Olnic, The Language of the Olna and the Olna-Nen

Olnic has been spoken by the Olna and their cousins the Olna-Nen for thousands of years. 

Natively known as: olnichy /ˈolnic/

...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind...
drinm chya loll fo kil chyuhido drinm fo dudun sevask seh lùlth shi
Pronunciation: /drinm ca loll fo kil cuˈhido drinm fo ˈdudun ˈsevask seh lylth shi/
Olnic word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to

Spelling & Phonology

Consonant inventory: b c d f g h k l m n p q r s t v w x z

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	c	k g	q
Fricative		f v	s z		x		h
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

Co-articulated phonemes

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

Vowel inventory: a e i o u y

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Penultimate — stress is on the second last syllable
Spelling rules:

Pronunciation	Spelling
y	ù
c	chy
x	kh

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Grammar

Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase). “Mary opened the door with a key” turns into Mary the door opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions

Nouns

Nouns have six cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipient of something: man gives ball to dog.
• Locative is the location of something: man goes to town.
• Ablative is movement away from something: man walks from town.

Nouns have both a plural affix and dual affix for precisely two things.

Ergative	Prefix wi- wichyullùl /wiˈcullyl/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix chyullùl /ˈcullyl/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	If starts with vowel: Prefix b- Else: Prefix bi- bichyullùl /biˈcullyl/ dogʼs
Dative	If starts with vowel: Prefix t- Else: Prefix ta- tachyullùl /taˈcullyl/ to (the/a) dog
Locative	If starts with vowel: Prefix sh- Else: Prefix sho- shochyullùl /shoˈcullyl/ near/at/by (the/a) dog
Ablative	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix de- dechyullùl /deˈcullyl/ from (the/a) dog

Singular	No affix chyullùl /ˈcullyl/ dog
Plural	If starts with vowel: Prefix d- Else: Prefix dy- dùchyullùl /dyˈcullyl/ dogs
Dual	Prefix o- ochyullùl /oˈcullyl/ two dogs

Articles

Definite	qi /qi/ the
Indefinite	qù /qy/ a, some

Uses of definite article that differ from English:

• Definite article can be omitted: ‘I am going to supermarket’
• Used to talk about countable nouns in general: English’s ‘I like cats’ would translate to ‘I like the cats’
• Used for languages: ‘The English’
• Used with place names: ‘The London’

Uses of indefinite article that differ from English:

• Not used for non-specific countable nouns: non-specific means ‘I am looking for a (any) girl in a red dress’, whereas specific means ‘I am looking for a (particular) girl in a red dress’

Pronouns

	1st singular	2nd singular	3rd singular	1st plural	2nd plural	3rd plural
Ergative	ni /ni/ I	fi /fi/ you	chya /ca/ he, she, it	dra /dra/ we	di /di/ you all	chyhu /chu/ they
Absolutive	he /he/ me, I	fù /fy/ you	bi /bi/ him, her, it, he, she	karln /karln/ us, we	dre /dre/ you all	doss /doss/ them, they
Genitive	fund /fund/ mine	wi /wi/ yours	fo /fo/ his, hers, its	dùf /dyf/ ours	hùg /hyg/ yours (pl)	dup /dup/ theirs
Dative	ness /ness/ to me	them /them/ to you	qif /qif/ to him, her, it	me /me/ to us	tir /tir/ to you all	dind /dind/ to them
Locative	lo /lo/ at me	po /po/ at you	chyo /co/ at him, her, it	ber /ber/ at us	no /no/ at you all	de /de/ at them
Ablative	sù /sy/ from me	mo /mo/ from you	do /do/ from him, her, it	aq /aq/ from us	sir /sir/ from you all	bur /bur/ from them

Possessive determiners

1st singular	fund /fund/ my
2nd singular	wi /wi/ your
3rd singular	fo /fo/ his, her, its
1st plural	dùf /dyf/ our
2nd plural	hùg /hyg/ your (pl)
3rd plural	dup /dup/ their

Verbs

Present	No affix doddo /ˈdoddo/ learn
Past	If starts with vowel: Prefix yh- Else: Prefix yhu- ùhudoddo /ˌyhuˈdoddo/ learned
Future	If starts with vowel: Prefix n- Else: Prefix nu- nudoddo /nuˈdoddo/ will learn

Imperfective aspect

The ‘imperfective’ aspect refers to ongoing actions, such as I am learning and habitual actions, such as I learn (something new every day).
Olnic uses a standalone particle word for imperfective:

Imperfective

Particle before the verb: syq - sùq doddo /syq ˈdoddo/ learns/is learning

Numbers

Olnic has a base-10 number system:
1 - fikh
2 - ma
3 - dresiq
4 - bas
5 - nar
6 - mùg
7 - stran
8 - wa
9 - lu
10 - vub
Hundred - tho
Thousand - bartin

Derivational morphology

Adjective → adverb = Suffix -osh
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -und
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Prefix a-
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = Prefix u-
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Prefix ly-
Noun to verb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -c
Else: Suffix -ec
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -u
Tending to = Suffix -ynm
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -er
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -qthe
Else: Suffix -aqthe
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = If starts with vowel: Prefix k-
Else: Prefix ka-
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = Prefix ky-
Diminutive = Suffix -onm
Augmentative = If ends with vowel: Suffix -l
Else: Suffix -al

Dictionary

3063 Words.

Spoken by

• Olna-nen
• Olnic