

In the next example, the ball and glove are thrown as part of the same action:

Since arguments are simply modifiers, they are not syntactically required and may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. When asked who I am, I could reply:

Or, since I is the expected subject:

Tense & Aspect

Tense specifies when along a timeline a verb phrase occurs (e.g. past, present, future), whereas aspect characterizes how the verb phrase extends over time. In Najan, aspect is marked syntactically with a (possibly null) particle immediately preceding the verb or verb phrase. In contrast, tense has no direct syntactic representation, so it must be marked explicitly with temporal arguments, inferred from the surrounding context, or else assumed from the verb’s aspect.

The continuous (ᴄᴏɴᴛ) aspect views a verb as ongoing or in progress. It is the default aspect, in the absence of an aspect particle. Without temporal arguments or additional context, a continuous verb phrase may be assumed to be in present tense. Najan does not distinguish between continuous and progressive aspects.

The perfective (ᴘғᴠ) aspect views a verb in its entirety, as a complete action or state. Without other clues, a perfective verb phrase is most likely to be in past tense. For example, jə​cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent​kwʊ​θɪ​tcet is more likely to mean I ate (simple past) or I have eaten (past perfect) than I will eat (simple future).

The inchoative (ɪɴᴄʜ) aspect views a verb as beginning, as in jə​djə​sic, [he] starts to cry. Inversely, the cessative (ᴄᴇss) aspect views a verb as ending: jə​vat​sic, [he] stops crying. By default, verbs in these aspects are in present tense.

The habitual (ʜᴀʙ) aspect views a verb as occurring regularly over some period of time, centered on the present by default. If jə​cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent​tʊ​vig is in present tense, it means you are going, and the corresponding habitual phrase, jə​cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent​tʊ​fxɪ​vig, means you go [regularly]. If we instead assume past tense, then they translate respectively to you were going and either you would go or you used to go.

The gnomic (ɢɴᴏ) aspect views a verb as a general truth with little or no temporal structure. As such, the concept of tense is usually inapplicable. Gnomic verb phrases often feature generic determiner phrases as arguments and express an aphorism, a mathematical truth, etc.

The gnomic verb phrase above expresses a general mathematical fact. If it were written in the continuous aspect instead (without hon), it would leave open the possibility that two might not have always been or might not always be greater than one.

Inferring Tense from Context

As described above, aspect markers can also carry a small amount of tense information. For example, perfective aspect often implies past tense. However, these associations are secondary to context. Suppose a speaker first says:

By using the preposition lɪ, the speaker has established a context in the future. Suppose the speaker then says jə​cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent​kwʊ​θɪ​tiz. In isolation, since this sentence is in perfective aspect, one might interpret it as I have spoken (present perfect) or I spoke (simple past). However, since future tense has already been established, one should instead translate the second clause as I will speak or I will have spoken (sometime tomorrow, after having gone).

Noun Phrases

Any verb phrase can also function as a noun phrase, signifying an abstract state or action (e.g. being human, running, love). To talk about concrete instances, sets, or amounts of something (e.g. you, the victory, two dogs, some water, several words), we can use pronouns or determiner phrases.

Pluralization

A verb phrase can be pluralized by preceding it with the particle mə. Precisely, mə followed by a state means to be a set of entities that are all in that state. This set may contain any number of elements, including zero or one.

Unlike plurals in English, instantiating the mə plural form requires the use of a determiner. The following attempted translation of I hear people over there is incorrect (and nonsensical):

Adding the indefinite determiner gives the intended meaning:

Pronouns

Najan has two first-person plural pronouns, distinguished by clusivity. The inclusive pronoun djof includes the speaker, those addressed, and possibly one or more third-person referents. The exclusive pronoun jal includes the speaker and at least one third person but excludes those addressed.

The interrogative pronoun vel stands for something unknown and is essential to the formation of content questions, where it indicates the missing information that the asker wishes to know.

The assignable pronouns jow, með, paŋ, and tsut have no fixed properties, such as person, number, or gender. They can be bound (or rebound) to any unquantified noun phrase, via determiner phrases.

Determiner Phrases

A determiner phrase consists of a determiner, an optional pronoun to bind, and a verb phrase complement. The phrase signifies some entity such that the complement holds true with that entity as the subject. Najan has just four determiners:

The indefinite determiner zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner introduces a new specific instance of the complement. It corresponds to existential quantification in logic.

The definite determiner gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner refers to a known instance of the complement. The referent should be unique (e.g. a proper noun) or otherwise obvious from context. There is only one entity that is the sun:

We can express a demonstrative (this or that) by intersecting the complement of a definite determiner with tlɪ (here) or dwə (there).

The distributive determiner sʊ expresses that the clauses containing the determiner phrase (and its pronoun, if any) hold true for each instance of the complement. It corresponds to universal quantification in logic.

The generic determiner ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense refers to the complement in a general, nonspecific sense. It’s often used with the gnomic aspect. This determiner doesn’t map cleanly to any one determiner in English; for instance, a man’s gotta eat, cats are cute, and the giraffe is an African species all have a generic subject.

In English, the indefinite articles a and an do not encode specificity. For instance, I’m looking for a book may or may not mean I have a specific book in mind. In Najan, the indefinite determiner is always specific:

The generic determiner is always nonspecific.

Pronoun Binding

Binding a pronoun in a determiner phrase allows referring back to it in a concise and unambiguous way.

Plural and Uncountable Determiner Phrases

The complement in a determiner phrase may be uncountable or plural, in which case the entity identified by the determiner phrase is a set or quantity.

In fact, Najan does not distinguish between countable and uncountable determiner phrases since determiner phrases always identify discrete entities. In English, rock is countable in a small rock but uncountable in a hunk of rock. In Najan, the word for rock, kut, means to be made of stone. Thus zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner​kut, literally a thing that is made of stone, could be translated into English either as a rock (countable) or as some rock (uncountable).

Ordering Determiner Phrases

We have to be careful about the order of arguments when distributive determiners and indefinite determiners are both present since they are not commutative with each other.

It’s true that every human has a human mother:

It is however not true that all humans share a single universal mother:

Quotations

Quotation

A quotation begins and ends with the particle tcə and functions as a noun signifying the contained words themselves. The particle tsə is used within a quotation just before tcə or another tsə to indicate that the second particle should be interpreted as part of the quotation, not as a particle within the sentence containing the quotation.

Note: Determiner phrases within quotations cannot affect the bindings of surrounding pronouns. Assignable pronouns contained in a quotation may have completely different referents than in the surrounding context—or even none at all, when using a quotation to talk about the pronouns themselves.

Najan Dictionary

... ​kʊ​naj​vɪx

🔗 gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner qə​saθ​dan

fʊ​qə​ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense​jow​sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and...​lɪ​klɪ​qə​jow​θɪ​tiz​ŋiθ​djə​kuv

🔗 txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot qə​cob​vom

...

🔗 txəytxəy ⟨txəy⟩ — no; false... loð

...

🔗 draðdrað ⟨drað⟩ — exclusive or... qə​cob​vom

...

🔗 caycay ⟨cay⟩ — change; evolve loð

...

🔗 cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent qə​qac​dan

...

🔗 juθjuθ ⟨juθ⟩ — if and only if... qə​cob​vom

...

🔗 jʊjʊ ⟨jʊ⟩ — yes; true... loð

...

🔗 sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and... qə​cob​vom

...

🔗 zovzov ⟨zov⟩ — or... qə​cob​vom

...

🔗 zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner qə​saθ​dan

fʊ​qə​ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense​jow​sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and...​txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot​lɪ​klɪ​qə​jow​θɪ​tiz​ŋiθ​djə​kuv

🔗 ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense qə​saθ​dan

fʊ​qə​ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense​sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and...​ðus​ŋiθ​djə​kuv

🔗 ŋazŋaz ⟨ŋaz⟩ — if; implies... qə​cob​vom

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English-Najan Dictionary

English-Najan Dictionary

🔗 a zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense

🔗 an zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense

🔗 and sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and...

🔗 by cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent

🔗 change caycay ⟨cay⟩ — change; evolve

🔗 evolve caycay ⟨cay⟩ — change; evolve

🔗 exclusive or draðdrað ⟨drað⟩ — exclusive or...

🔗 false txəytxəy ⟨txəy⟩ — no; false...

🔗 if ŋazŋaz ⟨ŋaz⟩ — if; implies...

🔗 if and only if juθjuθ ⟨juθ⟩ — if and only if...

🔗 implies ŋazŋaz ⟨ŋaz⟩ — if; implies...

🔗 no txəytxəy ⟨txəy⟩ — no; false...

🔗 not txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot

🔗 or zovzov ⟨zov⟩ — or...

🔗 the gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense

🔗 true jʊjʊ ⟨jʊ⟩ — yes; true...

🔗 yes jʊjʊ ⟨jʊ⟩ — yes; true...

Najan-English Dictionary

Najan-English Dictionary

🔗 gɪgɪ ⟨gɪ⟩ — thedefinite determiner the

definite determiner

🔗 txətxə ⟨txə⟩ — notnot not

not

🔗 txəytxəy ⟨txəy⟩ — no; false... no false

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🔗 draðdrað ⟨drað⟩ — exclusive or... exclusive or

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🔗 caycay ⟨cay⟩ — change; evolve change evolve

🔗 cɪcɪ ⟨cɪ⟩ — bymarks the complement as an agent by

marks the complement as an agent

🔗 juθjuθ ⟨juθ⟩ — if and only if... if and only if

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🔗 jʊjʊ ⟨jʊ⟩ — yes; true... yes true

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🔗 sɪsɪ ⟨sɪ⟩ — and... and

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🔗 zovzov ⟨zov⟩ — or... or

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🔗 zəzə ⟨zə⟩ — a; anindefinite determiner a an

indefinite determiner

🔗 ðʊðʊ ⟨ðʊ⟩ — a; an; thegeneric determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense a an the

generic determiner, used to refer to a complement in a general, nonspecific sense

🔗 ŋazŋaz ⟨ŋaz⟩ — if; implies... if implies

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