Nunan

This guide describes the default implementation of Nunan, a framework for constructing optimised inter-lingual auxiliary languages for efficient communication between two speakers of different natural languages.

The default implementation is known as “Nunan” and uses words that are very similar to Spanish, and although it is to be considered a completely different language, it should be easy for the native Spanish speaker to understand and talk.

Namespace

Nunan Is the name for the framework and the default implementation.

Nunan:nnx ¹ is code for the default implementation, referred to as “Nunan” (see above).

Nunan:spa is code for the Spanish implementation of Nunan. It is almost indistinguishable from default Nunan. This is simply because Spanish was chosen as the preferred vocabulary donor when designing the Nunan language framework, you may hear it called Spanan as well as Nunan. This might be construed as a deliberate attempt by the framework to create a discussion topic to generate buzz.

Nunan:eng is code for the English implementation of Nunan and is referred to as Enan.

Nunan:tok is code for the Toki Pona implementation, known as Tokinan. This case is interesting because Toki Pona only has approx 140 words in total. When translating, unmatched words default back to their Nunan values. The 140 Nunan words that match their Toki Pona counterparts are known as Poconunan and act as the entry point for speaking Nunan. Don’t worry if this sounds confusing, it will all become clear.

Flavours

Different implementations are called “flavours”, think of Nunan as vanilla (or plain for the intelligent people who know fine well that vanilla is a perfectly legitimate (some would say premium) flavour in it’s own right). If you are new to Nunan then vanilla is the flavour you want although learning your mother tongue flavour first will help you structure sentences.

Translating between flavours is trivial due to the framework’s one to one mapping of words. New flavours (translations) are easy to create and referenced in the format: Nunan:deu, using ISO 639-3 three letter codes.

Restricted vocabulary

Nunan has 4 scopes (levels of restricted vocabulary):

Poconunan - 150 words to get you started having fun with Nunan and meeting the community.
Nunan - pocoNunan plus 600 words for general conversation.
Nunan-y-[pluginName] - Nunan with a plugin for serious conversation.
Nuvanan - Nunan and all registered plugins, for Nunan ninjas.

Proper nouns are not included in the word count.

Any conversations that include words that are not in the associated scope are not Nunan - Nunan is very strict about containing the vocabulary to the available word lists and in written form the words must be spelt correctly. This is vital for translation into all flavours of Nunan.

Plugins

If Nunies (people who speak Nunan) wish to expand their vocabulary, then they should register a plugin, having first checked to ensure there is not an existing plugin that meets their requirements.

Plugins extend the scope of Nunan to specialist or wider contexts. If Nunan’s vocabulary is insufficient for your needs, simply create a plugin, register it, and distribute it to all your Nunan speaking participants. E.g. gamers can create a plugin for a specific game and discuss complex strategies with their international gaming friends.

Naming format:

• Nunan:nnx:[plugin-name] (Default implementation)
• Nunan:eng:[plugin-name] (English implementation)
• Nunan:deu:[plugin-name] (Norwegian implementation)

This would be the minimum set of flavours required for an English speaker to converse with a German speaker in the specialist area covered by [plugin-name]. The default implementation is always the first definition because the non-Nunan flavours reference the Nunan:nnx definition. If the conversation between the German speaker and English speaker is conducted in either Nunan:eng or Nunan:deu, then only one of the speakers is required to learn vocabulary, however the Nunan way is to converse in Nunan, obviously.

Plugins should not be confused with a new flavor of Nunan (a new translation). Plugin names are unique. Plugins can include other plugins.

Words (letter combinations) within a flavor are unique, so once a word is registered in Nunan as part of a plugin it retains that meaning and cannot be given a new meaning in a new plugin, it can however exist in more than one plugin.

Structure

Structure is loosely based on English grammar.

Each Nunan scope has a finite word pairs. In nnx:eng socpe each Nunan word maps to one English word (composite words are hyphenated).

There are a handful of modifiers and structural rules, but other than that, it’s really just a case of learning the first 150 or so words (Poconunan) and having a go. To get started, keep sentences short and think “caveman talk”. Here’s an example sentence, written in nnx:eng format (which is a bit like inline translation):

mi:me ir:go domir:sleep.

la:the gato:cat es:is negro:black.

mi:me nino:boy poco:little es:is muy:very felis:happy.

mi:me ir:go mi:me casa:house grande:big y:and caminar:walk rapido:fast con:with mi:me perro:dog al:at cinco:five en:in la:the tarde:afternoon.

mi ir mi casa grande y caminar rapido con mi perro al cinco en la tarde.
(previous sentence without inline translation, in Nunan)

Questions are indicated by raising tone, as in Spanish:

tu:you hambriento:hungry?

Every word within a flavor of Nunan must be spelt uniquely, even if it sounds the same as another. The meaning of the word is taken from the default implementation and can usually be inferred from from mother tongue flavour.

perro:dog, pero:but (perro and pero are pronounced the same, but are very different words)

Sentence structure is loosely based on English grammar although descriptors usually come after the noun. The emphasis is on having a go, rather than adherence to grammatical rules - your co-communicator is the best indicator of successful understanding.

Capital letters are only used to identify Proper nouns (names - people, places etc) and these are always pronounced and spelt in their source language and are not included in the Nunan dictionary:

Jane:Jane Espana:Espana, England:England o:or Deutchland:Deutchland

Modifications or additions to source languages may be required to aid framework conformity, eg al:at, where the Spanish word “al” has a modified meaning. It is also the case that some words with multiple meanings in one language may be restricted to a single meaning in Nunan, eg en:in.

Occasionally a new word will be created to fit the framework.

Modifiers (subject to change)

Modifiers are Nunan words that are either appended to the beginning or end of words to change their meaning. Their entry in the dictionary is preceded by a squacketed (surrounded by square brackets) description of their use:

[pasada prefijo]ido:[past prefix]did

[futura prefijo]vana:[future prefix]wil

[plural sufijo]s:[plural suffix]s

[adjectiva sufijo]ora:[adjective suffix]y

When writing Nunan, a dash “-“ is always inserted between the word and the modifier:

para:for ejemplo:example, "ido-ir:wil-go" o:or "vana-caminar:wil-walk"

mi:me ido-arreglar:wil-fix la:the ventana-s:window-s

tu:you vana-limpiar:wil-clean la:the oler-ora:smell-y gato-s:cat-s

Note: the verb oler:smell is treated as a noun because it is preceded by la:the (or una:a) and then modified to adjective by the suffix ora:y

Mother tongue

In the case of Nunan:nnx and Nunan:spa (basically using modified Spanish), the natural Spanish speaker should be able to understand without much effort, although the idea behind Nunan is that both communicators contribute to the goal of understanding each other and therefore actively learning the the language from the Spanish perspective (especially structure and modifiers) will greatly improve efficient communication. At first it will sound awkward and clunky, but it will quickly become smooth, efficient and fun.

1. “nnx” is currently unassigned in the ISO 639-3 standard and it is hoped that Nunan will be added for that code ↩︎