Nllä

Nllä is a fictional language created for the world of Nällia, a coastal archipelago featured in novels, games, and online media. In these works, Nllä is the native tongue of the Näll people and a medium for cultural expression across multiple dialects. The language is described as agglutinative with a subject–object–verb word order, relying on suffixes to mark tense, aspect, mood, and evidentiality. Nllä generally uses postpositions rather than prepositions, and adjectives typically precede the nouns they modify.

Phonology is presented as relatively compact, with a consonant inventory that includes p, t, k, m, n, l, s, and h, and vowels a, e, i, o, u. A glottal stop may occur in certain positions, and stress is commonly on the penultimate syllable. Some dialects are said to exhibit partial vowel harmony, causing suffix vowels to align with root vowels in certain environments.

Nll is the name of the native script used for writing Nllä in the fictional setting. The script is a syllabary-like system with around 120 signs, designed to capture the language’s syllable structure, and is often used in manuscripts and in-world signage alongside Latin transliteration.

Etymology and in-world history: The term Nllä is said to derive from a root associated with sea and wind, reflecting the archipelago’s geography. In-universe history describes Nllä developing from contact among coastal trading communities and inland groups, leading to several regional varieties.

Dialects and status: Major dialects include Coastal Nllä, Highland Nllä, and River Nllä, with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility. In the fictional setting, Nllä is taught in schools, used in literature and media, and studied by fans and scholars.