Taðýric
Taðýric is my ongoing effort - one that's been scrapped and reworked a good number of times - to create the most beautiful language possible to my sensibilities. I have developed a keyboard layout for typing the characters used in the written language.
Contents
Phonology
Consonants
| Labial | Labiodental | Dental | Alveolar | Alveopalatal | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p ‹p› | t̪ ‹t›1 | k ‹c›2 | |||||
| Nasal | m ‹m› | n ‹n› | ||||||
| Fricative | f ‹f› | θ ‹ð› | s̪ ‹s› | ɕ ‹š› | ||||
| Lateral | l̪‹l› | |||||||
| Approximant | ʋ ‹v› | j ‹j› | ʁ ‹r›3 |
- /t/ is realized as [ts] before high vowels.
- /k/ is lenited to a fricative [x] in coda position.
- /r/ has many possible realizations, including a trill (in a complex onset), rhoticization of the previous vowel (in coda position), or a uvular approximant (in onset position).
Vowels
| Front | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Unround | Round | ||
| High | i | y | u |
| Mid | e | ø | ɔ |
| Low | a | ||
- All vowels can be lax and tense (RTR and non-RTR) apart from /ɔ/ (written ‹o›). Long vowels are realized as the vowel with a schwa offglide (ie /iː/ > [iə]). Short vowels are lax versions of long vowels (RTR).
- Length and tenseness is represented by an acute accent over the vowel.
Diphthongs
Diphthongs are frequently formed in agglutination. The language has a large and relatively unrestricted vowel inventory for a highly agglutinating language, and diphthong formation is complex:
| Second Vowel | |||||||
| First Vowel | i | y | u | e | ø | o | a |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | í | í | ju | je | jø | jo | ja |
| y | ý | ý | ju | je | jø | jo | ja |
| u | vi | vy | ú | ve | vø | vo | va |
| e | é | é | eu* | é | é | eo* | ea* |
| ø | ǿ | ǿ | ǿ | ǿ | ǿ | ǿ | ǿ |
| o | oi | oi | ó | ǿ | ǿ | ó | oa* |
| a | ai | ai | au | á | á | au | á |
- Marked combinations are disyllabic and not true diphthongs.
Phonotactics
Possible consonantal onset structures include:
- [null]
- any consonant
- any consonant followed by an approximant
Possible coda structures include:
- [null]
- a fricative
- a nasal
- a rhotic (Where /r/ is realized as a rhoticization of the previous vowel.)
- a geminate (disyllabic) plosive
- l in a complex onset with t, s, or š is palatalized to j.
- Nasals in contact with another nasal or plosive regressively assimilate place.
Morphology
Nouns
| Possessor | STEM | Plural Possessor | Case/Number |
Nouns are declined according to two numbers (singular and plural), two genders (animate and inanimate), five or seven cases (a total of eight), and three possessive persons (as well as singular and plural for each possessor).
Many adjectives may also be attached to nouns in a clitic form, as a prefix closest to the root.
Animate Paradigm
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | e | eð |
| Accusative | i | is |
| Dative | tar | tolar |
| Associative | je | jér |
| Comparative | pi | pjar |
| Vocative* | ðau | ðau |
- The vocative is a postposed particle.
Inanimate Paradigm
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | a | að |
| Accusative | u | us |
| Dative | ðar | ðolar |
| Instrumental | myr | mjar |
| Locative | šu | švar |
| Ablative | si | sjar |
| Comparative | fi | fjar |
Person
Singular possessive markers are prefixes. Plural markers are suffixes paired with the appropriate singular marker.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | si | i |
| 2 | ci | i |
| 21 | a | i |
| 3.an | ðis | u |
| 3>3.an | ðin | u |
Inanimate nouns cannot take direct possession. Instead, root compounding is used (ie "the tree's branch" = tíðorcrác)
Verbs
| Person | Negative | Intensifier | STEM | Plural Subject | Tense | Aspect | Mood | Object |
Transitive verbs take different roots depending on the animacy of their object. Crucially, this means that verbs must be used appropriately for their paradigm: for instance, the root for throwing an inanimate noun such as a ball is cílo, while throwing an animate object (whether actually alive or not) is arowé.
Verbs are obligatorily inflected for person and number. Transitive verbs are obligatorily inflected for the person and number of the object (in a single suffix). They may also be inflected for tense, aspect, and voice as individual agglutinations.
The verb to be does not exist; a noun may be derived as a verb with the suffix tsy immediately following the stem. In a similar fashion, to possess takes the form of the suffix lǿ.
Person
Subject prefix is always furthest from the root. The plural suffix is paired with the singular prefix, before the object suffix.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | si | i |
| 2 | ci | i |
| 21 | a | i |
| 3.an | ðis | u |
| 3.in | sin | u |
Object
Object suffixes are always furthest from the root.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | is | itsir |
| 2 | ic | iccir |
| 21 | mér | |
| 3.an | oð | oðer |
| 3.in | on | oner |
The object suffix placement is also that of the passive suffix -toc.
Tense
| Gloss | Mésylþo |
|---|---|
| Past | a |
| Nonpast+singular subject | ac |
Aspect
| Gloss | Mésylþo |
|---|---|
| Inchoative | ro |
| Cessative | py |
| Habitual | ia |
Mood
| Gloss | Mésylþo |
|---|---|
| Desiderative | vél |
Other Affixes
| Gloss | Mésylþo |
|---|---|
| Intensifier | ǿc |
| Negative | mal |
Example:
"We did not really want to stop loving them."
simalǿcelsarínjapyvéloðer
si-mal-ǿc-elsarín-i-a-py-vél-oðer
1-neg-int-LOVE-1p-pst-ces-des-3p.an
Lexicon
Demonstratives
Demonstratives precede the noun.
| an.s | an.pl | in.s | in.pl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This by me | óma | ómes | ómar | ómsis |
| That by you | ána | ánes | ánar | ánsis |
| That over there | amóv | amóves | amór | amóris |
Particles
| English | Mésylþo |
|---|---|
| Question marker | wá |
| Yes | já |
| No | sá |
| Greeting | šurá |
| But | rum |
| And | ic |
| From | vi |
| Or | el |
| Of | yð |
Numbers
Base-12 system. Numbers are prefixes or particles (cardinal). Ordinals are prefixes immediately before the stem.
| Arabic | Clitic | Cardinal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | néto | netóša |
| 2 | níðo | niðóca |
| 3 | jóci | jocís |
| 4 | jíso | jisós |
| 5 | síþo | síþom |
| 6 | son | sónom |
| 7 | rupís | rupísi |
| 8 | román | románi |
| 9 | vári | varíð |
| 10 | vis | visíð |
| 11 | névo | nevoi |
| 12 | šúwo | šuwoi |
| 13 | šúwo néto | šúwo netóša |
| 24 | nyšuwo | nyšuwoi |
| 36 | jocšuwo | jocšuwoi |
| 48 | jyšuwo | jyšuwoi |
| 60 | syšuwo | šyšuwoi |
| 72 | sonšuwo | sonšuwoi |
| 84 | rupšuwo | rupšuwoi |
| 96 | rumšuwo | romšuwoi |
| 108 | vášuwo | vašuwoi |
| 120 | výšuwo | vyšuwoi |
| 132 | nǿšuwo | nǿšuwoi |
| 144 | hánja | hánjai |
Open Class
| English | Mésylþo |
|---|---|
| Ability (n.in) | risúr |
| All (c) | wai |
| (An)other (c) | ánte |
| Begin, Start (AI) (n.in) | šíce |
| Big (c) | omac |
| Black (c.in) | sícsi |
| Brick (n.in) | copimín |
| Build (TI) | monác |
| Bone (n.in) | jórryð |
| Burn (TI) | póršu |
| Child (n.an) | woijin |
| City (n.in) | ðáfolas |
| Come (AI) | namó |
| Confuse (TA) | musmúr |
| Disperse (TA) | poréðer |
| Do (AI) | jǿra |
| Drown (AI) | lacná |
| Earth, World (n.an) | pórra |
| Face (n.in) | némmi |
| Father (n.an) | mišýr |
| Field (n.in) | lácni |
| Find (TI) | óllo |
| Girl (n.an) | ánja |
| How, Why (adv) | sjúr |
| Live (AI) | essís |
| Look, See (TI, TA) | ðíta |
| Love (n.in) | šárai |
| Love (TA) | elsalín |
| Man (n.an) | tápi |
| Many (clit) | að |
| Mother (n.an) | miðám |
| Move (AI) | rópa |
| Name (n.in) | acál |
| Nothing (n.in) | málin |
| Only (clit) | usy |
| Person (n.an) | máni |
| Place (n.in) | appél |
| be Possible (II) | icánþo |
| Sea (n) | apáš |
| Sex (TA) | raðúnc |
| Sing, Song (AI) (n.in) | waláli |
| Skin (n.in) | fleoš |
| Sky (n.in) | éli |
| Small (c) | pyrim |
| Speak, Speech (n.an) (AI) | taðýr |
| Spirit (n.an) | ámisðai |
| Spit (n.in,AI) | cipúð |
| Stone (n.an) | sucéna |
| Thing (n.in) | cíp |
| Throw (TA) | arówe |
| Throw (TI) | wólu |
| Time (n.in) | þíten |
| Top end (n.in) | jíf |
| Tower (n.in) | mocéli |
| Understand (AI) | wacár |
| What (n.in) | sí |
| Whisper (AI) | fissiwá |
| When (n.in[dat]) | siðít |
| Where (n.in[loc]) | sipél |
| White (c.in) | caucsi |
| Who (n.an) | simáni |
| Woman (n.an) | ǿmmi |
