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A Grammar of Nokh

Introduction

Scope and Purpose

This grammar provides a systematic description of the Nokh language (the 309th one produced by the Language Creator), outlining its sound system, word formation and syntactic structure, with the aim of presenting a coherent account of the language as an integrated whole. Attention has been paid to both regular patterns and minor irregularities, as these together define the internal balance of the language.

The grammar is accompanied by a bilingual dictionary and a collection of illustrative texts, offering material for further study and comparison. The examples have been selected to demonstrate typical constructions and to give a sense of the language in extended use. The description is intended as a reference work for linguists and language enthusiasts alike, and as a foundation for any future research, teaching or creative adaptation of Nokh.

Typological Profile

It has a complete lack of sibilant consonants and postpositions.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Consonants

Nokh has 23 consonant phonemes, a size that falls within a broadly average range.

It has a complete lack of sibilant consonants and a modest (but clearly contrastive) set of labialised consonants.

The table below presents the full inventory of consonant phonemes in Nokh. The chart lists all places and manners of articulation attested in the language.

labialalveolarpostalveolarlateralpalatalvelarlab. velarglottal
stopp b d t k ɡ kʷ ɡʷ
nasalm n ɲ ŋ ŋʷ
trill/tap/flapr
fricativef x xʷ h
approximantw l j
affricatet͡ʃ

Vowels

Nokh has 9 vowel qualities, forming a relatively large inventory. The system distinguishes several vowel categories, as indicated in the chart, offering a wide range of vocalic contrasts.

It has front rounded vowels (these are cross-linguistically relatively uncommon, but occur in a number of well-known languages, including French, German, Turkish and Mandarin).

The table below presents the full inventory of vowel phonemes in Nokh. The system comprises the distinct vowel qualities listed in the chart.

front unroundedfront roundedcentralback
closei y u
mide ø o
opena

Stress and Tones

Nokh has neither phonemic stress nor lexical tone. Prosodic prominence and pitch variation are determined by pragmatic and discourse factors rather than by lexical contrasts.

Phonological Processes

Vowel Harmony

The language employs vowel harmony. To be specific, the following vowels change to match the first vowel of the root: /u/ becomes /y/, /o/ becomes /ø/.

Writing System

Introduction

Nokh is an unwritten language. For that reason, all examples in this grammar are given exclusively in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which offers a precise and widely recognised means of recording its sounds.

Orthography

Nokhis an unwritten language, so it does not make any sense to discuss its orthography.

Word Classes and Morphology

Number and Gender

Number

Nokh does not have grammatical number.

Gender

Nokh has the following genders:

Gender masc – for instance: biɡ ‘earth’, dadøp ‘machine’, daib ‘bed’, daɡʷiɡʷ ‘mammal’, dedih ‘money’, hikip ‘brick’, hil ‘colour’, jaw ‘water’, jebykʷ ‘mouse’, jex ‘boy’, mider ‘umbrella’, peb ‘animal’, teŋøt͡ʃ ‘wild boar’, tyt ‘sound’, xʷiŋʷ ‘table’, ŋatab ‘restaurant’, ŋekʷ ‘house’, ɡabyl ‘rope’, ɡaw ‘man’, ɡʷaɡuj ‘lion’.

Gender fem – for instance: bafot͡ʃ ‘cloud’, bam ‘north’, fit͡ʃokʷ ‘river’, fiw ‘year’, fiɡ ‘moon’, fuj ‘speech’, hijauj ‘penis’, hiroxʷ ‘ice’, jakʷom ‘fat’, kexʷ ‘people’, kofaɲ ‘tail’, latyb ‘embrace’, løl ‘mother’, noŋ ‘bone’, pan ‘friend’, tad ‘time’, taxʷ ‘day’, wat͡ʃ ‘woman’, xʷyj ‘sky’, ɡʷøm ‘night’.

Gender neut – for instance: bexʷ ‘bad’, dopat͡ʃ ‘salt’, famoɡʷ ‘smoke’, faup ‘surface’, fip ‘white’, haɡ ‘idea’, keŋʷ ‘sharp’, noxʷ ‘other’, tepikʷ ‘dialect’, toŋeb ‘thick’, t͡ʃixok ‘apple’, t͡ʃuh ‘full’, wøj ‘good’, xʷeb ‘rotten’, xʷij ‘foot’, ŋat ‘back’, ŋeɲ ‘tongue’, ŋyxʷ ‘many’, ɲib ‘stone’, ɲirir ‘straight’.

The Nominal Phrase

Nominal phrases in Nokh can be exemplified by the following example:

[wat͡ʃuna haxuna tufo ju xo jebykʷyti ɡy teluna paido fu]

wat͡ʃ
woman -una
no.owner.POSS hax
knife -una
no.owner.POSS tufo
COMIT ju
ACC xo
three jebykʷ
mouse -yti
3.neut.POSS ɡy
yon tel
blind -una
no.owner.POSS pai
catch -do
PAST fu
3.fem.SUBJ

“The woman with the knife caught those three blind mice.”

 (1)

In the following, we shall look at the various components in more details.

There is one type of clitic in the nominal phrase, namely a proclitic (placed initially), expressing case. a clitic expressing case, comprising ju ‘ACC’, ke ‘GEN’, ko ‘DAT’, li ‘INS’, t͡ʃa ‘VOC’, fo ‘ALL’, wo ‘LOC’, t͡ʃu ‘ABL’ and le ‘PART’.

The morphology of the elements of the nominal phrase, i.e., nouns, adjectives, numerals and pronouns, is described below, as is the way that possession is expressed in Nokh.

The Noun

The noun in Nokh consists of the root followed by an obligatory suffix expressing possessor, comprising -iɡi ‘1incl’, -ili ‘1excl’, -ila ‘2’, -eno ‘3.masc’, -aka ‘3.fem’, -uti ‘3.neut’ and -una ‘no.owner’.

The noun displays the following derivational morphology: 11 suffixes, namely -oɡ ‘little’, -eɡ ‘big’, -ot͡ʃ ‘old’, -ep ‘new’, -iw ‘good’, -ax ‘bad’, -aba ‘have’, -afi ‘use’, -epa ‘see’, -ebi ‘make’ and -iɡu ‘break’

The Adjective

In Nokh, the adjective has the following structure: the root followed by an obligatory suffix expressing gender, comprising -a ‘masc’, -u ‘fem’ and -u ‘neut’.

Numerals

The numeral in Nokh stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

Determiners

The determiner in Nokh stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

Pronouns

The pronoun in Nokh stands alone without any prefixes or suffixes attached to it.

In Nokh, subject pronouns (but not object pronouns ones) are dropped unless they are stressed. Here is an example where neither of the pronouns are stressed:

[ju fu ny]

ju
ACC fu
3.fem ny
love

“He (the boy) loves her (the girl).”

 (2)

But here, the word corresponding to he (i.e., the subject) is stressed:

[kʷai ju fu ny]

kʷai
3.masc ju
ACC fu
3.fem ny
love

“He loves her.”

 (3)

Proper Nouns

[dotaɡʷuna ju datømyna ɡodapa]

dotaɡʷ
Dotag -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC datøm
Datoem -yna
no.owner.POSS ɡodapa
hate

“Dotag hates Datoem.”

 (4)

Possession

[t͡ʃixokeno jexuna]

t͡ʃixok
apple -eno
3.masc.POSS jex
boy -una
no.owner.POSS

“the boy’s apple”

 (5)

[t͡ʃixokeno kʷai]

t͡ʃixok
apple -eno
3.masc.POSS kʷai
3.masc

“his (the boy’s) apple”

 (6)

[t͡ʃixokili]

t͡ʃixok
apple -ili
1excl.POSS

“my apple”

 (7)

[pileno ŋadaŋʷuna ju tejaka kumurila niɡet͡ʃido fu]

pil
daughter -eno
3.masc.POSS ŋadaŋʷ
hunter -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC tej
son -aka
3.fem.POSS kumur
neighbour -ila
2.POSS niɡet͡ʃi
kiss -do
PAST fu
3.fem.SUBJ

“The hunter’s daughter kissed your neighbour’s son.”

 (8)

Derivation

[nitywyna by]

nityw
lamb -yna
no.owner.POSS by
a

“a lamb”

 (9)

[nitywøɡuna by]

nityw
lamb -øɡ
little -una
no.owner.POSS by
a

“a little lamb”

 (10)

[ju nitywøɡuna by jaido fu]

ju
ACC nityw
lamb -øɡ
little -una
no.owner.POSS by
a jai
have -do
PAST fu
3.fem.SUBJ

“She had a little lamb.”

 (11)

This doesn’t affect all adjectives and verbs. Compare, for instance the previous example with this one, where black and love do not undergo affixation:

[ju nitywyti by wabuna nydø fu]

ju
ACC nityw
lamb -yti
3.neut.POSS by
a wab
black -una
no.owner.POSS ny
love -dø
PAST fu
3.fem.SUBJ

“She loved a black lamb.”

 (12)

Compounding

Verbs

Inflectional Categories

The verbal phrase clitics in Nokh fall into two categories, proclitics and enclitics: first, a clitic expressing negation, comprising xʷa ‘NEG’; second, a clitic expressing mode, comprising ki ‘imperative’, he ‘conditional’ and tu ‘optative’; third, a clitic expressing voice, comprising pi ‘passive’; fourth, a clitic expressing subj, comprising ri ‘1incl’, t͡ʃo ‘1excl’, tu ‘2’, fu ‘3.fem’ and du ‘3.neut’; and finally, fifth, a clitic expressing question, comprising lu ‘Q’.

In addition, the verb is structured like this: the root followed by an optional suffix expressing ta, comprising -do ‘PAST’.

The verb displays the following derivational morphology: five suffixes, namely -te ‘begin’, -ho ‘stop’, -li ‘continue’, -mi ‘try’ and -ɡo ‘start’

[ju te ny t͡ʃo]

ju
ACC te
2 ny
love t͡ʃo
1excl.SUBJ

“I love you.”

 (13)

Adverbs Minor Classes

Adpositions

There is one type of clitic in the adpositional phrase, namely an enclitic (placed finally), expressing root.

[wo xʷiŋʷuna kʷi]

wo
LOC xʷiŋʷ
table -una
no.owner.POSS kʷi
in_surface

“on the table”

 (14)

[wo nipebuna ki]

wo
LOC nipeb
box -una
no.owner.POSS ki
to_inside

“into the box”

 (15)

[wo tu tufo]

wo
LOC tu
1excl tufo
COMIT

“with me”

 (16)

Syntax

Basic Clause Structure

Constituent Order

Constituent order describes the typical arrangement of the subject (S), verb (V) and object (O) in simple declarative clauses. It is a fundamental parameter in grammatical description and forms one of the clearest ways of characterising the overall structure of a language’s clause system.

Nokh has basic Subject–Object–Verb (SOV) word order. The subject precedes the object, and the verb appears at the end of the clause. This is one of the most frequent patterns cross-linguistically.

The following examples illustrate the basic, unmarked, constituent order in Nokh.

[doriŋuna ju ŋadaŋʷuna kʷado]

doriŋ
jaguar -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC ŋadaŋʷ
hunter -una
no.owner.POSS kʷa
kill -do
PAST

“The jaguar killed the hunter.”

 (17)

[ɡʷaɡujuna ju makʷaka pileno ŋadaŋʷuna ɡaido]

ɡʷaɡuj
lion -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC makʷ
dog -aka
3.fem.POSS pil
daughter -eno
3.masc.POSS ŋadaŋʷ
hunter -una
no.owner.POSS ɡai
eat -do
PAST

“The lion ate the hunter’s daughter’s dog.”

 (18)

The language has a fixed constituent order, and major phrases normally appear in a predictable position in the clause. Movement for discourse reasons is highly restricted: topics and foci are expressed not by rearranging elements, but through dedicated constructions such as clefts, focus clauses or topic–comment frames. Constituents remain continuous, and both the relative order of phrases and the internal structure of each phrase are stable. As a result, significant deviations from the basic word order are ungrammatical, and discourse structure is managed through these specialised constructions rather than through word-order variation.

Noun Phrases

Structure and Order

The internal structure of noun phrases in Nokh reveals typologically significant preferences in the ordering of nominal constituents. This includes the position of adjectives, numerals, and possessors relative to the noun, each of which can offer clues to the overall headedness of the language.

Possessive constructions are head-initial: the possessed noun precedes the possessor. For instance, Nokh expresses “the child’s toy” with the equivalent of “toy child”. This structure is typologically rarer and often co-occurs with verb-initial syntax or with grammatical marking on the noun.

[diɡehaka paneno tejila]

diɡeh
book -aka
3.fem.POSS pan
friend -eno
3.masc.POSS tej
son -ila
2.POSS

“your son’s friend’s book”

 (19)

Case Marking

Nokh uses nominative–accusative case marking. The subject of an intransitive verb and the subject of a transitive verb are treated alike and take the nominative case, while the object of a transitive verb is marked with the accusative case. This is the familiar pattern from many European languages: the grammar groups together the participants that function as subjects and marks the participant affected by a transitive action separately.

[leluna tai]

lel
cat -una
no.owner.POSS tai
sleep

“The cat is sleeping.”

 (20)

[leluna t͡ʃy]

lel
cat -una
no.owner.POSS t͡ʃy
run

“The cat is running.”

 (21)

[leluna ju jebykʷyna det͡ʃauru]

lel
cat -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC jebykʷ
mouse -yna
no.owner.POSS det͡ʃauru
chase

“The cat is chasing the mouse.”

 (22)

[leluna ju jebykʷyna paido]

lel
cat -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC jebykʷ
mouse -yna
no.owner.POSS pai
catch -do
PAST

“The cat caught the mouse.”

 (23)

Conjunctions

Here is an example of a conjunction.

[ŋadaŋʷuna ju doriŋuna wa ɲarebuna wa ɡʷaɡujuna kʷado]

ŋadaŋʷ
hunter -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC doriŋ
jaguar -una
no.owner.POSS wa
and ɲareb
tiger -una
no.owner.POSS wa
and ɡʷaɡuj
lion -una
no.owner.POSS kʷa
kill -do
PAST

“The hunter killed the jaguars, the tigers and the lions.”

 (24)

Modifiers and Determiners

The ordering of demonstratives, articles (if present), and other modifiers in Nokh provides further insight into the structure of the noun phrase. These elements frequently exhibit fixed positions and may reveal whether the language favours head-initial or head-final patterns.

Complex Sentences

Relative Clauses

Nokh forms relative clauses by using a head-internal strategy. The head noun appears inside the clause itself, occupying its regular syntactic position. The entire clause functions as a modifier, and its external syntactic behaviour is identical to that of a noun-modifying phrase.

To illustrate how relative clauses work, let us begin with a simple sentence:

[ju leluna t͡ʃixʷøɡadø t͡ʃo]

ju
ACC lel
cat -una
no.owner.POSS t͡ʃixʷøɡa
pat -dø
PAST t͡ʃo
1excl.SUBJ

“I patted the cat.”

 (25)

We can now add a relative clause modifying the noun:

[ju leluna ju jebykʷyna paido ŋʷiru t͡ʃixʷøɡadø t͡ʃo]

ju
ACC lel
cat -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC jebykʷ
mouse -yna
no.owner.POSS pai
catch -do
PAST ŋʷiru
COMP t͡ʃixʷøɡa
pat -dø
PAST t͡ʃo
1excl.SUBJ

“I patted the cat that caught the mouse.”

 (26)

Relative clauses may themselves contain other relative clauses:

[ju leluna ju jebykʷyna ju t͡ʃidyɡyna ɡaido ŋʷiru paido ŋʷiru t͡ʃixʷøɡadø t͡ʃo]

ju
ACC lel
cat -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC jebykʷ
mouse -yna
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC t͡ʃidyɡ
cheese -yna
no.owner.POSS ɡai
eat -do
PAST ŋʷiru
COMP pai
catch -do
PAST ŋʷiru
COMP t͡ʃixʷøɡa
pat -dø
PAST t͡ʃo
1excl.SUBJ

“I patted the cat that caught the mouse that ate the cheese.”

 (27)

Finally, here is an example containing several layers of embedding:

[ju leluna ju jebykʷyna ju tu ju t͡ʃidyɡyna taudo t͡ʃo ŋʷiru ɡaido ŋʷiru paido ŋʷiru t͡ʃixʷøɡadø t͡ʃo]

ju
ACC lel
cat -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC jebykʷ
mouse -yna
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC tu
1excl ju
ACC t͡ʃidyɡ
cheese -yna
no.owner.POSS tau
buy -do
PAST t͡ʃo
1excl.SUBJ ŋʷiru
COMP ɡai
eat -do
PAST ŋʷiru
COMP pai
catch -do
PAST ŋʷiru
COMP t͡ʃixʷøɡa
pat -dø
PAST t͡ʃo
1excl.SUBJ

“I patted the cat that caught the mouse that ate the cheese that I bought.”

 (28)

Complementation Strategies

Nokh introduces complement clauses with a dedicated complementiser, similar to English that. The complementiser appears at the beginning of the embedded clause and signals that the clause functions as a syntactic argument. The embedded clause is fully finite and displays the same tense, aspect and agreement patterns as independent clauses.

The following example illustrate how complement clauses function:

[jexuna ko niwuna ju t͡ʃixokuna by fødø ŋʷiru ko xididuna pixʷaɡudo du]

jex
boy -una
no.owner.POSS ko
DAT niw
girl -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC t͡ʃixok
apple -una
no.owner.POSS by
a fø
give -dø
PAST ŋʷiru
COMP ko
DAT xidid
teacher -una
no.owner.POSS pixʷaɡu
surprise -do
PAST du
3.neut.SUBJ

“It surprised the teacher that the boy had given the girl an apple.”

 (29)

Quotes

Nokh expresses quoted or reported speech without a dedicated quotative particle. Quotations appear as ordinary clauses, distinguished only by the surrounding syntactic context or by the use of verbs of speaking.

Here is an example of how quotations are expressed:

[jexuna ko niwuna ju tu ju te ny t͡ʃo ŋʷiru fydø]

jex
boy -una
no.owner.POSS ko
DAT niw
girl -una
no.owner.POSS ju
ACC tu
1excl ju
ACC te
2 ny
love t͡ʃo
1excl.SUBJ ŋʷiru
COMP fy
tell -dø
PAST

“The boy told the girl that he loved her.”

 (30)

How to cite this grammar

Language Creator. 2026. A Grammar of Nokh. Generated by the Language Creator, version 0.91, on 13 June 2026. https://languagecreator.org/grammar/4AAPG

In BibTeX format:

@misc{LC-4AAPG,
  year         = 2026,
  author       = {{Language Creator}},
  title        = {A Grammar of {Nokh}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://languagecreator.org/grammar/4AAPG}},
  note         = {Generated by the Language Creator, version 0.91, on 13 June 2026}
}

Supplementary Materials

A collection of illustrative texts and a bilingual dictionary (English–Nokh / Nokh–English) accompany this grammar. The complete work – comprising the grammar, dictionary and texts – may also be downloaded in ODT or DOCX format.

Readers are encouraged to share observations or corrections via the feedback form. The present page may be accessed directly at:

https://languagecreator.org/grammar/4AAPG

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