INTRODUCTION TO NATAKI GRAMMAR
Fekako kiNatak si Temofu

The extinct language Nataki dates from long before the time of Surak. It is a puzzle to the Vulcan linguists who study it, because it appears unrelated to any other Vulcan language of the past or present. It has been theorized that an unknown alien race may have had contact with the speakers of Nataki and gave them their language. The Natak people lived far north of Gol and there are few surviving records of them. Their entire culture died out in a massive volcanic eruption reminiscent of the disaster on Earth that buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Archeological digs have provided most of the information known. Fortunately, a Rosetta Stone-like cave inscription had a long passage in both Nataki and Old Planar Golic which unlocked their language. The recovered artifacts of the Natak culture have been preserved at the Vulcan Science Academy.

Grammar Fundamentals

Nataki was not a "true" compounding language like the Golic family of languages, although words can be combined to make new words in a unique form to Vulcan. (More on this in the section on nouns.)

Nataki used a system of phonetic characters instead of an alphabet, similar to some very ancient Vulcan languages, Japanese katakana or Ancient Egyptian heiroglyphs.

One of the only similarities to the Golic family of languages is that Nataki was an affixing language. Prefixes and suffixes are added directly to words to modify them. Unlike many Golic languages, there were no punctuation marks separating them from the root word. In Nataki, nearly all words corresponding to prepositions are prefixes.

Unlike the Golic family of languages, Nataki uses "infixes" to modify words for negation (similar to Turkish on Earth) and tenses.

There are no "true" adjectives or adverbs in Nataki, unlike most other languages on Vulcan. The idea of modifying a noun or verb was handled differently. (More on this below.)

Finally, Nataki is a "syntactic language", meaning sentence construction and word order can determine shades of meaning.

Prefixes & Suffixes

See the charts on the Nataki Affixes Page at the link below for examples of various grammatical and modifying prefixes and suffixes.



Nouns

Nataki nouns are generally simple and rarely more than four syllables long. To form a word analogous to the compound words of Golic languages, the Natak used the small word "ru" between the root words. For example, what in TGV/MGV would be nesh-kur-savas (blackfruit) was muku ru kova in Nataki. Vulcans consider the "ru" to be something like a "semi-and" because it is almost a conjunction.

Adjectives

There are no true adjectives in Nataki, although they had a grammatical form that carried out this function. The Natak used the small word "si" to turn the word before it functionally into an adjective. For example, what in TGV/MGV would be pla-kur dukal (a blue ball) was sha si vunu in Nataki. "Sha" literally means "something that is blue" and following it with "si" then modifies the noun that follows.

Adverbs

There are no true adverbs in Nataki, although they had a grammatical form that carried out this function. The Natak used the small word "la" to turn the word before it functionally into an adverb. For example, what in TGV/MGV would be hal-tor sahris (go quickly) was kwi la zana in Nataki. "Kwi" literally means "something that is quick" and following it with "la" then modifies the verb that follows. Notice that the adverb analog preceeds the verb in Nataki.

Verbs

In the Natak language, the verb had two forms - singular and plural. There was only a single type of verb in this language; no Weak, Irregular Strong or Regular Strong like so many other Vulcan languages of the North. The verb nearly always came at the end of a sentence, except in imperatives.

In all three persons, the singular form for a verb always ended in an "a" sound phonic character like "ba", "ka" or "na".

In all three persons, the plural form for a verb always ended in a "e" sound phonic character like "be", "ke" or "ne".

Nataki had a simple form for the past tense that was formed from the verb using the infix "ri". For example, the Nataki word for "to go" was zana. The past tense of this (went) was zarina.

Nataki also had a simple form for the future tense that was formed from the verb using the infix "so". For example, the Nataki word for "to fall" was veta. The future tense of this (will fall) was vesota.

This use of infixes will be odd to many but practice will teach how easy this is. There were additional verb forms but this introduction will not touch on them.

Determinatives

Nataki had determanitives like other languages - possessive determiners, interrogative determiners, numerals, and quantifiers. It also had several determanitives similar to those used in the Ancient Egyptian of Earth. It had no articles. (More on this at a later date.)

Sentence Order

Sentence order was fairly fixed in Nataki. The verb is almost always placed last in the sentence, although could move for emphasis. Subjects are placed before objects in the sentence. The verb came first when the sentence was a command (imperative.)

Stress

The position of stress fell on the first syllable of a word. Remember not to count prefixes and suffixes when determining stress. The root word was what stress was based on.

Written Language

The Vulcans who spoke Nataki appear to have had only one form of the symbols they used. They lived in a pre-industrial age, so there was no printing. Written, carved, etched or incised characters looked the same.

Alphabet

The Natak did not have a true alphabet. They used a large number of phonetic symbols to record their language. We have transliterated the symbols to make it easier to read for this introduction. The order they considered these to follow is unknown, so we will display them in a list by type.

Ba Be Bi Bo Bu Da De Di Do Du Fa Fe Fi Fo Fu Ga Ge Gi Go Gu Ja Je Ji Jo Ju Ka Ke Ki Ko Ku
Kha Khe Khi Kho Khu La Le Li Lo Lu Ma Me Mi Mo Mu Na Ne Ni No Nu Pa Pe Pi Po Pu Ra Re Ri Ro Ru
Sa Se Si So Su Sha She Shi Sho Shu Ska Ske Ski Sko Sku Ta Te Ti To Tu Tha The Thi Tho Thu
Va Ve Vi Vo Vu Wa We Wi Wo Wu Ya Ye Yi Yo Yu Za Ze Zi Zo Zu Zha Zhe Zhi Zho Zhu

Bak Bek Bik Bok Buk Dak Dek Dik Dok Duk Fak Fek Fik Fok Fuk Gak Gek Gik Gok Guk
Hak Hek Hik Hok Huk Jak Jek Jik Jok Juk Kak Kek Kik Kok Kuk Lak Lek Lik Lok Luk
Mak Mek Mik Mok Muk Nak Nek Nik Nok Nuk Pak Pek Pik Pok Puk Rak Rek Rik Rok Ruk
Sak Sek Sik Sok Suk Tak Tek Tik Tok Tuk Thak Thek Thik Thok Thuk Vak Vek Vik Vok Vuk
Wak Wek Wik Wok Wuk Yak Yek Yik Yok Yuk Zak Zek Zik Zok Zuk Zhak Zhek Zhik Zhok Zhuk

Ban Ben Bin Bon Bun Dan Den Din Don Dun Fan Fen Fin Fon Fun Gan Gen Gin Gon Gun
Han Hen Hin Hon Hun Jan Jen Jin Jon Jun Kan Ken Kin Kon Kun Lan Len Lin Lon Lun
Man Men Min Mon Mun Nan Nen Nin Non Nun Pan Pen Pin Pon Pun Ran Ren Rin Ron Run
San Sen Sin Son Sun Tan Ten Tin Ton Tun Than Then Thin Thon Thun Van Ven Vin Von Vun
Wan Wen Win Won Wun Yan Yen Yin Yon Yun Zan Zen Zin Zon Zun Zhan Zhen Zhin Zhon Zhun

Bat Bet Bit Bot But Dat Det Dit Dot Dut Fat Fet Fit Fot Fut Gat Get Git Got Gut
Hat Het Hit Hot Hut Jat Jet Jit Jot Jut Kat Ket Kit Kot Kut Lat Let Lit Lot Lut
Mat Met Mit Mot Mut Nat Net Nit Not Nut Pat Pet Pit Pot Put Rat Ret Rit Rot Rut
Sat Set Sit Sot Sut Tat Tet Tit Tot Tut That Thet Thit Thot Thut Vat Vet Vit Vot Vut
Wat Wet Wit Wot Wut Yat Yet Yit Yot Yut Zat Zet Zit Zot Zut Zhat Zhet Zhit Zhot Zhut

Ak Ek Ik Ok Uk Am Em Im Om Um An En In On Un As Es Is Os Us At Et It Ot Ut

Pronunciation
See Language Lesson 1 for information on pronunciation of TGV and MGV, which is essentially the same as for Nataki. Just remember "J" is pronounced as "Dzh".

Articles

There were no definite or indefinite articles in Nataki. For example, the word "vunu" can mean "ball", "a ball" or "the ball". This may be confusing to many non-Vulcans but articles are not really necessary.

Plurals

Plurals are often understood through context or by the use of pluralizing words, such as a number. In those cases, the word does not change its form. Two forms of a pluralizing direct suffix, (~an) after consonant sounds and (~tan) after vowel sounds, exist in Nataki, analogous to the "~s" of FSE.

Interrogatives

Although many Federation languages have interrogative symbols, Nataki did not -- there is no question mark. "Yes or No" questions are formed by using the word "nu" at the very end of the sentence. Other questions are formed by using a questioning word like "ro" (where) at the end of the sentence. To aid offworlders with the language, though, a question mark is often used in transliterated Vulcan languages.

Punctuation

There were no punctuation marks in Nataki. Added space was put between sentences to separate the thought. All other places were punctuation would have existed in other languages was understood.

Golic Family Linguistic Map



Linguistic family tree of "Northern Hemisphere" languages on Vulcan,
concentrating on Golic and its relatives. Languages in italics are the
surviving languages still in use on Vulcan. Historical dates are not
available for most of the languages, due to loss of records caused by
warfare and natural disasters over the millennia. Several other
languages are known to have existed but information no longer
exists on them. Nataki goes under the Other Northern Non-Golic
Languages, although it may have an alien origin.


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