# 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.