The Nelôxi Phrasebook — one language, every coast #
Nelôxi is one language. You are not learning three languages here — you are learning the same grammar and the same modern vocabulary, and swapping in the local courtesy for wherever you happen to be: the Baltic homeland, the Saharan coast, or the river. This phrasebook gives each essential phrase in all three standards side by side. Where a row is marked [all three], it is the shared spine or the shared modern crust — identical everywhere, learn it once.
The three areas you might be travelling in:
| Standard | Where | Capital / hub | Local root-stock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan | the Baltic homeland (Nelôxia) | Kunislinnô, Rīka | the five Baltic quarries |
| Saharannaise | Atlantic Africa — the Saharan coast (Atlanta, Adrāra) | Lāyūna, Daxla | Hassaniya Arabic / Zenaga Berber |
| Congolaise | Atlantic Africa — the river (Soninka & Toro) | Ndar | Pulaar / Soninke / Wolof |
What's shared, what changes. The grammar is identical in every column (same word order, same äb negation, same cases, same dozenal numbers). The modern, international, institutional words are also the same everywhere — the crust — so these need no column:
[all three] taksô taxi · busô bus · jaamô station · piletô ticket · pāsportô passport · otelô hotel · kambôr room · vôtī key · politsī police · arst doctor · farmasī pharmacy · fonô phone · wifī wi-fi · rā money · prēu price · kartô card · klôk o'clock · bidô please · jā / nē yes / no.
Only the human layer — how you greet, thank, and take your leave — changes by area. That layer is what the columns below teach.
1 · Greeting — the first thing you say #
Notice the pattern: the two African coasts both greet with "peace" (Arabic salām, Niger-Congo jam); the Baltic homeland greets like the Hanseatic port it is (moin). Same instinct, three doorways.
| English | Metropolitan | Saharannaise | Congolaise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hello | Moin! | Salām! | Jam! |
| How are you? | Kui sä? | Lābās? | Jam? |
| Fine, and you? | Jôvā, ja sä? | Lābās, ja sä? | Jam. Sä, jam? |
| All well (at home) | Kōt jôvā. | Ahl bxēr. | Wuro jam. |
| Welcome | Velkô! | Marxaba! | Gan velkô! |
2 · The essentials #
| English | Metropolitan | Saharannaise | Congolaise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes / No | jā / nē [all three] | jā / nē | jā / nē |
| Please | bidô [all three] | afak (local) | bidô |
| Thank you | dankô / mersü | barka | jārāma |
| Sorry / excuse me | pardô | smax | yāfo |
| I don't understand | Mä äb saipā. | Mä äb fhəm. | Mä äb faam. |
| Do you speak…? | Sä pakā…? | Sä tkəlləm…? | Sä faam…? |
| Friend | amīk | ṣaxb | giɗo |
3 · How much — money & the market #
Prices everywhere are dozenal (base-12): tri = 3, düna = 12. rā (money) and prēu (price) are shared crust; only the market's name and the haggle change.
| English | Metropolitan | Saharannaise | Congolaise |
|---|---|---|---|
| How much? | Mis prēu? [all three frame] | Mis prēu? | Mis prēu? |
| The market | markôt / turg | sūg | lumo |
| That's too much | Um sūr mult. | Um sūr mult. | Um sūr mult. |
| A bit less, please | Petīt, bidô. | Petīt, afak. | Petīt, bidô. |
| I'll take it | Jā, mä sōv. | Jā, mä sōv. | Jā, mä sōv. |
4 · Where is…? — directions #
kus "where", deret / eskerrē "right / left", prop / kaug "near / far" are shared spine.
| English | Metropolitan | Saharannaise | Congolaise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where is the hotel? | Otelô, kus? [all three] | Otelô, kus? | Otelô, kus? |
| Where is water/a well? | Veç, kus? | Bīr, kus? | Kolon, kus? |
| Right / Left | deret / eskerrē [all three] | deret / eskerrē | deret / eskerrē |
| Near / Far | prop / kaug [all three] | prop / kaug | prop / kaug |
5 · Food & drink #
The crust carries kafē (coffee) and tē (tea) everywhere; the staples change with the land — bread and dates on the desert coast, rice and fish on the river.
| English | Metropolitan | Saharannaise | Congolaise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | veç | aman | ndiyam |
| Coffee / Tea | kafē / tē [all three] | kafē / atāy | kafē / tē |
| Bread | brōt | ġrum | mburu |
| Fish | kalā | xūt | jën |
| The local dish | (kāl-soup) | (gāfila fare: ġrum, tamar, lxam) | cēb ja jën |
| I'd like… | Mä sōv… [all three] | Mä sōv… | Mä sōv… |
| It's very good | Um jôvā sūr. [all three] | Um jôvā sūr. | Um jôvā sūr. |
6 · Trouble & emergencies #
Almost all crust — the words you most need in an emergency are the same on every coast.
| English | Metropolitan | Saharannaise | Congolaise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Help! | Helpô! / Abī! [all three] | Helpô! / Abī! | Helpô! / Abī! |
| I'm ill | Mä um malālt. [all three] | Mä um malālt. | Mä um malālt. |
| I need a doctor | Mä sōv arst. [all three] | Mä sōv arst. | Mä sōv arst. |
| Police! | Politsī! [all three] | Politsī! | Politsī! |
| A pharmacy | farmasī [all three] | farmasī | farmasī |
7 · Farewell #
Again the "peace" pattern on the African coasts (b-slāma, jam-k), the port-town sign-off in the Baltic.
| English | Metropolitan | Saharannaise | Congolaise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goodbye | Moin! / Havs. | Slāma! | Jam-k! |
| Go well / in peace | Lǟdô jôvā. | Lǟdô b-slāma. | Lǟdô jam-k. |
| Regards at home | Kōt-lô, jôvā. | Ahl-lô, slām. | Jam wuro-lô. |
| See you tomorrow | Demā! [all three] | Demā! | Demā! |
The point, in one line #
Everything in the [all three] rows you learn once and use on every Nelôxi coast; only the greeting, the thanks, and the parting change — and even those rhyme (peace for peace) across Atlantic Africa. That is what "one pluricentric language" means in a traveler's mouth: one grammar, one modern vocabulary, three ways of being polite.
The deep, area-specific courses: Congolaise (the river) is ../congolaise/phrasebook.md with the
worked dialogue ../congolaise/dialogue-arrival.md; the Saharan coast draws on ../saharannaise/.
The grammar under all of it is the coursebook (../coursebook/); the shared spine that makes them one
language is ../saharannaise/COMMON-REGISTER.md. Beyond these three coasts there is a fourth
standard: Meralian, the oceanic daughter language of the Meridian States — its comparative chart is
../mare/comparison-chart.md and its port-by-port phrasebook is ../mare/dialects-phrasebook.md.
Note on the local courtesy words #
All three courtesy sets are archived canon. Metropolitan (moin, dankô, mersü, pardô, velkô) is
in the coursebook; Congolaise (jam, jārāma, yāfo, giɗo) is in ../congolaise/ (with jārāma/yāfo/
giɗo from the phrasebook gap-list); Saharannaise (salām, lābās, marxaba, ahlan, afak, barka, xukran,
smax, ṣaxb, slāma, bxēr, fhəm, tkəlləm, yaḷḷa, inxāllah) is now archived in
../saharannaise/lexicon-F-courtesy-greeting-travel.md — the greeting layer the Atlanta batches had
not yet formalized, surfaced by this phrasebook and formally coined by the Kēļs Dīwān from Hassaniya
through the Saharannaise phonology (../saharannaise/COMMON-REGISTER.md §2). Nothing here is pending.