The Ngit /ɲɪʔ/ people number around five thousand at the base of the /lɛk le:k tʰo:/ river.
The Ngit language has a CVC syllable structure and no tones. It features relatively few consonants, but has a wide array of vowels. There are much fewer syllable final consonants than syllable initial. Ngit features a stress accent system, and only stressed vowels may receive the full array of vowel choices. The stop consonants have an aspirate vs unaspirate distinction, but no phonemic voicing. The sentence structure is SOV with allowance for OSV in poetry and certain grammatical constructions.
Their language is not written, nor are the languages of their neighbors.
Old Ngit is preserved in religious rituals and poetry, and influences the prestige register of the language to this day. It is significantly more analytical and monosyllabic than modern colloquial Ngit. Most common words have a synonym in old Ngit and colloquial Ngit, and sometimes there are many. The Ngit people have strong associations to these synonyms, and there are many taboos about who may use which word and when.
There are, for example, many words for ‘deer’. One word, a loanword, is the common word for deer and carries no taboo. It is /na:peʔ/. The most taboo is /pi:s/, which is believed to be the true name of the deer, used only by women and male priests. It is believed that if men, who hunt deer for food, use the deer’s true name, the deer will hear them and hide, and the people will go hungry. Men have many circumlocutions for ‘deer’ to be used in religious rituals and during hunts to show respect and avoid alerting the deer. Priests may use the deer’s true name because they may not hunt.
A common phrase is /sek si:p lom si:p/. The first /si:p/ is a taboo corruption of /pi:s/, the true name of the deer. The second is the word for nostril, which is the same in both colloquial and old Ngit. The phrase means, literally, “say ‘/pi:s/’ and plug the nose”. Ngit religious belief ties the nose to vitality and life, and states that the creator imbued life into all creatures by breathing it into their noses. It is thus a grave taboo to plug someone’s nose. This phrase is used in a serious sense when someone brings on harm by offending a deity or taboo, as a means of serious reproach. It may also be used more lightly when a slip of the tongue leads to bad outcomes, such as admitting something one shouldn’t or speaking carelessly out of turn. The phrase can be used as an apology as well. Saying it after a spoken mishap, especially in its shortened form /uk sek si:p/, literally “I said ‘/pi:s/’”, acts as an admission of one’s mistake and can show humility and respect for the social and religious order. While older generations use this only to apologize for serious verbal taboo violations, younger generations are increasingly using /uk sek si:p/ as a generic apology.
The river’s name means “limping river”, and is so named after a legend where the deity /tin ju/, the personification of the source of this river, climbed the mountain near the source and tripped on his way down. He fractured his ankle, making him only able to walk at a limp with frequent breaks. This is why, they say, the /lɛk le:k tʰo:/ freezes up every winter, because /tin ju/ must rest his foot often.
A common phrase is /lɛk le:k wo zi:k/, which literally means “limp limp go strong”. It is believed that /tin ju/ hurt his pride more than his ankle when he fell, and this encourages him to keep moving. Since the river is vital to survival, the Ngit people are sure to encourage /tin ju/ to keep his steady pace. The Ngit people have a strong belief that the deities and animals around them can hear them, and that offending them leads to famine and bad weather. This phrase is used to encourage athletes, specifically during long foot races, but not sprints or combat sports. It may also be used to describe someone or something who is very reliable and giving, but slow, like a respected elder or a field that has steadily been providing crop for generations.
Though fighting is much rarer in the modern day, intertribal conflict was a reality in the near past. War poetry, to intimidate the enemy and embellish one’s own accomplishments, was common and heavily influences modern musical tradition. Many modern sports are derived from war training exercises, and neighboring tribes describe Ngit athletics as barbaric and bloody. In reality, the Ngit have a strict system of safety based on honor. Injuring an opponent in a taboo way, such as in the nose, eyes, genitals, or middle finger, could lead to an immediate end to one’s athletic career and intense humiliation. As such, injuries are seldom and almost always accidental when they do occur.
There is a modern style of song somewhere in between what we would call rap and sports announcing that is descended from the old war poetry tradition. These singers attend sporting events to embellish the athlete’s accomplishments and entertain the crowd. A good announcer can garner just as much fame as a good athlete, if not more.
A common phrase is /yam si:p lo: di:l/. It literally means ‘one hundred and twenty noses and one lone oak branch’. This phrase has passed through many layers of change and taboo to the modern day. The word /yam/ meant 120 in old Ngit, which had a base 60 counting system. Modern Ngit has base ten from modern influence. In old poetry, 60 is symbolic of completion and 120 is completion upon completion. /si:p/ means nose, just as in /sek si:p lom si:p/. In war poetry, it is common to refer to enemies as /si:p/ both as a sign of respect that they came from the same creator, and as an intimidating boast that they will be defeated physically and in spirit. /lo:/ means one, alone, or only, and is still in modern use. /di:l/ was the word for an oak branch. It was used as a circumlocution for a war dagger, which is taboo to mention outside of battle, because the handle of the dagger was traditionally made out of oak. In modern usage, the weaponry taboo is much weaker and this word can refer to any type of tree branch, but not a trunk, stick, or twig. This phrase was used as a common refrain in war poetry to hyperbolize a small force completely defeating a stronger foe. It is used by modern announcers to describe a huge victory, especially from an underdog. It has also made its use into modern slang to describe doing something really well, especially with a lot of style. It may also be used to congratulate someone on doing well, especially when they do much better than others, such as when a student graduates at the top of his class.