Nisipo

Ambiguously Uto-Aztecan: it shares some core vocabulary with Uto-Aztecan languages (particularly Numic and Takic branches) and shows some similarities but is radically different in most ways.

/i ɨ u e o a/

Quite likely derives from a smaller (perhaps /i u ə a/?) vowel system with various vowel sequences merged, occasionally there are certain alternations in the last syllable of a word because of this, for example the last vowel of some nouns changes when compounded with (pre)verbs.

/p t c k kʷ q qʷ      s           h   β ð z ɣ r y w  m n/

At least one dialect merges /c/ and /k/ into /č/ and therefore has no plain velars.


 * A large assortment of variously nominal-like things:
 * Nouns: can be possessed. Some nouns can compound with preverbs and usually have a manner or means meaning (e.g. do with hands, do with eyes) most body parts and some other nouns in this construction have a final vowel alternation. Sometimes nouns are incorporated as objects but it's not productive. Manner/means incorporation is a quite pervasive pattern if not actively productive. Nouns referring to time can often be compounded as well evening+eat ‘eat dinner’ evening+go.out ‘go out in the evening’
 * Preverbs: can occur with a light verb to form verbal complexes. Many nouns can act as preverbs, and preverbs can be zero-derived into action nominalizations, but in some ways they behave differently (preverbs can't be possessed, preverbs can form agent/instrument nominalizations with classifiers)
 * Generic nouns: smaller closed class, have very generic meanings, cannot occur in their own except in certain cases of generic reference. Can compound with a noun for taxonomic purposes (typical with tree, bird, insect, etc names, often occur with determiners to anaphorically reference a full noun. Can also compound with relative clauses. With animate generic nouns generally after the referent has been introduced, specifies the type of thing the person is doing.
 * Classifiers: much like generic nouns (how do they differ?). Can form agent and instrument nominalizations with preverbs, e.g. write+stick(long.thin) ‘pencil’, sit.cross.legged+girl ‘ボクっ娘 but with posture’. Also often occur on loans particularly older loans from Spanish.
 * Formal nouns: these are nouns that only appear with a relative clause (or determiner), a strategy widely used for complementation and subordination (want to, intend to, before, …)
 * Nominalizing and object-extracting nominalizing non-finite verb forms (used in relative clauses as well as kakarimusubi): the object-extracting form is used for object-oriented relative clauses and when a kakarimusubi-triggering focus marker appears on the object
 * Relative clauses can also be "headed" by a classifier (including the (optional) plural and dual morphemes which are more than a bit classifierish)
 * Unified relative and complement clauses
 * Non-volitional/potential form
 * Future modality
 * Tlingit past
 * Aspectual system based on a fundamental perfective/imperfective opposition
 * The secret system of converbs (-ti -tia -ke …)
 * Most (all?) case markers and the topic marker can appear after converbs:
 * -CVB-ABL because X (in general, this marks past cause, i.e. something happened in the past causing something current, for example ‘he is sick from having eaten bad food’, and present cause is marked in other ways, such as the topic marker or the formal noun si ‘state that X is happening’)
 * -CVB-LOC lest X
 * -CVB-ALL in order to X (note that NOM/GEN/ALL are the same)
 * -CVB-PRIV without doing X
 * -CVB-TOP if X, … (for the most part, the apodosis must be a constant, non-volitional or reduced volitional reaction to the protasis: sentences like ‘If you don't leave soon, you'll miss the train’ ‘If it rains, I'll stay here’ – the apodosis is not dependent on the specific situation but on the type of situation described by the protasis, if the protasis happened again the reaction would likely be the same)
 * NOM/GEN syncretism, as well as allative
 * ACC: ACC is optional when the object is in the same intonation unit as the verb. Syncretic with (or perhaps simply homophonous with) prolative
 * LOC/INSTR syncretism: also forms adverbs from some nouns, also marks the stimulus of verbs of fearing or thing being avoided for verbs of avoiding something, or with GEN with the noun ‘fear’ itself night-LOC-GEN fear ‘fear of the dark’
 * DAT (recipient, causee, lots of miscellaneous other uses, quite a few verbs code for it) → the dative is generally zero-marked, probably, but maybe has something to do with animacy, kinship, …
 * COM: has different forms for animate vs inanimate, the animate case in particular varies among dialects both in form and where the animacy line is drawn, it is sometimes restricted to kin only
 * The (inanimate) comitative is somewhat more general than just accompaniment. It can optionally mark instrument in cases where the instrument is used up (for example an ingredient). With verbs of existence it expresses a property of quality of something: this room-NOM dust-COM sit ‘This room is dusty’
 * PRIV
 * ABL
 * COM can form adverbs from preverbs in at least some cases
 * Case-modifying nouns with GEN shore-ALL-GEN man ‘man going to the shore’ me-DAT-GEN letter ‘letter to me’
 * Two benefactive applicatives somewhat akin to くれる・あげる although a bit grammaticalized to agree with the beneficiary (diachronically from words for to give, which they might still resemble)
 * Finite clauses have mood and evidentiality (how evidentiality is coded is probably not a single paradigm) (indicative mood has various forms with various sociolinguistic implications)
 * Headless subject-oriented relative clauses are mid-grammaticalization into a converb
 * Most roles can be easily relativized, notable exception is instruments which require a construction with a converb of ‘to use’
 * Other conditionals
 * a converb which generally expresses less-real conditionals commonly if the result is something the speaker desires: ‘If I was 6ft tall I could find a girlfriend’ Counterfactual conditionals use this converb plus mark the apodosis with the optional past tense ‘If I had stayed here, I could have avoided the rain’
 * this one can also occur with the topic marker, and the combination means something like "suppose that X…"
 * a formal noun meaning something like "case, situation" is used to express conditionals that are dependent on the specific instance of the situation: ‘If it clears up, let's go for a walk.’ This is the most common conditional if it's known that the protasis will happen for sure: ‘When the food is ready, notify me’. Because "dependent on the situation" is a somewhat fuzzy concept the line between this and the -CVB-TOP conditional is not always that clear-cut.
 * concessive conditionals expressed by either -CVB-ADD(itive focus) or -CVB-TOP with the adverb mami ‘anyway’
 * Certain verbal inflections (currently at least -DESID) are basically "preverbalizing" i.e. no more inflections can follow them and they trigger the addition of another light verb

Culture



 * Acorns as a primary staple food (often nixtamalized)
 * Controlled burns to maintain the oak savannah and increase acorn production (village-specific festivals)
 * Salmon is also a highly important food source
 * Posture: quite a lot of postures, sometimes for very specific purposes, that are consciously learned and have various social implications
 * Generally divided between outdoors and indoors
 * Outside the default resting posture regardless of age or gender is to just crouch
 * The default crouch is deep, with the heels on the ground and knees up to the chest and hands rested on on the knees or hugged around the shins, however, a crouch with only the balls of the feet on the ground is also used
 * The Nisi do not have indigenous chairs but on chaired things imported from the Western world it's about a 50/50 tossup whether a Nisi will crouch on it or sit on it western style
 * Legs outstretched in the front or folded to the side is regarded as feminine
 * Legs crossed is generally associated with younger males (up through at least early high school) but girls can do it (at least until they're married) which is socially marked but not necessarily masculine
 * Legs crossed is both an outside and inside posture, however it is somewhat informal, and you wouldn't want to do it when eating a formal meal
 * The posture for eating is seiza, with the knees apart for men
 * However when inspecting something or making arrowheads or other stone tools men sit with the knees closed
 * When eating with other people approximately of their own age, girls may sit with the butt and knees on the ground and the feet out in something like virasana; this is informal
 * The posture for archery is genuflecting but with the ball of the foot of the drawing hand on the ground and the thigh parallel to the ground
 * Postures for weaving with a backstrap loom are approximately similar to eating although less formalized, except when weaving certain types of highly important ceremonial garments; in non-those cases women may weave with the legs stretched out front
 * When standing it is normal to rest the hands on the opposite shoulder, crossing the arms may be seen as somewhat confrontational
 * Only natively domestic animals are dogs and ducks; however multiple breeds of dogs are maintained distinct, including a shaggy dog breed for wool
 * Sophisticated weaving
 * Only plants fully cultivated as crops are sunflowers, squash, Cleome serrulata, and coca an unspecified geographically-appropriate member of the Erythroxylum genus
 * However many root vegetables are partially cultivated (intentionally spread, but not really maintained), including Jerusalem artichoke, Apios americana (or a more western relative), and the sweet potato (word for it related to Eastern Polynesian kumala, as the Polynesians made it to Nisistan although modern historians still somehow doubt this)
 * Tobacco is usually harvested from the wild but again conditions are usually kept favorable to its cultivation
 * The traditional house design is approximately 1.6 times as long as it is wide and is partitioned into four areas following the golden ratio. The largest area is the general living area, the second largest is the kitchen, the second smallest is the sleeping area, and the smallest area is the bath. On larger houses there are lofts on either one or both short ends of the house, which may be used for storage or sleeping.