Lexicon

The Lexicon

Everything about the languages of Nuitai, in one place: how each one sounds, how it is spelled, and its words. It is canon as data, like the rest of the register, and the website shows it as its own section, apart from the wiki. The things a player can find or carry are not here: they are the item glossary,.

Every people and its language

Every people has a language. A gap here is a goal, not an oversight.

Two scripts are planned: the Bandhasa script has a page of its own, waiting, The Bandhasa script, and Stone Speech is in its own file.

Elsewhere, and kept there because a tool reads them:

Every name with an article, in all nine accents with IPA, is in Register: Pronunciation.

Rules for every language

A speaker uses their own pronunciation. In dialogue, and in any quote, a word is spelled the way the speaker's accent says it: Kailo says Nuikai, Tawiri says Tawiri and Kailo calls her Kawili. Narration, menus, the codex and the wiki use the default spelling below. In the game every keyword is highlighted and opens its codex entry, so a player who reads Nuikai lands on Nuitai.

English up front. A name that describes something has an English name, used as the wiki's title and in dialogue, with the in-world name beside it: the Fire Islands, Velafi. A name that only names, a person, a god, Nuitai, keeps its own name. Each people may call a thing by a word of its own, which goes in that region's cell of the pronunciation register.

Name order

Two orders, split east and west.

Bandari go by their family name. The given name is for close friends only: Damar, Karvara and Asap to everyone else; Jago, Citra and Setia to the few close to them.

Easterners go by their given name, the first of their two names. A Bandari speaking to or about an easterner still uses the family name, out of habit.

It follows the record-keeping rather than the ethnicity. Nuitagata genealogies are sung, and a chant names the person and then traces backward, so the person comes first. Bandari genealogies are filed, and a temple register sorts by household, so the household comes first.

A person raised outside the culture they were born to uses the order of the culture that raised them, which makes name order a tell. See Kiki and the Penyamun Agent.

Nuitai'lo, the island language

The language of the islanders, the Nuitagata, from Māla Iki around the arc to Matua. It has three accents, one per region: the east, Velafi and Matua.

Sounds

Phonology rule. Nuitai'lo is strictly consonant–vowel: every syllable is one consonant and one vowel, and consonant clusters do not exist. Kawaki, toguma, ahimahana. Any new word has to obey this. Bandhasa does not.

Dialect rule. Nuitai'lo has three accents. The rule touches every word unless an exception is written down here with its reason.

The Velafi g is said "ng": Leilagi sounds like "Leilangi."

An h is always said. Every h in Nuitai'lo is an old f or an old s, and it is pronounced in the east and in Matua. The Velafi turn it back into f or s, set word by word: Afi, Pōfatu, Sina. An undecided word keeps its h until someone picks. Matua's wh is also set word by word; ahi and pōhatu keep their h.

The catch. A k that was once a t becomes a t outside the east. A k that was always a k becomes a catch, written ', in the east and Velafi, and stays k in Matua: Pua'a, Matua Puaka; Mo'ahi, Matua Mokoahi. Words spelled with k by default that always had one: Mokomoko, Pekapeka, ika, Kiki. Their accent forms are Mo'omo'o, Pe'ape'a, i'a, 'I'i; the default spellings stay.

How the island accents bend a foreign word:

• All three island accents: a syllable cannot end on a consonant, so a vowel slips in after it, a copy of the vowel before (Kenpō is Kenepō), and ky is said ki.
• East: g, d, j and ch said k; s said h; r said l. Velafi: k, g and d said t; j and ch said s; w said v; r said l. Its polite speech turns k into t, so a foreign k gets tidied the same way. Matua: g said k, d said t, j, ch and s said h; it keeps its k.

Spelling

The official spelling is the home region's. Menus, the wiki and all text outside dialogue use one spelling per word: the one used by the region the person, god or thing belongs to. A character's official name is how they say it themselves. Lanu's family is spelled the eastern way, Mauga's the Velafi way, Moanatu's the Matua way. In the grid below, ★ marks the home region. The whole repo was renamed to match on 2026-10-09; generated images keep whatever they show.

The one exception, with its reason: Nuitai is the world's and the game's name, because it is the familiar one. (Two of the three accents say Nuitai as well.)

A word with no home, shared by everyone, keeps its written spelling until I picks one.

The old-names exception is gone. Nuitai, Marama, N'garo and Tokelau follow the accents like every other word: an easterner says Nuikai. Their written spellings stay as they are.

Olola. She is a Velafi and says Olola, so that is her name. Only Matua speakers say Orora.

Words by speaker. ★ is the home region. "shared" means no single home.

• Each element name is the spelling two of the three accents share. Nobody ruled this; it is how the six came out.
• -gata is an old ngata. So the east says -naka and Matua says -ngata.
• Maita holds up: its k was once a t.
• Floated, not ruled: Tawiri's accent turns Kiki into Titi, which also means aunt.
• Leilagi, Lelua and Mauga are Velafi words.
• Velafi is vela, hot, plus afi, fire. Vela- is also an adjective, "from Velafi": a velamelon.
• Peoples are named like their places: the Lanuloa, the Velafi, the Matua. No -ans, and never -gata, which is for races.
• Read a word's history, not its spelling. Eastern spellings hide old sounds: an eastern l was almost always an old r, and an eastern k was almost always an old t. The old spelling Aku hid an ata, and Halabena comes from ara, so both change in Matua. A word that always had a k keeps it, as above.
• Lanu comes from the word for colour, Samoan lanu. Its Matua form is not decided; Ranu is a guess.
• Bandari, Kame and other foreign names are not on this grid yet, except the two islander words for Bandar and the Bandari.

Renamed 2026-10-03. Māra Iti is written Māla Iki and the faith Māra is Māla: an eastern place and an eastern faith, written the eastern way. It still means "Little Garden". The sun god is La Lanu and Shaka's title is La'gata. Matua says Māra Iti, Ra Lanu and Ra'gata.

The word behind the Light element is La. It used to be labeled Ra so it would not be misread as Lau. Ra is now only Matua's way of saying it. The elements themselves go by English names outside the story: Fire, Nature, Water, Light, Shadow and Spirit, drawn from the words in the table above. Elements are always shown with their color and icon.

Roots

Compounds

Names and proper nouns

Everyday words

Said in the speaker's own accent even when the rest of the line is English. Each accent uses its real model's word, so a greeting tells the player where someone is from.

Real words: Hawaiian, Samoan and Māori. In Māori kia ora is also thanks; ngā mihi is used here so hello and thanks stay apart.

Boats

Food

Foods have their own list: Food, the website's Food page.

Notes

• Halabena does not appear in any current article. It should. The religion is referred to only as "the Teachings of Shaka." Halabena is what islanders call it; what the Bandari call it is not decided.

Unassigned roots

Collected and never used. Free for new names:

Ahi'Māra ("magic flame of life") · Waira ("water-light") · Māwai ("magic water") · Ra'wai ("water of life") · Mākua'wai ("magic of ancestral waters") · Lanira ("sky-light") · Roa (long, tall, distant, enduring) · Lā'au (plants, vegetation) · lapa'au (to treat, heal, cure)

The setting has no word for its own healing tradition. See the healing gap in Register: Pantheon.

Bandhasa, the Bandari language

The language of the Bandari, who came from Bandar in the far west and founded Kota Emas. A Bandari name is usually the plain word for the thing: Sarjana is scholar, Matahari is sun, Kota Emas is golden city. Bandhasa allows final consonants and clusters, which Nuitai'lo does not.

Bandhasa's four dialects

Bandhasa is spelled one way everywhere, the Kota Emas way, and each dialect changes only how it is said. Bandhasa allows final consonants and clusters (Silat, Bandar); Nuitai'lo does not.

The final o is the Sarpic tell: a northerner is known by it. The pirate accent is known by its collapsed vowels.

How Bandhasa bends a foreign word:

• Bandhasa: long vowels said short, ky said kiy. Then each dialect's own rule: the north says a final a as o, the south drops h, says a final ai as e and n before p as m, and the Bayang say e as i and o as u, which makes them sound like the Kame.

Words

A word from the old Sarpic faith of the north is marked Sarpic. Names of people and gods are in the pronunciation register.

Still to name: the sarimanok's real name, and an in-world word for the Luminary.

Everyday words

Said in Bandhasa even when the rest of the line is English. Each dialect bends them by its own rules: the south drops the h, the Bayang Seas say tirima kasi.

Real words: Malay and Indonesian.

Food

Foods have their own list: Food, the website's Food page.

The script

Its own page: The Bandhasa script.

The Bandhasa script

The Bandari's writing, kept for when it is designed. To start with it is a cipher: one symbol per letter of the alphabet. The islanders write Nuitai'lo in it too, though it fits their sounds badly. Nothing is drawn yet.

What it looks like

Curvy flowing letters punctuated by loops. The rest is not decided.

The letters

Numbers

Not decided.

Malalo, the Ikagata language

Malalo is the common language of the Ikagata, the squid folk and their kin under the sea, and on the surface it is unintelligible. Its sister on the surface is Kamego, the Kame language (Kamego); how the two relate is open.

Sounds

How the Ikagata bend a foreign word:

• Ikagata, bending an island or Bandari word: no l, so r, a tap; every vowel its own beat (Kailo is Ka-i-ro). The Kame start from that and add their own vowels: Keeru. Neither stresses a syllable, so their IPA has no stress mark.

Words

Everyday words

Said in Malalo even when the rest of the line is English.

Real words: Japanese.

Kamego, the Kame language

Kamego is the language of the Kame, the turtle people of the Kame Kingdom. It has open vowels, an even flow of syllables and layers of politeness in its grammar. Kaerugo, the toad folk's language, is its sister (Kaerugo). How Kamego relates to Malalo is open.

Sounds

The Kame have three short vowels: they say e as i and o as u, and an old ki or gi as chi or ji. The world learned Kame names through the Ikagata, so the base form of a Kame name is the Ikagata one, and everyone else says that base in their own accent. The official spelling is the base: Gen'emon, who says Gin'imun; Kirasame Ren says Gen'emon.

How the Kame bend a foreign word:

• Kame: e said i, o said u, a long ō said uu, ai and ae said ee, an old ki said chi and gi said ji. A ke that becomes ki stays ki.

Kame words in every accent

Kame words in every accent. Everyone outside the Kame Kingdom starts from the base, the way the Ikagata say it, and bends it to their own accent. Nearly the whole world says Kame, only the Kame say Kami, and the joke needs Kame. The player learns Wai'Kenpō first, so when the Kame say Wee'Kinpuu in their own dialogue, it is a cute accent on a word they already know.

Words

Everyday words

Said in Kamego even when the rest of the line is English.

Real words: Okinawan. The three gaps wait on a check of the real Okinawan words.

Food

Foods have their own list: Food, the website's Food page.

Notes

• Ki is the Kame word for Mana. Scholars treat it as a regional expression of the same Anuic concept. In the old bestiary, "Ki" was also used for the nature element now called Nature; that usage is dead.

Kaerugo, the toad folk's language

Kaerugo is the language of the Kaerujin, the toad folk, most of whom live in the Kame Kingdom. It is a sister language of Kamego: the same open vowels, the same steady flow of syllables and the same layers of politeness, broken by deep, slow, throaty croaks. No words yet.

Rana'lo, the frog folk's language

Rana'lo is the language of the Ranagata, the frog folk who live among the islanders and follow Anúa as devotees of Lanu. It is fast, high-pitched and tonal, and hard for outsiders to learn.

Nothing else is written yet: no sound rules, no words. Its name follows the island pattern, -'lo for speech, as in Nuitai'lo.

The Umigame language

The language of the Umigame, the sea-dwelling turtle folk, one of the Ka'egata. It has no name yet.

Sounds

Clicks, chirps, grunts, groans, croaks and hisses, the sounds turtles make. Much of it is low, near the bottom of human hearing, and some of it carries only underwater. Posture and movement are part of it.

To a sailor it sounds like animal noise, so most people never think it is a language, and those who try find it extremely hard to learn. Someone who answers an Umigame in its own tongue is a shock to everyone watching.

Words

None yet.

Pekapeka'ro, the bat people's language

The language of the Pekapeka, the bat people of Matua, one of the Ka'egata.

The name. Pekapeka'ro is "bat speech" in the Matua accent, -'lo for speech as in Nuitai'lo, said -'ro in Matua. It is the islanders' name, and everyone else took it from them. The Pekapeka have a name of their own for their language, but it is sung too high for anyone else to hear, so nobody outside a roost knows it.

Sounds

It is sung. A Pekapeka speaks in song, and most of each song is too high for a person to hear. What reaches human ears is only the bottom of it: soft clicks, hums and the rhythm of wingbeats. The rest passes over the listener's head.

Ears and wings move with the song, and an outsider reads them to fill in what they cannot hear. A Nuitagata or a Bandari who speaks Pekapeka has learned half a language by ear and guessed the other half by eye, which is why it is thought such a feat. The Pekapeka, who hear a voice under every voice all their lives, read tone and intention in others better than anyone.

Words

None yet.

Mokomoko'lo, the lizard folk's language

The language of the Mokomoko, the frilled lizard artisans of Velafi, one of the Ka'egata.

The name. Mokomoko'lo is "lizard folk speech", -'lo for speech as in Nuitai'lo. In Velafi, where they live, it is said Mo'omo'o'lo.

How it is spoken

It is watched, not heard. The Mokomoko speak with the frill, the head and the tail, and the only sound in it is the odd hiss. The frill carries most of it: how far it opens, how fast, and which way it tilts are the words. Head bobs and the set of the tail add to them.

A person has no frill, which is why speaking it is a feat. A Velafi islander who learns it answers with a hand fan, opening it, snapping it shut and tilting it the way a frill moves. Velafi's fire dancers, who already speak with their hands, take to it more easily than most.

Words

None yet.

Geram, the Nagas' language

The language of the Nagas, the cobra people of the Matahari Atoll's caves and the sewers of Kota Emas, the dangerous Ka'egata.

The name. Geram is Bandhasa for a growl, and for fury. It is the Bandari's name, since they live closest to the Nagas and the growl out of the dark is all they ever hear of it.

How it is spoken

It is growled, and heard through stone. A naga speaks in a low growl from deep in the chest, and listens with its jaw pressed to the rock: the words come to it through the cave floor or the sewer wall, not the air.

That makes it hard on outsiders twice over. A speaker has to growl low enough to carry, and has to put an ear to the ground to hear the answer, which is the last place anyone wants their head near a cobra.

It is also why so few who meet the Nagas survive. In the caves and the sewers every footstep runs through the stone, and the Nagas hear a stranger coming long before they are seen.

Words

None yet.

Samego, the Manogata's language

The language of the Manogata, the tiger shark people, the dangerous Ka'egata of the open sea.

The name. Samego is "shark speech": Malalo same, shark, and -go, language, as in Kamego and Kaerugo. It is the Ikagata's name, since they are the only people who have heard it up close, and it sounds uncomfortably like an ordinary Malalo word.

How it sounds

A cousin of Malalo, the Ikagata's language, since the Manogata are Ikagata themselves. It sounds like Malalo distorted: clipped and harsh, with the snap of teeth between the words. An Ikagata can almost follow it and never quite does, which is the most frightening thing an Ikagata can hear in the sea: their own tongue, spoken back by something that wants to eat them.

No surface person has learned it. The only people who could get close enough to try are the Ikagata, and they keep their distance.

Words

None yet.

Stone Speech, the Lanigata glyphs

Pōlélo, stone speech (pō, stone, plus lelo, speech), is the glyph writing of the Lanigata, the sky people who vanished ten thousand years ago. Carved into stone, the glyphs bind Mana inside it, which is what makes the Pōhaku move. The player learns to carve them to open doors and move platforms. It is their whole language: glyphs and symbols only. Nobody will ever know what it sounded like, and no sound is ever given to it.

The script. To start with it is a cipher: one symbol per letter of the alphabet. Not drawn yet.

Whether the Ikagata, who live among the drowned glyphs, can read it is open (, the Ikagata entry).