Nitriolium Sign Language is the official sign language used in the Nitriolium Empire. It is primarily used by the higher classes among themselves and their servants. With their faces covered and their emphasis on stoicism, NSL is used just as much as, if not more than, spoken Nitriolium.
1.1 Signing in Nitriolium Sign Language uses both hands and the area around your torso and head. It is often very sharp in its movements and very to-the-point in meaning.
1.2 Unlike most real-life sign languages, NSL does not use facial expressions to further meaning due to most users’ faces being covered by a mask.
Instead, if one wants to further meaning, NSL will use head nods and tilts, bows, and other visual and/or audio cues. (These will be noted with the signs in the dictionary)
Morphology in linguistics is how words are formed and any suffixes or prefixes that attach to them to further meaning.
2.1 The Noun
2.1.1 Noun classes. Due to NSL being a signed language, there is not much morphology in a normal sense. However, spoken Nitriolium has noun classes, which signifies their order in the hierarchy, and therefore, their order in the sentence. (See 3.1 Word Order)
This carries over into the sign language by which order nouns are signed in. Native Nitriolians will already know which nouns come when, but for us, here is a run down of the classes:
| Class I | Remerus | Self explanatory, the King always comes first |
| Class II | Gods, false gods, royalty, certain precious gems/stones |
I.e. Eydís, diamond, Fenrir, obsidian |
| Class III | Nobles, Knights, stones, other gems | I.e. |
| Class IV | Other Nitrolians, most natural objects, parts of the body; the “everything else” class |
I.e. Opal, snow, soil/the earth, food, head, chest |
| Class V | Lowest class Nitrolians; Dangerous objects and phenomena |
I.e. Roi, servant, Eden, sword, snowstorm, earthquake, shepherd |
Table 2.1 Nitriolium Noun Classes
Note: The class of a noun will be written beside it in the dictionary
2.1.2 Names. There are only a few who have a sign for their name: The King, gods, and false gods. All others are referred to by a gesture or a title or honorific sign.
2.1.2.1 Those in equal standing and are somewhat close would probably assign sign names to one another.
2.1.3 Pronouns. There are signs for pronouns, however, most of the time they are dropped and not signed. If they are signed, they will take on the class of the person or thing it is referring to.
2.1.3.1 Correlatives (this, that, what, which, etc.) do not have signs, but some wh- words have auxiliary signs to signify a wh- question (See 3.4 Questions)
2.2 Verbs
2.2.1 Tense. In NSL, tenses are rarely used and are determined from context.
2.2.1.1 If one would like to specify past or future, one would add a time sign after a verb. “Before” for the past, and “After” for the future.
2.2.2 Negation. To negate a verb, one signs “no/not” immediately after the verb.
2.2.2.1 Any adverbs and other verb modifiers are placed after the negation.
3.1 Word Order
3.1.1 Basic word order. The word order of NSL is generally Verb Subject Object, however every word has a place in the sentence hierarchy which determines in which order they come.
3.1.1.1 Nitriolians actually consider the verb, or the action, the most important part of the sentence and therefore verbs always come first.
3.1.1.2 Next come the nouns. As mentioned earlier, nouns come in the order of their class (See 2.1.1 Noun classes); The highest class comes first. Knowing which is the subject or object will often be gathered from context.
3.1.1.2.1 In the case of nouns being the same class, the subject will come first, then the object.
3.1.1.2.2 Even in sentences with indirect objects, the noun with the highest class still comes first. Nouns with the same class will usually be ordered as: subject, direct object, indirect object (This can change depending on what one considers most important).
3.1.1.2.3 Noun clauses. These are dependent clauses (has a subject and verb but is not a complete thought) that take the place of a noun in a sentence. The class of these clauses is determined by the class of its subject.
Example: ‘We thought that Eydís was here’ That Eydís was here is the noun clause and ‘Eydís’ is the subject of that clause. The class of the clause will be the class of Eydís: Class II.
Therefore, this sentence will be signed, “Think Eydís Here (We)”
(notice there is no sign for ‘is’, ‘was’, or any ‘be’ verb)
3.1.1.3 The only exemption to these rules is the king Remerus. Any reference to him will always be first in a clause, even before the verb. [Man’s ego is too big 😔]
3.2 Relative clauses and Modifiers
3.2.1 Relative clauses are dependent clauses that act as an adjective or adverb in a sentence. In NSL, all types of modifiers always go after the thing they modify and are considered of the same class as the thing they modify.
3.2.2 There is [currently] no order for adjectives to go in, however adjectives or adverbs derived from nouns (ie. godly, rocky) are placed in order of their respective noun classes.
Example (adjective clause): ‘Eydís likes the food that Eden makes’ That Eden makes is the adjective clause modifying ‘food’. The sentence would be signed as “Like Eydís Food Make Eydís Servant”.
Example (adverb clause): ‘Eydís eats while Eden braids her hair’ While Eden braids her hair is the adverb clause modifying the verb ‘eats’. This sentence would be signed, “Eat Braid Hair Servant Eydís”.