nyelvig

Nyelvig is a term used in linguistic pedagogy and conlang communities to denote a hypothetical or fictional language system used for analysis and worldbuilding. It serves as a neutral scaffold for illustrating phonology, syntax, and writing in a controlled setting.

There is no single canonical description of Nyelvig. The name functions as a placeholder that authors adapt to fit their needs, whether in classroom exercises, speculative fiction, or online reference wikis. Etymologies are informal and vary by author, with no standardized origin.

Phonology and morphology are typically described in modular sketches. Common Nyelvig inventories include a moderate set of consonants such as p, t, k, s, m, n, l, r, and fricatives like f and h, plus a vowel system of five or seven vowels. Some treatments explore phonemic length or tonal contrasts. Grammars are usually described as analytic or mildly agglutinative, with flexible word order; SVO or SOV orders are both illustrated, and noun phrases may show case markers or postpositions. Verbs may encode tense, aspect, or mood through affixes or clitics.

Writing and usage: Nyelvig is commonly represented with a Latin-based orthography, often augmented with diacritics, though some authors invent scripts or scripts for worldbuilding. It appears in online wikis, linguistic tutorials, and fan-made grammars as a tool to explore how different linguistic systems interact and to demonstrate reconstruction, typology, and language change.

See also constructed language, conlang, phonology, linguistic typology.